6085/No, You Can't Keep a Megalodon.

No, You Can't Keep a Megalodon.
Date of Scene:	30 April 2021
Location:	Temple of Wisdom
Synopsis:	Donna and Cait introduce Nadia and Vivian to the delights of Amazon SCIENCE! There are giant sharks, superblacksmiths, steam engines and the distant descendents of the Antikythera mechanism
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Vivian Vision, Caitlin Fairchild

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Donna Troy has posed:
    Today is the SCIENCE TRIP. There has been hunting, there has been arts of a variety of types, there has been training. Now there will be science.

     While Themysicra does not come across as the most promising location for raptures of high-technology exploration, there is an opportunity to learn about a branch of the human intellectual endeavor which split from the scientific mainstream before the fall of Rome, and already the Titans will have learned a little of how a culture rich in enchantment just does things differently. It had to be explained, for example, that nobody was to attempt to disassemble the proximity-controlled light bulbs the visitors will have found in their rooms to find out how they work, on the basis that they are just glass spheres containing magic water and have no electrical or mechanical parts to examine.

    There isn't even electricity in the palace! It has been promised that the Amazons have indeed invented electricty and just don't see a need for it in homes, so perhaps there will be more interesting technology to be found at the Temple of Wisdom. On the way there however, there's another kind of science to explore: natural history.

    "No promises," Donna says to the group as the horses descend from a hill towards a short cliff overlooking the sea. "But this is usually a good spot." A couple of miles north is the Temple of Wisdom, a cluster of large buildings that can be seen surmounting a small mountain. The mount extends out of the sea, almost a second island connected to the main island by a narrow land bridge, a slender spur of rock that towers above the waves. A bay of golden sand and clear blue water stretches south to curve away around the island and north all the way to the mountain.

    As Donna leads the horses down a narrow ledge that descends from the clifftop to the beach, nothing can be heard but for the chatter of the visitors and the clopping of horses except the wash of waves and the cry of sea-birds. "To be honest," Donna says, "I'm not sure what they'll be like with strangers. They don't attack us, but even with me here I can't be sure they wouldn't consider you to be intruders, so it's best not to stray beyond the shallows. The Great-Teeth are wild and dangerous creatures."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia rides along behind Donna on her horse, it is not the first time she has been on a horse but she is still wary on the narrow ledges. Not so much for her own safety, she has wings after all, but she would feel terrible if anything happened to the horse.

Thankfully the horse probably knows the way better than she does, because there is only so much that she is able to pay attention when surrounded by such amazing sights and the chance to see creatures which reportedly went extinct eons ago but apparently survived here and are even sentient according to Donna.

The horse is guided up to the waters edge before Nadia's wings come out and she dismounts without ever touching the ground, hovering above the shallows. "How do they distinguish intruders from guests or was their never any need?" She asks curiously.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"May I ask if these creatures should be classified within my memories as a state secret?" Vivian wonders as she follows alongside the horses. Having opted to travel on foot rather than ride. Thankfully by lowering her mass she can easily keep up without trouble. When the group stops she seems content to stay well back from the shore line. "As they must pertain to the defenses of the island... Not that I can imagine many things which could trouble multiple giant creatures."

Regardless of the answer Viv scans the area. No doubt Nadia will want as detailed images as possible for her records. Providing they're lucky enough to see something to record of course.

"I'm sure not even my Great Aunt will be rushing out to swim with them." Virtual fingers crossed.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "That's a good question Nadia," Donna says with a smirk. "I mean we don't exactly have a lot of guests, so generally that hasn't been a need. Whether we have a lot of intruders or not I don't know, but certainly none have made it as far as the beach my life time."

    "Diana has the knack of conversing with them, and according to her they view protecting the island and its inhabitants as an ancient pact they made with... well. The Dreamer. It's kind of shark god, I guess. It's like... this is their place, the place that was given to them as their sanctuary when their kind died out. They protect the place, and we're a part of the place. Maybe you have to smell of Themyscira to them or something, I don't know. They have a kind of primitive intelligence, but their explanations of things are apparently very vague."

    Nothing obviously megalodon-like is visible in the water, but Vivian's sensors detect plentiful life in the waters. She picks up a shape a couple of hundred feet out that's very approximately shark-like, but at barely six feet long it wouldn't be particularly impressive even for a regular, non-extinct, non-giant shark.

    "It's not really a state secret," Donna calls back to Vivian as she walks along the strand. "I mean nobody can find the island without guidance anyway. Actually I think Cassie posted a pic of one on her instagram last year, though probably everyone assumed she Photoshopped it." She stops, stooping down and pulls something about the size of a dinner plate out of the sand. "Anyone want a tooth?" She calls back.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia nods her head several times as she listens to Donna's explanation, "I wonder if I could get as big as a megalodon and swim with them." She muses mostly to herself. She hasn't really experimented much with increasing her size. There was that time she did it in the heat of the moment during the fight with Brainiac but otherwise she has never really felt the need to be bigger.

"Woah..." Nadia stares at the dinner plate sized shark tooth Donna fishes out of the sand, "That is sooo cool, it's okay to keep that?" She seems perhaps slightly surprised by this, perhaps due to the growing list of things she is not supposed to touch or export.

Still, she squints out over the surface of the water peering and looking, daringly drifting down closer to the surface.

Vivian Vision has posed:
The nice thing about scanning the surroundings in Themyscira? Even if you don't pick up anything of immediate scientific value the views are still pretty spectacular and will make for wonderful holiday movies.

"Great Aunt Nadia if you were a similar size then you'd be at risk of some rather painful bites," she points out. More for the sake of being the voice of reason than any expectation Nadia will listen. Donna gets a polite shake of her head. "While I appreciate the offer I do not think I have any need for a giant tooth."

