{VOICE OTA}

[rootandbranch]

[Today you feel a few strange pulses in your signets before you hear anything over Qri's network. It's fairly pleasant, exactly as the signet communications tend to be, and fortunately doesn't at all resemble the strange fluctuations that plagued everyone back on days 103-105. It's more like someone poking at the network to be sure it's stable and not going to do any more of that before they speak. They seem to conclude it's safe after all.]

Hello? Oh, hi-- hi, everybody. It's Geir. If you don't know me, I'm the dragon.

[He's very matter of fact about it. He's the dragon. You're probably aware, his tone seems to say.]

Listen, I don't actually care if you know me, you should just help me and Nines out! He knows all kinds of technology things, so I asked him what we could find out about the Hub with them. But the question is really, what does everyone want to find out? There's been a lot of weird to chew on!

Chew...on? [9S echoes this thought quizzically, for an instant quite distracted. But right, right, the matter at hand—] Er, anyway, like Geir said we’re lacking data on our surroundings. And to know what we’re dealing with, gathering more would be best, so I was thinking I can probably scrape enough parts together to build a pod for that job, once we know what kind of information it should collect. I mean, unless we want everything...

[Geir's tone is still bright and interested. he loves hearing about this, even if part of him is still skeptical.]

Nines isn't even the only person who knows how to build... robots. I know a bunch of you build stuff. Who wants to help?

[9S clears his throat, quietly tacking a little disclaimer on:]

...Not that pods should be mistaken for machines or anything.

[When your kind’s fought machines for millennia certain lines get drawn. Thin, confusing grey lines. (Geir doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just lets it stand.)]


((both 9S and Geir may reply to your toplevels, and also feel free to jump each other! this is the start of a player plot to get a little more technology on the island. ♥ more details here!))

Comments

voice;

[reckoner]

[ What an interesting pair. ]

I wonder if anything we built could sense everything.

[ For example, would a machine sensor have been able to give readings on those spirits? ]

I might be able to help. I've never built a robot from scratch, but I have some experience with maintenance.

[ Or whatever one would call two years of tinkering and supervising mechanics on his gundam and the very particular AI within it... ]

[rootandbranch]

I don't know whether technology can sense everything. Nines says it can pick up different kinds of energy, and even magic might be a kind of energy. So... maybe some of those will be the right kinds?

[this makes sense to Geir. power is power, in its different forms; he doesn't see why one would be idfferent from another.]

He says if anyone is used to trying to pick up magic, it would really help us out, so I know he's going to try.

[Geir pauses a little for rhetorical effect, since Vidar can't see his shrug. truthfully, the question has taken him instantly out of his depth in his very shallow understanding of technology. he thinks this is a cool idea much more than he knows how to implement it.]

Honestly, I don't know anything about this stuff. If you can keep it running, that sounds really useful. Do you want to see what you can do?

[reckoner]

[ Good point. His inexperience with the supernatural might be limiting his evaluation of any piece of technology's capacity, and it isn't as though he'd begun on or curved onto any formal engineering track.

If it's really just energy... ]

Yeah. It's worth trying.

[ To put it lightly. Though he's the last guy who could help with that. Even what he does know, being so unique, he can't make any concrete claims of assistance or expertise. Not until he sees it. ]

I don't know about keeping it running... but if I can help, I'd like to.

[rootandbranch]

I bet Nines will be able to at least teach you some tricks. We don't even know for sure what he's making, anyway.

[that reminds him -- his original question was about what people think is important to monitor about this strange, irrational little island in space that they're perching on. Gaelio still hasn't quite answered that question, so he returns to it, genuinely interested in his response.]

Is that what you think it's most important that it be able to pick up? Energy?

[it does check out as a priority. if magic is something that can be monitored, it would certainly help to understand the fluctuations of this world's power.]

[reckoner]

I don't know. I don't know enough to guess at most important.

[ The boars and other hostile wildlife they seem familiar enough with by now. Weather wouldn't be a bad thing to keep abreast of especially once his cabin washes away, r.i.p., but insofar as the expected and unexpected, in a place that seems to exist and be possible because of Qri's magic ---

Energy should rank. More might come monthly, but -- ]

For example, if we can track Qri's usage, we might know when and where new arrivals are taken. Once we know that, we might also know when and where one of us disappears.

[rootandbranch]

[unseen by Gaelio, Geir shivers. when and where one of us disappears...]

