This thread continues Paul's game from the archived thread Fifteen Minutes. I'm reprinting his last post here.
I would like to spend a little bit of time each day exploring the uses and functions of my pocter. I ask around and try to find access to a piano. If I find one, I attept to look up online lessons for Jazz theory, and chord theory on my pocter. If there is a music class offered at the academy, I ask the teacher friendliest to me how I would go about being transferred into it, or adding it to my schedule somehow.
I don't spend as much time as I should studying. However, I do spend a considerable time studying, because the work is so challenging. I try to get at least 6 hours of sleep a night, but knowing me, I probably only succeed about every other night.
I contact General Hu sometime, and ask about how long my school year is. (He mentioned earlier that it was decided by the parent or guardian of each student.)
We'll assume that you're poking around on the pocter each day, and anytime you want to attempt something in particular we'll make a skill roll (sit-modded, of course).
Regarding the piano: among whom are you "asking around," what sort of piano are you looking for, and where might you expect one to be? Are you doing this in the afternoon today, or are you waiting until tomorrow?
I only vaguely recall Hu's comment; I imagine it had something to do with how many semesters per year a student choses to enroll. School is held year-round; vacations are taken by neglecting to sign up for classes. The current semester ends in mid-December, if that's what you're asking.
What do people do for fun around here?
How do you intend to go about finding out?
I want to find out how to browse the internet or its equivalent on my pocter.
During the afternoon today, I ask a few of the students in my room if they know where I could find a piano. I'm hoping I'll get a response like "Sure, it's in the music room down the 700 hall. You can sign up to use it on the school website."
I intend to find out what people do for fun by keeping a look out for people and what they're doing.
The operating system is unfamiliar. You can't find any sort of internet browsing application during the time you allow yourself on the first day.
During a break from your studying, you decide to ask someone about where you can find a piano. Of the five other kids in the barracks, only one appears not to be studying (his interaction with his pocter is more evocative of game play than of scholarship), so you approach him. He looks up when you greet him; you ask your question, perhaps stumbling a little over the word for "piano."
The effect is immediate and startling. The boy sets aside his pocter and stares at you with openmouthed disbelief. As the kid on the bunk above him does his best to stifle a sudden snicker, a kind of slow, incredulous anger creeps across the boy's face; he responds in Chinese, something to the effect of Say that again?
He looks like he's ready to get to his feet at the slightest additional provocation. The kid in the bunk above him is hiding his mouth behind his hand and looking down at you with interest; even the other three boys have taken notice that something's going on toward this end of the barrack. You have the room's undivided attention.
Skill check for pocter use: 78.
"I said, how about showing me how to do a few things on this pocter; I'm foreign, and I'm a little unfamiliar with the interface."
I say this a little louder than I usually speak, but try hard not to be obvious about it.
Hopefully, the others will think that nothing is out of the ordinary, and the two over here will think that I realized that I said something wrong and forgive me.
The ideal response would be something like "I thought that's what you said. Maybe in an hour or so, I'm busy right now."
Your Chinese is deserting you. You stammer a bit about what you really said and something about help and indicate your pocter; before you can finish the kid is on his feet. He spits out an angry stream of words you've never heard before and pulls back his fist, but before he can deliver the blow, the boy on the top bunk says something - maybe Hey, hold on, something like that - and the kid freezes.
He composes himself with visible effort. He lowers his fist, but you can still detect venom in his voice. There's a long sentence the jist of which is Go away, plus some more you don't understand, ending with you're dead.
There's some finality to this, but you're not sure if it's a dismissal or not. The boy in the top bunk isn't so amused anymore, and the others look more curious than before.
Your earlier Chinese skill check was 00, a botch (as you may have suspected); I gave you a difficult Charisma check to get out of it, but 40 is as bad a failure as you get. Simple willpower check for the kid was 12, a good roll. Chinese for this post: 60, failure.
I return to my bunk, and take a moment to compose myself. I spend a few minutes composing in my head what I am about to say. I run through the Chinese in my head several times before returning. If I have a English to Chinese dictionary, I consult it on any word or phrase that I am not absolutely certain is correct. When I am ready, I return to the kid's bunk, and say the following:
"Chinese is my second language, and I only started studying it a month ago. I am sorry for anything I have said that may have offended you. Please understand that it was not what I meant to say."
I try and say this in the most respectful way possible, but again, if I am not absolutely certain about how to say something, correctness > respect.
If this situation is resolved, I resume my studying, and ask a teacher about music lessons/ availability of a piano the next day.
There's some talking in low tones while you're on your bunk, but you're focusing so much on your translation work that you hardly notice. When you're finally ready, you gather yourself and walk over to where the kid is sitting. You notice that another boy has joined him.
The kid glowers as you approach. Before he can open his mouth, you deliver your message.
He stares at you for a few seconds, like he doesn't know quite what to say or what to think of you. No one else says anything either. Finally, you see his shoulders sag a little bit and he says, Yeah. Sure.
He's not ready to be your blood-brother, but he looks like you convinced him.
