Travelling back (or technically forward?)
Traveling*
in time to the place he had come from was much more disorienting that Turo expected. Maybe it was because, when he had stepped into the time machine a couple of hours before, he had had the time to prepare mentally. There was a whole procedure to follow while setting up the time machine in preparation for a jump; other than being necessary to avoid messing something up (which he still had done... Somehow), it helped people concentrate. Prepare. Even relax, if necessary.
Sounds like some scary tech.
Getting back using the time anchor was much more sudden, and he stumbled while getting out of the time machine, his mind still half convinced that he was walking on damp leaves and uneven terrain instead of the perfectly pristine and smooth tiles of the Time Travel Department Laboratory.
« Time anchor ID 9537 has returned from space-time coordinates 48°51′12″ N, 2°20′55″ E, timestamp in seconds 441504000000-»
« Just save those coordinates to my ID before you get a stroke trying to pronounce that.» Turo interrupted the smooth artificial voice that had spoken from the time machine while he headed for the door.
Ah, and
that is how he got back there!
There was a moment of silence, then something behind his back moved suddenly; Turo stopped when the sleek, round figure of a Porygon 568 zipped around him and stopped him from exiting the room, floating at eye level with the human.
It still had the basic shape of a duck; why the very first Porygon had been designed with that shape in mind was a bit of a mystery: maybe because it had been simpler to code and render, or the dude responsible just really liked duck Pokémon, but it had become a bit of a tradition of all subsequent updates during the years to try and make it as outlandish and ridiculous as possible but still keep it recognizable as a duck.
That's both interesting and funny!
But with such a high number, I was imagining it to be something
far more... Like, what do you think a Windows 568 would do in our world? It would probably have some kind of built-in AI supercomputer capable calculating PI to like a googleplex of digets or something in a second and that wouldn't even come close to it's full potential.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic...
They already have
time travel tech...
I don't think it's a stretch to say that a Porygon 568 could tap into the omni-net to overwrite itself and all reality with cyberspace into whatever it wanted. Since it has access to time travel, this reality warping would extend to all of time as well. All other mon would obsolete in power and ability, but other Pokemon could still be friends to humans, kept as pets, or in a zoo or something. So the final evolution of Pokemon? It's Porygon when given
this many substantial upgrades.
But hey, it's just a theory...
A
MON THEORY.
(gotta catch
one Porygon 568™)
I guess my headcannon for this will be that people from the future KNEW they could make Porygon get way too out of hand so they are always extremely careful not to go too far with updates. This also gave them considerably more time to focus on the most important aspect: finding new ways to keep it looking like a duck.
If there was one thing that scientist and computer nerds loved, it was running gags; Turo knew, because he was also one of them.
This version in particular was made to look bright yellow with spiky, needle like feathers where his "wings" were supposed to be, and ended up looking more like a cross between a Psyduck and the legendary Zapdos... A little, puffy, dopey and kinda adorable Zapdos.
The Porygon clicked its beak, quickly scanning him up and down.
« Time-displaced object detected. To bring external objects outside of the time machine room, registration of object is required.» it spoke again.
Turo blinked, surprised; it was his first time doing the procedure, and even if he knew that the Pokémon was supposed to say that - it was its job to act as a sort of defensive mechanism for the time machine and anything that got in and out of it, after all - , it still took him a moment to get what it was referring to.
« Oh, this...? Just a little... Souvenir.» he answered, fishing in his lab pocket for the necklace that Sada gave him. It.... Looked even more surreal now in his time, the little leather string with organic fangs and feathers attached. He quietly wondered from what Pokémon they had come from, with that bright red and blue color.
He held it in front of the Porygon, who quickly scanned it.
« Object is not considered a safety or sanitary hazard. Permission granted to bring it outside of time machine room. Welcome back, Dr. Romero Turo. Hope you had a safe trip.» the Pokemon beeped before moving away from the door and going back to the main frame of the time machine, disappearing inside the transparent cylindrical structure that acted as it's control panel.
Cool procedures. Makes sense they would have them.
