[Amelie van Hoof]

Nighttime in Mavro City was a perfect venue for someone with Amelie's predilections. There were shadier cities out there, sure, but naive academics made easy marks for anyone with quick hands or a silver tongue. Amelie knew just where to go to find partying kids with loose pockets full of cash and adults too boozed up to realize when their wallets go missing. The uptown shopkeepers put valuable goods on display, ripe for stealing, but finding a discreet buyer would require venturing into the rougher areas downtown.

This time, Amelie was content to stick to the well-traveled mall in the business district. She doubted that Serena would last ten minutes in the more dangerous parts of town. As Amelie led her companion to the mall proper, she idly glanced around at the surrounding office buildings. The Team Origin headquarters was supposedly on this side of town... but it would be unbecoming for a lowly recruit such as herself to pry into the matter any further than that. Yes, the HQ would be opened to her when she was ready.

Amelie led Serena into the mall. "You can find just about anything here," she said with a smile, "though you can still go downtown for... hm, some less common stuff. The food court is in that direction, but let's take the long way there, shop around a little first."

As she spoke, Amelie slowed, content to let Serena take the lead and show what she was interested in. It was more or less inconsequential which shops they visited, at least as far as Amelie's plans were concerned. She watched Serena closely, doing her best not to appear overly intent.

[Serena Miller]

Serena was still apprehensive about going outside again.  At first she thought it would be fine because they would be going outside after the sun went down, and at least where she came from not many people did that.  Looking outside the window in her dorm, showed that the city didn't appear to be any darker than it was when she first arrived on the island in the middle of the day however.  If it was still this light outside even without the sun's help, it seemed likely that people would still be out and about since it wasn't anywhere near bedtime yet.  She was beginning to understand why some people say some cities never sleep.

The trip there did not betray her new expectations.  If anything, it was more crowded than it was during the day when she arrived.  The fact that this many people could be in such a small area was still so incomprehensible to her that it made her head spin.  Everything just became a blurry mass of lights and colors as she followed behind Amelie.  She followed closely, about as closely as she could so she wouldn't lose her in this crowd, but not so close that they were touching, even if it did take all her self control to not hang onto her guide's arm.

The building they arrived at was even more incomprehensible than the amount of people in it.  it was one of those gigantic buildings that she would never imagined could exist.  How could something this big even remain standing?  Between its own weight, and the weight of all the people in it, it seemed like the building should come crashing down any second.  In the end, she trusted its construction, if only because of how everyone else was acting, it was just far beyond anything she had ever seen before.  And this entire building was filled with different stores with so many different things.  Back in her hometown, you could really only get what someone else in town made.  Sometimes someone would drive into the city to get some goods, but that was rare and most people wouldn't buy them believing that the things made in town were just better.  It was absurd how much stuff was here.  The store to her left was an entire store dedicated to soap.  It wasn't just a small kiosk either, it was legitimately a complete store with more different kinds of soaps than she could ever count, and so many copies of the same kind that she wondered what anyone would even do with that much soap.  How was anyone even supposed to choose from that many options.  And on top of that, this was just one store, there were still so many more left, and Amelie was saying that there were still more stores elsewhere?

"What kinds of things?" Serena blinked.  "I can't even imagine what other kinds of things anyone would need."

Serena just nodded to Amelie's suggestion that they take the long way.  She wasn't so hungry that she needed to eat something right now, and she doubted the place where all the food was would be any less crowded than the rest of this building.  She just stopped behind Amelie and waited for her to continue on, figuring that there were a few stores she wanted to go to on the way.  However, she didn't move at all, and was just looking in her direction.  Confused, Serena looked behind her, but the only things over there were more crowds of people, a kid's shoe store and a store that sold a lot of useless decorative items, none of which seemed like something Amelie would be interested in.  She turned back towards her and tilted her head, not quite sure what she was suggesting, but after a moment she finally understood.  Amelie was expecting her to lead the way now.

Serena turned back towards the walls of stores, the hallway seeming to get longer as she looked down it.  She had never gotten to dictate where she shopped, not even back home.  She never shopped alone, so she just always followed her mother and let her decide where she wanted to go.  Doing anything else would yield bad results.  Now, she was in a place with more options than she knew what to do with, a place bigger than anything she had ever seen, with more people than she had ever seen.  Her vision started to go blurry again as she became more overwhelmed than she was even a few minutes ago.  She looked around, but half the time she couldn't even make out the name of the place she was looking at or what they were selling.  There was just too much to look at here.  She had no idea what she wanted to do, so she shifted her mode of thinking to something she could handle a little easier.  What would Amelie like to do?  She didn't know her that well yet, but she knew a little bit.

