Scene Listing || Scene Schedule || Scene Schedule RSS
Owner Pose
Staren     Staren waits for Sigurd, sitting in a folding chair inside one of the ring projector rooms. It's currently set up in the appearance of a firing range with a variety of targets -- from hay bales with bullseyes on them, paper and cardboard targets, and metallic targets.
Sigrun Stem Sigrun is walking with a cane today, not so much because she has a bad leg but because she needs to recover. Beyond that, she's dressed in her usual outfit aside from one thing. The red gem on her glove is missing, it's not with her. She's actually trying to use a technological headset.

She's not doing the best of jobs, the headset is the wrong way around, and the microphone awkwardly twisted to be somewhere near her mouth, and whenever someone talks she winces, the audio settings clearly off. "Hey."
Athela Valemore Athela Valemore has already had a few crossings with the strange weaponry of the Multiverse. But that is all the more reason for her to investigate Staren's impromptu seminar on the matter. As such she strolls into the Ring, pausing only when she's close enough to give a short bow in Staren's direction. "Hope you do not mind another observer? I could stand to better familiarize with the type of forces I may be called to fight against in the Union's service." The Eevee that is almost always present with her sits at her heels obediently.
Staren     "Hello, Sigrun!" Staren smiles. Presumably her picture was in a database somewhere. He doesn't comment on the mask. People can wear masks if they want! "And Athela, nice to meet you in person as well. You don't have to bow... I don't mind another, I just hope I can help both of you!" He smiles again.

    Staren quickly notices the headset. "You've got that on backwards." When she winces at the volume, he wirelessly hacks it and changes the settings. Explaining how to use it can come later.

    Staren stands up. "So. Ranged weaponry of the Multiverse. Let's begin..." He walks over to the archery side of the range and picks up a bow and arrow. "I imagine you're familiar with the bow and arrow, but I don't know if magic bows on your world are anything like this, so let's check. You nock the arrow against the string and draw it back, like so." he demonstrates, "and then release it!" He fires it into a hay bale about 15 feet away. He at least manages to hit the target...

    "Bows require a lot of strength and a lot of training, though, so countless things have been invented to replace it, which is what I'll be covering in today's lesson." He rubs the back of his neck. "Geeze, I sound like a teacher..."
Sigrun Stem "Hey Athela." Sigrun awkwardly turns the headset around when alerted to her error, and soon after she realizes that the sound isn't as loud any longer. "... putting it around the wrong way makes it louder? Weird." She sits down to listen, clearly paying attention.

The professional sharpshooter looks unimpressed by Staren's archery. "Does that bow have any draw weight at all?" She rolls up her sleeve, showing of her arm muscle. It's a legitimate archery arm, the arm of a professional, whatever magical element her archery may have, it seems to involve physical strength as well. "Do you have a real one?"
Athela Valemore Athela nods a little as she steps up to the edge of the demonstration area Staren has set up. Briefly wondering if he's brought in physical props or if it is more of that imitation thing the Ring is capable of doing. In the end, it doesn't really matter does it? A capable demonstration is a capable demonstration.

    "I do not, if only because I use my Tide Caller abilities in lieu of needing such weaponry." Or her pokemon, but that is kind of a given in posessing such creatures. She does gesture one hand towards the practice bow as Staren picks it up to demonstrate. "But this is, besdies pokemon, what my world would hath to use. These or crossbows. So it would do me wiser to be more familiar in what other sorts of ranged combat I may come against in the future."

At least he hits the target. She tchs softly in amusement. "And it would seem it is the opposite with ye. Point for the effort for sake of demonstration, though."
Staren     Staren waves a hand. "I changed the loudness setting for you. This is ranged weapon class, not headphones class, I can teach you how to change the settings later." Sigrun may be missing the point. "No, it's a practice bow, I'm not a frikkin archer..." Staren replies. At her request for a real bow, he shrugs and snaps his fingers a couple of times. Well, he makes finger-snapping motions. There isn't much sound because he never learned to snap. A new bow appears in his hand, an English-style longbow. And another archery target appears 300 feet away. Not that he thinks she can't shoot farther, but this isn't actually supposed to be a shooting test. "As for how I can do that, I can command the room by thinking instead of giving verbal commands. The finger-snapping is just for show." He offers the bow and a similarly-summoned quiver of arrows to Sigrun.
Staren     To Athela, he smiles slightly and comments, "Building machines to let people fight better is literally my specialty. We'll get to my preferred weapons in a bit."
Sigrun Stem Not mentioning anything else on the topic of the headset, Sigrun nocks and arrow and aims, without assistance, for the target. After a couple moments, she looses, and hits the bull's eye, albeit slightly off centre. "Tch." She sounds disappointed in herself, by that sound, and takes her chair back.

