Searching Far and Wide

[intricate_engineer]

Glen was creating a prototype for a new gate design. It was meant to be affordable and provide quick transport between individual homes. She tests several objects and a rat and everything seems to be working.

She steps through. Instead of finding herself in the room next door, she finds herself standing on a sidewalk in an empty city. The buildings are tall and perfect, colorless with doorways far too tall for any human. The roads have no straight lines and twist in on themselves. There is no life or sound.
Glen tries to stay calm. She begins to walk along the road, randomly opening doors and exploring buildings that are as silent as the rest of the world.

She opens a door that she hopes will lead onto a roof and is instead met with warmth, and soft noise, and color.

Comments

[the_very_best]

"I bet it would be. Uh, I'm sure there's something else unprecedented you could demonstrate..."

[intricate_engineer]

"Given some time yes, but I'm not sure if I have anything else flashy enough to get someone important to talk to me."

[the_very_best]

"What're some candidates?"

[intricate_engineer]

"The stun gun I showed you. I have some medicines you probably don't have. I have a cream that closes wounds, but I don't know if anyone is going to wait around for me to cut myself. I have a translation device. Actually, maybe this'll work-"
Glen drops her bag on the ground and rummages around inside of it.
She pulls out an object that looks like a mix between a water purifier and a paper shredder. Glen pulls on the top and a large, thin sheet unfurls.

[the_very_best]

"A translation device'd be impressive.... what is that?"

[intricate_engineer]

"It's a little slow, it requires time to learn a new language. It might not be enough to get an initial audience. This is a food processor. It can turn almost any organic material into usable calories. This is a solar panel-"
Glen points to unfurled sheet.
"The results are disgusting, and you still need vitamins to survive, but it's saved my life before."

[the_very_best]

"Anything people have to ingest to see it working is gonna be a hard sell, but if you teach your translator a couple local languages that'd be impressive. The solar panel's fancy-looking too."

[intricate_engineer]

"Will a translator speaking a familiar language be unusual enough to catch someone's attention? This one is special because it can learn, but if it already knows the language it won't be that remarkable."

[the_very_best]

"If you can get it to translate between the local and, like, Kalosian, in anything like real time, that's a big deal."

[intricate_engineer]

"Alright, I'll take your word on it. It seems like recording video is normal here?"

[the_very_best]

"Yeah."

[intricate_engineer]

"Do you know where I could get videos in Kalosian? Also, have you figured out how to create fake video yet?"

[the_very_best]

"Faking video would be pretty tricky, I think. And you could get them to look at from a library or to keep from a store, there's an immigrant population, they're not that specialty."

[intricate_engineer]

"I guess I'll buy a few. I'm starting to think I should do this sooner than later, since it sounds like you guys don't have great trauma care. I could also fake some video of who ever is in charge if I get some old footage of them."

[the_very_best]

"That seems like the sort of thing that might not come off as friendly."

[intricate_engineer]

"Really? Comedians do it all the time at home, but I guess it could seem threatening?"

[the_very_best]

"Well, we're not used to it, so, 'here's this ability I have that lets me produce evidence everyone will actually believe that you did or said things'..."

[intricate_engineer]

Glen grimaces, "Ok, yeah. I can see how that would be a problem. This is also why I'm wary of introducing everything at once. Will this mess up your legal system? Will innocent people go to jail, or will no one go to jail since no evidence is trustworthy?"

[the_very_best]

"I don't really know how to predict that. How do you deal with this when it's common?"

[intricate_engineer]

"We go very very slowly. Outside experts come in. We talk to all the people in power, and develop a plan. Advances in medicine are released first, everything else is spread out over ten to twenty years. Often, the general population doesn't know what's happening at first."

[the_very_best]

"...I'm not saying I don't get your reasons but that seems sort of creepy."

[intricate_engineer]

"I don't necessarily agree. Actually, no one's listening, I don't agree. But there needs to be a middle ground, and I'm not sure what it is."

[the_very_best]

"I'd say start your own company, announce stuff in the usual way for inventions, but you'd need startup funds."

[intricate_engineer]

"Yea. I can at least send the medical stuff to all the major pharmaceutical companies and worry about a general plan later. Are there universities here?"

[the_very_best]

"Yeah, sure there are."