thenearshore | [Closed] World Inside the Crystal

[It would be quite impossible for Erk to look bummed out while surrounded by books, but he is certainly looking downward--at the thick, heavy text on Japanese history that he's managed to find. To his credit, though, he is trying to make a point of keeping an eye out for Kairi. He's seated himself facing the library's entrance, and he glances up and around as often as he thinks to.

...Which isn't all that often, to be honest, so he misses her when she first arrives. She'll probably spot him quickly enough, though; the red cloak and purple hair don't exactly blend in to the background.

It's an interesting book, okay.]

[When she does finally see him, she gets a smile on her face. She gives him credit for trying his best to absorb so much information as his way of learning what they're doing here and what this world is all about. He's going to books for knowledge and she's going to people, but it's functionally the same thing to her.

So she comes up near him and leans down a bit so that she can try to catch his eye.]

Hi Erk.

[Erk looks up with a bit of a jolt at the sound of his name--he didn't notice Kairi's approach at all. And after she asked him to watch for her, too... Reddening a little in embarrassment, he makes a quick mental note of which page he's on, and sets the book aside.]

Ah--hello. I'm sorry, I got more engrossed in my reading than I intended. Thank you for meeting me.

[Seeing her in person is already much less disconcerting than seeing a small image of her in his phone. Communicating by text was fine, but holding someone in his hand while speaking with them... he's still not quite sure what to make of that.]

[She waves her hand.]

It's not a problem at all.

[She shrugs her shoulders.]

Better that you got engrossed and stayed in one spot than wandered off where I couldn't find you again.

[Which feels like a private joke to her but she's thinking it's because he couldn't have used his phone to reach out to her if that'd happened!

She sits down next to him.]

What's the book about, anyway?

Why would I have wandered off? This is where we agreed to meet.

[Sorry Kairi, he's not good with anything resembling a joke and doesn't realize that perhaps he doesn't need to take that statement entirely seriously.

But he slides the book closer to her when she asks about it, letting her have a look for herself if she wishes to.]

An Exhaustive History of Japan: From Ancient Times to the Present, Volume One. It's hardly as exhaustive as it claims, but as a starting point, it will serve.

[Yes, he considers this fat monstrosity of a book a mere 'starting point'. He sighs lightly, and casts a glance at the shelves of books all around them.]

There's so much I need to learn about this realm. I had to start somewhere. You're very fortunate to already be familiar with the technology.

Well, that just means you're an incredibly trustworthy person, aren't you?

[She smiles. She doesn't mind that it completely goes over his head. That tells her he's a good guy, in her opinion.]

A starting point? At least I know what to get you for a gift whenever I need it.

[Because she assumes any friends deserve a gift at some point, even if none of them remembers their birthdays.]

I could say the same thing, though - I don't think I could read a book like that and actually learn everything on the pages. So if I can trade you some bits of technology help for bite-sized versions of that big book, I'm fine with it.

I... hope that I am, yes.

[He furrows his brows; it's a little surprising just how quickly Kairi decides that he's trustworthy. Fortunately for her, he has no intention of being otherwise.

'Surprising' doesn't even begin to cover her next statement, though, and he spins to face her again in obvious shock.]

Gift--? [He shakes his head rapidly] Ah, n-no, no, you really don't need to get me any gifts. Ever. --Er, it's very kind of you to think to do so, of course. But entirely unnecessary.

[Why is she being so nice? They literally just met. Is she this friendly to everyone? ...Ugh, he's blushing again, he knows it. Come on, Erk, he tells himself, talking to a nice girl is nothing to get so flustered about. Stop it.

He takes a deep breath and clears his throat, trying to regain some composure.]

...Er, yes, of course. That would be a fair arrangement. I haven't gotten very far into the book yet, but I'd be happy to provide you with a concise summary once I'm done.

[Which he will actually write out for her. It'll have citations and everything. 'Concise' does not mean compromising his standards.]

Shall we begin, then?

[She can't help but smile and giggle a bit at his flustered reaction. It keeps happening when she's nice to people, but especially boys near as she can tell. Oh well, even if she laughs at their reactions, she's still planning to befriend them - Erk included.]

Of course there are reasons to give friends gifts! Not all the time, but it comes up every so often. If it helps, just forget about it.

[She shrugs, still smiling.]

Then it'll be a surprise when I do it!

[Because yes she absolutely is planning on it still. Tough luck, Erk.]

But we can start, no problem. Go ahead and get your phone out.

I--friends? [Wait, when did this happen? How did this happen?] How can we be friends? We only just met.

[...Blast, and that makes it sound like he doesn't want to be her friend. So much for composure: Erk openly cringes at his own phrasing, running a hand down his face.]

...Ugh. That didn't come out right. [He sighs.] Yes, forgetting about it may be for the best.

[Please, let's forget about it and talk about phones now, before he puts his foot any further into his mouth.

He removes his phone from his pocket.]

Basic terminology would be a good place to begin, I think. "Calling" and "hanging out" and so forth.

[~~Erk it's hanging up not hanging out.~~]

Well I didn't mean best friends or anything like that! But we talked so long already... of course we're friends!

[There, cleared that up for him. Right? She's moving on anyway.]

Calling and hanging out...?

[It takes her a second to catch it, but she does.]

Oh! Oh, there's two similar phrases I think you've heard about by now. Hanging out is just like this... some kind of activity you're doing with a friend. It could be getting food together or playing games or talking or studying. Hanging up is when you're done with a call. Like this...

[She slows down to pull her own phone out.]

