|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:10 pm
Tia brightened. "Touching one would help me a lot, actually. It would at least give me a general idea, assuming all machines don't look the same. Scent is good too, so when I eventually do hear one I'll know it's a machine by its smell."
Her wing lifted a few inches and fluttered lightly before folding on her back again, excitement coursing through her.
"It doesn't bother me at all. I'm more worried I'm being a bother to you, actually." Tia tilted her head in Cathair's direction. "I kinda just dropped out of nowhere on you and claimed your attention without asking if you had plans already."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2012 11:04 am
He was glad to be of some assistance and felt himself perk up at the confirmation that he was being of use to his friend. "They don't all look the same, and they don't all run the same. Most of the ones around here are internal combustion engines. Don't ask me what that means or how to tell them apart from the rest, because I have no idea. That's just technobabble I've picked up from my housemates." Cathair briefly watched her one wing. Cathair, you've got to know your limits. There's no way you can teach her what it's like to fly. It's just too difficult, and words could never describe it. "Mostly I just identify machines by smell and appearance, but I don't know enough about machines to tell the difference between them by appearance, so I guess that isn't as important. To you or me, that is."
The thought that he had had other things to do hadn't crossed Cathair's mind since he'd met Tia. What had he been doing? Marking territory. But his father could do that just as well. He'd want to know why Cathair hadn't been marking territory, but Foggy believed in Clan structure, and he wasn't the leader. There was no one to complain to, and surely Foggy would understand when he explained that he'd been making a friend!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 11:17 pm
Tia flicked both of her ears, chuckling. "Well if they sound different from each other, I might just be able to learn the....insides? I don't know what good that information would actually be to me-," she admitted, tilting her head and cocking one ear to listen to something that caught her attention, "-but it's never a waste to learn something new."
She hesitated for a second. "Your....housemates. Will they be there?" She coughed, blushing a bit. "I mean I enjoy meeting new people, but....well, to put it bluntly, not everyone is glad to meet me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2012 10:22 am
Cathair shook his head. "It really doesn't matter," he admitted. "If you were an engineer, then it would matter, but it's more the results of an engine that matters more than how it works, in my experience. Most people don't know how they work." It wasn't an opinion he'd voice to his housemates--Eileen, Pi, and Reb would get into a row about it, Reb especially--but she was right, the information was practically meaningless, and Cathair had managed to survive without understanding the difference.
His housemates? He hadn't thought about that. "Some of them, maybe...it all depends. Some of them have jobs, so they might not be there. Some of them are in town right preparing for Halloween right now. If anyone's around the garage, I'd guess it'd be Eileen, Sabotage, and Reb. Sab and Reb keep to themselves, though, so they probably won't be around." He really hoped they wouldn't. Sab had all of the social graces of a dead rat, and he would probably get excited over someone as strange as Tia. As for Reb...Cathair never knew how Reb would react. Please, StarClan, let them not be there!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 09, 2012 1:58 am
Tia processed the information, mulling over it. Cathair had mentioned that there might be others, but didn't say anything about her coming over as being a problem. So not a problem? She hoped not, she actually was curious about these machine things he was talking about.
"Alright then, lead the way," Tia said, tiny smile on her face. "Maybe you can tell me a little about your roommates as we walk? Is there anyone I should be careful about? I'd hate to upset someone."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 11:28 am
Cathair smiled. "Well, I have a lot of housemates, I should warn you. Lots of people out here. The only relative I have there is my father, Fogstep, or Foggy as people call him. He loves to run and hunt rabbits with me, and he taught me how to defend myself. He's very curious. My mother Aine doesn't live with us. Around the garage you'll probably find Eileen--she's an engineer and a mechanic, likes to design stuff. She's also a bit curious, but generally nice to most people. She's nice to me, at least. Reb and Sab live above the garage." Here he hesitated. "Reb's made entirely out of metal, and he's...odd. He actually spends less time around here than he used to. I try to avoid him, for the most part. He's got some strange ideas." To say the least! "Sab's his adopted son. He's part metal, part flesh. He's even more curious than my dad. He'll touch anything he doesn't know about or that confuses him. He's also mute and speaks in weird sounds. I can never understand a word he says."
Cathair brushed the branches of a bush aside and led on. There wasn't far to go now, with the house getting closer. The garage was to the north, so he turned that way, brushing Tia's side with his wingtip.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2012 10:03 am
Tia followed Cathair as he changed directions, grateful for the brief touches. Most people either were overly helpfully and steered her around like she was helpless, and some just took off like they expected her to keep up by sound alone.
And it was true that with her hearing she could follow someone by sound, but sudden changes in direction always caused her to falter slightly, briefly disoriented.
Her interested was definitely piqued though. A noodle made entirely out of metal? How did that work? And one part metal part flesh that couldn't speak expect for weird noises?
"Do his sounds mean anything," Tia asked, unable to quell her curiousity. "That guy, Sab? I mean is it actual speech like a language of his own or does he just make noise whenever the notion hits him?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 11:07 pm
Cathair was glad to see that Tia could keep up with him and that he wasn't leaving her behind. It would be unnatural to have to lead someone everywhere. "From the way Reb and the AIs--artificial intelligences--react, I think he is actually saying something, it's just that his noises make no sense. Even then, the AIs have trouble understanding him most of the time. They can get a few ideas out of it, but not very many. AIs are...weird. From what I understand, they were made instead of being born? Or their minds are organized like a computer's or something? Pi was created as a computer program, but she and others figured out a way to have fleshy bodies, or something like that. To be honest, I don't understand it--I've just taken it to mean that they're a bunch of people with a different culture and different abilities."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 02, 2012 6:25 pm
"I wonder if I could understand him," Tia mused. It was more like an errant thought made into speech rather than a comment directed towards Cathair. She indulged in the possibility for a few more seconds before her mind was overrun with Cathair's descriptions of AI's.