_____
After physical training again that evening, you wake up tired the next morning – and after that morning's PT, you're exhausted. At least you get breakfast before attending Remedial Calculus, and that wakes you up some. Miharu only has to poke you awake once.
After class, you steal a moment to ask the teacher about music opportunities (in English this time, I'm assuming). She seems to think it's a strange question. She asks if you mean an acoustic keyboard, or just what you're after, exactly. You explain a little, and she says that if it's merely a matter of staying in practice, she doesn't see why you can't just use a terminal, but if you're looking to take a class, you came to the wrong school. There's no music program here.
_____
I'm awarding a +20 SM and a change in circumstances for the use of your pocter's language resources (no skill check necessary for the pocter; this was a routine part of your tutoring under Major-General Hu), and that same change of circumstances warrants another attribute check to sway the Little Billy's opinion (possibly modified by the outcome of the skill check). Since you're trying to overcome a failed difficult check, this one must also be difficult; since you're working from reason and argument, it's Persuation this time. The Chinese roll is 54, a strong success thanks to the sit-mod, and the difficult check is 19, which with your 2@2 Persuasion is also strong. Congratulations. They still think you're weird.
I rolled the GE for the piano situation earlier: 25, "Remarkably bad but not totally surprising." I've been getting that one a lot lately.
Miharu, you may or may not recall, sits next to you in Calc and was a vocal supporter of English use in the classroom.
I don't quite understand. Is there an "acoustic keyboard" available for student use?
If not, how do I access the musical keyboard function on a terminal?
I make a habit of taking a short nap in the afternoons, around 45 minutes. If I don't already know how to set an alarm on my pocter, I ask someone in my barracks. I then not only use it to set an alarm for my naps, but also to wake up 5 minutes before we are rudely awakened in the morning.
Do I have an money?
No, there is not. The teacher says something about "keyboard settings" and hurries you along to your next class.
As it turns out, you can change the pocter's Qwerty keyboard into a piano keyboard just as easily as you can change the language displayed on the keys themselves, and in the same way. When you make the change, the internal divisions in the keyboard actually shift such that piano keys have replaced the usual typewriter-based keys. The metamorphosis is almost as unnerving to watch as the Flexiglass you saw in the xenobiology lab. You only get about a foot of keyboard to work with, though.
Funnily enough, the alarm is harder to figure out, but you manage. Do you want the alarm to sound from the main speaker or from the detachable, wireless earbud?
No mention has been made to you of money, nor have you seen anywhere to spend it or anything to spend it on. You haven't seen anyone else with cash, either.
I use the earbud, and put it in my ear before my afternoon nap and when I go to bed at night. I use the extra five minutes in the morning to wake up and get dressed.
I ask a bunk-mate, for lack of a better term, if there's any way that I can get a larger keyboard to work with on my pocter. I try to ask one that I know speaks English, and ask in English. Failing that, I ask one if they speak English. If they don't, I'll do my best in Chinese.
I study the normal amount today, and go to bed at a semi-reasonable hour.
You pass a game of three-on-three soccer as you make your way back to the barracks for your nap. The alarm works fine. One of the kids from the game is in the barracks on his pocter when you wake up.
You haven't heard anyone speaking English on his own, so you resort to asking. The person you approach is wary of you, but he says yes, he speaks a little. After a few minutes of trying, it's apparent that he doesn't get what you're asking him about, despite your efforts to speak simply and clearly. Giving up, you switch to Chinese. After only a few seconds of awkwardness, the kid is jabbering away in Chinese while showing you how to set the keyboard so that the keys are smaller (or larger), how to force the keyboard to generate multiple rows of keys, how to change the octave by the touch of a button – in fact, how to perform almost any conceivable work-around for your problem that doesn't actually involve changing the physical size of the pocter's keyboard. He says he's never used the piano option before, but that it's all very [something], so it's not that hard to figure out.
He responds courteously when you thank him, and he asks if your pocter is new and if pocters are very different where you're from.
GE for English-speakers in the barracks: 15, "not unfavorable." His English, 80, failure; your Chinese, 22, success.
I rolled skill checks this time for reasons. Likely they won't happen as often in the future. (Skill checks, that is; I hope to continue to have reasons.)
"Everything's different where I come from."
I ask the student if there is a library of sheet music that I can access using my pocter. I really hope that the same musical notation system that I know is still being used.
Is there a library or study area in the academy? If so, I want to start spending most of my study time there instead of the barracks.
Every afternoon, I take a 20-30 minute break from my studies, and practice my piano skills. I warm-up on the Blues scales. I try to memorize them for all key, major and minor. Then, if there is a library of sheet music I can access, I play selected pieces out of it, two or three at a time until I master them. On the day that I can play them all through at performance quality, I pick out a few more to sightread.
At lunch the next day, I look for Miharu(? I'm horrible with names). I sit with her and meet some of her friends.
I am trying very hard in all of my classes. I do all of my assignments, no matter how much sleep I lose for it. In Chinese Composition, I use as much Chinese as I can, but resort to filling in with English when I have to.
"Everything's different where I come from."
