You're not in Ketra anymore...(Open!)

[Anonymous]

Once Cook went on about how he could have teleported through time, Samari needed to do something more with the bottle than rap his fingernails against it.  He took the corkscrew, drove it in, twisted and yanked.  Poured enough to fill the bottom of the glass and downed it.  No swishing to contemplate any niceties, if there was even the slightest chance that Crowa's vials "cured" him and blew him halfway around the world through time he needed to get drunk.  

"I don't think so," he poured a little more wine into the glass, but didn't drink it immediately after.  "We're just... different than you are here.  There's nothing primitive about Thanatos.  You'll see when we get there."

So a lot of things were better here in Aedolis.  They didn't seem to have magic, magic seemed to make people complacent.  Since magic could do anything, why waste time figuring out gadgets to do something, get a mage.  They had that asinine rumor about the super plague keeping anyone from trading with Thanatos, or Adela and Serendipity beyond.  It was no surprise they had things that they didn't.  Samari drained the glass again.

He was all too happy to answer questions that didn't have anything to do with time.  "Mmmmhmmm, human.  Once.  I don't think I told you what I am," Samari laughed, a quick chortle.  "We call ourselves Drow.  One the surface, the nicest thing we're called is dark elves.  Dark,"  Samari looked at the back of his hand.  "Not sure why they don't just call us black elves... or night elves."  He shrugged, grabbing the bottle of wine and pouring another glass.  "What do I know?  I'm just a-"  Samari paused, set the glass back on the counter and nudged it away.

[Anonymous]

Cook glanced back at him casually, but continued cooking. Now he was curious. Cutting off mid-sentence seemed to suggest Samari was hiding something, and Cook wasn't really sure he wanted to know exactly what it was.

"What do I know? I'm just a cook" Cook pointed out easily with a shrug. "I've never actually been to a place that lived off magic like that. Gadgets keep me alive, Gadgets let me have a job, travel from place to place." He paused contemplatively. "I suppose people who rely on gadgets can't really understand magic...it's probably frightening for the rulers of the countries to have their citizens able to do just about anything with magic...." Adolis was extremely strict about their magic, and Cook suspected that it was largely a form of control, but of course that's what Adolis was known for aside from their insane military and caste system.

"In any case, I suppose it doesn't matter much" He admitted "Did you have animals there?"

[Anonymous]

Samari forgot just how fast alcohol could hit when you were sober long enough.  Technically he could become impaired while he was undead, it was never the same though.  It just made him sick then, now he could go through all the joyful mood swings alcohol brought.

Or, he would if he picked up the glass and began drinking again.  Which wouldn't be for a while.

He leaned back against the counter and raised his eyebrows slightly when Cook started talking about gadgets.  Those could only be the endless things these people used to get through their daily lives.  Citizens in Thanatos could get by well enough without magic, taking the gadgets away from these people might be a telling blow.  He was about to tell Cook that a small percentage of the population had the sort of magic power his country might be fearing.

But Cook asked about animals.  Odd, but it would take the conversation even further away from time.  He couldn't complain.  Samari rapped a finger against the counter.  "Not many.  I've been told that most animals can't stand the aura around Thanatos.  Not many useful draft beasts can stand being around the undead too long either.  I think there are people that breed animals that don't have problems.  That's something I never needed to worry about.  

"I keep a pair of ravens at my home.  Scavenging birds love Thanatos, they're almost as comfortable as the rats."

[Anonymous]

"Well, I suppose that makes sense" Cook agreed as he considered it. Ravens liked death. They ate dead things, so there was no reason for them to be uncomfortable around the undead really. Rats were just comfortable everywhere. It made no difference what creatures lived about, as long as there was food. He frowned just briefly, recalling finding a nest of them in a ship once. He'd been absolutely furious. Rats could bring a ship down rather easily if they got to certain wires or engine parts.

"Sounds like most people there didn't have pets. Some planets are really attatched to keeping animals as...companions I guess. I don't think anywhere is really using them for heavy labor, at least not like they used to, back when earth was alive and they didn't have their motors." He always wondered what it would be like to have lived back then...though he probably would be dead already.

Cook rose, filling two water glasses and setting one near Samari before sinking onto the bench. He needed a short break from standing.

