A Most Important Inquiry

[solitarynote]

WHO: Sunny, Soo Won, and YOU! (OTA)
WHAT: Soo Won doesn’t know what a battery is. Sunny tried, but he needs some help. That’s where you come in!
WHERE: Network (let’s be honest though - Sunny doesn’t leave the Oasis)
WHEN: post-Crossing Meeting, pre-Quests kicking off
WARNINGS Talk of batteries, electricity, relevant CWs (if any) will be in subject headings ^^

## The Crossing Meeting had barely ended when a message crossed everyone’s devices.

Sunny had gotten himself into a bit of a quandary and… he needed help. He hated asking for help, but this was important. Possible the most importantthing he had asked so far.

A single message cuts across the screen/notebook page (take your pick):

What’s a battery? Help. ##

Comments

un: yotsuba

[blindluck]

[It's habit to check his network device regularly the same way anyone his age might check a cell phone, so Nagito sees this question not long after it goes up.]

A device that has chemicals inside that react to make electricity when you put them in electronics. Don't open them up or stab them unless you know what you're doing.

[solitarynote]

[Ah, a reasonable and perfect normal answer. This was why Nagito was so dependable.]

I tried, but yours is much easier to understand.

[Maybe Soo Won would understand with that?]

[blindluck]

Did you find batteries somewhere?

[solitarynote]

No…

[He can’t help but feel a bit disappointed at that. It wasn’t like Soo Won had asked to see a battery… at least he doesn’t think so.]

I could probably ask the Ferryman but… [It wasn’t right to ask them for everything. That was just being a bother. And there were a lot of stuff piled around the Oasis; if Sunny put his mind to it, he could probably search for one. That sounded like a lot of work though…]

[protectorofkouka]

[Well yes and no. Nagito's explanation did indeed explain the components of a battery more so he was starting to get an idea of how they work. However there was still one mystery that eluded him.]

What's electricity?

[Also why would you stab something with potentially dangerous chemicals?]

[blindluck]

It's how a lot of things are powered. Like muscles. And lightning.

[hasapoint]

Depends.

One: Military term for heavy ranged weapons working in formation ex 'a battery of poomers'.

[the uh. the velgarth terms for firearms are silly. guns are 'spitters'.
With her vine charcoal, Need sketches out a little cluster of what look like cannons in formation.]

Two: Something portable that power is stored in for later use, more conveniently than generating it on the spot. 'Biological components' as in currently-living beings are common when charging the storage, sometimes a person is outright converted into a battery. It's usually very painful, deliberately so.

[I found this image while looking up historical batteries and wtf so you know what, yes, Need draws this.]

[cloversandcranes]

It's nothing like that, Sunny-kun! At least regular batteries aren't!

Don't worry, most batteries are fine as long as you don't get inside them. If you do, don't touch the substance inside, okay? They have NOTHING to do with currently living beings being turned into a battery.

[Need-san, wtf.]

[hasapoint]

If you live in a world without blood magic it doesn't, anyway.

[protectorofkouka]

Where you're from people torture others to generate energy? And no one has tried to stop this?

[Soo Won's injustice senses are tingling.]

[hasapoint]

Sure. It's been banned by I think every country that's bothered with laws, though quite a few of them have this asterisk where criminals and 'criminals' and prisoners of war are exempt. Most gods and schools of magic ban it, sometimes with similar asterisks. You can tell if someone in a populated area does it and taste it in their workings. It warps people, when they get to relying on it.

Unfortunately it's very easy to do especially out in the wilderness, and some of the smart blood mages can hide it.

[cloversandcranes]

What do you need a battery for, Sunny-kun?

[blindluck]

Batteries are useful to have around for many reasons, Naegi-sama!

[solitarynote]

[Sunny could certainly agree with Nagito - batteries were useful to have around. Normally, when you needed one, that was when you couldn’t find it.]

I’m not the one who needs a battery. Soo Won was asking about them. I tried to explain but…

[Sunny sometimes couldn’t differentiate between what he knew and what he thought he knew. It was a problem.]

[daikonheroine]

[Yashiro tried her best to think on how to describe the small device…]

It’s kind of like a portable charger? But it doesn’t work with every electronic… Wait… Sunny do you not know what a phone is?

[She supposed her question came off as completely random, she had just assumed that the other teen knew what one was…]

[solitarynote]

[That was actually a pretty good explanation. Except…]

I do. Know. They hang from the wall. We had one back home in the kitchen.

[His information might be a bit outdated compared to hers…]

[daikonheroine]

[Did Sunny not have a cell phone and just a landline? Either way he was right.]

Yeah! A landline! My parents have one of those back home but I just use my cell phone.

[perfecttune]

[Mari couldn't help but giggle at the message. It was almost like he was looking for a textbook answer for homework. Well she certainly would give him one.]

Sunny, a battery is 'a container consisting of one or more cells, in which chemical energy is converted into electricity and used as a source of power.' Did you find a crossword puzzle?

[solitarynote]

[Yep, there was his sister with the textbook answer. He would have been shocked if she had answered otherwise.]

I wish. [And wasn’t that true? Now he found himself thoroughly distracted with wondering if he could find such a booklet in the piles of forgotten belongings around here…] It would give me something to do. Have you seen one

[perfecttune]

Sadly I haven't. But I'll keep an eye out for one when I clean.

[Something to keep in mind and perhaps ask the Ferryman about? Surely they must have an idea of how to acquire items not already in the Oasis?]

[witnessvelama]

A canoneer's fortification, I believe. There were some on the edge of the Capitol, though I can't say I knew that city well.

-Celehar

[Someone's from a very old-fashioned world, it seems.]

[solitarynote]

‘Canon’…?

[Color Sunny interested. Celehar almost sounded like he came from a different world (and he really had). The man was an elf, but canons… maybe Celehar was a pirate-elf? That would be cool.]

[witnessvelama]

Like an embankment. I am no expert - my duties never called me close to the Empire's borders.

[Tragically, if there's any privateering involved, Celehar isn't talking about it!]

[protectorofkouka]

That is my understanding of the word as well, although it seems that it has multiple meanings.

- Soo Won

[Ah it's such a relief he's not the only one from a very old fashioned world.]

[witnessvelama]

So I am beginning to see. The other descriptions seem to render it as a form of fuel or maz for what I would know as a clockwork device.

[Certainly different, but the relative level of technology at least is a familiarity. He's frowning, too, at the description of the battery as Need puts it.]