Season 1, Episode 4 - The Microwave XI - "Sukiyaki"

The Church of Saint Anthony of Kiev was one of the many churches in Narragansett, sitting a few blocks away from the border crossing out of Elizabeth Pond to its east, a few elevated rail stations away from Audrey’s apartment to its west. Built a little less than half a century ago by the first Eastern European immigrants as storm clouds darkened over Europe, the church looked like a humbler version of the Polish Cathedral style that marked so many places of worship across the northern former United States. A single tall bell tower stood imposingly above a brown-bricked main building that barely reached half its height.

Inside the church on this fine Sunday morning, there were thirty-odd wooden pews leading up the altar and podium at the front of the church, where the priest, a tall old man named Rufus, would shortly begin his preaching for the day. Audrey arrived at her familiar pew, the one she always sat in – a row right in the middle, in the center of everything, the entire church around her, because that’s how it should be. As she arrived at the pew, Audrey knelt and made the usual hand motions before taking her seat.

Esther herself wasn’t too familiar with the customs of the church, so she simply slid in next to her older sister. Audrey pulled down the little kneeling bar and took her position on it, her hands grasped together on the back of the pew in front of her. Esther, a little clumsily, joined her in that.

“What do you think?” Audrey asked.

Esther looked around. Back home in Salem Slot, Esther never went to church with Audrey - come to think of it, Esther never really went anywhere with her sister in general - so everything in the church felt new and perhaps uncomfortably unfamiliar to her. The first thing that struck out to her were the huge glass stained glass windows, full of colors, depicting what must have been various religion scenes from across the centuries. They were good depictions, don’t get her wrong, but Esther favored the solid lines and realistic paintings of the 19th century Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to the overly-emotional and somewhat abstract stained glass.

Her next impression was just how many people were in the church. There must have been at least a hundred already, with dozens more trickling in as the start time of morning ceremony approached. The people in there were dressed in their Sunday finest, tall men and little children, old women and girls similar in age to the Adzinokis. Seeing a girl dressed in a subdued indigo blue dress made Esther feel a little self-conscious about the fact that ninety-two percent of her wardrobe consisted of identical school uniforms, much like the one she wore right now. Nobody seemed to mind, though. There were a few odd stares, but nothing malicious.

Audrey waved to a few other church-goers as they passed by and smiled as she received several waves in return.

“There’s many people here,” Esther said. “I don’t do that well in crowds.”

“It’s alright,” Audrey said. “Nobody here’s mean. They’re just people, you know? Just like us. And this isn’t even the biggest church! Most people coming out of Eastern Europe are the mainstream denomination. This is a decent-sized church for our sect, but think of the crowds in those big ones!”

A girl in a plain skirt entered their pew and sat next to Audrey.

“Oksana!” Audrey greeted, giving her a hug.

Oksana looked at her.

“...”

“Ah, you guys haven’t met!” Audrey realized. “Oksana, this is my sister, Esther. Esther, this is Oksana. She’s my classmate at school. Her parents were part of the Eastern European diaspora too.”

The two girls quietly greeted each other.

Esther, of course, already recognized her from her file at the Academy as Oksana Nazarov, a Class 3 user who’s unique power involved the manipulation of snakes. Oksana performed decently academics-wise and would probably be assigned to the Special Operations path at the Presidential War College.

But a file can’t tell you everything about a person. The file suggested things about her personality – introverted and maybe a little cold. But now, seeing her face to face, listening as Audrey chatted away, Esther realized that Oksana seemed quiet almost to the point of muteness, her voice and body language subdued and withdrawn. She had mousy brown hair cut a little short and a perpetual neutral expression on her face.

Esther watched as Oksana joined the sisters in kneeling. “Oksana, if you don’t mind me asking...” Esther said. “Um, I know Audrey goes to the church because she believes in it. So, um, why do you go to church?”

From where she knelt, Oksana gazed upward at the large golden symbol above the altar up front.

“I believe too.”

“Ah...”

