i_speak_softly: (Heh - caught working.)
i_speak_softly ([personal profile] i_speak_softly) wrote2012-06-10 07:25 am
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Fifty-Ninth Theory [Voice/Action]

[After the experiment ended, and as summer came to Luceti, Don settled into a new routine. In the morning, he leaves his house, walks up the path to the barracks, and takes the teleporter to the beach. He runs several miles along the sand, then dives into the sea and swims back the same distance. Then he practices some magic, manipulating Wind or Water in any place that strikes his fancy, or moving to a rocky part of the shore to work with Earth.]

[By late morning he's home again, and after lunch he heads out to the smithy. He spends several hours in a back room, working on mysterious projects, then emerges again. He often visits the library afterwards, and in the evenings he can be found around the village, studying a book. Then home to sleep, and he starts all over again.]

[Today Don's projects are finished. He hauls the pieces out of the smithy, across the plaza, and into a clearing behind the playground, where he assembles them. Later, the following five structures can be found:]

[The first is a crazy assortment of reflective surfaces. Placed strategically among them are shallow metal bowls, which have been filled with kindling. A carefully-carved plaque beside this object reads: FIRE.]

[The second consists mainly of buckets on wheels, and buckets on a vertical conveyor belt, all installed in a kind of basin. The sign next to this one reads: WATER.]

[The third is a kind of Rube Goldberg machine. It's not clear what it does, but it appears it can be triggered by tilting the seesaw at one end of it. It is labelled: EARTH.]

[The fourth is a rack holding metal pipes of varying lengths, and glass jugs of differing sizes, and clusters of smaller metal rods hanging from strings. The plaque here says: WIND.]

[The fifth structure is different, and stands a bit apart from the others. It's a small hut, plain on the outside, with only a door in one side and a tiny hole in the other. There's a complicated canopy-like structure shading the door, so that even when it's opened the hut is still dim inside. The sign outside reads: SUNRISE, SUMMER SOLSTICE.]

[After completing his handiwork, Don will rest at the foot of a nearby tree, and pull out his journal.]

Earth. Fire. Water. Wind. What do they mean in your culture?

((Choose your own adventure!
A. Meet Don on his daily routine, any day that isn't ridiculously forward- or back-dated.
B. Catch Don while he's assembling these structures.
C. Come upon the structures sans-Don, and try them out. They are designed to become interesting when triggered by the corresponding element: flames reflect off the surfaces, water turns the wheels, a rock dropped on (or raised under) the seesaw starts the machine, and wind plays the instruments.
D. Explore the fifth structure. It does nothing interesting until June 20, when, if Don's calculations are correct, the rising sun will shine through the small hole and illuminate the inside.* Visitors will then be able to see what Don painted there: careful reproductions of constellations, and complicated equations describing various astronomical phenomena.
E. Answer Don's voice post. You know, if you want to do the obvious thing.))

((*Except that the calendar calls for thunderstorms that day, so sunrise may get rained out.))
cop_an_attitude: (Profile)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-06-11 03:25 am (UTC)(link)
I've been told I have a remarkable talent for singing along to The Kinks at karaoke night, but that's about as far as it goes. [She picks up a piece of metal and turns it over in her hands.] What are you trying to do? Make modern art?
cop_an_attitude: (Work)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-06-20 09:07 pm (UTC)(link)
Scientific art. [She watches the welding (at a safe distance) with interest.] Never heard of it, but it looks like quite a project. Anything I can help with?
cop_an_attitude: Icon by me (What)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-06-21 02:40 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, all that takes is a bit of patience. [She picks up the mess and examines it.] Buggered if I know how you got it into this state, though. [But she takes a seat and works on finding the beginning of the line so she can start unraveling the knots.]
cop_an_attitude: (Read)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-06-22 06:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I'll bet. Where did you get all this stuff?
cop_an_attitude: (Read)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-06-23 08:13 pm (UTC)(link)
[She looks around at it. Well, fair enough.]

I guess it is. [Aha; making some headway on the fishing line.] Do you often make "scientific art"?
cop_an_attitude: Icon by <lj user=famira> (Calm)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-06-24 09:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, you've certainly got plenty of raw material. I'm sure you'll figure something out.
cop_an_attitude: (Look)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-07-06 09:44 am (UTC)(link)
Do I - [Huh. She thinks about it for a moment.] I'm...not sure what I'd build. Suppose I could try...
cop_an_attitude: (Read)

[personal profile] cop_an_attitude 2012-07-14 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
[Sally shrugs, passes the untangled fishing line back to Don, and starts sorting through the pile of stuff.]

I seem to be picking up new hobbies left and right these days. Good way to pass the time, at least.