[It's a petulant thing to say, but there is an odd distance to her voice.]
You're a liar. I know because I am one, too. Did you know the videos could have been fake too? I don't know what I believe now. What did the devil me say?
I just said go read it, kid. You don't have to believe me. Half the messages from the other night disappeared or changed completely. I wasn't taking notes, but you were spewing some crap about 'secrets' you had.
Something about Brian not being real and Epps being a spy. The snail fan eating human souls.
[Yeah, he's just going to gloss over what she said about him.]
I know they did, I went and saw. But I don't know if I believe they just disappeared. Someone's made them and someone's taken them away. And someone might've used an excuse and taken away some other things too.
[Why simply let him off the hook? She knows that there are lies hovering all over the city. And the things he might have, might not have said to her...]
And you said that I was defective and that people are going to catch on it soon enough. What kind of crap was that?
[His tone is edging toward irritated now. He doesn't have any particular incentive to deal with her whining beyond what's absolutely necessary. When she's willfully ignoring the facts of the matter, that's just annoying.]
Are you defective? I've never even seen you in action. Got a limp, kid? Maybe glitch me was projecting.
I am not. [The answer is sharp and immediate, and telling as such.] I speak five languages. I can quote Plato and Aristotle. I know how to calculate latitude and as much longitude as anyone. And anyone who really had me and didn't keep me would be sorry. [She breathes in sharply.]
And anyway the smartest man I know can't even ride a horse. So if glitch you wants to abuse either of us with this nonsense he can go stick it under a donkey's tail!
[That list of 'skills' gets a raise of his brows. Someone's got a chip on her shoulder.]
Agreed. So who did tell you you're a worthless little brat? I mean before this. 'Cause you're wearing a sign about four feet tall that says 'issues.' I'm guessing you're little Orphan Annie, so not Mom and Pops.
What? No! [The reference to issues and Annies may be confusing her. She understands orphan, though.] My parents are just fine back in Simla. And it isn't your bus-
[Wait, actually - ]
I'll tell you what's the matter with me if you tell me what's the matter with you. Were you injured in a war? Don't lie. I'll know.
Tit for tat, huh? [Well, it's not like he makes a secret out of it if she thinks she's somehow 'wringing' something out of him. And it's... not technically even an issue anymore. Anyway.]
Well, you're seriously from the 1800s. No. No war. It was an infarction. Your turn. [That is, technically, what the matter was. Whether she understands what that means or not. She'll have to bargain harder or pony up more info on her side.]
Tit for tat. [So that's how he wants to play it. Kesara sees the game at once, and rises to it like a viper out of a basket.]
I'm a living warning against the dangers of miscegenation. [She recites it with scientific disinterest. That is, technically, what the matter is.] Your turn again. Was it just a stupid accident?
You're a know-it-all little punk and people think it's because you've got interracial parents? [There's a sigh and Kesara can probably hear the eye roll in it.]
It was stupid. Not an accident. Know what a heart attack is? Myocardial infarction. Means there's a clot that stops your blood circulating somewhere. Happens in your heart, it's a heart attack. Happens in your brain, it's a stroke. It happened in my thigh.
It just... happened? [Kesara sounds doubtful, but only a little; the undertone of horror is pronounced. This is neither the heroic nor the humiliating story she was expecting. It's just sad.
On the bright side, for him at least, the moment of empathy - she feels a cringe in her own leg - gets him a moment of openness, in a small voice.] I have a - a mental defect. I can't read.
Yep. Sometimes that kind of crap just happens. Problem was, the only symptom was pain. So, the idiots treating me told me it was a pulled muscle, sent me home and told me it'd get better. [There's the slightest edge of bitterness.] Blood carries oxygen. The cells inside you need oxygen to survive. When they don't have it, they start to die. Muscle death. Never try it. Trust me.
So, I'm guessing this 'mental defect' is that no one ever taught you to read. Or you have dyslexia. In which case, no one ever taught you to read the right way.
I'll try not to. [Her voice is still faint. She wonders if she should say she is sorry.] But sometimes it just happens. [Meaningless things are the scariest things. She sits for a long moment, silence on the line, and just rubs her leg, wondering if it really hurts a little, or it's just her imagination.]