She frowns as she continues to look out to sea. "I do not see any substantially large sea creatures. I probably could hear them if I dunked my head under the water though..."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You can," Donna says with a laugh, handing the tooth to Nadia. "Just don't show it to anyone from Discovery channel. An unfossilized megalodon tooth would make them jst too smug. And listen to Viv. If you made yourself their size they'd know for sure you weren't an Amazon, because no Amazons are that big. They'd swarm you."

    Donna starts removing her boots, taking a moment to warn Nadia once more "Remember, if you're going to go in, don't go far. Waist deep will be safe." With her boots off, she returns to her horse, taking from the take a long rope with two heavy holed stones at either end, strung with shells. She wraps this over her shoulders, and walks into the sea.

     It's soon apparent that Donna doesn't intend this advice for herself, as once her boots are off she starts wading out into the sea, arms outstretched, holding the ends of the rope in either hand, until the water is deep enough that her arms are resting on the surface. She comes to a halt, standing very still for about thirty seconds, then starts letting the rope slide through her hands, the stone weights on the end plunging down into the water and stirring up a murk of sand around her feet. She moves her arms backwards and forwards in a precise rhythm, the shells strung on the rope making an eerie noise as they shake and rub together.

    "I'm not great at this," she calls back over her shoulder. "But the sound carries, and it makes them curious. I have no idea if there's some rational basis for it, or if it's some ancient tradition that works because it's a learned behavior... but this is how you summon a megalodon."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia accepts the tooth with bright eyes full of wonder, promptly making it disappear into one of her pockets. Storage space is never a problem for the young Pym Scion.

She watches the strange practice Donna performs to summon Megalodons with fascination. One can easily see the gears turning in her brain as she considers how she might replicate the sound with more conventional technology for undersea broadcasting. She almost definitely wants to know the answer to if there is rational basis for it or not too.

At this point Nadia begins pulling off her boots and makes them disappear likely in the same pocket where she is storing the tooth, and sinks down letting her feet enter the water, which feels really good in the hot weather.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"This is very interesting," Vivian notes as she watches Donna do her giant fish summoning ritual. "And I am glad I won't have to dunk my head under the water. Also, I am going to treat the specifics of what you are doing as secret. Just in case it's learned behavior and possible for others to replicate."

She moves to find a better spot to watch from. A large rock or sturdy looking tree branch she can leap up onto.

"Most people do not understand just how well sound travels underwater. What might feel like a little splashing is likely extremely loud for a sea creature used to hunting for... What /do/ creatures that size eat? Whales? Or some other extinct sea creature?"

Donna Troy has posed:
"You'd have to get the pattern right," Donna replies to Viv. "I guess you could record the exact pattern of what I'm doing, but this is only part of the trick. People who are good at it have a sense of how the creature is reacting to it, and change the rhythym. It's an art, and I don't really have the art. As for what a creature that size eats..."

    Donna gives Vivian a broad grin, and glances to Nadia. It occurs to her that Nadia is probably even less familiar with traditional American jokes than Vivian. It's entirely possible it's an old Themysciran joke too -- such jokes may be universal. "A creature that size eats anything it wants to, Vivian."    After some time Donna gives a shake of her head and starts hauling the rope back out of the water. "Doesn't look like it's working, I guess there are none arond today. If you want to get up really early tomorrow you could go on the fishing boats, you'd be sure to get to see one that way."

    As soon as she has the rope out of the water and has started back again, some distance ahead of her a black fin breaks the water as if its owner were trying to make a liar out of her out of some sense of mischief. A white foam trails the fin, the wake moving rapidly northwards across the bay. It's getting closer as it swims, though at an angle to the group on the beach rather than coming directly towards them.

    Hearing the sound it makes cutting through the waves, Donna stops and turns to watch. The dorsal fin is iconically shark-like, but against the blue horizon there's no real sense of scale. Distance is hard to judge with the unaided eye. Vivian's image processing gives a little more - parallax suggest a range, geometry suggests a size. The fin stands more than six feet out of the water.

    As the fin gets closer, the onlookers start to see a dark shadow in the water below it. Again, Vivian is best placed to make an estimate of its size -- sixty foot long, perhaps. Donna's spoken estimate is more subjective. "Big," she says, looking back to the other two with a happy grin. "But they look bigger close up.

    The three Titans watch the shape moving through the water. At one point the great tail fin breaks the surface for a moment as the creature flicks itself on a slightly different course, moving further out to see again. The soaring tailfin dwarfs even the great dorsal fin, and the wave thrown up by the motion of the heavy tail gives a real sense of the enormity of that shape beneath the waves even to those without the additional image processing options.

    When finally the fin is out of sight again, Donna turns once more to the beach, striding through the shallows with the shark-summoning rope, smiling wide. "Well. Maybe next trip Diana will take you diving with them," she says. What would you like to see next -- the observatory? The forges? The computers?

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia seems a bit crestfallen for a moment when Donna is ready to give up, staring out to see for a bit longer still. It can't be helped though if there are no megalodons around to be seen. The crestfallen expression doesn't last for long though before against expectations a megalodon appears after all.

Nadia watches the approach of the massive majestic shark with rapt attention, grinning from ear to ear when it seems to show off, she can hardly contain herself. What might be a terrifying sight to many humans is simply a creature of beauty to her, a creature supposedly extinct that she should never have gotten a chance to see, but there it is right before her out in the waters off the magical tropical island.

"Big." Nadia echoes, still in awe as the megalodon retreats. Finally remembering to breath she exhales the breath she hadn't even realized she was holding. She continues to stare out to see for a moments longer before looking back to Donna. "That was amazing!" A beat later, "Onward to the SCIENCE!"

Vivian Vision has posed:
"It probably doesn't eat just /anything/," Vivian points out. "It's not energy efficient to chase and eat small fish." Which is probably true unless magic is involved. The larger the predator the more energy it takes to go hunting! "As for pattern recognition.. It's certainly not beyond my abilities or those of many of the Titans foes..."

