milliways_bar | (no subject)

It doesn't take long for a curious Yamato to approach, cocking his head like a puppy.

"What're you doing?"

At the moment, Sameth's testing what he's using a spell to melt a piece of candy on a non-stick pan and looks up as the candy starts to set, "Trying to figure out how this works."

"It's PTFE. Er, a fluorocarbon with a low friction coefficient," Yamato says, hunching down towards the pan. "Because it resists Van der Waals forces -- the forces that cause atoms to attract each other when in close proximity -- stuff has trouble sticking to it."

"Low friction, that makes sense. I wonder how hard it would be to make with the Charter,"

It could be useful for certain kinds of armor.

"I guess that depends on what the Charter can do. As far as I know, it's not difficult to make, but that's with modern science, not, er," he pauses for a second. "Whatever the Charter is."

"The Charter can do most things if I can figure out how to do it. What's it used for other than cooking?"

The candy is now set and slides off as Sameth pokes at it.

"Bandages for certain parts of the body, some bullet casings, skis -- anything where you want to minimise friction or prevent stuff from sticking," Yamato says.

"Why bullet casings? Friction usually helps in guns," At least from what Sameth knows of them.

"It reduces wear on the rifling," Yamato says. "If you have an assault rifle or something, which fires dozens or hundreds of bullets in a short span of time, the friction can wear down the rifling in the barrel pretty fast."

"That makes sense. I know Ancelstierre has weapons that can fire like that, but guns don't work in the Old Kingdom."

He'd have to find another use for it if he can replicate the process.

"What stops them from working? I've heard of places where electronics don't work, but guns are -- honestly about as simple a mechanism as you can get, in a lot of ways."

"I don't know. I know its the Charter but haven't tested to find the specific mechanism since I can make clockwork work,"

Not always easily but he can.

"Maybe some kind of suppression of -- no, that wouldn't make sense."

If it's suppressing the energy that makes guns fire, that'd mean it'd be suppressing kinetic energy or combustion, and neither seems likely.

"I guess if clockwork still works, that's something. You can do a lot with clockwork."

"You can though it doesn't always work in the Old Kingdom. The main suppression comes from the Wall itself which is focused more on keeping the Dead away,"

He's had points of his inventions coming apart.

Edited 2020-04-17 03:02 (UTC)

"The Dead? Are we talking zombies or, er," he swallows, just quickly, "ghosts?"

"Zombie is the best word. We always burn our dead in the Old Kingdom so a necromancer can't use them. My family can fight them and send the necromancer back into Death,"

Sameth touches his wrist for a moment, where his burns are hidden.

"There a lot of necromancers? It seems like a -- niche career to go into."

"No, not a lot. I've only known of two but they're powerful. It's not really about choosing, more about being able to sense Death and go into Death,"

Sameth's not explaining this very well.

"Right, the kind of thing you either can or can't do," Yamato says. "Or -- destined to do, maybe."

"All of those, its a role that the Old Kingdom needs to survive."

"Necromancers? That -- doesn't exactly sound like something that helps with survival."

"No, sorry I've explained this badly. My family holds a role called Abhorsen who's job it is to protect the Old Kingdom. At the moment, my mother's in that role with my aunt as Abhorsen-in-Waiting. Necromancers have always been in the Old Kingdom and creatures of Free Magic which Abhorsens fight and control to keep the people safe. Have we met?"

Its been a while since he's been in Milliways and is out of practice with explaining his world.

"Oh, oh, I see," Yamato says. "Your family are Abhorsens, and you fight necromancers, and other stuff."

Simple.

"I don't -- think so. Can't remember us meeting."

"Yes and other things. I'm Sameth," He never knows how best to talk about his role as Wallmaker and Prince here, better to just go with it.

"Yamato," Yamato replies, giving him a short nod. "It's nice to meet you."