"Kinda... shit." Amos realizes something suddenly. There's a reason this isn't clicking like he thought it would. "You know the Earth isn't flat, right?"
Well, that brings her whole line of thinking to a sudden and abrupt stop. She has a brief thought of Ah, that would be the unbalanced force before she blinks and says "I beg your pardon?"
"Fuck," Amos says, sitting down on one of the chairs, sitting on it backward so his giant arms can settle on the back. He grabs the nearest marble. "This was supposed to be the earth. It orbits the sun." He points to the rock (sun) before spinning the marble (Earth) again.
How the fuck is he gonna prove the curvature of the Earth to somebody afraid of boats?
Sawbones shakes her head, still trying to wrap her mind around what he's trying to explain as the yawning terror of the implications start creeping in.
"Hold on, hold on," she says, both to herself and him, reaching over to pluck up the marble, "Give me a minute, salrocka." She rolls the marble between her palms and looks at him, "That all sounds mad, you know."
"Yeah, they kinda killed the guy who came up with the idea, back home." Like, hundreds of years ago, but she doesn't need to know that. "He was right, though. I've seen it. Earth just looks like a big marble."
She can't even begin to fathom what he's said, but... "Six years ago, if someone had told me that the surface had vast bodies of water called oceans, I would have said they'd knocked their head too many times."
Sawbones sets the marble on the sheet, giving it a spin and sending it circling around the stone, "Suppose this ain't entierly different. At least you're not planning on dragging me up into space to show me."
"Sis, if I could get into space, you'd never hear from me again." He watches the marble spin, and gives it a little flick to keep it spinning when gravity. "No matter how good you look in the habit."
She looks from the spinning marble to him, eyebrows raised, "I've been told I look like a doll in it and I don't like you well enough that I won't throw this marble at you if you start on that."
Sawbones hasn't gotten a proposal like that since... The last time she'd been propositioned by another Duster, actually. That relaxes her enough that the soft noise she makes is almost a laugh, "Salroka, are you asking if I wanna have sex?"
that was supposed to be LIE not LIKE im going 2 bed now jeez.
"No, you were. I'm just surprised." She hops off her chair, "And since you were clear, I'll tell you. I took a vow of chastity when I joined my order, but even if I hadn't." She stands next to him and gestures at the general height difference, "I haven't done it near enough that I'd be up for taking whatever you got, Burton."
Amos thinks about that. He could say he knows how to compensate for differing body types, or that he isn't into pain, or that he's surprised to realize anybody actually keeps vows of chastity. But he said he wouldn't mention it again, and that's more important than anything else, just then.
He keeps wrapping the sheet until it's just a spool of fabric around one arm. "Okay," he says. "Change your mind, lemme know."
He starts moving the chairs back into the place, and thinking ruefully about how you prove the curvature of the Earth without getting into Astronomy. Even if they had a telescope good enough for it, Amos finds that shit too boring to account for.
"Sure." That too reminds her a little of the handful of Dusters she's known in the past. Makes it easy to stay relaxed around him, it means she can lose herself a little in thinking about gravity and force and a round Thedas. She helps him move the chairs back, more than strong enough to compensate for the awkward height difference.
Finally she looks back up at him, "I don't think I'll like this answer, but I've been thinking. If gravity attracts smaller things to bigger things and Thedas is round, how does it circle the sun? Isn't the sun smaller?"
This question, he can answer. He holds up the marble again. "If the Earth's round, and you can't see the curve of it, how small are you? Space is big. The sun only looks smaller because it's that fucking far away. You could fit something like a million Earths in the sun."
He considers this, and wonders if more explanation is necessary. Eh, well. He'll see.
Yup, she was right, that is indeed a terrifying answer. But she manages to suppress the shiver this time.
"That explains why it doesn't fall on us," she says, with a grim kind of satisfaction. It was a more comforting answer than the ones she'd received before. "Are the moons the same?"
"Because the sun moves," she says, watching the motion, "Or... Because we're moving. But then how-" She cuts herself off, frowning intently at the marble, thinks about it spinning on the sheet. "We're... Spinning?"
Another impossibility in a conversation full of impossibilities.
There's a wonder and a terror to learning things like this, but at least she's already done this once before.
Sawbones still stares at him wide eyed for a moment before she shakes her head a little and gives him a small smile. "I've hundreds of questions I'd like to ask, but I'm not gonna remember anymore if you keep telling me things like this. Thank you for teaching me."
"Yeah. I'm a fuckin' terrible teacher, so we're square." The chairs are back where they were. Lesson's over, until he can find a big enough lake, maybe? Would that work? Fuck.
To be polite, you're supposed to say something before you go. Amos waves, an almost childlike motion, before wandering off.
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How the fuck is he gonna prove the curvature of the Earth to somebody afraid of boats?
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"Hold on, hold on," she says, both to herself and him, reaching over to pluck up the marble, "Give me a minute, salrocka." She rolls the marble between her palms and looks at him, "That all sounds mad, you know."
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Sawbones sets the marble on the sheet, giving it a spin and sending it circling around the stone, "Suppose this ain't entierly different. At least you're not planning on dragging me up into space to show me."
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She looks from the spinning marble to him, eyebrows raised, "I've been told I look like a doll in it and I don't like you well enough that I won't throw this marble at you if you start on that."
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that was supposed to be LIE not LIKE im going 2 bed now jeez.
tucks u in
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He keeps wrapping the sheet until it's just a spool of fabric around one arm. "Okay," he says. "Change your mind, lemme know."
He starts moving the chairs back into the place, and thinking ruefully about how you prove the curvature of the Earth without getting into Astronomy. Even if they had a telescope good enough for it, Amos finds that shit too boring to account for.
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Finally she looks back up at him, "I don't think I'll like this answer, but I've been thinking. If gravity attracts smaller things to bigger things and Thedas is round, how does it circle the sun? Isn't the sun smaller?"
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He considers this, and wonders if more explanation is necessary. Eh, well. He'll see.
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"That explains why it doesn't fall on us," she says, with a grim kind of satisfaction. It was a more comforting answer than the ones she'd received before. "Are the moons the same?"
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He holds one hand out, a fist, and moves the marble in an elliptical orbit around his fist.
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Another impossibility in a conversation full of impossibilities.
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Also there's, like, atmosphere and shit, but he's already overloaded her for the night.
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Sawbones still stares at him wide eyed for a moment before she shakes her head a little and gives him a small smile. "I've hundreds of questions I'd like to ask, but I'm not gonna remember anymore if you keep telling me things like this. Thank you for teaching me."
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To be polite, you're supposed to say something before you go. Amos waves, an almost childlike motion, before wandering off.