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

[thecourier]

Yeah, I'm getting that impression. Not just from you, either.

[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.

[lifeskills]

_{[By the sounds of it, the man has his hands full with a canine companion. Victor can't bring himself to look and see--the conversation's been a distracting balm against his black mood, but the latter still hovers overhead like a cloud.]}

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.

[thecourier]

[He chuckles.]

'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.

[lifeskills]

_{[The problem seems simple enough to Victor.]}

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?

<sub>[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.]</sub>

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.]}

[thecourier]

[Victor is lucky, though it isn't due to general illiteracy or lack of interest that Dan has never heard of that book. Most works of literature in his place of origin are now 200 year old piles of mouldering paper more likely to be used for kindling or insulation than to actually be read.]

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.

[lifeskills]

<sub>[His hopes of getting by unremarked upon are dashed; however, Victor can't bring himself to care as much about being recognized as he usually does. Admitting it is a small act of rebellion against the visions of Lily and the Christmas gift he'd received.

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.]</sub>

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.