Session Start: Sat May 19 12:30:26 2007 --Session 38.1 - Three Inventors and an Organ-- --SESSION START-- >> The midday sun shines down on the New Takkar dockyards, warming the bare backs of the bustling stevedores. The air is full of noise: shouting foremen, clanking chains, sputtering engines. Angie navigates toward the Fragarach's berth with the confidence of a native. She stands out in the crowd, and many of the workers greet her as she passes by. * Vytor follows dutifully behind Angie, looking far less native to the docks, having to duck and weave around persons and obstacles that Angie navigates with comparative ease. >> The Fragarach sticks out like a sore thumb next to the wooden fishing boats and high-masted sloops that fill the neighboring berths. The workers steer clear of it for the most part, so the clamor fades somewhat as Angie and Vytor climb the gangplank onto the pockmarked metal deck. * Emiria is overseeing a team of workers repairing a hull section, turning to eye the new arrivals. She looks slightly different from before- still wearing her faded gray skirt, but now with a white coat that reaches to her ankles, and a set of curious-looking goggles pitched on her forehead. She grins up at Vytor and Angie. "Welcome to my battleship." ^^ * Vytor waves, "Heya. That's a good look for you." * Angie holds up a hand and smiles toothily. "How's it going?" she asks, looking around to assess the workers' progress. * Emiria tosses a spare screwdriver onto the deck and shouts down to the work crew to take a break. * Emiria gestures around the refitted deck. "Pretty well, as you can see. It's been hard to get the right metals to work this thing, but I've gotten some renovations done anyway. What about you guys?" We're still running around like heroic chickens with our heads cut off. * Emiria grins. "I see. Any news for me, or is this a social call?" Partly social, and partly to pick your brain for an idea Angie's developed. Sounds interesting. Come along to the command room; it's the most comfortable furnishings I've got yet. ^^ OK, lead on. Any luck getting the big gun working? That's actually why we came to see you. * Emiria leads the way inside the battleship and to the command or battle room, overlooking the deck. She sits in the captain's chair on a raised platform, several panels and sets of electronic indicators glowing softly in various colors. The chairs are all evidently new and, if not posh, at least comfortable, although most of the rest of the electronics don't seem to be functional. Nice. Very nice. * Emiria rubs her nose with the end of her braided hair. "I've got bad news, then... the big gun isn't quite working yet. What do you need it for?" Oh, we wanted to blow up the Prophetess if plan A didn't work. * Angie takes a seat in a swivel chair originally intended for the operator of a huge bank of baffling controls. "Darn," she says. "Still, you've done a good job on her!" She strokes the console with two fingers and smiles appreciatively. * Emiria smiles enthusiastically. "That sounds like an idea. You know, back when we met in this place for the first time, I was talking about a tank defensive force- this isn't what I had in mind, but I'd like to see her stand up to my beauties." Tanks? What are those? * Emiria scratches her head. "You have Blacklace to thank for the repairs on this room. I don't even have the money to afford chairs for this place." ^^; Tanks are... hmm. A bit like an armored war-car with heavy guns. They're wonderful war machines. * Vytor takes a moment or two to try and envision that. * Angie scratches her nose. "I'm always in favor of big guns. Where we're going, though, we might not be able to get ground vehicles." She takes in her surroundings with an expectant smile. "Which is another reason we stopped by! Is she in any condition to sail right now?" * Emiria grins. "They're kind of rectangular." * Emiria turns towards Angie, looking interested. "It's not operational, but it's functional. Where are you planning on going?" * Angie stands up and turns to face out the window, toward the south and the open ocean. She folds her hands behind her back, allows the silence to build until it becomes almost uncomfortable, and then finally answers. "Way down," she says, and with that she spins around again, eyes asparkle. "Past Pao. Farther than anyone's ever been before. She's down there somewhere, in ruins no human has set foot in for thousands of years. We have to follow her." * Emiria swivels playfully in her chair. "Ehehe... I see. And you need the Fragarach to go south, that it?" ^^ A boat this size would be very useful. Well, I don't like the idea of taking him out just yet, but I can't very well say no to my partner, can I? :) * Angie takes a deep breath, rubbing her nose with a finger across her upper lip. "Well, we don't strictly /need/ it," she admits, hastening to add, "But it'd make things a lot easier. There's no telling what it's like down there, if there's any sort of roads left." Tell us why you think taking it for a cruise is a bad idea. If there's an important reason, I want to know. Saving the world is hard when you've sunk to the bottom of the ocean, and all that. ;) * Emiria shakes