What an extraordinary waste of your intellect and tenacity. [He's so matter-of-fact that it's clear that to Kid there is no other option. Kesara should not have to face such an outcome.] While I should hope marriage is not a life-ending institution, I believe I understand what you are insinuating.
It is a shame that there is such a limited understanding of what learning is or can be. I suspect you have learned quite a lot, have you not?
[When not lost in one of his asymmetry induced fits, Kid is typically very thoughtful. Rational. It's no wonder he considers Kesara brilliant regardless of her illiteracy and--more importantly--thinks the idea of her brilliance wasted is most unfortunate.
But she's moved on and he has no time to dwell on her potential misfortune. He clears his throat.] Yes, we are the same species, as you put it. However, he is not like..."this". My father particularly wanted me to have a closer understanding of humans and has raised me as such. [Kid has no real knowledge of the Kishin, the other fragment of Death's soul, the fear that Death himself had removed to create his first son. It would help him understand his father's seemingly unshakeable calm.] At times I do wonder how it is we are so different. Unlike human children, I have no biological mother. There is no additional genetic sequence to account for abberancies between us.
Edited (Clicking by "post" leads to odd typeo) 2016-09-16 02:19 (UTC)
[No matter how casually he says it, Kesara tenses, scenting for mockery like a bloodhound. She's had to learn to recognise even the faintest sound of it, to judge what she might say to people who give her anything resembling respect or kindness. Always better to err on the side of caution. But he really does sound like he means it, when he says something like a limited understanding of what learning is.]
I have learned a lot. [Defiance, almost, and bitter reflection. Learned a lot of tricks. And they serve, more than enough. She sometimes wishes she could be more openly proud of them.] There's a trick to everything, when you have to have one.
[You'd know, her tone implies. However badly he thinks he's coping with what Dr. Watson had called his illness, she's sure he has tricks of his own, as well. She's interested in it, in the places where they are alike.
The places where they are different confuse her, to her dismay. She doesn't know what a genetic sequence is, and is still not grasping quite what about Kid makes him a different species. He seems a boy like all the boys she'd known back in Serindia - except more thoughtful, deeper somehow.] Maybe he - your father - maybe he shouldn't have done it. Raised you as a human, I mean. Maybe that is why things went wrong for you. it isn't good to raise one breed of thing to be like another. That is what they say.
You have learned more than some of your teachers, it seems. [He manages to slip the comment in, before she presses on. Kesara may continue to search him for signs of teasing, but Kid is honest, and plainly so.]
There are tricks to everything when necessary, of course. [Unlike hers, his tone implies resignation. She may have pride in her own tricks, her ways of working around her own difficulties. Kid, however, finds his 'tricks' to be hindrances. Additional steps, a list as long as he is tall of ways to manage--to get by. To quiet his anxieties enough to make it through the day.
He contemplates her comment, thoughtful. She may hear him fiddling with something, the nervous movement of his fingers off screen as he had earlier. This time, it's the skull clasp at his neck as he ponders her comment.]
I have never doubted his decisions.
It is, furthermore, far easier for humans to come to trust a figure of Death that looks like them--as opposed to a faceless figure, a mask in a cloak, Death that they can in no way identify with.
If...his decision has lead to this-- [If he could, he would gingerly wave his hand to suggest his entire being, his nervous energy, the hours of counting and arranging, the endless anxiety] --then I believe he has his reasons.
Oah, no. [The denial is immediate. She daren't even contemplate what he's implying. Her teachers are a breed apart from all others. That they are her teachers at all is cause for gratitude beyond anything her fear or resentment might overcome.] Not Dr. Stein - Dr. Stein is the greatest explorer alive. She chose me because I was worthy of it and she gives me exactly what I'm worthy of.
[There is still fear, of course. Worth needs proving. But it means that all she gets, she earns. Even if by tricks, always by tricks. As long as tricks are enough.
That is the greatest fear. It's what prompted her to talk to Kid. She isn't able to explain it yet, not properly; she listens instead, though now he's starting to talk about mad things, ones she's far from sure she understands. Unfortunately, when she does find a frame of reference in her own knowledge for this talk about Death that looks like a man, it's one that makes her blink in confusion and then in wry doubt that runs into her tone.]
Are you - do you mean you are - like the incarnate son of God? The son of Death who came to Earth to, to be with us and guide us?
The meaning of education is to raise students that will one day know as much as their teachers--and in the future, know even more. Not now, of course, as children. But when you have grown older and wiser.
