Dual Full Moon At The Observatory! [Open Log]

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

What: The night of the Dual Full Moon, people can come to the Observatory and see their home worlds through the broken telescope.
When: January 30 to the morning of 31.

[OOC: This is an open log for anyone to tag anyone.]

As Jack promised, the Observatory is set up for a lot of people to be there. He's shoved tables to the sides to make more open space in the room with the telescope, because he expects that after his letter, many of the heroes will come to see the phenomenon.

Jack, himself, is equipped with sleeping bags and hot chocolate, it might get cold in the Observatory overnight, as he waits for the moons to rise. Only when the rest of the sky seems clear, and the light coming off them both is strong, does Jack dare to peek through the telescope. Zelda's words are still with him. Could the crystalization be harming their own worlds? It's impossible, isn't it?

Comments

Re: Thread For Messing With The Telescope

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

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.

Thread For Messing With The Telescope

[goddessofthesky]

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?"

[zodiac_brave]

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.

Got the mod call on this.

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

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?"

Got the mod call on this.

[goddessofthesky]

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.

[zodiac_brave]

"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.

[theendiswherewestartfrom]

"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.

[goddessofthesky]

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.

[zodiac_brave]

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.