2020-05-29: Ether for Mystics

Ether for Mystics
Dr. Hanada gives a talk explaining the Society of Ether
IC Date	May 29, 2020
IC Time	5 PM
Players	Arumi, Bobbi, Katie, Rick, River, Thea
Location	The Nexus - Courtyard
Prp/Tp	N/A
Spheres	Traditions
Theme Song	Weird Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWi9ILehtZE

Arumi has prepared a nice evening chat outside here at the nexus. In the shade, some water, Fresca, and coffee set out (but no punch or pie), she stands in front of a small group of assembled tables and chairs, stretching out.

Rick strolls in from the garage and gives Arumi a wave "Afternoon Arumi, how are you doing?"

Arumi grins and waves to Rick. "Hi, alright things. Pretty happy to get a chance to do this. Once a few people get here I'll get started. I have a feeling most of the interest will be from your organization. Which... is fitting, as we'll get to." Writing reality out to disk. Please wait... Reality saved. Thank you for your patience.

Rick chuckles a bit at this "Well I guess it is fitting. How is the digging going?"

Arumi gestures circularly with two fingers. "Haven't started yet. I'm still..." She walks up to a table in front, and sits on the corner. "I'm still a good two weeks from solving the remaining inconsistencies I have in the hyperdrive equations. Also I'm processing your colleague Dr. Dajani's analysis of my dimensional diagram."

Rick tilts his head at that "Oh? What sort of analysis did he perform?:

Arumi nods. "He uh... well he happened to see it on my tablet after I did a revision. He memorized it, took it home, and did a comparative study with his best understanding of Hermetic theory."

Rick was eyeing the coffee pot, but looks back suddenly at that "Oh really? Can i take a look at that when you are done? I would be very interested in seeing that."

Arumi walks over to the cooler and grabs a bottle of coffee herself, and holds a second out. "Want one? And sure, I'll send you his paper. It includes a sketch of my draft at the time, though you have to remember that's an iterative process, creating that chart. I'm constantly updating it as I research."

Rick takes the coffee happily and nods a thanks "I would expect so, but yes, I would be very interested in seeing that draft. I personally know very little about that area, so expanding my horizons, pardon the pun, is going to be high on my list."

Arumi nods easily. "Totally, Rick. I'll send it to you after this." She then returns to her seat on the front table, looking as it seems like people are arriving.

Rick smiles as he opens his coffee and takes a pull "Thank you."

Oh, there's Thea! Or has she actually been off in some of the ample shade to be found around the courtyard? Probably she's just got here. At least that's how she acts, looking around from her position by the entrance and waving. "Hi. I'm not too late, am I? I always misjudge that walk."

Arumi waves to Thea and shakes her head. "Not late. People are showing up.. fashionably, it seems. So I haven't even started yet. Grab a beverage if you like, and get comfortable please." Then to Rick. "Here let me pull it up. I'll send it to you now." She then grabs her phone.

Rick blinks as he looks over to Thea, now noticing her for the first time and gives her a wave. "Evening Thea, nice to see you again." He looks over to Arumi and shakes his head "Sorry, I don't put that stuff on my phone. I don't trust them. Dead tree can't be hacked."

"Thanks," Thea says to Arumi, and, to Rick: "One of these days you'll see me first, and then I'll really be in trouble, won't I?" She's obviously joking. Crossing over to the refreshment table where she eyes the available selections, Thea shies away from the Fresca at once, considers the coffee briefly before deciding against, and settles on water, pouring herself a glass, drinking most of it, and then refilling it again before she looks for a seat.

There is a fluttering of wings as a Desert owl comes in for a landing. Maybe not gracefull, but hey any landing you can walk away from. The owl wanders behind a bush and a few moments later River steps out adjusting her clothing as she waves.

Arumi squints at Rick. "Dead tree can't be hacked? Remind me to send you three different papers on Paradigma on how to read and modify printed text. Remotely." She then giggles. "Well I'll give it a bit longer for people to show and get this going."

Arumi then sees River, and waves. "Good evening. We'll be starting soon. I know Bobbi wanted to be here for this."

Rick looks like he's going to argue the point, but just grins sheepishly "Well alright, I'll concede that point. I'm more concerned about me dropping my phone and some sleeper picking it up and reading something they should not. If the technocracy is that interested in reading your paper we have larger concerns."

An owl landing in the courtyard is enough to draw Thea's attention, and she turns toward it, only to be a little surprised when River emerges. She waves. "That's a neat trick you have there," she says, rather cheerfully. "I'm going to assume that, like all the good ones, it's hard to learn." She raises her waterglass in a sort of salute anyway, then sips.

