driftfleet | one ;

Who: Zessica Wong
Broadcast: Everyone
Action: On the planet
When: Friday 8/7, afternoon/evening

➤ [VIDEO:]
[The video flickers on, and with her eyes closed, it looks like Zessica's laying down somewhere. She exhales loudly before cracking one eye open to address the comm.]

There's something good to be said for a nice nap on the beach. [Her other eye opens, and she sits up, adjusting the video angle to move with her.] I'm still pretty new here, so I wanted to know, how long do we normally stay on planets? I mean, it wouldn't make sense to just set up camp indefinitely. Not that I'd mind on this one.

[Video from her comm now moves from her to the beach, a stunning sunset just beginning to form. Her voice can still be heard.] Sunset at home wasn't that much different than this, but the colors weren't as vibrant, even when you were on the beach.

[And back to her once more.] Guess that means it's time for dinner. I'd like some company if anyone's planetside. Recommendations are good, too. Just let me know!

[End.]

➤ [ACTION:]
[True to her word, she's able to be found leaving the beach, towel draped over her shoulders. Her clothes are in a bag slung over her shoulder, but she doesn't seem intent on changing back right away.

Later, she's likely to be found shopping, too.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A star chart, huh? That actually sounds pretty neat. [She narrows her eyes to see a little more, nudging him with her toe to get his attention.] Hey, bring it up more, I want to see.

[Her eyes travel from his arm to the sky and back again, trying to make sense of what he's scribbled.] Anything of note?

Uh - Yeah, hold on -

[Aaaand he's going to scoot away some, both to loosen her hold a bit and to give him more room as he lifts up his scribbled arm and talks.]

I've been coming out here every night to keep note of some of the stars. Not all of them, since that'd take me forever, and I'd probably lose sight of them. The brightest ones are what I'm after.

[He points up and towards the left.] See that one? That's the brightest one. I'm not going to have time to get a full reading, but if I take the coordinates I got for it the first time I saw it and compare it to the last night we're here, I might be able to get a read on how far away it is. It'll be tricky; usually a reading like this requires six months and way more advanced equipment. It won't be entirely accurate, but I can at least make some kind of estimate with this. [He gestures to the arm he's written on.]

[Zessica lets him move, the initial amusement done with, anyway, and she looks upwards to spot the star he's pointing out. Her brows furrow as she squints to see it, the sky still light enough to make it more difficult. A moment later... there!]

Ha, there it is! [She's a little excited now.] Whoa, that is pretty bright compared to the rest. Does that mean it's the closest or a brighter type than the others?

[Her gaze goes back to his arm, then she meets his eyes with a smile.] You'd have to do this from the same spot every night, right?

[Clay returns that smile, looking genuinely excited about this, then nods as he gets to his feet.]

Yup! Exactly the same spot, or the calculation gets thrown off. [He lifts his foot to set his toe against something in the sand - on closer inspection, it's revealed to just be a stick.] I buried this pretty deep so that it won't go anywhere when the storms whip up. See the notch there? [He bends to point at a little mark on the stick.] I put the heel of my foot against that, and I sit where the end of my toes are.

[With that, he demonstrates. Clay looks down at the marker as he gently bumps the stick with the back of his heel, readjusts a bit, then moves to sit down right where his toes were.]

Not bad for having virtually no supplies for this, eh? Hopefully by the time we get out of here, I'll know if that one star in particular is the closest or just a brighter kind of star. My money's on the former, though.

[Zessica actually looks a little impressed at this. She watches his display with the stick and the sitting with a grin.]

It has to be that exact, huh? That's impressive. [And she means it.] Can you tell the difference in position from just one night to the next?

[Hee. She's impressed by his slapped-together work. He ends up blushing a bit out of the praise, then straightens up a bit on the next question.]

Nah, the difference is so small that it's hard to tell what it is from one night to another. That's another reason why the readings probably won't be too accurate; I don't have a telescope or any equipment to tell where the star in the sky originally was. Usually, an astronomer will come here one night, then not come back until six months later, when the movement is obvious. But since I don't know when we're going to leave...

[He shows off his arm again, the one with writings on it.] That's why I've got this. I wrote down the position of the stars according to the angle of my arm when I point on the first night, then wrote down any changes to that angle on all the other nights. [And, indeed, she'll see star names that he made up as well as two degrees: what his arm is like vertically and what it's like horizontally.] I really only need the first one, but like I said, I don't know when we're leaving. I don't want to miss a night, only to find out we're leaving that next day.

Edited 2015-08-14 20:52 (UTC)

[Nodding, she watches and listens to his explanations, attention fully gotten. Zessica sits next to him, not bothering to put down her towel first, and scoots over to get a better look at his arm. Since it's on the far side of where she's sitting, she reaches over and takes his wrist she she can hold it in place. Her eyes go back up to the sky then back to his arm, and she repeats these motions a few times to get what he's explaining.

Once she's satisfied, she lets him go and looks at him again, grin still there.] You said the difference might not be noticeable, but doesn't the size of the planet and distance from its sun have an impact, too? I'm from a planet called Vega, and I know our stars might look different from the planet next to us.

[Her brow furrows as she thinks about it.] Or am I off base?

[Oooh, so she has some idea of what he's talking about? That just gets Clay to look more excited, and he looks down at her again with a big smile.]

Yup, those are all factors that go into it! The rotation of a planet on its axis and how long it takes for it to revolve around the sun are major factors, too. I'm using the method that's used for Earth's view of the stars, so again, not going to be entirely accurate. But once we leave, I can take the planet's approximate distance from the sun, how long a full day is here, and how long a year is, then use that to get some idea of how far away the stars I've got here are. At least, that's the idea.

Huh... [Zessica's gaze goes back to the sky, but the crease in her forehead is still there.]

I gotta say, looking at them this way is nice. It's a lot calmer than other times I've done it.

[She falls silent for a moment before just flopping on to her back so she doesn't have to keep craning her neck.] There was another planet I went to once. The air was so polluted you could barely see the sky at night.

Aww, really? [Clay looks down at her, a frown on his own face now, though he looks more sad about that than anything. After a moment, Clay leans back too, flopping to his back beside her.] Our planet's pretty polluted, but I don't know what I'd do if it was so bad I couldn't see the sky like this. How did you deal with it? I mean, seeing the stars aside, if a planet's that badly polluted...

[She minutely shakes her head, moving it over so she can look at him while still talking.]

Remember I mentioned the machines from another world that were taking women from ours? That was the planet. We went there to try to rescue a friend... [She pauses, expression suddenly somber.] She was taken by them, instead of me.

[A heavy sigh.] I mean, we got her back, and she's perfectly fine now. So we weren't exactly there for sightseeing.

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