Turo watched the Porygon go, then stared at the necklace. So that meant he could... Keep it? It would have gathered quite a bit of attention on him... But just depositing it in some box in the laboratory for innocuous random objects brought from the past to be catalogued and eventually donated to some museum, like standard procedure dictated, didn't sit right with him. Sada had given it to him after all, and the girl's excited smile flashed in his mind while he stared at the little pendant.
Aww, he's going to keep it.
He ended up tying the leather string around his neck and slipping it under the collar of his bodysuit. It felt a bit strange, having something that was different from the smooth texture of his suit touching his bare skin, but not exactly uncomfortable.
He exited the room still in a bit of a daze; that wasn't exactly surprising even if the trip had been to only fifteen years ago like planned. "Time sickness" was apparently a thing: the human body -or living things in general - didn't react well to passing through time. It had taken quite a bit of studies and experiments to make the trip safe; some lives had tragically been lost in the first test trials: people not landing when and where expected, or coming back with amnesia.
Now, it was mostly just an inconvenience, and some of his more experienced colleagues assured him that he would grew used to it.
So, I guess they haven't learned to
master time travel yet.
No one had traveled that far back though... That reminded him.
He had to write a report about his trip, right?
The corridors of the Time Travel Department Laboratory (or TTDL for short) were currently deserted, which made sense, since it was late night. Turo had been forced to use the time machine in the night time slot, since all other slots during the day had already been reserved for other -and more important - trips than his simple test run. No one wanted the night shift if possible; it gave you the worst time jet-lag ever.
Soft lights blinked on a couple of steps ahead of him while he traversed the corridor and quietly switched off as soon as he had passed, leaving only the quiet hum of machinery.
At the end of the corridor, he thumbed the button to call the elevator.
They still use
buttons? No brain microchip implant to just
think the elevator up? Then again, imagination tends to go farther with technology than the reality of technology in the future does.
He always found it somewhat amusing how, in a society that was completely converted to holographic controls, haptic feedback or single gestures for... Pretty much anything, some fringe areas of technology had stubbornly remained unchanged for centuries.
They had tried to use touch screens, or holographs, or even voice commands, of course, but people didn't like it.
Ah, thank you! Either you thought to add this in yourself or other reviewers must have prompted this bit as an edit.
They would press the screen and then do it again, just to make sure that the command had been acknowledged.
Voice commands had been a disaster with people getting in and out giving conflicting commands.
In this case, a physical button to press was still the best.
At the end of the day, it turned out, people just really liked to mash the shit out of buttons.
Indeed, but please tell me they at least made the button to close the elevator door actually
work. That button
never works to make it close faster...
Like, does Turo have to awkwardly stand there for 5 seconds waiting for the elevator door to decide to close despite his repeated attempts to make it close faster by hitting the useless close door button?
I swear that button was only put there to make people feel better like giving a 4 year old a game controller and letting them pretend they are playing a video game while the one actually playing is you or you are just watching a video of it or something...
After getting out at the ground floor, he quietly walked across the great hall of the university. Something small and quick scurried away at his feet, and Turo absent mindedly side stepped the little Steelccino that were busy cleaning the floor, ignoring the indignant screeching of the chinchilla Pokémon at seeing him leave even just a speck of dust from his boots. One of them tried to jump on his lab coat, swiping at him with his brushy tail - the only part of its body that still looked identical to the Mincinno it had evolved from long ago, chattering angrily. The man had to almost physically push the little critter away, sneering.
« Come on, it's not like I did it on purpose. You expect me to go back millennia and not trek around some dirt? Shoo » Turo complained, exhausted. The Pokémon obviously didn't care, their shiny, red led-like eyes fixing him with a death glare before getting back to work.
I'm surprised they didn't have a decontamination chamber and medical scanner for Turo instead.
They were employed by the university of Mesagoza as natural cleaners at night, which was perfect, as long as you weren't part of the TTDL. His colleagues hated the little critters and the critters hated them right back, in an eternal cycle of mutual annoyance.