That is the nature of humanity's progress. They would be otherwise doomed to repetition--learning and relearning the same things, again and again. It is no insult to your Doctor Stein--she has learned what her generation is capable of. Your generation will make strides that hers simply cannot. Your generation's children will learn and develop technology and things you could never comprehend. That is how knowledge works.
[Once again, Kid is calm and matter-of-fact, level-headed and simple. He means no insult and he doesn't want to be rude. To him it is simple cause and effect--Kid's analytical mind simply views learning as building blocks. Steps. One generation laying the path for another, and so on.]
Literacy need not be the primary source for learning. For many centuries the bulk of the populace did not read. Finding an alternative or workaround would be beneficial in that it permits you access to works of literature you might otherwise not see, but...
[His rambling tapers off as she presses on, and he can hear the doubt in her tone. Tension crawls into his stomach, and he shifts nervously.]
I...do not believe I understand your question. Incarnate son of Death is a bit...extravagant. My father and I are both quite physical and live in a very real locations. And it is quite important we not meddle--Father constantly reminds me it is not my place to get involved. There is an order to the world that we are not to get involved in.
[INow short, Kid has no concept of Christianity. Kesara's comment alluding to it is meaningless to him. And to directly refer to either him or his father as a god has clearly made him uncomfortable as he stumbles over his reply to her question.]
[He speaks so well, for a moment she forgets why she called him, forgets how anxious he'd been and the things he said he cannot do. Perhaps that's his trick. She thinks to herself that Dame Ariel would have liked him very much, even though he says she's limited, perhaps even wrong, and somehow she doesn't resent that thought.]
It must be true, [she mutters, half to herself.] Because the future has things in it that I could hardly imagine. They say there are machines that fly, and talk, and even ones that think, like these tablets... they say you can go anywhere in the world now, and see everything, and that women can be - that they can be everything they please. [Sometimes she simply sits and thinks about it, thinks about it for what feels like hours, about how all that is possible, with fierce and dizzying awe. But now, she thinks about it and suddenly a part of her is sad.]
But it's not true that Dr. Stein and my teachers have learned all they're capable of. Maybe others have, but surely not her. Not Lady Gavin. Not Lao Dian. If they were here they could learn everything I have. When I go back I'll teach them. You'll see. [Saying that makes her feel much better, so she says it again.] You'll see.
[She feels more confident with that, and that confidence colours how she thinks of his explanation, carefully considers what she believes. He isn't lying - it's too mad a thing to be lying about. Perhaps he is mad. She is still, after all, half convinced that Enoch is, with his talk about God and his angels. But then, she has frameworks other than the Christian.]
Is your father the king of the underworld? The Greeks, they said - but you said you have no mortal mother. So it isn't the same. [She's let go of doubt, not focused on trying to process the story in more sensible terms. Her mind is analytical much like his.] But he still made you a, a sacrifice. Something to give to humanity, to help them.
[Terms she understands. The implications of them aren't something she entirely grasps.]
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equal_shots) wrote2016-05-06 12:48 am
no subject
It is a shame that there is such a limited understanding of what learning is or can be. I suspect you have learned quite a lot, have you not?
[When not lost in one of his asymmetry induced fits, Kid is typically very thoughtful. Rational. It's no wonder he considers Kesara brilliant regardless of her illiteracy and--more importantly--thinks the idea of her brilliance wasted is most unfortunate.
But she's moved on and he has no time to dwell on her potential misfortune. He clears his throat.] Yes, we are the same species, as you put it. However, he is not like..."this". My father particularly wanted me to have a closer understanding of humans and has raised me as such. [Kid has no real knowledge of the Kishin, the other fragment of Death's soul, the fear that Death himself had removed to create his first son. It would help him understand his father's seemingly unshakeable calm.] At times I do wonder how it is we are so different. Unlike human children, I have no biological mother. There is no additional genetic sequence to account for abberancies between us.
no subject
I have learned a lot. [Defiance, almost, and bitter reflection. Learned a lot of tricks. And they serve, more than enough. She sometimes wishes she could be more openly proud of them.] There's a trick to everything, when you have to have one.
[You'd know, her tone implies. However badly he thinks he's coping with what Dr. Watson had called his illness, she's sure he has tricks of his own, as well. She's interested in it, in the places where they are alike.
