001 [ video ]

[curiosityvoyage]

—and, got it!

[When the feed cuts in, the first thing anyone might see is—a mop of brown curls. Wow. So exciting. After a moment, a young boy's face comes into view, blue eyes alive with an excited curiosity. Some more adjustments, and the background finally makes itself clear: the kid's in a park somewhere in De Chima, and he happens to be dressed like a Ghostbuster like it's Halloween or something.]

Hey, so, I've got a few questions. A lot of questions, actually. [So many curiosity doors, so little time.] To start with: anyone else here from Hawkins? [He hopes so. He—really doesn't want to be alone.] Man, Mr. Clarke'd have a field day.

[Eat your heart out, Hugh Everett.]

Secondly, has anyone started up an imPort A/V club yet? I'm a little curious about how it would work, especially since people from all kinds of different worlds with varying levels of technology keep getting pulled in. I think it'd be a great opportunity for us to learn about technology from other worlds, and from this one too. I know I'd love a crash course in how to use this—they called it a phone, but it doesn't really look like one. [Phones looked very different where he's from, and they definitely can't do half the stuff this device can.

Something warbles shrilly nearby. Dustin's head turns, and he bends down a little out of frame to talk to something just off-screen:] Shh, Dart. I'll feed you nougat later, just gotta finish this up first. [Turning back to the comm:] Also: Is there a species on your world that, appearance-wise, might be comparable to a pollywog but isn't? Like, pollywogs are cold-blooded and need heat and light, for example, but that particular species actively avoids heat? What kind of food would you feed it? [Beat.] I'm asking for a friend.

Comments

[Video]

[curiosityvoyage]

I noticed! It's pretty awesome, the phones back at home aren't anything like this. [This is the coolest thing ever, man.]

Where are you from?

[Video]

[itcanwait]

What are they like for you? They're different for me too, but mostly size and we use tablets more.

I'm from a planet called Cybertron.

[curiosityvoyage]

For one thing? We don't have screens, and we don't carry them around with us. Plus, you can only call somebody with the phones from my world, you can't do all the things you can do with them here.

[Cybertron? That's—actually not familiar to Dustin.]

Yeah? What's it like there? And what kind of tablets do you use, do they have holograms or anything?

[itcanwait]

Huh so they're hardwired in a fixed location? That's inconvenient.

[It's refreshing to have another person not actually recognise where he's from or what he is.]

Our tablets are a lot like the ones here. View and write files and stuff. No holograms though. I only ever used them to keep up with ship gossip.

Cybertron used to be so beautiful. It's a metal world, no organic life. But it's all busted up after the war.

I got to see part of it again though so that was cool.

[curiosityvoyage]

Right? My friends and I use walkie-talkies instead to keep in touch with each other, but the range isn't as good.

[Lucky for Tailgate, Transformers hasn't appeared yet on the party's radar, so for now he's safe.]

By ship, are we talking about regular sea-faring ship or a spaceship? [He is so elated to ask this question, you don't even know.] We've only got sea-faring ships back on my world, the furthest we've gone so far is the moon.

[There's a faint little crease between Dustin's eyebrows now.] There was a war? What, did someone important get assassinated or something? And what part of it did you see again? When?

[itcanwait]

Space. Definitely space. That's like here too. They don't have much of anything that counts as space travel, not the way I'm used to. Shuttles don't count.

[He's quiet for a moment.]

It was a long long civil War.

Rodion. It makes this world look so dull. I got to see it before the war.