1 [@necromantica:video]

[burntbridges]

[Letha's confusion over this new technology is clear from the first moment of the video. She's turned on the camera facing away from her, showing her desk full of neatly organized piles of paper, all forms with neat cursive scrawled across them. The angle is skewed, camera shaky, and she keeps moving it as she tries to figure out the device.]

There's absolutely nothing like this in my world...

[Sure, she'd tried very hard to follow the orientation instructions, but she's handling it much like a grandmother with her first smartphone. She finally gets it turned around, but that just gives viewers a worm's eye view of her shocked face as she sees the unflattering angle and turns it back around to her desk.]

If only I could write on these, it would be so much simpler. Well, anyway. Can anyone hear me? I thought it might be prudent to contact this 'network'... and see if anyone who understands these... inventions better than me could lend me a hand.

[Go easy on her, she's never even seen a telephone or typewriter before.]

Comments

[burntbridges]

[Cecelia's comments confuse Letha as much as she's confusing Cecelia. She follows as best as she can, but... she decides her own questions can wait until after she's explained her world.]

We bury them in the ground too. Two feet under, so that they don't stink up the place but we can still speak to them easily. The members of my family are given nice coffins in case they have to be dug up, but the servants are buried without one so we may raise them if the living servants are busy.

[inthemoonlight]

Oh, my.

[ She's not exactly queasy, but what unpleasant conversation! She should probably change the topic. That would be the smart thing to do. ]

You employ the services of deceased servants?

[ Apparently no rest for the weary... ]

[burntbridges]

We employ the living and the dead - they both have their ups and downs. Personally, I think the dead make better conversational partners than servants, but... well, maybe I can show you a risen at some point. You might change your mind when you see one yourself.

[She can tell Cecelia isn't exactly enjoying the conversation. She purses her lips before changing the topic herself.]

Tell me about Heaven, how do you know about it if you've never seen it?

[inthemoonlight]

[ She's hardly sure what she'd think of a "risen," or even if she wants to see one, but thankfully the topic is changed because she can't say for sure if she would decline or not. ]

Oh, Christianity is based on faith. A great deal of it has to do with believing in the teachings in the Bible. But after we die, if we have not sinned, we shed our Earthly burdens and ascend to Heaven for eternity.

[burntbridges]

How could one be sure they have not committed any sins, if you have no proof of anyone successfully ascending? It seems like an awfully faulty system.

[inthemoonlight]

Well, we know what are sins and what are not. As for proof, hmm. Look at it this way: if there is no God and no Heaven, and you do not believe, then when you die, nothing happens. But if there is a God, and you did not believe, you would not be permitted into Heaven. If you do believe, but there is nothing, then when you die, you would not exist any longer to know you were wrong. Therefore, it is of no harm to believe, in case God exists. Do you see?

[burntbridges]

Well, by that logic it would be just as probable that some other god exists, who you are angering by believing in your god. Perhaps by believing you are dooming yourself to an eternity of hell.

[Her world has Christians, but her family has almost no direct contact with them... the word 'hell' made it through to her language more easily than 'heaven'.]

[inthemoonlight]

[ Cecelia chuckles. ]

Perhaps. There are various other religions besides Christianity. And of course we Christians believe we have the right of it, while they believe they have the right of it. But that is what faith is all about. We believe in all this, and we shan't know who is right and wrong until Judgment Day. One must choose something to believe in, or chose nothing at all.

[burntbridges]

I can't imagine such a fruitless life, believing in things I've never seen. I'm much happier knowing exactly what's waiting for me when I die.

[Although... things didn't go exactly as she planned when she died, but that's beside the point.]

[inthemoonlight]

Well! No need to pity me too much, Mrs Regis. I assure you we get on quite well at home with what we have.