"U-um...H-How about there?"

She pointed to a store with some devices she had never seen before.  The sign just read 'computers' but that was also a term she hadn't heard before.  A lot of the things on display looked like some kind of book while they were closed at least, and Amelie seemed to like those based on how many she had, so maybe she'd find something good there?

[Amelie van Hoof]

"I'll have to show you some of the less traveled shops sometime. But for now..."

Amelie was pleased with Serena's choice of store. She hadn't used computers much while growing up, but she had begun studying them extensively when she first heard how lucrative online scamming could be. Lately, she had been too absorbed in her Pokemon studies to make much progress on that front, but she was still probably more competent than most casual users.

"Oh yes, are computers common out where you live? They can be pretty useful for students. The big ones have large keyboards that make them far better than typewriters at typing up your school assignments. I believe there are some public ones in the school library, but if going out there is too taxing on you, having one of your own might be nice." Amelie herself was content to handle such things late in the evening, when she'd have the computer lab mostly to herself.

"You can also use them for gaming, if you need to fill some free time." This wasn't a subject Amelie knew much about, so she quickly continued onward. Devoting too much time to leisurely pursuits like that made her feel guilty. Far better to spend it securing more pocket change for Team Origin.

"You might also be interested in these. They're called smart phones, but they're basically just small computers, and they can do all sorts of stuff while still being small enough for portability." Amelie picked up one of the more expensive models, which appeared to be fully activated but chained to its display, and offered it to Serena.

"Why not poke around a little and see what it can do?"

[Serena Miller]

"Um, no I've never even seen one before."

Computer.  Serena repeated the term under her breath a few times to make sure she'd remember it.  She was glad she at least knew how to pronounce it now, and even more glad that Amelie seemed happy with her choice.  Serena walked into the shop and took a look around.  So, all of these things were computers?  Some of them looked similar, like the book-like objects on display in the front, but some of them looked really different.  There were giant metal boxes, long pieces of plastic with lots of little buttons on them, and an odd elliptical object with a light on the bottom and a couple of buttons on the top.  It was hard to believe that all of these were used for the same purpose.  At least with the soaps they all looked like they were more or less the same thing with only a few differences, but there were clearly more nuances to these computer things than that.  It was harder to believe that any of these things could be used for games.  She wondered what kinds of games because they didn't look like they'd hold up to being hit with a bat, and they lacked any obvious pieces for board games and the like.  How would you even play with them?

Serena took the device that Amelie handed her and tilted her head.  She was pretty sure she saw the owner of the place that sold what little electronic devices that would sell there with one of these, but that was about it.  So this was a computer too?  What was she supposed to do with it?  Unsure, and clearly uncomfortable, embarrassed and confused, she stared at the device.  There were some things that looked like buttons, but they were just in a flat surface and weren't even sticking out of the device.  Would they even worked if she pressed them?  Hesitantly, she pushed the one labeled 'apps' and suddenly everything changed.  The buttons she was looking at before were gone, and there were a whole bunch of new buttons.  The sudden change made her jump a bit.  She was not expecting something like that!  Curious, she flipped the computer upside down and started looking at the back and the side.  It didn't look like it changed anywhere else, just that one spot on the front.  How did it do that?  She was still really confused, but found herself becoming more and more curious about it.  She continued pushing buttons, clearly not sure what most of them did, but somehow enjoying herself anyway.  She did manage to find a few useful tools, like a clock, a calculator, and a way to write notes, but there were several other things that she had no idea what they were supposed to do.  She did find the section labeled 'games,' but they didn't look like any games she had ever seen.  There was one that just had some green patches and then a white patch going back and forth, and another that just had white streaks of light going down the screen and then turning into orange circles when they hit the ground, but she didn't understand how any of these things were supposed to be fun.  After a several minutes of exploring she turned back to Amelie.

"Um, so do you have one of these?  What do you use it for?"

