[Serena Miller]

One of the more interesting things about leaving her hometown and venturing into the outside world was all the technology that people in the city used.  Serena wasn't used to so many lights that it was easy to see even when it was dark.  She wasn't used to all the different methods there were to identify and care for pokemon.  She wasn't used to all the different ways her life was suddenly easier.  She wondered why the people in her hometown insisted on not using most of it.  It all seemed so useful, willingly choosing to use less convenient methods just seemed silly.

Thus, after her shopping trip with her room mate Amelie, she decided she was going to make a point of investigating all the weird devices she could find.  Because the results of that trip were so interesting, she decided to start with computers.  There were so many different kinds apparently.  That still seemed odd to her, which was part of why she wanted to investigate.  Why did there need to be so many different kinds of the same thing?  Were their functions that different from one another, or was this more like all the soaps she saw where city dwellers just have so many things that the differences between them are pretty minute?  Regardless, Amelie said there would be some computers in the library that were free for students to use, so that seemed like a good place to start.

As with everything in this city, the library was way too big.  How could anyone even read this many books?  Serena wandered the rows for a little while, looking for something that resembled something she saw at that computer store.  Eventually, she found one of the big metal boxes.  They didn't look exactly like the ones she saw at the store, but it was close enough.  Maybe this model was just older?  A small smile appeared on her face as she approached the device.  A quick examination of it showed that this computer didn't have a screen like the small one she looked at in the store did.  Serena was momentarily confused, but decided to keep investigating.  It didn't take too long for her to find the button that at least turned the system on, but when she pressed it a different device entirely lit up along with the computer itself.  Serena blinked and cautiously examined the device that lit up.  Was this also a computer?  Did the bigger computers need a second computer in order to display?  Why would anyone use that when they could just have the...computer computer and the display computer in the same place?  Just to confirm that it was indeed connected to the computer computer, she turned it off.  It took a second to power down for some reason, but once it finally did, the display computer also turned off.  They were definitely connected.  That at least explained why there was no screen on the computer computer. 

Serena sat in the chair in front of the display computer and started examining it.  It had a nice picture on the screen part, and then much like the smaller computer she used at the store, it had some buttons show up on it.  There was one labeled Internet Explorer, one labeled Firefox, one labeled Word Processing and a few more things that looked like they were mostly for academic things and looking up books.  Compared to all those, the first two buttons looked rather out of place.  She wasn't sure what an internet was, and she wasn't sure she wanted to know why this fox was on fire, but they did make her curious.  Still a bit unsure of herself, she cautiously lifted her hand and touched the screen where the Internet Explorer button was, but nothing happened.  Her brow furrowed as she waited for a moment just in case it was like what happened when she turned off the computer computer, but even after waiting for a couple of minutes nothing happened.  She tried to push the button harder in case she was tapping the screen too lightly, but all that did was make the screen change color a little bit around her finger.  Surprised, she pulled her finger back and the colors went back to normal.  How strange, the one she used before didn't do that.  Rather than continue to poke at the screen, she decided to examine the rest of the display computer.  There were some other button on the side, but they didn't let her do anything with the buttons.  They just turned the display computer off or adjusted how bright it was and similar things.  The rest just looked like wires.

Serena scratched her head.  Each type of computer sure was different.  How was she supposed to use this one if she couldn't just touch the buttons.  Was it broken?  Rather than continue to poke at this one, she turned it off and went to the next one.  However, the exact same thing happened.  Were they both broken?  She could believe one, but this school was so good at keeping everything in working order.  Would they really leave two of their tools broken like this?  It seemed unlikely, she must be doing something wrong.  Rather than move to a third machine, she decided to continue poking at the second.  She was sure she'd figure it out eventually.

[Karl Christopher]

Karl was in the library returning a few books he checked out and getting another set. It was always nice to have something to read at night as he made his way out he couldn't help but notice a student poking her display monitor as if it was a touch screen but Karl was sure that the school didn't invest in touch screens and she seemed lost and confused. Karl looked in the direction of the librarian and she was busy with other students so Karl decided to be a little helpful

Karl hummed as he approached the student "Excuse me Miss, do you need help with the computer?"

[Serena Miller]

Serena was so focused on trying to figure out this newfangled contraption that she didn't even notice the person coming up behind her, or even that there were other people in the library to begin with.  It was a public space, so it shouldn't have been that surprising, but when she entered a trance like that it was really easy to become oblivious to her surroundings.  When the person spoke she nearly leapt out of her chair and quickly turned around with her eyes wide as though something might have been attacking her.  It was a habit from all her time spent in the forests back home and hunting.  She had curbed the habit enough that she at least didn't reflexively go for a weapon or try to hit whoever snuck up on her.  That was especially fortunate here, given the person was both likely not a threat at all, and an authority figure.  Serena put her hands on the back of the chair she was sitting in and relaxed once more.