He gives a short laugh, and agrees that this is likely so. He tells you that you might get lucky poking around in the public library (accessible via pocter), but if you want something like a decent collection of musical scores, you might have to use a (something else) library, which you gather isn't free. His name is Li Weiyuan, and it was nice talking with you.
___
There is a library – one – but it's called something fancier; in English, it would probably be the Archive or the Repository or something equally pretentious. Seeing as it stores actual books, students aren't allowed inside unless they know exactly what they're looking for, they have hard-copy permission from an officer, and they solemnly swear not to leave the building with anything they didn't bring themselves. The Archive isn't what you're looking for. What you're looking for is the Hall.
Picture a library. Take out the computers, the card catalogue, the books, and all other media, keep the draconian behavioral code, put the librarians in uniform, and add in a few sound-proofed rooms available for group-study sessions (to be booked in advance, of course), and you have the Hall. There are printing machines to produce any hard copies you may need during your study sessions, and they're equipped with recycling slots for you to feed those hard copies into once they've outlived their usefulness. The machines are absolutely silent in their operation – save for the soft sound the paper makes as it sloughs into the tray. There are many more people here than in your barracks, but there's still an odd sense of privacy once you've settled at a table. Once you get past the uncanny silence, it's a much better place to study.
I assume you're memorizing the Blues scales from memory? Your search of the public library yields very little in the way of playable music. Mostly you get snippets used in passing in printed works as examples of this that or the other, or a picture of a hand-written score captioned Fig 6.8 Classical Musical Manuscript in a history book, or else boring collections of bars from books like So You Want to Play the Piano? You may have to resort to the whatsitmajig that Weiyuan mentioned if you want anything decent to practice that you aren't playing from memory or writing yourself.
__
The next day is your third at the academy. Physical training is still tiring, it's still difficult to follow along in science, and Chinese Comp is still a nightmare. You print hardcopies of your work in class today to hand up to the instructor. Yours has more romanized Chinese than traditional script and more English than either of those. You're beginning to wonder if you can pass this course. The only class you feel you're doing well in right from the start is Remedial Calculus; you've already tested on what you learned Monday and have moved on to bigger and better things. You'd feel good about that if your emotional range at that hour of the morning wasn't restricted to "sleeping" and "not sleeping."
At lunch you have some slight trouble locating Miharu. From how she behaves in class, you expected her to be in the midst of a mid-sized group, or at least on the fringes of a large one. Instead you find her along the wall, sitting alone at a table for two and partaking heavily of the eggrolls. She waves as you walk up, smirking at you, but she seems mildly surprised when you stop at her table instead of passing by.
"Hey. I'm expecting somebody, but go on and sit down." She's speaking English. "It's Paul, right? What's happening, you need help too?"
__
I rolled a Charisma check for Li earlier: 5+4= 9, easy-if-weak success. The GE roll for available sheet music was Bad Enough, and the piano practice might count as practice. (MJ – what do I do with a program that doesn't hit the minimum hours/days timeframe outlined in the Referee's Rules? Pat the player on the head and say "how nice for you," or work out some sort of delayed-advancement scheme?)
I'm playing the blues scales from memory. It is very easy to figure out all of them if you know one. (You only have to transpose it up or down as many steps as you want, and count keys.)
I begin studying in the Hall daily, instead of the barracks. Naturally, I will vacate it to practice piano.
If I see Li again, (I like that name. It's easy to remember.) I ask him to repeat the name of the thing he mentioned earlier- where I could get a decent collection of music, and press for a few details on it- how to access it, if it costs money, what's in it, etc.
To Miharu-
"Nothing much's happening, I just prefer talking to people who speak English, that's all. Chinese Comp is a nightmare; I'm English-starved."
(MJ – what do I do with a program that doesn't hit the minimum hours/days timeframe outlined in the Referee's Rules? Pat the player on the head and say "how nice for you," or work out some sort of delayed-advancement scheme?)
Assuming this is about skills, not attributes, these are my approaches:
- If a program does not "come close" to the minimum requirements for improving a level one skill, I tell them after a couple of days that they are not really getting any benefit from it beyond maintaining their current level of ability--if they wish to get better, they will have to put more into it.
- If a program is adequate for a level one improvement but the character is level two or greater (and it is a skills, not attributes program), I tell them that their progress is very slow, and then I convert it to skill marks. If they're doing a level one program at level two, this means it will take four times as long to advance an intensity. It is possible for a program to give more than one mark but not advance a full intensity in the prescribed time.
- If the program is particularly innovative, I will sometimes give a mark for new use but then say that once that trick has been learned the program is not sufficient to advance beyond this.
- If the program integrates into related programs, I might consider whether the sum of all programs creates a situation in which some umbrella skill might be advancing, and apply the credit of all the training into the one skill.
