deercountry | Welcome to the Satellite of Love!

[those other Earth books kind of threw her for a loop, too. "Mutants: The Next Era of Evolution?" "Talking Animals and How They Lost Their Voice?" "Surviving Jabberjays?" none of it made any real sense to Lexi, but she figured they might mean something to someone. so on the shelf they went. she wasn't going to judge]

Sure do! Follow me for a moment...[and she walks him over to a shelf of books] I did some research on these kinds of books since I wasn't sure they applied to Earth or not. They should all be from a fairly basic Earth, but there's also some specialized sections?

[He looks through the books carefully, and nods. They seem correct - at least the creatures on the first few pages look familiar.]

Right. That's... understandable. Things are different from world to world. It's just... even if these animals might not exist here they exist in my world... and I... ah. Wanted to be a marine biologist.

Really? That's so cool! It's great to know exactly what you want to do with your life. The books on that shelf should be "standard" Earth texts, but if you want me to find something more specialized or less specialized, I can check the publisher information, see if I recognize it?

[He never got a chance to in his world, but maybe here he can at least gain enough knowledge to help.]

I can at least look through these. Some of them seem a little... below my reading level, but others seem fine for the moment.

Really? Which ones, I can move them to the YA section? But that's good and there are ships coming in all the time. I've been spending most of my barter goods on the books they bring in. [a little chuckle] I've been eating a lot of PB&Js.

[He taps a few of the books and pulls out another one, glancing up at her.]

You know there's a lot of cool rocks out in the caves on the shore. Sometimes there's things living in there, but sometimes there aren't. And the nice-looking ones people are willing to trade for.

[Lexi watches carefully]

All right, those are outta here. [and she pulls them off of the shelf and into her arms] Maybe most people, but not me. I at least try to keep an eye on what I'm getting for my PB&Js. But, I admit, I'm better at the liberal arts than I am at STEM. Which. [a short laugh] I know I need to be better at.

I'm... not the best at things like foreign languages. Science I pick up pretty quickly and naturally, but stuff like vocabulary I struggle with. I know learning English is important given Japan's... precarious status with America in my world, but it just doesn't click the same.

Yeah, learning a foreign language can be like that. There are so many things to account for, especially sentence structure. I can't even imagine how hard it can be to go from Japanese to English, given the kanji. It's got to add a whole new layer of difficulty when it comes to going from one language to the next.

I can try to look for books in Japanese on the subject the next time it's time to trade for books. What are the kanji I should be looking for?

I'm... not sure if you'd need to? Since everything seems to auto-translate here. I know you're not speaking Japanese - probably - but that's what I"m hearing.

"Huh. Google translate goes worldwide, although there's no such thing as Google anymore. Because yeah, I'm hearing you in perfect English."

Yeah. I don't know much English past what I've learned in school.

[He switches to English, and it comes out heavily accented and stilted.]

Hello. My name is Jun Ushiro. It is nice to meet you. I like books.

[He switches back, and crinkles up his face.]

I'm not particularly good at it.

[she gives him a partially warm and partially sheepish expression] Yeah, but it's better than my Japanese. I bought like five different books on how to learn it, but it never quite sticks in my brain.

I get it, it's hard if you come from a language that doesn't use kana or kanji. It's an entirely different writing system... I think that's partly why I have trouble with English. I can memorize vocabulary all right, but writing it is a pain.

[He shrugs. It doesn't really matter if they can all understand each other.]

Science is also its own kind of language where people can understand each other across language barriers.

Yeah. I mean, I new enough to be able to recognize the names of characters I liked in non-translated manga but beyond that? Not easy. Not easy at all.

[understanding is the important part, right?]

I'd never thought of it that way, but you're right. That would explain why there's an international space station as well as why there are so many people from so many countries there.

Huh. What kind of manga did you read?

[He's never heard of an American(?) who reads manga. Considering they're basically in a Cold War...]

Yeah... I've heard of that station. It seems really interesting.

CLAMP shoujo, mostly. That and their BL.

[and in hers, they're in a kind of peace. American soldiers still occupy Okinawa after decades. many would be glad to see them gone, both in the US and in Japan]

It's amazing. I don't have the right mindset to make it there myself, but that doesn't mean we can't be interested in it, right?

[That... doesn't sound familiar to him, but either it doesn't exist in his world or he just doesn't pay attention to shoujo. Could be either.]

That's right. It's a kind of... I don't want to say 'symbol of hope', that sounds too sentimental. But you understand what I mean, probably.

[frankly, she wishes she hadn't heard of CLAMP, too, she will literally die mad that X was never finished]

Yeah. It's kinda cool that even as screwed up things can get on Earth, someone's up there getting along with each other. [a pause] At least I hope so. Otherwise, awkward.

Hopefully. I mean, it's not like there's a lot of room up in those places, so you'd better get along. I assume they get some sort of training or screening to make sure they won't lose their cool up there.

You'd think? And have to pass about a million psych evals. Are you potentially a serial killer, check yes or no. But with a lot more discussions about sad childhoods and lingering trauma and stuff like that.

Yeah, so anyone here would never pass. As far as I've seen we're all some kind of messed up.

Prrrrretty much. I honestly think some degree of messed up is a requirement of being here.

And if you aren't when you start, you will be once you get here.

[a short laugh] Isn't that the truth? I swear, I absolutely love having my traumas exposed to everyone, it's not like they were private or anything. Don't you?

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(CW: serial killer mentioned)

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