Once it fully registered just who this person was, Serena's face flushed.  A student seeing her fumble with a device they've probably used their whole lives, understand and consider it the easiest thing to use would be bad enough, but a teacher?  It was a teacher for one of the subjects she considered most important too.  He probably thought she was a complete idiot at this point.  Serena looked down and to the side, unable to make eye contact at this point.  She really didn't want to have someone like that see her fumbling with something so simple, and she really didn't want to waste his time either.  He was a teacher, so he probably had more important things to do.  She would figure it out eventually.

"U-Um...I-It's okay really.  I think I got it."

[Karl Christopher]

Karl had watched the girl almost rocket out of her chair in fright and stared at him wide eyed in fear but then she relaxed and her face turned red and she looked away. She was clearly embarrassed either by her reaction or the fact that she couldn't grasp the use of computers and Karl pinned it on the latter. His appearance and question about computer usage most like was a critical blow to her self confidence.

Karl hummed as Serena gave him a shaky answer. "You know it's not a crime to not know how to use a computer. There are many places and people who still don't know how to use one and they are even more confused with a lot of the newer features that the older ones do not have for example a touch display in which you can use your finger to tell the computer what you want to do for the bigger computers that have a separate monitor to display what they are processing. They also have other devices attached to the computer to allow you to tell the computer what you want to do. I could show you and give you a basic idea but if you are sure that you can figure it out. I won't bother you any further.

[Serena Miller]

Serena figured there would be a fair number of people that knew how to use something at complicated seeming as a computer to its full potential, but there was a huge difference between not knowing--well she didn't exactly know any advanced topics to compare to--and struggling to even turn it on or get it to do anything.  She could tell he was trying hard to be polite too.  She thought she heard enough of an edge on his words that he was probably annoyed with her right now too.  All things considered, she really just wanted to sink into her chair and disappear.

"U-Um, i-it's okay.  I--"

She didn't notice it at first, but there was an odd smell in the room.  As time went on, it was getting more prominent, and now she couldn't really ignore it.

"Um...do you smell someth--"

Before she could finish her sentence, she turned around and noticed a plume of smoke rising out of the backside of the computer (the computer part of the computer) that she was working on.  Shortly after, there was a clicking noise and the plume of smoke got bigger.  Whatever was causing it was likely on the inside of the machine because there was no sign of a fire on the outside.  Serena stared at it for a moment not quite sure what to do.  She was familiar with how to put out fires, but using a pokemon to do it here seemed like a terrible idea.  The kinds of things that would put it out would either completely destroy the machine or probably didn't play that well with electricity.  Instead, she just turned back to the teacher.

"I-I-I-I'm so so-sorry.  I-I have no idea what happened!"

[Karl Christopher]

Karl grunted "move back!" He commanded "Seer!" He summoned his Alakazam

Seer took one look at the computer and focused on it.

Pops were heard by the computer as all the cables were disconnected. The computer was still smoking but without power there was no threat of fire. The computer was pulled out and away from the desk via Psychic Energy

Karl made a slight face at the smell "not to worry miss. the computer was most likely on it's way out anyhow. It's not your fault" He looked around "I'll take care of this, for now you can move to a different computer." He looked at his pokemon "Seer get this over to the librarian and inform her at this computer has burned out it's power supply."

"at once." Seer replied telepathically in a female voice. She focused and both she and the now broken computer floated away from the two.

[Serena Miller]

Serena just nodded and jumped out of her chair when he told her to get back.  She got a fair amount of distance, but still stayed within conversational distance in case he needed any help.  At the very least, if something that small exploded it probably wouldn't hit her that much, and probably wouldn't hurt that much.  Fortunately, nothing like that happened.  The situation was dealt with quickly, and she could return to what she was doing on a different machine.

Serena slowly made her way back to the computers, moving towards them as though they might jump out and bite her.  The teacher said it wasn't her fault, but if she had done nothing would that really have happened?  It seemed unlikely that the school would keep something so dangerous there if they could just randomly catch on fire like that.  Would it happen again if she turned on another?  She wrung her hands a bit.  This entire situation was unsettling.  Even if it wasn't her fault, did she really want to risk something like that happening again?  She really wanted to learn more about these machines, but her heart was beating fast, and she was clearly unnerved by the whole situation.  Now seemed like a good time for a break.

"U-Um...maybe that's enough computers for now..."

[Karl Christopher]

Karl chuckled lightly in amusement of Serena's statement "never had a computer blow up on you before have ya? Don't worry it's a rare occurrence only happens if maintenance isn't performed on them regularly but if you want to call it quits for now but still want to learn about them," He slid over a card to the girl with his name and it showed that he was a battle tactics teacher on the campus "I know quite a bit about computers myself and other topics so if you need help just let me know okay?"

[Serena Miller]

Serena blinked at his statement.  He said it was a rare occurrence, but he acted almost surprised that she hadn't seen it before.  She supposed if it was too common then it would be too dangerous for basic use, but was it really no big deal at all?  Who knows what could have happened if he hadn't acted so quickly?  She couldn't tell if he was just joking to try to lighten the mood or not, but it seemed a little morbid to joke about something like that.  Regardless, she shakily reached out grabbed the card out of his hand.

"U-um...Y-Yeah, I-I'll um...I'll definitely do that.  Um...th-thank you very much."