Boosted Restart – A new chance in a different world

After having gone to the castle where Sophia introduced her little sister to everyone, the two, including Maya and Chloe, went back to the mansion. Fen and Aura had also returned, and the group got comfortable in the living room. The wolves on the sheepskin rug, the tiger and cat on one sofa, and Steph and the fox-girl on one of the others. Once everyone got, some slightly strangely, cuddly, Sophia finally got to the items she and Maya had gotten while shopping in the blonde’s old world.

“Alrighty! Enough of the distractions!” While chatting about this and that, Sophia clapped her hands to get everyone's attention. “Let the unpackening begin!” Afterward, the tiger opened a portal and pulled two somewhat smaller boxes out of it.

“Nice choice on the tablets!” Steph recognized the boxes. “They aren’t the most powerful, but I heard their displays are amongst the best!”

“That’s why we got them! I mean, there's no internet, so there will be no fancy apps that need power. The plan was mostly to use them for pictures; a nice display is most important there!"

“Good point!”

"Tablet…?" Chloe looked slightly confused while staring at the boxes. "What's that?"

“Oh!” The dog-girl then looked at her. “You were already, uhh… gone when they became popular, huh? I think it hasn’t been much more than ten years since they became any good and readily available.”

“Okay?”

“Ahaha~.” Steph had to chuckle in response. “Your confused expression is super cute!”

“I-I’m not sure if I’m okay with that!”

“Heh.” She enjoyed the pout just as much. “There are some other differences, but a tablet is basically just a bigger version of my smartphone I showed you before. Bigger display for more fun!”

“I see!”

“Here!” Sophia handed one of the boxes over to her sister. “Show it to Chloe. I’ll configure the other one with Maya. They usually come pre-charged to some degree, right? I think we don't need the solar battery thing just yet."

“Thanks!” Steph took the box from her. “Yeah, they always have enough juice to play around first.”

"Perfect!" The tiger then glanced at the wolves. "Don't worry. The other stuff we'll get to later will also be entertaining for you!" Afterward, she focused her attention on Maya next to her. “Let’s open it!”

“Yes!” As Maya was the one who wanted to open the box, she snatched it from the blonde and looked at it from all angles. “Wait, how does this work…?” She didn’t even get inside.

“Plastic wrap is the worst, isn’t it?” Sophia could feel her pain. "There should be a tab you can pull on somewhere. That should get rid of it.”

"Why is mere packaging in that world so complicated?!"

“Asking all the right questions!” Chloe joined in on the complaining. "I either forgot all about just how infuriating plastic wrap was, or things got much worse since I left!” She was also fighting the packaging of the tablet.

“Ahaha…” The sisters had to chuckle a little before Steph continued. “That’s a good question, actually… It might be because stuff so tightly wrapped is often quite expensive and or easily breaks. It being wrapped like that prevents it from falling out or others getting into the inside without buying it.”

“I see…” The cat-girl nodded a few times. “Still weird, though.”

“Yup.” The sisters had to agree.

“Alright, done!” Roughly a minute later, Maya had won the fight against the wrapping plastic and was able to open the box. “Wait, the tablet itself is also wrapped?! This is way too elaborate! Why are you so wasteful even with something stupid like packaging?!”

“…” Steph and Sophia scratched her cheeks in return.

“Oh, it’s just a paper wrap…” The cat-girl calmed down a little after closer inspecting it. “Still… Wait! After all that, it’s not even working!” She had freed it from the extra wrap and started tapping the screen, but nothing happened.

“It’s not on yet…” Saying so, Sophia reached for the tablet and pressed a button on it. “See?” Soon after, the screen turned on, and the tablet started.

“A-Ah…” She looked slightly embarrassed. “W-Well, there’s no way I could’ve known that…”

“You have quite the adorable girlfriend.” Steph liked her reaction a lot.

“I know!” The tiger’s expression turned more than a little smug.

“Urgh…”

“Which button was it…?” Chloe had also managed to free the tablet from its packaging and was curiously looking at it from all angles. “It’s amazing how thin and sleek electronic stuff has become! Everything was so bulky and ugly back when I lived on earth! Unbelievable what 20 years did!”

