Would the Eorzea jobs be applicable to the shard shenanigans, though? I'd say no. The impression I got from the free trial is that they are just that, jobs. You pick one, learn what is known about it, and eventually become proficient with it. John is a carpenter, Jack a cop, and Linsey a lab technician. The WoL is just capable of mastering all jobs he wants to, and learning them scarily fast.
Being a Tinker involves (in very simple terms) the Shard deciding that this one slightly evolved ape would do nicely for experimenting with new applications for what the Entities already have, bullshit them when they try to make a new invention, and actually do the real job themselves. What, he needs a power source for that laser? Pfeh, I'll tell him to just put a cheap coil and I'll provide the power myself from my dimensional planet crib. He will never notice it!
Well, presumably you never did reach level 30 on a trial account, so you probably didn't get into Jobs at all, just starting Classes. Suffice to say that getting 'Jobs' in FFXIV involves equipping a mysterious 'soul crystal' which is described as having a wealth of knowledge related to the job contained within it, since it's an extreme concentration of aether that chronicles the deeds and exploits of past people to hold the job's mantle. So... you can see why I make the connection to shards!
The current free trial allows you to play up to 35 indefinitely, so I reached to the crystal jobs. But yeah, I was thinking only on the starting classes, my derp. Still, while I see why you can make that connection, it does sounds like a case of one being magic class A and the other magic class B? Not necessarily incompatible, but distinct enough to raise doubts.
Anyway, this isn't treally important as of now and I'm currently trying to survive a horse constipation, so I'll leave it there.
Would the Eorzea jobs be applicable to the shard shenanigans, though? I'd say no. The impression I got from the free trial is that they are just that, jobs. You pick one, learn what is known about it, and eventually become proficient with it. John is a carpenter, Jack a cop, and Linsey a lab technician. The WoL is just capable of mastering all jobs he wants to, and learning them scarily fast.
Being a Tinker involves (in very simple terms) the Shard deciding that this one slightly evolved ape would do nicely for experimenting with new applications for what the Entities already have, bullshit them when they try to make a new invention, and actually do the real job themselves. What, he needs a power source for that laser? Pfeh, I'll tell him to just put a cheap coil and I'll provide the power myself from my dimensional planet crib. He will never notice it!
Did you get to the point of getting the Job Crystals that start granting you new skills as you level?
They possess the memories of their previous wielders and supply both knowledge and increase in base power.
Interestingly the Machinist is a new Job and has a blank soul stone that your character is engraving the knowledge and skill into as the original holder.
One wonders what would happen if a Tinker tried to forge a new Job with a blank Job stone?
Would it make an aetherial tie to the Shard so future Tinker Job holders could get access to the Shard Database?
....Oh man, Emet-Selch would love to talk with Colin. He's already suspicious about the aetherytes. When he meets big momma, he's gonna go MASTER REEEEE!
The current free trial allows you to play up to 35 indefinitely, so I reached to the crystal jobs. But yeah, I was thinking only on the starting classes, my derp.
Anyway, I'm wondering now how will Colin react when he finds out about the Primals. Considering he's in Ul'dah, the first he'll hear about will be their three armies strategy to deal with Ifrit. Look at them Endbringer flashbacks go already...
(And then, turns out some Primals are actually reasonably decent people. Most of the time! Not like that cheatin' opportunistic Ziz, no sire.)
This is really well written, Colin and everyone around him are very well characterized, and the explanations are probably doing a lot to explain the world to those unfamiliar with it. Great all around.
But, holy crap, this is twigging my biggest crossover pet peeve hard. Colin reinterpreting everything around him in a way that is technically plausible but completely, factually inaccurate is so annoying!
It is completely in character, but I really just want, even once, for him to hear that this or that bit of technology, magic, or history, is hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Not anything major, just something that will force him to recontextualize everything he's dismissed so far as the work of parahumans. He doesn't even have to be correct, just... to stop ignoring or dismissing things that are right in front of him!
But, holy crap, this is twigging my biggest crossover pet peeve hard. Colin reinterpreting everything around him in a way that is technically plausible but completely, factually inaccurate is so annoying!
It is completely in character, but I really just want, even once, for him to hear that this or that bit of technology, magic, or history, is hundreds, if not thousands of years old. Not anything major, just something that will force him to recontextualize everything he's dismissed so far as the work of parahumans. He doesn't even have to be correct, just... to stop ignoring or dismissing things that are right in front of him!
