IC Inbox: Empatheias

[young_oldman]

[Your birds might get a little plump on bird seeds. Just saying.]

Comments

[miraculo]

Are you familiar with the phrase "matter can neither be created nor destroyed"? Well, there's something a little peculiar about that, especially when you consider incorporating energy and light.

To begin with, the speed of light is 299,792,458 meters per second. [ A pause. ] That means it just goes very, very fast.

Anyway, a very famous scientist in my world proposed that the speed of light was the absolute upper limit of any speed. He developed an equation: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light, squared. That means, mass-- when going as fast as the speed of light-- can turn into energy, a state that theoretically has no mass.

[ *Note that Sanae is not giving the best explanation here, because she's Sanae. Also while weight may decrease the faster one goes, some may say the mass may increase the faster one goes depending on how one looks at it (relativity, cough cough). It can get confusing. ]

[young_oldman]

[There's just a long, stunned silence to greet Sanae's science ramble this time.]

...ah...I'm sorry. I'm afraid I still don't understand.

[He doesn't even know that the world is flat Sanae, this is information overkill.

Then there's a beat, and something like...fondness? Spilling from him to her. Normally he'd never ever let anyone know if and when he's feeling such affection, but it's...nice to see and hear Sanae so happy and excited. They've been having too many depressing conversations lately. This one is a nice change.

And because he is who he is, there's also a little embarrassment at having such warm fuzzy feelings.]

I didn't know you like the sciences so much. Are you sure you're a priestess, or an inventor? [...gasp. Is he...teasing her????]

[miraculo]

[ And he in return will feel that soft sort of embarrassment overcome the network, accompanying a light blush to her cheeks. It's not often she gets to rant about ~science~ to people she knows-- and that they actually listen. ] Th..thank you.

[ She smiles into her tea. ] Ah, when I was younger I always thought of becoming an engineer-- an aerospace one. Or an astrophysicist. Or nuclear engineer. Something like that. [ But her path was set on becoming a priestess before she even knew what any career was at all. ]

In a way, I am, because I can create small stars for myself.

[young_oldman]

[He smiles a little himself; with no one around him, he can indulge a little in his...softer emotions.

His previous sadness is still there, lurking at the back of his and thus her mind as well, but a soft, glowing warmth has begun to grow and gradually, gradually begins to nibble away at the sorrow and loneliness.]

An engineer...is that an inventor? You'll have to explain all those professions to me, I'm afraid I've never heard of them before, not even here in Empatheias. Are they similar to astrologers, looking up at the stars to chart their paths and predict the future?

[So. Space. Tell him about it.]

[miraculo]

I.... hm. An engineer is an inventor the way a physicist would be to a philosopher, if that would make sense. A physicist studies physics, but you can specialize in a category-- like nuclear physics. A nuclear engineer would be applying that knowledge to machines.

[ She nods to herself, sipping her tea. ] In a way... if you become really good at being an engineer or a physicist, you can predict anything from when the next eclipse would be five thousand years from now, to which star will be the next north star in two thousand years, to exactly what time you'd have to leave the earth to land on the moon with the shortest amount of travel time.

[ So. Kinda like an astrologer predicting the future. ] These predictions are all accomplished by science.





Ah, but we wouldn't be able to predict what sort of life you might have or who your soul mate is based upon what heavly bodies you were born under. [ She says with a laugh. ] In fact, since the first time the ancients have invented the zodiacs, the axis of the earth has shifted. The months and the zodiac are not aligned as they once were traditionally.

[young_oldman]

I see...and mankind has observed these all changes through science as well? How our knowledge of the celestial bodies has changed. [He takes out a piece of paper on his side, and begins to write down as much as Sanae had been telling him. It's mostly for his curiosity, and he is a note-taker, bad handwriting notwithstanding. But who knows? Perhaps the day may come when such knowledge will be useful. How else are the Otherworlders to return home, if not through space?]

Ah, but you mentioned travelling to the moon. So, the future has..."space ships" and "space travel" as well? [He's actually heard of travelling through space from Roxas, actually.]

[miraculo]

Mm-hm! [ He can expect her nodding to that even if he can't see her. ] Humans made it to the moon in 1969! Amazing, huh?

[ Aah, what a time that must have been! ] I'm not from a world where humans have traveled outside of our solar system, though. But I've met people from other worlds who have!

One day-- one day I'd like to travel beyond the researches of our solar system. Maybe even to the center of our galaxy. Or maybe even to another galaxy!

[young_oldman]

How long did it take them to travel to the moon? It must be an incredible distance from the earth. How did the ship fly through the air? Did they manage to find and bring Chang'e and her rabbit back?

