crystal.

[biggame]

FORM: Crystal
SENDER: Xiomara
RECIPIENT: Everybody
NOTES: Threadjacking approved and encouraged

Hey, if we cut an eluvian in half, will it still work? Because imagine. If we could strap one to a griffon, we could be anywhere, and only one person would have to do the traveling. Or we could strap one to the bottom of a griffon and fly low over a battlefield or a lake and people could jump through without the griffon even needing to land—

[ Or maybe that's just her personal paratrooper fantasy, parachute part PENDING, RESEARCH. ]

I think we could be thinking bigger here. Or smaller. But in a big way.

Comments

[elegiaque]

We should put an eluvian in the airship, when we have an airship—

[biggame]

As future captain of the airship, [ until Loxley wins this competition or until she discovers airsickness, whichever happens first, ] I approve.

[elegiaque]

( despite obvious bias in loxley's favour, it's really hard to argue with someone who's just said they'd totally do your cool idea. he would probably also do her cool idea, but since he isn't here saying so, )

We could be sending griffons out from anywhere, without having to transport them by the airship in the first place.

[biggame]

If we moved the right eluvians face to face in the Crossroads whenever we knew we needed them, they could go right through without the uncomfortable—

[ for them and for other people, not her, sorry about the human blood ]

—middle piece.

[laruetheday]

[ god that would be SO COOL, why didn't she think of this first ]

If we used ropes we could, yeah, just hang it underneath the griffon. Like cargo.

[biggame]

Yeah! Even if we can't cut them down smaller, that could work.

[laruetheday]

It'd have to fly pretty low, though. Not just so the people jumping through wouldn't die instantly on the other side, but so it wouldn't get blown all over the place. The eluvian, I mean. Swinging back and forth like a giant pendulum.

[ that would probably be bad ]

[biggame]

Good point. I tried making a rope chair to hang under Flea so I could climb down under her while she was flying, and I wound up spinning around like mad.

[reparo]

Well, has anyone attempted it? Does an eluvian split in half still work, or do you come out the other side split in half?

[elegiaque]

They have been broken, which renders them unusable, but I don't know if there's a way to halve them safely where they still perform their function. Morrigan would know if she were here.

( the confidence in asserting as much of someone who is pretty sure the answer is probably "it's just broken now" but also really wants to do sick eluvian tricks and will slightly hero worship morrigan until she dies. )

[reparo]

Would Morrigan have left any notes on the eluvians?

[elegiaque]

Maybe, ( thoughtful. even odds that she'd also taken all of her notes with her when she left because she's selective about who she trusts, but: ) If they're here, research will have them.

[biggame]

If anyone has tried it, they're not saying so. Looks like it's up to us.

[reparo]

That's not very promising, I'd like to stay in one piece.

[biggame]

Fine. Looks like it's up to me.

[portalling]

( The action girls are shooting the shit and they’re having fun with it; he doesn’t touch the parachuting ideas. But the conversation does get some wheels turning, so he starts to ponder another angle: )

If it were possible to divide a working eluvian into pieces without breaking it… not just half, but many smaller pieces like pocket mirrors. Put two eluvians face-to-face so the other end connects to a safe location near us.

Then, for the pocket-sized end, plant them at dead-drop locations for Riftwatch’s connections and agents. At the end of a small tube, or the bottom of a secret mailbox. Someone on the other side of the continent could drop in letters with their reports and information. Presto, you’ve got a mail room. Faster than waiting for a raven, and you don’t have to give away a sending crystal.

[biggame]

How are you turning this into paperwork,

[ is the least objective possible response to this actually very good idea ]

[portalling]

Because it’s useful. Ravens are so, so, so intolerably slow. I came from a world where pretty much everyone on the planet had the equivalent of a sending crystal.

( This raven could have been an email, etc. And what can he say, nerds love that paperwork shit. )

[wythersake]

[ wait — ]

I don't follow. Why are we cutting it in half?

[biggame]

So it can be strapped to a griffon without being in their way so much.

[wythersake]

Of course.

[ as though that makes perfect sense. anyway, ]

Moving the eluvians safely has proven a point of difficulty. Perhaps one of our charming researchers could assist you in dropping some ordinary mirrors from griffonback, with varying reinforcements. See which glass smashes the least.

[ pause: ]

Or the most.

[tadpoled]

I'm following your thinking, but let us add mages who can drop out of the sky. The havoc it would cause our enemies.

[biggame]

I could wreak as much havoc as a mage.

[tadpoled]

Then I say we send you through one of these flying eluvians and sit back to let you work.

[bouchonne]

You're being too modest in drawing a mere equivalency.