Obviously someone must actually practice to improve, as opposed to dabbling, and that means some minimum amount of time invested. Of course, the times are guidelines, not rules--it is certainly recognized that a program that is much harder in other ways might accomplish the same results in much less time (as evidenced by the application of double doubled and triple tripled loads for the higher levels: you don't have to double the time if you can double two other aspects of the training, at least one of which impacts play). Thus in the end, the question is whether you, the referee, believe that the practice being done measures up to the amount that would actually improve the character's skill, given the guidelines in the book, and not whether it is modeled on those guidelines. This is particularly the case when you model programs after real-world training programs or advancement models in other game systems--if you can justify why that advancement system works, allow it.
Generally, err in favor of the players, but only when there's good reason to believe it could go either way.
--M. J. Young
MJ - thank you. And yes, that was about skills; I knew that folks could advance very slowly with (say) a level one program to improve a level two or three skill, so I was exploring just how lenient the system was. You've been very helpful. Paul - I'm glad you like "Li." It's the most common surname on the planet.
You run across Li again later that evening – no surprise, you share a barracks – and he explains that he means the sort of library that you pay money every month or every year so that you have permission to access it. He suggests that you get help from your parents if you have trouble using your money with your new student account. He expresses some doubt that you'll actually find what you want - since this is a military outfit, access to the outside is naturally limited, remember - but your parents might be able to help with that, too.
Out of curiosity, why vacate the Hall during your piano practice? All the audio comes through your earbud anyway. (Which, by the way, has its own tiny, detachable mini-bud for your other ear.)
| | | |
"Nothing much's happening, I just prefer talking to people who speak English, that's all. Chinese Comp is a nightmare; I'm English-starved."
She grins. "You're in luck, gaijin-san. Look who's coming." She nods over your shoulder.
Approaching is a decidedly non-Chinese boy holding a lunch tray. If you had to guess, you'd say Russian. He slows down as he gets closer to your table, looking hesitant. Miharu waves at him; he smiles back uncertainly and glances back and forth between the two of you. Then he looks away and starts walking past you.
Miharu rolls her eyes and scoots her chair back. "Just a second."
True to her word, she only takes a few seconds to get up, catch up with the boy, snatch his lunch tray, and drag him back to your table by the wrist. It's a little tricky to fit his tray on the table, but she manages.
"Vadim, this is Paul. He sits next to me in Calculus. Paul, this is Vadim Zhukovsky. He was just pulling up a chair."
He sits, looking pretty embarrassed. "Sorry," he says. "I thought – "
"Yeah, yeah. Paul was just telling my how absolutely starved he was for English. Reading and writing Chinese just isn't very satisfying, apparently."
Vadim looks at you, suddenly interested. "Really?" He's guarded, but hopeful. Meanwhile, Miharu is munching on her eggrolls looking immensely satisfied with herself.
__
Chinese for your second encounter with Weiyuan came up 36; on an absolute scale, that's mediocre, but it's simply excellent for you. Any vagueness in my wording there is likely intentional, though I trust you can extract the meaning well enough. No rolls at lunch besides the kind that taste good with soy sauce.
On second thought, I guess I will stay in the Hall during practicing sessions. I forgot about the earbud.
Meanwhile, back at lunch:
"Um, yeah, that's right. Nice to meet you. . . .Am I missing something, here?
Miharu takes a giant swallow and explains.
"Vadim here is pathetic at organic chem. I'm in remedial calculus – "
"But she's very smart, I don't understand why –"
"Hush. Vadim, though, has already passed every math course the school offers. He just took the tests."
Vadim looks pained. "Not every course. There's still Multi-Determinate Schrödingae . . ."
"Oh, Multi-Determinate Schrödingae. I'm so sorry."
Vadim turns to you. "You know, I can't pronounce the name of the brain class she's taking."
"It's 'neuroendocrin-'" – she takes in Vadim's innocent smile and stops mid-word. "Anyway, he agreed to tutor me at math if helped him with his science – and anybody could do it, he's that pathetic –"
"I really am quite bad."
" – so since he's got a class right after, we decided to meet up at lunch."
"I thought she had forgotten, when I saw you here. I was disappointed. But now that I know . . . " He changes tack. "Do you need any help with anything? I mean, you're in Miharu's class, I'd be happy to help you both at once."
Vadim hasn't touched his food yet. Miharu, contentedly slurping on her drink, is almost finished.
"Well, sure. I could always use the extra help."
This game was (somewhat) recently continued in a live session. I'm going to skip ahead a bit and write a small part of the plot, and Scott will fill in everything else. So here goes:
That night, I remembered to set my alarm five minutes early, so I wouldn't have any trouble being awake and dressed in the morning.
The following morning, the alarm worked, and I quietly got into my clothes in peace. When the old desk was thrown down the aisle between the bunkbeds and all the shouting began, I simply sat on my bunk and waited for everyone to get up. The sergeant noticed me, and yelled "Well what do we have here? This man's already dressed! Must have been sitting up all night waiting for me!"
"I don't like to rush myself"
"You know what? You're right. I don't like rushing myself either. I like rushing OTHER PEOPLE!"
He proceeded to point out a small flaw in the way I had put on my shirt, and heavily suggested that I take it off and put it back on again. He did the same with every article of clothing I was wearing, and consequently, I got out of the barracks later than everyone else. I was given extra push-ups for being late, and was sent to do my exercises earlier than every one else ("We all know how you like to be early!") and of course made to exercise to the same time. I was kept afterward for some reason I can't remember.
