candothat: (Serious: Wery)
Chekov, Pavel Andreievich ([personal profile] candothat) wrote in [community profile] poly_chromatic2012-03-16 02:14 am

[video/action]

[The wee hours of Friday morning find Chekov, dressed in ill-fitting but time-period-appropriate clothing, on the roof of apartment building number twelve. He's sitting cross-legged on one of the long lawn chairs recently moved up there by Charlie with papers, pencils, a ruler, and goodness-knows what else in front of him and working by the dim glow of a light that, as far as the video shows, appears to be mounted on his network device.

Well, was working. Chekov studies the papers in front of him--what's on them will remain a mystery to the network--as he addresses his device, tone rather contemplative.]


Are there stories concerning what is beyond the City's barriers? I think that there must be something; there is a curvature to the horizon, as if we are on a planet. The area we may access would take up only a small amount of room on a planet, and I wonder what may be out there.

The sky, too, is peculiar. The moon and sun and stars look as they would on any planet with a rotational period of nearly twenty-four hours, appearing in the east and disappearing in the west. I do not think that this moon's features are the same as Earth's moon, but maybe I am mistaken. The stars flicker as they do on Earth when their light passes through the atmosphere. It is hard to see unaided, but I believe the stars are different colors--hot blue stars, cool red stars. It is all very like Earth.

What is odd is that I cannot find planets. Very few stars have only one planet orbiting them. [He looks up at the sky and then back down at the paper he's holding.] I cannot find familiar constellations, either, but that is to be expected.

With a telescope, maybe, I might find distant planets.

[Chekov pushes his papers and gadgets aside to stare at the early-morning sky, as if he can make sense of all of this by staring at it long enough.]

So that is all strange, but I am posting this mostly because I am curious: why would an advanced species--or whatever the deities may be--go to the trouble of creating an Earth-like planet with a moon and a sun and stars, but not put in other planets? Or, if this planet was here already, why is it so similar to Earth and why can we access only a small part of it? If the deities have trapped us here to observe our behavior, they constructed our cage oddly.

But then, of course, it is possible that everything beyond the barriers is illusory. Even a complex hologram would be relatively simple to create, given the right technology. I think that its maintenance would be problematic, but I am not a technologically or evolutionarily superior being with a human ant farm, so what can I know?

[He reaches for the network device and turns off the light. Little remains visible but stars and the faint glow of approaching daybreak.]

Deities, you are teasing us by showing us things we cannot reach. Very rude.

[petulantly] You might have also considered equipping this City with replicators.


[ooc: Action is cool if your character is insane and awake at weird times. Comments of the regular sort are awesome, too.]
boutant: ([architect] hand gestures)

[personal profile] boutant 2012-03-16 08:03 am (UTC)(link)
What size telescope are you looking for? And what are replicators?

[ There's a pause to tuck some hair behind one ear before Ariadne continues, a pen held in one hand even while she uses her hands to talk now that she's not asking questions. ]

There's always the magic explanation, but I'll save that for someone who knows more about it than I do. Other than that, maintenance... Well, the City did sort of split into two for a while. It's not the sky itself, but it did show that maybe the deities don't have the control we think they do.
totallyinaband: (profile)

[personal profile] totallyinaband 2012-03-16 01:15 pm (UTC)(link)
The Barrier came down once, but no one got that far out. There was a slight invasion of harpies.
conesoldstober: (calm)

voice; some time later

[personal profile] conesoldstober 2012-03-16 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)
And what is it you desire to replicate, Pavel?

[Yes, he still is in your living room, Chekov.]
fatespoken: (skeptical)

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[personal profile] fatespoken 2012-03-16 04:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Why do we place plastic castles into fishbowls? For the fish? No, for our own amusement. The same goes for the deities.

[ In his three and a half years here, Amory has studied the sky enough to know that the likelihood of those planets being illusory. But as one astronomer to another, he'll give Chekov the experience of discovering that himself. ]
fatespoken: (glancing to side)

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[personal profile] fatespoken 2012-03-16 04:07 pm (UTC)(link)
I have a telescope.

[ And some notes if Chekov would like to compare, alas, Amory is not that friendly yet. ]

[personal profile] likeboudica 2012-03-16 06:38 pm (UTC)(link)
What is a replicator? [ Pause. ] I have never paid much attention to the sky here, is it very strange?
fatespoken: (∞ lucky strikes)

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[personal profile] fatespoken 2012-03-16 08:37 pm (UTC)(link)
I don't, but it's a thing back home. [ A beat. ] And that was metaphor.

I studied astrophysics back home. Astronomy is a past time.
fatespoken: (∞ bored)

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[personal profile] fatespoken 2012-03-16 08:38 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm going out tonight, if you'd want to join me.
boutant: ([architect] explain)

[personal profile] boutant 2012-03-16 08:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Probably nothing too large or high-powered, but that doesn't mean they couldn't be built. [ Ariadne is always looking for more projects. ]

Anything? [ She's quite eager to learn. ] Just inanimate objects, or...?

Sand started appearing in strange places at the end of January. Most curses only last a day or two, but it stuck around. Eventually we realized that things were turning into sand. In the middle of February, people ended up in one of the two cities -- one that was made of sand, with all sorts of desert creatures, and one that was made entirely of glass. Communication between the two cities was possible but there was a lot of interference, and travel between them was possible, but you either had to go through the deities and their paperwork process or go incredibly fast, if I remember correctly. [ The details of that last one were never explained to her, and she had more important things to worry about -- like the slugs. ] There were no curses on the desert side, but time passed twice as quickly as it did on the glass side, where there were curses. The glass side also slowly restored itself to normal while the desert side just seemed to keep crumbling.
charring: (always looking over my shoulder)

audio: (because she's an insomniac)

[personal profile] charring 2012-03-16 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
Having fun up there?
boutant: ([smile] professional)

[personal profile] boutant 2012-03-16 09:18 pm (UTC)(link)
I'd try City Solutions. We've got a pretty nice budget.

That makes sense. So it could create... food, clothing, bandages, that sort of thing? That would have been useful in the desert.

[ Happy to help, Chekov. ]

Apparently sand has been a theme around here before, and a lot of people were interested in the connection between sand and glass. Other than the building materials and damages on the desert side, buildings were in the same place in them both, as far as I could tell.

[ There's a smile. ] It's okay; I didn't introduce myself either. I'm Ariadne -- architect in another universe, and too curious for my own good in all of them, or so I've been told.
fatespoken: (∞ redlight)

[personal profile] fatespoken 2012-03-16 09:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Perhaps in your world. It's probably the most common pet where I come from.

[ Alas, Chekov comes from a universe far more advance than Amory's. I mean, they haven't even figured out a way to land a mars, no less work alongside alien species. ]

Cosmology was my specialty. [ And then an apparently, random question? ] Can you ride a horse?

[personal profile] likeboudica 2012-03-16 09:45 pm (UTC)(link)
It sounds quite useful. [ In as far as she understands what it is, at any rate. ] But do people not still cook in your time?

People have been outside of the barriers, and they have come down before. You ought to talk to Lord Hargreaves, he has been here very long; and I believe he takes an interest in such matters. Though he is from my time, so he likely will know what a hologram is no more than I do.

[ He is always so cheerful. It makes her smile in return. ] No, not truly. Why do you ask?
charring: (alert)

audio:

[personal profile] charring 2012-03-16 10:19 pm (UTC)(link)
A dru--[What.] Do you know the drunk man?

I have insomnia. [And PTSD but she's not mentioning that.]

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