"Magical sights and guidance helps a lot, but they had us train without in boot camp." The sharpshooter comments on her own archery background for explanation, "That summon all the equipment you need aspect does sound like a useful feature for training, but uhh... what's next?"
Athela Valemore It may not be direct center but the shot still gets a brief clap from Athela and a yip of approval from Sprite at her side. "Your skill with the bow is most impressive." Having seen Sigrun on the field of battle she can say that with complete faith in the woman's abilities. A little off-centre shot is not going to slow her down in the long run. "To train with the mundane first was a wise choice. Cannot expect one to use the elaborate capabilities if one doth not grasp the basic concepts first, no?"
Staren     Staren actually does watch Sigrun with interest to see if she does magic. It seems that she can use a bow the normal way, though! EVen though, by his understanding, that wouldn't work on her world at all. Hmm...

    "Well. As Athela mentioned, the first refinement is the crossbow." A couple appear on a table. "As you can see, it's kind of like someone took a bow and put it sideways atop a stock. Hence the 'cross' in the name, I presume. A mechanical assembly of some sort draws back the string and holds it in place. This one, you brace with your foot and turn a crank, like so... and this one, you... rrgh... pull... a lever... to cock it."

    "Now you can lay a bolt in the little furrow for it here, like so... and then when you pull the trigger, the catch will release the bowstring. Point and shoot, like so!" He fires at a target, then frowns slightly, re-cocks and re-loads it, and gets it nearly center in the bullseye this time.

    "Crossbows are easy to use and easy to build. So they're pretty common in any world that's invented them and needs to equip a large force, without having a martial tradition of archery as part of their culture."
Priscilla     "Sorcery is known to fail without immediately obvious reason. Wood and steel will not betray thee without more than ample warning. Even a sorcerer shouldst knoweth to use his own eyes, ears and arms before frantic troublesorting or blind trust in magic."

    Oh god dammit Priscilla, you've been here for years. You should know that loitering around invisible and then speaking up without a convenient, visible introduction is incredibly rude. The fact that she had been here for most of the past few days is a small defense in the face of the fact that she has obviously neglected to tell Staren she would be around out of sheer indifference. She'd been so good about this recently too. Fortunately she doesn't stay hidden for /long/, since there are guests, but the lurking had at least been worth it to see Staren shoot a wimpy practice bow, though she doesn't know if she should be surprised if he hit or whether that would only be logical. What they get is the stark white crossbreed sat politely a short distance away in a minimalist chair that had definitely also been invisible until just now, which is typically something that doesn't happen.

    "If thou wouldst wish to see what Sir Staren is capable of pulling, thou wouldst first alloweth him the use of his armour, at minimum. Thou wouldst perhaps be very much surprised then."
Sigrun Stem "Interesting." Sigrun takes a good look at the crossbow, trying to examine and understand its properties and mechanisms, and when Staren fires it, she seems to show a professional interest in the matter. She holds out her hand, clearly intending to give it a try.

If Staren doesn't hand it to her, she'll try to use the local features to summon one, either way, the cranking is a little slow and awkward; not out of a lack of strength but a lack of familiarity with the movement. When she shoots, she seems startled at the forces involved, and they send the bolt slightly askew. "I think I prefer the bow."

And of course then Priscilla appears out of nowhere, and she seems startled. "... if I had known there would be surprises like this here, I wouldn't have elected to leave my codex gem behind. I feel blind enough as it is without my normal passive observation suite."