[An interesting question, given the request that the Apollo team received from ground control in 1969.

Don't laugh Sanae, he's from 3rd century AD OK. Only a heartless bastard wouldn't feel sorry for the bunny girl and want to bring her home to earth.]

[miraculo]

[ Funny story about Change'e. She's kindaaaaa involved in the new Touhou game. ] No, they didn't--

As far as I know, she's still up there imprisoned. Oh, than there are apparently hundreds of rabbits up there, too.

[young_oldman]

Well, I suppose rabbits do breed...

[Still. Hundreds of bunnies hopping about the moon and pounding moon cake. That's got to be a sight.]

At least the goddess is not lonely up there, with all those rabbits about.

[miraculo]

Change'e is... from what I know, she's imprisoned up on the moon. [ And admittedly, she knows this mostly by hear-say, because she came after the incident with Kaguya. ]

[young_oldman]

[...now that's not part of the legends.]

What? How did that come to pass? Was she imprisoned for stealing the elixir?

[miraculo]

For drinking it, even.

[ Um. ]

But apparently it's a nice prison, now that I think about it, her "prison" could only be her on house arrest.

[young_oldman]

She is a lady of the gentry. She only took the elixir to escape her husband's apprentice.

[He falls silent.]

How many other worlds are there, Sanae? In the heavens that grace our world?

[He hasn't quite learned the word for "planet" yet.]

[miraculo]

Enough so that there will always be an adventure! [ She says cheerily.

She probably doesn't understand what he implies, though. ]

[young_oldman]

So no matter how "advanced" a generation has become...humans are really quite insignificant, when compared to the vast expanses of creation.

I think I would've been a happier man, if I hadn't realised how small the Han Empire truly is. We fashion ourselves as the apex of civilization, that we are in the Middle Kingdom, thinking ourselves to be at the center of the world. But the truth is, like the "nucleus" of an atom...we're really just a dot in existence.

It's a humbling thought.

[miraculo]

....I don't mind it. [ She says quietly, thinking over his words. ] It's not a bad thing, to be tiny in such a big place.

From our perspective, we can truly appreciate its magnificence. Were we any bigger-- if we were any more prideful-- we truly wouldn't have been able to see how beautiful our universe could be.

[ Funny that she's discussing this now, considering that she'll be going into space soon. ] We're lucky, though, to be able to perceive that something is bigger than us.

[young_oldman]

What you say is true. [A light chuckle, a genuine one.] I'm sorry, but I'll have to ask you to indulge me tonight. I'm just a little envious, I think, that so much is known to the people of the future.

No man likes to feel foolish but being so far back from the past...most of what I know, is either redundant, looked down upon, or simply not true. Lightning isn't the judgment of the gods against a murderer, and a mirror can't be used to reflect it. [He says, quoting one of the many believes he grew up with. This one has eventually faded out by Sanae's time.]

I've tried to learn as much as I can since I've been here, but sometimes I'm a little tired of being an idiot.

[miraculo]

Mm... Anyone would be a fool to call you an idiot. [ She says matter of factly. ] No one can fairly expect someone who lived so long ago to even know that the world is round, let alone what a proton is.

But we can expect someone of the past to know what to do with the best they have. Besides, I've known you to frequent the library all the time! You're probably the most educated about Verens history and technology out of all of us!

1/2

[young_oldman]

Reading is one thing, but so far I've yet to actually pilot an airship myse--

...the world is round?

2/2

[young_oldman]

[Welp. That's awkward. Give him a few minutes to try and process that fact. Or to feebly protest it because there's no way the world is round.]

But how is that possible? The land is flat.

[miraculo]

[ ....Hooooh boy. She takes a breath, but it's a patient one. ] It's round. [ She repeats.

Hm... ] Have you ever witnessed a lunar eclipse? The shadow the earth creates on the moon is rounded. It isn't a rectangle or square or some other shape. Another bit of evidence is that you can see farther from when you're up higher, because you'd be looking over the curve. If the world was flat, height wouldn't matter.

[ Does she need to cite more evidence... ]

[young_oldman]

[Can you hear that pregnant silence over the link, Sanae? That is the sound of someone who's had his world view completely turned inside out and upside down at the harsh debunk of a commonly held truth in his time.

The world is round. Atoms exists. People can go to the moon. Sanae is really really really smart in science.]

[miraculo]

It's-- it's good news! It means that any of your sailor friends [ If he had any. ] Don't have to worry about sailing off the edge of the world!

[young_oldman]

Th-...that's right.

[Focus on the positives! He takes a deep breath. Might as well see if there's anything else that'll blow his mind.]

What else from my time has been proven false, Sanae?