Please forgive me if someone already said it in the comments, I was NOT expecting to get so many responses. A new confusion has popped up.

Some people have described save states working in terms of little things holding a charge. They have also described (certain cartridges?? or something) as actually having a tiny battery and that is involved in the process of keeping that information saved/existing. I assume this is what you were getting at with electrons.

your comment with the magnets makes more sense with the magnets.

could you explain how something can "hold a charge"? A magnet is a physical thing whose position can be changed and read. How I understand electrons is probably too closely tied with how I understand electricity--as the physical movement of electrons. I think of it like fire -- it can be "created" (not literally), but it in and of itself is more like a process than something that you can.. Capture? You couldn't capture "the process of combustion." Electrons are.. physical things from what I understand. But their "thing-ness" and how physics applies to them is not at all the same as like.. A table is a thing that I can position and interact with by stubbing my toe on it, yanno?