They are stranded on a very primitive world, the technology here being pretty much obsolete. Good thing the friend they have with them still knows how to use this old tech. They'll need it to try to call for a lift home.
((Inspired by all the videos of teens and younger trying to use things like walkmans and rotary phones, and realizing these once very common pieces of technology are completely foreign to them.)) -- Lessons
They should not be here. They knew this. A pre-exploration world with an extremely egocentric attitude and an insatiable desire for more. With an additional minimum of care that they were living in a closed system[1]. Shayde had her Glamour and shadow gifts. Rael had... a garden.
"Potatoes," Shayde had told him. "They grow quick, they store easy, and you get a load of calories with." The Tukkatukka was still immature. Growing from seed in tubs in the wreck, lest they infest this world with a weed that would only exacerbate their problems. Though Shayde was tempted to give it to the "third world" areas where the land was so abused that it couldn't even grow rocks.
Even kind actions had consequences, so she refrained. That didn't stop a certain amount of meddling all the same. The observer effect was in full swing. Such as this shopping event so they could keep track of local affairs.
Shayde had made her hair a dark brown, and hid her eyes behind large, wrap-around sunglasses. The less she had to Glamour, the longer she could hold the illusion. Rael's pale violet skin was 'explained' with the presence of a cannula and a pull-along tank with a rigged pressure indicator. "It's awreet," she soothed. "Ye sound like a grumpy old man anyway. Just add a few wrinkles to yer fiz."
He imitated the plastic look of this world's burn victims out of pure spite.
Communications tech was primitive, to say the least of it. Everything here was large enough to eat a decent meal off of[2]. It was no surprise that a great many of them were incorporated into furniture.
"How will we get a truck to our... place?" Rael said, poking at yet another large brown box with buttons and baffling displays. Something popped up and he nearly fell backwards.
Shayde pressed it back down. "We don't want a VCR. We're lookin' at radios and televisions. Maybe a modem if there's internet." She lead him over to a completely different display of nearly-identical brown boxes with a fake wooden veneer. The televisions were distinctive by way of being cubes instead of rectangular prisms.
"Are you sure those aren't safes?"
"Cathode ray tubes," said Shayde. "They're wild." She noticed something in a corner. "Ah ye wee ripper..." She had found something 'cool'.
It was a beige cube. On top of a beige rectangular prism. The bright rainbow letters declared, The Future is NOW!
"It's a Macintosh," Shayde whispered. "Well. This world's convergent evolution version of a Mac," she pointed out the handle incorporated into the cube. "It's portable."
"Allegedly," said Rael. "That has to weigh at least five Siwus[3]."
"Closer tae ten," said Shayde. "No keyboard, no mouse. They don't want t' kiddies playin' wi' it."
A customer service representative appeared out of nowhere. "Can I help you?" they said. Here pronounced, You are the wrong type of people, looking at an expensive thing. If you have enough cash to pay for it, I am calling the cops.
Shayde switched to her Harvard Accent. "Hello, yes thank you. We were very interested in upgrading our entertainment room. The whole suite. Television, radio, record and tape players. Both kinds. We've seen some of these darling little machines in the cinema. Do they really speak to each other like they do on the silver screen?"
Now there was a fun facial journey to watch. From, Are these people going to rob me? through, Oh shit, old money! to, I'm making a fortune in commissions, today. "Certainly, ma'am. I can definitely help you with that. This one is the more portable students' model." Student was pronounced with a sneer. "If you'll follow me, ma'am, I can show you something more... appropriate for both office and entertainment rooms." The customer service representative made what they thought was a discrete 'money-money' sign to their fellow representatives.
These large rectangular prisms had gilded corners and actual wood for their veneers instead of vinyl. Some had animal claws holding balls for their legs.
"We have these in oak, spruce, and mahogany," they went into their spiel, which included a folio of what an upper-class entertainment lounge could look like with extra purchases.
Rael really didn't want to be here that long. "Can you just show me what they do?"
Only now did she notice the oxygen tank, and the horrified expression was another one to treasure. "Of course, of course. These all use the latest in transistor and computer chip technology. You don't even have to walk to change the channels any more with our new infra-red remote." It was a plastic brick that was trying hard to look sleek. Actual words were on the buttons.
Rael looked pleadingly to Shayde, who just mouthed, Trust me.
He was going to have another bad day, but at least she would purchase some of this planet's deliriously over-caloried fast food for him.
[1] So pretty much exactly like 1980's USA.
[2] Given Rael's definition of "a decent meal", you can guess they're pretty huge.
[3] Standard Weight Units, roughly equivalent to a kilogram.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / mcgill]
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