It's an inevitability, but since one of the defining characteristics of Defiant is his tunnel vision, I have a really hard time believing he'd instantly jump tracks and get on board the 'magic and miracles' train. He's about to run into magic for the first time in the next chapter, but of course that can easily be viewed as powers - at least until he realizes that just about anyone could reasonably become proficient at it with enough training. That would rather undercut his assumptions.
Or, you know, maybe he'll run into a canon character who neatly undercuts his assumptions by telling him he's being obtuse. But what are the odds of that?
And I do mean massive, like I remember reading a reddit post on how someone tried to make as accurate a size estimate as possible for it. I think it came out to be five times bigger than the Empire State building? A quick googling shows yes, it's pretty big.
Or just, I dunno, show him a tomestone. If you can pry one from Rowena's clutches.
The first arrow barely made its mark on Colin's helmet before a second followed in its wake, and he dipped his head just in time for it to soar through empty space instead of impacting his exposed chin. He put his forearm across the vulnerable area and used the other arm to bring his spear to bear in his attacker's rough direction - and then he remembered that he didn't have access to all the equipment he'd installed within, and thus lacked a viable ranged option. Wonderful.
First things first, then. "Everyone! You are in danger! Please get to cover!" he called out in his most authoritative tone, attracting the attention of around half a dozen people near him. Unlike a gunshot, an arrow didn't actually make much in the way of noise, so most of them had yet to even notice the danger until a third arrow streaked into their midst and bounced off Colin's armor. Then they quickly changed their tune... by panicking and bolting in every direction, spooking other people on the way and turning the road into a chaotic, panicked mob in an instant.
Colin let out a short, strangled groan, annoyed with the civilians for not behaving rationally, and with himself for assuming they would. He chose to ignore the din and focus on his immediate priority - his attacker. Unfortunately the confused tangle of screaming and running wasn't helping, and without his HUD he couldn't exactly narrow down suspects. At least it was a fairly safe bet that he'd been the specific target of this attack, so it was doubtful the attacker would go after any of the civilians. A small relief, such as it was.
Twisting on the spot, Colin pointed straight at a nearby Elezen woman with a quick "You!" that jolted her from her stupor. Clearly she'd frozen on the spot after she'd been warned to run, going for 'fright' instead of fight or flight. It was a less than fantastic survival strategy, true, but useful for Colin's purposes. "You should head into the Quicksand," he told her. "Tell the Guildmaster that there's been an attack in front of her business, and that Defiant is heading after the perpetrator. Help would be highly appreciated."
"A...ah?" The blond-haired woman stammered back at him in disbelief, but after a few moments she began to move, jolted out of her fear by having purpose. Her awkward stumbling gait turned into a run - thankfully in the right direction. Confident that the message would be delivered, Colin dashed off in the direction the arrows had come from, just as a fourth and fifth arrow ricocheted off a nearby wall and narrowly avoided striking a terrified Lalafell wielding a serving plate as a tower shield. Colin sighed in relief - there was still a chance to catch up!
He passed by the entrance to the Aetheryte Plaza and several luxury shops in his chase, spotting the assassin repeatedly as the man darted in between throngs of confused civilians who hurriedly tried to get out of the way. Finally his target slipped into an alleyway branching off from the Steps of Nald, a passageway which led towards the deeper part of the city, the Steps of Thal. Colin eyed the path warily as he approached - he'd rarely seen a more perfect setup for an ambush. He scoffed at the lack of subtlety or finesse of the trap, as even the Archer's Bridge Merchants had eventually learned not to be quite this predictable.
Slowing down at the mouth of the alley, Colin considered the implications of this sort of blatant daylight assassination attempt. The reason the gangs in the Bay had eventually stopped being quite so transparent was the immediate involvement of the police, who would quickly send in specialists to deal with the more obvious malfeasance - be it SWAT or the PRT. This attack was certainly bold, and they'd passed several locations guarded by Brass Blades - so why didn't local law enforcement rush in to help?
The implications were… troubling. The peddler Colin had met on his way into town suggested the Blades worked for the Syndicate, and the only person he'd pissed off on this entire world was that pretentious Lalafell in the Quicksand who'd been abusing a destitute man. Said Lalafell had threatened, right then and there, to sic his grand uncle on him - a man implied to be a member of the same Syndicate.
Huh. Had he really earned an attempt on his life by a criminal organization within hours of arriving in town? Usually it took longer than that.