"Sorcery is an antiquated practice. Wizardry standardized the methods of observation and experimentation, and through it magery has gained leaps and bounds in consistency." Sigrun objects without quite disagreeing, "Ever since Newton first formulated the basics of elemental theory and calculus, we've been walking away from the inconsistency of sorcery."
Athela Valemore The sudden appearance of another voice has Athela reflexively reach for her sword. Eevee gives a yowlp of surprise, mostly at not having heard or scene the woman's arrival despite her keen senses. But both Trainer and Pokemon relax a moment later at realizing it is just another visitor to the Ring. It takes a moment to put the voice to a name, though. "Ah, Lady Priscilla, was it not?.. I believe he is 'working his way up' to that? Hmm?" She kneels down briefly to pat the back of the small mon's head to calm her down again. "The crossbow may be easier to use without the extensive training, but that doth not mean that the additional experience would not help in its use."

And then Sigrun gives a bit of explaination on her 'magic'. "Sounds akin to the work of scholars," she muses softly.
Staren     Staren's ears rotate towards Priscilla and he jumps slightly. "Geeze... how long have you been here?" He smiles at the comment about what he can do. "Aww, thanks. I'll get to that."

    He watches Sigrun try the crossbow with interest. So her world really doesn't have them. He nods. "Of course. I'm not trying to sell you on new weapons. Just give you an understanding of what's out there. Use what you're good with." He rubs his chin. "So you had Isaac Newton and he formulated elemental theory instead of his theory of gravity on your world? Interesting... I'd love to see a history textbook from your world..."

    He walks a little further along the table. "The crossbow's design can be refined further, of course. Here's one with a magazine for bolts:" He picks up a variant of the lever-cocked one, sets a bolt case into place atop it, then cocks and fires it a few times in rapid succession. "Or, when you really just wanna fill the air with wood, something like this..." He picks up a cho-ko-nu, turning the crank and rapidly firing little wooden bolts... not very far, though. "As you can see, this one doesn't have much kick to it. But if used with poison-tipped bolts against unarmored opponents, all you need is a scratch..."

    Staren sets the cho-ko-nu down. "Next, firearms. These were allowed by the invention of gunpowder. A substance that burns so fast, it explodes!" He comes to a small pile of powder, steps back well away from it, then lights a match. "Cover your ears!" He tosses it then covers his ears, letting the sim ensure the match ends up hitting the pile.

    *BLAM!*
Priscilla     The technical explanation washes over Priscilla's ostensibly interested by clearly very tired face in a way that indicates she comprehends what Sigrun is on about, but could not even begin to find the energy to bother asking what each individual piece of it meant; essentially the opposite of the feelings that had brought these two together with Staren and vice versa. The difference in age between her and him is immediately, strikingly obvious. "Mine apologies. Sorcery as a term of use is one with which I referreth to the employment of magic through academic examination and manipulation. There art no such fine divisors in terminology from whence I hail. The name of Newton is an unfamiliar one. Our grandfather of magic was far less open with his theories and revelations; perhaps for the best."

    "Indeed. Well met." she then says to Athela, a little belatedly, having no need to look her up and down since she's assuredly scoped the two women out while loitering. "I am to believeth as such. There art more complex forms, or more technically handled ones, but the core idea of the armament is always to leverage the forces of the weapon itself and thus overreach the wielder's usual capabilities, rather than demanding further capability from the wielder to match its potential."
If she had more cat-like ears such as Staren, Priscilla's would probably twitch at that gunshot sound too. As used to it as she is by now, she still intrinsically dislikes it. She is a quiet person by nature, from a quiet place, having long learned to recognize such loud interruptions as inevitably disastrous in nature. "As he says, the ingenuity of men in the arts of killing one another is endless, to be condemned or praised depending upon one's views. In a sense, I cannot entirely detest he whomever created the first firearm any more than the madman who left behind his record of Avelyn for no other reason than to see if it couldst be done."
Sigrun Stem "I could get you a history treatise if you want one." Sigrun answers Staren casually, seeming to think it the most reasonable of requests. "Would you specifically like a history of wizardry, or a more general history book?" The sharpshooter turns to Priscilla, "I've been told magic varies wildly from world to world, on mine it is quite reliable, ma'am."

"If it is not on yours, then that is quite unfortunate, but please don't presume you know the reliability of magic, by whichever name, on mine." It's a politely stated request, though clearly Sigrun feels a little bit personally attacked by the sentiments expressed. "But it is nice to meet you, ma'am."

