Session Start: Thu Sep 21 19:29:29 2006 Session Ident: #lunar-iog2 * Logging #lunar-iog2 to 'logs\#lunar-iog2.log' * Storen changes topic to '-= Chapter 27.1: Midnight Oil | Location: Vulcannon Labs Complex | Pools: 3361 §, 1 MXP =- http://storen.rpgcafe.net/IoG/' ==LUDE START!== As the Lab shuts down for the day and a skeleton crew mans the systems, the inspired Iron Witch stubbrnly refuses to leave the bay with the powered combat suit, working like a woman possessed into the wee hours of the morning. Unbeknowst to her, an admirer rises from his slumber to observe her work... * Vytor wanders into the maintanance bay, still working out some of the kinks from the beatdown eariler that day, keeping a eye out for who he suspects he'll find there at this time of night * Emiria is sitting in front of a large work-table, dozens of tools and engine parts strewn on its surface. What appears to be the remains of three scavenged engines are littering the ground haphazardly around her chair... her worn clothes seem to be gone, and she's wearing a simple white shirt and khaki shorts instead, absorbed in sketching on a series of large blueprints. * Vytor wanders over, holding his shoulder and rotating the arm attached to it, "I figured I'd find you here. Even at this time of night." * Emiria turns her head, squinting to see Vytor better in the half-light of the bay. "Hm?" Still at it I see. And the effort seems to be spreading outward. * Emiria brushes her forehead with the back of a hand and stretches. She lets her pencil fall on the paper and yawns. "Yeah, I guess it's getting kinda messy..." ^^; Any progress? It's a little hard for me to tell just from this little scene. Yeah. I have the power requirements of the suit all figured out, and I'm about halfway to getting a design that works... shifting to a four-stroke cycle should increase the efficiency, and changing the shape of the chamber will increase compression pressure. * Vytor walks over to the work table to peer at the paperwork 'course, I'll probably have to adjust the whole thing to use stronger fuel... * Vytor looks the plans over, then looks up at Emiria, "Is that was all this says?" Well, sort of. I'm trying to get the work I've done in my head on paper so the rest of the team can figure out what to do tomorrow... there's not that much in there yet. I'd offer to help, but half the stuff on here I don't recognize * Emiria looks up at Vytor from her chair. "That's fine. You came down here to give me a hand?" :P Well, actually I wanted to ask you about something that's been bothering me. * Emiria moves to sit on top of the table, to avoid having to crane her neck to look at him. "Yeah?" * Vytor grabs a nearby crate and drags it over to the table, as a makeshift chair Well, we first met in New Takkar, right? * Emiria nods. "Yup. It's kinda hard to forget, eh?" * Vytor nods, "OK, but then I hear that you used to work here in the lab. Am I wrong?" * Emiria nods again. "Yeah... on one of the old research divisions." Well, I trained here on and off since I was ten, and then more premanently after I was 12. I don't ever remember seeing you, or even hearing about you. Not hearing about this title you have. It just strikes me as a little weird to hear all this, and then find out some hint about you and Chrissy having some kind of falling out on top of it * Emiria sighs. "Well... I guess it's not that weird you wouldn't know, being a silver-worker." I've been hit with a lot of surprises lately, and my resilince against them is waning. Could you fill me in please? * Emiria chuckles. "Eh, why not..." * Emiria scratches her head. "Um, let's see..." * Gayo|Gone is now known as Gayo I joined Vulcanon maybe 2 and a half years ago or so? As an intern, really, since I was just out of the Academy. They hadn't done the whole shift to silver alchemy back then... * Vytor listens quietly I started out doing mostly maintenance work, but I ended up fixing and inventing some stuff, based on the stuff Vulcanon found in digs and all. It was really interesting work, but at some point Chrissy got it into her head that silver alchemy was the future, and everyone who was working on something else could go eat crow. * Vytor frowns at that After they reorganized everything, they wouldn't give me a tenth what any alchemical division gets now... I couldn't even get access to new tools, and you know? No one freaking cared. It was all 'silver-this', 'silver-that', and 'oh, we're so impressed you could fix that by yourself, Emiria. Can you do it