Day 217 (Open)

[freedom_engineer]

Who: Colin, Rosethorn,anyone else who wants to drop by
Open: Closed to Rosethorn, Open like a door afterwards
When: 217, all morning
Where: Colin's workshop
What: Colin's at his workshop for anyone who needs to talk to him
Format: Prose to start, but will match
Warnings: There be Colin here

As he had been doing ever since the plague had been resolved, Colin was busy at work on some project of some sort. He'd been in a very poor mood for quite some time, and had been mostly keeping to himself. The movies nights that he'd set up had been a good distraction, and there would be another one this evening, but that was at least ten hours away.

In another couple of hours, he'd set out with someone for another salvage run. Until then, he works with his head down. Someone might be able to catch him by surprise, if they remember he's got a proximity sensor...

Comments

[freedom_engineer]

"If you'd like, I can give you an oxygen infusion?" he offers. "Some of dad's dances have some useful tricks to them if you know how to do them."

He gets up then, and moves to grab a stool for her to sit on. "Please, sit," he says. "There's no need to over-exert yourself while you're still on the mend. And as for my work... I'm working on sensor equipment for the aircraft we brought back from the Observatory. I want to make sure it's got everything it needs to fly safely."

He'll stay standing for now. If she decides to take him up on his offer for oxygen, he'll need to be on his feet.

[earthandpine]

"How does it work?" she asks, mostly out of professional curiosity. "I'll take you up on the offer, but we've nothing like that at home."

Rosethorn complies, settling herself onto the stool. The looking after her without babying her, she doesn't mind. Not when it comes from a friend. "The way the land functions here is so strange." What with the ground shifting ahead of Rosethorn, and the sudden new awareness or loss of awareness of countless plant lives surrounding her. "Do oddities extend to the sky and require special instruments, or is the air rather ordinary?"

[freedom_engineer]

It probably helps that this seems to be Colin's default behavior. The only difference is that Colin likes Rosethorn, and doesn't feel the least bit put out to offer her a helping hand.

"I still don't know myself," he says, shaking his head. "Dad's compared it to shamanism, but there are some noteworthy differences. A species known as Moogles developed the dances. They're basically three-to-four foot tall balls of fluff, subterranean creatures in tune with the natural environment. The dances themselves seem to tap into the natural energy of the surrounding land to influence it."

Without waiting, Colin starts to do a light, happy-seeming festival dance. Not too quick, not too eccentric, just a smooth, flowing dance as if he were being gently pushed by the wind. As he moves, Rosethorn will definitely notice pure, refreshing air enveloping her.

"It's a challenge to figure out," Colin says, even as he continues to dance. "But it's not unique. There's probably magnetic and gravitic forces at work that we don't understand. The Silicoid empire has a planet with floating continents. Not quite the same as this, but those land masses hover like they do because of an element called Elerium, and its interaction with the star's rays causes a unique... err... sorry, getting complex. It causes things to float. I want to find out more about how things work HERE, but I don't have the right tools for an in-depth examination."

[earthandpine]

Rosethorn watches, fascinated, as he begins the dance. It isn't a sort of magic she's familiar with, but there's power in the movements. She takes a deep breath as Colin moves, pleased by how easily it comes. "My foster-daughter, Sandry, trained a dance mage. He had ambient dance magic, though, which is a rare enough type that I've never encountered other magic that works through dance. Can anyone learn to do this?" Rosethorn would like to learn that, if it doesn't depend on inherent magical ability.

Colin still surprises her with the amount of places he's been and seen. She had assumed that this world was an anomaly, not stopping to think about the possibility of other floating lands. Rosethorn appreciates scientific curiosity even when it's too far from her own fields to be comprehensible. "How elaborate are the tools you'd need for proper analysis?"

[freedom_engineer]

"I don't know if everyone can do it," Colin admits. "But everyone in the family has been able to teach someone else to do it. My sisters have taught colleagues, tribe-mates, friends. Dad's taught hundreds of people, to varying degrees of success. I've even taught my wife, though she can't do it without me. Doing it with me, though, she's a natural. I'm happy to try and teach you, but I'll warn you, it's not easy."

His talking while effortlessly moving across the floor seems to fly in the face of that, but he's got a lot of focus.

"I'd need a full lab and satellites to really do the kind of study I'd need to do, and I doubt I could properly analyze all the data," he admits as he continues to move, perhaps sounding a little frustrated with the situation. "Environmental chemistry and gravitic abnormalities are both complex fields that require a lot of expertise and analysis."

[earthandpine]

"I'd like to learn. With my work, I've spent a lot of time around the sick, even if I hate playing nursemaid. I tried to heal people directly when I was younger, but my power only works for plants. I can't help anyone's healing with magic rather than medicines." Which is fine, except when she's stuck in quarantine and all the healers are bleeding themselves dry to try and save the sick. Rosethorn loves her work. She loves her magic and truly can't imagine having a different sort. The recent quarantine was a reminder of what she can't do, though.

She nods briskly, still watching Colin. "My fields are much more limited in scope, so I can get by without as much. I imagine you'd need a lot more to analyze anything on that large a scale."

[freedom_engineer]

"I can teach you, then, but I can't teach you in here," Colin says, seeming pleased at the thought just the same. "My father always said that to learn the dances, you have to learn them in their element to feel the flow of nature around you. This series of steps requires a wind-swept plain. I imagine the Dragonfield will work for it."

He grins in amusement at her observation. "You needn't worry about fields limited in scope, honestly," he says. "As science develops through the centuries, fields of study become narrower and narrower. There are millions of people across the galaxy who have devoted their entire adult lives to the study of singular animals. Becoming an expert on something means that if something comes up that requires and expert, you're pretty much set for life. Dad employs a LOT of those animal experts, for example."