Up above is indeed an excellent position from which to view the spectacle and Viv takes full advantage of her synthezoid senses to record them in as much detail as possible. And to use that data to make 3D models, estimates about size and mass then compare it with all archeological investigations into Megalodons. To see how science matches up with reality.

"Do you think this trip will be a regular occurance Donna? I expect there are more things here than any of us could explore in a single trip."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives Nadia a wide grin, wrapping an arm around the excitable young scientist's shoulder to give her a one-armed hug. "I think she was teasing us," Donna confides. Just a glimpse. Maybe her way of giving you a good reason to come back." She flashes a wink to Vivian, before returning to grab her boots from the beach and strap them to her saddle before mounting up again.

    "It's not a big island, but you'll notice that nobody is bored of living here, and most of them have lived here three and a half millennia," she says as she prepares the horses for the journey on to the temple. "Certainly a week isn't enough, Viv. Cait has been coming here pretty regularly since her first visit. I believe that the queen has become accustomed to the idea that letting her daughters visit the outside world makes it inevitable that the outside world would start wanting to visit Themyscira. She resists it still, but less and less. There will certainly be more visits. It's my hope that before too much longer we'll be able to bring some of the guys along too."

    Speculation on the diet of megalodon must be sated with Donna's brief explanation that the waters around Themyscira are very rich with large fish, and small whales. The data Vivian was able to gather was too limited for a 3-D model to avoid being somewhat speculative - the depth of the body and length of the pectoral fins, particularly, are missing datapoints that would be really important for corroborating or otherwise the paleontological assumptions, but at least Vivian can confirm they are broadly right. It would be at the upper range for expected size, but there's no way of knowing if this single sample is a large or small one compared to other Themysciran megalodon.

    Before long the Titans are crossing the narrow spit of rock that connects the small mountian-island to the main island. It's narrow, with a steep drop forty feet into the waves below, but the top has been built on, giving it a firm paved footing, and stone walls lining the length ensure there's no concern about horses slipping. When they come out onto the other side of the causeway, it's clear that the title 'temple of wisdom' really doesn't convey the reality of the place. There are several dozen buildings here of various sizes, and only two look particularly temple like: one rectangular structure of great size and similar in construction to the classic peristyle temples, the other the great domed observatory that sits on the very top of the mountain.

    A number of the buildings appear to be industrial in nature, with a significant number of Amazons moving around the area busily. One of these is close to the causeway, and Donna leads the group there, where she is greeted at the entrance by a tall, well-muscled Amazon with short red hair, who greets her and exchanges a few words with her in Themyisciran. "This is Pallas, the greatest of our smiths," Donna tells the Titans by way of introduction. She's very busy today, but has agreed to let us take a quick look at her forge, so long as we don't interfere with the work.

    If the word 'forge' brings to mind thoughts of some small blacksmiths, entering into the building quickly puts paid to that. Though the room is well aired and ventilated, with dozens of chimneys in the roof to let heat escape, a wall of heat strikes the visitors as they enter the hall with an almost tangible sense. Four great furnaces of dense black metal fill one end of the chamber, encrusted in fern-like metal blades and wrapped in pipework in what must be some kind of elaborate heat exchange mechanism. A loud thrumming of fans can be heard even over the furnace roar,but even that noise is overwhelmed by the regular crashing of metal on metal, as a huge mechanical hammer in some silverly-bronze material crashes down once every ten or so seconds, pounding away at a heavy bar of cherry-red hot metal.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Dozens of workers are around the chamber, working at the furnaces, or the great hammer; manually hammering on anvils; or working at workshop tables with a wide variety of hand tools. The activity in the room encompasses a strange contrast between the vigor of the furnaces and the pounding of alloys, and delicate metalwork being performed on the workbenches.

    "Pallas' forge produces the best of our metalwork," Donna says - or rather shouts, because it takes a loud voice to be heard. "She spent a lot of time as Hephaestos' pupil and knows things to do with metal that have not yet been discovered in man's world. The steel we use for our swords and armor on its own is tougher than the strongest tool steels thanks to a complicated forging process that creates magnetically aligned molecular impurities. It's... well, basically it's a form of nanotechnology. But Pallas knows secrets beyond even that, with... well. Secrets!"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
As it happens, Caitlin is at the forge when the other Titans arrive. She's dressed in the loose-fitting toga common to Themyscira, simple white linens that are comfortable in the warmer climes.

A set of artisan's forge tools are at a knee table next to her chair and she's hunched over a heavy anvil with a heavy gold-plated bracer on the horn. The tools look almost delicate in her hands, but the sturdy tone of ringing metal indicates she's working over the surface efficiently and with little fear of them or the workpiece breaking.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
There is just sooo much to see. Nadia follows after Donna with wide eyes, suitably awed by the Themysciran idea of a forge. It is definitely not hard to believe that any of this was inspired by the forge of a legit deity.

She is admiring the impressive devices and listening to Donna talk about Hephaestus and Pallas and magnetically aligned molecular impurities, when there is Caitlin! "Cait! Hey Cait! We're having a SCIENCE! tour! THIS PLACE IS AMAZING!" There is no shortage of excitement for Nadia, quite the opposite, if she gets any more energetic they may start tapping her to power the forges instead.

Vivian Vision has posed:
With so much to pay attention to Viv is quiet, more so than usual, and takes a lot of care to observe everything about the Themysciran Forges in great detail. It'd be quicker to list the members of GIRL who wouldn't be interested in seeing how the Amazons work metal than it would be to list everyone who would like to see!

"I must admit I find it very satisfying to watch people carry out metal working tasks and other complex crafts. You get to see someone turn an idea into a physical object."

She looks up and around the room, then nods to herself. "Also it's interesting seeing the juxtaposition between the more classical architectural style and the exotic and more 'modern' forges." After all even if it's basically magical nanotechnology that's in use to the Amazons the techniques could still be rather ancient.

Donna Troy has posed:
    At least this is one place where nobody's going to complain about the noise of Nadia yelling excitedly, but Donna is momentarily tempted to lasso the young Titan. Instead she contents herself with placing a restraining hand gently on Nadia's shoulder and giving Caitlin a rueful grin.

