Western Ways of Knowing
- Location
- Ottawa
- Pronouns
- She/Her/Whatever
"So what's your plan?" Athena asked
"I'm going to hang out outside his window and take over all his shit, take a look through to make sure I'm not just randomly attacking some dude because the SSR said so, and figure it out from there." you said. "I know they want him so they can pick up his friends, but my main concern is getting whatever it is that he stole so that people don't get laser murdered."
Athena had, of course, helped herself to a vast amount of SSR data in the time she'd spent in their systems, and you'd read up on Wakanda and whoa boy. Practically nothing was known about their culture, economy, or politics, but their foreign policy was a staunch isolationism enforced with technology that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. The current theory was that the country was built around a crashed alien spacecraft or something, and that they had some kind of cloaking field over the entire country to hide it from view. When you checked the coordinates on Google Maps, it sure just did look like an underdeveloped part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their rules were simple: you cross the line they put in the sand, you die. You mess with their agents abroad, you die. You try to smuggle their technology, you die. Everything the SSR had seen indicated they had the technology to back up that threat and more.
The current cover story was that the area was so full of landmines it was impassible, but the SSR had interviewed people who lived on the periphery of it who knew the story was bullshit but were fucking terrified of saying anything else. When you thought about it, you sort of went back and forth on if their isolation was totally understandable given the last few centuries of African history, or if they were jerks for ignoring it all and hiding away with their fancy toys. You were way to white to make that judgement.
"Right. And you don't want to study the super secret awesome technology or anything in the brief time you have it." Athena said.
"I never said that. Of course I'm going to study it. It's probably going to be really cool." you said. Even if you only had it for twenty minutes or so, you could do a lot of understanding in twenty minutes. Took you about eight hours to build a better arc reactor, after all.
You landed on the side of the hotel and started moving down the wall, looking for a wifi signal. There we go. Took you a few seconds to get the guest list and find a room, and then you were off.
"... honest question, would that be cultural appropriation?" Athena asked, as you rounded the top of the roof and headed down toward your target balcony.
"I... don't think so? Like, if I rebuild it and then claim I invented it without help, I think then it might be, but just studying it?" you said, very unsure.
"It's that book you were reading though, the stuff about Western ways of knowing and stuff?" Athena said. She hadn't read the book herself and sort of only had a second-hand read of it, as you'd picked the book up from a used bookstore (Peggy's Books!) and she'd not been able to find an online copy. "You think this might be, like... commodifying the sacred?"
"Well, I'm not going to sell it. And furthermore, like... isn't treating African supertechnology like it has to be some kind of sacred ritual, when we don't do that for other stuff, a form of Orientalism? Like, we studied the hell out of Thor's hammer, was that only okay because it's a Norse thing and they're white?" you pointed out.
"I honestly don't know."
"Fuck." you said, resting just outside the hotel window. Smart TV, his phone (burner), his watch (used), his smart-glass, all of them surrendered their secrets, and all of them were boring. Recently purchased or purged, a man on the move with few connections. You could feel him moving around through the kinetic sensor on his watch, back and forth inside the room, pacing. Nervous.
And in the middle of the room was something your tech-sense had never felt before. Something tasty.
"Damn, this guy's wound up, huh?" you muttered, "I'm thinking maybe I should talk to him before I do any swinging or anything. I can make sure his phone doesn't send any panic signals and, you know, try to have a conversation."
"What if he has a gun, Liv?" Athena pointed out. The simpler objects got, the less control you had, and electricity seemed to be a big component, but it wasn't absolute. Your power seemed to find connection almost in the primordial concept of technology: you'd felt the pistons on combustion motors work and you're pretty sure you managed to mentally induce a jam in a mobster's pistol once, though it might have been a coincidence.
"Then I web it out of his hand, or dodge it, or he shoots me and the silk stops it and I have a really big bruise tomorrow. I'll be fine." you said.
"... I think I'd feel safer if you took him by surprise."