Is that why you became a physician? [That would make it a little less meaningless, at least. She can't get a proper rise when he fires off his guess. It just stays sad, her answering voice.] I don't know what dyslexia means, but many people taught me, in all sorts of ways. It never stuck - I mean, English never did. I learned tricks around it. Good tricks.
Nope. I was a doctor way before that. Had to diagnose myself and everything in the end.
Dyslexia's just a way of saying your brain processes written language differently. The fact you learned tricks around it pretty much proves you're not defective, but whatever. [This isn't a motivational speech, it's educational.] Have you been able to learn the writing systems for other languages? Ones without the English alphabet? You clearly know numbers if you're calculating lat and and longs.
[She gets that sense. But what else is there? Well - there is always anger. Anger helps.]
It's terrible being the only one who knows how to do anything right, isn't it? And it's worst when you're the only one who knows what to do with you!
[She has a smidgen of experience in these matters, young as she is, so her anger is genuine. But his diagnosis, if that is what it is, makes her deflate slightly again.] It isn't different if it just doesn't work. That's what defective means exactly. But numbers are fine. [And then she brightens, as though sharing the best secret in the world.] And Chinese is fine, maybe. I can read and write forty whole words in Chinese!
[House is... honestly a little surprised that a child can empathize with that and react better than most adults to something he's said. All right. Her stock is on the rise again after that annoying whining.]
Mandarin or Cantonese? I can probably teach you a few more if we ever meet up if it's the first one. Anyway, English is a bitch of a language. Some people just have trouble with certain alphabets. Doesn't really matter much if you've got a work around, but they have programs in the future for that kind of thing.
[Some of it is faking, certainly, repeating what others have said - Dame Ariel most of all, who is forever the only one who knows how to do anything right. But Kesara is also used to adults less astute and educated than herself, and the trouble of talking to those. And anyway Dr. House is a fine fellow and she thinks, in her limited perspective, that he might have been a lot like her when he was younger.]
I mean to write! The letters are the same, you know. [He certainly knows, but he should know that she knows.]
Dr. Stein has taught me Mandarin, but Lao Dian speaks every dialect you care to name and he'll teach me those. But if you know how to write it - [her voice shivers with excitement] I'll do anything. I have to keep learning. I've given up on English, I just use my memory tricks, and if I talk about some future kind or program they'll just say I'm acting the child. But Chinese is my chance and I have to keep learning!
Find something to bring that's worth my time, and I'll teach you.
[He switches over to speaking Mandarin to test her:] I'm fluent - written and spoken. I don't work for free. Looking for pieces to make a microscope. Find anything I can use, we can meet up. If you can't find anything like that, bring something that'll interest me.
It's a deal! [She's speaking Mandarin back already, fast, excited - a little archaic and florid, which stands to reason. In fact what she says is more like "what a satisfying realisation of matching interests!"]
I have the video logs I've taken of my exploring on the other side of the ice tunnels. But I'll also look for - you're trying to build a - xian... wei... [she stutters and slows, putting the meaning together of the word she has never heard in this language before, and then brightens again all at once.] Oh! You mean a microscope!
I wanna get a look at our blood. Since the Admin decided we're not allowed to request our MN poisoning records anymore. Might be able to see if we've actually got microbots crawling around in there... or any other irregularities.
Looking for lenses like you'd find on a telescope or binoculars, also some some plywood, a plastic pipe or something else hollow, glass for slides, and something we can use as a base and adjuster like a photo enlarger. Just something that slides up and down. A poor man'll just take more plywood and some screws for that.
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rubikscomplex) wrote2015-08-27 10:05 am
no subject
[It's a petulant thing to say, but there is an odd distance to her voice.]
You're a liar. I know because I am one, too. Did you know the videos could have been fake too? I don't know what I believe now. What did the devil me say?
no subject
Something about Brian not being real and Epps being a spy. The snail fan eating human souls.
[Yeah, he's just going to gloss over what she said about him.]
no subject
[Why simply let him off the hook? She knows that there are lies hovering all over the city. And the things he might have, might not have said to her...]
And you said that I was defective and that people are going to catch on it soon enough. What kind of crap was that?
no subject
[His tone is edging toward irritated now. He doesn't have any particular incentive to deal with her whining beyond what's absolutely necessary. When she's willfully ignoring the facts of the matter, that's just annoying.]