    "Hey Cait," she says. "We succesfully managed to show Vivian and Nadia a megalodon, though not very close up. How's the work coming along?" She peers at the bracer Caitlin has on the anvil with a critical but somewhat inexpert eye. "Looks nice," she offers. Some time spent working the forges is a part of an Amazon's training and Donna had spent plenty of time doing the kind of things Caitlin is doing now in her youth, but it wasn't one of her particularly strong subjects. She's handy enough with a hammer but had always been a little impatient with the complicated alloying processes the Amazons use.

    Pallas hovers behind the Amazons with an air of proprietorial nerves, obviously keeping a close eye on things to make sure that nobody breaks anything. Or gets their fingers caught in a ten-ton steam hammer. "This style of forge is older than the architecture you see," Pallas corrects Vivian with a smile. "The design was introduced to Hephaestos' forge in Aetna by Steropes when the Kyklopes were freed from Tartarus and went to work there. A long time ago."

    Donna gives Vivian a smile and a shrug. "Yeah... remember that you'll see a lot here which has been developed by the Amazons from what you'd think of as classical Greek culture -- but there is a lot too that has been gifted to us by a culture much older than that. The way we create alloys of iron is far older than the iron age. The gods were experts in working the metal long before humanity discovered the technology to melt it."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin looks up and smiles at her friends. The tools are set down and she stands up awkwardly to avoid smacking her knee against the half-ton anvil. "Hey guys," she says, bidding them welcome. "Glad you got to see the fishes. The biodiversity here is incredible. Just don't get eaten, there are a lot of opportunistic predators that don't exist elsewhere in nature."

The bracer's removed from the anvil and Caitlin fiddles with it, sliding her cell phone into a slot prepared for it. She demonstrates for Donna how to flip it open and closed. "No more broken phones," she says, beaming. "I figure it's safer there than in a pocket or something."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
A lot of thoughts race through Nadia's head as she listens to what Donna tells Vivian, still zipping this way and that trying to get a look at literally everything though somehow still restraining herself from touching any of it. Probably first among the questions that she isn't sure if she should actually ask is 'What /are/ the Gods anyway?' Instead she settles for, "If they had the technology for that so much earlier, why didn't they share it?"

Ultimately she winds up next to Cait's anvil looking down at it and then following the path of the bracer upward with her eyes as Cait demonstrates the new innovation that she has incorporated.

"Amazon Cellphone Case!" Nadia dubs it without a moments hesitation, "That is both brilliant and stylish, won't the force of bullet impacts travel through it though?" She wonders aloud, obviously thinking of what she has seen other Amazons do with their bracers.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Comparatively almost everything is ancient to me," Vivian notes with a shrug. "Although people generally prefer not to be reminded of that fact. Regardless I very much love the buildings here. Even the most functional structures are designed not just to fit the landscape but seemingly to compliment it. It's a nice change to forests of skycrapers."

Plus it bothers her much less than the vanity of a giant T-shaped skyscraper.

"May I ask what sort of things are made here on a day to day basis? Is it mostly functional items intended for combat, jewelry and industry? Or does mechanical engineering research get carried out as well?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna looks over Cailtin's work with a delighted smile, giving the mechanism a try. "See this," she calls out to Pallas. "Your newest student has already invented something entirely new to Themysciran wisdom. Imagine what strides she will make when she has completed her studies."

    Pallas gives an amused laugh. "Troia - I shall make sure to employ your friend's innovation in your own next suit of armor, when you finally make up your mind about it. It is pleasing to see Caitlin has the confidence to try innovating, though I do not understand the obsession you two and Cassandra have with cell-phones. I find it most sensible that if someone wishes to interrupt me at my work they are forced to actually travel to my forge to do so. It ensures they only interrupt me if it is serious."

    Nadia's question gains a slightly more serious response from Pallas. "The... wave of force moves through the metal in a controlled manner. Observe the rib structure here, this helps to direct that wave so that it passes through the expanse of the material. What you do not see is the structure of the metals themselves. Within the metal are a great many transitions between materials, and voids of space so small you cannot see with the eye. The wave of force is transformed as it passes between these transitions. It is slowed, and some becomes heat, some becomes sound... there is no perfect armor, but all armor works by reducing the force of an impact and spreading it so that it is less destructive, and that is something our techniques are very good at doing."

    Donna attempts to address Nadia's more philosophical question. "The gods are gods. They are people, like us, but they are somehow a more fundamental part of the universe than we are. They are ancient, and powerful, and knowledgeable, but also they are people and they act through emotion and bias. Why they chose to share what they do and not share what they do not is something beyond my wisdom, but I would suggest that it might not be too different from... in Gar's TV show, the 'prime directive'. Put simply, you do not give a fusion reactor to a small child to play with, even though you might wish to teach her the principles of fusion as she grows older."

    "Both indeed," Pallas replies to Vivian. "Some of the other forges are more dedicated to fulfilling our society's needs. A portion of the work we do here is dedicated to improving our techniques. There is work we do here that other forges simply cannot match. An example..." she moves to one of the other workbenches, where another Amazon is working on somthing with hand tools, through a large desk-mounted magnifying glass, and giving the worker there a short nod, picks up a leather-covered block of wood and brings it over to show Vivian and Nadia. "Take a look at this. Do not touch. You see these small pieces of metal?" She indicates a sprinking of dark metal fragments about the size of a large salt grain. "They are... Troia. What is the word for /odontotos trochos/?"

    "Gear wheels," Donna replies.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin beams in pleasure at the compliment from Pallas, though it prompts a little pinking of her ears all the same. "Cassie lives on her phone more than most," she acknowledges. The new gadget is handed over to Nadia to examine and play with while Pallas explains Caitlin's modifciation.