When breakfast had already been in session, I was turned loose with the comment "Well, I would send you to breakfast, but you'll no doubt want to be getting to class. Only fifteen minutes left to be early!"
I went to breakfast feeling somewhat resentful, and entirely to rebellious for my own good. I decided that I would do the same thing tomorrow, and that the sergeant would tire of teasing me before I did. And besides, I could use the exercise, right? Yeah. Right.
You do anaerobic exercises first, followed by aerobic. You (and only you) skipped the sit-ups and push-ups and so forth to get an early start on running around the track. Of course, you also ran the whole time that everyone else did, so when everyone else left, you still had your anaerobic exercise to do – not to mention your extra anaerobic exercise. That's why you were late to breakfast, and subsequently to class (but only barely).
I'm handling the rest of this – lunch the day before plus the rest of this day – because I thought it only fair that I write the majority of this summary in light of writing the majority of Graham's. From here on out, however, I'm swearing off of player summaries. Write 'em yourselves! (They'll get done faster, anyway, you know they will.)
The day before the incident with Sergeant Punctual, we concluded the lunchtime rendezvous of Miharu, Vadim, and our hero, discovering in the process that Vadim is currently enrolled in an English Literature course to fill the gaping hole left in his schedule by maths. (Paul wanted to know what writers were covered; the reading list will be distributed next week, but Vadim says it's "modern" literature, going back as far as the first Cold War). Other tidbits include that his father is a Red "special ambassador" (currently assigned to somewhere nearby, hence Vadim's presence here at all) and that the man encouraged Vadim's interest in other languages from an early age. Russian translations of Thomas Grey and other English romantic poets convinced the boy to look into English literature in particular. His association with Miharu was initially based not on mutual tutoring, but on a mutual desire to practice their English; Paul's addition to the group establishes a pattern. Miharu, to general mystification, commented that "now all we need is a German."
The following day (after the incident with the sergeant), Paul's Chinese Composition instructor informed the class that she had finished grading most of the assignments and that they were for the most part tolerable, and proceeded to spend the remainder of the class "addressing some concerns" with their technique.
Paul went searching for other potential English-speakers to connect with over lunch, but his most likely prospect for today was a good-looking European fellow at a round table, flanked by two (very) young ladies and sitting across from three athletic younger boys, with the rapt attention of all. Paul gave this one up as a bad job and settled for finding a classmate to eat with; he ended up with a boy named Li (no relation to Li from the barracks), who he found eating distractedly from five bowls of rice while typing an essay on his pocter with one hand.
Paul's Chinese limited conversation, but they got by. Li was pleased that someone else was doing worse in Chinese Comp than he, and expressed amazement that Paul had gotten into the Academy at all, given that he'd started learning the language not two months before. Li apparently believes misery is a finite commodity: "People like you," he said, "are why the rest of us suffer less."
Later on, he was found by Miharu and dragged to Vadim's table. Plans for regular study times were set up – apparently administration in The Hall rewards regular use of private rooms with priority in reservations come exam time. Miharu claims that room 203 is now "GGG headquarters" (GGG apparently translating into "Hard-working Foreigners' Association"), and appears immune to questioning or contradiction on the subject of her new secret society.
Summary endeth here. I'll give Paul a chance to state anything he'd like for the record, and then we'll move on to Friday morning.
That night, I set my alarm for five minutes before everyone gets up, with the intent to do exactly what I did Thursday morning.
Ready for Friday.
You are dressed and mercifully half-conscious when that battered bit of metallic former furniture makes its tumbling, cacophonous journey across the barracks.
"Rise and shine, little soldiers! Forty-five seconds! Mornings are precious, and once a moment's gone, it'll never –"
He catches sight of you and stops short. Two beats.
"You! Why are you still here?"
"I go to school here," I say in Chinese.
A beat.
"Well, hell, I didn't know they taught class this early. But then, smart kid like you, I guess they made an exception."
By this time he's standing about eight inches from your face. He's short enough that his eyes are on your level, but you still have that feeling of looking up.
"You've been to class and back already, haven't you? How stupid of me. I know how much you like to be early. You go on and take a nap, get ready for your head start on tommorow's classes."
He turns around, yelling again: "The REST of you - ten seconds!"
D'oh!
"Please, sir. I didn't mean to be rude, sir. Please allow me to go to PT, sir."
This is all said quickly, but not desperately. My goal is to get him to think twice about his decision, and just give me extra exercises instead, or some equally pointless punishment, rather than keep me from my classes.
He's leaving the room, so you'd have to follow him out to finish talking - and realizing that that would make you the first student out makes you hesitate.
Not knowing what else to do, you join the rest of the students anyway and start following orders. At first he doesn't appear to notice, but
"Oh hey, look who decided to join us! I [past tense verb] this little guy. I guess it's never too early to start on your evening PT, huh? Say! Once these lazy [turtles?] are done, why don't you stick around a while, get a head start on tomorrow?"
