[TTD - NYC] There's nothing you can't do (Ricky)

It was so nice that they both had the same day off. It only rarely happened, especially since they were both heads of their respective houses. However, today they got lucky and Gideon had suggested a trip to New York City. He wanted to visit the joke shop he supplied with fun potions and just stroll through the city again.

They just left the joke shop and walked into the muggle area of the city when he saw an item on the pavement before them. “What’s that?” he asked, picking up the device and examining it. “Looks a little like a walkie-talkie with this antenna,” he offered his little knowledge on muggle items. Coming from a magical family with no immediate muggle influence, he knew little about muggle technique but found it rather intriguing anyway.

“Any idea what the keys with the numbers mean?” he asked his mate. “Maybe it’s some kind of mathematical device? Don’t they have these things called calculators?” He pressed some numbers but frowned when he realised that there was no plus or minus key. Then he held the mobile phone out Ricky to examine it.

Gideon was eager to play around with the thing some more but wanted to give his best friend a chance to show his knowledge in case he actually had a clue what this thing was meant to be.

@Ricky Cortes

Ricky hadn't been to a large city for three or four years, and now he was in New York with his best friend. Only for the day, that was true, but it felt like a vacation as they had apparated into the magical quarter and then, predictably, headed straight for the joke shop. Although well into their thirties now, it seemed that Gideon still had no interest in actually growing up. Oh sure, his friend claimed he just wanted to speak with the owners about the potions he supplied there, but RIcky didn't miss the excited gleam in the other man's eyes as they looked around the various other sections and even made a couple of puchases.

But Ricky didn't blame Gideon at all. After all his friend had had a difficult year and deserved some time off to relax. They weren't even at the joke shop that long before they had left it - and the magical area of the city - and found themselves wandering down a muggle street. Ricky was watching the bright yellow cars as they made their way along the roads, wondering why muggles couldn't make them so they didn't produce those hooting noises every few seconds. He imagined a broomstick that made that much noise and smirked. No way would it ever catch on!

Gideon apparently had other things occupying his attention. Ricky hadn't seen him pick up the device from the pavement but instead assumed it had come from the joke shop "Why did you buy it if you don't know what it is..? he asked, and then belatedly realised that his friend had found it. Presumably some muggle had lost it. When Gideon held it out, he took it and looked at it thoughtfully. It was familiar, but it took a few moments for him to remember why.

"Its a communication thing. Muggles use the numbers to talk to each other. Mariana's got one - oh, and I think there's one in the restaurant too. You press the numbers and then somehow it makes a noise and the other muggle can talk to you..." he took it and frowned, pressing a couple more buttons at random "Hey, I remember! This green one here with the banana shape on it! You press that and...yeah, listen!" he held it up to Gideon's ear "That noise means a muggle's going to talk to you in a minute" he concluded knowledgeably.

Although Gideon had a bag full of joke items that he just hadn’t been able not to buy, he was most intrigued by this funny muggle device now. Maybe he should ask the shopkeeper to sell muggle items, too. They did look like some joke items anyway.

Ricky hadn’t noticed that he had picked up the muggle thing from the ground and first even assumed that Gideon had bought it at the shop - that clearly was another proof that it would be a fun merchandise for sure.

Gideon had grown up among wizards, he knew very little about muggles himself. Ricky, however, knew a lot more about them and, thus, the Wampus head of house was hopeful that his mate could help him figure out what kind of weird thing he had found. Apparently Ricky indeed knew more about it but Gideon wasn’t entirely sure that he could be right.

“A communication thing?” he asked, his expression showing that he was not convinced. “How do they use numbers to talk to each other?” He tried to figure out what his best friend was telling him. Did the muggles press the numbers and another person had to decipher the message then? Talking or even writing notes seemed so much easier. Had Ricky explained to him that it was an item that helped to make people talk to each other that were far apart, he might have seen the sense in it.

The thing made a sound and Gideon was reluctant to take it again as Ricky held it out. ’Hello?’ a soft female voice said from within the strange item. And then, sounding a little more impatiently the voice repeated ’Hello?’

“Hello,” Gideon yelled at the piece in his hand. “Can you hear me?” He asked unnecessarily. The woman, apparently not impressed by him yelling, snapped at him  ’I can hear you very well. Who are you?’ Gideon didn’t answer but a delighted smile spread across his face.

