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--- campaign:carve:2023-12-05 [2024/02/13 19:52] – pinkgothic
+++ campaign:carve:2023-12-05 [2024/05/07 20:34] (current) – pinkgothic
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 "Humanity is so ambitious." There was a not so subtle note of appreciation in that remark, like she was marveling at the amazingness of the human spirit and its determination. "I suppose that's pretty cool, though. All in all... it's important work, that has to get done. It's simply not feasible to ship everything from the earth, or the moon." A pause, more thinking on that before she smiled and shrugged, resting her hands in her lap. "Well then. Let's go, Team Human."
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+**pinkgothic**:
+"It's just an extension of previous work. Think of how the Sahara region looked a few decades ago - it's hard to believe if you weren't there to see it, but it was a completely desolate wasteland. That took a lot of work; it's not just a question of turning sand into water, that would have been a one-time deal, it would have evaporated and the biome wouldn't have changed, no, but by changing the soil composition, sorcery brought lasting change. That's a lot of square kilometres of nature reconstitued," he said, making no secret that he was proud of the achievement by proxy. "But if we //could// create matter out of thin air, that's basically solving world hunger and resource wars. It'd be a big deal."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+What he said was an absolute truth. She wasn't old enough to have seen the wastes that the Sahara had once been, but she, like every other student in the past few decades, knew the story. Verdant lands where once nothing but sand had been. Almost a fairy story, though she knew, like everyone else, how true it was. "What an achievement, truly...." There was no sarcasm in the words, an honest delivery of such admiration, such as it was.
 **pinkgothic**:
+"So, how would you go about the problem?" Mateo asked. "Figuring out why mass-preserving transmutation can be done indefinitely, but non-mass-preserving transmutation is a dead end?"
 **Nymphetamine**:
--->
+Leila was silent for several minutes, obviously trying to decode the problem in her own head. There was one thing that did stick out in her head at the moment. "Because something happens to the matter when you're going from gold to helium. It's disappeared, or dispersed or something, it's just no longer there. It's just gone? So when you try to go the other way, you can't just pull those particles from nothing, right?" Brow furrowed together as she tried to consider this as a solution.
+**pinkgothic**:
+"It's true in both directions, though," Mateo mused, running the knuckles of his right hand along the edge of his jaw contemplatively. "So, you //can// pull particles from nothing to turn a single helium atom into a single gold atom, somehow, but once you do it, it's a gold atom forever."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+"It's like the particle glue no longer works after you do it. Has anyone ever looked at these things under a microscope? See if there's anything different or weird about the new gold atom, or helium atom?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+"I'm assuming you mean particle accelerators," Mateo mused. "Microscopes - even electron microscopes - can't tell you much about atoms, except maybe that there's a lot of them in a lattice formation if you're lucky. But yes, we have tried a few things, and they're behaving as normal atoms as far as we can tell. My guess is we need to test them in bulk, though. Like the non-mass-preserving transmutation of the Martian core - I think that would //trigger// something, I think that would tell us more, if we were to do it, in much the same way that if you put a very large number of hydrogen atoms into the void of space together, they eventually contract with gravity and form a star. The quality changes."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+She made a gesture of concession to his correction, just the lifting of her hand. "Changing the Martian core sounds like a recipe for disaster, however..." Or at least it did to her. Sorcery was proving to be quite the arcane art. No pun intended, of course. "Is that something that sorcerers are thinking of doing? Transmuting the core?" But better here than on good ol' Terra Firma. "Don't tell me that they're already going to do that?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+"You can't do it from one day to the next," Mateo said, implying, as he had earlier, that it was planned on some level - maybe not necessarily the sort of plan that would be executed, but certainly one that was being seriously entertained. "That would buckle the crust in a seismic event that's not seen its likeness anywhere in the solar system. You need to do it bit by bit, dealing with the earthquakes as they happen, with the layers of rock re-compacting to accommodate the increase of gravity." He crossed his arms. "But, in any case, I agree. I think we should be careful with this, basically for the reason I mentioned. Something is happening with the non-mass-preserving alchemy that we don't understand. I don't want to stand on the proverbial surface of a star as it ignites. But that concern might be as ridiculous as the idea that a nuclear bomb might ignite the atmosphere. The problem is that we don't know." The fingers of his left hand tapped against his right arm's elbow. "So how do we approach the problem and find out what we're dealing with?"
+**Nymphetamine**:
+It wasn't the time for a cheeky response, so Leila bit her tongue on the reply of 'By being careful', or something to that effect. Instead, she bent her mind towards the problem at hand, unsure exactly how they should approach the issue. "Well... Why is non-mass-preserving transmutation preferrable over mass-preserving? Or vice versa? Is one method preferrable over the other? Does something happen to those particles that are left over when preserving mass?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+"Well, you can't increase Mars's gravity by keeping the mass the same, by definition," Mateo chuckled softly. "Being able to put more mass behind things can be pretty useful. Or less of it, if you want to make something lighter.
