An hour after the start of the Jaunt, asking important questions

[naturaltwohands]

... I suspect these questions may be on the minds of others, and it is on mine because it obvious differs much from the one of my childhood:

What is it like to attend a school? What should we know about it? What is expected of us? Are our studies canceled right now?

Comments

[naturaltwohands]

Unfortunately, yes. I have an identification card tied to the school and stating my year. You likely have one as well on your person.

[finalizes]

[Give him a minute or so...]

I have one.

[.......AND THEN ANOTHER ONE.

And then a sensory livestream, showing an ID card of Teikoku.

Should he be able to read this? Past his name, he can identify his name.]

[naturaltwohands]

[And then suddenly sensory livestreaming.]

You're with the Japanese school? So is Casper.

[Guess who can totally read that because translation magic.]

[finalizes]

[Sadly translation magic only lets him read up to a second-month-of-first-grade level, because that's where he is with his reading. And that's not enough to read a Japanese ID card.]

Most people there seem to be infiltrated.

[naturaltwohands]

[Welp. That's definitely a problem there.]

Well, that's unfortunate. I know we have people who are Japanese that are travelers, but if most of them have infiltrated... that will make it harder for you to ask questions. Most of my knowledge of Japanese culture centers around food.

[He pauses.]

I have friends who like to feed me.

[finalizes]

My last overlay lived in Japan.

[So he has a basic understanding of how living there works.]

But he was an adult and never went to school there. [All his school knowledge is derived from Bogdan. And he's not sure how representative that was.]

[naturaltwohands]

Ah. That is helpful.

[A sigh.]

I think I will just claim that I was taught independently before finally joining a school and not knowing anything about it.

[finalizes]

...Taught independently?

[He always assumed that all human cubs and yearlings had to attend school until halfway into adulthood. They talked about it often enough.

But if that is the case... It wouldn't be incorrect to claim that he has never attended a school before, explaining his confusion with it.]

[naturaltwohands]

My sister raised me until I was ten, and then I made a servant to my family until I was sixteen. This was followed by four wonderful years under my father's tutelage learning the art of fighting and finding out my favored weapons. Then, at twenty, I joined the school for fighters in my city for ten years before graduating to do patrols to keep the city safe from monsters, at thirty.

... It should help to note that I am normally a dark elf--a drow--and that we do not hit what you call puberty until 25. Things are a bit different when you are not considered an adult until 100, and when you people live and breathe evil, by and large. The schooling was not a pleasant experience.

[That's okay, Drizzt doesn't know anything at all about werewolves. Absolutely nothing. They probably just live among humans, right? Or something?]

[finalizes]

[...he has absolutely no idea what to respond to that.

So he simply goes with the next thing on the list.]

No, I mean - is having been taught independently a thing that a human of this world could have happen to them?

[naturaltwohands]

[Uhm. Yeah. Probably the best.]

... Oh.

[A flurry of embarrassment.]

I do not know. I am not human. Possibly?

[finalizes]

I never heard of it, but it would be useful.

[Laughs, home-schooled people still learn how to read and write.]

[naturaltwohands]

I have learned many things independently, and I know that humans do so on my world as well. Through books or apprenticeship.

[finalizes]

I will ask Casper about it.

[He's from a different place than Britain, but surely all humans are the same when it comes to schools, right?]

[naturaltwohands]

He would know far better than I; Casper has taught me much about the modern world since I've met him.