Colin put those considerations aside for the moment to focus on the moment, having lost only a few seconds to his hesitation at the mouth of the alley. He cursed his lack of options in dealing with this mess - if this were any other day he would have fired a graphene wire to entangle the bowman's legs and send him sprawling, or shocked him unconscious with a remote taser shot, or - if it came to that - stuck him to a wall with a foam-grenade. If he'd still had his old halberd with him instead of a spear, he could have even hooked the axe-blade behind the man's ankles and taken him down that way! The galling part was that he did actually store a hard-light blade in his spear, just for situations like this, but the circuitry had fused too much to have any hope at using it, like the rest of his gear!
He really, really needed to get some tinkering in, soon. He hated feeling so unprepared, and under-equipped. For the moment he was forced to get by without access to his technology - to use 'Zero Suit' tactics, as Dragon called them when they first brainstormed such an implausible scenario. He's never asked why she called them that, but the term was adequate in its brief, obvious meaning, so he hadn't argued with it. Not like he'd done with half a dozen other names she'd proposed for various inventions - the lion's share of which were references to a wide variety of mythological creatures. Dragon could get a bit too caught up in adherence to her theme, on occasion.
God, he missed her so much.
He frowned, annoyed with himself for allowing his thoughts to wander, for permitting himself distraction. As his boots impacted the sandstone beneath his feet, he concentrated on the chase, and wondered at his approach. Normally, he would not have followed someone directly into a trap. Usually he would have called for backup, informed his superiors, possibly retreated to avoid complications and igniting a volatile situation. Or he would have arranged a two-pronged attack with possible Guild assistance. Neither of those were an option here, but at that moment he didn't really care that he lacked oversight. It made things very, very simple.
Chin tucked down to make it the smallest possible target, Colin pulled out the last of his stops and closed in on his quarry, his spear aimed straight at the man's back. The assassin, a dark-haired Hyur with a rather disastrous handlebar mustache, seemed shocked he was keeping up, glancing over his shoulder every few moments as he booked it. He had ditched his bow at some point, but, probably because the awkward shape made it hard to make one's way through the crowds, but a nearly empty quiver still clung to his back by the thinnest of leather straps, the last few arrows rattling around inside with every step.
Colin supposed it made some sense that the man was shocked that a polearm-wielder in heavy armor could run down a younger, unarmored fleet-foot. He'd taken advantage of people's assumptions more than once in his career - he'd never slacked on maintaining his physical training, even after he'd offloaded many physical requirements to technological solutions, and people never expected that. Without his power armor weighing him down, and lacking the unequal distribution of mass caused by several artificial limbs, he felt stronger than he had in ages - half a decade younger, perhaps.
The Hyur flung himself around a blind corner, and Colin smiled. He'd seen this trick pulled before, and far more convincingly than this. Taking two steps away from the corner and angling his weapon towards the blind nook, he followed his target around - and came face to face with a broad-shouldered man wielding a woodsman's axe instead.
"Drop the weapon," Colin snarled, his eyes darting around the small intersection of alleyways to get an idea of what he was dealing with. He spotted two more people towards the back: one was the man he'd been chasing, the other a tall, pointy-eared Elezen wearing a hooded robe, one hand clasped around some sort of quarterstaff. Neither were close enough to be a threat, so Colin shifted the point of his spear towards the axeman's Adam's apple. "I said drop it, or I drop you!"
The axeman smirked. "Heh. Brave little lancer, ain't ya?" he asked without a hint of fear, though his fingers slid along the haft of his axe as he set the head down on the ground beside him. "You're mighty predictable, though. Baron told me all ya goody-two-shoes work the same, and he ain't been wrong yet..." He narrowed his eyes. "Oy! That was the signal, pointy-ears! Get yer head in the game, yeah?"
"R-right!" the Elezen stuttered, and he raised his hands. It was down to sheer experience that Colin didn't flinch when the rail-thin man, apparently the frailest of the bunch, suddenly manifested a sphere of crackling fiery energy between his fingers and threw it at him. In side-stepping the projectile he was forced him to move his spear, and the axeman took advantage, slowly retreating towards his allies while reaffirming his grip on his weapon.
Colin grimaced at the shift in approach the presence of a Cape would require. While taking down a trio of goons with mundane weapons was no real challenge, powers had a habit of throwing a wrench into conventional battle tactics. Without knowing the specifics of the Elezen's power, beyond it being some sort of Blaster ability, he could run directly into an unfavorable position quite quickly, and he lacked the option to stall for backup. Worse, if he ran for it, he'd just be opening himself up to getting shot in the back.
