crystal

[undergrunn]

( Behold, a new voice on the crystals. Soft, good-humoured, with an accent that sounds Scandinavian / relative equivalent. The crystal catches a quiet breath of laughter before she speaks. )

I don’t know if you’re really lucky to have an engineer turn up, or if I’m really unlucky that I need to figure out the machinery.

I mean, learning about the infrastructure of a city in a whole different world isn’t even a “once in a lifetime” kind of opportunity, and pretending I’m some sort of genius at kinetic motion just because I know some mechanisms from home would be pretty fun, but…

Wow.

( Maybe that sounds a little weightier than her first "wow.")

Oh, I'm Abella. Riftwatch, you’re gonna have to have a lot more ramps by the time I’m done with you. Somewhere has to accommodate wheelchair users, even if it’s some kind of fairy tale world.

( Hmmm. )

Wait, can you just make them float, here? (More softly, ) Flying wheelchairs would explain the lack of ramps. I mean, this crystal thing is remarkable, so... let me know if I don't need to think about the ramps.

Comments

[laruetheday]

Don't know if you've seen the giant rock pile near the harbor, but one of our towers is a total loss and another one is non-usable. There's an elevator in the central tower that works if you can't handle stairs. Right now we need the Eyrie fully repaired and a functional residential tower so we're not all freezing our asses off in a couple months.

[ "Before anybody even thinks about adding ramps" is not said out loud but definitely implied in her tone. ]

[elegiaque]

( gwenaëlle has never been good at implication, )

Please don't waste our resources on irrelevant vanity projects for things that can't currently reach the island in the first place while the bulk of our force is living in barely defensible tents.

[grindset]

A civil engineer? That would be a first... and unusually well timed, at that.

[laruetheday]

[ as long as one of them said it ]

[undergrunn]

( Well. Her tone was all friendliness before, and that’s not gone, but she does sound rather more serious. )

The war that’s just ended in my home world, and the one before it, sent many men home with their bodies permanently changed, and injuries can make mobility harder even in the short term. It’s not a vanity project to ensure all necessary parts of a facility are accessible for people in mobility devices, or wheeled vehicles, in some instances. I also made no reference to the order or prioritisation of projects. I won’t waste your time or resources, but please don’t dismiss me, or make assumptions about my intelligence and the reasons why accessibility was on my mind.

[undergrunn]

Would you like to ask me about my experience and past work, or would you prefer to continue to make assumptions and be dismissive?

[elegiaque]

I'm making an assessment, not an assumption. If you wanted it assessed differently, you should have waited to have something intelligent to say. Feel free to do so at any time.

[dissolving]

Make hauling a bit easier,

[ does he agree with clarisse? yes. does he feel a little compelled to stick up for the new guy? also yes. it'd be handy to bring handcarts down the occasional, interior steps. and they're already rebuilding —

(one more wish for their infinite list. what's the harm in that? gotta have something to get you through.) ]

What brings it to mind?

[undergrunn]

Making an assessment involves asking questions and analysis.

This sounds more like you’ve taken an attempt to introduce myself on the crystals and admittedly pretty dumb attempt at thinking of something to say, and decided that’s all you need. That’s not a reliable diagnostic method for figuring out people or systemic issues.

[undergrunn]

Engineer and mechanic. I’ve done some stuff with electronics, but it wasn’t my specialisation and I don’t think it’ll have much relevance here.

[elegiaque]

You sound like an excellent fit for Research when you're finished being preoccupied with a war you're no longer fighting and start taking the time to see what the needs of this one are.

( she does consider it immense, courteous restraint on her part to have left 'that no one gives a shit about' out of the war she's no longer fighting. )

Try that. It'll do you wonders, since you certainly sound as if the thirty extra seconds of thought you're taking to wag your finger at me might have saved you the time several minutes ago.

[undergrunn]

I just came from a place where I saw a woman strap a wheelchair to her back and drag herself up stairs and ladders, in a… combat context, and a world with a lot of disfigured soldiers returning to civilian life. Making a facility easier to navigate is beneficial in emergencies, including times when elevators are unsafe to use.

In practical terms, I’d need to see schematics for the keep if we have them, assess damage, find out what the goals and priorities are. Ramps can be useful for ensuring accessibility for horse-drawn vehicles, or large objects being moved by manpower, so there are some that might merit prioritisation during earlier stages.

