Oh Hello Again

[iamnotpolaris]

This isn't Emily's dorm room.
This is Milliways! Awesome.
"Hi, Bar," she says cheerfully. "Looks like I'm the first one in at the moment, huh?" she says, looking around at the otherwise-empty room.

Comments

[alicornucopia]

Of course. Do you have a preference for the inspirational dish?

[iamnotpolaris]

"Not pork. Or shellfish. Or anything else not kosher."

[middlingalong]

Of course not, agrees Bar, appearing a slab of spiced turkey with perfectly recognizable texture, aroma, and flavor, which simply happens to have corners.

"Anything else not what?" asks Ivan.

[iamnotpolaris]

"Kosher. I'm Jewish. Do spacefuture people not have Judaism anymore or is that just Barrayar too?"

[middlingalong]

"I don't know, I haven't actually heard of everything there has ever been. Bar, do we have Judaism?"

Not on Barrayar, but there are populations on several other planets and stations, exact populations depending on what is considered to constitute Judaism per se.

[iamnotpolaris]

"So we have some religious dietary restrictions, the most well-known of which is that we're not supposed to eat pork."

[middlingalong]

"I think I have heard of a religion that isn't supposed to eat pork."

You are more likely to have encountered this in the form of Islam and its offshoots.

"And that applies to magic or vat or both pork too?"

[iamnotpolaris]

"I don't know if it does, but since I've never eaten real pork it wouldn't be a good choice for comparing to the vat variety. Besides, I shouldn't like to get attached in case it turns out to be awesome."

[middlingalong]

"Eh, it's meat. It's a perfectly nice meat but I'd usually rather have beef."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Besides, better safe than sorry. I don't know that pork that's never been a pig isn't kosher, but I don't know that it is either. And it would be a little hard to check, too, given that it would involve trying to explain Milliways to a rabbi without proof."

[middlingalong]

"I imagine that could be awkward. I'm probably not going to tell anyone I was here."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I had to tell some people, because I brought home technology to reverse-engineer, but one of the perks of so many of one's nearest and dearest being telepaths is that it makes it much easier for them to believe your more fantastical truths."

[middlingalong]

"That's - probably easier than trying to construct an explanation, yep."

[iamnotpolaris]

"It really is. You haven't really understood how how inadequate language is until you've been discussing something with your telepathic best friend for hours and then you need to try to tell someone not a telepath how something smells."

[middlingalong]

...Ivan giggles.

[iamnotpolaris]

"I don't know how your language does, but late twentieth century English does not have a comprehensive vocabulary for dealing with odor."

[middlingalong]

"Neither does any language I know enough of to comment on."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I wonder why."

[middlingalong]

"Sort of hard to separate features of smells, isn't it? Except by comparison to specific things. If something's bready, I can just say that."

[iamnotpolaris]

"I suppose. But then, maybe it's hard to separate them because we don't have the words for it. I'd say that something bready smelled more like something musky than like something sweet, wouldn't you?"

[middlingalong]

"No, actually, I'd group bread closer to sweet."

[iamnotpolaris]

"Maybe it depends on the kind of bread. Or the kind of musk. Alas, due to the language barrier, we shall never know."

[middlingalong]

"Alas!"

[iamnotpolaris]

"So how are you liking Earth, while you're there? We haven't irreparably poisoned the atmosphere, I hope."

[middlingalong]

"It's quite breathable, no one has to live in arcologies. It's got an amazing moon. Noplace else has quite so nice a moon."