here they talked of revolution, here it was they lit the flame

[initiates]

Date: October 1st
Location: The Observatory.
Characters: Everyone.
Summary: New Transports arrive and are shuffled into the Observatory for the show of the year. Initial briefings are very brief this time around, and that Greeter just won't stop crying.
Warnings: new confused people and old sad people??

Your arrival here has been very unceremonious. One second you were somewhere else, and now, very suddenly, your feet hit the glowing white of the Transporter pad, and you're here. You aren't alone, either. There's a crowd of others around you, each seeming just as bewildered, angry, or confused as you might feel. At the head of the group is a woman in purple robes, with eyes red as if she'd just finished crying. She hurries over a quick overview of your intended purpose here, and gives direct answers when asked for them, but to most things she simply shows you how to access the tablet you've just been given. There, you can find the history of this place and a record of what your new cohorts have experienced — although it won't have Network access for another 8 hours. Someone stands on hand to give you a weapon, and though the armory is now greatly reduced, you should be able to find something to suit you.

You're shepherded down a walkway tunnel and into the Observatory, where you will find screens mounted on three sides of the wide room. The only lighting comes from dull red emergency lights, and the scenes of a dreary, rainy city from various cameras up on the screens; the largest of the screens opens up to a view of Earth from a good distance away -- this one isn't a screen at all, you might realize, but a window. As you watch, all screens in the room fill with light, impossibly bright. It consumes the buildings, the people, everything. There is no sound played, perhaps mercifully, only that white light -- and then nothing.

Through the large window, there's a pinprick of light over one of the landmasses on the blue planet. It grows to a tiny blossom and then dies away, but a cloud begins to mushroom outward in the same spot. It pushes the natural clouds out of the way, claiming that small portion of the world and wrapping it in a uniform gray.

Strings of numbers begin to fill the blanked out screens as the base's AI begins collecting data and calculations, but the show seems to be over. You're free to explore the base, visit and use any of the VR rooms, or discover your new room and roommates, but try not to step out of any airlocks if oxygen is a requirement for your system.

Welcome to the moon base, with front row seats to the grave of Exsilium.

[[ooc; reminder! The Network will be down for 8 hours after the wave of new Transports.]]

Comments

[imperfectness]

Umm, I can try! It won't be an accurate measurement, but should give me an idea.

[There's a chance he could pick her up wrong and throw out his back but yolo it's science time

He stands back so she can stand up from the table.]

[irritating]

What oh uh, shit okay! [ Honestly she wasn't expecting him to attempt it if only because people normally ignored her dumb questions, but now that he'd agreed to try it she figured she'd cooperate. After all, she really didn't have a clue in the world how heavy she was and maybe it'd be something interesting to know about herself.

Stepping away from the table and readjusting herself, Apollo faced the scientist and stood directly in front of him. ] Alright, go for it. [ Normally when she said shit like that while standing in front of somebody it meant that she was about to start a fight, but thankfully for Carlos she was being a willing test subject right now instead. ]

[imperfectness]

[He scoops her up with little difficulty, and makes a small thinking sound, pursing his lips and halfway nodding to himself before setting her back down.]

For your height, you do seem a little light. I'd have to test to make sure, but if I were to guess, I'd assume the lower weight to mass ratio is a leftover from the...ah...other Gryps that are able to fly. Much like your vestigial wings.

Still, there's also a chance that the gravity here might not have calibrated exactly to the same as Earth. We might not notice much of a difference, but it could be enough to change your weight slightly.

[He thinks for a moment, then nods.]

So the test is inconclusive right now.

[irritating]

Uh huh. [ It probably wasn't hard to tell she didn't quite understand all of that. She knew surprisingly little about herself and her breed, so there was some genuine curiosity there even though science was absolutely not her area of expertise. ]

That all means you dunno, right? So how d'you test... gravity? [ The way she says the word "gravity" suggests she doesn't know exactly what that is either, but hey she's trying at least. ]

[imperfectness]

[He nods.]

I don't have enough data to reach a conclusion right now.

[And then he adjusts his glasses.]

Well, there are a few ways. Mainly, we'd have to find a control to test the gravity against, something that we know has a fixed, definite weight on earth...something like a weight or even maybe...some sort of...well, we could use a sack of flour or something, something that has a certain weight. And then all we'd have to do would be to weigh that.

[He gestures with his hands a little as he speaks.]

Because, you see, your weight is really just a measurement of how much gravity pulls on your mass. Generally speaking, more mass means a higher weight, but that isn't certain for things that aren't as dense as others. For example, five pounds of feathers is much less dense than five pounds of lead.

So, you might have the same mass as an average human of your height, but your body, especially your bones, might be a little less dense than average, meaning you weigh a little less!

[ISN'T THAT COOL??????]

[irritating]

[ Okay if she wasn't confused already she definitely was now. Mass? Dense??? She was raised by pirates in the 17th century what do these words even mean. She opens her mouth as if to say something, but then closes it a second later. Apollo stares vacantly at him as she tries to figure out what part she actually wants to ask about. ]

So if you weigh a sack of flour you can figure out how much I weigh too? [ That's totally what he was saying right?? ]

this thread is so beautiful, oh my god

[imperfectness]

...not exactly. But that would give me an idea as to the gravity here, since it's definitely not normal moon gravity.