Then Staren fires. Sigrun flinches, but only slightly, at the gunshot. She's no stranger to loud noises in combat, her own arrows can be quite noisy themselves. Thus, it's not so much the loudness as the unusual timing that makes her flinch. "Interesting, reminds me of the blow-darts I saw in a museum once."
Athela Valemore When Staren sets down the magazined crossbow Athela picks up to examine for herself. "Interesting... We hath crossbows, but none that can reload themselves several times over from what I am aware o--"

The sound of the gunpowder going off interrupts her, Athela jumping backwards and nearly fumbling the reloading crossbow in the process. Her Eevee gives a yowl, ears slicking back against her head from the noise. But she immeadiately jumps in front of her trainer, thinking that was the sound of some monster she needs to protect Athela from.

"--Goodness, that was louder than thunder!" She's seen guns used a few times already, but at this proximity and the abrupt timing, the sound is much more near defening. She sets the crossbow back on the table and stoops down long enough to scoop Sprite into her arms, trying to calm the fox down again. "Relax, relax. It was just noisy dust. No harm done." Though Sprite just whines a little and huddles in her arm. That was LOUD.
Priscilla     "The statement is independent of world or system." Priscilla replies flatly. "Even in worlds such as Sir Staren's, soldiers art encouraged to verify what their machines see with their own eyes, and to learn to effectively wield their bodies whence their complex weapons fail them. Without exception, it is best to most intimately known thine own capabilities without the aid of anything thou couldst not create access to thineself. For all thine faith in thine magics, I am certain thou wouldst not consider thineself helpless were such techniques to fail, no? I wouldst be greatly surprised to hear such after such a demonstration with a most ordinary bow and arrow."

    She then relents with a tired expression that might be halfway to a chuckle. "Coincidentally, a blowgun is far from an inaccurate comparison. Consider it the very same, save for that no man's lungs may generate such a gale, and so a breath of fire from the heart of a machine taketh its place. The rest, more oft than not, is complex means of assuring as many such darts may be launched as swiftly and precisely as possible."
Staren     Staren winces when he realizes Athela didn't hear him. "I /did/ say to cover your ears." Poor Eevee, though. "For the rest of this demonstration, I'm gonna have the simulation mute the noise some, but if you ever practice with firearms, make sure to wear hearing protection."

    He walks back to the table. "So, once people had an explosive, it was only so long before people put it to use killin' eachother better," he nods at Priscilla. So, the basic idea here, is that a firearm is a long tube," he picks up a musket and pours a measure of powder in, then a bullet. "It's open at one end. So when it explodes -- 'explosion' just meaning a process where a small quantity of solid or liquid becomes a great volume of gas -- all that force is directed to pushing the bullet out."

    He tamps the bullet down with the attached rod, then places it back, and approaches the other holding the gun side-up. "See this hole here? This bit here makes a spark when I pull the trigger. That spark goes in the hole and ignites the gunpowder. Thus..."

    He aims it and fires at a target. It hits the edge, off to the side of the person-shape. "...Early firearms weren't very accurate. They were usually used either in massed fire -- you get a bunch of people in a line firing at once at another army, /some/ bullets are gonna hit /someone/ -- or in larger cannons that operate on the same principle to fire great big balls of metal at fortifications or ships. Doesn't matter where on the wall or hull it hits if it smashes it apart."
Sigrun Stem Sigrun takes off her mask, finally. Behind it is the face of a woman in her mid-twenties, aside from a few slight scars it's one that most people would describe as conventionally attractive. The scars are battlescars, one from a giant talon the others from manmade weaponry. "Combat can get noisy, it's best to be ready for that." She softly recommends Athela.

"That's a different argument." Sigrun objects lightly to Priscilla, but relents, "I agree with that one. You never know when you find yourself carrying no spells when you most need them." She reaches out to the hole in her glove, which is clearly an inset for some kind of gem. "I'm still recovering, so I didn't bring any."

Sigrun looks at Staren arm and fire the weapon, it's around there that she starts looking to be quite confused. "Where is the energy coming from?" Apparently she can sort of grasp kinetic energy, but chemical energy appears to be beyond her. "The latter would fill the same role as giants did during a siege before we invented artillery spells?"
Athela Valemore More likely that Athela heard the warning but it didn't register because she was facinated with the magazined crossbow. She sets the Eevee on her shoulder where Sprite usually perchs once she's calmed down again. Though the small fox-like creature appears to learn quickly, as soon as she sees Staren raise the musket she flattens her ears back against her head again. Even though the sound is thoroughly muted by the technological magic of the Ring's simulations.