+"Imagine a world in which we've solved this problem. Even just mundane applications that aren't chaining spells after each other would be a great boon - if you wanted to shoot something heavy out of Earth's gravity well, for example lots of steel, you could transmute it to the same number of hydrogen atoms instead and compact that gas, and it'd be much lighter, thereby consuming less fuel to get it up into orbit. Then once you reached the destination, you'd do a reverse spell and get a chunk of steel again.
+"In the process, you saved on a lot of energy trying to get it from A to B.
+"But even if you just do mass-preserving alchemy, that's still pretty nice. Lots of elements are rarer than others. There's a ton of inert rock on Earth that we have only limited use for, but turning it into the same amount of mass of a completely different element is a huge boon. It's just not as huge a boon as the alternative."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+She listened and understood the example he provided. Getting supplies to and from Earth would be a lot easier if they could solve the problem as he had outlined it. Propping her chin into her hand, she regarded him for several moments. "I guess that's true, on both counts, at least. If we could ever make it out of theory and into reality, right? I'm not sure how you would go about solving the problem, though."
+**pinkgothic**:
+Mateo nodded mildly. "Yep," he said. "That's what Nyarai and I are gnawing on. We have some potential leads, but it's taking sim crunching time," he thumbed at the computer. "And despite her excitement, it will probably not work out this time, either. Maybe what we need to do at this point is go to one of the temporary outposts and tinker with some substance. Just keep tinkering, until something happens. Do it carefully and step by step and we should see something enlightening before it becomes threatening, right?"
+**Nymphetamine**:
+Sim crunching and a step by step approach seemed like the best idea that anyone involved in sorcery had. While it wasn't precisely the fantasy version of sorcery, where one just waved a wand and poof, everything was created from the aether, a pumpkin into a coach; it was the closest thing humankind had found to magic. "Seems like that's all we could do. Baby steps, incremental progress until a new breakthrough... when was the last time anyone had a real breakthrough, anyhow? In sorcery? I've been reading the *history* of such things, but..." That wasn't more recent papers on the subject, of course.
+**pinkgothic**:
+"Um," Mateo wrinkled his forehead. "Depends on what you mean with a breakthrough. Do interesting new spells count? Peltonen discovered generic mass-preserving alchemy in... was it 2031? I think it might have been in 2031. Anyway, in theory, we know how to cast spells that convert any substance into any other substance. In practise, several of them are too verbose to be practically cast, but the shorter ones have all been verified. To be clear, we know some shorter spells for some of the too verbose ones, too, so it's not like we're locked out of those transformations, the Peltonen Algorithm just doesn't point to them." Without realising that it was a new insight for Leila, he had just implied something interesting: That some spell effects were the result of multiple different spells.
+**Nymphetamine**:
+Lips pursed with some curiosity. It was only a few years ago, which accounted for recent in her query as far as she was concerned. But it was when he told her that there were //long form// spells... Her brow scrunched up and her eyes narrowed for a moment as she parsed what he said. "So let me get this straight... There are spells that can be daisy-chained together, in order to create the desired effect? Or do you mean to say that different spells do the same thing?" He had piqued her curiosity now, and she was definitely interested in the answer to that question.
+**pinkgothic**:
+"I don't think daisy-chaining is a good way to think about the Peltonen Algorithm, but I guess it's not necessarily a //wrong// way to look at it; if you imagine each rune is a micro-spell we haven't figured out the meaning of yet, except in the cases where a single rune is enough to cast a spell, every spell we cast is 'daisy-chained'," Mateo began his clarification, his tone slow and careful, cautiously making sure he wasn't saying anything outrageous. "But what I'm talking about is that we know completely different spells that do the things some of the Peltonen Algorithm spells are supposed to do. It's more like... using a synonym. Instead of saying 'large body of water'," he counted on his fingers as he said the words, "which is six syllables, you say 'ocean', two syllables. Except instead of only approximately meaning the same thing, they happen to be completely identical."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+Leila nodded along to what he was saying in the explanation. Comparing it to language made it very accessible and understanadable for her. "I see... that's an interesting way to look at it. And as a phenomenon." She wasn't entirely sure why these things worked the way they did, but then again, she wasn't entirely sure that any of the other sorcerers knew, either. "So how many runes are //known//? Discovered? I'm not sure what a good word would be."