These are pretty amusing, though and they do help tie Pokemon into the future world more.
He welcomed the sight of the teleporters near the entrance: scanning his ID he stepped into one, a smooth circular platform made of what looked like light purple glass, and recited his home address.
That wouldn't have been the most secure option in broad daylight -you wouldn't want to announce where you lived to everyone after all -, but screw it, he was tired and there was no one around anyway. The platform briefly lit up, almost seemed to hesitate for a second, calculating the closest teleporter to the given address, then zapped him away.
Teleporting had become ubiquitous some couple centuries ago - of course, a simpler version had been in use since much, much earlier, with Psychic Pokémon ferrying people to and from important places since ancient history. Developing a technology that didn't require the constant use of Pokemon and could be accessible to everyone had taken a bit more time, but it was now part of everyday life.
I like the idea of future tech already being old. You and I think alike in this regard!
It had, for all intents and purposes, completely eliminated commuting and traffic.
Imagine having to spend multiple hours a day just getting to work! And then getting back home! That sounded exhausting, how did people put up with that in the past?
Ooo! And some social commentary too! I do dip my toes into that a little sometimes.
The teleporter left him a bit away from his apartment complex; obviously only the richest people could afford a personal teleporter that would deposit them literally on their doorstep, but Turo didn't mind walking the little distance he had to. It was still infinitely better than the alternative.
By this point the idea of commuting is a history thing. No one taking a car thinks how 'at least they don't have to use a horse and needing to feed it and take it to the vet'. I think it would be more believable if he accepted that he would likely never have a personal teleporter and would 'make do' with having to walk some from the teleportation point since that's what normal people in his time have to 'deal' with.
The front door of his apartment unlocked as soon as he got near enough, and with a tired sigh, Turo closed the door.
Wait, the door doesn't automatically open and close for him? Also, wouldn't it just not open for other people therefore making the idea of a 'lock' something that is very outdated?
He was home. Between all the preparations for the time jump, setting up the time machine and his studies, he hadn't set foot outside of the laboratory for the past three days. Of those three days, he technically had been "really" gone only for a couple of hours, but... It felt like so much more. His mind was still kind of processing what had happened.
Two hours he had spent simply sitting on that river side, talking with someone that was now less than dust. How did she spend the rest of her life? How long had she even lived?
It wouldn't do him any good to dwell on those thoughts so much; if he wanted to keep working in that field of research, he had to get used to it.
She occupies his thoughts. Understandably. Probably was the most unique experience of his life, so far and it wasn't even a bad one (except when he angered the brutal fang which I get the feeling this POV went back in time to when he just got back from his first trip, so I don't think he met the brutal fang yet)
Two blue lights blinked at him from his small living room, accompanied by a low « Gwaaaoohhh » and the quiet clicking of metallic paws on the floor.
Turo smiled, hugging the Miraidon that welcomed him back and stroking it's neck.
« Hey buddy, how are you doing? » he caressed the smooth light grey scales, examining them carefully.
« Is your Hadron Engine still acting up?»
Hadron, like the collider. Not sure if that was cannon or if it was something you added. Neat either way.
The was a slight pause, then the Miraidon's throat lit up, briefly pulsating with blue energy, an electric buzz filling the room. It had almost managed to form a complete wheel shape before it sneezed, snapping back to its low power form.
It growled sadly and pawed at the floor, looking almost ashamed.
« Don't worry about it, you just need to rest. We'll go riding as soon as you're doing better... And I can get a day off. » Turo added.
Miraidon had been with him since he was a kid, still living with his parents in Medali.
The apartment where he lived was a bit small for him, but the Pokemon could generally come and leave freely, wandering the city; still, in the past few days he hadn't been feeling too well, and had spent them mostly curled up on the sofa. With Turo himself not having exactly stepped outside the laboratory for days (except for the little trip through time), he was looking forward to taking that little road trip. Just cruising through the highway at high speed, wind hitting his face, nothing but a seemingly infinite road in front of him to let Miraidon speed up as much as he wanted. Maybe they could even practice gliding again. That sounded nice. With a last pat on the Pokémon's head, he headed to the bathroom for a shower before going to bed.