Audrey patted Esther on the back. “Everyone has to believe in something, Esther. Otherwise, how would we get through the day? Isaac believes in his principles and duty, I believe in being nice to people and how we’re all connected and in God. I’m not saying it has to be religion, but it has to be something.”

Upon hearing her sister’s words, the first things Esther thought of was Mr. Stockham and the system he created and would continue to create.

“I think I believe in something too,” Esther realized.

“See? You gotta believe in something bigger than yourself!” Audrey exclaimed.

Esther’s mind always took things to their next, logical step. She thought of the philosophical consequences of Audrey’s words.

“But Sis...that could be a little dangerous, too. Believing in things bigger than yourself. What if you believe in a dangerous movement or an exploitative case of social engineering?”

“I don’t know what social engineering is, or what normal engineering is, but I do know that...well, I don’t know.” Audrey shrugged and smiled. “I’m not a philosopher. I guess just make sure what you believe in makes more people happy than it makes sad.”

“Sis...that’s utilitarianism, and that also could be dangerous. Would you be willing to be one who walks away from Omelas?”

“Hmm, I guess it would depend on how far of a walk it would be,” Audrey answered, not understanding Esther’s reference to classic literature. “If that’s dangerous, I’ll try to fix my definition thing. I’d say to believe in something bigger than yourself...well, what do you think Oksana?”

“...”

“Yeah, I see what you mean," Audrey supposed. "It’s tough to make a definition that satisfies everyone.”

“Ah, I’m sorry Sis, I didn’t mean to cause you trouble here.”

“It’s alright,” Audrey said, grinning. “Thinking’s good. Isaac and Reed seem to do a lot of thinking, so I guess somewhere along the way I have to learn how to think good too.” She looked at the cross and thought deeply. “I’d say...believe in something nice and pleasant. That makes you feel good. That doesn’t hurt people. Like me going home to pray, that’s something bigger than myself and doesn’t hurt anybody. Or like one of those people who believe there are spirits in trees and rivers and stuff. I don’t think that hurts anyone either.”

Esther smiled. “I like that answer, Sis.”

The sight of Father Rufus walking across the stage quieted their conversation. Quieted the whole church, for that matter. Rufus was an old man with greying hair, dressed in white robes. He adjusted the microphone and smiled to the crowd.

“In the name of the Three Above," he began.

"Let it be so,” the crowd answered back. Well, not Esther, because she didn’t know, but Audrey and even Oksana (at a very low decibel) joined in.

“The Three be with you,” Rufus said.

“And with you as well,” everyone – sans Esther again – answered.

The priest smiled. “Good morning, everyone. Today’s a very special day...”

After about of an hour of observation, Esther realized that the morning ceremony was approaching its conclusion. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but at the part when Audrey and Oksana left her to shake hands with Father Rufus and his acolytes at the height of the ceremony, Esther felt...incredibly lonely. Almost everyone around went up to see the priest. But Esther sat alone among the empty pews. It only took about a minute for the first people in line to make their way back to their pews, but still. The minute felt much longer than a minute, sitting there by herself.

The same thing happened when everyone shook hands with each other afterwards upon returning to their seats. Audrey, of course, was in her element when it came to greeting others. Even Oksana could do it. But Esther felt uncomfortable during the whole process, just wanting it to end, but by the time it did end, Esther realized her sister, with that big grin on her face, stood at the heart of a vast, friendly web of social connections and friends, while Esther herself...

When the final hands were shook and the final verse preached, Father Rufus offered one final prayer and smiled. “Alright, everyone, take care and be kind to one another. And remember, basketball season starts tonight. Go West Narragansett College!”

With that, the ceremony ended for the day. Audrey, Esther, and Oksana joined the crowd on their way out. Now surrounded by people, Esther felt overwhelmed.

I wish I could make up my mind, she thought. She got too nervous with crowds. She had spent most her life alone and it never bothered her. But for some reason, when the current semester started, that particular feeling the psychology journals referred to as loneliness increasingly crept on her. Esther decided she would take a scientific look at it once she returned home tonight.

