Opening the door to their cabin, Polina paused at the sight that awaited her, a small smile playing across her face. Oliver reclined on their bed snacking on popcorn, translating lines between bites. His laptop open in front him as the last few minutes of The Princess Bride played... and Jal, curled up against his side, reached out blindly to snag a handful of popcorn herself, happily munching away.

Her heart warmed at seeing this sweet, gentle side to Oliver- and seeing the two of them bonding like this.

Motioning for Princess Lilina to stay quiet, she led the statuesque Demoness into the room, closing the door behind them... and an amused smirk formed as the Princess froze at the sight of the movie, clearly not knowing what to make of the moving images and strange sounds coming from nowhere. Poli could only imagine what was running through her mind.

With the credits flashing on the screen, Oliver paused the movie and turned to Jal with a smile. "So, what did you think?"

"That... was awesome!" The Demon girl exclaimed, before pouting slightly. "But why is the hero a pirate? Pirates are jerks!"

A soft chuckled escaped Oliver as he shrugged. "Where we are from, Pirates are often romanticized in fiction... That, and not all pirates were bad- I think. I'm not really as informed on the history of pirates, though."

"I'm glad you two are having fun." Poli cut in as she sat next to them on the bed. "But I brought a guest." She motioned at the still stunned Princess. "This is Princess Lilina'vix'Strus. Lilina, this is Oliver, whom you have already seen, and this is Jal."

"Our daughter." Oliver chimed in, surprising even himself- but more surprising was the the warmth that surged through him at the word.

Jal's smile was radiant at hearing him call her that, but that smile faded as she shot a nervous glance at the Princess- she had never even imagined meeting a princess before! Lowering her head, she muttered softly. "It's nice to meet you... um, Princess. Ma'am."

Snapping out of her daze, the Princess nervously smoothed the silk dress she wore as she smiled at the pair. "Ah, hello. Please just call me Lily; I much prefer it over my name or title, and this is an informal setting anyway..."

"I apologize for my surprise, but the... moving portrait... Well, I've never seen anything like it!" She finished in a breathless rush, voice filled with awe."

"Please have a seat, Lily." Poli said with a reassuring smile, gesturing at the lone chair in the room. "You reaction is understandable; while movies-which is what that is- are common where we are from, I imagine it is quite the shock to you."

Lilina blinked in confusion at the unfamiliar word- as no such word existed in her language. "These... moo-vees... are common for your people? What are they exactly? I mean, if you do not mind me asking..."

Restraining a snort of amusement at her awkward pronunciation, as he didn't want to embarrass the Princess, Oliver was quick to answer the question- especially since he knew Jal was curious as well. "Yeah, movies are very common. The country we are from has hundreds of movies come out each year, and there are a bunch of other countries that do similar. I'm pretty there are millions of movies, though I don't know the exact number..."

A small chuckle slipped from Oliver at their looks of shock- he was sure it was a rare moment, a Demon Princess and a Devil orphan sitting together and having such similar reactions to technology that was literally out of this world. "As for what they are, exactly... Well, they are kind of like plays- I'm assuming you have theater here." Seeing the slow nod of confirmation from the Princess, he pressed on. "Well, it's kind of like a play..."

He paused, considering how to best explain it. "We have these things called cameras, which can capture dozens of images each second. A movies is basically just the images being shown rapidly in sequence, with sound added by some other technology..."

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Seeing the blank looks on their faces, he smiled awkwardly and tried to simplify it more. "Ok, maybe that wasn't the right way to answer... Um... the short version is that we have devices that can capture images and sounds, then reproduce them later for people to watch."

Seeing the twinkling of understanding in the Princess's eyes- and the look of curiosity from Jal- and idea suddenly struck him. Pulling out his phone, he quickly opened the camera and hit record before aiming it at his daughter. "Ok, say something Jal."

Staring uncertainly at the strange box in his hands, Jal shifted nervously. "Um... I'm not sure what to say?"

"Just say whatever you want to say, sweetie. There's no right or wrong thing for this." Poli reassured the girl.

For a second, Oliver felt bad for putting the young girl on the spot. But, after taking a deep breath, Jal smiled brightly and spoke. "My new mom and dad are the best! You're showing me all this new stuff and teaching me things I never imagined..."

Smiling gently at the girl as she trailed off- her face flush with emotion- Oliver stopped recording. Flipping the phone around, he hit play- and watched as awe and amazement flashed across her face at seeing and hearing herself like that.

"Cameras are so common where we are from that just about everyone has one- though the ones used to make movies are much higher quality and more expensive." Saving the short video- as he knew that both he and Poli would want it later- he quickly stored his phone in the Warehouse once more.

"So... that small box you held is one of these 'cameras'?" Lilina asked, voice tinged with curiosity, awe and excitement.

"Ah... it's a little more complicated than that." Oliver coughed awkwardly at the can of worms he had just opened.

"I've got this one." Poli chuckled softly, patting his shoulder. "That was what we call a 'cell phone'. While it does have a camera in it, it's primary purpose was for long range communication- though that requires major infrastructure and other technology of our world."

"Long range? How far could the communication reach?" Lilina asked breathlessly. "Could it be used to communicate across a city?"

"Ah.." Poli chuckled nervously, finally seeing what Oliver had already realized- between their new daughter and the princess, there was the potential for this explanation to take... a while. "Well, with the infrastructure on our world... It is possible to use a cell phone to talk to people in other countries- even as far as the other side of the world."

"Just... keep in mind, from what we have seen, our world is probably hundreds of years more advanced than this one..."

"This... is incredible..." Lilina said in awe. "There is so much to learn... I feel like I should be making notes!"

"Would it be possible to pause while I retrieve paper and ink?" She asked, standing nervously- afraid that they would refuse her request. "And may I use the desk here? I do not wish to make a mess..."

"What do you use to write here?" Oliver asked with a thoughtful look. "Is it, like, an ink well and a pen or something?"

"Yes, of course-" Lilina froze, eyes going wide with realization. "Your world has developed more advanced writing implements!?"

Chuckling softly, Oliver pulled out a blank notebook and passed it to her. "Here is paper- another thing that is super common back home..."

"What wonderfully clean edges and white pages..." Lilina muttered softly as she opened the notebook.

"And we have a lot of options for writing." Oliver continued, holding up an ink pen, a mechanical pencil, and an old fashioned number two pencil. "Our ink pens are similar enough to yours, just more contained and cleaner... Then there are pencils, which is a whole other long explanation..."

"Plus there is other stuff... Markers, chalk, crayons-" He froze on the word 'crayons', a thought rushing through his mind.

Setting everything else down, he quickly pulled out the biggest box of crayons he had- one with almost a hundred different colors- and a coloring book that he saw and found amusing: Coloring Cryptids. Holding them out to his newly adopted daughter, he couldn't stop his grin spreading from ear to ear. "Here, Jal, these are crayons and a coloring book- Uh, a coloring book is a book filled with images for children to color however they want, and the crayons are... um, well, they are for coloring with..."

Taking the odd box from him, Jal hesitantly opened it under his prompting- and her eyes filled with awe and wonder. "So pretty... There are so many colors!"

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