Nerds of a Feather Learn Together

[chefbayardee]

Who: Open to everyone!
When: Consistently in the evenings of May 9th-12th
Where: Curti Center Library, a larger conference room.
What: The howling hordes of airship pilot- and engineer-wannabes gather in one poor, poor place. And other nerds could probably study there, too.
Warnings/Notes: Feel free to write your own top-levels like with Makoto's birthday.

Wholly out of the blue, a message pings into your iMog slate, through the Kali Shashidhwaja Linkshell. When you open the notification, a horrible sound plays, and the text message's contents burst onto the screen in an explosion of confetti.

So I might've raided the Curti Center's library for everything on space, airships, piloting, and magitek. I also might have conquered conference room 3A in the library for the next few evenings. Come keep me company!

Please. It's quiet and lonely and I'm scared to leave by myself.
And I have cookies! ლ(❛ω❛ლ)

For whatever reason, you decide to head on over to the Curti Center, and you're met with a large conference room, with piles of books on the table divided by a few trays of cookies, and a few dry-erase boards because chalk is for bohemians. One, clearly at Hunk's corner of the table, has a sketch of an airship with arrows and chicken-scratched notes pointing to seemingly-random areas, as well as a blue-marker doodle of a bizarre creature circled multiple times and surrounded by question marks.

Another board across the room is partially taken up by a chart titled SKILLS! and broken into three columns: PILOT, MECHANIC, SCHOLAR. Hunk's name is written beneath each, but maybe you should write your own- there's a reason you're here, after all! And resting in the marker tray are about seven pamphlets on the Vaikuntha Pilot License Examination.

Oh, and there's a moogle sitting sternly upon the lectern next to the door, munching on a kupo nut as he gestures towards the bowl next to him, with "Donations" scribbled onto a piece of paper taped to the side.

Go wild, but shhhh! You're in a library!

( Potential baby top-level ideas include "asking your study neighbor what in the world something means," bellowing "HELLO YES I AM PILOT," and "I wandered in because free cookies but I don't want to be here and can't leave without causing a scene, help." )

Comments

[spaceforged]

"Are you familiar with Castor? We had a talk at the Dragoon Guild, she brought it up." His eyes are bright with excitement. "She talked about flying for hours...." He doesn't hide the longing in his voice. To fly, that's important to him.

He digs out his iMog from his side pocket and swipes across it. "When I saw what the Manacutter was called I thought about it. She said everything was the same but different here. This could be one of those sames." And more importantly, it would give her something to find peace with.

[chefbayardee]

"I... Yeah, I know her." He doesn't sound confident; there's no excitement or warmth. "I'm pretty sure? I've met a lot of people." But he chuckles, and some of the whimsy starts to come back.

"Doesn't matter. Even if she doesn't know how to fly a Vaikunthan Manacutter, there's no harm in trying! ...Unless she crashes."

[spaceforged]

"I doubt she'll crash. Unless the controls are that different." Shiro talks and texts at the same time. "I asked her to come back here to talk with us." He quite likes the blunt and honest monk. She's what she appears to be and her heart is in the right place.

"It shouldn't take long." There's a faint warmth in his voice.

[chefbayardee]

"I mean, if the controls are different, then we figure it out before anything bad happens." He laughs, and rolls his eyes. "I mean, she's an airship pilot, you're a spaceship pilot, and I'm a mechanic. We'd be fine." Hunk was completely unfazed by the fact that Shiro was texting. Honestly, it made Hunk happy to see his friend making new friends!

"As long as we wouldn't do a test flight near any mountains."

[spaceforged]

He laughs at that. “Let’s not have a repeat of our...less than best moments.” He can remember what he heard about that nose dive. Keith and Lance playing chicken. Pidge hit rocks. “And you’re not just a mechanic. You’re a spaceship pilot too.” He points out. Shiro pockets the iMog and considers the talents they have among them.

“If the controls are different it will be a learning experience for all of us. She’ll know how it should feel once in the air. That’s a goal we can reach for. Inbetween studying for our pilot permits.” Piloting airships would be a good way to cover ground and gather information. He’s had his feet on the ground long enough.

“Still. It’s exciting! The idea of flying like that sounds incredible. It won’t be faster than the wind but that’s the point.”

[chefbayardee]

Hunk does not have the heart to tell Shiro that he was losing his lunch on the airship ride back from the Dream Width. Definitely not his best, piloting or not. But he does smile a the admission that he's also a pilot- it's easier to forget that when he doesn't have his Lion. Shiro, like any good leader, keeps Hunk's eyes on the prize: the three of them flying an airship.

"Yeah! I mean, I like that we won't have to worry about wormholes or breaking through the atmosphere or anything like that! It's just... the sky." He smiles. "That's it."

[spaceforged]

"Yeah, but I have to wonder what's up there in their version of space. Is it just like ours?" Shiro laughs, and shakes his head. "Anyway, it's not so bad just worrying about planet side flying. And with this get together you put together we can see who among us is thinking about their license."