Ah-- ah. Yeah. Do you know anyone who's missing? I've been wondering-- I haven't seen Julius for a while. I knew that sometimes people seemed to disappear for a while, but--

[but he hasn't been keeping track of the people who are gone, and if he's starting now, it might make all the difference. Geir is a hoarding creature. the idea that something as important as a person might disappear when he's not looking is extremely unsettling.]

[reckoner]

No. I only arrived with the latest... batch, about a month ago. I don't know how many were taken and how many have left.

[ Whether from the beginning, or in the last month. Are they keeping a list? If someone was determined to keep away from the group, the "coven," it would be difficult to keep track. ]

It might be a matter of tracking the signets. If they're connected to the telepathy, they should have traces of energy.

[rootandbranch]

That's... that's a great idea! Maybe that really is something that "technology" could keep track of. You're really smart, Gaelio!

[Gaelio has probably talked to Geir in person enough to imagine the expression on his face: wide-eyed and genuine appreciation. it's not dignified for something so large and alien-looking to be so vocally and physically expressive. it's like watching an elephant do a little happy dance. for Geir's part, even the prospect of being able to track arrivals and departures makes him feel a little better, despite the solution not actually materializing yet.]

We'll see what Nines says.

[reckoner]

No, not really.

[ Someone will have thought of it already, as it's a common thing to be concerned with here. Which isn't to disparage the dragon, unaccustomed to the variety of uses to which technology could be put.

Instead, the enthusiasm in his voice does prompt a striking mental image. Dignity's over-rated. ]

Right. Are there other things you'd like to keep track of?

[rootandbranch]

Me? I don't even know what can be done... I want to know more about everything here. How the air currents work is really what's itching at me most, but I would like to explore past this island if I can, too.

[he hasn't forgotten how close that moon came to the island. would it be possible to reach it next time? how does this strange floating little scrap of rock work?]

A lot of people have asked about the history of this place, too. It's all of a piece.

[reckoner]

[ Air currents would be of particular relevance to a flying creature. Gaelio can remember little about their operation on Earth, but now given reason to consider it, it does strike.

On a small strip of land thrust improbably into the stars, how could they possibly function? Simply magic? If so, there should be energy to it. ]

The history... what would the pods look for, to help divulge that?

[rootandbranch]

I'm not sure myself, but I'm guessing things like the remains that people left behind. We have some people here who are interested in those for their own sake, anyway.

[whether or not such remains lead them to understanding more about the Hub's history, they might have useful supplies that the coven can still put back to work. Geir has to admit, now that so many people have brought it up, that the idea of finding out more about whoever used to live here is something worthy of curiosity. he doesn't personally care much, but...

he wonders if they were human, and if all human civilizations are more or less the same? from the variety of people staying in the coven, he doesn't think they can be.]

...it's amazing that a device can go do something on its own like that. I never heard of anything like it till I came here.

[reckoner]

Maybe the soil, then.

[ Musing. He doesn't know too much about the mechanics of archaeology, unearthing ancient civilizations. If the mansion had been built by the same (and if so, despite the improbability of them being human, the furnishings and equipment in the mansion suggest it), then likely it is inapplicable. The previous inhabitants could not be called ancient, the dirt wouldn't have had the time to accumulate into smothering layers.

Had they lived here before or after the land was strewn into space? Maybe-- ]

If only how far it goes.

[ If they dug, what would they reach? Was the land flat? ]

Mm. It might be a cliche, but stories rarely mixed dragons and machines of that level.

[deem]

I don't know about the magic part, so we'll need a hand on that, but... I can pick up on all sorts of things, and pods are pretty handy.

[9S likewise doubts anything could pick up on every single environmental factor. After all, he'd had to compensate for being unable to see a seraph like Mikleo by manipulating light filters.

He's sure there are some things he couldn't even adapt to, much as that frustrates him in some respects. Adaptation is part of his design]

Anyway, what kind of maintenance did you perform?

[Color him curious...as usual]

[reckoner]

Would you be basing the design on your own sensors?

[ Would the pod's reception be fed to him? Is it accurate to say he has sensors? Uninformed questions, maybe, but he has a piecemeal impression of 9S's composition. Lingering, less significant questions. Like the source of his screens when he had been designed off man. ]

Not as much hands-on, though I've basic instruction in emergency repairs and construction. Most of my recent work was on the responsiveness and some coding of an operational and piloting system.