“Yeah, I guess the design of electronics has become at least as important as the function of it nowadays."

“Can’t say I hate it!” The fox-girl was a fan. “Back to the buttons… Let’s see… There seem to be only three buttons in total, so… Two are right next to each other and have a plus and a minus on them. Volume? That would mean… Yay!” She pressed and held the third option, finally turning the tablet on. “I did it!”

“That one’s also pretty adorable, though.” Sophia pointed at the pink-haired girl while smiling at her little sister.

“Very true!” Steph readily agreed here.

“Ehehe~.” Chloe was a lot happier about the compliment compared to Maya.

Afterward, the sisters took over for the initial configuration because the other two had absolutely no idea how to do that. They, Maya especially, had no clue what the setup questions wanted from them. As there was no internet available, it didn’t take overly long because most steps could, or rather had to, be skipped.

“And there we go!” Sophia had finished setting up their tablet and promptly opened the camera app on it. Then, she pointed it at the duo on the sofa opposite of them and took a quick picture of the comfy-looking girls. “Mhmm…” After that, she got up and gave her tablet to the other two while snatching theirs before returning to Maya. “It looks great~.”

“Eh…? A-Ah.” Steph then looked at the display and noticed the picture of her and Chloe. “I see…”

“Oh, it’s us!” The fox-girl was also looking at it. “It’s amazing how easily you can take and look at pictures nowad- A-Ah.” She then seemed to have noticed just how much her tail was wrapped around Steph and how the girl had been using it as a pillow. Her cheeks then turned quite red, and she loosened the grip of her tail around the dog a little.

“…” Even though it made basically no difference because Chloe really only slightly adjusted her tail, the dog-girl’s expression still turned into a bit of a pout.

“Subtle…” Maya could only roll her eyes while mumbling to herself.

“Heh.” Sophia was still able to hear it. “Oh, while we’re at it!” She opened the camera on the new tablet, as well, and then pointed it at the wolves to take a picture of them. “Also great to look at!” The tiger seemed to be quite happy with the result. Then, she got up again and walked over to the wolves to show it to them. "Behold! The wonders of technology!"

“What…? Oh? Eh?” Fen was a little confused about her wording and then got really confused after looking at the display and seeing himself and Aura in it.

“Oh?” The female wolf also looked surprised after seeing it. “What is this…?”

“It’s you and Fennyfenny!”

“No... I mean, yeah, I can see that, but how...?”

“This tablet has a camera that lets you take pictures!”

“Should I pretend to understand even a single word, or…?”

"A tablet is the thing I’m holding right now. A camera is a thing that lets you take pictures. A picture is what you’re seeing right now. An illustration of a scene you pointed the camera at… or something like that. I have no idea how any of that actually works, so don’t even try to ask about details.”

“That sounds a lot like when you talk about magic.” Fen stared at her. “Fascinated by it, but also having no idea how it works. I thought there was no magic in your previous world?"

“There is no magic. Living beings have no sort of power inside of them. Creating things out of essentially nothing is not possible, either.”

“Some of the humans in our world are quite clever and inventive, though.” Steph continued her sister’s explanation. “Basically, all of this so-called technology is made out of refined minerals and other substances that are present in our world. In one way or another, at least. Combining a bunch of stuff and using all sorts of processes eventually led to this and many other things." She pointed at the tablet towards the end. "Millions of inventions and ideas got realized like this."

“I see…” While they said so, the wolves still seemed quite confused.

“Don’t worry…” Sophia could understand their reaction. “I kinda understand how the finished product works and all that, but the processes leading to it, are completely above me." She scratched her cheek. "The theory behind all that kinda makes sense, but if someone would eventually reveal that those steps were based on magic… I would only be slightly surprised.”

“I feel like agreeing.” The dog-girl nodded a few times.

“Your world is weird…” Fen and Aura could only come to this conclusion.

“Yup.” The sisters agreed. “Previous world, that is.” They were in perfect sync.

Afterward, Sophia and Steph explained a little more about the results of technology while also showing off some more features of the tablets to everyone.

 

 

 

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