Part of being a pilot has always been knowing your fellow pilots. Might have to end up working with them one day. "It's a good idea to establish friendships and a common pool of knowledge before we all get up in the air. And who knows? Planet side flying here could have new challenges we wouldn't have seen otherwise."

He's not mentioning how they have to steer clear of monsters and all the fun things that existed in books on Airship combat. But he's thinking of it.

[chefbayardee]

"Like the monsters." Hunk shivers as he says it; Shiro didn't have to say a word. Sure, they've flown the Lions in similar, horribly treacherous situations, but airships are different. They can and do carry a ton of people. "The horrible, angry monsters."

"They're everywhere, and they can do all sorts of weird magic." He groans at the notion, clearly unhappy. What sort of vacation is this supposed to be, if there's horrible monsters outside every town? "And the Dream Width isn't any better. The Curti Center said it's super dangerous, and they don't know whats on the other side of it. If there's anything."

And Hunk sighs, exasperated. Maybe it was fatigue settling in from all the hard mental work. "Do you think it's better or worse than Galra space?" And he cracks a wry little smile.

[spaceforged]

He gives that some thought. Which is better? It's difficult to say. When they're flying in the Galra territory they only have to account for themselves and their lions. Lions that would beat out any airship. "I can't say which is worse until I've flown through them all. But our priorities and our ability to repel danger is vastly reduced here. We know nothing about the Dream Width other than warnings."

And no experience flying through monster ridden skies. He shifts his weight and flips the photo on his iMog to a picture of a larger airship. "...The monsters do make it feel worse. Galra you have a chance people could survive for a while. Monsters..."

He would be giving Lance a don't do it look right here. Some jokes shouldn't be said. "We'll be significantly slower too."

[chefbayardee]

Hunk just groaned; Shiro gave the answer he expected, the one he'd also settled on. Great minds think alike, but it doesn't make things any easier. "Yeah, it's a lot harder to dodge fireballs and lightning bolts when you can't go fast enough to exit the atmosphere."

The groan resurfaced, and Hunk's head just rolled backward as he stared at the ceiling. "I did some reading on airship defenses and armaments, but you'd think they'd develop stuff that the monsters can't get through."

But as Hunk's head rolled back to a normal position, he raised an eyebrow and looked right at Shiro. "Seriously, they have all this magitek, and they can't outperform what's already here. What gives?"

[spaceforged]

What indeed. He taps the fingers of his left hand against where his Galra arm meets flesh. He looks up, meeting his eyes and says slowly. "Maybe they don't fully understand the technology. Or there is some limits we're not seeing yet. We can't know until we get a look at their tech on a deeper level."

But it makes him think. "It could be they're limited by the fuel sources or the output of their engines so far." He's no tech expert but he remembers energy output and fuel consumption. "If the system has some kind of energy loss...that could also be a factor. Still. You're right, they should have focused some of their research on defense from monsters. I wonder why they didn't."

[chefbayardee]

"I mean, maybe they focused more on magic than engineering." He sighs, and just rolls his eyes. It wouldn't surprise him. "Maybe they need spellcasters throwing energy into the airships to run them?" It sounded like slavery, but it would explain where the "magi" part of Vaikunthan magitek came from.

"But I think with a little time, I can make some real progress on this. It's... not quite as hard to learn as I thought." And he lets out an awkward chuckle- the "tek" part of magitek seemed pretty obviously up his alley, and the more he read the more things clicked together.

It was incredibly comforting to have an idea of how something worked in this place.

[spaceforged]

"...if you need anything while you're studying it be sure to let me know." He has a respect for Hunk and Pidge's technological expertise. "Once I have real experience with airships...I'll develop a guide to let people know what to expect. The tech here doesn't seem to offer what we'd need to implement a flight sim."

People will have to learn the old fashioned way. That makes training pilots go slower than he'd like. "If we ever get a decent level of tech for that...I know how the Garrison designed theirs. I can at least lay out what would need programmed."

[chefbayardee]

He just nods at the standing offer- Shiro's obviously the better pilot, so he's going to be an invaluable resource, like always. But between talking about manuals (rules!) and a flight simulator (safe practice!), Hunk just starts grinning. Magitek is weird, but once they get some resources they could probably jerry-rig some stuff together. Or, well, he could.

"A how-to guide would be awesome, Shiro. Can I call dibs on the first copy?" But then he giggles, gesturing with one hand towards the airship sketch he'd made. "And I'll keep you posted on how the tech- er, magitek works out. We can probably pull off something cool."

[spaceforged]

"Alright, then we both got projects to show each other when we're finished. For now, let's finish cleaning up and head back to the house." They have a lot to do but they'll get it done. He has all the faith in Hunk and in his own work ethic to achieve what they need.

"I'll start drafting a basic outline tonight." While it's still fresh in his mind. The Garrison programs stand out like spotlights. It drives home just how little time has really passed. "It can't hurt to have that ready sooner than later."