First Crash [Voice]

[broji]

Hello everyone. For those I haven't gotten the chance to meet yet, I'm Ginji. I wanted to apologize for the trouble I've caused this past week, and to thank you all for looking after my sister and me. We're grateful for your help.

[A thoughtful pause, and what sounds like pages being flipped through.] So I've been wondering, are there any other craftsmen or engineers in Luceti? Pilots? I figure if our worlds are different, then our technologies must be too. There's a lot we could learn from each other.

Comments

[markofthewise]

I guess you could say that. Craftsman... engineer... pilot. Those do all seem to be talking about me.

[broji]

[Goodnaturedly:] Oh that's right. It looks like I forgot to add blacksmith to the list.

[markofthewise]

[Hum. Not sure how to take that. It sounds like it was meant to be good.]

Well. Yeah. I'm one of those too.

[broji]

[Just making light conversation. Ginji'd never say anything that was meant to be bad! Probably.]

But I had no idea you were a pilot. So what are the airships on your world like?

[markofthewise]

Well. Pilot is just, you know, something I've done in the past. I'm not a professional or anything. I just kind of had had a hand in their invention, that's all.

[Oh yes, he's boasting.]

But you know, they're big. Just... ships. That stay in the air, by heating up the air. It's pretty simple once you figure out all the details that go into it.

[broji]

[Ginji doesn't seem to have noticed yet. Or if he has, he's giving Sokka the benefit of a doubt here.]

Oh really? I'm sorry to hear that. Is there some reason you decided to quit working with them?

[Hm.] So they use the fifth fonon? --Oh sorry. I guess that'd mean they're powered by heat energy, right? And that heat would somehow generate enough lift to keep the craft in the air... [He's trying to work out said details.]

[markofthewise]

Uh, no fonons. [Fonons?] Hot air is lighter than regular air. If you make the air inside the envelope hot enough, then it will move above the rest of the air. Make it big enough and it can lift something as heavy as a ship. Kind of like how a bubble rising to the top of a lake. The trick is just maintaining how much hot air you have, so you don't just keep going up.

[He's caught up enough in the explanation that he forgets about the bit about why he 'quit'.]

[broji]

No fonons? [Maybe only Auldrant has them? And why hadn't they thought of something like that? So in effect, Sokka's airships are like giant balloons full of hot air.]

Hmmm, I see. So what sort of machinery do you use to produce and regulate hot air and generate thrust?

[markofthewise]

You heat a furnace with coal or something that can produce enough heat. That's also used to run the propellers, so it doesn't just float in the wind. The Fire Nation kind of had an advantage, since they can control fire. They could generate a lot more heat using a lot less.

[broji]

That makes sense, although we don't rely so much on heat in our own aircraft. The hover drive is what allows them to fly.

[Propellers, huh... Hmmmm.]

You said the Fire Nation controls fire, so does that mean there are other nations that control the water, air, earth, light and darkness? [Because that's how fonons roll. He's not sure how to categorize the seventh fonon, though. It's nearly impossible to work with anyway - well, unless you're a seventh fonist.]

[markofthewise]

... only the first three. The last two, no. [Four elements. That's all they need!] What's a hover drive?

[broji]

No first or sixth... I see.

A hover drive's a Dawn Age fon machine from about 2,000 years ago. They used to attach them to vehicles in order to make them fly.

...Well, there's a little more to it than that, of course. For one thing you still need a flightstone - it's a type of fonstone - in order to control the hover drive, and the vehicle has to be operable.

As for the Albiore, almost all of the necessary lift is generated by the hover drive and then channeled through the rotors on her wings.

[markofthewise]

... so it's all magic. [AND HE ALMOST THOUGHT YOU WERE COOL...]

[broji]

Huh? [He's not sure how Sokka got "magic" out of it. After all, there's a definite science involved here.]

No, not at all. It's a combination of fon technology and utilizing fonons. Without the system, we couldn't use her - she'd just hover over the ground for a little while before crashing.

[markofthewise]

[Okay... so maybe he jumped the gun there.]

I think you're going to need to explain what... fonons and fon technology even is.

[broji]

[Where to even begin.]

It might take a while to cover everything, but I could give it a try.

[markofthewise]

Just the basics would be fine. Since I've never heard of 'em, I don't think there's much chance of me ever working with 'em.

[broji]

I guess not, since Luceti uses a different energy source.

But back on my world, they're everywhere. Fonons coordinate to the elements you mentioned earlier, but they take the form of sound particles. We use them to power our machines - fon machines. All types, from landships to elevators to smaller objects like clocks and lamps. The science behind their creation is called fontechnology.

So for example, when enough fifth fonons are collected together, they produce fire. Which can then be used in bombs or to help heat someone's home.

[This is the short version.]

[markofthewise]

So it's a fuel source. [Using sound particles. Not exactly what comes to mind when creating energy, but it sounds efficient and varied.] It sure beats burning coal.

[broji]

Well, they do have other uses. [Most of which Ginji would have difficulty explaining, not being a fonist or a scorer himself.] But more or less you're correct.

[markofthewise]

But there's not exactly fonons here, right? [At least, not that he has heard.]

[broji]

No, there don't seem to be... I haven't been able to detect anything.

[markofthewise]

So you're gonna have to make stuff the way the rest of us do, then. Do you know anything about working with electricity?

[broji]

You mean the glass bulbs and the wires that attach to sockets in the walls, right? No, I'm afraid I still don't know very much about it.

[markofthewise]

[He nods, expecting as much.]

Well, I've got some books back home for that kind of stuff. It really helped out when all this stuff showed up. You can borrow them if you want. I've got most of it figured out by now.