[Anonymous]

There weren't many things worse than rats, Samari thought watching Cook's face.  They were even worse as undead.  Zombie rats would eat and eat and eat to fill stomachs they couldn't feel anymore, until they were stretched fat, eventually tearing open and leaking whatever they got into.  Ghoul rats were a terror, ever hungry with an appetite that would only be slaked by hot, bloody flesh.  Thankfully, no one was curious enough to see what a vampire rat would be like, or attempted to turn one into a lich.

"Oh, we're still sentimental enough in Thanatos to keep pets.  We just don't have as many options as a person in other countries," Cook's talk of planets was starting to unsettle him.  It was starting to make too much sense that he was sent to another planet.  That those few crazy astronomers were right.  "We don't use many animals for heavy labor, it's impractical to get them out to the islands and there isn't much space to keep them."

Samari set the empty wine glass down and picked up the glass of water, cradling it in both hands.  "What's a motor?  Is it a device that uses water to operate?  There are a few of them in Thanatos and they do jobs other countries would use animals to help with."  He couldn't remember what the proper name for those things was, never took more than a passing interest in things that couldn't benefit him directly.

[Anonymous]

If Samari had actually spoken about all the horrors of rats in his home land, he might have actually succeeded in the rare feat of giving Cook a chill and making him squirm just a little. He didn't like rats, mostly from a cook and crewman's point of view. They were unclean, brought disease to kitchens, brought destruction to ships and belongings, and could give some nasty bites besides.

"Some old motors were run off water, that was awhile ago, at least for places I'm familiar with. Motors are another kind of machine. They make things work. There is a motor in this ship that lets it move forward. Without the motor, along with other things, this ship would basically be just some sort of building or shelter, couldn't move." He considered where there might be a motor that would be easy to reveal in the kitchen. Most of them were pretty well enclosed, or very small. "If you want, I can show you the machine room. That's where the motor for the ship is located." It was usually locked, but he had the code, plus he could unlock most of the doors in the ship with his mechanical hand-- which was mostly because the captain and pilot didn't really care. He'd been on ships longer than they had in most cases.

[Anonymous]

Old motors?  Samari drank a few mouthfuls of water, swishing the last one around a little bit before swallowing it.  These people must have figured out some other way to get the motors going, other than water.  He had a feeling it would be so obvious once he knew, that he'd regret not spending more time staring at the water-motors and thinking about ways to make them better.  Well... in theory.  In the world where he paid attention to things like motors and would have wanted to make them more useful.  A motor that needed to be attached to a river wasn't practical enough for him.  A motor that didn't need it could be useful for something.

He couldn't get too excited and tried to keep from looking overeager to go and see the ship's motor.  Didn't succeed quite as nicely as he would have liked.  The raised eyebrows, that little hint of a grin.  Oh well, better than seeming entirely disinterested.  There was always the chance that the motor ran on something easily available.

"I'd like to see that," he said, setting the glass down and propping his elbows up on the counter.  "You know, I'm sure there will be plenty of people in Thanatos that would be willing to trade with Aedolis.  I could introduce you to a few such people once we get there.  I'm sure Thanatos has something that this country could use."

[Anonymous]

"The captain and his boss sure might be interested in trading" Cook agreed, though he very much doubted Aedolis would be happy about trading-- especially if that whole virus of death thing was just something they had made up. It was hard to tell with them. They were certainly not above making things up to scare people into staying away from things.

He rose, flexing his arms slightly. "Come on then, just make sure to keep your hands to yourself." He didn't really want to have to explain to the captain that the motor was jammed up and wouldn't work because it had Samari's fingers caught in the gears. And he preferred to return Samari to his planet with all his pieces intact. The poor boy couldn't just get mechanical fingers to replace his own like Cook had, though they perhaps had other...less commonly accepted methods of replacing mutilated parts.

Cook lead the way down a series of halls. As they got closer to the machine room, the halls became less brightly lit and well kept, though they were not in disrepair. They were simply not cleaned and polished like the main halls were. There was grease on the floor, tracked from the machine room by boots. He reached a sturdy looking door and began typing in codes until finally, the door issued a 'beep' and the lock disengaged with a 'whoosh, clunk'. Cook pressed the door open to reveal the machine room. It was a somewhat noisy contraption with parts moving all over it.

[Anonymous]

Samari gasped, slapping his hands on his thighs to keep from reaching out to touch the motor.

It was unlike anything he'd ever seen, heard or smelled before.  So much metal, all shifting and writhing and moving around like it was a living thing.  Only the sound made it seem like a device, no living creature made that kind of sound without being in pain and squalling.  It wouldn't have kept on moving afterward in steady, constant motion.  Even though it would mangle his fingers, Samari was tempted to touch it.  See what the different portions of it felt like.  The slick turning pieces, the parts that weren't moving, the fast spinning little bits.

