blogombal 602. All there is to know, 3
602. All there is to know, 3
(Rose)It took days for Nokaranlık to recover from her trauma of knowledge.
We decided to stay a while longer there. Until either this computer or the power station dies. We’ll use them to teach as much as possible to Nok until the end. The more she can learn the better.
Nokaranlık learns to use the network library first and from there, everything.
Even if but one percent of the network remains, it’s still an incredibly huge library.
My lessons for reading and writing begin to bear fruits.
She begins to understand the power of letters and numbers is far greater than she could guess.
While Blume or I help her in her learnings, the other one goes elsewhere in the city to scavenge goods and food. We also keep an eye for a boat.
~
From one topic she finds an interest in to another, Nok now reads, watches and hears, all day and long into the night, until her brain fries.
I help her refocus and learn in depth, relatively, what she sees. Blume knows more about the recent past and helps her see different perspectives on these topics.
Between this computer learning and the lessons I add, in all matters of mathematics and natural philosophy, Nok gets swamped and exhausted.
She learns goodness lots, but becomes truly tired and moody in a matter of weeks.
After her first big and earnest childish fuss, I finally understood she needed a time for rest, longer than mere sleep.
She had shoved the computer away with spite, damaging it. I didn’t get mad. It hit me I had been pushing her to an unreasonable rhythm of studying.
I soothed her and tasked Blume to cook something sweet for dinner. Then we went for a day out in the quiet town Nok and I together.
~
We ventured through the streets overrun by herbs, shrubs and moss. Trees even.
I’m getting used to that simple depiction for there is now little difference between each and every city in this condition to me.
But Nokaranlık still has a young eye and sees a city very different to the previous ones.
The nature is different. The city was different. The age is different. The way nature returned and where is different. The amount of progress it made is always different.
I see another city in ruins like many before. She can’t even see how this city could be considered as similar to the other ones she’s known. They’re too different.
As I see her eating balls of moss that grew purple over some trees and walls, I feel bad for how I’ve treated her lately.
It’s always a difficult balance to find, between being human and being a daiûa, or whatever she is. Between nature and culture. She can learn as a human adult, a modern human even, looking at a computer. But she’s more at ease and meant for field learning, without a roof over her head.
She wants to learn with her eyes and ears yes, but also at least as much with her fingers and her mouth. Which I denied her lately, forcing longer hours she isn’t ready for.
Now that I realise it, remembering her age, and seeing her overjoyed with this day and time out, I let her go wild and run around freely.
R - Bring me twenty different colours!
Her eyes shine like rarely. She runs around with overflowing enthusiasm now. I see her beginning to collect random junk, plant or rock, so long as it harbours a nice hue. She enjoys this game far more than everything new she discovered and learnt yesterday from screen and papers.
Sooner than I would have guessed, she pours onto my lap a pile of treasures.
Small pebbles, pieces of metallic structure, another ball of moss, bark, leaves, a strap of iridescent leather, and so on.
I congratulate warmly my cat or dog, ever so proud of her hunt. I am too. She’s smart and agile.
We separate the moss from the lump of tree bark it had moved toward and begun anchoring itself to. It’s possibly more an animal than a plant.
We pluck a few more of them. Nok was drooling, so we’ll try to cook more of them.
~
While the purple balls of moss rummage in their bag with the lumps of tree bark we’ve given them, we move deeper into the old city.
A building with an unusual architecture catches my eye. It’s too early for Nokarlık to notice anything like that. They all look great and unique.
We go toward my instinct. Doors have long fallen.
The first hallways are wide and empty. But then, I was right. It’s a museum.
Tapestries are long gone. About anything and everything here has turned to mush. But here and there, things to look at still catch your eyes.
I find an ornate necklace in gold, still shiny. Before I leave it there, I let Nok have a bite. She understands it’s metal and not plastic. Not edible thus.
Further away we find some old weapons on display. Revolvers from the time they had only one round bullet. Spanish swords, I think.
It’s closer to what I’m used to.
I have Nokarlık helping me grab some of them in height.
The steel isn’t good. Maybe they’re just replicas or just cheap. I can tell from the way they behave.
While I’m trying them, to see if I will keep one, Nokarlık imitates me, curious.
I vocalise some of my reasoning over why I discard most of the weapons here. They’re fragile or soft, unfit for tough work. But I have a glimpse of a future that doesn’t make me smile while speaking to her.
Nok standing there, a sword in each hand, without me nor Blume by her sides...
One day, someday, Nok will need to defend herself alone. And this thought makes me shiver.
Although her body holds unimaginable strength and power, maybe will come a day where a sword would be better to save her, or even her only good option.
I’m already teaching her to hunt with a bow as best I can.
I’m also teaching her knowledge from the past. The purpose isn’t that different.
I want her to be happy for as many possible years to come. But as Italians used to say, if you’re a wise prince, you should also prepare...
R - ... Chose a sword you like, and keep it.
Nok seems happy as if I’d given her an innocent gift. I feel slightly murkier than that, but I will use that joy the right way.
This, I will make a game for her right from the start.
~