her head. "No, it's nothing like that- more like, I just started getting him repaired... I feel guilty taking him to an adventure without fixing it properly." Ah, I understand. Well, we'd REALLY appreciate having access to the ship during this trip south. We really don't know what to expect down there. You know when the doctor always says in movies... Hm? * Emiria coughs, making a poor impersonation of a deep and respectable male voice. "'You shouldn't move for a week, get your poor body some rest'? Well, I'm kind of like the doctor in this one. I want him beautiful and working before I send him out." :P * Vytor nods. * Angie leans a hand on the back of the chair she had been sitting in and drums her fingers against the seat. Her eyes wander back to the window, then down to the console. "We probably won't be able to bring her -- him -- right up to the ruin anyway. So as long as we don't run into any sea monsters he should be okay." * Emiria stands up and stretches, looking at Angie with a humorous glint in her eyes. "And if we run into sea monsters?" We...run away? * Angie punctuates the pause with a few taps on the back of the chair. "Maybe we can ram them," she muses. * Emiria blinks. "... I am -so- sending you the bill for hull repairs!" * Vytor chuckles ... at any rate, no ramming. ^^; I don't think I'll be able to have the main gun up and working without a crew and ready access to materials though. Tell me more about these ruins and what you're planning? * Vytor lets Angie take the lead on this one. * Angie looks off to the side, searching for someplace to direct her focus. She ends up staring at her reflection in a blank screen. "It should be fine. I spent a long time in the southern seas and never ran into anything like that." A pause. "Of course, I've heard stories, but..." Here she seizes on the opportunity to change the subject. "Actually! That was the other thing we wanted to discuss. I made -- Vytor and Ryllan and mean -- we made a machine that we think can shut down the Prophetess enough for us to deal with her." * Emiria 's eyebrows fly up. "Oh?" * Vytor nods Well, tell me about it! * Angie turns around to face Emiria, leaning back with both hands on the back of the chair. "It's pretty awesome," she modestly admits, a smile creeping onto her face. "I call it the Harmonic Engine. We were all working on a plan, and Lucia (this was at the Academy), Lucia mentioned this thing about music as the structuring force behind the universe that sort of made something click with what I'd been working on already." * Emiria blinks, trying to suppress an expression of disbelief. "Music? I mean- uh, go on..." I know, it's weird, isn't it? I won't go into the details because it's really complicated, we put it together on like no sleep. But basically it amplifies certain kinds of magic and accentuates strains of song that mesh with the universal harmony. It, uh, it can reshape reality a bit, but it's not very well-controlled right now. it's still in beta. We hit a wrong note with it at one point, and it almost gave us brain hemorrhages. >_< * Emiria frowns, trying to picture it all in her head. "It sounds... uh... weird..." >> "It won't do that anymore!" interjects Angie, suddenly on the defensive. "It, uh, it should be fine now," she says apologetically. "But it still needs a lot of work. It's a miracle it all only took like four days. I think I like tapped some sort of primal buildy spirit but it's all kind of blurry in my head now." * Emiria looks at Vytor, an expression of understanding dawning in her face. "Ohhh- is she like... um, you know?" Not that I know of, but its possible. * Angie looks at Emiria. Then she looks at Vytor. She makes a face. * Emiria looks at Angie. "Eh? What?" * Vytor looks back at Angie, "The spontaneous expression of unusual knowledge or ability that seems out of place amongst the norm." * Angie holds up her hands. "I surrender," she announces, which doesn't clear things up /at all/. "Anyhow. I can take you to see it if you're curious. It walks, but it's not very good at it, so we thought we'd leave it with the car for now." Well, if she is, I guess I have to believe it. ^^; * Emiria covers her mouth, looking faintly worried. "Was the brain hemorrhage thing serious?" :o No, no, no, it just hurt a lot. But we fixed that kink. * Angie smiles sadly down at her feet and rubs the back of her neck. "It's the first time something ever really clicked so well with me. I don't do it like regularly or anything." She clears her throat. "No! No, it wasn't, like, nobody died. It was just a, yeah, a kink. We set it up to follow the caster's lead for now. I think it makes it less powerful to constrain it that way, but it's what suits our purposes right now." * Emiria smiles, relieved. "Ah. Then, I'd like to see it." Its with the Destiny now. If you have time, we can take you to it. * Angie smiles warmly. "I'm curious to see what you think. It's pretty hard to explain the principles behind it -- even with my idea it was still a whole bunch of us working together -- but I can show you the notes. It's not real elegant, but we can put together a nicer shell for it later maybe." Ehehe... I'd like to see how you guys built it. It