in silver though?' When I complained, they threatened to just kick me out, like all the work I'd done for two years counted for nothing, like I hadn't gotten more results by myself than the rest of my whole damn department... so I quit. I never heard about any of this. * Emiria shrugs. "I guess everyone was way busy back then. Besides..." Besides...what? Well, I'm not such a great people-person... Is that part of why you left? My superiors said that if my 'attitude didn't improve', I wasn't gonna get a full researcher position, and I got into a yelling match with the CEO, so... well, kinda. Did she ask you to leave, or did you decide that on your own? No, I left on my own. I figured that even if I got made a full researcher and everything, I still wasn't going to get anything to work with... so, well, I decided to strike out on my own and show them. * Vytor shifts his position a bit, "OK, so tell me about Iron Alchemy. I'd only heard that alchemy with metals other than silver was strictly theoretical." * Emiria smiles lopsidedly. "'Strictly theoretical'? It's just harder. Silver is more malleable, so it's easier to willwork it..." But you figured out how to make it work with Iron. I always thought that it was the mutable properties of silver that made it ideal for alchemical purposes. I started working on it back at the Academy... back then, silver alchemy was experimental and there was a lot of interest in working with metal in general. It makes me wonder if Iron wasn't the only metal that got passed over. I spent so much time on the silver aspect I never thought there were alternatives. Well, like I said, silver is a lot easier. It's more malleable and, uh, 'willing'? to be shaped. It's not that you can't actually work with other metals, but it's just too hard- I discovered along the way that iron and I got along, and I practiced it until I could make it do what I wanted. Got...along? What does that mean? * Emiria grins. "That as far as I know I'm the only one that can willwork iron and steel with no aids. I guess you just need a will of iron to bend iron to your will." No aids? You mean no tools? Just the forge and you? A forge makes it easier, but I can still do some work without one. It's just harder to get a stable temperature going with fire magic and get details right. * Vytor wideeys, "No forge?" O_O * Emiria swings her feet forward and backwards excitedly, seeing his expression. "Yeah. Well, like I said, I can only do crude stuff..." Still, that's incredible! I've never heard of someone having that kind of skill with alchemy before. You must be really good. Well... modesty aside, yeah, I'm pretty good. That's why they called me the Iron Witch. ^^ I wasn wondering about that too. Without context, it doesn't sound very flattering. Yea, well... I said I wasn't that good with people. ^^; * Emiria hops off the work table, peering at Vytor. "Say, some guys mentioned you a bit earlier and said you are pretty good. Why'd -you- leave Vulcanon?" * Vytor seems a little taken back by the abrupt change of topic, but recovers, "Well, I spent a good 8 years here. I took a vacation at one point, but came back." So are you back at Vulcanon for good? Well, no. See, I got restless after a while. My attention kept wandering with my work. I wanted to get back out into the world and wander for a while. So what are your plans for after wandering? I really don't know at this point. This whole business with the Prophetess has thrown a kink into everything. I mean how can I make plans when someone seems bent on re-writing existance? Well, I don't know much about this re-writing existence business, but... Well, working on my own is a bit harder than I thought it'd be, and I could use a partner. Interested? Hmm...what did you have in mind? * Emiria grins, clapping her hands together. "I'm gonna found Razgriz Corporation and make it into an empire of steel that's gonna be so big and successful that Chrissy is gonna eat her words." * Vytor seems troubled at that I'm...not sure I can do that. How come? * Vytor fighets a little You're asking me to take up business in opposition to someone who took me in when I had nowhere else to go. I'm not sure I can do that. * Vytor looks at his feet, feeling uncomfortable But... well, you've worked well for them all this time, right? * Vytor nods It's not like working on your own is wrong or anything... they helped you, and worked and helped them back, but why shouldn't you be able to move on? I don't know, maybe it was just how you said it. It