A regular shower? Not like a sonic shower that uses sound-waves instead of water or a light beam scanner that burns away all the contaminants and uppermost layer of skin?
---
« So how did your test run go? »
Turo raised his eyes from the screen that floated in front of him, stopped mid sentence in his report, and made a quick "stop" gesture by lifting the index and middle finger of his right hand. The writing program that was tracking his lip movements to write down his report recognized the gesture and dutifully stopped, then started to automatically check spelling and punctuation while waiting for the prompt to start again.
Why would this thing need processing time to check spelling and punctuation? It should have the processing power to do it instantly for all of it. And he has to actually speak to use it instead of it just converting his thoughts to text?
Waiting for an answer in front of him with a mug of coffee in one hand and a bemused smile was Gervaso Ortega, his senior by a year and accomplished time traveler.
I see they still drink coffee. Does the mug keep it hot?
So what's this guy want?
Turo hesitated for a moment, then stood up.
« Depends... Theoretically, incredibly well. Technically... I must have messed something up.»
The other man gestured for him to follow him out of the little office he got assigned and into a break room, or as people in the TTDL called it, the "sanity room".
Constantly kept at a comfortable temperature and humidity, the holographic walls continually projected calming images of natural landscapes and relaxing sounds.
Ok, I like this bit of technology. This part is cool.
« Oh... It's a rainy forest today? Nice, relaxing.» Gervaso commented, sitting down.
Turo almost wanted to point out that it was only relaxing because they weren't actually getting wet, but he wasn't going to complain. A nice forest with some rain was a much better scenario than some.... Alternatives they had had in the past.
« Remember that girl that was researching pirates and forced the room to simulate a creaking ship at sea for "immersion" for three months?» he answered, sitting down in front of him and ordering a coffee of his own. The other man grinned.
« Oh man, Sea Shanty Girl! Wonder what she is doing now... If I never have to listen to "Randy Dandy-Oh" again, it will still be too soon.»
Nice detail.
Turo laughed, but his colleague seemed pretty curious about his trip, prompting him again.
He was... Actually a bit nervous about revealing what had happened.
« The trip was fine. No excessive time sickness, no allergic reaction to the pre-jump shots... Weather was fine so I didn't even have to recharge my time-anchor manually...» he hesitated.
« I may have.... Overshot the landing on the time coordinate a bit.»
That made Gervaso, who had been nodding along, pause, intrigued.
« Really? By how much?»
« .... Some 14'000 years?»
No big deal. Year is just a number.
There was a slight incredulous pause, then the other man exploded into laughter, hurriedly putting the mug of coffee down on the table.
« Are you serious? The new guy does his first time jump and ends up where no one managed to ever go before? You are either going to become the best time traveler I've ever seen, or the worst.»
Yeah, that's what he had figured would happen.
He took a sip of coffee, only for Gervaso to almost slap it out of him by patting his shoulder.
« ... I'm going to get grounded, aren't I?»
« Oh, you are so grounded while they figure out how you did it. »
---
Cool, so once he is done being grounded, he can travel back 14,000 years ago again!
He does end up "grounded" in the end, banned from using the time machine for a month.
Tense slip. 'does' should be 'did'.
The coordinates he had used on the other hand are still safely associated to his ID; as soon as one month passed, he could, theoretically, travel there again.
His original project had actually been traveling to the future - not too far away. The future direction was much more risky by definition, since you obviously had absolutely no data on where you would end up.
Oh, good point!
Most time travelers who chose the future wouldn't jump more than a couple of years; tiny incremental steps, and reports on what they knew were kept secret with the highest level of security (except for spoilers about when the new season or movie of a series would come out and how much it sucked, because of course people wanted to know about that way more than possibly horrible news).
And that had always fascinated him terribly; it was pretty much a leap of faith into the unknown.
... Maybe a bit too ambitious for his first project; maybe he could... Travel to the distant past for a bit after all? It was... Really, it was so far away that it was almost as unknown as the future.
