melodiesoflife | Dual Full Moon At The Observatory! [Open Log]

Zelda and a few others had expressed interest in getting to the bottom of why they can see across time and space to their own worlds. Jack tries to put it off as long as possible, so that as many Heroes as wanted could see their worlds, but eventually, they have to face it. They aren't going to learn anything if they just leave the telescope as it is, but if they change too much, they might lose their opportunity to see home forever.

"So...ideas?"

"I haven't tried anything... I didn't want to lose the picture last time and I'm not sure if we can change the settings." Zelda mused aloud, of only so others new how little they had to go on.

"It's broken during the rest of the year but maybe it has never worked. At least not to see the stars." Then there was the theory that all the worlds shared the same sky but since they never moved or re-positioned this telescope that didn't seem likely. "It might also have to do with where it's looking or how the telescope is made."

In short she had no idea where to start and she didn't know if taking the telescope apart would even be a good idea. She hoped someone else there had a plan.

Ramza had spent a few precious minutes looking through the telescope, seeing a land made unfamiliar by the distance and the angle. He had never seen his home from afar like this.

He had hoped the sight of Ivalice would reassure him, but seeing his home impossibly far away only made things worse.

There was nothing to be gained from gazing at the home worlds they may never see again.

"We may as well see what those...knobs...do." He knew very little of machinery, but perhaps the others had a better idea. "We might learn something of use."

Jack looks around and around the telescope, reaching out and patting the sides a few times. "The question has been put on the table, is there a crystal in this thing?"

"Which would make a lot of sense. These things work by collecting and reflecting or refracting light. The most basic versions used mirrors. Sooo," Jack pats a panel in the middle section. "What if it's using a crystal to refract the light, instead?"

Jack hands Ramza a screwdriver. "Help see if we can get this section off, before we start changing anything. Just gonna remove the casing, take a peek at the insides."

And, sorry, everyone, but it's story time. "Because, funny story," Jack starts at the screws on one side, "but this isn't the first time I've seen a telescope that wasn't a telescope."

"1879, Earth was under a very subtle alien attack. The alien in question was a Haemovariform, a complicated way of saying it could reproduce through infecting a human host. Getting infected would also lead to some changes in the human's biology, activated by certain wavelengths of light, in this case, a full moon."

"Plan was to infect the United Kingdom's Queen, take over the world that way. But, it got stopped, thanks to a device that was supposed to look like a telescope, but, instead, it collected and focused the light of the full moon. When a certain diamond was put into its focus point? Bam. Turned the light into a way to destroy the Haemovariform."

The full story is a lot more complicated, and a lot more close to Jack's heart. Of course he knows the full details, they're in the Torchwood Charter, because the wake of that incident caused the creation of the organization he eventually took over. Jack pauses for a few moments, focusing on unscrewing part of the panel, and trying not to think of Rose Tyler.

"I got to see the thing once. It's in archive, or really, the whole building it's housed in is an archive now. So if this thing," taps the metal panel, "works the same way, I should be able to tell."

He hopes.

It certainly sounded like Jack had a plan and since she had nothing else to add she nodded her head and took a step back to get out of Ramza's way. She hadn't really spoken to him since their shared visions of the future though she didn't expect him too.

Her thoughts lingered on the depressing topic for only a moment before she looked back up at Jack.

"And opening it won't break it?"

Ramza took Jack's screwdriver and started carefully loosening the screws on the panel.

"It should not, so long as we are careful." And if it was so fragile that examining it caused problems, then they could not really expect it to last through the next invasion or assault by a large marshmallow creature. They might as well learn what they could. 'Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission', wasn't it said?

He understood very little of what Jack said, other than that the telescope could be the hinge pin of some sort of trap. He tried to keep his tool very straight and turning with precise motions so as not to jostle any delicate machinery or crystals or 'Haemovariform' within.

With Jack and Ramza working together, they very delicately remove the casing, with all of the care of attempting to diffuse a bomb. Quite luckily, they didn't disturb the inner workings.

Unluckily, what they find is far more complicated than simple crystal tech. It has the workings of Ancient technology, things that even Jack hasn't seen before. But, notably, there is no power source, Crystal or otherwise.

"This makes no damn sense," Jack finally says out loud after walking around and around the opened section to look at it from every angle. "It's powered up and working, and it should take massive amounts of power to run. I've seen ships with less draw than this. Hell, we could hook the Enterprise up to this thing? And it wouldn't turn it on." Jack dusts off his hands, steps back, and folds his arms. "So where's the power coming from?"

Zelda couldn’t see from her position but she watched the pair worked on the panel. She felt her heart jump in her throat looking between the pair’s expressions.

