The merman receptionist gave Cura and her group some tickets. “Here, follow me and I’ll start the tour and introduce you guys to the technology around here.”
The tour wasn’t too dissimilar to how a tour would go on an art museum on the surface. Only instead of talking about art from centuries ago, it was a showcase of the current technology being created for jobs - Essentially a glorified autoshow for merpeople.
What pleased Damon was how there were modern computers that were being made with hardware that resembled old Commodore and Apple Computers - Likely done due to these old computers being thrown in the garbage and ending up in the ocean. To Damon, it was nice to see that the personal computing technology is still used underwater and it’s possible his IT skills could still come in handy.
The sight of waterproof paint and digital tablets was especially pleasing to Lupe. On the surface, she worked as an artist and could do work traditionally and digitally. It was good that her work could still be continued if she wished. She just hoped her work could get her more appreciation and cash than her hair stylizing. Hopefully, the kings and royal families would give her commission work. It didn't matter to Lupe if she had to make art depicting great wars or sea gods she never heard of before, art money is art money.
Besides the paint, it was a pleasant surprise to Chloe and Stacy that there were mermaids and mermen working and recycling old trash from the surface and turning them into little technological devices. For example, there was an old broken picture face that was turned into a touch screen, and a pack of cigarettes that was turned into what could best be described as an underwater phone.
To Tim and Colton, the sight of a few workers working on a machine that turned sand into pearls was an interesting sight. Of course, the increased presence of pearls worn by merpeople likely created a high demand for merpeople interested in metalworking. Besides pearls, there were also a ton of machines that created fine jewelry and bangles, which makes sense since a mermaid needed to look as pretty as possible to attract mates, and lure human sailors.
Finally, what got Monica and Harmony excited was seeing tech of IV Pumps, beds, and monitors, all familiar sights to them from their work in the hospital. What made Monica especially happy was how there were little sea beds that were small enough to bring comfort to a baby like Isabella and there were little mashed seafood that she could feed to her baby until she could comfortably chew food. Harmony noticed Isabella babbling to the sight of the baby food and giggled.
All in all, merfolk technology wasn’t too different from human technology. It’s just that they had a more organic edge to them and were repurposing broken old tech found in landfills into something useful.
Compared to surprise and joy coming from his friends, Adrian remained silent. He was happy for his friends, of course, but he was a bit bummed his only job, hunting, wasn’t exactly treated with much respect in the science center. Sure, hunting was an act done by animals for millennia before the industrial revolution but… it still kinda sucked to feel left out when his friends seemed to have more promising job prospects.
At the very least, he wasn’t an Uber driver. He has had more than enough grievances with his “employer” to not regret leaving his company for the sea.
Cura noticed Adrian’s expression and swam next to him, patting his back, letting him know he wasn’t alone and that he had support by his side.
He smiled.