The happy smile that Sada had made while they had tried to talk only encouraged his decision.
Yep, he wants to see her more than he is curious about the future. Not bad at all!
While he can't time travel, what he can do, man of science that he is, is spend his time doing some research.
'can't' should be 'couldn't'
'can' should be 'could'
'is' should be 'was'
Ok nevermind. There are too many tense slips for me to care to point them out anymore. I only started pointing them out again here because I thought they were supposed to be unique to Sada's POV. I'm sure you could find these pretty easily just by looking over it and editing, so I'll leave you to it unless you specifically want me to point them out. The tense slips don't even really bother me that much. I can ignore them pretty easily.
He pours over every anthropological book about the Upper Paleolithic he can find, digs up documentaries and even some fiction.
There is.... Frustratingly little. Makes sense since there literally wasn't even written language at that point, so not much got passed down through the ages. The timescale is also something that makes his head hurt on more than one occasion.
« "First evidence of Pokémon domestication like Growlithe and Mareep could have occurred between 15'000 and 10'000 years before common age"... Sure, that is just.... An error margin of 5000 years, no biggie. » he sighs, flicking away the screen he was reading with a swipe of his finger.
It was going to be a long month.
---
Yeah, I think it's believable it would be hard to research that even with archeology having had centuries to make progress.
Exactly one month after his first jump, he walks back into the time machine room. He slips the time anchor to his wrist, checking that it is attached securely.
Waiting for him are Porygon 568 and a woman wearing medical scrubs and holding a syringe.
« Time anchor ID 9537 ready for departure as soon as medical checks complete. Update destination coordinates?» Porygon 568 speaks up.
« Yes, add... 316800 seconds to the timestamp» it wouldn't do to appear again literally at the same moment he had left.
Measuring by seconds? Hmm... that's kind of annoying because now you are making me do math...
Ok, so it's 88 hours later. Since the math worked to a perfect whole number, obviously he meant 88 hours so why not just have him say 88 hours? Even if you say Porygon takes commands only in seconds, that's an odd restriction to have and it's obviously capable of converting seconds to hours and vice versa with how advanced it is.
« Acknowledged.»
The woman quickly approaches him and slips the needle of the syringe into his left shoulder, the clear liquid inside entering his body. Turo grimaces for a second; something else he will have to get used to... Those "shots" as they were called were the only thing protecting his body from getting teared apart in the time machine. It was... A bit unsettling to think about actually. How did they work? No idea, he was no doctor. (… Well he technically was, but not that kind of doctor)
He pulls the sleeve of the bodysuit back up to cover his shoulder, slips back his lab coat, and steps into the time machine.
---
I guess they still have regular shots in that time. Not really sure how else they would go about it, so that's fine. Neat concept that they are needed to make time travel happen.
Oh, but I guess that means it would be hard to bring Sada with him to the future. I suppose to do it he would need to bring a shot to the past and inject her with it before bringing her back with him. I assume that will be something that happens at some point, so that should be interesting to see.
This time he can tell that it worked before even opening his eyes. It's been a month for him, but not even a week has passed here: the same cold air, the leaves getting rustled by the wind, the stream rushing by his side. He start following the river, listening for some tell tale sounds of human activity. Steps, rustling of leaves, some smoke signal for a fire maybe... If Sada had been working by the river last time, she probably lived nearby.
The time differential is really interesting. It's like entering a virtual world or a dream or something. Kind of gives me vibes from the movie, 'Avatar'.
A shape in the water catches his attention: red with a big yellow dorsal fin and whiskers, it takes him a moment to recognize the silhouette of a Magikarp...
Whaaaaaaaaaat!
Hello, brutal fang!
Ok this was pretty cool. I enjoyed that.
It's a pretty big one, but that is nothing unusual. Lots of Pokémon were just bigger in ancient times, or one particular individual simply grew a lot more. He notices the Magikarp stop dead in the water and slightly turn in his direction. Turo pays the Pokémon no mind: they are so common even in his time that seeing one is nothing unusual, so he just keeps walking in the shallow water.