“What do you mean?” As she spoke another idea came to mind. “It only works now, perhaps something about the moons gives it power.”

Which means it might show them their homes year round only it’s broken now.

"Is it not just an overly large spyglass?" Ramza did not understand why a spyglass would require power.

...but he was passing familiar with other strange machinery that did draw power from another source.

He drew out his crystal and held it up to the naked inner workings of the telescope. "It only shows our worlds when we are very near and looking through. Perhaps our crystals react with it somehow," he ventured.

"He-ey, now there's an idea." Jack almost can't believe he didn't think of this before. He holds out his own crystal to Zelda, blue, and with so many facets it's almost smooth, like a worry stone. "Switch with me, tell me what you see."

If she does so, Zelda will still see her own world, instead of the world that Jack has tried to describe to her.

Edited (Mod call.) 2016-02-10 09:18 (UTC)

Zelda took his crystal and then peeked through the scope. There was a moment where her eyes adjusted on the picture in view when finally she shakes her head.

"I still see my home."

She held out his crystal back to him.

Ramza sighed. They were still no closer to revealing the telescope's secrets than before they'd started. He had not expected sparks and whirring sounds like the zodiac stones elicited from the ancient machines from Goug, but perhaps a slight shift in the view.

"Any other ideas? The moons must have something to do with it, but without a powerful Astrologer, I do not see a way we can manipulate them for a different view."

He stowed his crystal away and went back to examining the wiring of the giant device.

Zelda was almost always at the old observatory. She's been more busy now that she was often there alone. There were others who took the small beds that she had set up but more often than not the building was empty. She was excited to see who might come to see the telescope. She remembered last year though they had just learned about it and the strange happening only lasted for what felt like a few minutes.

She hoped to learn more this time.

She had helped Jack with setting up and grabbed a few extra blankets for those who didn't have for sight like Jack. They were currently folded on the chairs which lined the wall. She had to push her loftwing out of the the room but she continued to circle over head as if waiting for permission to land again.

Not many used the top of the old observatory since it was technically broken. She stepped up towards the telescope and then peeked into the sight glass. It was the same as before. She stepped to the side and would ask anyone who approached the same question.

"What do you see?"

Sheena hadn't been in the Observatory since the invasion shortly after her arrival, and now--as then--it was teeming with life as people gathered for another momentous occasion. Hopefully, this one didn't involve any kind of destruction.

Wrapping the heavy cloak she wore tighter about her, she made her way to the actual scope, giving Zelda a confused smile. "So...this is supposed to be working now?" she asked. "Is it because of the Dual Moon?" Is there a power there that no one can look into to making the "broken" telescope finally work?

Shrugging her shoulders, Sheena stepped up to the glass and peered into. Her brows knit together slightly. It hadn't been all that long ago that she had seen her planet from above...

"Tethe'alla?" she asked in surprise as she looked at the other woman. "But...how? I didn't touch anything!"

Zelda shook her head. "We don't know how." There guess weren't currently going anywhere either. She watched Sheena curiously, happy to see that she saw her own world intact. Zelda didn't know if her fear was baseless but she worried all the same.

"I saw my world as well. It depends who looks through the scope."

Jack had said they'd be looking at it more closely after everyone got a chance to see however Zelda felt nervous about the lack of a plan.

Still stunned, Sheena was peering through the glass again and again, waiting for her world to change into a different one. But that didn't happen. Finally giving up, she sighed and looked at the other woman.

"You saw your world... And I saw mine..." The ninja spoke slowly, trying to gather her thoughts. There was something...

"Zelda... Does this thing have a crystal in it?"

Zelda's eyes widened at the thought and honestly she can't believe she didn't think about it before. They were peering through something so perhaps it was a piece of a crystal. She looked at Sheena and then moved to look at the scope with a renewed stare.

"I don't know. If we are seeing our homes then it's possible but why only now?" She spoke aloud hoping that somehow someone might have an answer to that question.

Sheena stepped back to give Zelda room, her brows arching in mild surprise. Of all the people she would have thought would know the answer, Zelda was that person. After all, she was the one who had explained to Sheena about the crystals when the ninja first arrived.

But perhaps Zelda had grown used to all of them being around her that she didn't give them a second thought?

Glancing in the direction the telescope was pointing, Sheena shrugged. "That's easy. Because of the moons. They must be doing something to strengthen the links we have with our homes."

She had no proof, but she had see a few things in her brief life that made her believe.

Zelda nodded and looked up at the moon. "I wish there was a way to prove that." Except that there wasn't.

She chewed on the inside of her mouth as she fell into her thoughts.