"Who sent you?" Colin demanded. He knew it was unlikely he'd get an answer - the question was intended to keep his foes busy with verbalizing replies rather than anything else. "Why are you after me?"
"Y'think we're gonna sell out?" the man spat, before literally spitting on the floor. "I ain't no snitch!"
"...You were sent by the Baron, who works for the Syndicate," Colin observed dryly. "How close am I?"
The man flinched. "Hold on, how'd you -"
Colin sprang forward during that instant of distraction, and kept the axeman between him and the Blaster to avoid any more hostile fire. Just a moment before impaled his target with the point of his spear, he shifted his aim to the side instead and sliced along the man's arm with one of its cutting edges. The shock of pain was enough for the Hyur to cringe and weaken his grip on his weapon, which was all Colin really needed. He slammed his spear downwards into the man's knee, forcing him to stumble.
"F-fire, godsdamnit!" the axe-wielder cried furiously. In response Colin kicked the man across the knuckles, which sent him sprawling to the floor sans weapon. This left Colin wide open to the nearby Blaster, though, who tossed another fireball that impacted against his chestplate in a fiery conflagration.
Hissing from the sudden stab of pain, Colin tried to gauge this new threat. While there was no real kinetic impact from the blaster's attack, and little visible damage, the suddenly super-heated metal of his armor seared the skin directly underneath, betraying the sheer intensity of the energy release. Pure heat transfer, then.
This… could become an issue. Without his armor's temperature control systems, Colin couldn't take that sort of hit very often - passive insulation worked much better against cold temperatures than warm ones, and his under-suit was only ever meant as a stopgap solution to begin with. On the bright side, since there was no kinetic component to the Blaster's attacks, he could rush in physically and take his chances in direct combat - the blaster had taken several seconds to charge up their shot, which should be easy to disrupt.
Only a second or two had passed, but the axeman had gathered himself, brandishing his weapon with his one remaining good arm. Colin turned towards the Elezen and the strangely reticent Lalafell attackers instead, exposing his back on the Hyur - and forcefully smacked the blunt haft of his spear into the latter's face. With a satisfying crunch and an aborted gasp he fell over, foregoing any attempt at catching his weight on the way down. Nobody ever seemed to pay attention to the back of his weapon, Colin mused, and once more it proved a useful quirk of psychology to exploit.
"Fuckin' - what the hell was that?" the Elezen blurted, starkly aware there was nobody in between him and Colin anymore. "S-stay back!" He raised his hands again - but something was different about his movement, this time. He pulled his quarterstaff back, then jabbed its blunted end forward into empty air..
Colin gasped in shock when intense cold seeped through his armor and insulating layers like they weren't even there. There had been no projectile, no delay - just sudden cold. He shuddered in place, only barely catching himself by leaning on his spear, and he persisted through the intense blast of freezing temperatures until they finally abated. The effect lasted two - maybe three seconds, but it was quite long enough to chill his bones, and make his teeth chatter in his mouth. Unpleasant.
The blaster didn't wait around for him to recover, flinging his hands forward with another ready-made burst of fire. Colin dodged back towards the safety of cover, unable to counter the ranged attack with one of his own, and lacking any other options. Without its ability to lengthen into a fifteen foot implement, his spear wouldn't be much help - and rushing in seemed a poor idea now that the Elezen had demonstrated a second type of blaster ability which was line-of-sight, rather than a projectile. He could avoid the fire, perhaps - but he couldn't dodge vision. Not without smoke bombs, at any rate.
Colin grimaced, searching for a solution to his predicament even as he ducked behind cover to dodge another blast of freezing power that frosted over a segment of the nearby wall and caused it to erupt into brilliant white icicles. When another fireball followed that, Colin frowned. That had been a wasted shot, while another blast of frost might have had more luck due to its radius of effect. So why had he gone for the fire? There was something there. Some sort of pattern. Two fireballs were followed by a blast of frost, almost like clockwork. Was he dealing with amateur tactics there, or something more meaningful, more useful?
Perhaps… perhaps the two kinds of attacks were one and the same? The nature of cold was, after all, just the absence of heat in the end, and for every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. What if, to maintain a stable temperature in their body, this cape was forced to switch between hot and cold attacks? Now, how could he verify that hypothesis and take advantage of it…?
