[More things he needs to learn. It feels like every time he knocks one off the list, three more take its place, but at least he is learning. Maybe everyone else has heard of Discord, and it'll be more secure to talk there. As long as he's the only one behind, that's fine - he'll just work harder to catch up and be more careful in the interim.]
[He just blinks at Leo's question. On the one hand, he'd thought it'd have been obvious; on the other hand, Leo hadn't been here when Huvrye had first arrived, and he'd gotten his crash course on modern-for-this-world communication elsewhere.]
Nope. No internet, no computers, no phones like this. [He gestures at his phone.] We mostly used alchemy, and radio if we needed a hard line for any reason.
[He holds up a hand, palm out, and an alchemical array glows red above his palm, concentric circles and lettering forming neatly in the air. It's a partial array - there's no connection point, no intended recipient - but that doesn't matter when it's meant to be an example. He's not about to make a functional array with no end point, because that's a security nightmare waiting to happen and he's not going to take the risk of someone (either someone from his world who'd arrived unbeknownst to him or a person with compatible powers) connecting when he's not aware of it.]
[He lets Leo inspect the array, wondering not for the first time if anyone here would be capable of learning alchemy the way he knows it. He doubts it - alchemy draws on aura, and he's not much of a teacher as it is - but it's still an idea.]
[And then Leo offers his opinion. Huvrye gives him a flat look and pulls on the edge of the circle, dispersing the array.]
Alchemy is less of a security nightmare.
[The internet may be capable of more overall, but alchemy is a lot less vulnerable when it comes to private conversations. (Which isn't exactly useful when nobody else can use it, but the point still stands as far as he's concerned.)]
There’s more to life than military efficiency, Huv.
[He rolls his eyes, just to complete the gesture, even though it doesn’t have any heat.]
What do people in your world do for fun? Read books? Cool alchemy sports? Mid-air jousting?
[Huvrye doesn’t talk that much about his home world, other than occasional references, especially to this Yin kid he’s heard about. So Leo is genuinely curious.
(And also starting to reach his limit of focus on the whole internet explainer thing. This is his bid for a break.)]
[Huvrye raises an eyebrow but says nothing. Leo's been through a lot, but he's still a civ and a kid; he's allowed to think like that.]
[(Leo still thinks he's talking to a person, after all, and not a weapon designed and built with military efficiency in mind, and Huvrye isn't planning on disillusioning him anytime soon. Or ever.)]
[Leo changes the subject, and Huvrye follows it. He's got enough to go on for now; he can do his own research when Leo's asleep tonight, or follow up with someone else if need be.]
Cool flying sports.
[The correction comes with the edges of a grin that settle into a smile.]
We have movies, though they look a lot different from the ones here and they're only in theaters - I think it's mostly just rich civs who have TVs. There's always books and the radio, though.
[He doesn't talk much about his world because it's a nightmare, and the more he talks about it, the clearer it'll be that he was never a civ and didn't have the sorts of experiences a normal person would have. Leo's not an idiot; Huvrye's pretty sure Leo can put the pieces together if he has enough of them, so he hasn't been providing many of them.]
Flying sports? Okay, you gotta tell me about that.
[Thankfully for Huvrye's cover, nothing he says that time tips Leo off to anything amiss. He's fully distracted by wondering what flying sports look like; is it like basketball in the air, or something else entirely?
Books and the radio are things he can imagine without Huvrye's help so he doesn't ask about them yet.]
[What follows is an explanation of several flight-based sports, provided by someone who gets the idea of all of them but isn't really into the details. It's clear he knows them, in the way a human from Earth might know baseball or basketball or soccer, but he doesn't really play.]
I'd offer to show you, but I don't think we could find the right space around here, and also you don't fly.
[Leo listens with interest - even if Huvrye doesn't have much first hand experience, it's still fun for him to hear about them. Leo likes sports, after all.
He smirks at the end.]
Hey you don't know, maybe I've been holding out on you.
[He hasn't, but he says it anyway.]
Was that Yin guy you've mentioned into sports?
[It's a little bit of a non sequitur, but Leo is interested, since he's pretty sure they're around the same age. And Huvrye doesn't talk about home a lot, and he's nosy.]
Oh, I'm pretty sure you would've shown it off by now if you could.
[It's easy ribbing, delivered with a grin, though it fades a bit with the followup question. It's not that he hasn't thought about Yin - he misses the kid like a hole in his heart - but he definitely hasn't talked about him as much. How does he explain that he'd known Yin for two years but only really known him for two days? How does he describe that dizzying depth of connection? How does he talk about anything specific without explaining what a construct is? What is world is like? How much he's responsible for, in the greater scheme of things?]
[He doesn't know, so he's mostly avoided it. There are a handful of people here who know bits and pieces, but Leo sure doesn't. He'd mentioned Yin in passing, as a friend and a good kid, but not much else.]
[And now here Leo is, putting him on the spot. He can try, at least.]
