Video

[heart_wrenching]

[ Even after the video starts, the image is mostly obscured, the figure still way too close and fiddling with her device. ]


Is this really broadcasting now? Amaaaaazing. I can't even see the microphone or camera! It's almost unbelievable.


[ When she finally sits back the area around her is a mess. The tables are strewn with tools and machine parts, knobs, springs, coils, piping. If one looks carefully, one may be able to spot a number of control panels suggesting she has possibly dismantled every major appliance in the home. Like ya do. ]


Well, hello! I'm a new imPort, my name's Winry. Winry Rockbell. And . . . does anyone out there know how to build a "microwave"? Well, rebuild, technically. The locks and turntables are pretty straightforward, but then there's all these wires . . . who knew electricity was going to be such a big deal, anyway?

Comments

[fullmetalbrat]

—You can grow organs?

[dendarii]

Oh, yes. Whole people as well. I myself was made that way.

[fullmetalbrat]

[Suddenly Ed is about a thousand percent less excited.]

So . . . you're a created human . . . ?

[dendarii]

I suppose you could call me that. But you would have to say the same of my mother, and probably 90% of the galactic population at this point. Uterine replicators are universal nowadays.

[fullmetalbrat]

Uterine what.

[dendarii]

Replicator. Exactly what it sounds like.

[fullmetalbrat]

Why would— Why?

[dendarii]

...Because a body birth is invasive, dangerous, and outdated at this point? I certainly wouldn't have survived without the tech available.

[fullmetalbrat]

You got a real way of making anyone who disagrees with you out to be an asshole.

[Some of us were only born in 1899 and your future is weird and alarming!!]

[dendarii]

Sorry, sorry. That wasn't my intent. It's simply a given fact of life at this point - and there are plenty of other things to be unhappy about in terms of technological abuse.

[fullmetalbrat]

Haah . . . I'm just—still . . . catching up. There's a lot to catch up on.

[dendarii]

Well, I'd be happy to assist, if you like. My planet ran on horses and wagons as the most advanced form of tech available until less than a hundred years ago.

[fullmetalbrat]

How did you go from horses to space so fast?!

[dendarii]

[ Dryly: ]'

We were invaded. Violently.

[fullmetalbrat]

Ah . . . I'm sorry.

[dendarii]

So were we. Ah, well. We'd have managed it anyway eventually, once the wormhole was open again.

[fullmetalbrat]

I'm guessing you don't mean an actual worm's tunnel, do you?

[dendarii]

... Not as far off as you think. It is a tunnel, except through space. A portal of sorts.

[fullmetalbrat]

[There's a flicker of something in his expression. Miles certainly has his attention now.]

How is it made? Where does it go?

[dendarii]

They can't be made or really affected by any technology humanity possesses. I suppose tunnel is a misnomer - they're more like mountain passes, with civilization on other sides and trade routes through them. Rarely, one will collapse on itself, or a new one will appear.

... Are you familiar with such things yourself?

[fullmetalbrat]

No, that sounds different, but still . . .

Do you know if the library would have any information on them? Or anything similar?

[dendarii]

Terribly basic ones, alas. They're only theoretical at this level of tech.

... But I do know someone else you can talk to. Two, in fact.

[fullmetalbrat]

What are their names?

[dendarii]

My mother, Cordelia Naismith. And Dr. Hermann Gottlieb. You should recognize the latter on sight - he has my face.

[fullmetalbrat]

—Your mother is here? And the other guy—how will I know I'm not just seeing you again?