[open] march catchall

[techmaturgy]

Who: Viktor and special guests and YOU
When: throughout March
Where: Cadens, the Horizon
What: open stuff, closed stuff, general nerdery, horizon visits, whatever I WANT
Warnings: the usual references to terminal illness, will list additional warnings as needed.

[open and closed starters in comments! If you want a custom starter or something specific, just hit me up. full horizon details are here for any and all wildcarding needs. For everything else, I’m on plurk at whitticus and on discord at whitticus#8139.]

Comments

[techmaturgy]

[Okay, so maybe Thancred is picking up on the fact that he's being vague and kind of shady. Maybe he knows more about this than he's letting on. Still, he willingly brought a guest up here, knowing full well what was in the lab, so he should, theoretically, be prepared for these kinds of questions.

Perhaps he's still weighing the dangers of being public about what he's working on, even if it only exists in the Horizon. The last thing he wants is for someone to misuse his research, but he reminds himself that the Hexcore is so esoteric that it will be difficult to utilize, to say nothing of replication.

So, maybe he can provide a little demonstration. That will be fine.]

I'm exploring environmental restoration applications, currently.

[He nods towards the device, and with a simple thought, recreates the experiment he's been doing with his houseplants--the rig above the Hexcore, a plant atop it. Viktor reaches toward the desk and pulls a lever, seemingly arranging the right combination of runes, and the plant blossoms, unfurling larger and larger, almost unnaturally.]

The device channels arcane energies through the plant--the runes providing the necessary instruction.

[Unlike the real world, he can stop it here. Thancred doesn't have to witness the point at which he gets stuck, when the plant inevitably reaches its limit and dies.]

As you can see, the transformative power of the device is...revolutionary.

[funbreaker]

[ Environmental restoration. It is not what Thancred was expecting to hear, but it is also to some extent a familiar concept. What he helped Ryne do to restore the Empty through the use of Eden could easily be called the same thing, though this device is a good deal smaller, and therefore likely also works on a smaller scale.

As the device begins to rotate around into different configurations, Thancred takes a few more steps back to watch as the plants overhead sprout and grow at an alarming rate. It's impressive and likely should be impossible, but with enough aether — or "arcane energy," as Viktor calls it — the impossible becomes possible.

Thancred's seen it himself. It's the only reason that he isn't completely awed by what has just taken place. ]

To say the least. [ Once the demonstration has ended, Thancred steps forward to take hold of a leaf off of a vine that's grown enough to fall within reach. It looks real and smells real, though given that this is the Horizon, that doesn't necessarily mean anything. This is still only theoretical.

He releases the leaf from between his fingertips and then turns back to Viktor. ] I was only assisting, but I've seen this sort of thing before. Not precisely the same, of course, but we were able to restore life to a land that had been made completely barren by an overabundance of light. Granted, the device we used to do so was much, much larger than this.

[techmaturgy]

[Oh. Perhaps he does understand. This is something of a surprise, and Viktor isn’t necessarily good at hiding it on his face. He almost feels guilty, for forcibly halting the experiment before its natural conclusion, making Thancred think that he’s succeeded, or something, when that’s far from the truth.]

That’s—it’s exactly what I’m trying to do.

[Water purification systems. Air scrubbers. A boundless energy source that adapts to various tasks, without the need for constant instruction by an operator. He doubts that whatever Thancred used would be a one-to-one translation to his own work, but any information would be helpful to him.]

What sort of device?

[funbreaker]

[ Thancred doesn't hold that flash of surprise against Viktor. This is not the sort of thing that anyone should expect him to know about, in all honesty, and it's not as if he'd directly impacted much of what they'd done with Eden. It had mainly been the combined work of Ryne and Himeka, along with Urianger's knowledge around aetherology.

Knowing that this will not be the fastest of explanations, Thancred glances about for the closest set of chairs and moves to sit in one, expecting that Viktor will join him before long. He's seen what that device etched in runes can do, he understands what it's for, so now he can offer what he knows. On the off chance it helps, even if the situations are quite different.

Once he's seated, he leans forward to rest his forearms on his thighs and starts to explain. ]

I say device, but it was enormous. It was a ship, really. It could be moved around via control panels inside, to travel across the Empty. That's the land stripped of aether I mentioned. [ Self explanatory, perhaps. ] But it was also sentient, to some degree. It was a massive sin eater — a creature of such abounding light that it was responsible for bleeding the land dry in the first place. Yet it also had the energy and ability to reverse that damage, with the right encouragement.

[ Thancred pauses then, realizing how much information he's conveying, much of it likely incomprehensible to someone who isn't from the Source or the First. He wants to offer the space for Viktor to process, or ask questions if need be. ]

[techmaturgy]

[Viktor seems to have no objections to Thancred having a seat, but he's apparently too focused on this new information to take one himself. There it is, again--the notion of a machine that can think. Hearing more and more about other worlds that have this technology, or something like it only furthers his desire to perfect what he's working on. He knows it's possible. He just has to crack the code, with the level of technology he's been given.]

What kind of propulsion system?

[A ship that's also a thinking computer...it seems almost unbelievable, if not for the fact that he has no reason to assume that Thancred is lying to him. He has half a mind to ask for Thancred to show him, given the fact that they're in the Horizon, but there are a few other questions he can ask firs,t without seeing anything.]