[Leo does catch how Huvrye’s mood shifts at the question. Maybe this isn’t something he should be poking around in. He can’t guess at much with so few details, but with how little Huvrye talks about his life before this place, he knows a lot is being hidden from him.
Not maliciously, at least Leo doesn’t think so. He hasn’t sensed any ill intent from Huvrye, and if he truly wanted to hurt him he was playing a really long con - he’d had a million chances now that Leo felt safe enough to share a roof with him, doubly so now that he knew the kind of fears that haunted his dreams at night.
But there are other reasons to hide things. Leo hasn’t brought up the fight with the Shredder and who knows when he will, because talking about the Shredder means talking about Gram-Gram. Maybe it’s similar.
Though he said “is,” so that’s a good sign.]
Oh yeah? [Leo keeps his tone light despite it all.] Guess you probably had different books than we do here.
[He sees the out, but doesn't quite take it; not entirely, at least. Leo doesn't know, and he doesn't want to just shut him down. There's something to be said for trust going both ways, even if most of Huvrye's life is still a closely-guarded secret.]
Yeah. Frankenstein sure didn't exist in Lasardhi.
[Sympathy for a manmade being? It never would've been published; it probably wouldn't have even been written.]
I know you're not really a book guy, but if you come across one called The Day the Stars Roared, can you let me know?
[The Day the Stars Roared. He isn't a book guy at all, but he commits it to memory anyway. It's something important to someone important, that's all Leo needs to know to remember it.
Saying that is sappy, though, so he just shrugs.]
Sure, if I'm forced to go into a library anytime soon I'll keep an eye out. Is that your favorite book or something?
Yeah, I finished it the other day. Mark told me I should read it, and he was right - it's really good.
[He can't go into the details - why Mark assigned him that particular homework, or why it'd resonated with him - so the conversation needs to stay surface level.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2023-03-31 12:07 am (UTC)[More things he needs to learn. It feels like every time he knocks one off the list, three more take its place, but at least he is learning. Maybe everyone else has heard of Discord, and it'll be more secure to talk there. As long as he's the only one behind, that's fine - he'll just work harder to catch up and be more careful in the interim.]
[He just blinks at Leo's question. On the one hand, he'd thought it'd have been obvious; on the other hand, Leo hadn't been here when Huvrye had first arrived, and he'd gotten his crash course on modern-for-this-world communication elsewhere.]
Nope. No internet, no computers, no phones like this. [He gestures at his phone.] We mostly used alchemy, and radio if we needed a hard line for any reason.
[He holds up a hand, palm out, and an alchemical array glows red above his palm, concentric circles and lettering forming neatly in the air. It's a partial array - there's no connection point, no intended recipient - but that doesn't matter when it's meant to be an example. He's not about to make a functional array with no end point, because that's a security nightmare waiting to happen and he's not going to take the risk of someone (either someone from his world who'd arrived unbeknownst to him or a person with compatible powers) connecting when he's not aware of it.]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-31 07:12 am (UTC)Okay, that’s cool, and something we didn’t have [Well maybe Yokai do, but Leo doesn’t know.], but radios are pretty old-school for my world.
[Leo isn’t even sure he’s ever seen one. Maybe a walkie talkie at best.]
Sounds kinda lame. No offense. [He adds that quickly.] I’m just glad I was born when the internet was already invented back home.
no subject
Date: 2023-03-31 08:22 am (UTC)[And then Leo offers his opinion. Huvrye gives him a flat look and pulls on the edge of the circle, dispersing the array.]
Alchemy is less of a security nightmare.
[The internet may be capable of more overall, but alchemy is a lot less vulnerable when it comes to private conversations. (Which isn't exactly useful when nobody else can use it, but the point still stands as far as he's concerned.)]
no subject
Date: 2023-03-31 04:22 pm (UTC)[He rolls his eyes, just to complete the gesture, even though it doesn’t have any heat.]
What do people in your world do for fun? Read books? Cool alchemy sports? Mid-air jousting?
[Huvrye doesn’t talk that much about his home world, other than occasional references, especially to this Yin kid he’s heard about. So Leo is genuinely curious.
(And also starting to reach his limit of focus on the whole internet explainer thing. This is his bid for a break.)]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-01 01:04 am (UTC)[(Leo still thinks he's talking to a person, after all, and not a weapon designed and built with military efficiency in mind, and Huvrye isn't planning on disillusioning him anytime soon. Or ever.)]
[Leo changes the subject, and Huvrye follows it. He's got enough to go on for now; he can do his own research when Leo's asleep tonight, or follow up with someone else if need be.]
Cool flying sports.
[The correction comes with the edges of a grin that settle into a smile.]
We have movies, though they look a lot different from the ones here and they're only in theaters - I think it's mostly just rich civs who have TVs. There's always books and the radio, though.
[He doesn't talk much about his world because it's a nightmare, and the more he talks about it, the clearer it'll be that he was never a civ and didn't have the sorts of experiences a normal person would have. Leo's not an idiot; Huvrye's pretty sure Leo can put the pieces together if he has enough of them, so he hasn't been providing many of them.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-01 04:05 am (UTC)[Thankfully for Huvrye's cover, nothing he says that time tips Leo off to anything amiss. He's fully distracted by wondering what flying sports look like; is it like basketball in the air, or something else entirely?
