Lexi sat onto the plush chair with a deep sigh. Her chemistry class was definitely the most boring and uneventful class of them all. There wasn't any sort of hands-on way to learn the stuff, and on more than one occasion she'd fallen asleep in the middle of class. Luckily, Law was there to ask her questions whenever she'd started to doze. Keeping him in check the whole time made it easier to stay awake. She was half afraid he'd stand up and take over another lecture anyway.
"Ah, just one more class to go…" She muttered, sinking into the cushion further. Law sat in the chair opposite, as usual, and cocked his head.
"When does it start?" She opened her eyes to look at the pirate.
"4:30. So we've got," She checked her phone for the time, "three hours to kill."
"Enough time to explain what this 'internet' is?" He asked hopefully, curiosity getting the better of him. Despite being able to understand most things he saw, there was still a vast amount that was unseen that he didn't know.
She stared for a moment, debating if she wanted to get into that whole discussion at that moment. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she leaned down and produced her laptop from her bag.
"Alright, though it might be pretty confusing. Just saying." He nodded, switching seats to one beside her so he could see what she was doing. She flipped open the top, and tapped her fingers on buttons with letters on it.
"First of all, this is the keyboard. You can type words to search through it." She typed something into a box and the picture changed. He narrowed his eyes, already slightly confused by what was happening.
"What did you just do?" She sighed.
"Wow, this is gonna be harder than I thought." Lexi pointed to the picture. "This is the screen. It shows what you're doing. Obviously. Anyways, I typed in the password and it unlocked."
"Like a padlock?" He observed the new picture, a box full of small kittens.
"Yeah, except it's virtual." He raised an eyebrow at the unfamiliar term, but she shook her head. "I'll get to that later. We'll just say it exists but you can't touch it. If you don't type in the correct password it won't unlock." Hesitantly, he nodded.
"Now this is the home screen. From here you can do everything. See these little pictures with words underneath them?" She pointed to the 'Safari' icon, and he nodded. "These are called icons. They represent a program, which all have different functions. This one in particular gets you to the internet." She clicked it, and the screen changed to a white page with a bunch of words.
"The internet is a place?" He questioned, resting his head on his hand. Law watched with deep concentration, not wanting to miss a single detail of her explanation.
"Not exactly. That's really hard to explain, but let's just say that the internet is inside this program."
"I see." Satisfied he was following up to this point, she clicked on the search box. He, however, had another question.
"What is that square you keep pressing?" She glanced down where he was pointing.
"That's the mousepad. It clicks on stuff. Clicking means you are choosing it to interact with. It's like pressing a button." He nodded again.
"Now, if you click on this bar right here, you can type words in and find anything you could ever want." He looked at her pointedly.
"Anything?" She smirked.
"Yup. Anything." He turned back to the screen, staring at the box thoughtfully.
"Show me." She figured he'd say something like that, and flexed her fingers over the keys.
"Ok, well ask me something. What's something you want to know?" He narrowed his eyes, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Who is your current leader?" She nodded, typing in the box 'who is the president of the united states?' He glanced at her in confusion again, and she guessed what was on his mind.
"The president is the title of the leader of our country, which is the united states. Theres a ton of different countries, but we want the one for this one. You have to be a little specific for things like that." Then, she tapped the enter button and the screen changed.
The first thing that showed up on the page was a picture of a man. Next to his picture was the name 'President Barack Obama.'
"See? There's the answer." He hummed in deep thought before glancing at her.
"What is the largest ocean?" She typed in the question and more words showed up.
"The Pacific Ocean." Lexi said, smirking at Law's awestruck look. He reached for the computer, and Lexi hesitantly let him take it.
"Like this?" He clicked on the search bar, and she nodded. "And I can type whatever I want?"
"Yup. Knock yourself out." He cocked his head, staring at the letters like they were some different language. For all she knew, they very well could be. Did they even use the same letters in his world?
"How do I get rid of what is already there?" She pressed a button and one of the letters disappeared. He pressed it again, and another one was erased. After several more button-presses all the letters were gone. Then, he slowly pecked at the letters. Lexi almost laughed, the way he glanced between the screen and the letters. Then, he narrowed his eyes in frustration again. "How do I put spaces between the letters?
She glanced at what he'd typed, which was 'whereistheonepiece?' She smirked. It felt like she was teaching Nana how to use technology, which she'd tried several years ago but was never successful.
"Hit the space button," She pointed at the longest button, "between each word you type." He nodded, hitting the backspace to get rid of what he'd written.
Now, he retyped it out to be 'where is the one piece?' He glanced at her. "I hit this button next?" He pointed to the enter button, and she nodded.
The search didn't come up with many search results, and Lexi assumed that whatever had come up didn't exactly match with what he was expecting. His small pout of disappointment was kind of cute, but she didn't let herself dwell on that thought for very long.
Next, he searched 'sabaody archipelago' but nothing came up. Then, and her eyebrows shot up in amusement, he searched 'trafalgar law.' It was pretty common to look up yourself on the internet, but for someone who was from another world to do it was pretty amusing. She guessed human nature didn't differ from those from different worlds.
