"Because it's an adventure!" He lies.

"That doesn't sound like all of it."

"I find good junk when exploring too, I guess. And sell it."

"Okay then."

Maurice senses sad. Must resist urge to hug.

"Anyway. You two look like you might have neat stuff to trade! Color tech!"

Maurice goes colourful. Air pants thankfully remain. "I keep telling people, it's not tech!"

"What else if not tech? Magic? Pffft."

Evan shrugs. "Sorta."

"No. Magic's fake. Magic is what stupid people think tech is. Even gooey stuff that doesn't look like tech is tech. Or natural." He shrugs.

"Except Miracle powers."

"Tech. You're not gonna convince me otherwise."

"But I don't have any tech."

"Then you had tech do something to you, or you are tech, or you're lying." He shrugs. "I'm not getting it apparently."

"Are tech?"

"I've heard stories about someone who touched an ancestor device and it put them to sleep and they woke up with super eyes and a metal arm."

"That's... sorta what happened to me?"

"Yep, I thought so."

"But that just explains why I can do stuff like this:"

He parkours up into the vent.

"Not why I get rainbows."

"...Well, nobody understands lost technology anyway. That's why it's so scary and cool at the same time."

"You keep saying 'lost' technology."

"Because we can't make stuff like that anymore? I know how to, like, make a clock or a balloon but not a rocket ship."

"...What year is it?"

"...One twenty three? Since the Gate Crash."

"A hundred and twenty three?"

"Yeah. I don't know what year it is in ancestor time but it's that in our time."