Once again (unless you have something to say back to him?), you end up doing a PT and a half. About fifteen minutes before your class starts, he looks at his watch.
"Hmm. That's enough - you'd better run on if you want to get any dinner."
I might get used to this. I don't say anything the whole time, and eat breakfast quickly, probably carrying a little and eating it on my way to class. At lunch, I sit at the GGG headquarters.
Remedial Calc goes well. Your first full-period test is Monday.
You can tell Chinese Composition will not go well when the instructor walks in. She's carrying a stack of paper, and she looks distinctly put out.
"I've finished grading the remainder of your compositions. I apologize. It appears that yesterday, I was too quick to generalize your performance as a class."
She begins to hand papers down the rows of seats.
"I have reprinted your assignments with my grading and commentary. Please make whatever notes you need based on my feedback and be sure to return your papers to the recycler as you leave. Some of you," pregnant pause, "will need more notes than others.
"Several of the compositions I graded yesterday were abysmal. One, in fact, persuaded me that the student is not fluent in Chinese at all. While I have recommended that student for expulsion – " she takes a moment to glare at you – "I have pushed back my syllabus one more day, for the sake of those of you for whom there remains a glimmer of hope. I recommend that those of you who are competent find time outside of class to assist those who are not if you want to avoid losing class time this way in the future."
She puts Basic Principles on the displayboard. It goes downhill from there.
Ooh. That's not good.
Nothing to add; Ready to continue.
At lunch, Vadim cuts off something Miharu was about to proclaim concerning the GGG. As if he hadn't noticed she'd started talking, he says, "So, Paul, did you really spend the summer with Dr. Hu?"
Miharu (who really hadn't noticed he'd started talking) pulls up short. "Dr. who?"
"Yes, that's right."
"No," she says, "I mean, which Dr. Hu?"
Vadim looks at her like she's got three tongues. "No, he's not a witch-doctor, he's a major-general!"
Miharu's eyes get bigger than her mouth (which is saying something). "Major-General Hu?!"
"Well, yes. Dr. Hu Nuong. Anyway, I was just asking. No need to get emotional."
"But – but – "
Miharu is temporarily choking; you can a word in edgewise if you like.
___
Much later, Li Weiyuan speaks to you in the barracks before dinner.
"So, what's with you and Sergeant Shouty? That's twice you've gotten singled out in two days."
___
Chinese roll in the barracks is 25, and I forgot to mention your 30 earlier for the Chinese Comp instructor's rant. Today is a good day for language comprehension, apparently.
At lunch:
"Yes, I did spend the summer with Doctor Hu. He was teaching me Chinese. Where'd you hear about it? I didn't think anyone knew."
In the barracks:
"Well, I like to have a couple minutes in the morning to get dressed and enjoy not having to do anything, so I get up five minutes early. I guess he doesn't like that."
What's going on in my history class? Is there anything extremely different about history here than at home? Something that might explain the current political situation?
I am also interested in discovering the current situation in the United States, so that I can construct a cover story that doesn't involve amnesia or aliens. If anyone mentions something about America, I will try to get them to say a bit more about it, being careful not to reveal the vastness of my ignorance.
"Yes, I did spend the summer with Doctor Hu. He was teaching me Chinese. Where'd you hear about it? I didn't think anyone knew."
Vadim shrugs and turns back to his soup. "People talk," he says.
Miharu has recovered her voice. "You really stayed with Dr. Hu Nuong? I didn't even know he was here! Is he teaching? Did he tell you – "
"Apparently, he's teaching Chinese."
"That's not what I meant!"
Apparently, Hu is quite famous for his articles published in prestigious journals, but only rarely does his work make it into civilian-accessible media. Minor details like his location are, of course, classified. He did not always work directly for the government, however, and a great deal is known about his expertise, which apparently extends into a great number of areas.
You spend the rest of lunch hearing all about Dr. Hu (The Great and Powerful), receiving a great many instructions concerning what you are to find out from him and what you are and are not allowed to tell him about Miharu. Vadim even manages to toss in a few comments about how he, personally, is more impressed by the man's linguistic achievements (which fills in those few moments when Miharu is taking a breath), and thus the time allotted for lunch ends without your really having an opportunity to press Vadim for an answer to your question.
____
"Well, I like to have a couple minutes in the morning to get dressed and enjoy not having to do anything, so I get up five minutes early. I guess he doesn't like that."
"And that's really worth all the extra running? I mean, I don't mind – when he's yelling at you, he's not yelling at us – but you might want to be careful, you know? The nail that sticks up gets hammered down."
___
So far in history, you're covering the aftermath of the Second World War; the curriculum is supposed to span a century and a half, coming up through about a decade before the present year by the end of the semester. Before you versed out in October of '06, how much did you know about that period in our world?
Where and/or from whom do you hope to hear about America, and what sort of things do you hope to hear? I haven't decided yet if this is one GE roll or two, but I definitely need more from you before I can proceed.
To Li:
"Well, it's not worth it now, but I figure he'll stop bothering me before I start waking up on time, so it will be worth it later."