just sounded a little... overly aggressive. Don't mind me, I just get excited when I picture Chrissy admitting that she was wrong and I was right... :P I suppose there's that. I just wonder why there can't be room for both silver and iron alchemy here at the labs in the first place? * Emiria wanders back to the table and starts playing absently with a wrench and some loose screws. "Well, I guess you don't have to make up your mind now and everything. I heard that you were one of the best silver alchemists anywhere, and since you're not working for Vulcanon and I can't really work everything out on my own..." * Emiria shrugs. "Budgets is what they'd say, but iron alchemy just isn't wanted. I'm the past, and Chrissy only wants to look to the future." But I don't get that. How is Iron alchemy something of the past? I'd never even heard of it until you mentioned it. Well, uh, I guess Iron Alchemy is something of the present. Or since I'm the only one that does it, maybe the future. It's more of a.... well, she thinks silver is the most important development, and it's better to just work with that than use iron for everything like they did in the past? But that doesn't make any sense. You don't use normal silver for all kinds of jobs. You don't use iron for all kinds of jobs. So why just use alchemic silver for all kinds of jobs? It doesn't, yeah. That's why I'm working on my own. Alchemical Iron has to have unique properties that are better suited to some tasks than...well look! *me indicates the partly dismantled robot* Right there! There's proof! Chrissy couldn't make that thing work because alchmical silver wasn't strong enough. * Emiria turns to look at the powered suit, smiling. "Yeah. He's beautiful, isn't he?" Um...well...its...uh...impressive? * Emiria looks back at Vytor, banging the wrench on the work-table triumphantly. "And that's why she had to take my terms, and someday, she's gonna WISH she'd kept me." Or maybe she'll admit she was wrong and ask you to come back? If she's prepared to admit that Iron alchemy has more application than she thought, she's going to need someone capable to run the division. * Emiria shakes her head. "No, no way. I'm done with Vulcanon- I'm no good at playing politics with people higher up and I don't want to have to beg again for a budget or permission to get new tools. If she changes her mind, she'll have to look for someone else." * Vytor looks a little dissapointed * Emiria tosses the wrench back on the desk and sighs. "Well, enough about that." Sorry, its just that I always felt like Volcanon Labs was a place that always pulled together. I never imagined it was otherwise. Well... I guess that's just the way it is. * Vytor looks at the floor somewhat morosely * Emiria looks around awkwardly. "Uh... anything else you wanted to talk about?" Well, I wanted to ask you about Iron Alchemy in general. I mean...well....what's it like? * Emiria scratches her head. "It's hard to describe... uh, what's it like to work silver for you?" * Vytor blinks Can't you work silver too? I figured you could since you mastered something as difficult as iron. * Emiria shrugs uncomfortably. "I just... uh, no." Oh * Vytor thinks "I mean, it's not like I totally can't! I just did little with it, and I had other things to work with, so I never really did much with it..." Oh, so its more of a lack of practice versus a lack of ability. Yeah, that. * Vytor thinks again Well, for me...working silver is like...being connected to it, through the mind and the will. Its like when its molten, I can feel my own heartbeat in it, like it was blood almost. When I ask it to move, its like moving a part of my own body. What I imagine happens, down to the tiniest details I can conceive. If I imagine it to move like water, its like I can feel it, like the blood in my viens. Or when I need it to be solid, its like my bones. Or if I need it to vaporize, its like the air in my lungs. Does that...make any sense? * Emiria sits down and rests her chin in one hand, looking thoughtful. "Yeah, I understand. It's pretty different..." How so? Iron resists when you try to change it, even when it's at high temperatures, melting. You can't just coax it or work it gently into what you want it to be- you have to wrap yourself around it and master it, force it to follow what you want. * Vytor thinks You know, from an alchemical standpoint that makes sense You get the rough shape first, and when it's firmly under your control, then you start working details, wrestling with the