"Can't we talk about this?" Colin asked to draw attention to his position, and his answer was a blast of ice - which was exactly what he'd been waiting for. He rushed around the corner, avoided the first fireball effortlessly, and he had made it more than halfway to his target before the second burst forth and burst apart against his chest, searing skin that had already been burned before. He kept focus, spear aimed and ready as he prepared himself for the next shot - ice. He'd just have to divert the man's gaze before he had time to fire it!
"F-fuck!" The cape exclaimed as he stumbled backwards and summoned up another attack, a desperate last gamble before Colin got to him. What appeared between his fingers was not ice, however, but something quite different. Sparks erupted from his palms, arcs of electricity that darted from one finger to the next before suddenly launching forward in a spherical shell that resembled a plasma globe.
"Fuck," Colin agreed feebly, the instant before it hit.
He didn't remember yelling out in pain, but he suddenly found himself down in the dirt with a throat that felt ragged, his limbs twitching through the after-effects of involuntary electrocution. His mask's HUD flickered to life, reporting his heightened heart rate and superficial burns - frostburn and otherwise - before the beleaguered system fizzled out with a burst of short-circuiting wires and acrid smoke.
"Well, that finally did him in," the Elezen said in relief from right next to him, and Colin froze. "Persistent bugger, wasn't he?"
"It's why the Baron sent three of us after 'im, I imagine," a second voice said - the man he'd original chased, and who had kept his distance throughout the fight. "I was gonna step in, y'know. But I've never been one for close-range stuff, you understand, and you were handling him just fine on your own." He snickered as he walked over, kicking Colin's armor without doing much more than stub his own toe. "You still alive in that tin can? That Thunder spell did a nice bit of work on ya!"
Spell? Great - this was a world of Myrrdins. "What did I do?" he demanded, stretching for time so his tingling limbs could regain some power. Perhaps he could make a run for it? It didn't seem like it would work- but the alternative was laying there and getting his throat cut by some two-bit thugs. He'd been - overconfident. Again. He knew most of his gear was down - why hadn't he backed down? He'd taken one of his foes down, and the other had retreated on his own. Couldn't he have retreated while hiding behind cover, and rush back to the open streets?
"You made Lord Lolorito quite mad," the Hyur said, pulling out a dagger and poking Colin's armor experimentally. "He doesn't like it when you interfere with his money, see? And you took quite the lucrative customer from him..."
"I… I thought it was some Baron that sent you?" Colin asked.
The man coughed nervously. "Well, the Baron works for the Lord, so it's the same thing, ain't it? One speaks for the other, see?" He spread his arms. "It's just business, you must understand. You mess with the money - you get the knife. That's the Baron's way. And what's good for the Baron is good for the Lord. Simple as that."
"Interesting - and probably thoroughly false."
"Wha-" It took the Hyur a split second to realize that Colin hadn't spoken a word. He glanced from side to side, eyes wide, and then a figure dropped on top of him from a nearby roof, squashing him into the floor with his weight before knocking him unconscious with a sharp punch. The new arrival then disarmed the Elezen cape with a quick one-two from a sword and a knife - the sort of textbook take-downs Colin would have preferred, were he even halfway equipped and rested. He finished up by cutting the man down with a single slice of his dagger - a rather lethal hit, to Colin's eye, but at that moment he couldn't care less.
"Are there any more?" the figure asked, viciously stabbing down into the unconscious Elezen's arm to pin him to the floor while kicking his staff to the side. "Just these three, right?"
Colin grunted an acknowledgement, slowly inching his way to a sitting position as his arms and legs regained feeling. "Thanks. Who are you…?"
"Well, Momodi sent me to back you up. I've arrived just in the nick of time, it appears!" the man explained succinctly, deftly placing his sword and knife back in their scabbards and running a hand through his ash-blond hair. He was a young, reasonably handsome twenty-something bearing a pair of distinctive tattoos on both side of his neck, though Colin couldn't tell what they were supposed to mean.
"Remind me to thank her," Colin said, rubbing his lower legs until blood started pumping again. "A lot."
"Eh, she figured you could handle it, but I suppose anyone can have an off day." He offered his hand. "Looks like they gave you quite a thrashing there. Can you stand?"
"Yes. Give me a minute. I didn't expect the Elezen with the powers," Colin explained sullenly as he took the offered help and dragged himself upright. "Needless to say, things didn't go exactly as planned." He let out a long breath, wincing at the throbbing of his chest - armor or not, he'd taken far more damage than he expected in the altercation. "I think I'll need... some kind of medical attention."