"So it fireth in a way akin to how some pokemon can spit rocks or seeds." Okay not entirely accurate, but it's easiest for Athela to just draw the most similar comparison she can think of. Really it's an entirely different process, but the appearance of the gun blasting out a small steel ball at least looks to her like how a Bellsprout would spit seeds from it's pucker-like petals. "Or the way my world uses Pokemon, it would seem." She agrees with the last part of Sigrun's comment. Athela is far from understanding how the firearms work, but at least with all the strange things she's seen Pokemon do the young lady seems willing to just accept it doing what it does.

"It is good to know how to fight by one's own hand and eye, yes, most certainly."
Staren     Staren blinks at Sigrun's confusion. "I just showed you," he gestures to where the pile of gunpowder he set off a moment ago was, "gunpowder explodes when exposed to flame. Or if you mean, how does the energy get into the gunpowder in the first place, um... well, the details would be a lengthy lesson in chemistry. Gunpowder is basically a mix of a fertilizer-derived substance, and fuel."
Shigure     "Did someone like, say Artillery Shells?"

    Comes a drawly young voice from somewhere behind Priscilla.

    The Blonde haired, red eyed youth that steps into the Ring seems to be wearing some kind of mechanical backpack. "Cuz I've got, like, artillery shells!" she announces. "I'm Yuudachi, fourth ship of the Shiratsuyu-class of like, destroyers." and with her introduction, she brandishes her 'hand cannon', readying to fire, but not doing so just yet.
Priscilla     "In simplest terms, the energy springs from that which was used to create the powder. Even in thine own world, surely thou cannot create something from nothing, correct? As similarly as thou might build magic within something to be released later, the physical act of combining and refining the powder charge stores its energy, and its fiery destruction is what releases it." That's . . . actually an incredibly basic overview of mass-energy conservation and conversion. Weird to hear in such archaic terms, to be certain.

    Hearing the words 'artillery', class' and 'destroyer' paired with an obviously Japanese name has its own, entirely separate impression on Priscilla however. She should have known that a fleet daughter would be magnetically drawn to a scene where the values of powder and shell were being espoused to the uninitiated. All she can hope is that Yuudachi has learned half as much as Kongou in knowing when it is appropriate to fire cannons without warning. The rifle had been bad enough on Sigrun and Athela. "Well met." she says entirely unenthusiastically, motioning towards staren to cut the volume as he had with his own gun." I believeth the purpose of today is demonstration to begin with."
Sigrun Stem "Spells, not shells. I don't see what invertebrates have to do with artillery..." Sigrun says with no small degree of obvious confusion. She looks confused at the new arrival, but decides to treat it the same she does most things: with the casual acceptance of 'things are weird now.'

Athela's musings about how this appears to work seem to be followed with Sigrun's own, but it's Priscilla's words that really seem to make her think. "I'm familiar with conservation of energy." The other parts draw more thinking, but ultimately, she just says in a tone of obvious non-comprehension. "There's energy in the powder. Okay."
Athela Valemore Athela turns her head when a new voice presents itself. While she has not personally met Yuudachi she has been introduced to the concept of these 'shipgirls' already courtesy of Nagato. When the name and what is essentially listing rank confirms what she suspects by the young blonde's appearance she smiles and nods a bit. "Ye are one of the Admiral's.. ships, then." It feels a little odd refering to the walking, talking, heavily armed girls as 'ships' but Athela just rolls with it. Most sailors back home would just claim they are a manifest of the spirit they insist all sailing vessels have. "It is good to see ye in person, miss."

It's just easier to accept that it works without trying to understand how when it gets all complicated and extra sciency. That's been working for the most part for Athela. Just don't ask her to try and -use- anything more complicated than the crossbows.
Staren     Staren blinks at Yuudachi. "I haven't gotten to explaining shells yet. Honestly I'm so used to high-tech warheads I don't know off the top of my head how old-timey shells are /triggered/... Anyway, I was just explaining the personal ranged weaponry of the multiverse to a couple of our newer arrivals."

