[Video | 002: Adjusting]

[artofpersuasion]

[Ella still isn't sold on settling here. She probably never will be, but you didn't grow up in her world without knowing how to adapt. At least not when you were raised by parents who worked with creatures most people didn't believe existed and had been alive long enough to watch history repeat itself.

As far as she can tell, she's stranded here indefinitely, and she doesn't want to gain attention for being a "child" on her own in a strange place. She appreciates the concern, but she hates the idea they might be treating her differently or hiding things from her simply because of her age.

Besides, she wants to make herself useful.]

How can I help?

Comments

[Voice]

[artofpersuasion]

I've helped Mom with her patients before, but I wasn't really trained for that. [She presses her lips together as she thinks. Her knowledge is scattered among many skills and subjects.] Sometimes...I see things that others miss.

[Voice]

[relicrebellion]

Perhaps you could be of assistance with research, then. Or with some of the organizational efforts.

[Voice]

[artofpersuasion]

I'd like that. [Then something occurs to her.] Researching what, exactly?

[Voice]

[relicrebellion]

The political history of this territory, the pre-collapse technology level - there is much we do not know, and would be wise to learn.

[Voice]

[artofpersuasion]

I guess there probably aren't a lot of history books left to reference?

[relicrebellion]

Some have been preserved. But as with most texts, they are written with the expectation that the reader will be familiar with the current cultural climate.

[artofpersuasion]

They're hard to understand?

[relicrebellion]

No. The writing is incredibly straightforward. It is merely likely that we are missing a great deal of critical subtext.

[artofpersuasion]

Meaning they left things out, and what we're reading might not have been what they were trying to say.

[relicrebellion]

Precisely. I have not had nearly as much chance to inspect the collections as I would like, but a number of the more recent texts appear to have been written on the eve of war, or in its early years. A certain amount of propaganda, then, is inevitable.

[artofpersuasion]

And we probably only have access to one side of the story.

[relicrebellion]

Of course. There does not appear to have even been communication between the two planets for many decades.

[artofpersuasion]

Two planets?

[relicrebellion]

The war was interplanetary, between this world and its sister planet, Antiqua. We still do not know a great deal about why it started.

[artofpersuasion]

But they're not still fighting? I wonder who won.

[relicrebellion]

I am not certain anyone won. It is possible that they were forced to a standstill.

[artofpersuasion]

What could have so much power it halted a war for decades?

[relicrebellion]

If the devastation on Antiqua is as severe as witnessed here, they may simply no longer have the resources to fight. Interplanetary warfare is no simple task.

[artofpersuasion]

I wouldn't know. I've never actually fought one.

[relicrebellion]

It is a good choice of experiences to miss out on.

[artofpersuasion]

I'll keep that in mind.