So this is my phone. I think to myself... 'Wow, I'd really like to hang out with Erk today! So I'll call him!'

[She opens it up and shows him how she's scrolling through the numbers she's collected already.]

What I'm looking for is your phone number. Those are the numbers I have to dial on my phone in order to speak to you like we were before.

[But she points to all of the other numbers she has.]

It's not easy to remember all of these phone numbers off the top of your head. So instead, we save contact information - like this: here's yours. It says your name - Erk - and it says your phone number. Now, instead of trying to remember your phone number myself - and everyone else's phone numbers too - I can just find your contact and-

[She clicks the call button, then promptly holds the phone up to her ear.]

Now, I'm calling you. Get it?

...Oh. Of course.

[One conversation is enough to make them acquaintances, not friends, but Erk's just going to leave well enough alone at this point.

And good grief, this is degrading. He wishes he could object to having this explained to him as though he were a child, or a clueless buffoon, but he can't. He is pretty clueless, and he knows it. And hates it. He can grasp the complex intricacies of magic with ease, yet he can't operate a device that others seem to view as a basic necessity. Or even get the terminology right, apparently.

So he holds his tongue and pays very, very close attention; he doesn't want to have to suffer through this indignity more than once. Fortunately, he's a quick study.

He does jump a little when his phone rings. This is only the second time he's heard it do so, and it's going to take some getting used to. But he's already figured out what to do next from the first time Kairi called him, and he taps the screen to answer.]

Yes. And then we're able to speak to each other. [Rather than bringing his phone to his ear, he frowns down at it.] ...I don't see an image of you this time, though. I take it that's an optional, er, feature.

[She nods.]

That's right. You can use your phone three ways to talk - well, communicate with someone. You can text them, that's just the words on screen like this.

[She sends him a quick one:]

Hi Erk!

Or you can call with just your voice, or call while using video too.

[But she gives him a sympathetic smile.]

I think you'll get the idea soon enough. Just make some more friends who'll call you that way you practice answering them!

[Yes Kairi it's just that easy for everyone else to make friends, of course it is.]

['Video' isn't a word that Erk knows, but it's not hard to figure out what it must mean via the process of elimination. If it's not the voice or text methods, it must be the image one.

He nods at Kairi's explanation, but frowns thoughtfully at the same time, his brows furrowing once again. Make friends who will call him, she says. But they'll call him whenever they want, won't they? What's to stop them from interrupting him while he's reading, or practicing his magic? What if he just doesn't want to talk to them?

Mental note: make quiet or technologically-impaired friends, if any.]

Is there a way to... [he's not sure what word to use] ...silence a phone? Deactivate it?

[Guess who's going to keep his phone turned right off all the time unless he's actually using it.]

You were right the first time. We say silence it, or 'put in on mute', or just... turn the volume down, but that goes for more than just phones. Anyway, we'll go with silence it.

[She holds up her own phone and shows him where in the settings he can put it on "Do Not Disturb."]

That means nothing except an alarm that you set up will make noise. Like if you want to wake up at a specific time every day, you can set an alarm for that. Then the volume is... over here.

[She swipes a few more times.]

That one I turn up before I go to bed so that it's quiet all through the night - because of the silent setting - but then when I want to wake up, it's loud enough that I'll hear it.

["Do Not Disturb". Perfect. Erk already knows he's going to get a great deal of use out of that setting. In fact, he's applying it right now. Look at that, he really is a quick learner.]

I haven't had need of an alarm yet, but that's good to know.

[There. His phone's settings have been successfully adjusted. He's starting to think he could get the hang of this, eventually.

But just out of curiosity...] What would happen, though, if someone tried to call while my phone is silenced like this?

While it's silenced...?

[She's not THAT up on the ins and outs of the settings for the answer to come automatically to her, but she taps her chin in thought.]

Well, I think if you don't answer your phone - any time, silenced or not - that's when people leave you messages. It's called voicemail. Literally a voice or video message that they record as if they were talking to you on your phone, but hoping you'll see it later when you're available again.

[She finds the section of her phone for that too - Missed Calls and Voicemail.]

Ah. [Erk leans closer to get a better look at what Kairi's doing with her phone, and commits the word 'voicemail' to memory. At least it's fairly self-explanatory. He certainly is expanding his vocabulary today...]

So you can review messages people have left for you on your phone, and respond to them at your leisure? [That's handy. He can avoid being bothered until he feels like allowing himself to be bothered.

He nods slowly.] I believe I understand. Does that about cover the basic operations, then, or is there more I need to know? Does a phone require any special care or maintenance?

[She nods at his observations.]

No that's just about it, but care or maintenance...

[She holds her free hand up in realization.]

Oh! You'll definitely need to keep it away from water - like, dunking the whole thing in a bowl of it. Also, you'll need to charge it sometimes. See here--

[She points to the battery power indicator.]

That tells you how much power it is. Maximum is 100%. If it gets to 0, that's fine, but it turns off and you can't turn it back on until you plug it in again. That's called charging. There should be a cable somewhere back at your temple for it. It charges the battery - that's how it can travel around in our pockets without being plugged into the wall constantly.

Yes, I do have a cable for it.

[He's also had time to learn what it means to plug something in, so at least there's one phrase he doesn't need to have defined for him. Thank goodness--he's had enough of feeling like a clueless neophyte.]

...And I'll be sure to avoid dunking it in a bowl of water. [Shouldn't be too hard.]

If that's all of the important information, then I won't take up any more of your time. I'm sure I can figure out the details myself. [He nods in gratitude.] Thank you for your help.

[Closed] World Inside the Crystal

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