River says, “Well its easy to learn if your a hedge witch, a bit harder id imagine if your a Mage." She grins and walks over "had a hawk fallowing me half way here. had me sweating bullets.”

Arumi tilts her head at River. "Well good you're here. A hawk hunted an owl? That's weird. I thought owls were super scary predators, too. Anyway, before I begin for real, does anyone have any questions about what this is about?"

River says, “Well ushualy, might have been just more curious than anything else. Hard to tell with hawks. Very hunter oriented when it comes to conversations though.”

Thea feigns a sigh. She clearly isn't really disappointed. "It was ever thus. Well, I imagine it was ever thus, at least. What sort of hawk? Did you recognize the species?"

Arumi giggles. "Yeah, maybe we can figure this out. Was it making noises? Did it like, try to come down on you with its claws? Or did it just.. follow?"

River says, “Well if you want to fly as a bird I can just as easly turn you into a bird as I can myself. Only last about an hour before you revert to your natural form."”

Bobbi rushes in along with Katie. She's wearing a form-fitting black T-Shirt with the Rolling Stones 'tongue', a pair of dark blue skinny jeans, and high top chuck taylors. "Sorry we're late," she calls out as she heads over to where Rick is. With a grin, she leans in and says, "Guess who I am?"

Due to her slightly longer legs, Katie is rushing a bit to keep up with Bobbi, but still manages it, rushing into the courtyard and looking around with a smile, "Hello!", she says to those gathered, though mostly in Arumi's direction. Then with a happy hop-skip of a step she's moving over to Rick and moving alongside, her hand easily finding his, the fingers linking together as she looks up to him with a warm, affectionate smile. "Hi!", she says sweetly.

Rick looks over at Bobbi, takes in the outfit and hmmms "Someone who would have been fashionable back in the 1990s?" he ventures with a grin and a wink. "But seriously, I don't know." He then looks down to Katie and smiles, lifing her hand to kiss it "Hey Sweetie, how are you?"

Thea gives River a thoughtful look and decides, "I may have to take you up on that some day. Once I find out what I can do for you in exchange, at least!" Then there are people, and she's waving to both, saying, "Hello again. It's Thea, so you don't have to ask." And a wink.

Arumi waves to Bobbi and to Katie. "Welcome, help yourself to beverages, and now I'm ready to get started." She finishes her coffe, and slides over on the table she's sitting on, moving to the middle, facing the group. "Welcome and good evening. I think everyone knows who I am, but just in case. I'm Dr. Arumi Hanada, elected co-chair on the local council for the Society of Ether, formally the Sons of Ether. I'm here to gives an outline of what we are, what we stand for, and how we operate. Since Ithink there are many harmless misconceptions going around. My hope is that others will give similar talks about THEIR respective groups, and we can all gain greater understanding of each other."

"So. The history of the Society goes back to the 12th century. At the time, the Order of Hermes was hundreds of years old, as was its competitor, the Order of Reason. One member of the Order of Hermes, specifically of House Verditius, was a man named Lorenzo Golo. He found a book. A very old book, translated into Arabic, called Kitab al-Alacir. That means The Book of Ether. For the rest of the evening I'll just call it the Book, or the Book of Ether, for simplicity.

"The book tells the story of King Priam of Troy, during the Trojan War, speaking with the philosopher Aretus. Aretus warned him to send out his forerunners, his advance scouts, to explore out beyond his city walls, into the world. That might surprise you. The book isn't early science. The book isn't about ether. The book is about the philosophy of science. It's not about what we do. It's about why we work the way we do.

She then slides off of the table onto her feet. "We explore because humanity needs us to explore. We explore the Earth, space, the ether, knowledge, life, the universe, and everything. Because it's a moral imperative for mankind's future."

Rick turns his attention to Arumi, but not before leaning over to kiss Katie on the cheek and say something softly to her.

River sits quietly and listens as she smiles.

"I'm okay.." Katie says softly back to Rick, watching her hand kissed, deciding instead to break the contact and rest her arm around him instead, leaning gently into him. "So you're about exploration?", she asks of Arumi, "I knew you were like super smart, with the space rockets, but do you go up into space as well?". Her gaze glances up, imagining the darkness and the mass of stars that would be above them. "Is that a thing?", she asks softly of Rick, "They can go into space and travel to stars? Can you do that?"

Bobbi listens to the presentation, though occasionally she leans over to whisper to Rick.