“She sounds nice.” He told his friend while the woman was still on the line. “Is this a device muggles use as a matchmaking service? They press random numbers and they end up with a date?”

The device - Ricky was sure he'd remember what it was called in a minute - was making a sort of muffled ringing noise as he held it up to his friend's ear. Gideon naturally seemed reluctant to take the thing back so they simply held and stared at it as he tried to remember what he knew about them.

"I don't know. There's one in the restaurant though, Mariana insisted we get it, and sometimes it makes that ringing noise. Then she talks into it and people tell her they want to come and eat at the restaurant. It's what muggles use instead of owls, I think, but I don't get how the numbers w..." he trailed off as someone spoke through the little device.

Ricky had never actually used a phone of any kind, but at least he wasn't surprised by the voice, and he had a slightly better idea of how it was meant to be used. "I don't think you need to shout" he advised as Gideon yelled loudly enough that several people across the street turned to look and one of the yellow cars made a particularly long hooting noise. As for the matchmaking service idea, Ricky wasn't sure that sounded right. After all, the one in the restaurant always had people who wanted to book a table.

But actually, that made sense, didn't it? Different talking devices had different purposes - and certainly the woman had a nice voice, even if she did sound a bit annoyed now. So maybe this one was a dating service. Ricky decide the best thing was to take control. "Hello?" he said, leaning forwards and talking at a more sensible volume "Are you looking for a boyfriend?"

The response from the device suggested quite clearly that the woman was definitely not looking for a boyfriend. There was a click, and then the device's screen went blank. "I guess she wasn't interested" he said, sounding slightly disappointed even though a date was the last thing Ricky really needed. "Shall we try again?" He randomly pressed some more numbers, less than before, and then pressed the green banana again.

"It's making the ringing noise again" he confirmed, staring at the sequence of numbers he'd pressed - 9, 1 and 1 - and wondering why they seemed vaguely familiar.

Ricky asked the female voice within the strange device if she was looking for a boyfriend but there was only a clicking sound and the screen went black. Gideon wasn’t sure if that meant that his idea had been wrong all along or if the woman wasn’t eager to talk to two men or maybe she wasn’t looking for a man at all but rather for another woman?

All this made his head spin. Muggle devices usually had this effect on him. Gideon found that things in the magical world were just so much easier and more logical. Muggles seemed to have a tendency to complicate things unnecessarily.

Ricky had tried some other numbers, less this time than Gideon had used earlier. They both stared at the device as it made the ringing noise. To outsiders they had to look like they were entirely mental or had just come to 2004 on a time travel.

’911, what’s your emergency?’

The voice sounded businesslike as though the person who was talking to them did this all day long. Gideon looked at Ricky, his eyebrows raised. “Emergency?” he asked, looking at his mate for help. “I really don’t get this thing. I much prefer owls.” And, quite similar to a little child that was disappointed with a new toy, Gideon made a sulky face and walked a few steps down the street, waiting for Ricky to catch up with him after he hopefully disposed of the strange muggle item.

[out]

Was it going to be the same person or someone different? The number was different, so logically Ricky expected the voice would be as well, but one could never tell with muggle devices. When the voice responded, they were both silent for a couple of seconds before he burst out laughing.

"He needs an emergency date...now!" he said, though as he wasn't speaking directly into the device it was doubtful whether the voice had heard that clearly. It was funny, nonetheless...though apparently Gideon had already gotten bored with the joke. Ricky shrugged and stared at the small screen which was now lit up, wondering if he should say thank you but they didn't really need a date after all and how one finished a conversation with this thing. Maybe they should just put it...

Oh my! You found my phone!"

He spun round to see a middle-aged woman in a smart grey suit hurrying towards them, balancing on very high heels. Ricky blinked in surprise then realised the woman was speaking about the device in his hand.

"Oh! Uh...yes, my friend found it on the sidewalk...I guess you dropped it" he said, handing it over "I think someone's wanting to speak with you. Have a nice day..." Glad to be out of the situation he gave the muggle woman a smile before hurrying after Gideon.

"I think you're right. Trust muggles to make everything way more complicated than it needs to be" he agreed as he caught up with his friend "So, where next? We haven't visited the bookstore yet..."

[out]