one. - cavemen discovering technology

[kingdomsgambit]

[ He turns VIDEO on and... oh... that is like a tiny mirror. Okay. There's some breathing and the feed catches the ceiling. ]

[ What does this button do? ]

[ TEXT. It turns into the magical paper the young Dave used. ]

[ OKAY. What if he toggled between -- oh that works. He's going to toggle between the two options really fast now. ]

[ click click click click click click click click click click click click click click click ]

[ WOW THAT'S REALLY GREAT. ]

[ ok bored now. ]

[ He switches to TEXT. ]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasl'g;sla';hlja;oigwoueg;lmregk
klf;dk'ffgn;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;safkas'glaslg';salg
lf;as'lgoepwhgjvip0rgepkgpo;kw;gkdddddddddddaflkas;gk
re;goltkm[05im;akg286yt9pjfpo2j3g
kpfsaoiofauffs

Comments

[fracturedsoul]

...Hello?

[kingdomsgambit]

[ WHOA WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. ]

[ IT JUST POPPED UP WITH NO WARNING. ]

[ he didn't fall off his bed or anything what made you think that ]

[ what black magic is this ]

[ the magic mirror -- or the "Pee Dee Ey" -- suddenly wants to converse with him ]

[ He tries to respond to it in voice, but nothing happens. ]

[ Perhaps he is also supposed to use the text? ]

yes, hello, spirit within.
i am not feeling this color. excuse me.
hello.
Hello.

[fracturedsoul]

You know, you are incredibly lucky I don't feel like fucking with you, because you make it way too easy.
Let me guess. You come from some backwater time period where even this sort of technology is on par with flying cars and jetpacks.
Never seen a computer before at all?

[kingdomsgambit]

You are messaging me all these words but they are not making sense at all, so I will assumethey are part of this city's bizarre colloquial language.

If this handheld magical devicethat Sir David made me buy is a "compter", then no.
confound it how do I erase my mistakes

[fracturedsoul]

Backspace key to fix typos. It's the one with the <-- symbol on it. Use the arrow keys to navigate the cursor -- the blinky thing at the end of your text -- so you can insert spaces or other characters you might have missed at first.

And yeah, it's a computer, albeit a small, handheld one.

So you're acquainted with my new roommate. Introductions are in order, then. My name is Dirk Strider, and to set the record straight, I don't live in your PDA. I'm a human being communicating remotely via this device.

[kingdomsgambit]

Oh, thank you. That's much better.

What are "computers"? A type of fast messaging device?

Strider? Ah, yes, Jake mentioned you, if only to ask me if you were related to Sir David from where I came from. I am John Peixes, King of Prospit. It's nice to meet you, Mr Strider.

That's a relief. I thought I had angered the fair people because I tampered with magical forces beyond my control.
Silly as that may sound to you, fairies are no laughing matter.

[fracturedsoul]

Yeah, that's more or less what they are. To get into the details would take way too long and I don't really feel like giving you all the necessary background you'd need to fully grasp the subtle nuances.

Nice to meet you too, and holy shit, wow. There are so many things wrong with that introduction I don't even know where to start, but let's skip over that. Am I related to Sir David where you come from? Don't leave me in suspense here.

Nah, it doesn't sound silly. People come from different worlds with different rules. I'd be pretty dumb not to have figured that out already.

[kingdomsgambit]

I ought to look for a book about that.

Possibly? I forgot to ask. I'm sure he had a brother.

Smart kid.

[fracturedsoul]

Good plan. Maybe have a talk with the computer science teacher if you're here at Fortitude. He knows his stuff.

That sure is interesting. Alternate universes really shouldn't work out so neatly like that. Statistically, the probability of multiple people being born with such similar names, appearances, and relations to one another in radically different universes is so ridiculously low it's not even worth calculating. You set the limbo bar that low, all you're gonna wind up with is broken backs.

And yeah. I know.

[kingdomsgambit]

Who is this science teacher?

Well, to be fair, my brother Sir Jake Egbert is suddenly Jake English here and it turns out we're not related at all.
I checked the list, and my alternate universe counterpart seems to be "John Egbert" too.
Really, I don't believe the translation was that neat.

[fracturedsoul]

Name's Alex Furest. He's over in the Pale dorm.

No, it doesn't seem to be a direct one-to-one correspondence, but the discrepancies make it all the more interesting.
For example, consider that Prospit is the name of a kingdom I'm aware of, albeit not one ruled by human beings.
In this case it seems more like the people from my world were recast into what look like fairy tale roles, if your position as a king and Sir David's as a knight are anything to go by.

Which is even more unlikely than, say, everyone living the same lives in the modern age with just a few tweaks done to history.

[ Homestuck kids: Way too genre-savvy. ]

[kingdomsgambit]

I see.

I suppose you do make a fair point.
It does sound rather fairy tale-ish.
I'm assuming this place is the modern age?

[fracturedsoul]

For some of the people here, yeah. It's a bit outdated compared to what I'm used to.
I guess that was an unfair term to use, considering how that's going to be different for everyone.

[kingdomsgambit]

Outdated?
So you're far into the future?
That's remarkable.
What's the future like?

[fracturedsoul]

Futuristic, full of technology that would make you shit your pants, and very, very wet.

It's pretty dull, really.

[kingdomsgambit]

Is it? Huh.
I would assume the future was a lot more interesting with carriages that aren't pulled by horses and -- oh, perhaps messaging devices that connect to your brain in a sort of pod.
It would be a lot cleaner and the people would be less violent.
I suppose that was expecting too much.

[fracturedsoul]

I'm sure it would be more interesting from the point of view of someone who hadn't grown up surrounded by all of that. As it is, it's no more special to me than your time period is to you.

Furthermore, considering the fact that we come not only from differing time periods but also alternate universes altogether, the state of my world in the twenty-fifth century may have no bearing on what yours will be like when it reaches that era.

We had brain-connecting messaging devices centuries ago, though. So there's that.

[kingdomsgambit]

That's a fair point.
Well, thank you, Dirk.
You've been a very helpful young man.