I know which countries were on which sides. I knew that there was an Iron Curtain, and that it came down right in the middle of Germany, splitting it into East and West, with the Berlin Wall dividing them. I knew there was a Cold War lasting till around the 80's or so, and that Russia and the US were in an arms race. I knew about the space race, and the major landmarks of it. I knew that there was a war in Vietnam and Korea, but maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. I didn't know about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
I hope to hear about school systems in America, and current hot topics in American politics. I'm not really listening for it in any paticular place, or from any specific person. But if I hear anything, I will respond as I stated.
So far, history matches with what you know – who fought who, the division of Germany, the Berlin Wall – although the perspective is somewhat different than you're used to. No one had ever mentioned a four-year "War of Liberation" within China starting in 1946, much less that said civil war between Communists and Nationalists was a continuation of and conclusion to a war that had been going on since before the nineteen thirties. (They took an eight-year break for a War of Resistance when Japan invaded in '37.) Point being, this class pays more attention to Asia than you're used to, although it pays more attention to Europe than you might expect; it's a fairly balanced global history class. Still, it's only been a week.
I have in my notes that you're keeping an ear out for news about American school systems and politics. I'll let you know if you hear anything. Tell me what good news sounds like as distinct from bad news so I know how to orient my GE roll.
____
Li is amused, and responds with the equivalent of "good luck with that." You make sure to set your alarm for Saturday morning.
___
The sergeant offers to let you go half-way through your PT this evening – unless you want to start on tomorrow's?
Good news is stuff I'm familiar with. Bad news is a completly different system than I know. I want information to portray someone who is from America. School is a likely subject that might come up.
__
I gladly take the offer to skip out on half of PT and head off to study. If he wasn't serious, and meant for me to stay, I'll return to my spot and say "Oh, sorry. I was so eager to go to my afternoon classes I mistook your meaning. You know me, I like to get a little ahead of schedule sometimes."
__
What day does the GGG have a study room reserved? Or do we at all?
He laughs as you leave, but he doesn't stop you. As you walk away, you can hear some of the other kids protest, but he dismisses their complaints: it's their fault for "not getting ahead."
You have Room 203 reserved for this Sunday at 2 PM. You studied together there on Thursday, and future Tuesdays and Thursdays at four will help to cement your claim.
You make sure to set your alarm for the morning. Since there aren't any classes tomorrow (Saturday), that leaves morning and evening PT as your only solid commitments. Any plans?
____
The infernal sound of your pocter's alarm wakes you, but something is different. You can hear it equally well in both ears, and the volume is head-splitting:
BEEDLE-EET-BEEP
There's a small dome-shaped device on the floor by your bed. It's strobing red and blue lights like it was yanked off the top of a police car, and the pocter's
BEEDLE-EET-BEEP
is coming from it instead of your earbud. Everyone's sitting up in bed, and the sergeant is standing in the doorway:
"Rise and shine, happy campers! Today's w-"
BEEDLE-EET-BEEP
" -p call comes to you courtesy of P-"
BEEDLE-EET-BEEP
" -n's pocter! Hoo-boy ain't it great t- "
BEEDLE-EET-BEEP
"-e EARLY!"
Finally you find your pocter and shut off the demon-noise. The lights quit, too, and the sergeant turns on the barracks' lights; everyone looks like he's hit by a bucket of ice-water.
"Forty seconds, people! Let's not keep Paul waiting, eh boys?"
Ghhuuh. . . this guy DOES know how to make someone suffer. I was waiting for something like this. I look at the time on my poctor as I get dressed. Just how early are we?
I get out and do my PT. If the sergeant offers to dismiss me early, I dryly say "Not today, sir. There's no classes. This is my evening PT. I did the morning hours ago."
When PT is over, I eat breakfast quickly and don't go back to the barracks. I go to the hall, and check my poctor. I try to password-protect access to my poctor. If I can't figure out how, I exit the hall and find a student who's not in my barracks, and ask him how. If I see anyone from my barracks, I face away from them and walk away naturally, hoping they don't recognize me. If they do, I run back to the hall. Once I've got the poctor password-protected, I go back to my barracks and play piano through the earbud. I will change my plans if anyone is there and happens to say something.
__
Who's in charge of the school? What's the faculty hierarchy?
__
When I find time, I talk to Miharu about what's been happening in the morning with the sergeant, and ask if he's allowed to mess with my poctor like that.
__
I'd like to take a look at a world map sometime soon, paying special attention to country borders, and see if I notice anything radically different from what I'm used to seeing. I make sure the map is up-to-date.
(I can’t quite remember how the deal with the sergeant turned out – it was resolved fairly quickly, and a long time ago.)
My education progressed remarkably well. I took classes all throughout the summer terms, and ended up focusing on – remarkably – science!!! I took a large amount of high level science classes on a very wide variety of subjects. My concentration was Xenobiology, the study of alien life. Of course, it was all theoretical, so it was a very wide field.
When the time came to drop PT and take up a sport, I chose tennis, and trained heavily in it. However, I dropped it after a year or two because my instructors were concerned for my health.