[Amelie van Hoof]

Amelie crossed her arms and tried to mask an incredulous expression as Serena fumbled with the smart phone. Yes, it was quite clear that she had never used anything like this in her life. Well, that was still fine. She was clearly curious about the subject.

"I have an older smart phone, yes. They come out with new ones every year that have better, fancier features, but I'm happy with mine." As Amelie spoke, she scanned the ceiling of the shop, mentally noting to herself where the security cameras were. Sloppy coverage. Half the items in here could go missing without any clear video evidence of the perpetrator.

"They can be used for... well, lots of stuff." Amelie directed Serena's attention to a display showing the various software one could have pre-installed on the phone. "Along with the standard internet access and being able to make phone calls, you've got GPS functionality, scientific calculators, personal organizers, planners for exercise and healthy eating, and of course lots and lots of games. Take a look, you'd be surprised at what's possible."

Amelie took the phone off Serena's hands so she could look at the display. And while the other girl was distracted, Amelie casually stepped into one of the cameras' blind spots and slid out her lockpicks. It only took a few seconds to detach the smart phone from its chain, and then Amelie had it tucked away safely in her coat.

"Hm, I'll bet that the cuisine around here is just as new to you. What do you say we stop by the food court next?"

[Serena Miller]

"What do they add to them that makes them so different people would need to buy a new one?" Serena tilted her head.

It seemed strange to buy a new thing every year when the previous one was still working just fine.  Food and other things that needed to be consumed were obviously different, but it's not like people would eat something like this.  At least, she hoped not.  Did they just break easily or something?

Serena was momentarily surprised when Amelie went to grab the mini-computer away from her, but didn't do anything to stop her.  There were plenty of others she could look at if she wanted.  Instead, her attention was directed to a sign that was presumably explaining everything she needed to know about these computers.  With a nod, she began reading through the explanations on the sign, her attention very much focused on it.  She understood maybe a third of the words on it, but the short explanations underneath made it easier for her to guess what they meant.  For such a small thing it could do so much.  Serena furrowed her brows and turned back to Amelie.

"I never realized there were things that could do this much.  They're so small too.  I wonder why none of the people where I come from wanted to use any of these things.  They seem so useful, it's kind of a waste..."

Now all she could wonder was exactly how much of the world she was missing out on.  Her hometown certainly had its advantages, but it was becoming obvious to her just how much of a bubble she had been stuck in for the past fifteen years.  It was becoming more obvious by the second exactly how little about the world she knew.  However, these thoughts were interrupted by Amelie talking about food.  Part of her wanted to continue investigating these strange devices, but if Amelie was hungry she didn't want to keep her away from food for too long.

"Y-Yeah, that sound great!" Serena nodded.  "I've um, been really curious about what kinds of things everyone eats here.  With so many people I'm surprised you can feed them all.  Are the portions just really small?"

[Amelie van Hoof]

"Cultural inertia," Amelie answered. "When the tech was still being developed, a new model might have functions that the older ones didn't. It used to be that the only thing portable phones were useful for was talking. Nowadays, the differences between them are superficial, but people still feel like they're the sort of thing one needs to upgrade on a frequent basis. Of course, it helps that advertisers take every opportunity to reinforce that message."

Amelie's tone was contemptuous. For all that the portability and inflated value of consumer electronics made them a prime target for thievery, the sheer mindless consumerism of it still got on her nerves. She was happy to focus on another subject.

"Well, half their functions only work if you're in the provider's service area, where they can radio data back and forth from the phone. Aside from that... Hm, a lot of things go back to people getting set in their ways."

Despite herself, Amelie was beginning to enjoy the conversation. Ignorance was a lot less tiresome when combined with a willingness to listen. And as for Serena's more annoying mannerisms... Well, they seemed to grow less prominent as she became more at ease. It would almost be a shame if Amelie's mission resulted in a violent end for this girl.

Her train of thought was interrupted by Serena's speculation on city life portion sizes. Amelie winced internally.

"Nothing like that." Amelie paused a moment as she suppressed a dozen possible caustic responses. "We just have big farms and big factories. Some tasks become a lot more efficient with technology and manpower. Each farmer's work can keep several city people fed."

As Amelie walked Serena out of the store, she discreetly swiped some prepaid phone cards as well. Up ahead was the food court. Amelie actually didn't spend much time there. Eating out always seemed like a waste of money to her. Instant noodles were so easy to steal, after all.