Books and the radio are things he can imagine without Huvrye's help so he doesn't ask about them yet.]
brb punting
Date: 2023-04-02 07:17 am (UTC)[What follows is an explanation of several flight-based sports, provided by someone who gets the idea of all of them but isn't really into the details. It's clear he knows them, in the way a human from Earth might know baseball or basketball or soccer, but he doesn't really play.]
I'd offer to show you, but I don't think we could find the right space around here, and also you don't fly.
fitting sports terminology
Date: 2023-04-02 11:18 pm (UTC)He smirks at the end.]
Hey you don't know, maybe I've been holding out on you.
[He hasn't, but he says it anyway.]
Was that Yin guy you've mentioned into sports?
[It's a little bit of a non sequitur, but Leo is interested, since he's pretty sure they're around the same age. And Huvrye doesn't talk about home a lot, and he's nosy.]
...I didn't even think about that
Date: 2023-04-05 12:59 am (UTC)[It's easy ribbing, delivered with a grin, though it fades a bit with the followup question. It's not that he hasn't thought about Yin - he misses the kid like a hole in his heart - but he definitely hasn't talked about him as much. How does he explain that he'd known Yin for two years but only really known him for two days? How does he describe that dizzying depth of connection? How does he talk about anything specific without explaining what a construct is? What is world is like? How much he's responsible for, in the greater scheme of things?]
[He doesn't know, so he's mostly avoided it. There are a handful of people here who know bits and pieces, but Leo sure doesn't. He'd mentioned Yin in passing, as a friend and a good kid, but not much else.]
[And now here Leo is, putting him on the spot. He can try, at least.]
I don't think so - he's more of a bookworm.
no subject
Date: 2023-04-05 05:30 am (UTC)Not maliciously, at least Leo doesn’t think so. He hasn’t sensed any ill intent from Huvrye, and if he truly wanted to hurt him he was playing a really long con - he’d had a million chances now that Leo felt safe enough to share a roof with him, doubly so now that he knew the kind of fears that haunted his dreams at night.
But there are other reasons to hide things. Leo hasn’t brought up the fight with the Shredder and who knows when he will, because talking about the Shredder means talking about Gram-Gram. Maybe it’s similar.
Though he said “is,” so that’s a good sign.]
Oh yeah? [Leo keeps his tone light despite it all.] Guess you probably had different books than we do here.
[It’s an out if he wants it.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-05 06:54 am (UTC)Yeah. Frankenstein sure didn't exist in Lasardhi.
[Sympathy for a manmade being? It never would've been published; it probably wouldn't have even been written.]
I know you're not really a book guy, but if you come across one called The Day the Stars Roared, can you let me know?
no subject
Date: 2023-04-06 05:24 am (UTC)Saying that is sappy, though, so he just shrugs.]
Sure, if I'm forced to go into a library anytime soon I'll keep an eye out. Is that your favorite book or something?
no subject
Date: 2023-04-06 06:55 am (UTC)[Why yes, Huvrye will call every single one of Leo's bluffs, as he makes them, in real time.]
[He softens a bit and shakes his head.]
Not mine - Yin's. I never got a chance to read it.
no subject
Date: 2023-04-06 03:45 pm (UTC)[Does he look like a nerd? Please!
Though he softens, too, at the explanation.]
Ah. Gotcha. Yeah, I’ll watch out for it - it’d be cool if you could read it too.
no subject
Date: 2023-04-07 05:26 am (UTC)[He's not above the redirect, or being a smartass.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-08 05:47 am (UTC)Fiiiiine, I’ll go in the library just for you. But only once! Any more than that and I’ll get infected by some terrible nerd virus.
no subject
Date: 2023-04-08 06:25 am (UTC)[He can lay off on the sass - Leo is agreeing to help him, after all.]
Thanks, though.
no subject
Date: 2023-04-09 03:43 am (UTC)Yeah, no problem.
[Leo settles back, turning the conversation over in his head.]
You've been really into Frankenstein though, huh?
[Leo's never read it, unsurprisingly. He mostly knows about it through references in other things.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-09 08:20 am (UTC)[He can't go into the details - why Mark assigned him that particular homework, or why it'd resonated with him - so the conversation needs to stay surface level.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-09 09:06 pm (UTC)[For Leo, reading anything written before color television is nearly impossible.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-14 06:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-04-14 05:41 pm (UTC)[He reads a lot (of comics), maybe he can do it!]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-15 02:57 am (UTC)[He's absolutely heard a thing or two about Jupiter Jim by this point, even though that doesn't seem to exist in this dimension.]
no subject
Date: 2023-04-15 03:06 am (UTC)[There's several even in this world, he's guessing.]
Or we could find a different movie and watch it together!
no subject
Date: 2023-04-15 03:17 am (UTC)(no subject)
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