That is, until it suddenly charges at him.
This makes so much more sense now how he got into trouble here!
He lets out a panicked yelp when the Magikarp is suddenly right by his side, teeth snapping and missing his arm only because he stumbles backwards and falls on his back.
It's the angriest looking Magikarp he's ever seen, and... Teeth? Magikarp don't have teeth! They barely have functioning muscles!
The shock stops him from moving for a couple of seconds; is it some prehistoric form of Magikarp? The one that was supposedly stronger than the current one?
This is way more than a "a bit stronger", this one looked ready to bite his face clean off. Did it even need to evolve into Gyarados?
He tries to get up to his feet, hands slipping on the stones that make up the riverbed, but the creature is much faster than him. It jumps out from the water and he desperately rolls to the side. He can feel the teeth snapping close to his head before the creature flies past him and crashes outside of the water.
And it still doesn't stop.
Pretty horrifying! I feel like 'still' wants to be itallics, though.
It's furiously thrashing on its side, kicking up water and gravel until it manages to turn itself right up, and the sight of it is so surreal that he can't help but stare, frozen in place, when everything suddenly clicks in his mind.
It's... It's using Splash.
Is that how the move developed? Is that what it originally was for? To chase prey even on dry land?
Mind blown.
Really cool feature!
« Get down!» Sada's voice suddenly rings out from behind him and he just throws himself to the side, then stares as the woman literally chases the damn thing away with nothing but a spear and... What even was that? It looked like some kind of berry...
Anyway, she just saved his life.
You know, just because we saw this from Sada's perspective doesn't really take any away from seeing the same events again from Turo's perspective. Maybe I should do this with my own fic? It's kind of inspiring. I change POV sometimes, but I never go over the same scene except for in Book Three that I am working on.
He finally gets up to his feet; the bodysuit he's wearing makes sure that most of his body is still dry, but the same can't be said for his hair, hands, lab coat and-
"Shit, the time-anchor"
With a quick surge of panic he checks the device on his wrist; it should be pretty damn resistant to any kind of damage, even Pokemon moves, and really be much more durable than the person who is wearing it, but he feels pretty justified in his panic when the little device is literally the only thing keeping him tethered to his own time.
Makes sense to me.
It thankfully doesn't even look wet. He notices Sada staring at his wrist and quickly hides his hand in his lab coat pocket, pointedly ignoring her little sad pout.
Ugh, I don't want him to ignore her sad pout. It's adorable!
He jumps a bit when she storms up to him, brandishing her spear.
What... What did he do? Did he accidentally end up somewhere he wasn't meant to? Was that Magikarp some kind of holy creature and she's pissed because she had to attack it to save him?
Is he going to end up stabbed in the chest after all?
He doesn't understand, but she just sighs and offers him her hand.
He takes it after a second.
All right... Looks like he has avoided "death by spear" for the moment.
---
🤣
He's been sitting on that log for a couple of minutes now; he has tried to thank Sada for saving him, and now the girl has disappeared into the woods again. He nervously looks around, jumping at every sound. He doesn't even have Pokémon with him to protect him: even if he could get the permission to bring Miraidon with him, just pulling out a Poké Ball and using it would be... Incredibly risky. It's considered one of the most pivotal inventions of all of human history, almost at the same level of.... The wheel, or writing. Who knows what the effect of just accidentally showing someone the idea much earlier than supposed to could do to history.
A valid caution.
Not to mention that Miraidon would look even more out of place than he does.
His eyes land on something that Sada has left behind, and he recognizes it as the notebook he has given her.
Seeing it covered in marks he scoots closer and picks it up, intrigued.
He flips it open and is left staring at the page, speechless.
He was expecting some random doodles. Maybe stick figures like the ones in cave paintings.
These are notes. A drawing that is unmistakably a map is drawn on the page, with the position of the river, the woods and what must be other peculiar spots all marked with symbols. He flips behind a couple pages, and there's stylized drawings of mushrooms, leaves, plants, even Pokemon, all marked with one or more accompanying symbols.