His mouth was hanging open a little bit.  Samari, still stunned by the motor, didn't care.  This was the most amazing thing he'd seen since he teleported into Aedolis.  "What's moving this?" he asked softly.

[Anonymous]

"Well" Cook said, gazing over the machine to try to decide where to start. "it's moving itself." He motioned Samari to follow him down the walk way to get to the starting point. "The power source causes that part there to move" He pointed "Which then moves that, which moves that, and that on down the line" He said, pointing to each one in turn. "Sort of like when someone pulls or pushes a cart, the wheels move." It was perhaps not he best example, but it was the only one he could come up with that he was sure Samari had seen, or could at least imagine. "They didn't move the wheels, but they caused them to move." He paused "Do you have anything back home that works by turning a crank?" He did still have some very old mixers that were hand cranked, which worked well when power wasn't reliably available, but he hadn't brought them on the ship. If there wasn't reliable power on a ship, mixers were the least of your problems.

[Anonymous]

It would have been a shame if Samari ground on Cook's heels in his haste to follow him toward the machine.  So he tried to walk slowly, normally.  He might actually hurt himself if he stepped on Cook's metal leg.  These boots were old, they might not be able to handle scraping against their metal counterpart.  He could almost feel every seam in the floor.  Almost, he could be imagining them.  Or maybe the floor was that bumpy.  He wasn't interested enough to look down and check with the motor whirring above him.

Like a cart.  Samari stared at Cook for a second.  This thing was a lot more complicated than a cart.  How did they make sure that all the parts would move like they wanted them to move?  Unless a cart had more moving parts than just a wheel.  Then the cart maker might be able to understand how different moving bits could work together.  He might need to hire one when he got back to Thanatos.  It would be good to get away from the same old necromancy for a little while.  Refreshing to work on something that wasn't a sure thing anymore.

First he had to understand it a little better, so he could explain to the people that had experience with machines.  A crank?  It was also like a crank?  A crank and cart, moving bits.  "Some wells work with a crank, in better parts of the town.  There are other things too.  Smaller though.  Nothing as big as this.  What turns the crank?  If it isn't water, is it a person?  A beast of some sort?"

[Anonymous]

"Well, the fuel basically causes little controlled...mini explosions, I guess you could say. Just enough to expand" He closed his hand into a fist and opened it. "And that makes that part move, which starts the process"

He moved down the line a little to find a portion where the gears were not completely incased. "and this is the part that is more like a crank. See the rod there?" He pointed to a visable portion of a metal stick that had notches on it, which turned and interlocked with the notches in a gear and caused that one to turn. "It turns, like a crank, but instead of making a rope go around, it makes that thing there turn." It was difficult to explain mechanics to someone who didn't have any experience with the concept of machines, let alone the function of them. Samari was at least an eager student, which he found interesting.

[Anonymous]

Mini explosions... Samari didn't like the sound of that.  Even if they were controlled, they were still explosions.  Unless it was something like artillery, with fuses.  He wanted to see what sort of chamber the explosions took place in too, it would have to be strong.

Samari inched forward, standing on his tiptoes when Cook pointed out a part.  He squinted, studying how the notches worked.  It... was cunning.  The notches on the stick matched up with the notches on the... was that a wheel, it couldn't hurt to call it on.  One bit turned and then made the other bit turn and all that made more bits turn.

Though... "What would happen if that, crank-rod piece were to become damaged?  Will the explosions stop happening if that piece doesn't turn?  Or does it have another piece that can do the turning for it?."  Samari crossed his arms, shifting his weight onto one foot and leaned back a bit to look at something higher up in the machine.   "Are all machines like this big?"

[Anonymous]

"If the rod were to be damaged, it would have to be repaired or replaced" Cook stated, looking Samari over with a rather calculating gaze. The Captain would kill him if he'd just given training to some hijacker/sabatour. "The mini explosions would continue for a short while, but without the turning, they'll stop." He assured.

"No, there are many machines that are all sizes. Some of them are bigger, and some of them are much, much smaller." Cook said with a slight smile. He wasn't really up to trying to explain electronics at this point. Electronic currents running through wires and somehow causing things to happen. He wasn't entirely sure he himself understood how electronics worked. He was more mechanical than he was electrical.