sounds like a lot of fun. OK, let's go then. * Emiria hops down and to the door. "Gimme a second to change into something else- I'll be right back!" Sure. * Angie follows Emiria onto the deck and leans up against the guardrail, staring wistfully down at the water below. * Vytor waits for Emiria to return, enjoying the sea breeze on his face up on deck. * Emiria reappears on deck some 5 minutes later in a different, longer skirt and a long red coat, a scabbard at waist level on her back, and her sword sheathed inside it. She smiles in Vytor's general direction. "So, to the Destiny." ^^ To the Destiny. Ready Angie? * Angie pushes off lightly from the rail. She spins on her heel and holds her hands out. "I'm good." OK then. Let's go. * Emiria pushes her hands inside the pockets of her coat and prepares to follow the pair down, shouting orders down. (y) "Take it easy for today, and don't screw up till I come back!" * Angie takes the lead again, guiding her companions out of the busy dockyards and up the long dusty road that leads away from the sea. So Emiria, I take you enjoying having a crew like that under your belt? * Emiria grins. "Yup. I think I was born to order people around." ^^ Well, I hope you're not too tough with them. Only when they're not performing up to expectations. ^^ >> "I'll have a crew one day," muses Angie. "When I'm a super scientist heroine." She seems to be talking to herself. That's fair enough. What was that, Angie? I missed it. * Angie flaps her hand and murmurs something noncommittal. * Vytor looks at Emiria and shrugs. * Emiria inches forward, interested. You'll have a pew? A pew? I didn't know you were religious, Angie. * Angie catches sight of something out of the corner of her eye and beams. "Hey, Ingol's is open!" She dashes into a small shop by the roadside. * Emiria looks at Vytor curiously. "What's that?" * Vytor looks lost as Angie sudden departure. * Emiria looks at the storefront pensively. "She's weird..." I kind of like her. She's one of the more interesting people I've met on this trip. * Angie can be seen exchanging money with the cashier through the large plate-glass window of the storefront. A moment later she emerges awkwardly cradling three bundles of polka-dotted wax paper. She carefully shuffles them into her hands one at a time, passing one each to Vytor and Emiria and keeping the third for herself. * Vytor blinks as he's suddenly handed a package for apparently no reason. She was really helpful on the battleship. Do you think she- >> Inside the wax paper is a cooked bell pepper stuffed with spices. It's a little greasy, but Angie picks hers up with her fingers and takes a big bite out of it. She makes faintly improper sounds of satisfaction at the taste and continues on her way. * Emiria takes the wax paper, looking at Angie for a cue. "It's.. uh..." >> "Deef are good," she says, by way of explanation. She swallows the bite and coughs a bit as the spices go down. "They only make them here, and only at lunchtime, so far as I know. I haven't had any in ages." Oh. * Vytor shrugs and gives it a try. * Emiria waits for Vytor to go first. ^^ * Vytor takes a good-sized bite, and seems to like it, as he continues chewing with apparent satisfaction. "Itf good." * Emiria takes her bell pepper and gives it a timid bite, making a bit of a face. "Mm... good." @.x * Angie nods enthusiastically, glad to have made a convert. "Ingol's has been there for like. Twenty years! I used to go there for lunch sometimes when I was like this high." She holds a hand at the four-foot level. Not very high at all. * Emiria nods her head agreeably. . o O( And she's still alive? ) * Vytor swallows, "So what do you call these?" Ingol's calls them "grenades," but a lot of people just call them "Ingol's peppers." * Vytor resumes eating, his curiosity now satisfied. * Emiria makes a show of eating a little bite. . o O (Grenade...) >> It's pretty spicy, but not enough to kill. It'd knock you on your ass if you were totally unused to such things, however. The hotness isn't the point, though -- the pepper is a delicate medley of flavors. * Emiria swallows painfully. . o O( Grenade... more like... cluster bomb. My tongue is numb. ;_; ) I like it. * Vytor watches Emiria with some concern, but says nothing for the moment. * Emiria coughs. "It'f, um, very ftrong." * Angie cackles sharply. "Hah! Where are you from? We use a lot of spices down south; you get used to it pretty early on." She takes a big bite to demonstrate. * Vytor thinks for a moment, then ducks over to a small shop that sells various drinks. He returns a bit later, with a small container of milk which he hands to Emiria. * Emiria 's eyes water slightly in sympathy before she looks away from Angie. "Ahh- I'm, um, full." Here, if the spicy gets overwhelming, use this. But don't swallow it. Just spit it out, it'll pull some of the hot out of your mouth. * Emiria takes the milk gratefully and drinks it in a few gulps, placing the offending pepper back in its wrapper. Spicy takes some getting used to. Its an acquired taste. * Emiria simply nods, her mouth full of milk. She moves to spit it over a hedge discreetly a few seconds later. Hem. Ah, yes, I can see that. So, what