"I like having mine set up to talk to my drone, or interface with communications networks. Viv makes a lot of that easier than it used to be," she tells the synth, and smiles approvingly at her. "But it's still good to have backup systems."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia turns the bracer over in her hands examining it from different angles as Pallas explains nodding her head several times as she notes how the design has been constructed to manipulate incoming force, "This is fascinating, I'm reminded of structures like graphene that use assemblies of carbon nanotubes." When the explanation gets to things too small to see with the eye, Nadia actually sets the bracer back down on the anvil. "I'll be right back, please don't hit this with a hammer while I'm gone." To those who don't know her this might seem odd, the Titans present undoubtedly know what is coming though as Nadia seems to blink out of existing, save for a tiny gnat-like speck that can be seen langing on the bracer and disappearing inside as Nadia takes a tour of the elements too small to see.

It doesn't take too long before she reappears again from within metal structure of the bracer, "That was really cool! How do you get the various materials and small voids to align like that?!" The question is clearly for Pallas though she turns to Caitlin as well, "Did you make this yourself? The metallurgy, Riri would go crazy to see what I just saw inside."

Donna's explanation of the Gods and their intentions gets a thoughtful headtilt from Nadia, "I was given the plans for a fusion reactor... and a lot of other things when I was really young. Though the Red Room really isn't a model for good parenting, so I think I see your point. There is tech I don't release either for kind of similar reasons, like my shrink beams, in the wrong hands they could do unimaginable harm."

She makes her way over and looks through the magnifying glass when Pallas beckons her and Vivian. "They're so small! Were these made by hand?! Usually I'd have to have tiny robots build something like this for me. How?" Hand forged nano-tech will never not be impressive, as the Forge of Infinite Wonders keeps topping itself.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"It's easy to think of a cellphone as a frivilous device," Vivian admits with a shrug. "But they are remarkably useful for all manner of purposes. Instant communication with anyone on the planet is excellent for the planning and implimentation of military strategy for example. Especially when you can share real time images and audio." She gives Caitlin a shy smile at the praise. "I've actually taken to checking social media for evidence of ongoing criminal activity and then directing police forces to get involved all over the world."

You'd think people wouldn't post plans of criminal schemes on public social media, but all kinds of illegal activity goes on there. You just need to be able to read an inhuman amount of boring content to find the useful leads...

Viv zooms her vision in on the tiny gears and nods. "My own construction features machines that are small enough to qualify as a form of nanotechnology. So I've always found microscale engineering to be fascinating." And then Nadia mentions Riri and Viv doesn't quite blush, but she does start twirling her hair around her finger shyly. "I wonder. Would it be possible to acquire something like a hammer to take back as a gift for her? Nothing exotic or fancy. I think even a plain old regular one intended to hammer nails into a wall would still be gift worthy to an engineer. Purely from knowing where it came from."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "The alignment is achieved by a very... it is complicated. We must be very precise in how we heat the ore to different temperatures, adding new elements in at different stages in the heating, cooling and forging and process," Pallas says slowly. She's pushing the limits of her English, and while she's pretty fluent there has yet to be a concerted effort to teach Amazons English technical terms, which limits the detail she can go into. Caitlin knows how enthusiastic Pallas can get describing these processes when you've picked up enough Themysciran to understand at least a third of what she's saying.

    The explanation of the tiny cogs is equally problematic. "They are cast. The most still hand cannot achieve this kind of precision. We use a process where the metal mixed with certain very fine clay and is kept at a temperature where it is still part-solid, and it is mixed vigorously in a fashion that changes its properties, so it becomes temporarily more uh... the motion of the substance is... how thick it is becomes under our control. It allows the metal to be cast with great precision."

    "Thixotropic," Donna adds. Nadia will know a little about thixomoulding, though this is not something generally considered practical with ferrous metals.

    Vivian's arguments about the advantages of cellphones does not get a response beyond a smirk out of Pallas, who has heard it all before. Her request does however gain her a small round-faced hammer of a similar type to the one Caitlin had been using, with a heavy block of dense steel alloy for a head and a handle of what feels like rubberized wood. Pallas chuckles slightly as she hands it over.

    "We'll have to work on better translations of technical terms one day Nadia," Donna says with a smile. "Caitlin's working a lot with Pallas and they're beginning to understand each other more and more, but there's some way to go identifying what concept in the science of Man's World fits most precisely with our own. Perhaps in a year or two you and Pallas can have a proper scientific discussion, Nadia. Now perhaps we should leave Pallas to her work and go visit the hall of tekhne, and you can see some interesting examples of Themysciran machinery?"

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia listens avidly, even with the limitations of language being what they are. Though with amazing scientific knowledge dangling just out of reach, there is little doubt she'll probably be pestering Donna for at the very least a dictionary soon in order to start trying to bridge that gap. She already speaks seven languages, time to learn an eighth.

"Thixotropic, with ferrous metals, so you're able to induce quasi-gel-like properties in them temporarily?" Nadia seems fascinated by this notion, one can practically see the gears turning in her brain as she considers possible applications, particularly with GIRL's new spaceship building project.

"Yes!" Nadia agrees with enthusiasm when Donna says out loud what she has already been thinking as the explanations hit the limits of language, "I want to help any way I can! I wonder if I could build some sort of translator using the breakthroughs we made to broadcast Gar's mental imprint, translation via Psion particles and electromagnetic signal exchange.." Even on a beautiful tropical island vacation she can't help but continue SCIENCE!ing, it's just who she is. "Okay, let's go!" She turns to wave to Pallas, "Bye! Thank you!"

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin starts tidying up her own work area while the others talk to Pallas. It doesn't take long; she's the sort who doesn't work amidst chaos, only using the tools she needs while she needs them. By the time they're finished talking with Pallas she's swept up the area around her to tidy up the metal shavings and dust.

When she returns she embraces Pallas with a sisterly affection more common to the island, brow to brow, and smiles gratefully. "Thanks for letting me get some work done here," she bids her. "I'll be back more before we leave the island, I've got some finishing touches to do."