+**pinkgothic**:
+Mateo puffed out his cheeks and pressed an exhale out past his lips. "Um," he appended, evidently not having bridged enough time. He rubbed fingertips against the side of his nose. "Three... hundred?" he estimated. "Spell searching algorithms, or generators like the Peltonen Algorithm, usually work with subcomponents called 'strokes', of which we know about forty-three, and 'fulcrums' defining their overlap." Said, he started to draw strokes into the air with the tip of his finger: A straight horizontal line, a curve flattening into a line, a line dipping into a curve, a half-circle, an 's' shape, something much like an infinity symbol, something halfway between an '@' sign and a spiral, a '9', an inverse '9'...
+**Nymphetamine**:
+Nodding along to what he said, she was keeping a mental tally of everything he said. Leaving a papertrail or an electronic trail was a terrible idea, considering that they were doing something very illegal in her being taught sorcery. A low little whistle blew out between nearly pressed lips. "That sure is quite a lot of runes to have to memorize.. But I guess, you probably don't //have// to, what with the simulations formulating much of it, right?" A hypothesis on her part.
+**pinkgothic**:
+He shrugged a shoulder lightly. "At the end of the day, you want to memorise the glyphs, same as you want to memorise individual glyphs if you write Chinese script. You can't stop to think about the individual strokes in the middle of casting a spell. There's no good reason to, either, since we don't know if they have separate meanings, any more than the strokes in Chinese logograms have separate meanings. If you want to cast a spell, you take note of the full runes; you might practise them on paper with normal ink for a while, before you cast the actual spell."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+She nodded again, understanding exactly what he meant when he made the comparison to Chinese characters. "That makes... a lot of sense, actually," she confessed with good humour. "But wouldn't be writing them down somewhere be too risky?" Or perhaps Leila was just infected with an overabundance of caution in this situation.
+**pinkgothic**:
+"Not any more risky than other confidential information. You should certainly toss the paper into a shredder when you're done with it, if that's what you're asking. Or, if you can, just use a tablet and never save the file. But some spells are inimical to electronics, so the paper option's popular," Mateo shared. "Assuming one is practising shortly before casting. That's usually a last stroke test. Kind of like a breathalizer for yourself. Don't want to find out you're in a bad state for steady lines while you're casting, after all."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+That last remark sounded like a little bit of a warning for practical purposes, and she would keep that in mind for the future. But there had been a bit of surprise that coloured her face when he mentioned that some runes did not get along well with technology. "Well, now you gotta tell me what they do to tablets if you scribe them into a drawing surface on a tablet... How bad is bad?" This was a curiosity and nothing more. She was learning a great deal about sorcery in a general sense, but some tidbits were more interesting than others.
+**pinkgothic**:
+"Oh, no, the runes are fine. It's just that some spells are basically small EMPs, so you don't want to have a live tablet around immediately before you cast your spell. Or a non-live one, if you can help it, though turning them off does help considerably. Still, I assume you prefer not to fry those circuits," Mateo smiled mildly. "Approximately all alchemy does that, for example, to various strengths. That said, even the strongest is only just strong enough to be an inconvenience."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+"The more I learn about sorcery, the more I realize that no one really knows all that much about it," she said after a few moments' beat, considering that as a truism for the moment. "Well. //We// can't afford to have an accident like that happen." Speaking entirely of herself, and him, as they were conducting these clandestine lessons between them well against the rules and regulations.
+**pinkgothic**:
+Mateo nodded mildly. "If Nyarai and I go to an outpost to try out some ideas, do you want to come along?" It implied letting Nyarai know about their arrangment. It implied, further, that he was willing to do that. But then, he'd said it was only a matter of courage earlier. Maybe he trusted himself not to stammer too much.
+**Nymphetamine**:
+Leila's surprise was clear on her face: the raising of her brows and that slight 'o' of her mouth's shape. She stared at him for several moments before she nodded. "That might be for the best.. That she knows, I mean... It seems like she already suspects something going on." Though, she wasn't too sure if Nyarai thought it was romantic, or professional as it was in its way. Platonic, certainly.
+"What are you trying out exactly?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+"It'll be a mixture of spellcasting and other science. It's Nyarai's plan, I don't think I'd do it full justice if I tried to summarise it. We think there's a risk of catastrophic failure, hence why the whole 'outpost' thing is so important," Mateo mused. "You should probably be suited up while we work, just in case there's a hull breach, but any real risk will be ours. Can't be in a space suit while spellcasting, after all."
+**Nymphetamine**:
+That sounded both exhillerating and dangerous. She'd have to screw in her courage to go, but to think of all that she might learn! "I'll do whatever you recommend, Mateo." It was only prudent, and she had no desire to needlessly die for lack of a suit and a hull breech. "Was there anything else I should know? Or do?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+Mateo had closed his eyes, rubbing at his forehead in a methodical, recurring sweep with the joints of his fingers, contemplating her question. Finally, he sighed mildly, then said: "We'll probably decide when and where to do this on short notice. If you can't come, then I doubt Nyarai will postpone. So if you want to come, keep your calendar flexible."