oo1: actual intro!

[cursedtolive]

[action - around town in the afternoon]
[There's a small little boy walking around town. A flat cap pulled down over his eyes, and a brown jacket even in the middle of July. His outfit choice looks a couple decades out of date, too, although the clothes are definitely from the right era. Fashion statement?

Seemingly lost in his thoughts, Czeslaw Meyer-Stanfield is not paying much attention to where he is going. He passes by houses, by shops, by people. He might accidentally bump into people, at which point he will blink the surprise away and smile sheepishly, with a natural-sounding]

Oh...! Oh, I'm sorry [mister, or miss]. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going. I didn't mean to run into you. Good afternoon!

[action - 459 Stone Street]
[Nope. Nope. Nope nope nope. He can't handle this family arrangement. His "mother" won't let him hole up in his room, though, so he's sitting in a chair in the corner of the front room watching the door so he'll never be surprised by his "father"'s homecoming.]

Comments

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Well... I guess, but oxygen's everywhere, right?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

We didn't always know it was oxygen. People called it all air, but nobody knew there were different kinds of gas -- Nitrogen, Helium, Hydrogen.

That's considered discoveries.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[He shrugs.]

If you say so. Don't see why it took 'em so long, then.

[action]

[cursedtolive]

...

Really?

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[He blinks.]

...What?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Why'd people use knives before they had the technology to make guns?

Why didn't people find out what oxygen was before they had the technology to find it out?

C'mon, Firo....

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[Only one part of that really sticks.]

Hey, people still use knives, you know.

[action]

[cursedtolive]

But nobody used guns before they knew how to make guns.

Nobody knew what oxygen was before they knew how to figure that out.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

But if it was there how'd they not figure it out?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

... When did you start talking, Firo?

[Oh my god. He is going to run out of examples.]

[action]

[justdumbluck]

What do you mean, we've been-

[Oh. Oops.]

You mean when I was a kid? I don't really remember. Two or three, maybe?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

But language and words already existed long before that. Why'd it take you so long to start talking then, huh?

[action]

[justdumbluck]

Hey, I was a kid, you gotta cut me some slack!

[And Firo completely misses the point once again.]

[action]

[cursedtolive]

... And people didn't know any better about making guns or finding oxygen, just like you didn't know any better about learning your letters when you were a kid.

Humans are all about learning. So they learned about oxygen when they learned about the science that could let them find oxygen.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

[He sighs. Now that Czes laid it all out, it does make perfect sense.]

...Okay, fine. You're right.

[action]

[cursedtolive]

I know I am.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

...No need to be so cocky.

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Are you kidding? Do you know how long it took me to get you to understand my point?

[action]

[justdumbluck]

I-I don't see what that's got to do with anything!

[It has everything to do with it.]

[action]

[cursedtolive]

After all my work trying to put it in words even you'll understand, I think I deserve a moment of superiority.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

"Even" me? I bet not everybody gets stuff like this!

[action]

[cursedtolive]

No, I'm pretty sure Miss Ennis would definitely understand. Maiza would, Mr. Ronnie, Randy, Pezo...

Even Isaac and Miria! In their own special way.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

I'll give you Ennis, Maiza, and Ronnie. ...And Rnady and Pezzo...

[They're his superiors, so he can't really insult them.]

...But Isaac and Miria? Really?

[action]

[cursedtolive]

Isaac and Miria get the wrong idea a lot, but when it comes to knowing things, I think they know a lot. They just remember it wrong.

[action]

[justdumbluck]

What do you mean? I can't understand what they're sayin' half the time.