She steps aside so the others can take their leave and ends up next to Nadia. The redhead looks around, then leans way down and mumbles in Nadia's ear: "So you didn't actually get /eaten/ by one of the big sharks, right? That would be awkward."

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian Vision accepts the hammer and tucks it into one of her many pockets. "Thank you I am sure my friend will greatly appreciate this," she says with a little nod of thanks. "You could probably replicate the effect by manually shrinking down and adjusting the materials. Alternatively nano-technology could likely replicate some of the effects."

She frowns as the topic of instant translators comes up. "Such a device might in theory speed up the process of understanding another person but you should consider that it also makes it seem like you don't care to take the time and effort to learn." She pauses to glance around the room, then adds "And some people and cultures might find that offensive. Or at the very least rather rude."

The synthezoid practically grins when Caitlin asks Nadia if she got eaten. "Yes it would have been very awkward for my Great Aunt to be writing a scientific journal about the workings of the megalodon digestive system while on a trip such as this."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I'm not sure that any kind of automatic translation is going to work when it comes to translating elaborate concepts from one paradigm to another anyway," Donna suggests. "Sometimes it's a matter of figuring out that the same result is being achieved through different processes. I'm curious to know whether the most important outcome of bringing Amazon science and the science of Man's World together will be finding out new efficiencies in each, or discovering where one or the other has gone down a false path simply because what they do /seems/ to work."

    Donna gives Caitlin a broad grin. "Cait here is convinced that we're hanging on to a lot of antiquated ideas, though she has trouble arguing with the practical results at times. One or two of my sisters hold the exact opposite view. I'm pretty convinced we're somewhere in the middle."

    As Donna leads the party from Pallas' workshop, past a number of other buildings towards the largest of all the buildings in the complex, she falls in step beside Caitlin. "We didn't get the best view of the sharks, but one of them did come fairly close. I'll see if I can get them a better view from the cliffs on the north coast, past the forest. Or maybe we can take a boat, so long as Nadia promises not to shrink down and inspect a shark internally. I'm not so worried about her scientific journal writing, but the sharks may be offended."

    When the reach the Hall of Tekhne, the Titans find a building on a huge scale. Inside it's like an aircraft hanger, with a very high roof. Though there are a few wooden partition walls scattered around, it's largely open-plan, and filled with machinery that is hard to identify. The inside is a cacophony of noise; none of the machines individually are very loud, but there are a lot of things running. There are things that are clearly engines or turbines of some kind, and centrifuges moving at alarming speeds, but on sight alone it's very hard to identify anything. It's remarkable to anyone raised in the world outside that for a building filled with technology, there are no electronic displays present. The Amazons do seem to have some kind of display technology, or perhaps enchantment, because the Titans have seen a few moving paintings on display at the palace, but that technology (or magic) doesn't seem to be used here.

    There's a peculiar mixture of apparently backwards technology with an apparent quality of engineering that's frankly impressive by any standards. Overall the impression is as if someone from a space-faring civilization had tried to imagine what the technology of the industrial revolution had looked like, and attempted to fake an exhibition of early 20th century machinery without ever having seen any.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"Donna said not to past the shallows," Nadia whispers back to Caitlin, there might be the tiniest touch of disappointment there, but she's still jubilant from all of the new discoveries all around her.

She peers at Vivian like the young synthezoid has gone crazy though, "Why would I not take the time to learn, a device like that is just a crutch, you use it until the broken leg heels, you don't just bother not setting the leg and limp around forever because you have the crutch." It's that visceral need of her to know, to learn everything she can.

Nadia looks thoughtful at the conversation of who is holding on to what antiquated ideas, "I think we both have a lot to learn from each other. Science isn't about being right, it's about finding Truth." Evidently in agreement with Donna's middle ground, though the phrasing really speaks to her core beliefs.

When they reach the Hall of Tekhne, Nadia just stares for a moment and begins wandering this way and that looking at the different machines as she tries to figure them out and puzzle out the Amazon equivalent of displays, "This looks like that movie we watched during movie night at the tower that one time..." She is clearly fascinated by the steampunk and trying to figure out the different design decisions.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"There are a few areas we have trouble with here on the Island," Caitlin concedes. "But they relate to things like semiconductors, transistors, and high-density energy sources. Producing chemical batteries on a large scale is difficult to do because of how much reclamation work needs to go into recovering the components once the battery is charged. And there's really only so much you can get out of a steam-driven difference engine before it needs more water, more heat, or stronger metals." She gestures at a steam-drive device that is pushing some gyroscopes around.

"Medical care's kind of interesting. Battlefield trauma care, for instance, stabilizing wounds. We've got clotting powders and specialized suturing techniques. But there's no disease on the island and the sisters don't just heal fast; they're immortal," Caitlin adds. "So biomedicine and long-term care for injuries is non-existent here except in theorywork. Epione has been making me bring her microbiology textbooks every time I visit for years, now."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"My predictive algorithms estimate that you'd get distracted by other projects so often it would be logical to keep using the device once it was completed," Viv points out with a shrug as they travel to the Hall. "Not to mention such a project would in itself take longer than learning another language would. That being said though it would however be very helpful to have for our planned space trip."

Once the group have arrived she wanders around observing everything. Building up a full recording and as complete as possible a mental model of all the devices. "Please let me know if we approach any machines that are restricted so I do not document anything I shouldn't."

After a while she hrms thoughtfully. "Do you think this Epione would want me to write her copies of all the medical books I have in my records? While everyone else in the group is sleeping I'd be happy to transcribe them. Or if a group of scribes can be assembled I could holographically display all of the books to be copied.."

