001 ; video

[shoyu]

[ click! as the video feed flickers on -- and here's soysauce looking kind of confused and lost. a slow blink as he confirms that this thing is working properly (he can never be sure, it's nothing like those clunky old phones and radios he's so used to) before he gives a polite smile. ]

Good evening. I hope I'm not being too much of a bother when the mood seems so, ah -- [ what's the word ] electrified.

[ a sheepish sort of laugh as he rubs at his jaw. ]

I'd like to avoid wasting too much of anyone's time, so I suppose I should get straight to the point, which is --

[ and then he rather clumsily manages to bring up the text for:

:) ]

This mark. I'm afraid I've never been very good with fancy machinery and such complicated things, and there seems to be a bit of a buzz about these matters as of late. May I possibly ask what these symbols stand for? -- humor an old man, perhaps?

[ yes he seriously has no idea what smilies are. ]

Comments

[player_not_slayer]

...Are you kidding me.

[Didn't cavemen draw smiling faces on walls with rocks or something back in the stone age? What are you even, dude.]

[shoyu]

Ah -- I'm afraid not. Perhaps I should have apologized for my ignorance beforehand?

[ he's never seen a computer before landing here okay ]

[player_not_slayer]

[This is too sad to even troll. You've broken him, Soysauce. Congratulations.]

Its...turn it like this, dude.

What do you see.

[shoyu]

[ he's trying so hard to understand what's going on sob he's just gonna squint so hard at it before really carefully guessing, ]

... some sort of face?

[player_not_slayer]

Very good.

[He can't keep quite all the sarcasm out of his voice but oh god its hard.]

And what is it doing?

[shoyu]

[ oops getting distracted ]

Is this meant to be some sort of ... signature? It seems a rather roundabout way of leaving one's mark.

[player_not_slayer]

[Focus, dude. Come on he knows you can do it.]

Its meant to be fucking Creepy McCreepersville, okay? Focus.

Its an expression.

[shoyu]

[ such language ]

F -- excuse me, what?

voice;

[therangerking]

It seems another language entirely.

voice;

[darkholme]

Oh! It's a smiley face. [ someone, despite the fact that she's freaking out about.. everything, actually sounds kind of excited to be able to explain this to someone. ]

Just turn your head to the left, so that the : is on top of the )

It's a face, see it? Two eyes and a smile.

video;

[coarse]

I'd call it a signature. [Besides the face, which... he imagines more than enough people have managed to explain to Soy.] Someone must've thought it would be very clever.

voice;

[shoyu]

Ahaha, it does, doesn't it? I'm afraid none of these fancy machines existed back where I'm from, so it's all awfully confusing.

voice;

[shoyu]

[ after squinting it for a considerable moment, ]

-- aaaah, I see, I see.

Rather unintuitive though, isn't it? Reading something sideways. Or is that what's usually done with these things?

voice;

[therangerking]

I thought you to be of the future.

video;

[shoyu]

A signature ... [ pause. all of these machine-things are hard to really understand. ] Meant to communicate that -- this is a jovial person?

voice;

[shoyu]

Mmm, perhaps not enough of the future? [ a sheepish laugh ] We have some things that are vaguely similar, but nowhere near as complicated. They only send voices and sounds across distances, not images or symbols.

[player_not_slayer]

[Get used to it, Soysauce. Simon farts profanity and shits sarcasm on a regular basis.]

Focus. [Because that's what the man was about to say, clearly.]

Its a smiling fucking face, man. You've got the two dots for eyes and the curve of the damn smile. Using it for a signature is pretty tit flipping creepy, not to mention arrogant cause its just inviting people to try to figure out who he is.

Are you with me so far?

[shoyu]

[ gosh, so harsh. sounding a little bit like a kicked dog, ]

Ah, yes -- yes, I think I do.

[player_not_slayer]

[Oh god this guy is kinda pitiful, and Simon just can't...handle it. He can't handle the look of the old man being so damn lost he doesn't even know what a :) is.]

...Good. That kinda shi- thing is called an emoticon. There's a fuckton of them out there for expressions and mimicing the faces or actions you're doing at the screen when people can't see you doing it, alright?

[shoyu]

... emoticon. [ trying out the sound of the word. it feels weird. ] So -- the person using this is trying to imply they are constantly smiling?

video.

[ohhdeer]

I guess enough people have explained that-- um, emoticon to you, but-- there are a lot of them. People use them when they-- when they text? Usually on phones, but I guess that doesn't really help you if you're not accustomed to newer phones.

video.

[shoyu]

[ a small sigh and a sheepish laugh. ] Ah -- technology really does move quite quickly, doesn't it?

I had difficulty believing that this thing was even a telephone at first. I'm more used to the ... much older models. [ mimicking one of those fingerwheel dials. :( ]

video.

[ohhdeer]

I suppose it does. [ a shy smile, ear flicking slightly as he reaches up to brush a few strands of hair back from his face. ] To be honest, I'm not particularly caught up on all the new stuff, either, and I'm from a world where it's fairly advanced.

video.

[shoyu]

[ a small blink as he notices those ears and -- are those antlers? ah, that's quite interesting. but it might be rude to pry right off the bat, so he won't say anything for the moment. ]

Do they use these, ah -- 'emoticons' where you're from, too? I can't say I've seen too many of them here, either, other than the infamous smiling red one.

video.

[ohhdeer]

Oh, yes, there are a lot of fun ones. Usually you have to turn them sideways unless they're the little Japanese ones. But I'm not particularly good at remembering those.

[ his expression softens sympathetically. ]

I'm sorry, this place must be really strange for you.