faderift | [Open] I don't think you're ready for this jelly

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[Open] I don't think you're ready for this jelly

WHO: Alistair and Anders and YOU
WHAT: Alistair tightropes. In a dress. While singing.
WHEN: Kingsway 21st
WHERE: Camp Shady Fucker
NOTES: There will probably be some awful sap because this is Nate's birthday, you've been warned. Otherwise, no warnings anticipated.

~~It's not publicized, but word has a habit of getting out.~~

Zevran has publicized matters, and now it's time for some morale boosting. There's a low tightrope stretched between two trees with a great many chairs, stumps, and logs set up as seating options. Today is the day for someone to earn himself new boots, shirts, and a shield, and it promises to be a show.

Come on up, pull up a seat, and enjoy the entertainment.

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"Ah, a classic case of taking the joke a bit to far," he chuckled. It sounded precisely like something that would happen between himself and his friends back home - you know, if they weren't on the ship. Some decorum needed to be had there, he was the captain after all.

"Oh, it uses glass and light," he explained, somewhat distracted by the performance. "A lens takes in light and redirects it to form the image that you're seeing through the lens and imprint it on a surface - or the case of my world, turn it into data that can be read later."

Meanwhile, Anders is focused on what Kirk's saying. A lens, redirecting light, and... printing. How do you make light print? That takes ink. How something printed is different from data is another thing he doesn't know.

"How do you make light work like ink? Does it... heat it, when focused? Heat spots of it?" If it was like wax, and you used the heat of a light and... Maker, he doesn't know. He doesn't know how to start to know."

"Sort of, yes," he nodded. "The lens lets in light and focuses it, and directs it against special paper in the case of a film camera. The light reacts with a chemical on the paper to produce the picture."

It was a rather simplified explanation, but to be honest he didn't fully understand the process, just the basics. It was one of those things in his world that he just took for granted - it worked, so why go into the how, exactly? He only knew as much as he did about the older cameras from some books he had read as a teen. And he was distracted by Alistair in his blue dress attempting another pass across the tightrope.

"On paper. Like lemon?" Something written in lemon juice would fade until revealed by candle later. It's not the fanciest trick, and a lot of people know it, so it isn't even guaranteed to work, but it's all he can think of.

His gaze goes back to Alistair for a fall and he grimaces, starting to feel a little more bad about this.

"No, not quite. The lemon trick is a heat reaction - the light has to do with specific wavelengths that light produces and chemicals reacting to those wavelengths rather than temperature," he brought more of his attention around to Anders, hoping he was explaining well enough, though he was fairly sure that the term 'wavelength' was going to need explaining too.

"Basically it's all about chemical reactions."

He lifts his hand and very slowly waves at no one in particular before giving Kirk a confused look. Light he knows, fire and natural. The rest is a little beyond him, especially what the length of a wave has to do with anything. Kirk can't be talking about the sea. Sometimes talking to Rifters makes him feel very stupid.

"I, I don't understand. Chemicals are like the herbs we use for potions and rune-making? So it's some sort of property in the herb, and then light, but... waves?"

Ah, yes, here came the hard part. Science. He bit his lip, trying to think of a way to make it easily understood.

"Sort of? It's not far off," he nodded, deciding the finer points of chemistry were not something to be debated during a performance. "And wavelength is a way to describe the way light moves," he said, hoping that made a little more sense. He had to wonder if this was early scientists felt like, trying to explain their breakthroughs.

He looked back when the crowd made a noise, sucking in his own breath watching Alistair balance and releasing as he kept it. Maybe the dress was helping, as well as adding an air of comedy.

He glanced toward the stage as well, raising an eyebrow. The man certainly could walk the line, far better than Anders could hope to. He'd have fallen off a dozen times by now.

"So like the way a candle waves in the wind?" He couldn't completely pull his mind away from the idea of a camera.

"Hmm, I think the better way to explain it is that light travels. It has a speed, but it's very, very fast. Think of when you light a candle. The room fills with light immediately, right? That's how fast light is. And light travels in a wave pattern - like an ocean wave, but it's so fast you can't see the ups and downs of those waves, just the straight beam of light like in a forest coming through gaps in the leaves," he tried, biting his lip as he turned over how best to explain the concept.

How did he end up in a science lesson again? Oh right, cameras. He really needed to watch what he was saying from no on.

He'd never thought of light traveling before. When it was lit, it simply was.

"And because the speed is so great, it... hits the herbal mixture on the paper a certain way?" Anders pauses and shakes his head. "If there's something you don't want to explain because it's too complicated and I'm too behind, I'll understand. You need only say as much."

"No, it's all right, I'm just looking for words to make it understandable," he shook his head. "To be honest, I've never been very good at explaining science. History has always been more my forte." He grinned sheepishly as his friend. "But you're essentially right. Different light wavelengths hit the paper and react with the chemicals differently, which produce an image of what we see in front of us. Like a painting, it won't move, it's just a moment captured in time."

"I suppose history can be easier." Though considering every nation has their own take on events and so much has been lost, it's a rather complicated field here. "I was never the best student aside from learning everything I could about healing between escape attempts, so I can't say I've the best knowledge of herblore. I'm working on that now, at least."

He smiles back and shakes his head. "Perhaps this is something I'll not understand or figure out, considering how complicated it sounds. At least I can provide other things. Like bursts of entertainment."

Even if most of this is due to Alistair alone.

"I just find it more fascinating, on the whole. Not to say I don't like science - I do, but I like it better when I can tinker with it myself," he said offhandedly as he watched Alistair, clapping with the rest as he made it across one way and began back the other. It would be a short show otherwise.

He chuckled and looked at him out of the corner of his eye. "Tell you what, I'll try and give you a more thorough lesson in private another day. I'm sure it'll go easier when we aren't holding our breath over the lovely lady." He motioned to Alistair with a grin.

Anders chuckled in return, nodding.

"I'd appreciate that, thank you. And the lovely... lady... might appreciate our attention as well. There is such a show being put on. It seems a waste to not enjoy it."

"Oh indeed. You'll have to instruct me on proper cheers to encourage her," he grinned, giving a few claps of encouragement along with the crowd.

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[Open] I don't think you're ready for this jelly

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