Donna Troy has posed:
     "Don't get Caitlin started on medicine!" Donna tells Vivian and Nadia with a laugh. "She and Epione never stop arguing about it. It's been going on for years. They have both admitted that there might be /some things/ the other side does better, but put the two of them in a room together and it's a walking argument. Caitlin is permanently scandalized that we have been experimenting in genetic engineering for nine hundred years without a proper understanding of the cellular structure of the genomes we're messing around with. Meanwhile Epione is permanently scandalized that every time she shows Caitlin some medicine that's more effective than anything Big Pharma has been able to produce, Caitlin's reaction is to point out that Epione generally doesn't know /why/ it works and proper study would no doubt produce something better."

    "Perhaps the best solution is to bring a laser printer next time, Viv. I'm slowly bringing over a few bits and pieces to make it possible to communicate properly with the outside world, though... there is some resistance. Hopefully before long Epione will be able to download and print out anything she needs."

    Donna leads the trio through the hall, occasionally stopping to talk to someone working on some obscure piece of equipment, and generally acting as a translator between the Titans and the Amazon engineers. Being the least scientifically inclined of the four Titans it's a bit of a struggle for her, but she's not scientifically illiterate, and generally manages to muddle through. Of the wide variety of machinery the Titans were shown, two areas of development particularly stood out.

    The first was the electricity generator, which was surprisingly small -- though without domestic electricity needs, it probably doesn't have to generate vast amounts of current. Although it's not the only generator on the island, it appears to power everything in the hall that requires electricity. It was, curiously, apparently powered by steam. The details were beyond the abilities of Donna to fully translate, but there were some differences apparent between the Amazon's approach to steam and anything the pair of young Titans would be aware of in the world outside. The machine employs a thermodynamic cycle which Donna had struggled to interpret, but sounded something like the Sterling engine. The system seemed to rely on ceramic heat cells for expansion and a condensation system for cooling to create a pressure differential, and if Donna's attempts to convert units of pressure were remotely accurate, the generator was operating under ridiculous levels of pressure. It would be fascinating to know what kind of material was being used for gaskets, but beyond 'some kind of plastic, really', Donna hadn't been able to provide much detail. Nor had she been able to explain what the medium was -- she had translated it as 'unstable water' and had managed to be sufficiently scientific to explain that it had a significantly higher coefficient of thermal expansion than regular water, and was related to the substance used in the apparently unpowered 'light bulbs' the Titans had seen around the palace. This was clearly something that would require a lot more time and research to understand.

Donna Troy has posed:
    The second had been what the Amazons call /sphairopoiïa/, which Donna translated as 'sphere-making', though the connection to spheres was unclear. The more obvious translation was 'computing'. Apparently the Amazons have never made the move to digital computing, but have taken the art of electro-mechanical analog computing to an extraordinary level. The showpiece item is constructed from sturdy computing modules that can be slotted together in a giant framework to create different functions, each module consisting of a dizzyingly complicated system of tiny cogs (no doubt what the Titans had seen being made in the Pallas' workshop) and electro-mechanical switches and shunts. Apparently the basis for the technology had been developed originally in around the fourth century BC, and the Amazons have been working on it ever since. One ancient device on display suggests the Amazons had Turing-complete systems almost two thousand years ago.

    It becomes clear that one area where Amazonian computers obviously lag is bulk storage. It?s hard to come up with a direct comparison between digital and analog systems -- there are some things which would simply require vastly more storage in a digital system than in an analog one. Nevertheless, the magnetic storage systems the Amazons have come up with are clearly decades behind the world outside. Another is processing speed, though the implicit parallelism of the Amazon's analog approach brings its own advantages. One demonstration of this is a lens-making device, where the specification input is directly coupled to a lens turning machine that produces very complicated aspherical lens surfaces without any kind of pre-computation, and produces lenses of exceptional optical properties.

    Perhaps the most fun example of this branch of Amazon technology is the automaton. This would be a more impressive piece of technology if Vivian wasn't right there in the room; it clearly isn't sentient. However it is a humanoid machine that can walk, run, perform delicate manual operations, and somehow manages to use that inefficient analog computing to achieve continuous self-righting, staying well balanced even when bumped. Not so much Boston Dynamics as Amazon Dynamics.

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
"Don't put that off on me," Caitlin objects with some indignation. "Eponia's not doing genetic sequencing, it's advanced breeding projects and hybridization. I'm pretty sure she still thinks I'm pulling her leg about DNA helice structure."

She follows Donna around, trying to bridge the gap in the explanations. "It's pretty similar to deuterium oxide," Caitlin clarifies for the others. "It doesn't read well under a mass spectrometer though. The lights contain the liquid in a suspended viscous gelatin that contains a lot of luciferase," she clarifies. "But part of the production involves 'milking fireflies' somehow, and..." Cait shrugs a bit helplessly. "I can't figure out how they find those tiny udders." A joke, perhaps?



Caitlin digs through the stack of magnetic programs, slowly reading the labels, and offers one to Vivian. "Here's a fetch program for it. It can only hold a couple tapes at a time, and it runs on analog gears that contain Boolean instructions. See what you think of it?" she encourages.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
"It's like..." Nadia begins as she stares at the odd technology around her trying to articulate an explanation for what she is seeing. "I read once that conflict drives innovation, but hasn't Themyscira been at peace in their isolation for thousands of years? And I guess if you have forever, literally, there is less drive to innovate wholely new ways of doing things when you already have a thing that works?" She's just sort of thinking out loud as she wanders from device to device before finally looking back, "I see what you mean Cait, there are some things here that are really neat, but there's also a lot of things I'm pretty sure I could improve by a lot. But I don't think its necessarily wrong, just different? I mean if it accomplishes the desired goal. There's lots of ways to do things. I want to learn them all."

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Really you could argue that humans have been engaging in genetic engineering ever since they first domesticated animals," Vivian helpfully notes. Thankfully when Epione isn't likely to be around to claim this as an endorsement of her position. "And it's been effective enough for the development of civilizatin. If perhaps not always the benefit of the animals themselves."

"A printer you say?" She glances at Nadia. "Great Aunt Nadia did you perhaps bring some printing equipment along with you?"