    He smiles, glad to see that today's students have indeed grasped the basic principles of guns. "A shell, by the way, is when a cannon fires a bomb -- fill a hollow ball with the powder and set it off somehow, metal bits fly everywhere at high speed. Very deadly."

    "So, there are a number of things that can make firearms better." He de-rezzes the musket and walks back to the table, where a rifle waits. "A combination of things made them really take off and killed the bow as a weapon of war. One is that, if the bullet is sized just right, and you etch spiral grooves inside the barrel, it makes the bullet fly straighter. In order to do this, people had to learn how to make parts exactly the right shape and size. This also has the benefit that, if you standardize your weapons, you can swap a bad part out for a good one, without taking the weapon to a gunsmith. Third, you saw what a pain loading that thing was. So the invention of cartridges allowed for quicker loading. Compare what I had to do before, to this:"

    Staren picks up the rifle, opens the bolt, picks a cartridge off the table, slips it into the breech, closes the bolt, "And like that, I'm ready to fire!" He aims and fires at one of the targets without 'cheating' and gets it in the bullseye circle. "There's also a little guide on this thing to help you tell where you're aiming it." He opens the bolt and the brass flies out, hitting the table with a soft clink.
Shigure     Yuudachi hmms, lowering the hand-cannon, and clipping it to the side of her Rigging. "Oh, I can explain that part." she says to how the 'old timey' shells work. "Most of them are impact fuses. They explode when they hit the target. Those are mostly used for pure high explosive rounds. There's a delay impact fuse, the timer only starts once it hits something, good for use against an armoured target you can penetrate with the warhead. Get it past all that steel into the ammunition stores~..." she seems to wiggle at that, her already unnerving red eyes seeming to gain a faint 'glow'. "Then there's timed fuses for airbursting, generally used with Flak shells to take out aircraft."

    She them blinks, and ohs. "Uh, should I say it any, like, simpler?" she asks realizing these people don't really 'get' the technology of what she's saying.
Athela Valemore Athela raises a brow when Staren mentions bombs. That is something she is at least familiar with, the concept is at least known in Bayern, between alchemists and certain pokemon that do indeed have the habit of detonating in some manner. "A weapon that can launch an explosive with more precision than a catapult? Astounding." Not that she knows anything about how such volatile concoctions are made. Or the specifics of 'timing' that Yuudachi goes into. Just the general concept of hurtling something loud and explosive at a target.

She's quiet as she watchs Staren fire on the target, and this time a small bit of a frown tugs at her lips instead. "I am just grasping at the concept here, but if these weapons are capable of greater power and accuracy then,"

She pauses to give her breastplate a solid thump with a fist.

"They would thus be more effective against armor." Mostly the mention of spinning is reminding her of how some bird pokemon have been used to punch through defense structures with Drill Peck.

"Vreee!" Sprite leaps off her shoulder and onto the table, chasing after the discharged shell. Probably because it was shiny. As soon as she picks it up in her mouth the Eevee spits it out again and makes an adorably disgusted pucker face. Burnt gunpowder and gun oil tastes terrible!
Sigrun Stem Sigrun listens to Staren's explanation, but as he gets further into detail on the matter her face betrays further lack of comprehension. 'Weird powder turns into energy and propells things' is on the edge of her comprehension, the concept of rifling goes beyond it. "It sounds useful." She says, "But I don't get it." The way she says that, it sounds like she feels like should, but can't, and this seems to frustrate her.

"Yuudaichi, right? Uh, I get the idea of 'triggers' that get spells going, I'm guessing it's kind of like that." Sigrun is desparately trying to reach for somewhere she can at least talk about it by comparison to her own. "One of my spells is used to catch a fire spirit in a glass arrowhead, and when the glass is shattered the fire spirit sets the oil in which the shaft is drenched on fire. Is that like an 'impact fuse?'"