[Anonymous]

Samari missed Cook's suspicion, he was too busy watching the machine, trying to get a good mental picture of how everything fit together.  Just because it made perfect sense and all seemed good and logical now didn't mean it would be easy to recall when he needed to remember it later on.

He would need some paper and a pen to make a rough sketch.  Maybe get a few concepts for the parts that were hidden behind the other pieces.

It was good that the explosions would stop if the machine ever malfunctioned.  Pointless explosions were never a good thing.  That was another thing to figure out, how to make the explosions stop if there wasn't a rod for them to turn.  Better was that all machines like this didn't have to be enormous room spanning behemoths.  Smaller was the best way to start, even if it meant that parts would be closer to explosions.  It would need to be tough.  Thick, strong metal.  

Samari took a step back, rubbing an eye with the back of his hand and looking down at his feet.  "I'll be seeing this machine every time I close my eyes if I keep staring at it.  It'd be better if I could draw it and let the paper remember what it looks like.  Do you have any of these smaller machines?  One that I could study a little in the morning?"

[Anonymous]

"Probably, I'll just have to think of what they would be. Many of the smaller motors and such are contained in a cover so you can't see them, but I'll see what I can find. I've got paper and a pencil for you to draw with in any case." He was one of the few that still preferred paper and pencil, but then again, with a mechanical hand, using those blasted touch screen hand held contraptions gave him nothing but trouble. He'd broken several before it was decided that he was not required to use them any longer and could use a media of his choice.

"Let's head back to the kitchen. Any motors I could let you study would be either in there, or in your closet." Spares of his various indispensable tools, like mixers. Maybe if he took the cover off the mixer, that would work. "Smaller motors can be more complicated, simply because they have to have much smaller parts, and don't work quite the same way, though the basic concept might be the same-- most common indoor appliances don't use the mini explosion method-- but that should make it a little easier for you to study up close, as long as you keep your fingers out of the gears" He reasoned, turning to lumber his way back towards his kitchen. He didn't spend much time roaming the ship usually, and for once he was actually anxious to get back into port, though that was only to get his leg repaired properly before it fell completely apart. And perhaps he could get some spare parts for it as well.

He was curious about this place that Samari had come from. It sounded to him like a little snapshot of history, rather old history at that, but with the potentially frightening aspect of reanimated dead wandering around. Thomas would have a fit, and Cook couldn't help but feel a smile tug at the corner of his mouth with that thought.

[Anonymous]

Excellent, excellent.  Samari smiled widely, completely forgetting that this wasn't Necromantia.  There, a set of incisors a little longer than normal wouldn't get more than a passing glance.  A look just long enough to confirm that the teeth were long, the hour was late and that the person they were talking to was a vampire.  Here, he wasn't sure of the hour, but he was flashing an incredible set of teeth and they just got through talking about vampires.

Fuck.

Samari let the smile fade slowly, maintaining eye contact, trying not to breathe too shallowly.  Acting like he screwed up would only call unwanted attention to himself.  Just because he had prominent fangs didn't automatically mean he was a vampire, he could just play them off as a racial trait.  Long incisors didn't seem too odd with ebony skin, pointed ears and red eyes.  Everything was good.  Nothing was wrong.

There was paper and a little motor thing back in the kitchens.

"Great!" he blurted, a little too enthusiastic... or perhaps not.  Studying a little motor would make this trip useful.  He followed Cook when the other man began walking back to the kitchens, arms folded loosely across his chest.  "Would the smaller motor work the same way if the parts were bigger?  Or is there a size that you need to change the structure?"

Samari wasn't going to read anything into that smile.  Cook could have had countless reasons to smile.  As wound up as he was, Samari didn't need to start analyzing every other move Cook made.

[Anonymous]

Cook eyed Samari casually. He was certainly an odd man, but he had still given no good reason for Cook to be scared of him, fangs or not. However, once they got back into the kitchen, he said "It'd probably be best if Thomas didn't see you smile quite so big" He said. "He's already wigged out enough that we're going to 'the land of the dead' or something like that" Cook explained, rummaging through his cabinets.