When Caitlin hands her one of the tapes she carefully accepts and takes a look. Both at the tape and the device it's supposed to run on. "I suspect I need to be very careful with my communications array while inside this part of the building. It could well corrupt the storage medium by accident."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Boolean operations are not the favored approach in Themysciran computing," Donna says as Caitlin hands over the program. "So this is kind of... experimental. Boolean operations are fundamentally additive, while /sphairopoiïa/ works on multiplicative principles. Cait and I have been arguing the advantages of digital computing for a while, but it's something of a curiosity still. You should find the store reasonably robust though, Viv. Just so long as you're not generating any very powerful magnetic fields it'll be okay. The bistable magnetic medium would need a fairly high induced current to mess it up."

    "And experiments are the answer to your musing, Nadia. It is true that conflict drives innovation, but that's not the only thing. History has not really provided for many alternative approaches, but here on Themyscira you'll see one of them. We don't seek knowledge for a competitive advantage, we seek knowledge because that is the /right thing to do/. And also because our world would be boring if it never changed."

    "It's important to understand why the Amazons exist. This is something I hope will become clearer to the world with the opening of the Themysciran Arts Center. While on the face of it we are martial society, that's just the more obvious thing. You see Diana and myself out there in the World of Men fighting against supervillains and it kind of gives people the idea that's what we as Amazons are about. That's just one of the aspects of what it is to be an Amazon. Our society is based on the laws and guidances the goddesses gave to us, and being strong to defend the weak is only one part of that."

    Donna points upwards, towards the far wall, where an inscription can be seen running around the walls just below the ceiling. "What you see carved there is one of the sets of words that guide our society. It is the Law of Aletheia. It reads something like... 'Seek the spirit of truth above all things, so that you may understand both spirit and matter. Conquer the mists of ignorance that enwrap the soul, and you shall have the means to distinguish between good and evil.' It should be more poetic than that, but you get the idea."

Caitlin Fairchild has posed:
Caitlin smiles with quiet pride at Donna. For her its clearly not the *level* of technology on the island that so sparks her imagination; it's the divergence in how the Themyscirans extrapolated essential machinery into directions that are so far and yet so close to that of the rest of the world to which she's accustomed.

"It's all about making the world a better place. Fighting's important, but life isn't all about fighting," Caitlin agrees. "The arts, sciences-- if the world ends tomorrow, it'll need someone who can help ... not just put in the 'how' into humanity, but the 'why', also."

She digs in her knapsack for a strip of biltong and tears it into pieces to offer to the others before chewing on it herself. The dried jerky is spicy and heavily peppered, and tough to chew on, but it's perhaps the most calorie-dense item easily transported around the island. "Anyone wanna head back for lunch? I'm starving," she offers.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia looks over at Vivian and nods, "There's definitely a printer in the lab if you want me to go and get it." Because Nadia does in fact carry an entire fully outfitted laboratory around her neck.

She nods to Donna, "That's true and I understand that drive well, the need to know, but I've also been driven to new heights before under pressure."

She listens to both Donna and then Caitlin, looking thoughtful, "I like that inscription. I think fighting is important to protect Truth." There is definitely a capital T when she says it. Science is her pursuit of Truth and that Truth must be protected from those who might try to subvert it.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"Thankfully I have no immediate need to send signals into orbit," Vivian assures regarding the generation of powerful magnetic fields. "But if I do ever have a reason to I'll make sure I'm far from this location." She nods to Nadia. "If it's no trouble to borrow one and a suitable power supply. Oh and paper of course. I'm sure the library here would welcome copies of some of the volumes I have in my memory."

It's probably a good idea no one lets the head of the Amazons library know just how many books Viv uploaded for light reading during the quiet times in the trip...

"Watching the Amazons training in hand to hand combat has certainly re-enforced my belief that my own skills in that field need improvement. But I would agree that simply fighting isn't enough to improve the world. Better that we eliminate the inequalities which drive people to carry out crimes in the first place so we never need to resort to violence."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Cait! It's four in the afternoon. You've got lost in your work again. Haven't had lunch yet? I'm surprised you didn't try eating Pallas." Donna grins wide and wraps an arm around her old friend's shoulders before nodding to the other two. "Yeah, let's head back. See how the others have been getting on, get some food, rest a bit. We can come back this evening to see the observatory. I've booked some time on the big telescope, we can take a look at the Watchtower. It's a Newtonian Reflector, but we have some really smart technology when it comes to mirrors, and our optics are excellent. I've got a custom-made lens for my camera that beats anything Leica makes hands down."

    "You'll like Charikleia, Viv. The chief astronomer." Donna gives the roboTitan a big smile. "She'll probably want to keep you there all night discussing cosmology. You too, Nadia. And you might have a second customer for your printouts."

    "I brought her back my observations of the black hole Cait and I got stuck inside and it made her very excited. She was critical of my mathematics and has been running things through her computer to come up with a better model of what was going on there, but she's decided I'm not completely hopeless and should spend a decade or two becoming a half competent scientist now, so I try not to bring the subject up. She thinks she's got a new model for how black holes work now though, and is eager to have someone to discuss it with. You two will "

    Donna leads the party back outside and to their mounts for the journey home, already thinking about the possibilities of another trip to see the Megalodon. Maybe with some cliff diving, that'll probably bring Cassie and Toni along too. "Truth... is all things," she replies to Nadia. "It is what separates humans from the animals. That we can seek knowledge to understand the universe, and create arts to please the soul. It places us somewhere half-way between the animals and the gods. The greatest evils are those that limit us as a species, that makes us struggle for survival like animals rather than explore the universe like gods. We Amazons view science as one of the arts. The exploration of the world around us, of the Truths of the physical world just as the arts are an exploration of the Truths of the spiritual world, the world of mind."

    "We pursue those things because that is what makes us human. And we fight, because the world is filled with those who would make humanity no more than animals. That is the mission of the Amazons, and the reason for Themyscira. To preserve the world of mind, and to fight to protect it."