Are you defective? I've never even seen you in action. Got a limp, kid? Maybe glitch me was projecting.
no subject
And anyway the smartest man I know can't even ride a horse. So if glitch you wants to abuse either of us with this nonsense he can go stick it under a donkey's tail!
no subject
Agreed. So who did tell you you're a worthless little brat? I mean before this. 'Cause you're wearing a sign about four feet tall that says 'issues.' I'm guessing you're little Orphan Annie, so not Mom and Pops.
no subject
[Wait, actually - ]
I'll tell you what's the matter with me if you tell me what's the matter with you. Were you injured in a war? Don't lie. I'll know.
no subject
Well, you're seriously from the 1800s. No. No war. It was an infarction. Your turn. [That is, technically, what the matter was. Whether she understands what that means or not. She'll have to bargain harder or pony up more info on her side.]
no subject
I'm a living warning against the dangers of miscegenation. [She recites it with scientific disinterest. That is, technically, what the matter is.] Your turn again. Was it just a stupid accident?
no subject
It was stupid. Not an accident. Know what a heart attack is? Myocardial infarction. Means there's a clot that stops your blood circulating somewhere. Happens in your heart, it's a heart attack. Happens in your brain, it's a stroke. It happened in my thigh.
no subject
On the bright side, for him at least, the moment of empathy - she feels a cringe in her own leg - gets him a moment of openness, in a small voice.] I have a - a mental defect. I can't read.
no subject
So, I'm guessing this 'mental defect' is that no one ever taught you to read. Or you have dyslexia. In which case, no one ever taught you to read the right way.
no subject
Is that why you became a physician? [That would make it a little less meaningless, at least. She can't get a proper rise when he fires off his guess. It just stays sad, her answering voice.] I don't know what dyslexia means, but many people taught me, in all sorts of ways. It never stuck - I mean, English never did. I learned tricks around it. Good tricks.
no subject
Nope. I was a doctor way before that. Had to diagnose myself and everything in the end.
Dyslexia's just a way of saying your brain processes written language differently. The fact you learned tricks around it pretty much proves you're not defective, but whatever. [This isn't a motivational speech, it's educational.] Have you been able to learn the writing systems for other languages? Ones without the English alphabet? You clearly know numbers if you're calculating lat and and longs.
no subject
It's terrible being the only one who knows how to do anything right, isn't it? And it's worst when you're the only one who knows what to do with you!
[She has a smidgen of experience in these matters, young as she is, so her anger is genuine. But his diagnosis, if that is what it is, makes her deflate slightly again.] It isn't different if it just doesn't work. That's what defective means exactly. But numbers are fine. [And then she brightens, as though sharing the best secret in the world.] And Chinese is fine, maybe. I can read and write forty whole words in Chinese!
no subject
Mandarin or Cantonese? I can probably teach you a few more if we ever meet up if it's the first one. Anyway, English is a bitch of a language. Some people just have trouble with certain alphabets. Doesn't really matter much if you've got a work around, but they have programs in the future for that kind of thing.
no subject
I mean to write! The letters are the same, you know. [He certainly knows, but he should know that she knows.]
Dr. Stein has taught me Mandarin, but Lao Dian speaks every dialect you care to name and he'll teach me those. But if you know how to write it - [her voice shivers with excitement] I'll do anything. I have to keep learning. I've given up on English, I just use my memory tricks, and if I talk about some future kind or program they'll just say I'm acting the child. But Chinese is my chance and I have to keep learning!
no subject
[He switches over to speaking Mandarin to test her:]
I'm fluent - written and spoken. I don't work for free. Looking for pieces to make a microscope. Find anything I can use, we can meet up. If you can't find anything like that, bring something that'll interest me.
no subject
I have the video logs I've taken of my exploring on the other side of the ice tunnels. But I'll also look for - you're trying to build a - xian... wei... [she stutters and slows, putting the meaning together of the word she has never heard in this language before, and then brightens again all at once.] Oh! You mean a microscope!
no subject
Looking for lenses like you'd find on a telescope or binoculars, also some some plywood, a plastic pipe or something else hollow, glass for slides, and something we can use as a base and adjuster like a photo enlarger. Just something that slides up and down. A poor man'll just take more plywood and some screws for that.