Do you know the mechanism by which it was able to reverse the damage?

[funbreaker]

[ At the first question Thancred can do little more than pull his face and give a small shrug. He is no engineer and had not investigated the means by which the ship was able to move. He simply understood that Ryne had the ability to control it, using her innate power as an Oracle of Light. ]

I imagine that it used aether to propel itself — it was ultimately a living being of sorts. I can't answer that question with much confidence, I'm afraid.

[ The second question he at least knows how to answer, though he isn't certain that Viktor will be able to follow. He lets out a small breath and squares his shoulders. Viktor seems to be a dedicated scientist, which means that Thancred can assume he'll be able to parse what he's about to explain with more ease than a layperson. ]

On the First, there is a natural balance between various aetheric elements, with some trending more toward umbral — or dark, and others toward astral, or light. Eden initially caused the damage by flooding the land with an abundance of astral energy, as I said, but it also had the ability to shift the balance back to umbral. [ He lifts a hand to draw back through his hair. ] My companion, who is far more versed in these matters than myself, theorized that if we made this correction too quickly, over too wide a swath of land, that it could be disastrous. Therefore, we aimed to dispense different elements over a smaller area, in land where it should have naturally occurred. For example, releasing the element of water in a place where there had once been rivers or oceans.

[ He pauses then, shaking his head to himself. If only Urianger could see him now — though it's for the best that he can't. ] ... Giving lectures of this sort isn't my area of expertise, but are you following along?

[techmaturgy]

A living ship... [He laughs a little, shaking his head, apparently in an attempt to disguise some of his awe.] I can hardly imagine such a thing.

[Viktor is following--of course he's following. Thancred might be having some difficulties explaining, but Viktor works with these principles constantly. Different terms for them across universes, sure, but simple enough for someone like him to grasp.]

I think I understand the basic principles. [Balance. Everything in moderation.] If it's easier, perhaps you could show me?

[Provided he remembers the details, of course.]

[funbreaker]

Nor could I have, had I not stepped foot in one.

[ There are certain things that one cannot truly comprehend until seeing them with one's own eyes, and even now Thancred only understands the basics of how Eden functioned. He could go into more detail on how it had been discovered that Eden was in fact an Ascian turned into a Sin Eater, but it won't mean much to the likes of Viktor.

It barely means much to him.

At the suggestion that Thancred show Viktor what he means, there's a moment of confusion before meaning clicks into place. ] Ah, right. This is the Horizon.

[ He stands then, taking a moment to glance down at his hands. The act of creation, even in this liminal space, is something he is still not quite used to. It doesn't come to him naturally the way that it does others. He knows he needs to merely will something into being, however, and it should work.

Therefore, he spreads his hands apart from each other in front of him, and after a moment or two of concentration, a semi-translucent miniature model of Eden floats between his hands. Its design is quite unusual, with parts of it that almost look like feathers, contrasted with rings of metal near the back of its "head." Its top-heavy body tapers down into a point. ]

Imagine this, but much, much larger.

[ Nor is he done. The model shifts to hover over one of his hands and then he brings forth another image, this time of leviathan, a double-headed sea serpent. Why Himeka had imagined it this way he could hardly say, but the recreation shifts around in place, its heads darting to and fro, as if it were truly alive. If quite small. ]

On my star there are beings such as this called primals, made of pure aether and generally summoned to enact great destruction. In this case we used them to our advantage, using Eden to bring forth their likeness as concentrated aether. Once they were defeated, it dispersed the elemental energy as I described.

[techmaturgy]

[He can follow along just fine with general descriptions and talk about the function of such a thing, but it’s something else entirely to be able to see it—one of the greatest advantages of a place like the Horizon. Viktor is always attempting to accumulate more knowledge. Being exposed to information from other worlds and universes is more than he could have ever hoped for.

So this is more than a little fascinating, and he follows along as Thancred starts to conjure the ship and the thing they were, apparently, fighting against. He studies it closely, rubbing his chin. Not applicable to him, or what he’s trying to do, but fascinating nonetheless. At the very least, he can absorb the principles of it all, with the hope that the information might come in handy later.]

And the land was restored?

[funbreaker]

[ Thancred drops his hands and steps away from the floating images so that Viktor can inspect them to his liking. He nods in response to the question. ]

Eventually, yes. It took time. And defeating a good number of these primals to account for each element.

[ He'd had to leave the finishing of the job in Himeka, Ryne, and Gaia's hands, but they had pulled it off. Himeka had done her best to describe everything to him in the aftermath, and while it had felt wrong to return home without seeing it through, it's not as if he had much choice. ]

If you end up having further questions about all this, you're welcome to ask me. [ Who knows? Maybe some of this information will somehow help adjust Viktor's theorizing for his own research. ] I'll do my best to answer, in any case.

[techmaturgy]

I don't want to keep you.

[An implication that, if given the opportunity, Viktor will likely ask dozens of follow-ups. He can see, however, that Thancred doesn't necessarily consider himself the expert in this sort of thing, so perhaps he should give him a reprieve, for now. It's certainly enough for him to consider, for now.]

But, thank you for showing me. It's interesting, to hear about other worlds. You're welcome back here anytime you like.