"Some of the principles are the same, and it's not really a matter of size so much, as it is a matter of function. If you can make the pieces small enough, or large enough, you could probably make either type of motor for whatever you were looking for. Some of the really old motors were made of wood and powered by water running over part of it to start the first piece turning." Cook pulled a large mixer out and set about unscrewing the case before bringing it over. "It comes down to finding a way to turn the first gear and set the process in motion. Here." He set it down in front of Samari. "The most similar portion is probably this part" He indicated the series of gears that caused the beaters to turn. The motor itself was of a more electronic nature and so did not look quite the same. "Let me get that paper" He went into his room and returned with a couple sheets of plain paper and a pencil and sharpener. "Alright, you work on that, I need to make sure dinner gets done on time."

He set to work. Maybe he and Samari would just have dinner in his room. He wouldn't make the boy eat alone, but thought it was possibly best to keep him away from Thomas and his crazy superstitions. Cook didn't dispute at least some of them were possibly valid in some way or another, he simply didn't want to deal with Thomas' getting all worked up about it. Besides...vampires didn't eat food, did they? Cook mused as he cooked, looking up to make sure Samari had everything he needed. "We'll probably be getting close to your planet by morning." If the pilot used the jump anyway. They never did use it for long periods.

[Anonymous]

((Sorry for the delay, things have a little hectic over here.))

There was really no reason for a person to stare at another person's teeth without some reason, Samari mused as he followed Cook back to the kitchen.  He put the issue out of his mind, made a mental note to restrain himself in case he felt the need to grin at anything else.

And got a pretty damn good reason to keep himself in check once they got to the kitchen.  A good chance to try it out too - whenever someone put him on the spot his usual reaction was to smile.  In his homeland it was a genteel enough gesture to keep most worries from spouting.  In Thanatos it helped remind the other person who and what he was.  Now he just let the corners of his mouth raise.  Thomas catching sight of his teeth (he would have some reason to check his teeth, Thomas seemed the type that would be analyzing his every movement if they were in the same place) wouldn't result in anything pleasant.  It could be as laughable as being dragged to a particularly sunny place and held until it was obvious he wasn't going to turn to dust.  Or as final as getting the nearest sharp bit of wood driven through his chest.  "I'll... keep that in mind."

It was a good thing he didn't spend his entire undeath in Thanatos.  He had some long rusted practice on keeping his teeth to himself from when he lived in Serendipity.  That should last until the irony of keeping his teeth covered when they weren't a warning sign drove him crazy and he tried to file them off.

Hopefully it wouldn't come down to that.  Most of these people in Aedolis didn't seem too put off by a set of long, sharp teeth.  

Samari took a quick, deep breath and focused on what was really important now.  Getting to look at something with a motor.  He almost felt offended when Cook called the only motors he was familiar with old.  They were just slow in Thanatos.  They had magic to develop along with motors.  They would catch up when he brought these plans back with him.

It was hard to resist touching the little motor once Cook set it down and walked off to get a pencil and paper.  Samari leaned in close and stared at all the little parts.  Trying to find anything that was similar to the big motor, wishing he knew the little parts that made a water motor run so he could compare them.  His nose was almost touching the little motor's pieces when Cook returned.  Cook's voice was enough to draw him out of his fixation.  Samari looked up, nodded and slid the paper, pencil and... thing close.

A quick inspection showed that the thing was some sort of blade holder.  Samari didn't feel like figuring out how to get the blade inside, the pencil was already sharp enough.  He sketched a square, leaned in close to the little motor and scratched some rough shapes.  Then he sat up straight, biting his lip a bit.  "Cook?  Do your people think my entire... planet is afflicted with this virus?  There are many other lands that are different from my home."

[Anonymous]

(that's okay. Sorry I took so long as well. I didn't see that you had replied)

Cook set about making dinner, some of his tendrils spouting and helping out as he multi-tasked quite well. "Well, that's the rumor anyway. Some believe it, some don't." He admitted. "Thomas, he's a smart man, but he believes a lot of things that...are a little odd, depending on who you talk to. He has things he does that I guess make him feel safer. I don't really understand it, but then again, everyone has their rituals I suppose." He cleaned his mechanics and made meals. As long as those two things remained the same, things felt like they were going alright.

"What does your planet think about the other planets?" He knew well enough that there was lots of false information flying around between species, races, planets or even cities. Rumors were made, spread and elaborated upon. Prejudices grew over silly, or even non-existent things. Perhaps this virus tale was just a silly story. It was quite possible. He'd come across stranger things in his time.

"Oh, and would you like to eat with the men, or have dinner in either your room or my room?" He didn't want to forget to ask the poor man and have him stuck uncomfortably in the midst of the often rough and coarse crew...plus Thomas.