I'm sure throwing crabs at opponents would give you a great advantage when it comes to the element of surprise. [And surprise is half the battle.]
And I usually liked to invent... machines, I suppose you would call them. Ones that could fly, or dig a trench, or move very quickly over land. Sometimes I'd design weapons, too, so a kind of bow that could be reloaded many times and fired rapidly. I don't plan on building most of them, but I like thinking about the possibilities. I'm fond of the bicycles I've seen here -- we don't have them where I am from, but they're fascinating! And very handy, too.
[He's absolutely, 100% going to get a bike while he's here, just you wait.]
And I suppose that makes a great deal of sense. Where I am from, animals are more akin to pets, though some can be taught tricks. And I suppose you could make them fight, if you wanted, so that people could gamble on the outcome, but I've never been too fond of the practice. [He used to buy songbirds from the market to free them.] It's... very different here.
Honestly, that's usually what it was for. Or he made a rather good reconnaissance tool because who's looking for a crab or expecting a crab to me spying on you? [Snippers, the multi-functional magical construct.
Machines... Those all sounds far more interesting than anything he would have guessed. Though he's pretty sure he's heard of a bow that does that already, but they sure aren't from the same worlds.]
The ones I've seen take a lot more technical know-how than I'd remotely have. Even the smithies at the school were... well, you'd think it simple but the things they could do both weaponry, armor, or tool wise was honestly just beyond fascinating. [Maybe...] I think we had something similar to that bow, I think it was some kind of crossbow, if I remember correctly, no one I knew used such weapons. And the bikes are interesting, we didn't really have anything like that, either. Why have those when horses and the like existed?
[He's flopping back onto the bed properly, though he's staring at the ceiling more than anything else.]
Pets still existed, but given how most people lived, it was more practical to have a creature that could do something else as well. Companions, familiars, that sort of thing. I'm sure Rainer's already told you about her menagerie of small woodland skeletons?
Yes, I have heard about the skeletons. To be honest, it sounds very intriguing! I usually have to resort to underhanded means to get my hands on bodies to study, and the ability to just raise a few skeletons whenever you need to sketch a particular rodent has some appeal. [Is he joking? The world may never know.]
And it's fascinating, how some of our inventions overlap. Perhaps people who use crossbows are fond of the idea of making it fire faster? I can imagine how reloading would get very tiresome very quickly, were I carrying a very heavy weapon on my shoulder.
[Give him a moment while he takes in a breath and slowly lets it out through his nose at the commentary about the skeletons. He's... sort of gotten used to it, but it really still wigs him out more than he probably ought to let on to anyone that isn't her. He's biased, after all. And she doesn't have them here, so what does it matter, really.]
I'm not quite sure if that's the only things she can raise given her dad is... a particularly powerful necromancer and seems more keen on the actual humanoid skeletons thing. But what do I know, I'm not a necromancer.
I believe that there were something of an automated crossbow that could do such a thing! I don't have the details of it, obviously, but it sounds familiar. [Ranged weaponry was never his bag, it's far better to get up and personal with an enemy, after all.
Or maybe that's just the barbarian talking.]
What? Oh, no. The crossbows I know of were far smaller, usually smaller than your typical bow! Goodness me, I hope I'm not... accidentally changing how things happen in a world or something due to all of this. [People went back after all, not that he had an idea of how it worked as the person he knew who had left hadn't come back...]
It's sobering, thinking that if suddenly we're snatched back to our worlds that you suddenly just... lose everyone and everything you got to know here...
[Ah, seems like Fitz might be a little squeamish about bodies and... other such things. Leonardo decides that, perhaps, he'll have to save his discussions of various corpses with Rainer herself, instead of bringing them to him.]
Don't worry. If someone happens to build this smaller crossbow of yours, then it would be the builder who's changed things, not you. [He smiles a little. Building things is somewhat difficult, as it usually costs more coin and resources than it seems. But designing them in the first place, that part costs nothing besides the paper he's drawn on.]
Yes, that is... something I have heard. [He clasps his hands, thinking about it.] It seems sad to me. But... I suppose that would prevent us from changing our own worlds too much, with things we have learned here. [So, no, he probably can't invent warp pads when he gets back to his workshop in Venezia.] And if we do not remember the friends we have made, it would be very hard to miss them. [Which is... sad, in a different kind of way.]
This world is kinder than the one I know. But there can still sometimes be cruelty, or unfairness, or things that could be made better. [He thinks of Prom, and the chaos in the halls.]
So, perhaps there is nothing we can do to change this forgetting, as there was nothing we could do to avoid arriving in the first place.
[He takes a little breath, his shoulders releasing some weight.] But... perhaps there is something that can be done, and we will not know until we try. And in the mean time, we can learn from each other, and that is always worthwhile, even if we do not always like the end results.
I suppose so... [He trails off for a moment with a small frown while he lets him speak his mind on the other matter. This is... a lot, mentally and emotionally. But he figured it would have been from the second he brought it up.
While he would very much like to get back to his friends back home and knows what he must do, there's... just something about it that rubs him the wrong way. He's made friends here as well and he'd rather not forget about all of that.
But he pushes that to the side for now with another steadying breath, suddenly really glad he's looking at the ceiling and not the other man in the room.]
