communication and stuff

[rosco_coltrane]

Rosco is randomly wandering around. He's talking to anyone who is willing.

"They're just some things about this place that I can't get the hang of. Like all the things people go around talking and typing into. I'm just a good old boy from Georgia. What are those things and should I have one?"

He's also a bit confused about jobs and how Nexus society works, especially as a member of the establishment in his own universe.

"How'm I supposed to get work here and what's the employment rate like? I've been feeding myself by selling stuff I find...stuff I find outside that looks unclaimed. I've even sold bottle caps, like that one fella suggested. Is anyone hiring? I don't know much outside of law enforcement."

Comments

[brother_alone]

For better or worse, there's a familiar face sitting on one of the benches in the Plaza looking absolutely miserable in all of this heat. He gives a weak wave at the officer, pulling his pwn phone out of his pocket.

"Cell phones started popping up in the 80's, though they were bigger than bricks, dude. By the turn of the millennium we got something closer to this size, although they didn't have all these features and stuff until 2008ish for the general public." He wiggles the smartphone back and forth.

"Told you I wasn't from your time."

[rosco_coltrane]

"I believed you," Rosco says, defensively.

He sits down on the bench next to the young man, looking at his phone.

"Well, I'm from the mid-eighties and even Boss don't have anything like that. What sort of features do you mean?"

[brother_alone]

"Well, to be fair, if you had a cell phone in the 80s you were hella rich." Josh pushes a button on the side to get it to light up, and then swipes his thumb across the screen to unlock it and pull up all the little tabs for different applications.

"So it's like a wall phone. But it's also..." He opens a folder and hits a button before a light shines out the back of it. "A flashlight. Radio. Camera. Video camera. Computer."

[rosco_coltrane]

"Well, Boss is pretty rich, but he's cheap, too. Mind you, he's my fat little buddy, so that ain't an insult!"

Rosco stares at the phone in amazement and gives a delighted giggle.

"Kee kee, that thing just does everything! And all in that tiny little gadget?"

He's impressed.

"You don't have to be rich to have one of those?"

[brother_alone]

"Nothing wrong with being frugal even if you've got the cash." Josh shrugs easily. Seems pretty fair to say he didn't take the comment to be an insult to Roscoe's friend or employer or whomever the person they're talking about is.

"Yeah, it's pretty cool, right? It can't do GPS or weather here, but that makes sense because no one knows where 'here' really is. Everything else seems to work fine though. And nah, most folks have one now."

[rosco_coltrane]

"If I can get work, I'd like to have one," Rosco admits. "I couldn't take it home, but I could have fun with it here. ... What's GPS mean?"

[brother_alone]

"You should look around for security work. Having folks walk in and take things is a constant worry considering you can't really stop the people with a mind to do it. Anti-violence field and all."

Josh gestures around them.

"The intimidation factor alone would make most people think twice."

[rosco_coltrane]

"Well, I can be intimidating, if I gotta," Rosco agreed, though feeling a bit unsure, given some of the people he has met. "Will this anti-violence field keep me from hauling people off to jail? Hand-cuffing them?"

It occurs to him that not everyone here will even have hands and he looks both worried and confused at the thought.

"What's GPS, though? I bet I can find a good police use for one of those."

[brother_alone]

"Oh, sorry. It's like an interactive map." Josh taps the word 'satellite' into a brightly colored text bar with the word 'Google' on top and waits for the results to load.

"So they put these things up into orbit right? Like into space. How GPS works is it shoots a signal out and these satellites pick it up and triangulate your exact location. People use it for getting directions to places and other stuff. It's been around for a while."

[rosco_coltrane]

"Yeah, I know about satellites. We've had those for about twenty years now," Rosco assures him. He frowns a bit. "Triangulates and pinpoints? That sounds like spy stuff. We don't need to be spied on from space."

[brother_alone]

"I'm sure it's used for that in some respects." Josh waves his hand dismissively. "But by and large folks use it to figure out where they are and where they need to go. It's pretty handy if you're ever in a strange place, or heaven forbid a goddamn huge city like New York."

[rosco_coltrane]

"Watch your language," Rosco scolds, the words out, without him even thinking about them. "That does sound handy, though. Uh. I've been told this place kinda changes, now and then. Will the GPS know, when it does?"

He has the horrible thought of the Nexus changing, leaving him unable to find his rooms and Flash.

[brother_alone]

Really? Josh almost says something worse purely out of the desire to be a smartass but shuts his mouth before he does. No sense in upsetting the guy on purpose. He shrugs instead and slips his phone back into his pocket.

"I haven't found a program that will run GPS inside the Nexus. Which makes sense, since we're not exactly traceable by the satellites back home if we're not...you know..back home. In our worlds."

[rosco_coltrane]

Rosco blushes, nodding. He should've remembered the satellite bit.

"Oh, yeah. That does makes sense. Sorry," he says sheepishly, waiting to be scolded or mocked. "Though maybe we can put some up somehow...though I ain't seen any space stuff yet."