---
"I'm going to hang out outside his window and take over all his shit, take a look through to make sure I'm not just randomly attacking some dude because the SSR said so, and figure it out from there." you said. "I know they want him so they can pick up his friends, but my main concern is getting whatever it is that he stole so that people don't get laser murdered."
Athena had, of course, helped herself to a vast amount of SSR data in the time she'd spent in their systems, and you'd read up on Wakanda and whoa boy. Practically nothing was known about their culture, economy, or politics, but their foreign policy was a staunch isolationism enforced with technology that was both terrifying and awe-inspiring. The current theory was that the country was built around a crashed alien spacecraft or something, and that they had some kind of cloaking field over the entire country to hide it from view. When you checked the coordinates on Google Maps, it sure just did look like an underdeveloped part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Their rules were simple: you cross the line they put in the sand, you die. You mess with their agents abroad, you die. You try to smuggle their technology, you die. Everything the SSR had seen indicated they had the technology to back up that threat and more.
The current cover story was that the area was so full of landmines it was impassible, but the SSR had interviewed people who lived on the periphery of it who knew the story was bullshit but were fucking terrified of saying anything else. When you thought about it, you sort of went back and forth on if their isolation was totally understandable given the last few centuries of African history, or if they were jerks for ignoring it all and hiding away with their fancy toys. You were way to white to make that judgement.
"Right. And you don't want to study the super secret awesome technology or anything in the brief time you have it." Athena said.
"I never said that. Of course I'm going to study it. It's probably going to be really cool." you said. Even if you only had it for twenty minutes or so, you could do a lot of understanding in twenty minutes. Took you about eight hours to build a better arc reactor, after all.
You landed on the side of the hotel and started moving down the wall, looking for a wifi signal. There we go. Took you a few seconds to get the guest list and find a room, and then you were off.
"... honest question, would that be cultural appropriation?" Athena asked, as you rounded the top of the roof and headed down toward your target balcony.
"I... don't think so? Like, if I rebuild it and then claim I invented it without help, I think then it might be, but just studying it?" you said, very unsure.
"It's that book you were reading though, the stuff about Western ways of knowing and stuff?" Athena said. She hadn't read the book herself and sort of only had a second-hand read of it, as you'd picked the book up from a used bookstore (Peggy's Books!) and she'd not been able to find an online copy. "You think this might be, like... commodifying the sacred?"
"Well, I'm not going to sell it. And furthermore, like... isn't treating African supertechnology like it has to be some kind of sacred ritual, when we don't do that for other stuff, a form of Orientalism? Like, we studied the hell out of Thor's hammer, was that only okay because it's a Norse thing and they're white?" you pointed out.
"I honestly don't know."
"Fuck." you said, resting just outside the hotel window. Smart TV, his phone (burner), his watch (used), his smart-glass, all of them surrendered their secrets, and all of them were boring. Recently purchased or purged, a man on the move with few connections. You could feel him moving around through the kinetic sensor on his watch, back and forth inside the room, pacing. Nervous.
And in the middle of the room was something your tech-sense had never felt before. Something tasty.
"Damn, this guy's wound up, huh?" you muttered, "I'm thinking maybe I should talk to him before I do any swinging or anything. I can make sure his phone doesn't send any panic signals and, you know, try to have a conversation."
"What if he has a gun, Liv?" Athena pointed out. The simpler objects got, the less control you had, and electricity seemed to be a big component, but it wasn't absolute. Your power seemed to find connection almost in the primordial concept of technology: you'd felt the pistons on combustion motors work and you're pretty sure you managed to mentally induce a jam in a mobster's pistol once, though it might have been a coincidence.
"Then I web it out of his hand, or dodge it, or he shoots me and the silk stops it and I have a really big bruise tomorrow. I'll be fine." you said.
"... I think I'd feel safer if you took him by surprise."
---
What kind of hello is this?
[ ] The casual kind. Be friendly. Neighbourly. Spider-ly. See what his deal was.
[ ] The kind where you web first and ask questions later. Which is a thing you can do because webs aren't bullets.
[ ] Write In
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