video;

[haikus]

You know, there are benefits to getting whisked off to another dimension. I didn't really think so at first, but... I'm coming around.

[here's Kasumi Yoko, strolling around the aisles of a musty looking little bookstore. every now and again she pulls a book from its shelf, flips through the pages briefly, and puts it back. the way she handles them is almost fond.]

The books don't cost you an arm and a leg here, for one.

[she picks another one off the shelf - Dracula, for the sharp-eyed.]

Of course, there's always the holos and vids if you're hard up for something to do on a Saturday night, but... it just isn't the same. Not like a real book. Pages and ink.

[a beat. wryly:]

Still not worth the small fortune you'd need to get your hands on one, but that's what we have alternate universes for.

[she adds Dracula to the growing stack under her arm, juggling the comm a few times between her hands to pull it off. in the end she manages a free hand to give the network a proper profile, and for those familiar with Kasumi Goto, this is a Japanese woman with short black hair, green eyes, and no lip tattoo. her voice is pitched just differently enough to not be immediately recognizable. she's unremarkable, almost to the point of being generic.

that's how she likes it.]

Oh, right. Yoko Okuda.

[throughout the whole thing, she's been kind of casually cheerful, and it doesn't change now - her mouth quirks into a small smile.]

I'm new.

Comments

permatext

[hawklike]

So do you have books where youre from.

[ that is a question btw ]

[haikus]

Don't you?

[hawklike]

I do but it sounds like theyre something new to you.

[voice]

[lastnerv]

Are they that hard to find where you're from?

[voice]

[haikus]

It depends on what you're looking for. They've got rows of sordid cross-pecies romance novels back on the Citadel, if that's your thing.

Now if you're looking for an Earth classic, that's where it gets... expensive.

[voice]

[lastnerv]

Oh. I take it you're from the future?

[voice]

[hollywoodhack]

Welcome to the City! I'm sorry you had to be abducted.

[pause]

If it's any consolation, there's a shop on 14th Street that says they've got something ridiculous like 7 miles worth of books. I've never, um, I've never brought anything to measure it, myself, but I've been here about a month and I still don't think I've made it through the entire thing.

[voice]

[haikus]

Really? I'll have to look into it.

It's too bad we can't take any of this stuff back with us when we 'port out. You could make a killing off of seven miles of books back in Citadel space.

[permavoice]

[hollywoodhack]

Books are uhh, really a big deal in your world, huh?

permatext

[pilfered]

dracula. fan of the classics?

[haikus]

You could say that.

The newer stuff can be alright, as long as you keep away from anything with "sordid" "thriller" or "politics" on the cover, but there's just something about the classics that makes them... special.

[pilfered]

agreed
i do have a fondness for older titles myself.

voice;

[excruciate]

[ Just. Laughter. ]

video;

[hacktivist]

Information committed solely to digital formats sounds an unpleasant prospect.

Welcome to the City, Yoko.

video;

[haikus]

[gurl lookit dat fancy suit]

It's a lot easier than hunting a physical copy down, I'll admit. And you wouldn't believe the shipping between star systems. But there's something concrete about a hard copy, something immutable. You can't hack a book.

Thank you. I have to admit, going back a century before I was born is... interesting, to say the least.

video;

[coolstorybrogan]

[He gets why she'd use an alias... Doesn't mean she's not getting a look from him.]

Yoko...

The audios are better.

video;

[haikus]

[and he gets the smallest knowing smile in return, though her tone is still as obliviously pleasant as ever.]

I need something to do with my hands. Or else I get... fidgety.

[futureleader]

That's because books cost writers an arm and leg to write them.

[haikus]

You'd think these would cost more than a couple creds, then.

[whoops, showing him the shitty harlequin romance novel aisle.]

video

[brutalsorrow]

I have found that humans have written quite an interesting variety of poetry. Much more than I have ever read on the extranet. Literature is an unexpected perk in this new reality.

[There's a brief pause, and she smiles. Just barely, the tiniest of smiles]

I wonder if there is a reason for your pseudonym, miss Okuda.

video

[haikus]

[and Kasumi returns the smile, pleasant.]

I was thinking of taking up writing.

[it turns sly.]

Maybe poetry.

[ voice ]

[excruciate]

Mmmm. Excellent taste in...ah, autobiography.

[ voice ]

[haikus]

Which one?

[there's a shifting sound, like she's glancing through her books.]

I didn't think I'd grabbed one.

(voice.)

[carbonite]

Another dimension or another galaxy?

(voice.)

[haikus]

Good question. I guess it depends on whether or not you've got a Mass Relay waiting out there.

[a beat.]

...Then again, I don't remember this part in the history books.