The Courier (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thecourier) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
entranceway2015-12-29 12:58 pm
thecourier) wrote in entranceway2015-12-29 12:58 pm
video;
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.
[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.
no subject
[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.]
no subject
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.
no subject
[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...]
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.
no subject
[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.
no subject
[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.]
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.]
no subject
[The life of a courier is a very simple one, and nothing had changed when he walked away from that life.]
I mean, not that I don't see the value, jus' not for me, y'know? Friend tried to teach me once.
[Despite the fact that he could certainly do much better than a bible, he's yet to put it down. There's some sentimental value to it, even if he can't make it through reading it.
He notes that tone though, with a brief lift of his eyebrows.]
That's some experience there, huh.
no subject
[They'll have to agree to disagree like civilized gentleman as to the value of reading. It's the gateway to self-improvement, as far as Victor's concerned, but then he knows full well he'd been fortunate enough to be born to a family that could provide him the tools for education and foster a hunger for it.
Others hadn't nearly been so blessed in their formative years, and that saddens him in a vague and indescribable way. Like a life that has been lost that no one's noticed missing or grieves for.]
You could say that. The Christmas gifts are insulting, to say the least.
[Victor's still feeling the sting as one feels the echo of a slap across the face.]
no subject
[Said as easily as one might say they're not familiar with the other side of the universe.] Gonna say there's a difference though, b'tween what is put on paper and what could be. Seen a lot of things worthwhile that no one but the people who were there will remember.
[While he's not much for reading, the life experience is there.]
.. Insulting, huh. Y' don't say.
no subject
For that, you have my sincerest pity--you're missing an experience greater than any one man can live himself. A volume of Shakespeare will serve you better than scripture.
[The man might as well be living a half-life, cut off from his basic senses. Without an appreciation for language, one is deaf and blind to the world's poetry and its layers of knowledge and insight.]
no subject
Hey, if Shakespeare can 'elp me take down a radscorpion the size of a fuckin' car, or escape a momma deathclaw mindin' her babies, or if 'e can help me flush radiation out of my system when I'm crawlin' sick with it, then I'm all for it. If 'e can't, then I've no use for 'im.
[It isn't that he's scornful - not in the least. He may not be well-read, but he sees no need to be rude to those who are.]
no subject
A long pause marks his consideration of what a "radscorpion" and a "deathclaw" must be, and how unlikely it is he'd like to be left alone in a room with them.]
Other than the effects of radiation and treatments, I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the terms. You're in a dangerous line of work, I take it.
no subject
[In most places - most places that aren't the Wastelands of the former Thirteen Commonwealths - 'courier' wouldn't be a profession that incited any thoughts of danger.
The Wasteland isn't most places.]
Hundreds of miles, on foot mostly, right across the Commonwealths. Even made it up to the Institute once, but they never let anyone in there.
no subject
[Victor repeats this with the doubtful uncertainty expected from someone used to the more traditional idea of couriers.]
We share the same religious texts, but by the sounds of it, our world view diverges considerably.
no subject
[There's a bark from somewhere offscreen, and a dog's head pushes into frame. Not just any dog - this one appears to have its brain entirely exposed in a glass casing on top of its head.]
Tch-- Get down.
[Gently, he nudges the animal away.]
Maybe if I was, I dunno, a scientist or one of the Brotherhood's scribes, I'd have some use for somethin' like Shakespeare.
no subject
Why limit yourself? You can explore any number of new avenues with the time and opportunity we have here. Wonderland does have that working in its favor, and a volume of Shakespeare reads better than the Old Testament.
[Food for thought.]
But you appear occupied. If you have further questions, I can answer them and leave you to your other business.
no subject
'm sure it does, if y' can read it.
[That's the crux of the problem, really. He gets where the guy is coming from - in fact Arcade would always say much the same thing - but Shakespeare and other literature means so little to someone who would struggle on every word.
Improving his literacy just feels like too large of an obstacle at his age.]
Don't mind him, 'e's just jealous I'm talkin' to someone else. Say, what's yer name, anyway? Don't usually go this long without introductions.
no subject
You said you have some reading ability already, and you can think on your feet. Reading at a higher level is merely another skill, easily mastered with time and some effort. You seem like a practical sort--wouldn't you like to decipher the written messages on the network if they should be important?
[He isn't usually the type for motivational speeches, but it's a matter of will or won't, not can or can't. The man could learn if he cared to. Having reintroduced Proteus to language from the ground up, Victor knows this to be a fact.
But before he can be accused of leaping onto soapboxes, he turns to the matter of introductions, something he hadn't bothered to make a priority of. He hadn't thought they'd be talking very long.]
That was my lapse. Doctor Victor Frankenstein. And you?
[If there's a silver lining to illiteracy, it's that the other man hasn't read that damned book himself.]
no subject
Dan Palmer. That's one hell of a name you got there, doc.
[He sounds innocently impressed at least, with none of the disgust or revulsion that Victor might have come to expect from revealing who he is.]
And I guess.. you got a point. Not like I don't have the time right now.
no subject
Just because Wonderland has shown him these things, including this fictional version of himself, it doesn't mean they're real or that the story Wonderland wishes to tell will come to pass.]
Thank you. The pleasure is all mine.
[His tone is heavy with a cynicism that gradually leaks out when he speaks again, picking up their earlier line of conversation.]
It's an investment that gives continual returns, but that is up to you. As is what you choose to do with your "gift." If it's sudden appearance is the work of Wonderland, I don't see that you need to pay it mind.