[007] The past is like another planet; they do things differently there.

[yousoundblue]

[audio // English]

[There's the background noise of riffling pages while Lika is talking.]

Did you know there's an entire room devoted to storing physical media? Actual books! The text is on thin sheets, and they're all stacked and bound along one edge. You have to move your eyes and keep flipping the sheets over to advance the text

Comments

[ttlynotawizard]

...You've never seen a book before?

[yousoundblue]

In a museum on Earth. It was in a case.

[ttlynotawizard]

...You seriously have never held a book before. How did you learn to read? Write?

[yousoundblue]

I learned from a helpmate.

[Duh, Remy!]

Not the one I have now, a child's model with a teacher system and without the neural interfaces.

[canttrustliars]

You're impressed with the smallest things.

[yousoundblue]

You only have so much space here, and yet somebody filled it up with physical media!

[She laughs again.]

[canttrustliars]

They also filled up a deck with a cave. I don't think the Captain is too worried about the practicality of it all.

[yousoundblue]

A...cave?

[Lika doesn't get out much.]

[captainverg]

.....What?

Since Milly is being an insensible little whore. I might have to read up on rabbit.. care...

[yousoundblue]

Books! Stacks of thin sheets covered in static text!

[She doesn't quite get the "whore" part, but she's too busy giggling over books to dwell on it.]

[captainverg]

[Verg enters the library and glances around the large room. Spotting the light blonde haired human woman he grumbles to himself.

So many stupid crazy human beings on this boat-and he's not allowed to kill them and ugggh.. The crazy.. at least she's not part bug.]

Since you're so over-joyed about this. Help me find a book on rabbits.

[yousoundblue]

[A wave of Verg's disgruntlement washes over her, and Lika looks up to see the source--and freezes.

That is a...what the hell is that? What kind of irresponsible surgeon would do cosmetic alterations that extreme?

...But it's talking.]

Hello.

[thenotmagician]

Yeah, they're called books. Pretty snazzy, eh?

[yousoundblue]

I know they're books.

[Her voice is a bit short. She doesn't like cannibals.]

[thenotmagician]

Hey, no need to get snippety. Just thought you weren’t aware.

[yousoundblue]

[Whatever, cannibal.]

I know what books are. It's just that no one makes them anymore.

[wannaclap_cant]

You've...really never seen a book? Really? I have half a wall covered in them back home...

[yousoundblue]

Tch! I've seen a book, but it was old and fragile, so it was kept in an inert gas environment.

You can touch these!

[wannaclap_cant]

That's...weird. Really, really weird. Disturbingly weird.

Books that are old and fragile are usually duplicated and then the old copy is burned so it can pass on, at least where I'm from. Why would you keep a book you couldn't read? Not a lot of point there, and the poor thing's got to be so tired it isn't fair to keep it lingering on like that.

How have you spent your entire life without even touching a book? I feel sorry for the books on your world, it must be difficult being kept for so long with no one to read them...

[yousoundblue]

Verrim, we don't use books. Everything's digitized and stored--much more efficient. Books take up space and can't respond intelligently to queries, so there's really no point in producing them except as art, and it's not a medium that's popular on my homeworld.

...Your animism is cute.