This was just an attempt to put myself out there and thinking of something to say that happened to draw on recent experience.

[grindset]

[Politely ignoring whatever is going on with the ramps thing (not that he wouldn't benefit, but),]

Ehh, depending on what you're working on, it can help to have some experience with electric systems. Your mechanic skills, on the other hand, will come in handy... though you won't find many complex infrastructural mechanisms outside of dwarven territory.

[laruetheday]

Assumptions? I responded directly to what you said and I'm telling you what the priority is.

[dissolving]

Must've been pretty rough t'go through all that.

[ if she was near enough to see desperation, she was involved, by action or inaction. be one way to squeeze a little control back out of the world. ]

Emergency's a good instinct. Had to evacuate a lot of folks when the towers came down. A few got stranded — griffons couldn't always get in clean. Be a real blessing if we'd some help with that. Maker willing, won't need it again.

[ but: stairs, ladders. at least one broken leg. ]

[undergrunn]

( She takes a moment. As heated as she can get, Abella’s core desire is always to help and to understand, and there’s got to be something she’s missing here, when a couple of people are annoyed already. )

Hey, I get it. I need to change gears and get my head around what this war is like, instead of going off what I’ve seen at home. I bet having new people arrive for years and probably more than a few of them saying ignorant stuff or making assumptions about somewhere you live is going to get annoying and exhausting.

( Thinking it through, yeah, it sounds annoying as hell. )

I could’ve waited until I knew more before getting on here, but honestly, I was excited about playing with a new piece of technology, and I see how that could be annoying, too. But I.. I did ask in good faith if wheelchair ramps are not a concern at all here because of magic. I’m kind of confused how I’m the one finger-wagging, to be honest.

[undergrunn]

Your tone came across pretty loaded, but I’m happy to treat it as earnest feedback, if you’re happy to acknowledge that something being on my mind when I just got here doesn’t mean it’s going to skew my priorities when doing a job.

[undergrunn]

I’m not the one still there.

( She says it lightly enough, but you don’t need a degree or experience in interrogations to know it was, in fact, rough. )

Being prepared for multiple scenarios is important. There’s been a lot of advancements in mechanisms that prevent mass-casualty and injury events. I mean, I think it was less than fifty years ago that panic bars were invented? That happened because of a tragic crush accident in Rondon, over a hundred children died. I don’t know all the details of the mechanism, but the concept can help develop something that’s of use here, and it helps make emergencies more survivable, it’s worth doing.

Probably not the number one priority either, but it’s stuff you can at least keep in mind when figuring out how everything fits together.

[elegiaque]

( if she's over it already then gwenaëlle feels comfortable ignoring the part that wasn't relevant to her at all (someone else's feelings), )

To be perfectly honest, I'm confused as to why you're still talking about 'wheeled chairs' as if it's an obvious given what they are and why they'd be relevant to the conversation at all. If you have some specific personal project that interests you, propose it to the Provost or use your own time and resources, but if you announce you're specifically interested in wasting resources that the people here need for the sake of, I don't know, your fairy tale wheel people, you're going to be corrected.

( she's not from orzammar or tevinter, she's from orlais, where rich people can just order elves to carry their palanquins and poor people who can't walk had better hope they look endearing enough to catch scraps,

there is perhaps an inherent disconnect here. )

[dissolving]

Yeah. Feel you for that,

[ left enough people up north. by action, or inaction, you squeeze a little control back out of the world.

and then she's talking. most of it goes over his head. he's a disfigured soldier, not an engineer. speaking of: ]

You met our Master of Works yet?

[laruetheday]

I don't know anything about what your priorities are, so I won't be acknowledging shit.

[undergrunn]

( confusedsquint.jpg

there is

A Pause )

Since we just talked about me needing to learn more about this place and not making assumptions, could you tell me what you’re thinking of when I say “wheelchair”?

[undergrunn]

I mean that… that kind of proves my point, but okay. Have a nice day.

[undergrunn]

Learning more about what exists here already would be useful. Do you know if anyone from dwarven territories is part of Riftwatch? Or do they have an ambassador or representative here? I might be asking for the the wrong thing.

[elegiaque]

( no, she's still mad about the fairy tale world crack—

fine. )

I'm thinking you'd best be a better engineer than you are a communicator, because you keep repeating that like it should mean something to me.