"I've never heard of computers of AI's before," Tia admitted, hoping she wasn't annoying her new friend with what must seem like a total lack of any knowledge. "They sound...interesting. The way you describe them sounds like a different race that just learned to look like us."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 3:33 pm
"I don't know," he said honestly. "I mean, maybe you could understand him, maybe not. He's always delighted to find someone who can. At least, the way he acts is the way most people act when delighted." The garage was now in sight, and Cathair looked around for a door that might be unlocked that they could slip into.
"Computers are...thinking machines, or something like that. Or machines that look like they're thinking, or..." He shook his head. "I don't know quite how to describe them. I don't really understand how they work myself, but it's something like...they calculate things? And they use those calculations to do more complicated things? Something like that. And artificial intelligence programs are like...programs on a computer that can act and think like a r--like other people. They're like a separate breed that looks like other breeds. Same species, though."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed May 30, 2012 10:07 am
Tia laughed and slowly shook her head. "It's a lot to take in," she said, voice still full of humor. "And it just makes me realize how much I've probably been missing in this world. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up!"
Tia's nose twitched as new smells reached her. The gentle current of air changed ever so slightly, as though it was now having to move around something. She kept her ears perked curiously, moving closer so that her shoulder was bumping lightly against Cathair's hip. It was much easier to follow him this way; she could feel the flex of muscle giving her clues as to what he might do next. She'd rather not bump into anything in the garage, especially if it might bump back!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:24 am
Cathair could feel the brush of Tia's shoulder against his hip and found himself welcoming it. He could feel his unease finally begin to dissipate as he realized how little he himself knew. Tia didn't know much about the world, but then again, neither did he. "I've missed a lot, too," he admitted. "I haven't gotten out much from the House in a long time." His heart gave a sharp pang. He added in a softer voice, "There hasn't been much need to." Reaching up onto his hind legs, he turned a doorknob and slipped into a room divided sharply into two halves. One half was messy and smeared all over with clay--three tables, buckets of tools, several stools, a pottery wheel--while the other was neat and clean, with a vigorously scrubbed table and mopped floor, shelves covered with pots of paint and glaze. "This is Pi's pottery workshop," he explained. He spied the door on the other side of the room and made toward it. "Looks like she's not in today."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 07, 2012 6:29 pm
Tia inhaled deeply, bringing in the complicated layers of scent and trying to sort through and memorize all of them. "It smells kinda earthy, but like moist earth. From near a river or maybe deep in the ground. And wood." She sniffed again, mouth slightly open to taste the air as it passed over her tounge.
"There's other stuff too. Kinda strong and sharp, but not overpowering. I've never smelled anything like it before." She kept close to Cathair, still lightly touching him, turning her head in all directions as she continued breathing in the air and listening to the sounds their steps made in the room.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 9:14 pm
Cathair scented the air. He could smell the moist, earthy scent, and the wood, too. "The earthy smell is clay--and you're right, it comes from riverbanks or from underground. There isn't that much naturally occurring clay around here, though--Pi buys this from people who sell clay and works it here in her workshop. She uses some wooden tables to work it on." As for the strong and sharp smell? There were several scents like that. There seemed to be a strong, sharp smell coming from the glazing half of the room. "It's probably the glaze," he said. "It's this substance that comes in different colors, and when it's exposed to high heat--in a place called a kiln--it turns into a smooth, glassy surface that's waterproof. Pi puts it on her works before firing them--that's what it's called when it's baked in the kiln." Investigating one of the tables, the warrior saw that one of the jars of glaze had been left open. As there was no sign of any work nearby, he assumed that this had been a mistake and surreptitiously screwed the cap back onto the jar before leaving it where he found it.
He went back over to Tia and led her to the door on the other side of the room. "This building has several different rooms, mostly workshops and stuff like that for those of us who are more craft-inclined. This next room is the garage proper, where the machines are."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 05, 2013 11:59 pm
Tia listened avidly as Cathair talked. Clay she actually did know about, having found a lump once when digging around in the ground. It hadn't smelled the way this stuff did, but it was an older memory and the surroundings were completely different. Who knew, maybe the piece of clay she'd found smelled different cause it was from a different place. It wasn't like dirt all smelled the same after all, the weather and terrain greatly influenced those things.
Glaze was a new concept to her though, as was the thought that you could actually do something with clay that counted as work. The color part didn't really matter much to her, but the words Cathair used to describe the way it made things feel intrigued her. Glassy? She didn't think she'd ever felt something glassy before, and didn't rightly know what the word meant, but if glassy was similar to smooth then she was sure it would be a pleasure to touch.
"The way you talk this place seems like it holds a lot more than people who work with machines," Tia commented upon Cathair's description of the house, but was instantly distracted by that wood-and-metal sound that he'd made earlier that had brought with it the new fascination of smells and sensations. She wasn't disappointed either; a myriad of smells assualted her nose, all of them strong and pungent in their own ways. It was so disorienting that Tia had to physically stop moving for a moment and attempt to sort past them to things she knew, that or try to ignore her scent and rely on her other senses to rid herself of that disorientation.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