There is little that can be done about it, we do not know our time here nor for we know our time in general. Why think it over so... seriously and carefully when there is life to be lived, right? [He doesn't sound so convinced of his own words.]
Exactly! [Believe him, he's trying to be reassuring here.] There are so many things to do and see, and thinking about it too much only keeps us from finding those things.
[He shifts in his seat, trying to make himself comfortable.] Did you know how many different kinds of paint you can purchase here? There's more than just oils or pigments, but things I have never seen before, including something called acrylic. I usually prefer to make my own paints, but I may have to buy some of these new kinds to see how they work.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 08:19 pm (UTC)And I usually liked to invent... machines, I suppose you would call them. Ones that could fly, or dig a trench, or move very quickly over land. Sometimes I'd design weapons, too, so a kind of bow that could be reloaded many times and fired rapidly. I don't plan on building most of them, but I like thinking about the possibilities. I'm fond of the bicycles I've seen here -- we don't have them where I am from, but they're fascinating! And very handy, too.
[He's absolutely, 100% going to get a bike while he's here, just you wait.]
And I suppose that makes a great deal of sense. Where I am from, animals are more akin to pets, though some can be taught tricks. And I suppose you could make them fight, if you wanted, so that people could gamble on the outcome, but I've never been too fond of the practice. [He used to buy songbirds from the market to free them.] It's... very different here.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 08:32 pm (UTC)Machines... Those all sounds far more interesting than anything he would have guessed. Though he's pretty sure he's heard of a bow that does that already, but they sure aren't from the same worlds.]
The ones I've seen take a lot more technical know-how than I'd remotely have. Even the smithies at the school were... well, you'd think it simple but the things they could do both weaponry, armor, or tool wise was honestly just beyond fascinating. [Maybe...] I think we had something similar to that bow, I think it was some kind of crossbow, if I remember correctly, no one I knew used such weapons. And the bikes are interesting, we didn't really have anything like that, either. Why have those when horses and the like existed?
[He's flopping back onto the bed properly, though he's staring at the ceiling more than anything else.]
Pets still existed, but given how most people lived, it was more practical to have a creature that could do something else as well. Companions, familiars, that sort of thing. I'm sure Rainer's already told you about her menagerie of small woodland skeletons?
no subject
Date: 2021-05-15 10:21 pm (UTC)And it's fascinating, how some of our inventions overlap. Perhaps people who use crossbows are fond of the idea of making it fire faster? I can imagine how reloading would get very tiresome very quickly, were I carrying a very heavy weapon on my shoulder.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 01:33 am (UTC)I'm not quite sure if that's the only things she can raise given her dad is... a particularly powerful necromancer and seems more keen on the actual humanoid skeletons thing. But what do I know, I'm not a necromancer.
I believe that there were something of an automated crossbow that could do such a thing! I don't have the details of it, obviously, but it sounds familiar. [Ranged weaponry was never his bag, it's far better to get up and personal with an enemy, after all.
Or maybe that's just the barbarian talking.]
What? Oh, no. The crossbows I know of were far smaller, usually smaller than your typical bow! Goodness me, I hope I'm not... accidentally changing how things happen in a world or something due to all of this. [People went back after all, not that he had an idea of how it worked as the person he knew who had left hadn't come back...]
It's sobering, thinking that if suddenly we're snatched back to our worlds that you suddenly just... lose everyone and everything you got to know here...
no subject
Date: 2021-05-19 12:41 pm (UTC)Don't worry. If someone happens to build this smaller crossbow of yours, then it would be the builder who's changed things, not you. [He smiles a little. Building things is somewhat difficult, as it usually costs more coin and resources than it seems. But designing them in the first place, that part costs nothing besides the paper he's drawn on.]
Yes, that is... something I have heard. [He clasps his hands, thinking about it.] It seems sad to me. But... I suppose that would prevent us from changing our own worlds too much, with things we have learned here. [So, no, he probably can't invent warp pads when he gets back to his workshop in Venezia.] And if we do not remember the friends we have made, it would be very hard to miss them. [Which is... sad, in a different kind of way.]
This world is kinder than the one I know. But there can still sometimes be cruelty, or unfairness, or things that could be made better. [He thinks of Prom, and the chaos in the halls.]
So, perhaps there is nothing we can do to change this forgetting, as there was nothing we could do to avoid arriving in the first place.
[He takes a little breath, his shoulders releasing some weight.] But... perhaps there is something that can be done, and we will not know until we try. And in the mean time, we can learn from each other, and that is always worthwhile, even if we do not always like the end results.
no subject
Date: 2021-05-20 12:29 am (UTC)While he would very much like to get back to his friends back home and knows what he must do, there's... just something about it that rubs him the wrong way. He's made friends here as well and he'd rather not forget about all of that.
But he pushes that to the side for now with another steadying breath, suddenly really glad he's looking at the ceiling and not the other man in the room.]
There is little that can be done about it, we do not know our time here nor for we know our time in general. Why think it over so... seriously and carefully when there is life to be lived, right? [He doesn't sound so convinced of his own words.]
no subject
Date: 2021-05-20 11:23 am (UTC)[He shifts in his seat, trying to make himself comfortable.] Did you know how many different kinds of paint you can purchase here? There's more than just oils or pigments, but things I have never seen before, including something called acrylic. I usually prefer to make my own paints, but I may have to buy some of these new kinds to see how they work.