When my classes reached a high enough level, I took a job as a “research assistant” to Dr. Wong and Dr. Li, the two scientists in charge of the project on Toto. On the face, they were doing something relatively boring and un-noteworthy. Deep in the secret hallways of Yangtze 4-B Military Academy, they are performing experiments on an alien life-form, trying to figure out how a small purple nerf ball with no micro-structure can possibly be alive, and retaining information. My job as a “research assistant” was to find out little things like it’s information molecule (it turned out to be contained in the macrostructure of the whole organism), and conduct little side experiments of my own.
It was during this time that my course load, including summer classes, in addition to my research began to be too much for me. I began taking lessons in discipline from Dr. Hu and his wife. This included such trials as studying organic chemistry in a tub of icewater, and relaxation methods, and things like that.
After the week break between a summer term and a fall term, I approached the first of a series of secret entrances to the lab, and found that my fingerprint did not work. Frustrated, I waited outside the door for one of the doctors to come out, and demand an explanation. Dr. Li came out after a few hours, and stutter and stumbling, managed to get out that I “wasn’t cleared”. Also, my research assistantship had been transferred to another doctor, who was not involved in top-secret government experimentation.
Bummer.
I tried vainly to get back to work under Li and Wong, but I was thwarted at every turn. After a week or two, Dr. Li asked me to meet him at a snack machine where he normally eats lunch. When I did, he produced a sketch (on paper!) of a squid-like creature I had seen statues of way back in Nagaworld. I told him I recognized it and had seen statues of it. I was about to press for more information when he got a text message presumably from Dr. Wong. He cursed and left briskly towards the lab. I followed him closely, and it is unclear whether he didn’t notice me or didn’t care. When we got to the lab, I saw the squid creature in the flesh, contained in a flexiglass cage. He stared straight at me.
Dr. Wong was apparently uncomfortable with how it was looking at him when he texted Li. As we were speaking, the thing shattered the glass of the cage and began to attack. Dr. Wong left via the elevator, Li tried to remember his military martial arts, and I went to scoop up Toto. Li was quickly losing his battle, and I uselessly threw chunks of glass at it, when Dr. Wong returned with a very large syringe of a dubious liquid. While Li held it back with a chemical spray usually used to put out fires, Wong managed to shove the syringe into its neck and discharge the liquid. Slowly, it passed out. I got a first aid kit to treat Li’s serious wounds. Soon after, I was put under arrest for being in a restricted area without proper clearance, and sedated.
Double bummer.
I awoke once again hooked up to a cerebro-spinal tap, and was questioned by Dr. Hu about the encounter. I was then put under again.
I awoke again in the yellow sector of Batsat 1. An earbud relayed instructions to me from the computer. I was informed that the creature was being contained in a much thicker cell made of glass steel. Apparently, it was a biological impossibility for it to break through the flexiglass, and the conclusion was drawn that the cage had been sabotaged. They informed me that this cell was completely free of sabotage. I was led down there to converse with the creature and find out as much as I could about it. It had been asking for me. It somehow knew that I had seen things like it before.
I arrived in a rather large room, partitioned down the middle by a thick wall of steel glass. The creature was uncooperative, and I arranged a deal that we would take turns asking questions. Neither one of us found out very much, until I speculated that I was most likely the one most responsible for its current state, apart from its race, and contained by us. The next bit sounded something like this:
“BRAINLESS HATCHLING, YOU SEAL YOUR DOOM!”
*crack*
*crash*
Locks unsealing. ETA 120 seconds. Dreadfully sorry.
“No, wait – "
This story is continued in the thread for my new world, entitled
Whatever the solution to the sergeant problem was, it earned Paul an intensity on his Persuasion, bringing it to 2@3. Well done, Slytherin, well done Slytherin; however . . .
And it wasn't so much that you dropped tennis as that they stopping scaling up your exercises; they were concerned that any benefit you could derive from accelerated physical training would be offset by negative impact on your growth and development. (This was particularly a concern because during the over three years you spent in China, you never grew an inch. You still look fourteen.)
Improved attributes:
Persuation 2@3 (Psi BRA)
Strength 1@10
Stamina 1@10
Agility 1@10
Hand/Eye 1@10
Ed Level 2@4 (Tech BRA)
Willpower 1@10
MSV 1@9
RSV 1@9
TV 1@6
DV 1@7
__
New skills:
Tech (12@2)
1@1 Identify Alien Information Molecule T12@1 W2
1@1 Import Genetic Material T12@2 W2
2@7 Biology T14@0 (Pre-Xeno) W2
2@9 Organic Chemistry T14@0 (Pre-Xeno) W2
2@7 Genetics T14@0 W2
2@5 Math Theory T14@0 W2
Mag (1@0)
1@3 History of China (all) M0@1 W2
Psi (0@1)
2@2 Chinese P0@0 W2
1@1 German P0@0 W2
1@2 Russian P0@0 W2
1@4 Decipher foreign scientific journal P0@0 W2
New Equipment:
Red shirt, black slacks, black shoes (W2)
Earbud (from BatSat) (W2)
Pocter (W2)