fandomhigh | Climbing & Caving, Monday Period 3

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Climbing & Caving, Monday Period 3

The students had all been ~~handwavily~~ informed that today's lesson would be held in the Danger Shop. Perhaps not surprisingly, given the nature of the class, when they entered the room they'd find themselves standing at the mouth of a cave.

Liam waited until it looked like everyone had arrived before he began to speak.

"After giving it some thought, if you can prove to my satisfaction that you are in fact invulnerable, or close enough to it, you can forgo the helmet," he informed them. "If you've got the kind of head that will bruise or bleed if you bang it on a rocky ceiling, though, I don't care how tough you think you are, you're strapping that helmet on. And for those of you capable of creating your own light sources, please just indulge me and carry a flashlight as a backup."

"That being said," he gestured to the cave mouth and flicked on the lamp on his own helmet, "it's time to get started."

The mouth of the cave was just wide and tall enough that someone Liam's size could slip through without having to do much more than duck his head. So while Sidon might have to squeeze a bit to get in, everyone else should be able to follow him in without any problems. Sorry, Sidon.

The tunnel at the entrance sloped downward as it gradually got wider, until there was finally space enough for everyone to stand next to each other instead of single file. Of course, by that point, the light from the cave mouth was all but gone. The only light now would be coming from the headlamps... or from those who could make their own light. There were various rock formations jutting from the ceiling and the ground, and from somewhere indecipherable, the sound of dripping water.

"So these," he said, gesturing to a cluster of rock formations. "Are called speleothems. The ones hanging from the ceiling are stalactites, and the ones jutting up from the ground are stalagmites. They form at a rate of about a centimeter every thousand years or so, as minerals dissolved in water drip down from the ceiling, one drop at a time. If we were in a real-world location, I'd discourage actually touching anything you don't absolutely need to, but since this is an artificial environment, there's nothing to disturb, so go ahead."

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Ready to descend into darkness.

Edited 2018-05-21 06:32 (UTC)

Peridot

Prince Sidon

Gratuity Tucci

Yang Xiao Long

Uma

Prove it, if you must.

Edited 2018-05-21 06:33 (UTC)

Peridot put up her hand.

"I once fell off a cliff and landed hard enough that I had to pull myself out of the crater I left in the sandstone below. And then there was the time a sizable boulder fell onto me. Once we got the boulder off of me again, I walked away."

And then had proceeded to do several other really, really stupid things, many of them involving repeatedly being crushed, all without being poofed, or even cracked.

Peridots were made of sturdy stuff, at least for the sake of comedy.

Take a look around. Poke those rock formations. Or maybe lick them, if you really feel like it. Mmm, limestone.

Peridot had only licked that one rock in a class! Just the one! But she was intrigued enough about the stalagmites here that she was tempted...

She looked at one thoughtfully, and then sidled up to it.

Yup. Definitely limestone.

"So that's why you have a tongue."

What? It wasn't so Peridot could eat things.

It definitely wasn't so that she could eat things!

"They're useful for testing mineral content and stone quality in potential Kindergarten sites," Peridot agreed. And then turned a little grin toward Tip. "And for speaking coherently."

"Right," Tip said, smiling back. "I guess that's a thing, too. So what can you tell about that rock, then?"

"Limestone," Peridot rattled off, "or at least a mostly accurate hard light re-creation of it. You can taste the calcium carbonate."

She smiled a little, rather smugly.

"Of course, any real Kindergartener would be able to know it's a simulation with her eyes closed."

Edited 2018-05-21 14:36 (UTC)

"Well, naturally," Tip said. "Hard light is a little too extra salty, right?"

Peridot turned a curious look toward Tip at that.

"Not salty enough."

And then she looked down at herself, squinted a little, and lifted a hand to lick it, too.

"Definitely not salty enough."

Tip was actually a little impressed with herself. Sure, her bullshit guess had been entirely wrong direction-wise, but it wasn't totally out of left field. Go her!

"Ahhh, alright. That makes sense." As much sense as light having any taste at all.

Peridot nodded her head. It made perfect sense, see?

"Hard light is very useful for simulations, but it's always just a little bit off. Prone to light distortions, being twisted out of shape or unable to quite mimic certain particulates." She shrugged. "But it is useful for interacting with one's surroundings."

Tip nodded. "Most humans aren't that sensitive, I don't think. For us, this stuff is practically magic, it's just like the real thing."

"That makes sense," Peridot decided. "How much experience do you have with hard light? Only this room and the Gems you've met?"

Tip looked around and nodded. "I think so, yeah."

Honestly, if the Boov had developed it, they'd never said. But that could just be because she'd never asked and J.Lo hadn't thought to bring it up.

"Sensitivity to it likely comes with experience," Peridot decided, nodding her head. "There are plenty of things that humans become more sensitive to the more they interact with it, right?"