Sigrun considers what Athela has to say, but again there doesn't seem to be a lot of understading beyond, "That's why we invented shielding spells. You can't dodge everything, and steel only goes so far, but a magical barrier will stop a lot. Take a lot to keep going though, so you tend to put them up when you know you're about to get hit."
Shigure     Yuudachi listens to Sigrun, then nodnods. "Yeah! Exactly like that! An impact fuse just sets off a spark that ignites the explosives!" she replies, beaming a bit and hopping in place. Excitable little thing she is.
Staren     Staren hmms. "Well, I was going to explain how a cartridge works..." He nods, agreeing with Yuudachi on the similarity. "And yeah, Athela. Armor would take awhile to catch up with bullets once guns got popular."

    "So, cartridges involve another chemical, called a primer. Let's say you have a chemical that explodes, not as much as gunpowder, with sudden impact." He pours a bit of powder on a piece of paper, then folds up the piece of paper and throws it at the floor hard. Pop!

    He walks over to them, holding another cartridge and conjuring one split down the middle so they can see the structure inside. "See, the brass casing holds together the bullet, the gunpowder behind that, and the primer at the rear. When you pull the trigger of the firearm, a spring-loaded pin hits the back of the cartridge, here. That detonates the primer, which in turn explodes the gunpowder."
Athela Valemore Athela looks as Staren holds out the cartridge and explains, but most of it goes over her head. "... So it is liken to a Jolteon putting so much energy into it's fur that they shoot off like tiny needles." Mostly. But not entirely. How many of you people actually remember that Jolteon learns Pin Missile?

However its the comments about armor and Sigrun's remark on using magic defenses to compensate that is still at the forethought, even as she picks Sprite back up from the table. "While my armor is not quite 'average', it may verily be necessity that I consider additional options. I will be of little use if I can be puteth from the fight in one shot."
Sigrun Stem "That's the whole idea. If I can kill my targets with one shot, I don't need to worry about them retaliating." Sigrun answers Athela with a fairly confident smirk, the sharpshooter is a professional, and her profession is death. That's an area in which she is confident, "At the same time, it's important to not have them do it to me, I agree."

She goes on about that to hide her insecurity, Staren's words may as well be gibberish to her, and though she tries to understand it, she just can't. "If you're explaining things just for me, Staren, you probably want to stop." She's given up, at least for the time being. "I'm trying to understand, but I can't." This admission makes her sound almost pathetic.
Staren     Staren shrugs at Athela's comparison. He doesn't know how Pin Missile works. "The Multiverse is weird. You might find guns less effective on your armor than expected. Or you might not."

    He blinks at Sigrun. Then he tries again, pointing at each compartment in the cartridge. "Pin strikes really hard. Explodes-when-you-hit-it-hard powder explodes, and sets off explode-a-lot powder."
Athela Valemore Athela Valemore nods a little to Sigrun, but there's a hint of a smile despite her somber introspective on how effective or not the armor she is familiar with may now be. "As it is mine to take that one shot for someone that wilst not be able to. And if all possible I would prefer those odds stacked in mine favor."

Resolute Blade is light enough for her to weild in one hand, prehaps she needs a shield of some sort.

Athela gives Staren's shoulder a light pat. "Even if not your specifics are understood, my young scholarly friend, the demonstration was still insightful. Thank you."
Sigrun Stem "By Poseidon's barnacled balls, are you trying to piss me off?" Sigrun says between clenched teeth, staring at Staren. "Treating me like an idiot won't make me understand you any better, it'll just make me angry." The anger is mostly at herself, frustration serving as fuel for the slight to light up her temper.

To calm herself, she grabs her cane and starts to walk away, glancing only briefly at Athela as she does. "It's my job to stack the odds in mine. They didn't train me to fight fair, they trained me to achieve my objective. And I do what I can to make it happen." That, at least, helps her temper. Though she still sounds frustrated.
Staren     Staren jumps slightly. "I thought my jargon was getting in the way. I have trouble talking to people /all the time/. It's the concept that really matters, not the fancy words." He blinks at Sigrun walking away. "So, um... does that mean you understood, or..."
Athela Valemore Athela Valemore lets out a soft sigh as Sigrun has a bit of a fit and storms out as well as one can when they still require a cane to assist their healing. She can relate to some degree, with the dismissive way many of the nobility back home regard her just because she's not of their blue blood.