else were we talking about? ^^; Well, part of the reason we're brining you to the Harmonic Engine, was I had some questions regarding some potential future applications for it. Given that I have no idea how it works yet, it's kinda hard. How about some examples? Well, one of my main concerns is that its somewhat fragile right now. As is, all I'd have to do is punch it once or twice and its usefulness is ruined. It needs to be protected, but in a way that won't interfere with its intended function. * Emiria twirls her braid thoughtfully. * Angie nods in agreement with Vytor's explanation. "If we'd had, like, a month, I would have tried to give it some armor and stuff, but we were in such a hurry." I take it a simply steel cage wouldn't do? Against typical opponents, I'd agree. But against the Prophetess, I don't know. Then again... I wonder what could stand against her? Maybe some kind of magical field? Hmm, there's an idea. Maybe something not so much meant to act in direct opposition to the Prophetess, but more like the equivalent of white noise to cancel out what she does. * Emiria smiles to herself. "Or maybe you could integrate it into something like the power suit at Vulcanon. Now THAT is well protected. Actually, that's not a bad idea. About how big is it, actually? Right now, its pretty big. A few meters. But that's largely for the gimbals and the leg actuators. * Angie passes through the town gates, waving to the guards as she goes. She rises up on tiptoe and points at the Destiny, parked nearby. "It's in the back," she explains. "So it's not, like, super huge, but it's kind of bulky." She closes the rest of the distance at a run, scrambling to throw open the doors to the cargo area and climb inside. I wonder if we could make some kind of... backpack attachment... Possibly. But let's hold off on the speculation until you actually see it. Its...unorthodox. * Emiria twirls her fingers thoughtfully, visualizing potential solutions. "It's an interesting engineering proposal." ^^ Try to imagine a pipe organ and a spider having a kid. * Emiria pauses, frowning in concentration... "Wow." How much did you design, Vytor? None of it, I just made pieces as needed, and helped put it together. * Angie steps aside to allow Emiria a clear view of the thing. And a "thing" is all it could definitively be called. The Harmonic Engine stands on four legs, faintly recognizable as belonging to a newer model of sentry but reinforced and etched with mystical patterns. >> On top of the legs sits an enormous gimbals that accounts for much of the thing's bulk. Angie leans on one of the enormous rings, causing it to wobble ever so slightly. But that much of it is just a walking gyroscope. It's what's inside the gimbals that's truly bizarre. Floating amidst the three rings there really does appear to be a pipe organ, compacted so that its pipes rise in a single, central column, with one seat facing the group. >> The shaft of pipes extends up through the center of a labyrinth of clockwork balancing several more huge rings, all parallel to the ground and bearing shiny metal spheres. These slowly rotate around the base, even with the machine seemingly dormant. The entire body of the engine is covered in parallel grooves like tree bark, moving along mystically ordained patterns. * Emiria does a double-take, stepping closer to examine it. "Is it safe to touch?" Sure it is. * Emiria runs her hands along the rings, moving her face close to peer at the pipe organ inside, holding her breath. Her expression seems to indicate wonder, befuddlement and disbelief all at the same time. . o O ( I can't believe this actually moves!) * Vytor stands back and waits patiently. * Emiria circles the thing slowly, touching here and there for a good long while, becoming slightly but increasingly frustrated until she frowns at Angie, a hint of envy in her voice. "... how does this work?" * Angie smiles sympathetically, and perhaps a little sadly, at Emiria. "Isn't it crazy?" she says in lieu of an answer. "Just a sec." She climbs into the back seat, disappears for a minute, and then pokes her head back up, facing backwards in the seat and leaning on the headrest with her elbows. She produces a ratty notebook and flips through it. "It already makes less sense to me than it did like two days ago. I was on some kind of genius high. The basic idea is, okay, do you know about song magic? I've... heard of it. I started studying magic at the academy, but I wasn't very good at that kind of stuff... * Angie flips to what looks like a drawing of planetary orbits. Underneath it is a careful penciled in waveform, erased and redrawn enough times to wear away at the paper. "You remember, Niri, Nirika, Hiro's daughter? She uses it. Originally I figured, 'well, it's just a different method of focusing willforce', and I was sort of right, but I was also sort of wrong." She traces a finger along one of the elliptical orbits and smiles mysteriously. * Emiria frowns at Angie. "Sort of wrong? What do you mean?" * Angie flips through page after page of similar drawings, interspersed with elaborate geometric designs and musical staffs. "Well, it is a different method of focusing willforce. But there's