smaller parts. You mean because of the composition of each? Iron and Silvr are both earth-aspect materials, being metals. But silver shares some aspects with water, hence it has a more mutable nature. Water conforms to the shapes imposed on it, so silver is easier to manipulate in that regard. Iron lacks that quality, and instead is aaspected more towards fire, hence its response to it. * Emiria rubs her chin, looking interested. "Yeah, elementally speaking it does make sense." That explains why iron holds onto heat so well, and silver much less so. * Vytor chuckles, "If you asked Saki to try and sear a steak in a silver pan, she's glare you right out of the room." Well, I'm glad you have no trouble recognizing the merits of iron. ^^ Its only common sense really. There are so many different metals out there, they have to have different alchemical properties, and thus be useful for different jobs. I mean we could rebuild the Destiny out of alchemical iron, and I bet it'd be tough as nails. But it'd be so heavy we couldn't take it some places. There are lighter iron alloys, but yeah, I see your point... still, you could reinforce parts of the structure to make it tougher and not lose much. You'll get no argument from me there. You can only make alchemical silver so tough * Vytor considers Is alchemical iron prone to rust? A bit, but there are ways to work around that. ^^ How? * Vytor seems genuninely interested now, his former discomfort long forgotten * Gayo is now known as Gayo|Gone It has to do with the composition you use. Pure iron tends to be brittle, and has little elasticity, so you generally add some carbon content and make it steel instead. There are all sorts of iron alloys that people used in the past; if you add a certain amount of chromium and work it right, you end up with a steel that's much more resistant to corrosion and rust. Huh, so you don't generally use pure iron? No, not really. What's used is mostly iron- like, never less than 85% iron or so- but depending on how you want to change its properties... So, its mutability depends on the influence of the material its combined with, making it more chameleonic in the process? Chameleo... uh, yeah, basically. Interesting. Silver alloys generally result only in the case of unwanted impurities, or by way in intended results outside the capabilities of the material. The more sophisticated, the harder it is for me to work with it, though, so to work properly with that kind of weather and corrosion-resistant steel I need a good forge and tools. Can you refine Iron into different variations of the material? Like refining silver into quicksilver? Is that a you as in 'you, Emiria' or you as in 'anyone you'? Since you're the expert in the field, I'm asking you. Yeah, definitely. It can take some time if the alloy you want to make is very different from what you have, since you basically have to separate the iron from the other components and then refine it again, but it can be done. * Storen is now known as Storen-zzz Do they have different properties? Different variations of iron? Yeah, you can make it more elastic, tougher, more resistant to rust and corrotion, or whatever. In the old days they used to have dozens of different grades of irons for whatever you wanted to use it for. Well no, I meant...we here, on sec * Vytor digs around in his pocket * Vytor pulls out a small bar of silver, no more than an inch square, and hands it to Emiria, "Regular alchemical silver. Give it a light toss into the air." * Emiria takes it, tosses into the air, and catches it, looking a bit puzzled. "OK?" OK, now do the same with this one *hands her a second block, same size and weight* * Emiria leaves the first block on the work-table, then repeats the toss and catch with the second one. (as soon as Emiria begins her toss, the block seems to take on a life of its own, and jumps far higher into the air that she expects it to for its weight) * Emiria blinks, and plays a bit with the block. "This is quicksilver?" See, that's the kind of difference I mean. Quicksilver is forged to capture and retain the motion it had when created. When acted on by an outside force, it magnified the existing movement with its own. That's the kind of difference I'm alluding to with Iron variants. Oh. Well, there might be such a thing, but I haven't seen it so far. ^^; * Emiria frowns, handing both blocks back. "I wish I had somewhere to try this stuff out..." I'm willing to bet there are, but I'd wager they'd be closer to capabilities drawn