[And that's another subject ENTIRELY.]

But then if we weighed you, as well, I could use the percentage of gravity from weighing the control object and calculate your accurate Earth weight. And then all I would have to do is compare it to the average for a human woman of your height.

I'm sure there are other ways, and that wouldn't account for the extra musculature I'm assuming you have because of your wings. We could use an x-ray to look at your bones, as well...do they have those in the future?

[He brings a hand to his chin, thinking.]

i am laughing forever at how perfect this is

[irritating]

[ Holy shit Carlos are you even speaking English right now. Her mild curiosity has now turned into complete confusion at this point, and it's reflected in the way she looks at him with the most quizzical stare in the world. Shit, she thought Jerek was bad with all his medical mumbo jumbo but this guy was a whole different breed and she could not keep up. ]

What in the fuck is an x-ray? [ There, that's the one thing she managed to latch onto. This magical ray that apparently revealed bones. ]

[imperfectness]

Oh, it's umm...a machine that uses radiation to get an image of bones and cartilage.

[He smiles a bit. Science!]

[irritating]

[ Machines, alright. That was something she knew. Sort of. And a machine that could see bones, hey that was kinda cool and oh here we go, she's smiling again! ]

So you can actually see bones without rippin' a body open? Well shit I hope we got one of those, that sounds like one helluva a fuckin' machine.

[imperfectness]

[He nods.]

Yep! There are other machines that do the same thing but I don't think there's enough room up here and need for something more advanced, like an MRI.

...you probably don't have those on your world, do you?

[Shit, she probably didn't get a lot of what he was saying. That happens to him.]

[irritating]

Nope!

[ To be fair she didn't get what most scientists and doctors said to her, it's okay Carlos. ] Friend o' mine would probably lose his shit if he ever found out about you future folk and your magical machines, though. [ Because clearly x-rays are magic. ]

[imperfectness]

[He chuckles.]

Well, it's not magic. It's science!

[Which is way, way cooler.]

[irritating]

It ain't? Oh - right, the future don't use magic as much, huh? [ That was one of putting it, anyway. ] You guys got the crazy technology thing going on instead.

[imperfectness]

Ah, mostly, yes.

[Even Night Vale, he was sure that many things weren't magic. There had to be a scientific explanation for everything.]

We have technology, but nothing like this.

[He gestures vaguely, meaning the moon base as a whole.]

[irritating]

Yeah fuckin' tell me about it, this livin' on the moon shit is way the fuck ahead of my time. World. [ She corrects herself because shit she sounds like an old person or something saying "before my time". ]

There was always talk o' grand machines just waitin' to be invented back there, and I kinda think most people thought it'd be the gryps to figure it out first. Clearly this shit ain't my idea, but I dunno it's kinda neat that I'm the first o' my kind to make it out here anyway I guess!

[imperfectness]

What kind of technology are you used to?

[He's very curious! He moves and sits down at her side of the table, a couple of feet from her.]

[irritating]

[ When he sits down, Apollo plops herself back down in her seat as well. ]

Uh, I used to be the weapons master of the only successful sky ship before we crash landed on a cursed island. Far as I know, no one's been able to recreate exactly what we had, but they're damn close. [ She pauses briefly to think about what else Ce Monde was working on, and very quickly falls into her own field. ]

Oh, the girls are top of their class! [ Of the two pistols holstered at her hips, she draws out one and holds it in a way that it is both pointed downwards and visible for Carlos to see it. It's a gaudy thing, engraved with intricate designs and even encrusted with little gems in places and it's a strange combination of old and new, looking very reminiscent of a 17th century flintlock pistol but yet somehow outfitted with the capacity for clips. Before allowing him to do any further inspection of the weapon, Apollo unloads it and holds onto the ammunition herself. ] Ain't exactly up to snuff with some of the shit I've seen future folk fight with, but back home this bullet thing's a marvel.

[imperfectness]

[He leans a little closer to get a good look at the gun, watching as she unloads it.]

Remarkable!

So...firearms aren't too common in your world?

[irritating]

Naw, they are. Most people have a gun or two, or more if they're a pirate. Just most are still stuck on gunpowder and shit. This part here, [ Still holding the clip in her hand, she gestures with her finger the part of the gun she just unloaded it from. ] This is the new thing.

[imperfectness]

I see.

[That was really neat, he thought.]

So you have guns and sky ships? Do you have electricity? How do they sky ships fly?

[irritating]

[ While she reloads the pistol and puts it back in her holster, she tries answering even though she's kind of iffy with details. ]

We do in some places, but uh... it's mostly run by magic. The science folk are workin' on that too. Actually they're workin' on a lotta stuff, tryin' to prove we don't gotta rely on magic all the time I think. And the Nimirum...

[ She breathes out a little sigh as she pauses momentarily to think. ] Grampa and the cap'n took care of gettin' her in the air, so I dunno exactly. Lotsa gears and sails on her though, I can tell you that much.

[imperfectness]

Magic, okay.

[Magic was simply science that no one had explained yet.]