Culture shock is... well, a little hard to define. But, basically, it's, when one goes to a new, unfamiliar place, and they experience new, unfamiliar things, which makes them uncomfortable.
Okay, maybe it's not actually all that hard to define.
Point is: Stuff is weird in a lot of places, and, since, I, a person from a different... planet? Universe? I don't really know how this works, honestly. Anyways, point is, I am liable to be shocked about any number of things.
Anyways, we'd had arrived Charolette's room, regardless of any redundancies. It was horrifically messy, unlike the rest of the house, there were nick knacks, weird little trinkets, odds and ends of all sorts, books, clothes, boxes upon boxes full of... stuff, the room seemed to be lined in what appeared to be newspaper, somehow? Also, any number of other random things I couldn't begin to understand. Point is, 'twas a messy place. Guess her folks don't care what she does in her own space. The room initially seemed a little small, mostly due to the clutter, I assume, but, upon closer inspection, the room was really quite large, like the rest of the house. Ooh, a walk in closet.
About the only thing in the room that wasn't incomprehensibly messy, was a small table near the center, which had an odd looking bow on it. It was clearly hand crafted, which was pretty cool. Is Charolette an archery enthusiast, perhaps?
"This... is your room, right?" S began. "You sleep in this?" S's eyes were darting around the room at impossible speeds, trying to take everything in.
"Ah, yeah, don't mind the mess." Charolette said. Putting her comically large backpack on the floor. Huh, y'know, isn't it odd that out of the small handful of women I've interacted with since I've came here, 2 of them have wore comically large backpacks? Well, I'm still on the fence about whether or not Catface is a girl, actually, but everyone else seems to think so. Or at least, S and Michaus do. Wait, how'd Michaus come to that conclusion? For that matter, how did S? He mentioned smell, right? That's... Odd, right?
Anyways, point is, 2 large backpack wearers isn't that many, but it's weird I encountered both of them in the span of, like, 2 days, right?
Oh, speaking of Charolette, I'm now realizing I haven't really taken a good look at her yet. Same with Zramazos. I mean, obviously I've seen them, but, I mean, I haven't taken a good look at them, yet, committed them to memory.
Charolette, though only a little taller than I, is probably a little older than me, I think. 2-4 years, at least, I'd wager. Her hair was short, ginger in color, and curly. Her hair seemed to be cut off a little abruptly, as if it had been cut recently. Her clothes were simple and practical, with ample pocket space, I'm now noticing. Probably not as much as I have, but a good amount regardless. Oh, and her eyes were blue.
Zramazos was also a little older than me, likely the same age (or, at least, similar) as Charolette. He's quite tall, and seemed quite physically fit, but subtly. He wore simple farmhands clothes, which, since he was presumably farm handing earlier, were rather dirty. His hair was a little long, a little (tastefully) messy. Oh, and his eyes were a cool, light brown.
Huh, y'know, I didn't realize it earlier, but those two totally look like a couple in a cheeseball romance novel.
Alright, new mission, I'm gonna befriend these dudes, and then play matchmaker for them if I ever get bored and need something to do.
Also, how the heck are Zramazos and Michaus related? They look nothing alike! Alright, now that that's out of the way, let us move on.
"Whoah! What is is that? Some new kind of fishing rod?" Michaus asked, gesturing to the bow on the table.
No, that's a bow, obviously.
"Well, kind of." Charolette began as they sifted through their bag, looking for something. "Used a fishing line for the stringy bit, actually."
For the bow?
"Oh, uh, n-need any help?" Zramazos asked as Charolette sifted through her bag.
"No, think I... Oop, ow." Charolette said. She pulled several makeshift arrows out of her bag. As well as a bit of blood.
"A-are you alright?" Zrmazos said, in a mild panic.
"Yeah, yeah, just a little prick, happens all the time." Charolette said as they licked the blood off their hands.
Huh.
Uh...
What's S doin'?
I looked over at S, who appeared to be scanning the room rapidly, looking a little uncomfortable.
I nudged him a bit.
"Hey, S, you good?"
"Oh, uh, right. Yeah, just trying to make sense of... Whatever's going on here." S said, gesturing to all the stuff around. Yeah, I don't get most of this stuff, either.
"Oh yeah, all my old projects and junk. Truth be told, I forget what most of these do, anyways. I'll throw 'em out... eventually." Charolette said.
I get the feeling these are gonna be here for the foreseeable future.
"Right, anyways, what's this thing you wanted to show us, some sorta broken fishing pole?" S said, probably unaware we already spent the fishing pole joke. Also, that is a bow.
"Well, let me show ya." Charolette said as they put the arrow on the bow. "First, you put a stick or something like this on this part... Make sure the string's all in there..."
Yeah, like a bow.
"Then you aim at a thing... You guys might wanna stand back for this."
As if you were shooting a bow.
We all stepped back, for safety purposes.
"Draw back the string..."
In a bow shooting-esque manner.
"And..."
You can feel the anticipation radiating off everyone in the room. Well, except me, because, y'know, my whole deal. But this time, I'd actually be not impressed, even without my whole thing. Because this is a bow.
"It flies!"
Bow.
The arrow flew towards a target that was standing up on the other side of the room. See, what I wanna know, did she set that up earlier, or was that just there the whole time?
Anyways, the arrow flew right past into the target and into the wall.
"Okay, still workin' on it, but you get the idea." Charolette said, satisfied.
"Woah!!" Michaus said excitedly.
"Ah!" Zramazos exclaimed.
"Eh!" S also exclaimed.
"Neat." I said. Okay, I was makin' jokes earlier (to, uh... myself, I guess.) but I've kinda gotten the picture here. Either this is an elaborate joke designed to make me look foolish, or, the bow hasn't been invented yet in this world.
Initially, that seemed improbable, but, after thinking about it, it makes a good bit of sense. In my world, as far as I understand it, projectile weapons were made pretty early. Humans needed 'em to hunt faster animals, and, eventually, each other, 'cus if one guy had a ranged weapon, you also needed a ranged weapon. But, in this world, people didn't need to invent ranged weapons. Because they essentially are ranged weapons. Over here, they can just shoot fire, or sand or whatever out of their hands to have the same effect or better as an arrow.
So, all they got in terms of non magical ranged weaponry is just throwing stuff that already exists for other reasons. Like the bandit guy from earlier who threw crap everywhere.
I wonder if they have trebuchets?
Anyways, best to act like I've never seen a bow before. Save me some explanation.
"Was that, like, wind magic or something?" Michaus asked enthusiastically.
"C-Cool." Zramazos said.
S just looked terrified.
Wait, what?
"How the hell did you do that?!" S said, still terrified.
What's got him all in a twist?
"Well, drawing it back, blah blah blah potential energy, blah blah blah release kinetic energy blah blah." Charolette explained.
"What?" S began. "None of this is natural. It's... It's not right."
This scares him, but giant wolves that can tear your throat out in a second are perfectly fine and dandy?
"It's cool!" Charolette said. "And, Michaus, you know I don't do magic."
"You don't use magic? Why not?" I asked.
Charolette shrugged "Eh, don't like it. Why go through all the work of mastering a fireball when a dust explosion works just fine, y'know?"
"Huh. That's fair." I said. Though, it's a little hard to set up a dust explosion, like, on command, especially one that doesn't also kill you. But, I do see the logic.
Wait, why's she know so much about dust explosions?
