Crystal.

[youwonscience]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Cosima Niehaus
RECIPIENT: members of the Research Division
NOTES: Feel free to go either crystal or action here, or if you'd rather slide into Cosima's inbox, also fine.

OK everyone, here's the deal. I read a lot of reports as Tony's assistant and I've read a lot more in the last few weeks, and I've had time to make my own first pass. But if you're in Research, I want to check in with you. What are you working on, what's promising, what's stalled. You give me a private call by sending crystal or drop by the office, either's fine with me. I guess you could write a note, but I'll be honest, I'll probably just track you down to ask follow-up questions anyway, so you can save us both a step and take the meeting in the first place.

Next couple days, if you can. Or tell me you need more time, if you do. Thanks.

Comments

crystal;

[heirring]

Would you like to discuss the airship with myself and Viktor [and Jayce, let's be honest] in person, or shall we do so by crystal?

[grindset]

[Adding,]

We have diagrams.

[heirring]

And the working model of the SPARROW.

[youwonscience]

I think that definitely sounds like an in-person kind of meeting. You know, for the diagrams, and also so I can ask questions by pointing to things.

Can you both clear some time tomorrow afternoon? Or if that's too soon, we can look a little farther out, but I don't want to put it off too far.

[grindset]

Tomorrow, yes, absolutely. We'll have everything ready for you.

--> action

[heirring]

[And so, TOMORROW—

A collection of dweebs assembles in the Research division office. There are scrolls of parchment. There are sheafs of paper. There are lost lists of materials, both already acquired and not. There is, also, a large case-sized box of wood and robustly turned metal which a much put upon member of the Gallows staff had hauled up a number of flights of stairs at Wysteria's behest. It currently sits, inert, at the center of the room.]

Well, [says Wysteria, knocking make believe dust from her hand against her skirts as if she were the one who had dredged the box up three flights of stairs.] As you can see, the idea has been in development for some time.

[pathlit]

[ While Dweebs #1 and #2 initiate the newly minted Provost on the airship plans, Dweeb #3 sets near each of them a cup of a simple black tea blend -- Thedas' version of an Earl Grey, perhaps. To Dweeb #2's cup he's added a heaping spoon of sugar; he leaves the utensil for further stirring, if desired.

Taking a seat on the edge of a relatively unoccupied desk, Jayce readies his journal in his lap for notetaking. ]

There were some hiccups with the logistics, but they've smoothed them out enough for the project's viability.

[ The airship is a project upon which he was invited to collaborate; he is not a primary lead on it. Much of the schematics and logistics were already laid out by Wysteria, Viktor and the former Provost, Tony Stark. The potential is exciting, its groundwork fascinating in the differences of technology to achieve, essentially, the same thing, between this world and his own.

And he isn't its figurehead. He isn't the one who needs to pitch the idea, sway the audience, convince any backers. At least, not primarily nor currently. No eyes are fixed upon him. After seven years of shouldering the (honored) burden of an entire city-state's attention on what wonders the "Man of Progress" will accomplish next, playing a supportive role makes for a pleasant change. ]

crystal; I know we haven't gotten too far with their other thread yet, but consider

[icasm]

...do you have an assistant?

[youwonscience]

Wow, a glutton for punishment.

I don't yet. I don't know exactly what I'll need or how much of it, but I'm never going to turn away a pair of extra hands.

[icasm]

You will learn that I am a glutton for many things. Moderation is for monks, and I have never held any interest in that particular calling.

Excellent. When shall we start?

[youwonscience]

[A brief pause, maybe as she looks at some notes.]

Um, how about tomorrow morning? That should give me some time to think about what I'd start you on, but still clear us before my afternoon meeting. If that works for you?

is this something you wanna thread out?

[icasm]

I've nothing pressing. Should I meet you at the office?

maybe rain check them soon, after they've been working together a few weeks?

[youwonscience]

Yeah, that's great. I'll even pick up some extra coffee or tea, if you want either.

love it, can't wait!

[icasm]

Tea, please. Whatever's strongest, but with some sugar or honey, if that's not too much trouble.

action

[favoriteanalyst]

[It isn't that Mobius ever had a bad relationship with Provost Stark. It was more that the man had always been so busy, and, really, until the whole time travel thing, he can't say he ever had terribly much to discuss with Stark.

Now being in something of a minor leadership position, even if nothing exciting, Mobius thinks that perhaps it might be best to establish a better, maybe more frequent relationship with the new head of the whole department. So while he doesn't have all that much to report--although a few ideas to bounce off her--he still heads to the office (her office, now) and gives a knock on the door.]

Hi. Pick up any fancy titles along with the surprise new job?

[youwonscience]

Provost, technically, though I'm really only going to enforce that outside Riftwatch proper. Like, if I have a problem internally with someone respecting me, making them say Provost instead of my name isn't going to fix it, you know?

[She offers a small smile, and gestures him in. She's still working with quite a few piles of notes and correspondence, but she seems to have a system at this point and the desk itself it workable. (He certainly has no trouble seeing her if he takes the chair opposite.]