That was her basic understanding, anyway.

"Sure. Like . . . flavors and fibers and stuff. Though that also depends on the person."

Peridot smiled and gestured to the stalagmite.

"Flavors," she declared. "You could probably become accustomed to these things too, with enough familiarity."

Start licking rocks, Tip.

. . . Yeah, that wasn't happening.

"I probably could. But why would I need to when I've got an expert around to depend on?"

"Well, I'm only going to be here to depend on for another year," Peridot noted, tilting her head. "I... suppose I could come back by request to identify any minerals or hard light objects you aren't certain about."

"I'd appreciate that." It was highly unlikely to ever come up. "Plus, humans have their own ways of identifying rock types."

Some of which involved touching one's tongue to them. Sorry, Tip.

Scientific process tended to involve a surprising amount of licking things, it was true.

"You do?" Peridot tilted her head a little. "Well... now I'm intrigued."

She was going to look this up, find the 'scratch and bite' method, and just gloat a lot at anyone who ever questioned her.

That was completely fair.

"Yeah. I haven't studied it at all, but we've managed to identify all kinds of rocks all over the world by now, so I'd say geologists have gotten pretty good at it."

Peridot nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll have to look it up the next time I'm in the library," she settled on. "I want to know what geological identification methods you've come up with on Earth."

"My shift is right after class," Tip said. "If you have time, we can go look it up together."

Peridot perked up a little at that.

"We can? We can! I have nothing important to do today!"

... Well, she had plans for that robotic fish, but that could always come after.

Tip probably didn't want to know about the robotic fish.

"Well then, come on by. I'll make sure to get all the books I can find on it as soon as I get there."

"It's a deal," Peridot said, beaming. "Something to look forward to today. Good."

Sidon was quite used to having to duck and squeeze to get into places by now, so he barely minded at all, though the whole activity did remind him that he seemed to have grown a little bit more since the last time he'd almost conked his head on the doorframe of his bedroom.

It instantly sent a swell of pride through his chest, making him bigger before he realized this was not the time for that, so his shoulders hunched again, head slightly lowered, faint and sheepish smile on his face before he realized everyone else was probably too entranced by the cave to have noticed.

And it didn't take him long to be entranced, as well.

"Oh, how spectacular!"

Uma was surprised to realize that as soon as they got into the darkness of the cave, her seashell necklace began to glow, emitting a soft, golden light. She hastily tucked it into her shirt; it was still visible through the thin fabric but better than nothing.

That was fine. She could explore with her hand fisted around her shirt. Whatever.

"Caves like this one are formed by water eroding the rock, and so they're not just one big room," Liam said, after everyone had had a few minutes to poke around. "Rather, they're a network of tunnels and bigger spaces. Which means, sometimes you have to squeeze your way through," he explained, shining his headlamp towards where the cave began to narrow again into a small tunnel. Again, it was wide enough for everyone to fit through single-file, although beyond the first few steps, it required getting on hands and knees to shuffle through. Unless maybe you were Peridot.

This time, the path sloped gradually upward, until after a minute or two sunlight began to filter down into the tunnel until yay, you were outside!

Edited 2018-05-21 06:34 (UTC)

Hands and knees, pah! Everybody witness the benefits of being a member of the Shorty Squad!

Peridot only had to duck her head a little bit, and that was mostly just if she didn't want her hair to drag along the top of the tunnel.

Please don't mind the slightly envious look you were getting from the giant sharkman, Peridot. Sidon had to admit, he was doubtful that he could make it through, even on his hands and knees, and he'd certainly wait for everyone else to go through first, because he'd feel just terrible if he would up blocking someone else's path and they were reduced to staring at Zora tail for the duration of the time it took to unstick him.

But he had cleared it! Splendid! He was glad to be doing this activity now, while he was still so small, because the thought of doing this in a few years' time at his rate of growth would likely be impossible! How fortuitous! And the last time he felt so grateful to feel sun on his face and take a deep breath of fresh air was when he fought his way out of that octorok.

And already, he wanted to go back and try it again!

Tip wouldn't normally say she was claustrophobic, but her eyes went a little extra wide and her breathing got a little extra fast during this portion of the tunnel. She had to remind herself a few times that this was a danger shop situation and she probably literally couldn't get stuck in it.

She was quite pleased to see that sunlight, though. This class was maybe going to be a bit harder than she thought.

This brought back unpleasant memories of the last cave Uma had been in, though with fewer booby-trapped skeletons. Still, she gritted her teeth and crawled, because she wasn't about to be beaten by a little bit of rock and dirt.

Or even a lotta bit of rock and dirt.

Because he is here.

Tryna decide if I have the fucks to give to go see the May Day parade.

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Climbing & Caving, Monday Period 3

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