Second floor common room, Friday evening

[sairis]

Having received a thorough grounding in how to use the internet from Arden, Sairis had been making use of it ever since. It was frustrating that he couldn't be sure how much was true, but he'd learned to research and cross-reference texts, and that seemed to help.

He'd learned a lot about electricity! And how stoves worked. He had his priorities.

So here he was, having found some eggs and meat and carrots in the icebox, and cooking them in a pan on the stove. There was a spice rack, and most of them made no sense, so he'd tasted them. Which was why he was using salt and pepper (those he knew) and something called "chili powder" to season it all.


[Open common room is open!]

Comments

[thatsmysword]

"Once every few months," Henry said. "At least, so I'm told. The islands were the first ones for me. I don't think it's always islands? But they do take us very far every time."

Which was odd and thrilling at the same time.

[sairis]

"I've never been very far at all," Sairis said. Well, he'd moved from his home village to Karkaroth's tower, but he'd been in a bit of a daze then. "Just a few local villages."

[thatsmysword]

"It's the same for me," Henry admitted. "It does seem miraculous, how easy it is to go from one place to another 'round here."

Sir Hans would love it. It was a pity he didn't get to experience it, Henry felt.

[sairis]

"I haven't been many places here yet, either," Sairis admitted. "Not even to much of the town. I'm not used to it, I guess."

[thatsmysword]

"It takes some time," Henry said. "I'd be careful about leavin' the island for the first while. The cities here are-- very big, and very loud. Interesting, though."

[sairis]

Sairis nodded in acknowledgement of the warning. "Interesting how?"

[thatsmysword]

"There's so much that seems impossible," Henry said, perking up. "Like these carriages that can move around without horses. Or-- buildings so tall they kiss the sky. And there's lights everywhere. I can't figure out how they've managed to fit the light in boxes and round things the way they do, but it's so interesting."

[sairis]

"I saw some of that in one of my classes," Sairis said. "It was horrible." Well, the bigots attacking them hadn't helped, but also just in general.

"I'm trying to learn about electricity," Sairis said. "That's how the lights and things work. I'm used to things like that being magical, but apparently electricity isn't."

[thatsmysword]

"It's in the walls, apparently," Henry said. "Just like the water!"

[sairis]

"The water moves through pipes," Sairis said helpfully. That much he knew. "Apparently the electricity moves through metal wires. It's made some place further away, then there are wires in the ground or in the air that move it to the buildings, and wires in the building that move it to those things." He pointed at one of the outlets.

"I wanted to get a closer look, but I don't think the school would appreciate me tearing down a wall."

[thatsmysword]

"Yes, like I said, in the walls," Henry agreed, glancing at Sairis's face, as if to deduce whether Sairis had just missed that part. "I do keep wondering how they fit it all in there."

[sairis]

Sairis hadn't missed it, he was just being more specific!

"I'm not sure about that," he admitted. "I imagine they carve out channels?"

Now he really wanted to take one apart to see!

[thatsmysword]

"Could be," Henry mused, eyeing the wall. "Though it might make more sense to build the wall in two parts, and leave room in-between, then fill it up later."

[sairis]

"Hm." Sairis eyed the wall, too. "That would make sense, as long as the two-part walls are strong enough. You'd have to open them up to put things in, though."

[thatsmysword]

"You'd have to do that either way," Henry pointed out. "I assume they have a way of doing so that don't involve breaking the whole house down."

[sairis]

"They must, I suppose."

Sairis thought about it and pulled out his phone. A minute later, he had a page pulled up.

"This is not terribly helpful. Apparently they go in through holes, though."

[thatsmysword]

Right. Phone.

"What does it say?" Henry asked.

[sairis]

"It's important to plan and make sure you don't cut through anything else, and they have special equipment to make it easier to move things in between the walls to get from one place to another," Sairis explained. "So you were right about the walls being hollow, but sometimes there's something in the way and they have to drill through it."

[thatsmysword]

"Sounds difficult," Henry mused. "What happens if they do it incorrectly?"

[sairis]

"It's not safe." Sairis made a disgusted noise. "It doesn't say why. Or apparently it can look bad."

[thatsmysword]

Henry sighed. "So far this internet only sounds half-way useful," he said.

Though then a thought occurred to him--

"How d'you think they fit all of those words in there?"

[sairis]

"Half-way is about right," Sairis said. "What words in where?"

[thatsmysword]

"The words you just read," Henry clarified. "In that-- phone. Internet."

[sairis]

"Oh!" Sairis shrugged. "Apparently the words are all stored someplace else and this just shows them. I haven't figured out how it works yet."

He was curious, but he was still working on electricity right now.

[thatsmysword]

Henry was more the 'ask a million questions and hope at least one or two get answered' type. "Odd," he mused. "Oh well."