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At the end of the universe,
A man steps into a bar and looks around. "Huh, nobody told me they installed a break room here."
With Slayer Juliet.
With Kappa's Dagna.
With Eclipse!Bell.
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magictechsupport
all-the-thoughts
"Dagna! Dagna Merow. It's nice to meet you!"
She leads him through the door and turns around and closes it and opens it again. Stairs ensue.
"My workshop is down here, I should put these runestones away, and find you some lyrium... it's not the prettiest part of Skyhold, though, that would be the throne room. Or maybe the smithy. No, the throne room is prettier."
She leads him through the door and turns around and closes it and opens it again. Stairs ensue.
"My workshop is down here, I should put these runestones away, and find you some lyrium... it's not the prettiest part of Skyhold, though, that would be the throne room. Or maybe the smithy. No, the throne room is prettier."
magictechsupport
"Worry not, prettiness is only one of several factors influencing where I wish to visit." He hands Dagna a thaumoscope and shows her the basic operation - how to look through it and adjust what it sees. Mana type, frequency filtering, squelch and gain, and half a dozen other things. Of course, interpreting the various lines and colors and shapes it displays is the hard part.
all-the-thoughts
Dagna follows along readily with his explanations. When they reach her workshop at the bottom of the stairs, she puts some assorted chunks of lyrium in a leather bag, cautions him not to light them on fire, handle them unprotected, or eat them, and gives him the bag.
magictechsupport
"Actually, please hold on." He levitates the Lyrium samples out of the bag and wraps them in what Dagna's shiny new thaumoscope indicates is very... Shieldy... Mostly-clear fabric of some kind? "There we go."
magictechsupport
"It is handy. It's not perfect, I'd go fetch a proper sample container if it was dangerous enough, but you were going to just put it in a bag so this should be good. I bet you're going to end up wanting to buy lots of stuff MTU or our subsidiaries can sell."
all-the-thoughts
"Seems likely!" she agrees. "This thaumoscope is going to be a big help already."
magictechsupport
"Glad to be of assistance. I'll want to go home and sleep in a few hours, but there's time, and we'll be able to talk through the link crystals, later."
all-the-thoughts
"Plenty of time!" beams Dagna. "So, do you want a tour of the castle? A tour of my workshop? Both?"
all-the-thoughts
"I agree! Well, here's what I'm working on this week..."
Ancient runestones, which she is analyzing to try to reverse-engineer the manufacturing process in case she can derive any useful techniques. And over here is the equipment she designed and built for refining, purifying, and stabilizing silver lyrium, starting with blood samples from a carrier of the symbiote; the tiny, luminous silver-white crystals produced by the apparatus are approximately ten times as magically powerful as an equivalent mass of ordinary blue lyrium. Don't open that barrel, it's got red lyrium in it, has to be lined with lead to keep the song from leaking out...
Ancient runestones, which she is analyzing to try to reverse-engineer the manufacturing process in case she can derive any useful techniques. And over here is the equipment she designed and built for refining, purifying, and stabilizing silver lyrium, starting with blood samples from a carrier of the symbiote; the tiny, luminous silver-white crystals produced by the apparatus are approximately ten times as magically powerful as an equivalent mass of ordinary blue lyrium. Don't open that barrel, it's got red lyrium in it, has to be lined with lead to keep the song from leaking out...
magictechsupport
He pays close attention. And takes notes. And thaumoscopes at things, explaining how he arrived at this or that insight about Lyrium.
Good, proper investigation about something that he hasn't seen before and doesn't have a deadline about. This is... Fun. Who knew.
If he's right about how the purifying apparatus works it could be greatly improved with some of his potions gear. Which is clean, efficient, and best of all automated. He'll have to fetch it and visit again tomorrow.
Good, proper investigation about something that he hasn't seen before and doesn't have a deadline about. This is... Fun. Who knew.
If he's right about how the purifying apparatus works it could be greatly improved with some of his potions gear. Which is clean, efficient, and best of all automated. He'll have to fetch it and visit again tomorrow.
all-the-thoughts
Dagna takes some notes too, when he comes up with new information or even just interesting perspectives on things she already knew.
She happily goes into detail about the theory behind the purifying apparatus; this part works like this and that part works like that and his potions gear sounds like it might really help her out, he should totally bring it by sometime, what a great idea.
She happily goes into detail about the theory behind the purifying apparatus; this part works like this and that part works like that and his potions gear sounds like it might really help her out, he should totally bring it by sometime, what a great idea.
magictechsupport
Nerdy discussions are so fun, aren't they?
This is rather outside his field of expertise, though, and sooner or later he runs into the limit of his patience for figuring it out. At least for today. He'll be sure to give the Research department a copy of all these notes and see what they can make of the Lyrium samples, but shouldn't we tour around a little more for now?
This is rather outside his field of expertise, though, and sooner or later he runs into the limit of his patience for figuring it out. At least for today. He'll be sure to give the Research department a copy of all these notes and see what they can make of the Lyrium samples, but shouldn't we tour around a little more for now?
all-the-thoughts
"Sure!" she says agreeably. "So that was my workshop, and I think that way is the wine cellar but I've never been, and if we go back up the stairs," she starts back up the stairs, "I can show you the throne room, which is very pretty."
magictechsupport
He follows. "I've never much liked wine, but new places are fun. Is it possible we'll encounter anybody important and if so are they likely to object to me?"
all-the-thoughts
"Oh, we might, but I'm sure they won't, all this otherwordly stuff is very exciting news."
all-the-thoughts
"It'll be fine!" she assures him.
Back at the top of these stairs, down the short hall, and through a door into... yep, that's a throne, and this is a throne room. The throne is currently empty, however, as is the rest of the room.
Huge stained glass windows behind the throne paint its surface in coloured lights. Banners hung from the high ceiling depict unfamiliar heraldry. There is an interior balcony at the opposite end of the room, overhanging the entrance, and the chandeliers glimmer with lyrium-based light-stones. It's all very medieval, but still gorgeous.
Dagna shuts the door they came in, off to one side of the imposingly large throne, and beams proudly at the chandeliers.
Back at the top of these stairs, down the short hall, and through a door into... yep, that's a throne, and this is a throne room. The throne is currently empty, however, as is the rest of the room.
Huge stained glass windows behind the throne paint its surface in coloured lights. Banners hung from the high ceiling depict unfamiliar heraldry. There is an interior balcony at the opposite end of the room, overhanging the entrance, and the chandeliers glimmer with lyrium-based light-stones. It's all very medieval, but still gorgeous.
Dagna shuts the door they came in, off to one side of the imposingly large throne, and beams proudly at the chandeliers.
magictechsupport
He takes pictures, and recordings of the thaumoscope's output. "It's a less technological aesthetic than I'm used to, you can see how much effort went into it all. The lights, I bet they'll keep shining just about forever, right?"
magictechsupport
"Not as profitable, though. I detest the concept of planned obsolescence. It's a giant scam that accounts for fully a quarter of my work."
