entranceway | video } crash sites keep me up at night impact division it splits in two

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video } crash sites keep me up at night impact division it splits in two

[There's a teenage boy staring at the camera for just a fraction too long before he starts to speak. Ed's a smart kid, and while he doesn't have any kind of phone remotely like this back home, he figured out how to use it pretty quickly. Still, he's done a lot more listening and watching and reading than actually communicating with other people through it. He wants to make sure he understands it fully before he uses it.

But he's ready now. Once he's satisfied that it's recording, he nods, then sits back.]

Hi. I'm Edward Elric. I'm an Alchemist. But from what I've heard, that doesn't mean anything to most of you. But even if you don't have alchemy, you do have science, right? What do the scientists of your worlds study?

[There, question posed successfully. He's mastered this fascinating device. He turns it off, and waits for people to reply.]

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Typically they're about the size of a television set to sit up on one's desk, if not larger dependin' on what kind of work one might be doin' with them. As a result, it doesn't make them easy to transport for people who work in multiple locations, and often requires savin' your data onto a floppy disk or somethin' otherwise more convenient and takin' that with you instead.

[Hence, the reason why it would be considered more convenient to build and market a computer that could be used on the go.]

A... television? Floppy disk?

[Ed still looks a little lost. But also very interested.]

[... He really should have seen that coming, in all honesty.]

A television is a box that, with electricity and good reception, can be used to transmit and receive moving images. It's often used for watchin' the news or some kind of entertainment, dependin' on what you're interested in.

[And now while he's talking, there's a momentary movement here that involves grabbing some paper and sketching the TV in question, an old fashion 80's one that's got the antennas sticking up from the top. He also draws a floppy disk as a reference too when he holds up the paper for Ed to look at.]

And this is the floppy disk I was talkin' about: you stick it on into a computer, and it will copy information and data from it onto the disk for you.

Like a radio for movies! [Ed nods. These are new concepts, but he's a quick study.]

I definitely want to learn more about computers. They sound so useful.

That's the general idea, yeah. And given how many of us are familiar with 'em, I reckon you should be able to learn a fair amount about the subject while you're here.

[Heck, Fiddleford wouldn't mind showing him one but he still has to re-draw the blueprints from his old laptop and see how feasible it would be to build it here.]

I expect I will. I just wish I could be certain of holding on to the knowledge so I could bring it back with me when i get out of here.

Some of us are workin' on findin' ways to keep our memories intact when we're finally able to saddle up and head on home, but it ain't easy. Plus there's the things that happen because of our memories of home while we're here and so far none of those have been too pretty.

The Events, yes. I've experienced one already. [He sure didn't enjoy it.]

Oh good, then we can skip over explainin' that unpleasantness.

[Thank god for that, because the less said about them the better, really.]

They happen every few weeks, right?

Yes, that's right. Though usually there's some kind'a warnin' a few days beforehand, but rarely does anyone actually know what's gonna happen until it happens.

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