EVENT | LANDFALL | EVIDET

[ironwood]

Characters: ALL!
Date: January 28th to February 11th
Location: Evidet
Situation: Tu Vishan has washed up near the coastal city of Khatronma.
Warnings/Rating: Add warnings as needed.



The suddenness of the looming cliffs takes even the kedan by surprise, in spite of a number of them trying to plot their course with as much knowledge of the ocean’s currents as they already had. Tu Vishan makes landfall without any of the grace shown in previous times, bumping into the cliffs before finally coming to rest on the reef and rocks at the low tide around Khatronma.

Most of Khatronma's shores consist of steep iced cliffs, and once it becomes clear there is no threat, the residents of Khatronma oblige by establishing scaffolding across from the walls of their city to the turtle’s back. A customs area is quickly set apart, and the residents of Keeliai welcomed -- with some slight confusion. The Khatronmans are just as surprised by the unexpected docking as the kedan.

---

LINKS
Khatronma's Landmarks | Launch Day! | The Emissaries | Item Retrieval | Special Location (initially closed) | OOC Post

OOC
Please direct questions to the OOC post!

Comments

[inkulcation]

Oh, he's feeling talkative, excellent. China absorbs information mostly for the purpose of determining how useful Tony's going to be, but the bit about the hybrid magic tech attracts her attention like nothing else does. "You've been experimenting with sigilwork?" she inquires, temporarily dismissing everything else. She'll come back to them, but this is her primary area of interest. "How much has Anton taught you, and what successes have you had so far?" If she finds out Shudder's left the boy completely on his own to experiment she may just have to take over. He's evidently very bright, and interested to boot; it would be a shame to waste that.

[highprofilerichkid]

"Yeah!" Tony still finds magic baffling and often frustrating, and he'd rather be talking about his tech, but if she wants to hear about what he's been doing with sigils he will gladly comply.

"He has me doing maintenance on a lot of his hybrid appliances, and that's what I'm building on. There wasn't a much he could tell me about the underlying mechanics of the sigils, but they have to exist, right? So I'm trying to figure out how the sigils relate to laws of physics that I'm familiar with. What kinds of energy they can generate, how their output can be modulated, what conditions they operate under, how long they last, how to integrate them into traditional mechanical and electrical systems, that sort of thing. Like, it's really easy to draw a sigil for light, so why isn't there an equally simple one to generate electrical current? And if there's a sigil for visible light, can you draw sigils that will generate other kinds of electromagnetic radiation? I mean, the big question is: where does the energy come from in the first place? Anton says he doesn't know, but it can't be infinite, or it'd break the laws of thermodynamics - and magic still has to follow some of the fundamental laws of physics, or else it would drastically change the nature of the universe. So it's got to be some kind of renewable energy source. But where and what is it? How do the sigils access it? How does it regenerate? And if it can be accessed with magic, there must be a way to access it with technology, too. Anyway, I don't know if I'll ever figure that out, but I've got a lot of raw data from my experiments, so I at least have a little bit of groundwork for some basic, practical applications."

You've got him started, China. Now good luck getting him to stop.

[inkulcation]

Why would she want him to stop? This is exactly her area of interest, Tony, she's been studying for centuries.

"The magic, such as it is, is in the world itself," China explains. "Sigils utilize a specific sort of geometry that attracts and shapes that force. Thus the language may be used even by someone who cannot themselves use magic, though achieving mastery will take more time than most mortals have available. Electrical current is more complex than light because light is one of the simplest and oldest ideas in human consciousness."

She looks at him thoughtfully, past mild interest and into the concept of discussing this with him seriously. "You're not the first, to theorize and experiment with the combination of science and magic. Your experiments-- elaborate."

[highprofilerichkid]

And that right there is what he's having the hardest time with: a system based on human abstractions. Because he's a scientist, he can pick apart the rules of how sigils are constructed - but because he's a scientist, he's resistant to the idea that subjective symbolic meaning is integral to their function. It frustrates him immensely that 'light' is a simple sigil only because 'light' is a simpler symbolic concept than 'electrical current' to most human beings.

He works with it, because Anton's guidance has convinced him that this is the reality of sigils, and at the end of the day, he can't ignore reality, no matter how illogical it seems. But it irritates him. It irritates him more than he wants to admit to this lovely woman who is so interested in his work.

So he smiles and nods agreeably at her explanation, and then launches into an enthusiastic overview of his experiments and findings. His scientific bias is probably obvious: his research is focused on trying to tease traditional physics out of the abstract magic of the sigils, and getting the sigils to efficiently interface with technology.

[inkulcation]

China smiles right back, and nods along, and prompts occasionally where she finds it necessary -- very little, because the boy might as well be falling all over himself to give her what she's asked for. He's bright, she'll give him that, and there is solid thought there, he's got more of a grasp than she'd have expected from someone so young-- but he's got a very set viewpoint, and that's probably hindering him.

"Have you considered," she says at length, still pleasant but a little cooler now, "that your attempts to force another world's magic to fall in line with your own paradigm may in fact be counterproductive to the understanding you're seeking? Magic and science aren't two opposing ends of some grand spectrum. You're trying to fly before you've even learned to walk."

[highprofilerichkid]

Normally he'd make a joke here about how he'd never found flying all that difficult, but he's too distressed by the beautiful woman's criticism to find it humorous.

"I... I don't... I didn't know anything about magic before I got here; we don't have it in my world. I just started from somewhere that made sense to me, and..." He looks down, his confidence wilting. "I've gotten some good data," he finishes pitifully.

[inkulcation]

She would almost feel sorry for him, except for how she doesn't. Though she's trying not to entirely crush his ego, just correct him. "I have no doubt you have," China tells him. "As I said, there's a history of sorcerers applying the scientific method and working with both modern technology and magic. Consider, however that magic is something else entirely from what you're familiar with, and while analogies and similarities may be drawn, you said it yourself: this is not something your world has. Magic is not bound to meet your standards. Meet it on its own terms, as it were, and you will experience more success."

[highprofilerichkid]

"Maybe I'll... ask Anton more about the theory. Or..." He looks up again, bashfully. "You could teach me a little. If— if you wanted to."

And now you get to experience some weapons-grade puppy eyes, China.

[inkulcation]

Those are impressive, certainly. China's only uncommonly seen better. At least he has not yet seen fit to wrap himself around her legs; she could really do without that, especially armored as he is.

She considers teaching him. He's bright, she's found herself often bored, and it has the potential to needle Shudder, if even tangentially and only the slightest bit. Petty, absolutely, but it may have other benefits and he's obviously going to experiment anyway. The least she can do is ensure that's constructive. "I suppose I could," China says. Makes a show of thinking about it, even though she's already decided. "Oh, very well."

[highprofilerichkid]

"Really?" Tony lights up again. "Thanks! I'd love that!" He doesn't say 'you're amazing' and hug her, but it's a near thing. You dodged a bullet there, China.

"I'm staying at the Hotel right now, I'm there a lot, so I won't interrupt your schedule, I can— whenever you have time, I can meet you." Right now, he would bend over backwards to accommodate China's slightest whim.

[inkulcation]

"Of course you would," China says, amused. She doesn't exactly know how large a bullet she just dodged, but she can guess. She's been exposed to some uniquely clingy people in the past. "I'm at the Hotel, as well-- for now. The proprietor isn't particularly fond of me." She says this like it's a peculiarity, and she can't fathom why. "I'm sure I'll be able to find you."