video @nina

[neversmall]

[ You can make VIDEOS ON THIS THING.

Now that Nina knows this, no one is safe. Well, okay, not true, because she's still got to get the hang of it. You, the viewer, are once again treated to a vision of... the Aid Station wall.

Nina: "Where's the camera again?"
John, her long-suffering patient who isn't suffering as much as he is laughing at her: "On the corner, there."
Nina: "But that means I have to hold my wrist like--" Abruptly, the picture changes and now Nina's squarely in view, "--oh yes, you're right. That's a better idea."
John: "...so are you gonna say something or?"
Nina: "Oh Saints, is it recording already? Blast--"

Bright smile is go! ]

Hello, everyone! If we haven't met yet, I'm Nina Zenik.

There are so many of us here from so many different places. It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two months, and now more of us are coming. I’m not used to making announcements like this [ some noise from beside her, Nina looks toward John and corrects: ] -- or, posts? Apparently they’re called posts. -- but even some the Adament crew I’ve spoken to are interested in my questions, so they’ve assured me they don’t mind if I - post - with this.

So tell us - what’s it like where you’re from? What are the legends that are most popular? What are the courtship practices? [ She’s absolutely not crafting this whole post because she’s searching for ideas on this, nope. ] Are you one of those of us have been fighting a war -- excuse the question if it’s rude, there just do seem to be a lot of us. I’d ask you to talk about your favorite foods instead, but that might be more depressing than helpful. Oh - here’s one: If you’re from an Earth, how do you know it’s a different Earth than all the other Earths? And if not, does your planet have a name or is mine the only one that doesn't?

Comments

@A.Price

[cryptoherpetology]

It's nice to see you again, Nina. I hope Crow hasn't been bothering you too much on his daily rounds of the base camp.

I haven't been in a war in the official sense, but I was raised to expect one and/or the apocolypse. It made for some interesting spins on traditional childhood games with my siblings.

Courtship on my earth has become a fairly unstructured practice. I met my fiancee, Shelby, when we worked in different parts of the same zoo. Our relationship progress wasn't exactly traditional and involved a lot more life-threatening situations than most peoples' tend to, but I'm starting to notice that falling in love while almost dying seems to be something that isn't uncommon in hatchling and Adamant couples.

[neversmall]

[ Well, that's a good solid chunk of information. Nina brightens up, interested. ]

So you'd compare your growing up to living in training, then?

Courtship in my country is also relatively informal. But apparently some places have all sorts of steps. It makes me think that falling in love and courtship are two entirely different things.

[ The poor guy has a fiancee that he loves and who isn't here with him. That must be so difficult. ]

[cryptoherpetology]

Training to stay alive at the very least, even if we decided not to go into the family business. One of my sisters almost left cryptozoology for professional ballroom dance. The years she tried balancing the two were, from what I understand, pretty hectic.

[neversmall]

Your profession puts you in that much danger?

[ Why not then simply do something else, as your sister appeared to at least start? ]

[cryptoherpetology]

Technically, it's my bloodline that makes me a target. The work just adds insult to injury for the people who'd want to end it, since we've protected a lot of people and animals they hate more from us.

[neversmall]

That sounds very complicated, and like too long a story for these type of notes! Would you mind meeting up at some point and telling me more about what you mean? 🙋‍♀️

[cryptoherpetology]

Sure. I'm not teaching tomorrow, so I can pick up a couple extra hours in the aid station to make meeting up easier. [ And he's reliably unsqeamish with a good knowledge of anatomy, human and otherwise. Not a bad second pair of hands, thanks as much to his mother's training growing up as his day-job academics. ]

[neversmall]

Sounds good. We can always do with some extra hands in here. Thanks, Alex! 😀

[ And so she will be there, in her morning-to-early-afternoon shift. ]