Thanks for stopping by, though. I know everyone's busy, I just feel like I want to take the temperature, you know?

[favoriteanalyst]

Hey, only need it when you need it; I like it. Upper management being laid back and all.

[It's strange, really, to actually use the office as an office? He's gotten used to mostly ignoring the main office and using instead just the library and also just the desks in the workspace, huddled together, being geniuses and idiots. Gotten used to this space being Tony's specifically.

He plops himself in the chair across.] It's a good idea, getting up to speed on everything. I don't envy you. Lotta work. [He rubs his gloved hands along his trousers. Not because he feels he has to, not feeling it anymore, but just out of what feels like habit is all.]

Personally, I don't have a lot going on. In general. But I did have a few things I want to look into regarding my position. One of them is more along the trade route, but Diplomacy should be able to help work something out, I think. I feel like you might be able to sympathize with the fact that paper's a resource we can always use more of. And since it's in short supply, especially after Tantervale and the surrounding area is now something of a no man's land, we should try and secure a steady supply or figure out how to fashion our own supply before we end up writing up reports on the backs of war maps or reverting back to oral tradition.

[It might sound a little dire, but if things keep up, it really will start being like that. He's not going to let people write on books or reuse old archived reports.]

Just one of the many supplies that's gotten tighter to get, I know. Priorities need juggled. I'm still going to see what can be rustled up as far as that goes.

[youwonscience]

Shit, you're never going to hear me disagreeing that we could use more paper. I think some of the reports are coming in horizontal in the margins of older reports at this point.

[An exaggeration, but only a slight one.]

I'll mention it to Derrica about the Diplomacy portion. Obviously securing an actual supply would be ideal, but I know handmade paper was an easy enough thing back home that some people did it as a hobby. The result is like ... coarser and less uniform than the stuff made by professionals, but maybe worth looking into as a stopgap. Something we could do in-house in a pinch. Better than oral tradition, anyway.

If you've got the bandwidth, maybe head up putting out some feelers about techniques? If Thedas has worked out real paper, they definitely went through a rougher handmade step first, that just makes sense. Or, [a little wry] start brainstorming something we could make ourselves better trading partners with.

[This last is mostly a joke. Unless...?]

[favoriteanalyst]

[Despite having been on Crossroads!Earth and becoming familiar with words that, like, honestly, no native Thedosian should be familiar with, some of this stuff still needs context clues. Like bandwidth. What a weird word that he's sure has nothing to do with a wide band and more to do with...time, energy, ability?]

We've got printing presses in the city, [how else could Hard in Hightown become such an instant hit] but I don't know about paper milling. I'll see who might have the ability to be mashing together the stuff or if it all came shipped in from outside. If it's easy and hobby-able enough, shouldn't be too hard... [He said, hopeful, but:] If there are people already doing it around town, you know they're also making a pretty penny off it. In-house is always going to be better, and we could sell off any potential excess... [A nod.] I'll put feelers out.

And, another thing I was thinking about is preservation. Everything recent is fine for now, but we've got texts floating around from Ages ago, maps that have seen better days, documents that have been stored in less than ideal conditions--and how many times has Riftwatch gotten a clue or made a discovery or found something to work off of from ancient scrap?

[youwonscience]

Small scale, rough stuff you can recycle used, existing paper, which is probably what we'd be doing for stop-gaps. But see what you can find.

And yeah, archiving's a good point. We've got stuff from when we were the Inquisition, and stuff that refers to Inquisition records we no longer have easy access to. And, of course, Research has had three Rifters running it, so it's not like I can ask my predecessors things the way Derrica can ask Byerly.

I've had a volunteer for an assistant, and that might be a good long-term project. Maybe you can collaborate with him on it, if you have the bandwidth? I can get you both started with the system I was building for Tony, but you're right that there's a ton of backlog I hadn't worked through yet.

private.

[elegiaque]

I'm in Forces, but some of my work fell under Research in the past— there's a phylactery related report that I don't know if you would have previously seen.

( on the one hand: strictly provost's eyes only. on the other hand: provost's assistant. )

But I'm happy to discuss it at any time if you need.

private ∞

[youwonscience]

M ... aybe.

[The soft sound of rifling through notes, and then:]

OK, yeah. I hadn't seen it while Stark was still here, but I was going through a bunch of phylactery stuff yesterday and ran across the envelope with those files. [Formerly sealed, but now "Provost's eyes only" means her, so.]

Did the two of you have any plans for follow-up on this? It's pretty thorough, and it's been a minute since anyone threatened the organization with phylactery shenanigans, but on the other hand, that's almost certainly just a matter of time.

[elegiaque]

Not unless you want to remove your hand. But if anyone does remove the anchor-shard of a rifter without existing non-Thedosian magic, ( well, in that case, there's probably a form to fill out. )

[youwonscience]

Good to know. If anyone decides to go that route, I think it makes sense to make the most of the opportunity. I'll reach out if it comes up, and thanks for flagging it.

[elegiaque]

Of course.