Snow [Sadhbh]

[sadhbh wormwood]

November 28, 2028

Upon hearing her confusion, Nova apologized to her. "Online means on the internet?" she replied, though it sounded to Sadhbh like a question rather than a statement. "Like the Muggle invention that allows them to communicate or look up basically anything they've ever made or wanted?"

"Ah," Sadhbh answered Nova once it was clearer that it was something from the Muggles. They didn't use that kind of technology on Hy-Brasil, since it was banned entirely. She thought that it was interesting, though, in the way that Nova described it. It was like a library and a postal service, potentially.

What was even stranger was when Nova pulled out her phone to illustrate what it actually was. "And you can buy things from other people using it too, and then they mail it. Similar to owl delivery," she added.

All of that? With something that size?! Sadhbh stared at the device intently, certain that Nova was exaggerating everything it could do. "I use it a lot to talk or write my friends, or look up new recipes."

Sadhbh, although now understanding some of what the technology could do, didn't fully comprehend it. "You use the… online to talk to people?" she asked. Couldn't she just go and talk to them, the way people did on Hy-Brasil? "And that"—Sadhbh lifted her hand to approximate the size of Nova's phone—"has everything the Muggles have made?" Either the Muggles really hadn't made anything at all, or they had found something that Sadhbh would have thought was witchcraft if not for her being a Druid.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

▲

It was always difficult trying to explain muggle technology to magical folks that had no idea what any of it was. So much lingo was entrenched in knowing other aspects of it, that it could quickly grow confusing. And she was worried she was starting to do the same with poor Sadhbh. Thankfully, her guest seemed to get it?

”In short, yes,” Nova responded. She wasn’t going to get into the difference between cell service and internet service, or how it managed to work in the alleys these days. That alone was a multi-hour lesson. Nova had been so happy that her aunt understood it all in one go. Decima was always keeping up with current trends, probably because she had pseudo-raised Nova. ”There are dozens of different ways to call and talk to people, or to send them a message.” Text, email, voice recordings, phone calls, video calls…there was so much that even she didn’t use everything her phone was capable of. Like video calls. Why would she ever do that when she could just got see the person? It seemed silly. Muggles apparently used it a lot though.

As for everything muggles had every made being on her phone, well, that was sort of true too. ”Basically? There are websites – think of those as books – where all of humanity contributes their collective knowledge. And then you can type on another website to find whatever it is you’re looking for.” Nova opened her phone’s search engine and held it out in front of her, showing the screen to Sadhbh. Once there, she searched ‘chocolate chip cookies’. Multiple articles, images, and webpages became instantly available. Nova put her finger in front of the one that led to the Wikipedia article. ”Tap the blue word, and you’ll see what I mean,” she instructed Sadhbh.

sadhbh wormwood ● 303

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[sadhbh wormwood]

November 28, 2028

Sadhbh knew that the mainlanders knew more about the non-magical world than they did on Hy-Brasil, but the way in which Nova was explaining her device was more interesting than she had expected. Somehow, there were multiple ways to contact people, all with that little phone thing. There were what she called websites, too. The word reminded Sadhbh of a spiderweb, yet Nova likened them to books, strangely.

"There are websites—think of those as books—where all of humanity contributes their collective knowledge. And then you can type on another website to find whatever it is you're looking for." To illustrate what she was talking about, she touched the screen until she had typed "chocolate chip cookies" and generated even more information. "Tap the blue word, and you'll see what I mean."

"We can't use these on Hy-Brasil," Sadhbh stated. She held out her index finger towards the illuminated screen slowly, as though the device would burn her. At the risk of getting into trouble on Hy-Brasil, she tapped the blue word Nova indicated. Almost as soon as her fingertip had touched the phone screen, more information showed up with a description of what a chocolate chip cookie was. Nothing bad happened to her after touching the screen, and Sadhbh looked at Nova with a mixture of wonder and confusion. "…But you didn't write this?" she questioned. It was interesting, but she wanted to know more. Maybe they could do something with which she was more familiar than Nova was. "Is there 'wine'?"