"From what people are saying, the dual full moon happens only once a year, and that's the only time this happens, right?' She shrugged her shoulder. "That seems like proof enough to me." Too bad she can't summon Luna, she ight have been able to help--even with a strange moon's light.

Even circumstantial evidence can be true.

Zelda shook her head. "There might be more to it than that." However she might also be over complicating it; it was hard to tell.

With a sigh she turned away from Sheena giving her time with the telescope.

"If you'll excuse me."

"Possibly. But it's a good place to start, right?" Complicated or not, at least they had a jumping off point.

She had bent to the eyepiece when Zelda sighed. Looking up in alarm, the ninja shook her head.

"You don't have to go." Had she upset her? Maybe Sheena should leave instead; giving someone else a chance at the scope. Saying that, she moved away, giving Zelda a wave as she passed.

"I'll talk to you later."

"An illusion, probably," Midna's palms upturned as she shook her head from side to side. She hadn't come to the observatory to peek through the telescope at something she knew was likely impossible -- but more to see Zelda herself. This was merely an exchange of pleasantries before she would voice her concerns over everything that had happened recently.

"This world might have outlets of connections to our own but I highly doubt this has much weight on its own." From her place on the ground, she peeked up towards the girl from underneath her ancient makeshift crown.

"And you? You see your world through this too, don't you?"

"I do."

She didn't know if Midna was right, she wished to see her home but at the same time she didn't. She didn't want this world and this calamity connected to her home. She wanted to keep her father and all of her friends safe.

"It's likely exactly as you left it. Just like the world of light I left behind, too." The realm of Twilight of course, unviewable by such means. It would have been a lie to say she wasn't concerned about how far Zant's reach may have stretched, but sitting looking through a telescope harping on things like that didn't help anyone.

"It seems... that may not be the only thing you've left behind in Crystallis, either." Her gaze levelled on the other girl, "But I would hope -- unlike that vision we experienced you wouldn't truly abandon your faith -- or your place." Or Link.

Zelda simply nodded her head at Midna's words. They hurt more than she cared to admit but she wouldn't shy away from their visions of the future. She had done what she thought was best and it was wrong. She didn't want to ever forget that again.

"I won't."

After seeing that future there was no way she'd let it come to pass.

"I'm sorry for my actions then Midna... but thank you." She turned towards the other princess with a weak smile. "You truly are an amazing friend."

A tiny hand tried to wave off both the apology and the thanks. If things had gone down such a way in that future... then surely, she had done nothing to be proud of. She had failed to reunite the hero with the person that needed his help, and even just him, the most.

No, she had nothing that deserved anyone's praise.

"It's not about being sorry, it's..." she turned away, cupping one elbow with the opposite hand. Anything she would say was going to just sound so stupid, she just knew it. "If you truly don't want that future to become the one we're heading towards... You need to understand that there will never be a time when you have no one to turn to. I..." no, she couldn't go that far, "we... will always hear you out."

She turned back again, her eye focused on the girl. "Understand?"

"I understand."

Zelda smiled soft and while Midna might not appreciate it Zelda stepped forward and wrapped her arms around her friend. It was a quick tight hug before she stepped back. She didn't want to press on Midna's comfort for too long. She truly was grateful and she didn't really have the right words to voice that.

"Thank you Midna, for everything."

She was determined to keep smiling.

"I won't let that future happen."

More thanks. She didn't need those, she hadn't done anything to merit such a thing -- and it only made her shift uncomfortably from her spot on the ground.

"Not just you," Midna wanted to make it clear, "we won't let that future happen. I thought you said you understood?" it was a mixture of that haughty tone and, if it could be called gentle at all, a gentle reminder.

"You do not need to face these things alone." That... was what had landed them in trouble to begin with, wasn't it?

Zelda simply continued to smile and nodded her head. She liked Midna’s haughty tone, her sarcasm and humor. She felt real compared to a lot of others that Zelda knew and spoke too. With Midna she felt as if she was treated as a person; not a goddess or a princess.

“Yeah. I’m really lucky that I’m not alone.”

She meant Link and Midna both.

"Now then," as though that somehow settled the matter, Midna dusted off her hands. "With that taken care of, I'll be on my way for today. Try not to spend too much of your time gazing through that thing, wondering what could be, won't you?"

She turned again, looking over her shoulder, "If you do that... there's likely to be people down here on this planet that would miss you." Of course, there was no way she meant herself... no way.

And with a wave of her hand, she floated off.

The decision to go to the Observatory was made on impulse, after days of sitting around and thinking about it. In a way, Kaji doesn't care for his old world, but he was completely prepared to sacrifice it, in that vision. Even ensuring its sacrifice.