[Serena Miller]

Serena listened to her response, but still looked slightly confused.  It wasn't a phenomenon she was that familiar with simply because it wasn't always easy to get things where she lived.  Even then, most people where she lived didn't have that much money, so the thought of upgrading something when it wasn't really needed just seemed weird.  Where she came from, people only upgraded something when the old one just really didn't work anymore, or when a newer model was just so much better, or had a very useful feature, that they'd be able to do more with it.  City dwellers sure were strange!  

Before coming here, Serena wouldn't have really understood advertising either.  Sure, people would peddle their goods and people would tell their neighbors about any good products, but there weren't any billboards, or magical moving screens all over the place.  The sheer amount of sensory stimuli almost hurt.  She could understand how people could get taken in by that.  This line of conversation seemed to be bothering Amelie though, so Serena didn't plan to pursue it further.  Her eyes returned to the floor, feeling guilty for asking a wrong question and clearly annoying her like that.  The rest of the conversation seemed fine though.  Hopefully she wasn't misreading Amelie's feelings about it.  She had never actually heard the term service provider, but it was pretty easy to guess what she meant.

"But...well I mean, they had to do something to get their devices to work in the areas they do right?  It seems like there's no reason it couldn't be done almost everywhere..." her voice trailed off as she thought about the rest of what Amelie said.  "That's um...more likely I suppose.  I mean, it's not just computers we don't have.  Even simple things like um...artificial light are uncommon.  There's just a...way things are done there, so I suppose they really just don't want to change.  It's kind of a shame really..."

It seemed like she was mistaken about how food was going to work here.  She knew that stores would supplement what she could eat, but she still figured she was going to have to go out and find her own a lot of the time if she wanted to eat well.  Hearing that wouldn't be the case and that they just had massive farms and other methods of processing made her blink.  She couldn't even picture how big those farms must be or how many people must work at them.  How did the even find the time to plant so many crops or raise so many animals?

"I-I see...There seems to be a technological solution for almost everything..."

Soon, they made their way to the food court.  Much like everything here, it was still way too big.  A quick glance at all the signs showed that not only was there food from pretty much every region, but there were even stores dedicated to just drinks and some of those stores were serving people within just a few seconds.  How did they even cook the food in that time?  Serena was wide-eyed with both wonder and confusion at this point.  She took a glance at some of the menus nearby to see exactly what kinds of foods they had, and she was very surprised at what she saw.

"Um...Some of these places sell dishes that don't even have meat.  Can...Can that really be called a meal?" she paused and pulled at her lower lip with one of her hands.  "U-Um anyway, what do you like to eat?  I thought we had a fair amount of variety back home, but um...I suppose not.  I wouldn't even know where to begin, but um, I'm willing to try anything!"

[Amelie van Hoof]

"You'll develop a feel for what technology can do and what it can't. Eventually." At least, assuming she got the chance.

"Anyway, half the problems technology offers solutions to are problems created by technology in the first place. People live so close together in cities that they don't have room to farm with traditional methods, even if they wanted to. Resources are transported over such great distances that electronic communication is necessary to coordinate it all. Simple jobs are outsourced to places with lower living wages, or even automated entirely, which forces people to rely on crime in order to feed their families," Amelie said as she gave Serena a searching look.

"If the people where you come from make the conscious choice to avoid all that... Well, it's not a tradeoff I'd be willing to make, but more power to them."

Amelie glanced around the food court. She really shouldn't have expected Serena to start being assertive here of all places. The comment about meat was even more astonishing, though. Serena seemed like practically the human embodiment of a docile herbivore.

"Some people have ethical objections to eating meat, and some people don't like the taste." Amelie settled on a choice. "But as for myself, the only thing stopping me from eating meat more regularly is the inconvenience. I'll have to show you the instant food we have in the city, too."

Pleased to have an excuse to enjoy some more hearty fare, Amelie led Serena into a local burger joint.

[Serena Miller]

Serena furrowed her brow a bit as she thought.  Sure, it all seemed really complicated and borderline magical now, but so did cooking when she first started out.  Extended exposure to it would make her learn it after awhile, as long as she continued to expose herself to it.  It was all really interesting though, so she would definitely have to spend some time to figure it all out.  Amelie's next explanation was a little more difficult to parse though.  Even while able to do all of these magical things, they continued to create more problems for themselves?  It was a little hard to believe at first.

