[PLAYER PLOT | HUB SCANNING SYSTEM INSTALLATION]

[spellbindmods]

Who: Any coven members interested in installing the hub scanning system OR exploring the (???) on the map!
Where: From the mansion to the peak of the hub's tallest mountain.
When: Day 128
Open/Closed: OTA!

[ Come one, come all, it's time to head to the top of the Hub mountain! Whether your character has been involved in the preparations up till now or not, anyone near the mansion on this clear morning can join the expedition that's going out. The mission: to boldly install some monitoring equipment up on top of a mountain, and see what's there while you're in the area. Time for departures and last-minute tinkering! ]

((ooc note: If you'd like to backdate any participation, please feel free to comment to the post linked above -- if not, jump in from here!))

Comments

[rootandbranch]

No. Dirk!

[Geir is mildly scandalized! of course he doesn't have asthma. he's never even been sick in his life. can he get sick now that he's on a low frequency world? Freyja's jewels, he hopes not.]

...the air's just thin up here. Feels weird to breathe. I got surprised by it. You guys are all okay, right?

[he does one more loop, allowing everyone who's missed the view to see it.]

[splinten]

You're losing the joke round already, bro.

[Oh Geir.]

I'm fine. Just be careful about how quickly you ascend or descend. The altitude shifts can lead to some serious health risks for humans.

[And possibly Geir?]

[rootandbranch]

It's been a while since I've flown this high. And never without all my powers. Definitely never with a human onboard...

[he makes another long, slow circle, easing into an even higher altitude.]

...geez, the view is really strange from up here.

[they're high enough that it's obvious how the island cuts off into space, knife-edged.]

[splinten]

It definitely clarifies how stupidly crazy this place is. The only thing I've seen like it are dream bubbles, and I'm pretty sure this isn't one.

[rootandbranch]

We're not dreamwalking again. I think I'd be able to tell!

[he shifts to fly straight again: they may need to land soon if the air gets much thinner for his passengers, but for the meantime they can appreciate the view.]

Will the pod really be able to find out more about this place? You told it not to fall off the edge once it starts moving around, right?

[splinten]

Yes, Geir. We programmed it to have a sense of not falling to its maiming or dismemberment.

[It's a valid concern but also a hilarious one, so he's amused here.]

[rootandbranch]

I just wanted to make sure! I don't always know if you have one of those, so you might not have remembered--

[teasing again.]

[splinten]

I try to give all the robots I help make traits I lack. It's why they're all super sarcastic.

[rootandbranch]

Eheheheheheheheh...!

[Geir takes another couple of wingbeats up into the air, ready to coast for a little while.]

I think hanging out with you makes me more sarcastic too.

[splinten]

So basically, I'm a positive influence on you.

[rootandbranch]

That's what I think. What do you say about that?

[funny: he sounds teasing there, but not actually sarcastic.]

[splinten]

I say you have a very skewed idea on what an actual positive influence is, my dragon bro.

[rootandbranch]

Don't you think maybe you're underrating yourself? Different things can be good for different people, probably.

[ah, there's an updraft here: it takes them a bit higher.]

[splinten]

[Geir is such a cute floaty pal. Dirk does not think this in those exact words; mostly he thinks flying like this is kind of cool.]

You're implying that precisely what you need in your life is more sarcasm.

[rootandbranch]

What I need is a bunch of things including sarcasm!

[he could elaborate.]

[splinten]

You mean you've had so few experiences that you need to sample the wide variety life has to offer in order to know what options are out there and choose what kind of person you're going to be.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir shifts into telepathy; the air is getting thin enough that it's hard to talk and be heard here, and as unconcerned as he is with the public setting, he thinks Dirk might want more privacy for this part of the conversation.]

That's true. But I also need people who I can trust to talk to about it without getting mad, or scared, or defensive. I've started to realize that not everyone accepts my past or my options. I can't...

[share? reach out? connect with people?]

I can't really think about things when I'm upset and trying to explain, all the time. You're really open, did you know that? I got lucky.

[splinten]

[That actually surprises him. He can assume there must be people who get upset and scared and defensive—well, everyone does sometimes. But Geir must not have known that, and encountered that.]

'Open' isn't usually the first word people think of to describe me. But I guess if my chill approach to helps you out, then I've got no objections.

Are you okay, Geir? It seems like something about this has [not ruffled his feathers] metaphorically unsettled your scales.

[rootandbranch]

If it's not, they're wrong. You listen and you answer questions when people ask. If they don't talk to you long enough to find that out, that's not your fault.

[Geir's very definite about this opinion. it's an educated and sincere one. affect isn't the only way to express openness, and all it takes is talking to Dirk long enough to hear him express a few opinions to see that he's very accepting of connection and willing to help others past his deadpan delivery. do people judge Dirk by appearances a lot? how stupid.]

Which "this?" I've been thinking about a lot of things, I guess. But when am I not these days...

[it's exhausting, when he pauses to notice it, but tiring himself out more by thinking about how he's thinking too much sounds like the worst idea possible.]

[splinten]

[It's an actually really nice thing to say, and Dirk isn't sure how to handle it. So, like a mature adult, he decides to not handle it and focus on the other thing.]

Sounds like you're kind of tired of it. What have you been thinking about?

[rootandbranch]

[Geir doesn't miss that Dirk ignores the first thing and moves on to the other. does Dirk not believe him, or does he just not know how to respond? maybe people need to give Dirk updates on his strong points more often. well, Geir can handle that.

he's not even sure how to answer Dirk's question. there's so much.]

I don't know. How people are people, I guess.

[splinten]

It is an extremely complicated topic, if admittedly more simple-seeming when you put it that way. Multiple branches of human knowledge have been dedicated to trying to answer that question.

[Dirk, of course, tried to study them, and in some ways he was good at it—the abstract, the theoretical—but in others he always finds himself falling short. How people are people is hard.]

[rootandbranch]

Really? Most humans seem pretty good at it naturally. Maybe because they're people already?

[that's either extremely insightful or a tautological fallacy, Geir. Charles Taylor would shake his head.]

I wondered if I could just do people things and be a person that way, but that seemed too simple. Then I figured if you were born a person, everything you do is a person thing by default, and I can't be one. But that was really depressing. Now I'm just sort of confused. I can't tell if that's a person thing or not.

[splinten]

Confusion is definitely a thing persons do, although it likely isn't the exclusive provenance of people. But that depends on how you're defining personhood. Right now, it seems like you're structuring your definition to by default exclude you.

[Here we go: philosophy time]

[rootandbranch]

Well, yeah. Whether I can be a person or not, I'm not starting as one.

[his default is monster, cats-paw of the apocalypse. they've talked about this, gosh, Dirk.]