sicut erat in principio, et nunc

[jovahs_heiress]

[I'm back,] Isabella tells her husband and children, [and so is Jane.]

Comments

[inherpiety]

"Okay. Bye, Mom."

[jovahs_heiress]

"I'll see you later, Keziah, Junia."

[mind_game]

"Also now I am awake again I can put you places other than Mount Sinai, although admittedly not that many of them," says Jane, "in this world - more of them in others. But," she adds, "I would want Angela's permission first."

[pythbox]

Junia nods.

"Which way to the books, please?"

[mind_game]

Jane supplies directions.

[pythbox]

Junia goes to the books.

[inherpiety]

The textbooks Jane has called up for her are on a computer, not on paper. She has translated them into slightly clunky Samarian with lots of terms clickable for definitions. Keziah, who has used an interface before if not enough to be an expert, shows her how to operate it.

[pythbox]

"Thank you!" says Junia. "Ooh. This is fascinating."

She looks up things, and then she looks up more things, and then she looks up things that the more things suggest she should look up—

And she practically glows with happiness.

[inherpiety]

Keziah -

Sits over there. And watches her a bit, and goes on another computer and pokes around for things to do. She finds a shape-matching game that does not distract her attention that much from Practically Glowy Junia.

[pythbox]

Junia learns.

[inherpiety]

Companionable computing. La la la.

[pythbox]

It is fun!

"I am glad I am not boring you," Junia says without looking away from her screen, some time later.

[inherpiety]

"Yeah, I'm just - doing - things," says Keziah. She has abandoned her game and is now playing a different one that involves solving algebra-like problems, albeit under so many bells and whistles that it's hard to tell.

[pythbox]

"I can see that you are doing things," says Junia. "Although I cannot quite tell what things they are."

[inherpiety]

"Oh, there are a lot of game things on these computers," says Keziah. "Pen likes them especially, but I like them too."

[pythbox]

"That sounds interesting," says Junia. She goes over to where Keziah is playing.

[inherpiety]

"Yeah - see, the idea is to make them balance, or overbalance if this symbol were different - and I stack things, but it has to be according to rules that depend on the things I'm stacking."

[pythbox]

"Ooh," says Junia. "I want to try!"

[inherpiety]

"Okay, but I'm on level four, you want to start at the beginning - there's one of these on your computer if you want to start your own game -" Keziah reaches over and minimizes the textbook and pulls up the algebra game.

[pythbox]

Junia's wings flutter slightly. She examines the game, and starts playing.

She turns out to be good at it.

[inherpiety]

"It's fun, isn't it?"

[pythbox]

"Yes it is!"

[inherpiety]

"There's got to be hundreds of games, I haven't tried them all."

[pythbox]

"This one is fun," says Junia. "What other ones are fun? I will try them next."

[inherpiety]

"All the ones I've tried are fun except there's a puzzle game I don't like."