inkedspell | [IC] Inbox for deercountry

[ He'd argue about her being okay, but it's a rather pointless argument. That was then, this is now, and people deal with shit as they please.

Rather: ] Never would've imagined you coming from a fancy house, [ he decides to say instead, ask: ] How long'd it take you to get out?

[ Because it wasn't Saeri's style at all, and good on her for getting out. ]

I was twelve when I finally escaped that mausoleum. It was like living in the least interesting museum ever. Ugh.

[Her lip curls up a bit at just how disgusted she is to remember it.]

Living at the Forge compound was way better. At least all their ancient artifacts were for touching and learning from instead of being behind three-inch thick glass so no one could "sully it by a breath."

God, rich people, right? [ Such rich people shit. ] They like to own everything and make a show about it. Stuff like that deserves to get rehomed.

[ The nice way of saying stolen. ]

If they even had anything worth it. We talking paintings, pottery -- first edition books they'll never read?

Oh they had hundreds of books that were probably priceless. Ancient texts, forbidden artifacts, historical records dating back to the founding of the family, records of the Mystlands...

[She sighed for a moment.]

It's a good thing I read most of that shit before I left because it was so good. Sucked I had to leave it all behind but that was worth it.

'Least someone got to read them at all. And it got to be you. [ Hey, the one upside, and he grins as he adds: ] Bet it helped make you the giant nerd you are today. Teacher.

[ Respectfully calling your teacher a nerd because you can, xoxo. ]

Teacher? [She snorts there, giving him a gentle shove of the shoulder.] That makes you a teacher's pet, kiss up.

Now did you notice the difference between the earthquake and lava rune-chains?

[One of them has a modified fire rune and the other has a rune for lightning.]

Naaaaahhhhh, [ he drags out at kiss up, pushing out his arms from where they've been resting against table. He then laughs, moves back in again to check out the runes. And oh, this is easy, tapping a finger beside them. ]

Different elements. [ He can tell that. The real question is if he's got them the right way round: ] Uh, an electrical discharge for mimicking the vibrations of an earthquake, a fire because--fire is really hot?

[ Very wow smart-sounding explanation? ]

[Saeri nods, tapping at the earthquake rune.]

Got this one. The lava-rune is because lava is just overheated rock. It melts earth to turn it into lava. And both of these are elemental combo runes. There's other kinds that have been developed over the centuries, but these two are some of the earliest. Nice and simple for beginners.

Huh. [ Making earthquakes or lava might be cool in general, but Robby nods at them. ] But what do you use them for? Extreme landscaping?

[ What's the practical uses? ]

Yeah. Terraforming can be really important for managing areas that were hit by natural disasters and need complete reconstruction and redevelopment. Back before we had AIMs to help do a lot of this, they had to have other ways of handling it.

Make sense?

Yeah. [ He's even got a small smile on his face as he replies. ] Turn the ground into lava to make it easier to move to and from, and-- could you use something like this to break down rubble or stuff like trees?

[ He's tapping the earthquake rune crafted by a lightning spell. ]

It's pretty cool anyway.

Breaking things, helping fix rivers, building lakes, or using lava as a means of redistributing fresh soil for agriculture and holding water to soil of drought-ridden locations to help with vegetation.

[She pauses for a moment, thinking back to when she'd first seen the basic elemtental runes used in reconstruction.]

First job I ever did with the Inkmetal Forge was fixing up a town after major flooding. The amount of earth displaced that we needed to move was hell, but runes like this made it a lot easier.

It's all machines where I'm from, but you always hear about everything breaking apart anyway. [ Even with them. He wonders how things would be different with runes like this, but all things considered, he doubts life is all that much better where Saeri is from. He doesn't have that optimism to believe.

Still: ] But I like it, magic like this. Doing fire or ice out of your hands is cool, [ sure, a small shrug, ] but magic that can help? Bending it into a tool?

[ Yeah, it's more than pretty cool. He glances about the room, but settles on Saeri. ]

You miss it?

[ He thinks he would, compare to here. ]

I miss working with everyone and knowing we're making a difference. [She misses everyone, too, but that's not what he asked.]

We used machines, too. AIMs. Huge piloted armors we use for construction and emergency response. But you know...powered by rune magic. Back in the day they used to use things like excavators and bulldozers but you have so much more control with an AIM.

Okay, yeah, armoured construction piloting? That's something out of a cartoon where I'm from. [ But it's said with a laugh, something surprised. ]

So when are you gonna make one of those to hire out? I dunno, even magical bulldozers might catch this place up a few hundred years. It could do with an emergency construction crew every time something goes crazy.

[ He's grinning, half-joking, but really, Robby wonders if she couldn't be doing bigger and better. She's got the ambition for it. ]

Didn't really have time to watch cartoons, but that's not surprising. A lot of stuff I'm used to people think are from books and other fictional media.

[She's not offended at all. She's found a bunch of things people told her pretty crazy, too.]

Unfortunately, to power a full sized AIM suit, I'd need a lot more power than what I can scrounge up right now. My stones and crystals aren't strong enough and if I used straight blood I'd have to like...bathe the thing in it.

[ Hey, it's probably very sci-fi. Unfortunately, Robby's never been big on the sci-fi angle for comparison. ]

Well, if you wanted to go in the business, I still think you'd have work for it. Someone was telling me about how this place got flooded before - you know about that? That's why some people started that Outpost building out in the woods.

It's apparently a place just for Sleepers if anything happens to the city.

[ Which he sure has his own feelings about, but you know. ]

[Oh boy, does she ever remember that month.]

The flooding was the Worst. Do you know how hard it is to make an oversized carriage stationary when there's enough water to carry it out to see? Had to finally trap the wheels in concrete and that was a bitch to chisel out.

[The WORST.]

I know about the Outpost I helped a bit with some barriers on it. A lot of people were involved though so I barely had to do anything.

[ That gets something close to a snort from Robby, though it's not all humour. There's a wrinkle to his forehead as he even tries to imagine it. Concreting the wheels? ]

Got any precautions if that happens again?

Yeah, I figured that out. Built a magical anchor and maybe carved some runes into a few safe spots around the big Machine. If something happens, I'm set.

[Not like she's taking the Carriage House into any of the other districts. Too much trouble.]

Now back to your lessons... [She says it with a playful snooty tone.] Any other questions about these runes? Does everything make sense so far?

[ He makes a sound between a cough and a snort. ] Sure- put two elements together, make an effect.

So- [ give him a moment... ] Put fire and water together, get steam? And if you want it scalding levels, go for something like this.

[ Tapping at the modified fire on the lava rune. ]

[She nods in approval.] And remember that in basic mixing of runes, especially for elementals, you can have various results depending on which rune you give the priority position.

You want lava? The focus is on the rock, not the fire. You want earthquakes? Same thing. You want steam? Priority is the water for the vapors. Remember which element should be the focus of the inscription and which ones should be the support runes and you'll have less crazy outcomes.

[ Huh. Now he has to think about that for a second. ]

Lightning first before rock, and you get rocks flying everywhere?

[ Does Robby kinda want to see that? He kinda wants to see that. ]

No. You get magnets.

[Which is cool, or at least she thinks it is.]

You want flying rocks, you gotta throw some air into that.

[ ...okay, magnets can be cool.

But now this is leading him down a silly thought: ] And if I threw in some heat and cold, would that give me a tornado?

Edited 2023-02-01 07:29 (UTC)

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inkedspell - 2023-02-03 04:45 (UTC) - Expand

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