video;

[thecourier]

I found a, uh...

[He waves a small leather-bound book with a flaking gilt cross pressed into the cover at the camera.]

This. In the room I'm usin'. Don't know if it's someone's idea of a bad fuckin' joke or what... [The last part is muttered to himself as he flicks the book open to a marked page and sets it down, focusing the video on the passage.]

Reading ain't a strong point of mine. Someone could do me a big favour in tellin' me what the hell this says.

Comments

[a_chipped_cup]

I could take a look, if you like? I'd need to see the book up close, rather than on video.

[thecourier]

Uh- oh hey, Belle. Yeah, no problem. Don't wanna be puttin' you out.

[a_chipped_cup]

It's not a problem. I like to read. If anything, you've peaked my curiosity.

[thecourier]

Same for me. I mean, I know this right here- [He taps the cross.] -makes this a Pre-War bible, but I don't know what I'd be needin' one for.

[a_chipped_cup]

Did it just appear in your room?

Do you think Wonderland sent it?

[thecourier]

Sure wasn't there before. Don't know, though... does it usually send things like this?

[a_chipped_cup]

Your guess is as good as mine. I don't know enough about this place to say.

But it seems in character for Wonderland.

[thecourier]

It's weird as hell, so that's enough in character to be noted.

[So, so weird.]

Feels like it's tryin' to make a point.

[a_chipped_cup]

Can I see it again? I might be able to help you interpret it.

[thecourier]

Oh, yeah. Here.

[He tries to keep it level, focusing the camera on the passage.]

That good?

video

[sheriffing]

I don't know if it's a joke, it's Psalm 137.

[If it's meant to be funny, Emma doesn't get it. But she's also the first to admit that she knows next to nothing about the Bible.]

Are you religious?

video

[thecourier]

Me? Hell, no. I can fuck up my own life enough without relyin' on some higher power to help me with it.

[He gives a speculative look to the bible.]

My mom was.. kind of, in her own way. And this guy I knew- Joshua Graham... Kinda looks like his, really.

video

[sheriffing]

Well said.

[Echoes how she feels, most of the time.]

Was he a friend?

video

[thecourier]

Don't think Joshua really had any friends, exactly, but he was a damn good man an' I got to stop him makin' a decision I knew he'd regret.

[And 'damn good man' was really the highest kind of praise that he could give to someone who had once been in the highest echelons of Caesar's Legion.]

video

[sheriffing]

Maybe that's how it ended up here.

[Something that has meaning from a person who had meaning. It'd be a nice gesture if everything else about this place wasn't so difficult to grasp.]

It might not have been yours before, but I'd say it is now.

video

[thecourier]

Funny thing... 'e gave it to me after I left Utah, but I just put it away. [His voice drops.] Arcade liked t' read it and quote things...

[He shakes his head slightly, as if shooing that particular memory away.]

Never saw Joshua again, I think he would'a wanted it that way.

voice;

[lifeskills]

A passage from the Old Testament.

_{[Victor sounds tired. He's in no state for video conferences, and he forgoes it for a certain level of anonymity instead. Though not religious, his broad education comes in handy now and again.]}

It tells of the Babylonian occupation of Jerusalem. The Jewish people lament their suffering and call on God to curse Babylon to reap the same suffering it has sown. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

voice;

[thecourier]

[There's a pause, a soft chuckle and an 'ah' of realisation.]

'By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.' That one, right?

[He chuckles again.]

Shit. A hint like that could give a man a concussion.

[lifeskills]

Yes, that exactly.

_{[Victor doesn't have this version of psalm memorized, but from what he'd glimpsed when the man had brought his device in close to the page, those are the exact words written.]}

You already know it, then?

[thecourier]

Sort of. Had it quoted to me once. I think the guy was tryin' to make a point.

[He frowns and closes the book, turning it over in his hands.]

Never read scripture m'self.

[lifeskills]

Ah.

_{[A knowing sound. Although the man had hinted at a difficulty with reading, Victor's first assumption had been that his familiarity with the text was because he'd encountered it in a more digestible format once before. Perhaps not.]}

And it's not something that belongs to you?

_{[That seems a safer assumption.]}

[thecourier]

[A small shake of his head answers that.]

Usually got enough to carry around without addin' a book.

[Water, supplies, guns, ammo, anything else valuable to trade or scrap... Books didn't sell for much unless they were mint, and even then they only had real value to the Brotherhood of Steel if you could find a Scribe who didn't try to shoot you on sight.]

I got an idea of whose it is... but it don't answer a whole lot.

[lifeskills]

Even here where excess has so few limits?

<sub>[The underdeveloped literacy, the poor grammar, the limited number of belongings suggested by his remark--they all hint at a hard lifestyle. Wonderland's opulence levels the playing field so that the poorest man can live like the wealthiest, so it wouldn't have been unthinkable that he'd wanted a book from the closets just for the sake of having one and gotten one of Wonderland's ironic gifts in return.

But if it's not something he'd acquired himself, then...]</sub>

Where did you find it, within or near the wardrobe? _{[His tone takes on a wryly cynical bent.]} The closets have a sense of humor.

[thecourier]

Why would I wanna fill my life up with things I don't need?

[Excess could be so easy, he's right, but it's never been something Dan has seen the use in. An easier life would have always been nice, but not nearly so exciting.

Even living in the Lucky 38 casino's presidential suite with however many people happen to be around at time seems lavish as far as he's concerned, and the running water stopped decades ago.]

Eh, it was in the closet.. but I sure as hell didn't ask for it. [He frowns again, lips twisting faintly.] Don't think I get the joke.

[lifeskills]

Religion, I'd argue, is unnecessary. But is reading not a thing you need?

<sub>[By how skeptically Victor phrases the question, it clearly is a need and an incredibly important one--or at least it is to him. Owning shelves upon shelves of books may be an extravagance, but having a single book at hand and knowing how to use it is perhaps the most important skill a person could have.

Granted, the man could do better than a bible if he were condemned to owning one book and only one book only.]</sub>

Wonderland often has a sense of humor regardless of whether we can appreciate the joke.

_{[This last part is tinged with a faint bitterness. Wonderland had recently gifted him with something in his Christmas stocking that he'd neither asked for nor needed--a cruel joke in its own right.]}