So maybe he wants to see.

He is more unkempt than usual, letting his beard grow a little extra, maybe a sharper contrast to how he appeared in the dream. He double-checks to see if anyone is watching him before he approaches the telescope. Whatever it is he sees, his shoulders grow tense when he looks, and stays in front of the eyepiece for a long time.

When Albel received the news from Jack, how could he resist going? For one thing, when Jack Harkness said something, Albel had to believe it was true. For another... how could he pass up the opportunity to be sure that his world still existed? When he'd left, it had still been a question. They were still fighting for that world, for the right to even exist. If it still existed, then it would answer that question.

He hesitated, seeing another man already there. Finally, he asked, "What do you see?"

Kaji is startled away from the eyepiece, "Uh. Oh, sorry."

Wait, no, he'd asked a question, not just wanted his own turn. "I see... It's the way it looked when I left," as if that answers anything.

"It's Earth, but I can still see the red spot where Second Impact occurred. It's a big crater near our South Pole, Antarctica. Some of the coast lines in the southern hemisphere were never the same. So much flooding, but I can even...almost...see where Tokyo-3 is supposed to be." He squints a little as he says it.

"It's strange, 'up' is never quite up when you're looking from space. Not like a map."

Earth. It sounded familiar, though Albel couldn't say he knew much about it. It was somewhere else in the same galaxy as his own planet, the "Milky Way," he knew that much. He thought Fayt's family might have been from there. The "Second Impact" didn't sound familiar at all, though, and he thought Fayt would have mentioned a crater large enough to be seen from space. But if people really were taken from different timelines, and this man was from his galaxy, then Albel became hopeful that perhaps these changes to "Earth" meant a future where Earth still existed. And, by proxy, so did Elicoor.

Albel felt considerably less dread about looking through the telescope now.

"Cartographers don't exactly have the same view," he noted, stepping up to take his turn.

Rialynn could not be more excited. While she knew she needed to rest up, as she had a very busy day planned for tomorrow's cooking competition, there was just no way she could pass up this opportunity. She would see her world and verify that it truly was round! She would try hot chocolate! And there was a surprise?! Jack had said there would be some sort of surprise involved when she saw her world, in any case, so she was very much looking forward to that.

She arrived at the observatory, warmly dressed with her lute over her shoulder. It seemed like she never went anywhere without that thing. Just in case people wanted a little planet-viewing music, she wanted to make sure she could provide.

In her hands she clutched her journal, ready to take notes and make a sketch of whatever it was she got to see tonight. This was so exciting!

***************

[After the Viewing]

Rialynn tried to stay awake. She really did! She loved listening to the excited murmurs and plans being exchanged between Heroes. But she was warm, content, happy, and full of cocoa. She sat against the wall, lute at her side, journal in her lap, head slowly dipping forward... Then her head snapped back up with a snort, and there was a quiet thump as the back of her skull thudded against the wall behind her. She winced, rubbing her head with a small frown...and started to droop forward all over again. Pity the person who might have been sitting beside her, for it wasn't long before she slumped to the side, cheek mashed into that person's shoulder, as she drifted into a deep sleep.

Erika came skipping in with her moogle and Coffret in tow, and she ran in before skidding into the room. "Safe!" She exclaimed, spreading her arms with a grin.

Looking about, she waved to Rialynn enthusiastically. "Hey! Am I late?"

Aya is no astronomer; her interests tend to lay on what's happening on the ground than the skies. But ever since she heard about the phenomenon with the planets, it couldn't stop piquing her interest.

So she finds herself here early, even before the sun goes down and the stars come out. There isn't a second that goes by that she wants to miss, just for a brief glimpse of her home. It hasn't been very long, and it's hardly the first time she had ever been away from it. When you work for a branch in the FBI, you get used to traveling a lot.

But this is a whole other can of worms. And when the time comes that she is able to peer through the telescope to get a good glimpse at the skies above, she comes to realize that this is pretty high on her bizarro list.

"Yup, that's definitely Earth." Was she really expecting any different?

Dual Full Moon At The Observatory! [Open Log]

Thread For Messing With The Telescope

Thread For Messing With The Telescope

Thread For Messing With The Telescope

Re: Thread For Messing With The Telescope

Thread For Messing With The Telescope

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Got the mod call on this.

Got the mod call on this.

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OPEN | ZELDA

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Kaji - Open

laaaaaate but new cr!

Re: laaaaaate but new cr!

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Rialynn Kollmann | Open!

Before the Viewing

Aya Brea [OPEN]