Thea is obviously a skeptic when it comes to this particular story. Her eyebrows are already raised when there's mention of ancient dialogues discussing the fall of Troy, and it doesn't seem likely she's going to get any /less/ skeptical. Still -- for the time being, at least -- she listens politely rather than jumping in to interrupt.

Arumi smiles and nods excitedly to Katie. "That's right. Later I'll explain just how early we went into space. I'm not the first." She then glances at her phone on the table beside her, checking her notes. "So Golo was so inspired by the Book, he left House Verditius" -- brief glance at Bobbi -- " and founded House Golo under the auspices of House ex Miscellanea. At least until he encountered Simon de Laurent, of an ancestor of the modern Celestial Chorus. Simon found an earlier, possibly original GREEK copy, and they were off and running.

"Golo left the Order of Hermes entirely, leaving House Golo to dissolve, many of its members going with him, but a few going to other Houses. Becuase as we say at Caltech, they are all fine houses." She snickers. "They founded the Natural Philosophers Guild. And to give you an idea how quickly they were advancing, Golo died about 20 years later and the group fell apart. You know how he died? Airship accident. Yes, in the dark ages. Airship accident."

She shakes her head and lets out a big giggle.

Rick tilts his head slightly to listen to Bobbi's whisper, and gives her a little nod. He glances over to Katie with a bit of a grin, then turns his attention back to Arumi as he listens.

"Neat.." Katie says softly, becoming a bit caught up in the story, perhaps. ".. I'd like to go to space.", she says to Rick beside her, giving him a cute little grin. She wants to do everything, add it to the to-do list. Her attention drifts back to Arumi, so interested in the mention of a change of Houses that she flashes a meaningful glance at Rick, but then there's talk of an airship. "There were airships that long ago?", she asks curiously. "I thought Franklin made airships?", a momentary thought about that, she's only recently been learning history, realising her own mistake, "No.. Wright.", a glance at Rick, "Wright? Right.", she chuckles.

Arumi nods. "So, sadly there was no formal organization furthering the Book for the next 6 to 700 years. However Benjamin Franklin" -- a nod to Katie --"inspired Alessandro Volta, who inspired the founding of the Coltarian Order in 1806, within the Order of Reason this time. Franklin and Volta established the fundamentals of electricity and electronics, though several layers more fundamental than the Virtual Adepts would prefer. We got to work right where Golo left off. Not just Airships, but ships into other dimensions. We went into the Hollow Earth, we explored the natural world, we were making the most of the Industrial revolution.

"Right up until 1851, when the Order of Reason was reorganized into the Technocratic Union, and the Voltarian Order was reorganized as the Electrodyne Engineers."

Bobbi lets out a bit of a giggle.

Arumi tries to keep a straight face but winks. "Voltarian Order. Not Voltron Order."

That skepticism you were seeing on Thea earlier? (If you were paying enough attention to Thea to notice it to start with, which is highly questionable.) It's only more so now, and accompanied by a bit of puzzlement. She's trying to figure something out, but whatever it is eludes her.

"Yes she does," Bobbi says softly to Katie. "I'll give you a hint ... ether." She lets out another little giggle at this, but then goes back to listening to Arumi, trying not to be too much of a distraction ... or a catty bitch.

Rick glances over at Bobbi and gives her a slightly reproving frown, but looks back to Arumi. He shifts a bit as he stands, then looks down to Katie with a smile.

Arumi takes a deep breath, folding her hands behind her back, pressing her palms to the edge of the table. "So the Technocratic Union. One of its projects, Union-wide, was a timetable for humanity. What inventions, on what years. A complete stifling of human advance. Now, given that according to the Book, to do that means Humanity suffering Troy's fate." She pauses and looks to Thea this time, puzzled just a moment, before continuing. "We must go to places BECAUSE we don't know what's there." A smile to Katie, and a completely geninue thumbs up to Bobbi. "So... we just completely ignored the Union's board and did what we wanted."

No need for notes this time. "So in 1871 Stephen Lawrence Robertson designed a world-wide dimensional rail network. That failed, when trains slipped into an uncharted part of Sidereal space, but we tried again. Captain Horatio Savage landed on the moon in 1893. He worked with aliens to found Victoria Station in orbit in Lunar Sidereal space.

"That was the last straw for Control. In 1887 they already had countenanced the Michelson-Morley Experiment, attempting to nullify all of our work that depended on the Luminiferous Ether, and in 1904 they officially shifted the consensus. In protest, the... largely men... of the Electrodyne Engineers declared themselves the Sons of Ether, and left the Technocratic Union, joining the Council of Mystic Traditions shortly after."