Forty-Seventh Theory [Voice]

[i_speak_softly]

Filtered to Doc McCoy || Unhackable

Um. About my brother's cat.

[Once that unpleasantness is over, Don will go sit up on the roof for a few hours, in the rain and in view of the river, meditating. He made contact with Sona last week at the hot springs, and is now trying to learn what she has to teach.]

[Later, inside, he'll open his journal and put a question to the village at large.]

Filtered from Shredder and Karai || Unhackable

I've heard some people are trying to build ships. Are any of them likely to be seaworthy by the end of the summer?

Comments

[i_speak_softly]

[You've lost him. He has very little idea how to build something as large and yet technologically-simple as a sailing ship.]

Why couldn't you build those things first?

[all7seas]

You COULD, were there a proper lumber mill in this place. When I built my Joanna Joyce, I had to plane all the wood by hand. It took a very long time, mate.

[i_speak_softly]

[It vaguely occurs to him that most people don't build their own laboratories from scrap.]

Weren't you working on a ship a year ago?

[all7seas]

Aye; a boat! The Joanna Joyce. She's moored out by the point, son. She might be small-ish but she carries a lot of sail. Fast.

[i_speak_softly]

[... He guesses that's useful if you need to transport sails?]

Why are you telling me you can't build a ship if you've already done it?

[all7seas]

Well what sort of vessel were you WANTING? She's just a sailboat; she carries no cannon or anything like that. I could live on her if I chose, but it gets lonesome.

[i_speak_softly]

What do you need cannons for?

[Usually Don is in favor of weaponry, but he can't imagine what there is to shoot at on Luceti's newly-minted ocean.]

[all7seas]

You don't. That's why I don't have them. There's not even any other ships out there, much less a port.




We need a port. And a pier.

[i_speak_softly]

... Where did you say your boat was docked?

[all7seas]

She's not docked, mate. There IS no dock. She's on a mooring about a quarter mile from shore in the cove. We NEED a dock, is my humble opinion.

[i_speak_softly]

What's a mooring, then?

[all7seas]

Big block of concrete, sunk to the bottom, with a rope attached. Very simple, a mooring, Smart Turtle.

[i_speak_softly]

[He considers this momentarily.] What is the rope attached to at the other end?

[all7seas]

The boat.


Alternatively? A Floaty Thing. Buoy. Makes the mooring easy to find when you return.

[i_speak_softly]

And how do you get from the mooring back to the shore?

[all7seas]

I swim! It's not so very far, quarter mile at most.

[i_speak_softly]

When you're going to the ship, how do you get out of the water and onto the boat?

[HE WILL ASK QUESTIONS UNTIL HE UNDERSTANDS.]

[all7seas]

[The real answer to this is "a rope ladder," but---]

......Pixies. They hoist you, you know. By the seat of your trousers.

[i_speak_softly]

Captain.

[all7seas]

A ladder, sir. Why is this so unfathomable to you? Are you not a marine-going creature?!

[i_speak_softly]

[A long silence, before he resigns himself to a little truth.]

I'm a pond turtle and I've never been to the ocean.

[all7seas]

.......Smart Turtle. Never? Never ever?

[i_speak_softly]

I don't think I ever made it further than the Sound.

[all7seas]

I trust you'll journey to our sea when you've a chance, eh? You and your.......not-wench. Lots of folks have come down for a bit of a holiday.

[Jack feels as though he has....completely misjudged you for a worldly-watery fellow, Donatello.]

[i_speak_softly]

I'm - hoping to get out there soon.

[He spent a lot of time last week sitting at the bottom of a lake. Does that count?]