The only major thing that came up was Trafalgar Square in Great Britain, but he leaned back with a sigh. There very obviously wasn't anything about himself anywhere. Wherever he was from seemingly didn't exist in Lexi's world.
"I'm not able to get much information with this 'internet.'" He looked pretty frustrated, seeing as she had told him he could get all the information in the world. She chuckled.
"That's only because you're not asking the right questions."
"What other things can you do with internet?" He asked, shifting into a more comfortable position on the chair. She shrugged, swinging her legs over one leg of the chair and sitting sideways.
"You can search things, shop, play games, talk with people around the world, anything really. The internet is very helpful, but addicting at the same time. Lots of people can't seem to let it go sometimes."
"Hmm…" Was all he said.
A passing student saw Law's spotted hat and waved. "Hey, nice hat!" They called before continuing to walk away. Law glanced back to see who had spoken, but the person was already out the door.
"Guess you have a few fans." Lexi chuckled, and Law scowled.
"I don't find that very amusing. It could be troublesome in the future."
"Ah, quit being grumpy and just relax." She settled herself in the seat, closing her eyes. "I usually take a nap about this time, so you can be my body guard and make sure no one takes my stuff." She opened her eyes again, giving him a pointed look. "Don't leave from that spot and don't talk to anyone."
"What do I have permission to do then?" He rolled his eyes, and she shrugged again.
"Keep looking stuff up if you want. Just make sure the little battery thing in the top right corner doesn't get to 0. Otherwise it'll shut off."
She closed her eyes and sighed.
Nodding, Law took over the laptop once more and began looking up anything he could think of in regards to his world. There was nothing. No mention of any common names or phrases. It was as if his reality didn't exist. The thought was certainly daunting, but he knew that some way, somehow, he'd find a way back.
Something had taken him and his crew to this strange universe, and he was confident they would find out what, sooner or later. There was only one thing he remembered from the transport, and that was a waterfall. There'd been a waterfall in that cave, very oddly placed at that, and there'd been a waterfall as they walked out of the cave into Lexi's world. He still needed to do more research, but he'd have to go exploring for that.
Deciding that continuing to try to find information about his own world would turn up useless, he set his sights on Lexi's. After all, there was still so much to be learned and he had the perfect tool at his fingertips.
Penguin and Shachi stared at the inside of the pantry blankly. In terms of things to make for lunch, there weren't many options. At least, recognizable ones. There were plenty of things inside the pantry, that wasn't the problem. They just didn't know what half the stuff was.
"Well, there's these things." Shachi picked up a strangely shaped cylindrical metal thing from the shelf. On the front was a picture of beans. He stared at it, trying to figure out how it would open. Finally, he turned to Penguin. "Any ideas how we get this open?"
"Hmm…well, Lexi's world is pretty complex. So maybe there's a tool for it?" They glanced around the kitchen but didn't see anything that would possibly do that function. Turning it around, Shachi saw a bunch of words.
"Wait, it says 'open with can opener.' This is what it looks like." He showed the tiny illustration to his friend and they went on the hunt for such a tool. After much digging and moving things around, they found a handheld thing that looked similar to the picture. Shrugging, Penguin tried placing the thing on the can and turned. Miraculously, the top began to be cut. A few more cranks of the handle and the lid was laying on the counter beside the opened can.
"What's the next step?" Shachi glanced at the can.
"Place contents of can in pot." They dug out a pot from the cupboard, placing it on the stove. Dumping the can in, they grimaced at the strange looking food. "Place over medium heat until hot."
"Umm…how do we turn it on?" They stared at the dials in despair, unsure of how to use the appliance. They'd never been assigned to cooking duty, for safety reasons, and now weren't sure how a range worked.
"Well, I'm sure it has something to do with these knobs." Penguin scratched his head, trying to turn the dial. It wouldn't budge. Trying to push it, it went in some. Raising an eyebrow, he pushed and then turned, and a small flame appeared.
"We're geniuses, Shachi!" The two high-fived. They stared at the pot, but even after several minutes it didn't look like anything was happening.
"It's working right?" Small bubbles began to appear at the edges of the pot. Searching the cupboards, Penguin found a metal spoon and scooped out a bean or two. Taking a bite, he chewed and swallowed. Then, he held his thumbs up with a smile. "They taste great!"
"Awesome!" They turned off the stove and somehow found bowls in another cupboard. Taking their bowls to the table, they sat down.
"I'm starving!" Shachi said, and they dug into the food.
They scarfed down the beans in a matter of seconds. And it wasn't until after the bowls were completely licked clean that the chipotle sauce began to take effect.
"Umm…is your mouth starting to burn too?" Penguin asked, and Shachi sat there a moment, pondering the question.
"You know what? It kind of is." Then instantly, their mouths felt like they were on fire.
"AH HOT."
"Water! Water!" They ran to the sink, turning on the faucet and shoving their faces underneath the spray. Pushing and shoving, they fought for the steady stream of relief. Bepo, who was still holding onto a very frustrated Nana in the living room, tried peering around the corner.
"Are you guys alright?"
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