She gives Staren a somewhat lopsided smile. "The specifics, not so much. But the general concept of what I may well be up against in a fight against your thundersticks, most certainly."
Sigrun Stem "I got the practical application, but the problem has nothing to do with your choice of jargon, you explained the jargon perfectly well." Sigrun keeps walking off, sounding frustrated more than angry, really. "Choosing to replace the jargon with the most insulting, denigrating, and patronizing phrases you could come up with on short notice does nothing to help."
Staren     Staren blinks. "I... well okay I did dumb it down but I'm not saying /you're/ dumb, just, okay, you're new to all this! There was a time when I was little if someone came to me and just explained a buncha stuff and maybe I wasn't paying attention and then he comes up and says 'the firing pin hits the cartridge which detonates the primer which detonates the gunpowder' y'know maybe I wouldn' a gotten it either! Like, trust me, if I'd given up on you I'd be /way/ more snarky, I have a really sharp tongue when I'm frustrated enough and can't do anything about it but I'm not there yet! I was tryin' to help, okay?"

    Staren scratches his head. "Ah, who'm I kiddin'. I suck at communicating. If you're givin' up and walking out and gonna hate me forever, there's probably no words /I/ can say that reverse that. This is usually the point where somebody who I've sorta known a long time but never really made friends with comes out of the woodwork and says something that backs me up, but if that doesn't happen this time..."

    Staren looks at the floor, "I should just cut my losses and move on to problems I can solve."
Priscilla     Priscilla sits through the little powder keg of an interaction like someone who has seen it enough times before to know how it goes. "Please, Lady Stem, forgiveth Sir Staren his . . . enthusiasm for the science of it all. He is possessed of a passion to share that all he knows of topics he holds close at heart. Even if it is not what thou hadst asked for, it is only that he feels as if thou wouldst enjoy its learning as well as he did." She then looks to Staren. "Said thus, I believeth her interest here was less than academic. What wouldst be more useful knowledge wouldst be to recognize the intended role and performance of a weapon by its sight or sound, rather than the minutiae of its operation."
Sigrun Stem Sigrun stops in her motion, "Staren." She says with a tempered voice, holding herself back. "I do not hate you, but your every explanation is harder to follow, and your attempted solution makes it worse. That is all. I will gladly work with you in the future, but continuing this will just frustrate me more."

Priscilla's addendum makes Sigrun nod, "You are right and wrong, ma'am. I do care more for how it's of use to me than the details of operation, but the details can be useful in the right circumstances, so I not mind the attempt, just the delivery."

And with that said, she finally does depart.
Athela Valemore While she had intended to depart as well, instead Athela returns her hand to Staren's shoulder for a brief moment. "Mayhaps that is where the issue lies. I can tell your intent to help was geniune Staren, but the moment where it felt a need to differ your approach because we are 'new to all this'? May of, despite your intent, felt as if you were regarding her differently because of the different way she perceives these things."

And Priscilla hits the other point of the matter right on the head of the nail. "Also, that. You are far from the first scholar I hath met that makes difficulty in determining when not so many intricate details are needed."

That's about as much as she can offer for reassurance so Athela withdraws her hand again as she turns to walk away, cloak flaring a little behind her from the motion. "With such, we shall bid you rest ado." She glances alongside to the Eevee still sitting on her shoulder. "It is time we retrieve the others, anyways."

Retrieve the others?... Come to think of it, the Eevee is the only one of her pokemon that seemed to be with her.

Scene cut to elsewhere in Njorun's residential sector, where her Samurott and Timburr have apparently been feasting at one of the smaller cafes, if the table of dirty dishes between them is any indication. To be topped off by the rather large bowl of cake and ice cream set atop it. Alas, the two only get a hungry look before the -entirity- of it is gulped down by Goomy. To the point the slug-mon actually bulges a bit, until finally spitting out the bowl in a slimy burp.
Staren     And there's Priscilla, right on cue!

    Staren might be getting a little genre savvy.

    However, it's not enough to save the class, but it seems at least Sigrun's leaving on good terms. "Uh... bye I guess... do you want me to finish this later or...?" he calls to the empty door.

    Athela's going too. "Okay, bye, nice meeting you, I'd love to see your world sometime!"

    So now it's just him and Priscilla. He turns to regard her, rezzing a wizard staff/cane to lean on. He smiles a bit. "Thanks. Although, I feel like we're getting to know eachother better than me an' Psyber or Himei."