On one of the first pages, he notices that a corner of the page seems torn up. Another corner has been dipped in water, ink all smeared.
She hasn't just been using it, she's been experimenting with it, trying out different things with this new unfamiliar material.
His heart starts pounding with excitement: this is incredible... she is incredible-
I like this a lot.
Man I'm glad to be reading a romance fic!
« TURO!»
He jumps like a kid caught stealing cookies from the jar right before dinner.
Sada is back, her leather pouch overflowing with what looks like random roots, plants and berries, and is staring at him with a mix of exasperation and disappointment.
She sets down her bag and mutters something under her breath, then points at the circle of stones she had set up and repeats the word she had taught him before. Was it... Something like ash? Or "fire", or.... Oh. OH.
.... She had asked him to start the fire, didn't she?
Yes, Turo, she did.
He flushes with embarrassment while she keeps possibly berating him -he doesn't blame her, he deserves that-, all while skewering some mushrooms on a couple of sticks.
« S-sorry...»
Well, even if he had understood her, he had no idea how to actually start a fire.
Ah, ha! Called it! He doesn't know how to start one. Why would he given where he is from?
He tries to excuse himself by pointing at the fire and shaking his head. She stops and looks at him quizzically, seemingly pondering something. Probably how someone lacking survival skills like him is still alive.
Huh, this statement seems to show that he understands her POV better than I would have expected. A lucky guess, perhaps?
She sits down near him, and grabs two pieces of wood from a pile near the log they've been using as a makeshift bench. The first one is flat, and looks like a little groove has been carved in it. The second one has an angled head, almost like a plow.
She slots the plow inside the groove and starts moving it up and down quickly, keeping it an an angle, then stops and offers him the two pieces of wood.
Oh. She.... She really wants him to do it himself, doesn't she?
He start mimicking what she had just showed him, and in not even a minute his arms already start protesting about the effort they are definitely not used to performing.
But he keeps it up, pushing through the pain, and... It does seem like it's working, smoke coming out from the friction of the movement. He had seen it done in movies, but never in real life. He honestly didn't think that a spark would come out so quickly, but suddenly there it is, a little pile of charcoal friction burned into the groove with an even tinier spark smoldering inside. Sada is quick to get a dried leaf near it, causing it to start burning, and transfers it into the campfire to start it proper.
Turo is left sitting there, with a huge, dumb grin slowly spreading on his face.
Sada laughs at his expression, but he doesn't mind.
He just made fire!! With his own two hands!! That's AWESOME!
---
This bit is great!
He had tried to refuse the food, feeling pretty bad in taking it when he had it so readily available at home, but the girl had just stared at him with a glare that... Well... Honestly had reminded him a bit of his mom when he was little and she was waiting for him to finish eating his vegetables.
There was no saying "no" to a glare like that.
Neko, you need to stop this from making me smile so much. My face is going to start to hurting! 😅
While they are eating some roasted mushrooms and roots, Sada excitedly shows him the notebook. She pinches one blank page between two fingers and looks up at him with those bright, clear eyes.
« What is it?»
Reminded of the first little "game" they had played, it doesn't take him much to guess what she just asked.
« "Paper"»
« "Paper"... » she repeats, looking back down at it. She looks conflicted, and he can almost see the thousand questions that she wants to ask, and doesn't know how. She gathers some leaves that they have been using as kindle and presses one on the page, before looking up at him again. She struggles a moment, silently mouthing a question, then speaks up again.
« Is.... "Paper"... Leaves?»
He looks at her, shocked.
Technically, no, but it's still cellulose, and she got scarily close to the right answer.
This is pretty cool seing her try to figure stuff out!
How did she even figure that out?
« No, it's... um .. "Wood"» he stammers out after a moment, pointing to the log they've been sitting on.
She stares at him for a moment, then nods, grabs her pen, and jots down another little mark on the page, a lil drawing of a tree.
... She's taking notes.
Many, many years later, Turo would look back at this scene and recognize it as the exact moment he first fell in love with her.
Awwwww!!!