something SPOOKY about music. I watch the skies, right, and I had all these observations. It turns out that if you only pick certain structures to focus on and do the right transforms, EVERYTHING is music. There's like a poetical term for it -- "music of the spheres." But it's more than that. EVERYTHING can be expressed as music, I think. I'm still working on the how." * Emiria tilts her head, blinking rapidly. "O-kay...?" It would be easier to explain with Niri or Lucia here; they helped me a lot with the musical side of things. But the basic idea is that song magic reflects fundamental realities about the universe. All focusing methods do, but it has, um, a closeness that the others don't. It was just buried under so much muddle that I never noticed before. I see. :o Wait- wait, wait! What -can- this pipe organ with legs -do-? * Vytor stands by, and lets Angie handle the explanations. * Angie runs a hand over her scalp, summoning her composure. She clambers over the seats and into the cargo bay, then climbs up into the seat. She noodles around on the keyboard with one hand, but no sound comes out. "The universe is a big machine, right? The Great Machine. Well, this is a -- this is like a toolbox. If you have the right person guiding the willforce, singing the song, you can pull apart reality and put it back together different-like." Only in little ways right now. But who knows? * Emiria swallows. "You're speaking of pulling apart reality- just like that? This- this thing can do something like that?" In theory. * Emiria turns slightly pale, turning her eyes distractedly to the floor. "The Fragarach's guns would be like a toy compared to what something like this could do..." Its not quite as bad as it sounds. I think Angie means that in a figurative sense, not a literal one. * Emiria shakes her head at Vytor, opening her arms wide. "No, no- think about it! This is only a little... um... organ thing, just like we have little guns! Make something like the Fragarach's main gun in scale, and- what could it be capable of?" * Angie laughs. She tries to make it sound cocky, but she can't hide the nervous edge to her voice. "It's, uh, the problem is. None of us really knows how to use any of the tools yet. Theoretically I think this technology could change the world, but right now it needs a normal spell to piggyback off of." * Vytor thinks about what Emiria is saying, and goes slightly pale. * Emiria turns to Angie, circling around the organ-box with a predatory curiosity. "What have you managed to do with it?" >> "So far, not much," she admits. "We've only had it for a few days and it's very experimental. Right now we're using it to throw some muscle behind Niri's song magic. My theory is that song magic is like a very limited form of the same effect, so this can make it really strong, and because it follows the spell's lead there's no risk of it going out of control if anything goes slightly wrong. The downside is that it can only do what the spell is designed to do." She looks up at the pipes, admiring a thousand reflections of her face in the polished brass. "If we survive this I think it could do a lot more." * Emiria smiles, a measure of excitement flushing her cheeks. "Hm." * Vytor pulls his attention back to the topic at hand, pushing aside the looming doomsday scenarios in his head. * Emiria turns towards Angie, grinning. "Hell, you should have started by showing me this thing! I'm sold, I'll take you anywhere so long as I have a chance of studying it and seeing what I could make with something like this." ^^ * Angie beams back, any reservations temporarily forgotten. "Isn't it exciting? The basic plan is, Niri has a song that we think can shatter the Prophetess into pieces, and then we kill the pieces. We're going to use this to give her some oomph. But if that works out, I'm really excited about the possibilities." She fans through her notebook. "I can show you my notes, but some of them don't even make sense to ME, and we were all sort of hoping to test it as we went along." * Emiria studies the pipes, a slightly melancholic expression creeping over her enthusiasm. "Shame that I can't keep a tune to save my life, but..." * Vytor watches the two geniuses at work, slightly envious of their better understanding. So, Vytor. Hm? * Emiria smiles thoughtfully, tapping him in the chest. "I think we need to consider Angie. We might need her crazy organ-making skills in the future. What do you say, partner?" Assuming she's interested, sure. She understands a lot of things I don't, so her input would be great. * Angie chuckles softly. "The world needs me too," she says with a smile, "But it would be miserly not to share my genius." But let's sit down and start brainstorming on what we can do to make this thing more travel-worthy. * Emiria nods. "I've got a few ideas. Let's talk what kind of terrain you're likely to go through with it." Good idea. * Vytor drags some wooden crates over to create a makeshift table for everyone. * Angie climbs down from the engine and takes a seat on one of the crates, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees. "Okay, now -- here's what we know." --SESSION END-- Session Close: Sat May 19 16:03:21 2007