from the fire aspect of iron. Maybe a kind of self-heating situation or something. Try it out how? We're in lab, there HAS to be someplace that can suit your needs Well~... yeah. But I'm only here until I finish work on this engine... * Vytor raises an eyebrow, "So who's to say that performing such experiments wouldn't be part of that process?" * Emiria chews on her thumb thoughtfully. "That would be... dishonest..." Well, would exploring those kind of options help you in the project? It could, maybe... I mean, I have no idea what any kind of variation on iron would be like! Well, if the existing variants of Iron won't be suited to your project, it wouldn't be unreasonable to ask for some lab space to run some tests on some promsing theories, now would it? * Emiria stretches happily. "I -can- get it done with what I have, but... I guess no one else would know, would they." ^^ A little experimentation wouldn't be that bad. And if someone calls you on it, say I put you up to the idea against your better judgement. * Emiria brushes off the idea. "No, no sense in putting you in trouble. I'll just add it to my list of demands. It's not like she'd say no when I have the work halfway done." True enough. Well, you can always use the idea later on if it becomes necessary. * Emiria turns back to look at the powered suit, and smiles. "... I probably will at that. Just between us though? I think I don't even need Chrissy's schematics to fix him." Really? I wouldn't even know where to start on that thing. I thought the same thing, but when I looked at it closely, it... how do you feel when you look at something you've built yourself? Well, considering how I visualize things, I know it inside and out just by looking at it. * Emiria nods excitedly. "Exactly! That's the way I felt when I looked at it. I know it like I built it myself! I got inspired, and everything came together- I know just what it needs, and it's no problem to figure out how to build it." Really? That's...unusual Well, I guess I'm an unusual sort of person. No, I don't mean that Lately, it seems like there's a rash of that going on. People knowing things they can't explain. * Emiria leans forward. "Really? Like what?" Well, me for one See, we were up in the Bluetooth Valley looking for radiation contamination. And we found this underground facility. * Emiria nods, listening. There were some workers in there, fixing some damaged parts of the heat exchanger for the steam loops of the atomic generator. We interrupted them and they didn't finish. But just by looking at all the pi;pes and fittings, I knew what was wrong with the heat exchanger, and how to fix it. Even though I'd never seen anything like that before in my life. I mean, while I was doing it I...I felt like I was on automatic pilot or something. Did people say that you acted a bit... crazy, or something after? Not that I know of. It just seemed...natural. No one really questioned it at the time, as we had bigger problems soon after that. * Emiria nods and leans back. Oh. Well, I'm kind of glad to find someone else like that. ((Damn enter key.)) It just seems like the more we get into this, the more of that kind of strangeness we find. * Emiria grins. "You're a lot more interesting than you let on. Are you gonna think about my proposition?" I'll think about it, but I'll make no promises yet. Who knows? I could be dead before all this ends. But I will think your proposition over. Good. Then stay alive. I might need help with heat exchangers. ^^ * Vytor chuckles, "I'll try." * Vytor stands up again, giving his joints some needed exercise, "I don't know about you, but I'm beat. And I got that presentation to do tomorow morning. So I'm gonna call it a night." THanks for talking to me though. I feel better now. Good night then. I still have a lot of work to do... Feel better? About what? About what happened between you and Chrissy. The mystery's gone, and its one less thing for me to wonder about. You admire her, don't you? I suppose I do in some ways. Both her and Jack did a lot for me since I came here. * Emiria nods. "Makes sense, I guess." I'll see you tomorow. Will you be at the presentation? Yeah. I'm curious what the whole surprise thing is about. You'll probably find out when I do. I still haven't been told what I'm supposed to do ;) * Emiria smirks, sitting down and tapping her feet on the floor. "Good luck." :P THanks. * Vytor waves as he sets off for his room to bed down for the night. <> <> ==LUDE ENDE!== Session Close: Fri Sep 22 1:02:20 2006