(Untitled)

[tooktheblack]

Jon tried to spend most of his time out of doors because the inside of the Compound was stifling, in a way, and while he'd been at the Wall, he never really liked walls. It was too compact, too closed in, and it made it feel like he couldn't get out. That said, there were things in the Compound that interested him: books, the strange boxes that

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[other_valentine]

Hester, caught off guard by the question, still decided that she'd been asked, and she might as well try to answer. She came over, picked up the metal reel and turned it over in her hands.

"I've not seen anything like this before," she said. "But..." She unravelled the film and looked through it. "I think this is an information tape. I see pictures."

[tooktheblack]

"How are there pictures here?" Jon asked, touching the tape lightly. "You couldn't even see them with it so small and dark. Hardly any point in it, I'd say."

Then again, modern things usually didn't seem to have a readily-evident point.

[other_valentine]

Hester was inclined to agree with this man, but she could see the pictures. A lot of pictures, all the same, or similar. And a memory of an old conversation came to mind.

"I think I have heard of this," she said. "You shine a light through this... filmy-thing... and you can see the pictures on a wall or some sheet."

She unravelled the reel a little more. "I think you are supposed to see these pictures one after the other. Where would we get a light?"

Just then, her single-eyed gaze fell on the projector.

[tooktheblack]

"Maybe this makes light," Jon said, kneeling next to the projector. He wasn't sure how it worked considering it was like nothing he'd ever seen in Westeros before but it couldn't hurt, he supposed, to give it a try.

"I guess we place this in there?"

[goingtodorking]

"That's a movie," says Karen, perching on the arm of the couch and watching him for a moment. She doesn't know Ghost as well as she knows Honour, so she gives him some room, but she knows that Edmund knows Jon, and that makes him okay by her.

"You play it on the projector."

[tooktheblack]

"Projector? You'll have to help me again," Jon asks the small girl, holding up the reel.

"I'm not originally from a world like this. These things are foreign to me but I have been trying to learn as quick as I can."

[goingtodorking]

"I know how to set it up," says Karen, looking proud of herself. She straightens up to her full height. "Rollie taught me. And sometimes I watch movies with Charlie and Edmund."

She clambers across the sofa. "It's not that hard. I can show you."

[tooktheblack]

It felt strange to have such a small girl teaching him something but everyone had something to contribute at the Wall. He'd never known how to fish, really, until some boys from the Fingers showed up and he couldn't sing like the Flowers boy or Satin.

"Would you? I would be forever indebted."

[radical_cowgirl]

Pausing mid-skip, Edward looked at the man and tried to decide if he were crazy or just... slow. Or maybe from the way past. Or the way future. Taking a few exaggerated steps closer, she peered at the film and then peered at the man-man.

"Edward thinks it's a film-movie. But Ed's not sure. It's old-old tech." To Edward at any rate, but she bet she could figure it out and she picked up the reel to pull at an end and look at what she could see.

[tooktheblack]

"Old? I must be ancient, then," Jon teased. "If you figure out how it works, do you think you could explain it to me, Edward?"

He thought that was what the boy said, Edward, and on a second glance, Jon wasn't sure if it was a boy or girl that had spoken to him. He supposed Edward would be the easiest form of address.

[radical_cowgirl]

Looking around the room, she saw the projector nearby. She'd seen it in use before and after a little experimenting, she managed to thread the film through all the little wheelies and clips in what she hoped was the right order.

Flipping the switch, the projector rustled to life, pulling the film through and projecting the results on the wall... backwards.

"Awwww, that isn't right, what did Edward do wrong?"

[tooktheblack]

"Maybe if we turn it over?" Jon suggested, tilting his head a little to try to get an idea of what the image was. It looked like some kind of childish drawing of a mouse, maybe, and some sort of ship. Mice at sea sort of went hand in hand.

"Then it would show right side up, yes?"

[quite_a_delight]

"Hi, Jon," Marshall said, offering Ghost a nod on his way over to the bookcase. "It's a film reel."

Picking up the reel, he unrolled the film just enough to hold a strip of it up toward the light. "Here, see," he said, offering the other man a look. "You load it into the projector, over there, and the projector will play the pictures up on the wall for you to watch. Each little frame represents just a fraction of a second of the movie."

[tooktheblack]

"Yet another advantage this island has over Westeros. I have never seen such in my life. Is it for entertainment then, like a book might be? Or something else?"

He could see where such pictures could be used for a great number of purposes but Jon's mind went to the Wall and to battle and being able to prepare for an enemy attack by showing the terrain like a moving map.

[quite_a_delight]

"Or a tool for learning, the same way a book might be," Marshall confirmed with a nod, "Where I come from, the technology is constantly growing. There are not a lot of limits to what you can do."

There was always a certain passion in his voice, whenever he talked about film. He couldn't remember a time when he wasn't fascinated by it.

[tooktheblack]

"I was just thinking it would be a good way to show maps for a war campaign, especially if men didn't have their letters. If you could see the land, you wouldn't need to know the words in order to follow the directions."

Maybe it was a good thing such a thing didn't yet exist in Westeros. The armies would become nigh unstoppable.

[highf]

"Jon Snow, meet film reel," Kurt easily replied, breezing inside and giving him an amused tilt of his head. He knew that plenty of people on the island were disadvantaged, coming from times when such technologies weren't available, and without a manual to help guide them through it all in one fell swoop. If anything, the fact that Jon was willing to dive straight into it all regardless was something that Kurt found undeniably endearing. Carefully closing his fingers around the film reel, he glanced up at the young man, waiting for Jon to release the disc. "And film reel needs to meet projector."

To emphasize his point, he tilted his head in the direction of the projector. "Used together, both of them help to project moving images on a surface. We call them films, or movies. A story told visually, more or less."

[tooktheblack]

"Strange. It would be good, though, for those who don't know their letters to be able to see it in pictures. Is there sound too? Or just the images?"

It felt strange to be so summer-green about something but the island was a whole different world than Westeros and full of things that Jon never would have seen, much less be expected to be an expert on.

[highf]

"Should be both sound and images. Hopefully. Although silent films exist too," Kurt mused, half to himself as he turned the reel in his hands, trying to find a title etched somewhere for reference; sadly, there was nothing of the sort. Pursing his lips, he shrugged. Regardless of whether or not the film was accompanied by audio, Kurt supposed that there was no harm in playing a few minutes. Even the most potentially unsavory of films didn't usually ruin themselves until then. "In my time, this kind of technology is considered pretty antiquated. We've got flat little discs that can hold a lot more than this. But, you know, this is where it started. Once we realized that the tiniest of pictures could be stretched to fit a whole screen with a bit of well-aimed light."

With a lopsided grin, Kurt reached out for Jon's arm. "Come on, let's take a look. And, speaking of letters- are you taking any classes? To learn some of the more common languages on the island?"

[tooktheblack]

"No, I haven't yet. I can read the letters used on the notice board most often and most people seem to speak the Common tongue. I never knew Valyrian or any of the other languages in Westeros. It never really came up since all I knew was the North and the Wall."

Perhaps it would be a good idea to take up studies though, on the island. It wasn't something he'd considered when he first arrived.

"I haven't had schooling except scrapes here and there from Maester Luwin and the septas. Most of what I learned, I learned in the field."