[ He hadn't written it, not by any means, but as it progressed, became heavily involved in supervision and adjustments. Given that it hooked into his own body and mind, an inevitable attachment. Inevitable, too, given Ein.

gestures weakly istg ]

[deem]

Pods have some overlapping functions with Scanners, but we're not quite the same. I've got schematic data on pod units, since sometime they'd require repairs as well.

[Everybody needs proper maintenance, and as a Scanner, it's as much his business to know how other units are built as it is a pod's. Perhaps more so, since androids would issue a pod's orders]

If you're willing to help out with things like that, I'd say it's a benefit. Because we don't have all the same resources at our disposal that I'm used to, some improvisation is going to be necessary...and we'll need to make sure it's capable of functioning on its own before we go.

[Testing and adjustments will be essential]

[reckoner]

[ The closest comparable to pod units, to Gaelio's mind, are satellites, the Ariadne network's transponders (though more communications focused), sensors within a Mobile Suit or Gundam -- with the exception of the latter, distant, spotty subjects of study.

Whether or not he can be of actual assistance remains to be seen, but... ]

I'm willing to help in whatever way I can. Even if it ends up being manual adjustments.

[ Even as basic as, hiking up a mountain to move it over a meter or two. ]

Could you send me a schematic?

[deem]

I sure can!

[He can send all kinds of data. And while he considers this network they've been modified to be a part of pretty invasive at times, 9S can appreciate the convenience of being able to send data this way.

It's something he couldn't do remotely with humans where he comes from. Although he's modeled after mankind, he certainly processes information in a different manner.

Humans don't respond to wifi connections, and all that]

Just let me know when you're ready. I know it's...sort of weird, for most humans.

[reckoner]

[ Given the screens and process of building the light sent along last time, Gaelio had assumed capability. But it also seemed reasonable to assume a much higher level of complexity.

It would be difficult to hold. Connecting to Alaya-Vijnana Type E, the processing of the gundam's data through the nanomachine composed pseudo brain lobe in his neck, spine -- a different sort of processing, to be sure.

But perhaps leaving him a bit better suited than other humans. This much less jarring. ]

I've known stranger. Now is fine.

[deem]

I'll send the information then.

[It's getting less unusual for 9S, being able to transmit information like schematic data. More so that he's sending it to humans with a thought, but he concentrates in relaying the data rather than sending anything else along with it.

Scanner minds wander a little too easily.

What he sends is extremely detailed, every part and component and how they're assembled together to complete a Tactical Support Unit, or in short, a pod]

[reckoner]

[ Despite the nanomachines in his neck, despite the roughly eighteen months of tinkering with the connection to Kimaris Vidar, it really is a markedly different sort of processing. Different information related, too, a fundamentally different type.

Easier if with a photo, an actual screen, something to look at or hold in his mind for longer than the moment of transmission. He tries to imagine and thus illusion blueprints, spread out in front of him, but he's sure he's missing details. There had simply been too much to keep track of.

But, he thinks it isn't a bad approximation. And if so... ]

Thanks. I recognize some of it, not everything. The gist.

[deem]

That's better off than some others here. I've been told my level of technology's so far beyond what some are used to that it might as well be magic.

[Which, in itself, is notionally absurd. But to 9S, what he is and what he works with is grounded in technical reality. Magic on the other hand seems to lack any solid structure or even have uniform, logical rules.

The way Waver has described the magic he's accustomed to, there seems to be some structure to it, but what Qri has given them lacks unifying principles in his eyes]

[reckoner]

It's pretty far beyond what I know, as well, but I can at least...

[ How to put it? ]

...get a sense of how you got there.

[ The component parts, how they connect. He'd do better still if he could look at it for longer than the fleeting moment it was sent to his mind. Though hardly a talent or natural, he's had enough exposure.

As for magic, he's on the same page. ]

Magic challenges more. If it is energy, then designing the unit to gauge that as well would be useful.

[ Needless to say... ]

[deem]

The way it's explained to us, if you want to call it an explanation... the kind Qri's after is energy at least.

[So it stands to reason there must be a way to detect it]

Probably just need someone more familiar with it than I am.

[reckoner]

I don't suppose Genette would help?

[ Mustn't she be the most familiar? Maybe they'd need both familiarity and an understanding of machinery. ]