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

▲

Nova didn't even care that her shopping that morning had been a bust. Watching a druid discover and inspect a phone and the internet for the first time was infinitely more interesting than anything else. How lucky was she to have this happen? In a way, it almost felt like teaching a small child how to operate one, except that child was a full-grown adult that had lived experiences without the assistance of any kind of technology in their life up until this point. She wasn't sure if her comparison to books would help Sadhbh understand it better or not. Nova almost didn't want to tell the druid that one could also download books onto the phone to read wherever and whenever.

Sadhbh commented that phones weren't usable on Hy-Brasil, and that confirmed most of the stories Nova had heard over the last few years since the druids started to appear more frequently. It sounded to her like a dream come true. Completely unplugged in nature...she really needed a vacation. Badly. Sadhbh's curiosity over the phone was amazing to watch though, the weird dopamine hit that followed feeling like she'd just drank a double-shot of espresso. The druid's question about whether or not Nova 'wrote' the section on the chocolate chip cookies made her laugh. "No, no. I have no idea who wrote that. Since it's on Wikipedia, it's probably a bunch of different people that have contributed or edited it over time." Though now that she thought about it, did a page on a cookie that hadn't changed in however long it'd been in existence need to be edited frequently?

The follow up question was whether or not they could look up wine as well. "Of course there is," Nova said, leaning over enough to tap the tiny magnifying glass in the upper right hand corner of the screen. The search bar appeared. Once the phone's keyboard popped up, she continued with her instructions, "Now type wine in, and there should be a selection that pops up from that. Once you see that, touch it, and then it will take you to the correct page."

sadhbh wormwood ● 359

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[sadhbh wormwood]

November 28, 2028

Sadhbh attempted to follow along as Nova clarified for her that she hadn't written what was there on the screen herself. She didn't know who had written it, in fact, which was surprising. With books, it was generally easy enough to find out who had written something, as long as the author's name was towards the front of it or on the cover or the spine. Not everything on Hy-Brasil was in the written record, but most people also knew from where information that had been retold orally had come. It was just something that they did without thinking much about it. They all knew the same stories, songs, legends.

"Wine", Nova answered her, was also a possibility. In fact, she was just as sure of it as anything. She indicated to her where to type the word in on the phone screen and explained how to get to it.

Nodding, Sadhbh followed along, slowly typing each letter and then touching the link for the relevant article when it appeared as a search result. Sadhbh looked on in awe and began to read the text aloud, "Wine is an alcoholic drink made from fermented fruit…" It was. And this technology was amazing.

nova hypatia vector

[nova hypatia vector]

▲

Was this even legal for a druid to be doing? The thought only crossed Nova’s mind after she had started to show her guest how to type everything out, and at that point, it was between Sadhbh and her old-world gods. From how she had seen some of the older customers struggle with the advent of magic-phones these last few years, this situation was incredibly similar. Except handing a phone to someone that had probably never held one before was even crazier. Even though she wasn’t personally social media addicted or attached to her phone day in and day out, it was hard to imagine a world where they simply didn’t matter. That sort of idyllic society was better off without it though. The only good she had gotten out of technology was being able to look up recipes or take photos of her cat. Nova, unfortunately, had no life outside of either of those two things.

Sadhbh did eventually type the word ‘wine’ all the way in, and it wasn’t too painful to watch. She then managed to get all the way to the dedicated page and started to read from it. ”Neat, yeah?” At least an adult could appreciate it. Nova absolutely despised seeing children glued to phones and tablets out in public when she was running errands in the muggle world. It was absolutely unhinged. She just hoped that it didn’t eventually become a thing here as well. The longer it took magic kind to learn about it, the better.

”And you can do that for almost everything that you can think of. The muggles put all of their information on the internet, basically free to use and search.” Because phone plans and internet still existed. That was the price one had to pay for unlimited information.

sadhbh wormwood ● 300

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0