The three arrived outside, stepping aside from the crowd in a small courtyard next to the church. Audrey basked in the autumn air and sun, while Oksana stood mutely.

Audrey smiled at Oksana. “Me and Esther are going be hanging around at my place today if you want to come by!”

Oksana shook her head slowly. “I like to take walks after the ceremony,” she said, her voice almost as soft as a whisper.

Audrey nodded. “Sounds fun! Well, see you in school tomorrow!”

As Audrey waved goodbye, Oksana looked away, up at the sky. On the horizon there were a few incoming clouds.

“You should stay in today,” she said. “It looks like it’s going to rain.”

With that, she answered Audrey’s wave with a small one of her own, then headed off down the sidewalk of a main avenue, disappearing into the crowd of pedestrians.

“According to our meteorologist charts, there’s only an eleven percent chance of rain today,” Esther said as the two walked in the opposite direction, towards the station.

“Maybe Oksana rounded up,” Audrey joked.

Esther giggled, then realized she had a question she'd been wanting to ask since last Friday night, when she watched a spirited argument between Isaac and Reed about particular pieces of media she didn't know the names to.

“Um, Sis, completely unrelated, but there’s something I don’t understand.”

Audrey grinned. “Something you don’t understand?”

Esther grew red. “Why do you and your friends only consume late 20th and early 21st century works?”

“Huh?”

Esther tried to explain her thoughts. “It seems like everyone I know primarily consumes pre-Unleashing media. It just surprises me to see the amount of works from over 200 years ago that are still popular with today’s youth.”

They walked along a raised pedestrian bridge, a few cars passing by on the street below them. They stopped for a moment - well, Audrey stopped the two of them, since she always enjoyed the view, the way the trees lined the center of the avenue, the sun shining on people carrying out their daily lives.

“Ah, I see.” Audrey raised a finger, clearly relishing the rare chance to teach her sister something. “They call it a cultural stasis.”

“Ah, I’ve heard of that theory from the recent Journal of Modern Cultural Studies. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to read the article.”

The two returned to walking. “Well, let your dear elder sister summarize it for you," Audrey continued. "The era between World War II and the Unleashing was the Golden Age of...well, everything, but especially media. Worldwide, censorship was lifted and creators were free to explore whatever stories they wanted. There were thousands of movies and television shows and books and albums released every year...with essentially no restrictions! Imagine that, Esther! There was a time without government censorship! How lucky they were.”

“I suppose that would allow for a lot of creative freedom.”

Audrey waved her arms excitedly. “And that’s just the big things! The last few decades of the Golden Age saw a ton of technological advances that made it possible for literally anyone to produce anything they wanted! Just imagine, Esther! Everyone carried little cameras around and they could make movies with 'em, just like that! And they had those computer things where anyone could make music and write books! I don’t know how it worked, but really, anyone could do it. You could just go on your computer and write a story and people would see it! Just like that! Most of humanity having the ability to freely express themselves to a mass audience...I love the present, Esther, I really do, but there are moments I really do feel like we’re missing out on something great by being born 200 years too late. The sheer creativity and possibilities. Anyone could do anything back then!”

As they descended down the stairs of the pedestrian bridge, Audrey spotted two military trucks traveling down the avenue, uniformed soldiers sitting in the truck beds, rifles slung around their soldiers. "And nowadays...well, I bet it'll work out for everyone."

Esther gazed at the clouds. “Fortunately, it seems like humanity has the innate ability to build and rebuild. Ancient Rome, Chinese dynasties, the post-World War II world...maybe this current rebuild will be the one that finally lasts forever. Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll live to see it.”

Audrey slapped her sister on the back. “Ah well, they say the current time is a gift, that’s why they call it the present!”

“Actually, they call it that because the word ‘present’ is descended from the Latin term ‘praesent’, which means ‘being at hand.’”

“See? Even the Romans knew the joy of living in the moment.”

Esther giggled. “I suppose that’s true, Sis.”

They arrived at the station.