The places where they are different confuse her, to her dismay. She doesn't know what a genetic sequence is, and is still not grasping quite what about Kid makes him a different species. He seems a boy like all the boys she'd known back in Serindia - except more thoughtful, deeper somehow.] Maybe he - your father - maybe he shouldn't have done it. Raised you as a human, I mean. Maybe that is why things went wrong for you. it isn't good to raise one breed of thing to be like another. That is what they say.
no subject
There are tricks to everything when necessary, of course. [Unlike hers, his tone implies resignation. She may have pride in her own tricks, her ways of working around her own difficulties. Kid, however, finds his 'tricks' to be hindrances. Additional steps, a list as long as he is tall of ways to manage--to get by. To quiet his anxieties enough to make it through the day.
He contemplates her comment, thoughtful. She may hear him fiddling with something, the nervous movement of his fingers off screen as he had earlier. This time, it's the skull clasp at his neck as he ponders her comment.]
I have never doubted his decisions.
It is, furthermore, far easier for humans to come to trust a figure of Death that looks like them--as opposed to a faceless figure, a mask in a cloak, Death that they can in no way identify with.
If...his decision has lead to this-- [If he could, he would gingerly wave his hand to suggest his entire being, his nervous energy, the hours of counting and arranging, the endless anxiety] --then I believe he has his reasons.
no subject
[There is still fear, of course. Worth needs proving. But it means that all she gets, she earns. Even if by tricks, always by tricks. As long as tricks are enough.
That is the greatest fear. It's what prompted her to talk to Kid. She isn't able to explain it yet, not properly; she listens instead, though now he's starting to talk about mad things, ones she's far from sure she understands. Unfortunately, when she does find a frame of reference in her own knowledge for this talk about Death that looks like a man, it's one that makes her blink in confusion and then in wry doubt that runs into her tone.]
Are you - do you mean you are - like the incarnate son of God? The son of Death who came to Earth to, to be with us and guide us?
no subject
That is the nature of humanity's progress. They would be otherwise doomed to repetition--learning and relearning the same things, again and again. It is no insult to your Doctor Stein--she has learned what her generation is capable of. Your generation will make strides that hers simply cannot. Your generation's children will learn and develop technology and things you could never comprehend. That is how knowledge works.
[Once again, Kid is calm and matter-of-fact, level-headed and simple. He means no insult and he doesn't want to be rude. To him it is simple cause and effect--Kid's analytical mind simply views learning as building blocks. Steps. One generation laying the path for another, and so on.]
Literacy need not be the primary source for learning. For many centuries the bulk of the populace did not read. Finding an alternative or workaround would be beneficial in that it permits you access to works of literature you might otherwise not see, but...
[His rambling tapers off as she presses on, and he can hear the doubt in her tone. Tension crawls into his stomach, and he shifts nervously.]
I...do not believe I understand your question. Incarnate son of Death is a bit...extravagant. My father and I are both quite physical and live in a very real locations. And it is quite important we not meddle--Father constantly reminds me it is not my place to get involved. There is an order to the world that we are not to get involved in.
[INow short, Kid has no concept of Christianity. Kesara's comment alluding to it is meaningless to him. And to directly refer to either him or his father as a god has clearly made him uncomfortable as he stumbles over his reply to her question.]
no subject
It must be true, [she mutters, half to herself.] Because the future has things in it that I could hardly imagine. They say there are machines that fly, and talk, and even ones that think, like these tablets... they say you can go anywhere in the world now, and see everything, and that women can be - that they can be everything they please. [Sometimes she simply sits and thinks about it, thinks about it for what feels like hours, about how all that is possible, with fierce and dizzying awe. But now, she thinks about it and suddenly a part of her is sad.]
But it's not true that Dr. Stein and my teachers have learned all they're capable of. Maybe others have, but surely not her. Not Lady Gavin. Not Lao Dian. If they were here they could learn everything I have. When I go back I'll teach them. You'll see. [Saying that makes her feel much better, so she says it again.] You'll see.
[She feels more confident with that, and that confidence colours how she thinks of his explanation, carefully considers what she believes. He isn't lying - it's too mad a thing to be lying about. Perhaps he is mad. She is still, after all, half convinced that Enoch is, with his talk about God and his angels. But then, she has frameworks other than the Christian.]
Is your father the king of the underworld? The Greeks, they said - but you said you have no mortal mother. So it isn't the same. [She's let go of doubt, not focused on trying to process the story in more sensible terms. Her mind is analytical much like his.] But he still made you a, a sacrifice. Something to give to humanity, to help them.
[Terms she understands. The implications of them aren't something she entirely grasps.]