"I...I guess people are really good at creating problems for themselves..." Serena tugged at her lower lip a little.  Her last remark almost went over her head until she thought about it for a second.  "E-Eh?  I always heard that cities were more dangerous than where I lived, but um...are criminals really that common here?"  Serena frowned.  "I-I guess it's harder to just um, make them leave a city than it was back home..."

Serena's brow remained furrowed, though this time it was more out of worry than contemplation.  It sounded like she should be watching her wallet a little more closely.  Though, if they were just trying to feed their families for the most part, then it seemed unlikely that they'd just be the type to randomly attack people.  She hadn't really met anyone like that because her hometown was so peaceful, so she could only go by the stories she heard.  They didn't exactly match up with Amelie's description, but she supposed not every person was the same.  She should be careful all the same.

"People...People think eating meat is...bad?" Serena blinked.  "I...but...what...what would they eat instead?"  Serena blinked again at the mention of instant food, picturing just dropping a bit of water on a pill or something and having it somehow turn into a full dinner complete with meat, side and dessert.  "Something like that actually exists?  Wow..."

She was clearly impressed.  Serena continued pondering the idea as she followed Amelie into the restaurant she chose.  Fortunately, there were restaurants back where she lived, so she had some idea of the etiquette necessary in places like this, granted she wasn't completely sure if it was different in this part of the world.  Burgers were also a food she was familiar with, but not something she ever ate herself.  She had no idea that there were so many different kinds though, or why some of them involved meat being wrapped in bacon, or dousing it in cheese.  That just seemed weird.  Eventually, she settled on a relatively simple burger, with no cheese, but with lettuce, tomatoes and onions, with a side of fries.  That seemed like a reasonable place to start.

"It smells really good in here," Serena glanced towards where she assumed the kitchen would be.  "I-I mean, the whole food court smelled good, but um, I guess they're not mixing as much in here?"  She paused for a moment.  "I don't recognize everything I can smell...I wonder what they use?"

[Amelie van Hoof]

Amelie nodded in agreement. "Machines allow a relatively small number of people to make everything that everyone needs, but the people who own those machines don't just give their products away, of course. And because most people don't own land with natural resources they can use to provide for themselves... Well, it's only natural that they'd steal from those more wealthy than them." Or those equally wealthy, or less wealthy for that matter, but Amelie decided there was no need to go into the details.

"In any case, there's plenty of everything to go around, so driving all the thieves from the city would be more trouble than it's worth."

For herself, Amelie settled on a double burger with all the toppings the place offered. It would be hard to eat the whole thing, and she didn't even like pickles or onions, but it would be wasteful to pass up this opportunity to get some solid nutrition.

"You'd have to ask someone more knowledgeable on the subject than me, since I never make this sort of thing for myself," Amelie admitted. "I know that it's more complicated than it looks. In the city, we buy everything we need from each other, so we tend to specialize in one single job and do that for eight hours a day. When you have ten thousand hours of experience doing what you do, you can get pretty good at it."

Amelie had to admonish herself not to let her guard down. For the time being, she could answer Serena's questions honestly, and explaining her views on the workings of society was something she had never really done out loud before, not even around her (rather simpleminded, she thought) parents. But there was no guarantee that this would last. Fortunately, she saw that the food was on its way, which would hopefully steer the conversation away from any dangerous subjects.

[Serena Miller]

"But..." Serena furrowed her bow, "I don't understand why anyone would want to be so...um, disrespectful and...and outright mean to other people.  They must know how much those other people have to work for what they have...um...right?  If there's so much to be done, and um, so much stuff then can't they just get it in a good way?  And do the people in the city just...not defend their property?  Back in my hometown, breaking the law, especially for something as serious as stealing, would make the whole town mad at you.  I mean, th-they'd probably be allowed to leave town with only a few broken bones, but still..."

Serena paused for a moment, her brow still furrowed, but before she could continue their food arrived.  Even with her food this close she still couldn't quite make out what they were cooking the beef in.  It smelled really good though.  The taste was dulled by her thoughts.  Being contemplative about one thing made it difficult to really appreciate what she was eating.  After a couple of bites, she looked back up at Amelie somewhat embarrassed.

"O-Oh, though I guess this is um...silly to ask about.  You can't possibly know what they're thinking."