A relic of the past

We soon arrived at what I could only describe as an inventor's workshop. Clutter all along the floor, various tools and inventions strewn about, and a workstation complete with it's own biome of clutter. It is a bit heartwarming in a sense to see there are still people like this in the future, but a mess is still a mess.

"My apologies for the mess, but it must be a nostalgic sight of sorts considering how neat and organized everything was on your journey here, I presume," Lyn smiled.

"Yes..."

"Ah my apologies, I haven't introduced myself proper yet. I'm Lyndislyniannalynetta Lynett. Just call me Lyn for short. As you can probably tell by my ears, I'm not human, but rather I hail from the elflen race which in turn hails from the planet Elfaria."

"So that means there ARE alien races on Earth?"

"Yes, though this city, Jantar city, is primarily an all-human city with a few exceptions like Lyn here," Selena smiled.

She then proceeded to give me a brief summary on the various alien races that had established relationships with Earth. The fact that alien races not only existed but were also living on Earth came as no surprise. Heck, I was honestly more shocked when I didn't see alien races walking around the city when I first stepped outside, but apparently the reason for that is because Jantar doesn't wish for both those coming out of stasis and alien races to overwhelm each other. That didn't mean alien races were banned from living here according to Selena, though most preferred simply not to live here as this town often served as an introductory zone to those coming out of stasis on what the world was now like.

As soon as Selena finished her explanation, Lyn giddily dragged me towards a machine. She explained that it was a cloning machine that could perfectly clone all non-living things. As such, she wished for me to give her my clothes in exchange for perfect replicas.

"Unaltered clothing from your era is practically non-existent. I won't ask for all your belongings, but I would kindly ask you at least let me clone them."

"So what's the difference between an cloned item and it's original?" I asked.

Lyn thought for a moment before settling on a copying machine analogy. "You know how if you try to make a copy of a copy, the quality gets worse, yeah? Well if you have the original, you can make a copy with 99.9% accuracy. Really the only difference is the fact that it's not to original. It can't perfectly replicate the age of the artifact, but it can certainly do it's best."

"So if you cloned a fossil-"

"Can't clone remains, but a paleolithic arrowhead on the other hand, sure. It would have a near identical composition to the original, but lack the same amount of radiocarbon. Guess you could think of it as a watermarking system of sorts to denote clone from original."

With the explanations done, I allowed Lyn to clone my clothes and all my belongings. I was really impressed the machine was able to create a perfect replica of my sneakers, even down to some of the worn insoles. As per the deal, I took a set of the cloned clothes while she kept the originals. This kind of gave me the vibe of donating something to a museum. I even threw in a new SD card since I had a ton of those on me anyway. The warm gratified smile upon Lyn's face is something I'll never forget.

"Thank you. I'm a history buff, so to receive such artifacts is akin to a marriage proposal from someone you wish to spend the rest of your life with."

And things just got awkward.

"Hahaha! Look at you, girl. You already got a wife on your first day out of stasis. Some of your senpais would be crying to be in your shoes," Irina laughed.

As my face began to go red, I was sure things were going to escalate, however, it was none other than Lyn that diffused things.

"When I said akin to a marriage proposal, I didn't mean a literal one. What I meant was to compare this moment to one of when someone you've loved kneels on a knee and presents you a ring, asking if you'd be willing to spend the rest of your life with them. The feeling of hearing those words is tearjerkingly happy. Someone actually loves a flawed, cooky scatterbrain like you and wants to spend the rest of their life with you. So many times I've tried to further my research by asking amberstasisies for their belongings, but all attempts until now have been fruitless. Thank you for your contribution to my hobby. I will treasure and respect your apparel until the ends of my days. AH! Forgive me, I haven't even asked for your name!"

"Hana Hangetsu. I actually used to be a vlogger back in the day so feel free to look me up and subscribe to my channel."

For a second, Lyn's smile began to fade, but quickly returned to normal a second later. "A channel you say... I'll do my best to look it up."

...

I breathed a sigh of relief as Lyn stopped herself from saying something overwhelming. I do feel a bit guilty myself about not telling Hana about this, but I don't want her to feel depressed. She looked so cheerful when she began filming herself, so to tell her that it might not be possible for her to continue to upload videos to the internet, could depress her greatly.

While her channel most certainly still exists, the platform it was hosted on has undergone numerous updates, so much so that I'm unsure if she'd be able to upload videos from her phone to it. But for now, we should focus on the present. I want her to continue to experience the marvels of this modern world.

I quickly shot Irina a silent glare, with the message of, "Don't you dare bring up the issue until the time is right."

While that girl can be a chaos factor more often than not, she does have about a 12.25% chance of acting rationally. And this time...

"Yeah, that old phone- Mmph!?"

...Was clearly not one of them.

...

I naturally stared over in confusion as Selena frantically tried to restrain Irina and cover her mouth.

"Uh, what was that about my phone?"

A look of sadness spread on Selena's face as she loosened her grip on Irina, allowing her to free herself.

"Sheesh, I'm doing you all a favor. Not fair to gag the messenger. Anyway, that phone of yours likely ain't gonna be able to upload things to the internet."

The feeling that spread over my body as I heard those words, I could only describe as devastation. Tears began to streak down my face as I began to choke up.

"But if I can't upload anything, then how can I share my life with the world?"

A smirk appeared on Irina's face as she waltzed up to me and wrapped her hand around me. "I only said it might not be possible with that old phone."

That calmed me down a bit as I was able to piece together what she was implying. "I see. So I get a new phone-"

"Nah, smartphones like that don't really exist as humans have evolved to the point where we're pretty much living smartphones ourselves."

And the devastation returns.

"AHEM!"

I quickly took my eyes off the floor and directed them to Selena. She explained that while my smartphone would likely be incompatible with today's internet, there were actually smartphone-like devices out there which were developed by various stasis companies in order for those coming out of stasis to avoid not being able to connect to the internet of this era. However, it would take time to procure one. Another possible solution was to try modifying my body in an attempt to upgrade it to the modern era, but this naturally came with its own set of risks and would take time as well.

Of those two, the 1st option was a no-brainer. That being said, I'm not too keen on just relegating my smartphone to the sidelines. Sure it was common even in my time to always upgrade to the latest phone model, but I was more of an exception to this rule as I'd tend to only upgrade if my current phone was beyond salvageable, and my partner most certainly wasn't.

"And then there's option 3. I just so happen to know a hacker who might be able to get that old girl of yours compatible with the internet," Irina grinned.

I swear, I can see why Selena seems to be flustered by this girl. But she did just give me the solution.

"I'll take option 3. Now where's this hacker at?"