This post has the following content warnings:
Hailey of Class 7 falls into the Sunless Skies
+ Show First Post
Total: 164
Posts Per Page:
Permalink

"Tragically sensible of them, to be annoyed by docked locomotives firing weaponry near their pretty flower-island."

Permalink

"Quite. Mm... How far away from yourself can you influence the wind? You think you can use it on cannon shot, could you sort of... Follow the shot out into the sky? What other physical principles could you affect, I wonder?"

Permalink

"Hm. I suspect I can manage one or two hundred meters of useful force. I can't project force from anywhere other than at or near my batons, and the force drops off increasingly steeply over distance. If I was trying to assist with cannon fire, my naive strategy is to make a tight corridor of mostly-forward, slightly-inward wind, timed to start just before the cannon fires and release just after impact. Best guess is that that would help control the accuracy and add some acceleration. Remains to be seen if briefly accelerating my perceptions before the cannon is fired saves energy over keeping the corridor up longer, but I think it might. And it'll be useful if there's anything else we need to react to, so keeping some degree of acceleration up in combat may be a good idea as a general principle."

"One thing that comes to mind... I don't know if you have any swarming predators in the Skies here, but at one point I handled a swarm of bats that had surrounded me with a large pressure wave."

"As I practice and hone my abilities, my overall capacity will improve, and with it the amount of force I can produce. What'll also improve, though, is my... synchronization with my tools." She holds up her ARCUS, which looks like a brass pocketwatch with an exposed crystal or two, then clips it back to her waist. "My ARCUS provides some additional fancy tricks that I'll be able to figure out as I refine my control and can run my energy through finer patterns and in larger amounts. They're likely to all be Wind or Time, but other than that I don't know what they could be. Elements can be used rather more widely than the mundane concept of the terms they're named for. I've heard of Wind, Water, and Space all being used to heal, for example."

Permalink

He peers at the 'ARCUS'. "Hmm, something to experiment with. Target practice while maneuvering? I try not to run the engine like a military vessel, though." He shrugs. "Choister bees are as close to a swarm as I've ever faced, and you handled them adroitly, per rumor. Now, time... Possibly troublesome. Have you heard of Unrefined Hours?"

Permalink

That... is an interesting question to have to answer. A few of her stolen memories involve Hours, though. Hm. "I know a bit about their uses, but not how they're made. Never handled them myself, but something about them rings of familiarity."

Permalink

"Oh, they're mined out of the ground. Strange sort of thing, but lots of things are. If your mysterious abilities can affect time, Hours might probe to be interesting experimental subjects. But I will have to insist that such experiments take place off of my engine."

Permalink

"Given what I know of that can go wrong with hours, I wholeheartedly agree with that precaution, and probably then some. I'd probably have to try to feel one to get a sense of what I can do with it, though; it's hard to speculate."

Permalink

"That sort of thing is utterly fascinating - I have tried some fuel supplements with mixed results before - but at the same time getting too experimental can be... Hazardous. My navigator has a great-aunt who pretends London never left the Zee, preferring to exist in drawing-rooms and windowless studies, her interests parochial and historical. She says this decision has brought her great comfort. Some people are like that, but if we were we wouldn't be here, no?"

Permalink

She laughs. "No indeed, we wouldn't be here if we needed that overabundant level of caution. I'm sure we can find some wayward bit of rock nobody will miss and do our experiments there. I'm mostly sure I can keep protect myself if there's a volatile reaction while I'm feeling one of these things out, but far less about anyone else, so I think perhaps I should avoid handling any until we have time to experiment in such a location. Just in case something slips. Once I know the feel of them first-hand, I'm sure it'll be fine, but... Better safe than sorry, especially when it involves lives and resources other than my own."

Permalink

"There are plenty of unoccupied rocks to go around, at least."

Permalink

Hailey nods and smiles, remembering her plummet past a few toward Titania just a few days ago.

Permalink

The rest of the evening passes by smoothly. There's a little late-evening singing in the galley and a few crew have bought small art objects from Titania and most of them are happy to question her about where she came from and otherwise chat.

In the morning people are a little hungover but tolerate the Captain's double-checking of the vessel, inside and out, as they prepare to embark. The captain is happy to show her the ropes for a bit, but he has work of his own to do before long and she's left with the shy stoker and loud gunner she was drinking with yesterday. The gunner offers to show her how the cannon works.

Permalink

And after that pleasant evening, Hailey follows along through the double-checking and the departure prep, and then is eager to learn all about the cannon.

Permalink

Cannons work like thus and such! They can't fire it without the Captain ordering it, of course, but here are all the controls and gubbins.

 

The day is uneventful and there are various light locomotive-related tasks to do. Verdant cliffs and crags pass, vegetation absorbing the locomotive's churning engine noise. Once they pass away from the wide-open area around Titania the path becomes considerably narrower. Their destination is the Leadbeater & Stainrod Nature Preserve. Hailey can hand tools down to someone working in the crawlspace to fix a minor issue on the mining drill. At lunch during the changeover between morning and afternoon shifts, a bunch of people are wondering what Chorister Nectar is like, the Captain having purchased a fair chunk of it. They play cards, without any bets. The Bruised Gunner flirts with a Pensive Engineer over porridge, who barely seems to notice.

Then she has the afternoon off. The Captain finds her.

"If you don't mind, I think I'd like to hear a bit more about whatever power related to time you have. We're likely to find a source of Hours sooner or later and I'd like any potential experiments to be well-informed."

This Thread Is On Hiatus
Total: 164
Posts Per Page: