FireWriter | E. Christopher Clark

FireWriter

The FireWriter 7800 is a popular word processing device in the land of Eden. Developed by Winkie engineers during the first set of Wander Years, it is powered by the immolated cone of a Hellfire Pine. This innovation enables the FireWriter to create documents which can survive the creation of a new reality by The Seven Voices—a feat that no other writing implement can match.

 

The most famous document created by a FireWriter 7800 is The Tome, the primary religious text of The Sister’s Regulars—a book which documents all known myths and legends regarding the rebooting of reality, from “The Tragedy of Yesh and Jude” to “The Tale of the Seven Voices” and beyond.

 

The process by which the FireWriter does its thing is simple: based on user input from the keyboard, the FireWriter burns sap from the pine cone at its core onto paper that’s been exposed to The Waters of the River Without End.

 

It is only through this combination of magics—paper born of the The River Without End and ink made from Hellfire sap—that the famously durable texts of the FireWriter 7800 can be made real.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

The keyboard, enclosure, and central processing unit are recycled from 1980s Earthling computers. These specimens were collected from the Earth-666 iteration of reality by Edenian halflings who smuggled them across The River Without End.

 

Beyond the chassis itself, the other major component required to build the FireWriter is a single cone from a living Hellfire Pine—which must then be lit on fire, of course.

 

This sounds simple, but students of the Hellfire Pine will know that it is anything but. Every part of that species, though it craves the embrace of flame, is reluctant to accept said embrace. And that means that the Winkie craftspeople who assemble these machines must be patient above all else.

Firewriter by E. Christopher Clark
Item type
Mechanical
Rarity
Uncommon
Weight
11.5 lbs
Base Price
$6,669 Edenian

Comments

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Jul 7, 2021 05:38 by Dani

Oh my goodness- this is DEFINITELY extraordinary! Very cool callback to your Peculiar Plants entry. How many versions must they have gone through of trial and error before finding something which produced documents capable of surviving to the next universe iteration, I wonder? I love the thought you put into the components: of course 80s computer bits would be durable enough to survive the end of the world. :D


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Jul 8, 2021 12:55 by E. Christopher Clark

Thanks! And that "how many versions?" question is a great one, definitely something for me to consider when revising/updating this.   Glad you liked the callback to the Peculiar Plants entry, which it turns out was the start of a whole little piece of mythology that I'm hoping to explore more for one of the other prompts over the next couple of days.

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Jul 7, 2021 13:41 by Pierrot

A very interesting concept! And the humor is wonderful, too (: Very interesting how it requires fire and a material that is nearly fireproof, and so it requires the craftspeople to be patient...wonderful!

Jul 8, 2021 12:56 by E. Christopher Clark

Thank you! It was fun to pull from my Peculiar Plants article (the Hellfire Pine) to make this concept more interesting.

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Jul 7, 2021 18:54 by Amélie I. S. Debruyne

Awww, all those people recycling everything and not thinking about our poor descendants!   Great typewriter :D Must be great to keep the hands warm while typing in winter XD Though terrible with all those heat waves you have currently in the US - random unrelated question, did the climate change stopped in your world?

Jul 8, 2021 13:00 by E. Christopher Clark

Oh, that image of warming your hands while typing on the FireWriter — that is a great visual!   As for climate change stopping, I'm not sure but I don't think so. In my more realistic stories, I've only made it as far as 2013ish, and they've been so focused on individual- and family-centric stories that they haven't really touched on the bigger issues of the world. I think I'm kinda scared to tackle that stuff (hence while I'm not sure I'll ever write realistic stories set beyond December 2019, at least not for a while, because I have no idea yet how to write about COVID).   But, to make a long story short, in this more fantastical world where we have the FireWriter and stuff, I don't think climate change is as much of a thing. But that might change if Janet and Dimi give me the right prompt for Summer Camp and some idea hits me!

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Jul 8, 2021 15:27 by Morgan Biscup

Oh my goodness I love this. What a delightfully fun and unique take on the prompt. Also that's one way to ensure your writings will live on forever!

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Jul 9, 2021 01:25 by E. Christopher Clark

Thank you! This was one of the first images to pop into my mind when I was brainstorming ideas for prompts, so I was glad that it came out relatively easily (and gladder still that it's resonating with readers!). I wish they were all coming out this easy!

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