"There's probably a conjurer or two at the Guild who can help out," the blond replied easily. "When in Ul'dah, perhaps you ought to be more wary of running into Thaumaturges in the future. Their Guild is situated here, after all, so there's bound to be a few around." He tapped Colin's armor with a frown. "Your armor looks quite pretty, but it isn't aether-resistant, so it's not going to help you much against anything but sheer brute force. Where did you even find this stuff? Even Garlemald has moved beyond such basic techniques."
"I made it," Colin answered mulishly. "I just haven't had time to… upgrade." His eyes wandered across the stranger's apparently much less protective garments, pausing when he spotted something peculiar. On the man's left shoulder, looking rather out of place, was a strange device equipped with several lenses and dials. "...What is that?"
The man followed his gaze. "Ah, this? It's an, um…" He frowned momentarily, glancing at Colin with a strange expression. "...It's an aetherometer. Truly a marvel of Sharlayan ingenuity - it's as if you could reach out and touch the aether!"
"Aetherometer…" Colin mused. The name was descriptive enough. "It's Sharlayan, you said? Like the creators of the aetherytes?"
"...Yes, actually. One and the same." The man cocked his head to the side curiously. "That's not exactly hidden knowledge, you know. The city states on the mainland bought the aetherytes openly in the wake of the Calamity." He nodded slowly as something seemed to occur to him. "Momodi did say you were a little - behind the times. Only recently crawled out of whatever hole you hid in during the Calamity, right?" He turned towards the groaning assassins on the ground. "I'll gladly fill you in on whatever trivia you might want to know about - after we take care of this riffraff."
"They were sent after me by some sort of Baron, on behalf of 'Lord Lolorito,'" Colin explained. "Apparently I pissed off someone powerful."
"Heh." The blond snorted. "You should tread softly around here - Lolorito is not a man to be trifled with. Still, I do not believe he is the type to hire two-bit thieves and recent graduates of the Thaumaturge's Guild to take care of an assassination. I suspect this 'Baron' is acting rather outside his purview." He shook his head sadly. "The sultana's enemies grow bolder by the day."
Colin grimaced, looking away. He'd been taken down by a bunch of amateurs - it was a small comfort that it had happened in the back of some alley instead of on the open street. And that he'd survived. Dying here would have been more embarrassing still.
"Ah, but where are my manners?" the blond swordsman decalred. "I have yet to properly introduce myself. I am Thancred, a humble scholar surveying the flow of aether in Thanalan," he said, giving a small bow. "Today, I am also moonlighting as the dashing hero." He smiled broadly. "It is an honor and a privilege to make your acquaintance!"
"Defiant," Colin replied briefly, still reticent to say his actual name out loud, especially in earshot of a bunch of assassins that had already gone after him once. His eyes went back to the aetherometer on the man's shoulder. "...That device allows you to see the aether?"
Thancred laughed. "Hah! Bit of a one-track mind there, huh?" After a moment of deliberation he answered. "It's not quite that simple. Aether is everywhere around us, so a device that showed you literally all of it would just reveal a white fog - it would be useless. This one is set up to trace aether flow, so I can track down specific aether disturbances, extreme congregations, strange disruptions - that sort of thing. It's not the most reliable, since there's a lot of things that can do all that, but…" He shrugged. "It's come in quite handy from time to time."
Colin considered the explanation, as well as the obvious technological nature of the aetherometer, and reconsidered the stereotype he'd formed of this particular Earth. He'd assumed they were stuck in medieval times - but this device looked far more sophisticated, easily surpassing the technological prowess of the Renaissance, and perhaps edging in on Tinkertech territory in some respects. Perhaps the presence of this aether, whatever its exact nature, had sent science on a different developmental track - one away from fossil fuels and electrically powered gadgets and towards… different things beyond his ken. Fascinating.
"Can I…?" he asked hesitantly, the burning on his chest and the tingling in his limbs forgotten in light of professional intrigue. "I'll just have a simple look, I swear."
Thancred sighed, running a hand through his hair. "Why not. Don't break it, or I'll have to finagle another one out of Urianger." He detached the device, revealing it to be a makeshift mask, and threw it over while he went to bind the Elezen's arms together. "Switch is on the bottom. Careful now, it's fragile."
Quickly scanning the surface of the aetherometer, especially the distinctive fogged lenses, Colin shoved his armor's visor upwards and held the device in front of his eyes, flipping the recessed switch on the bottom as instructed. What he saw seemed strangely like water, a hard to describe fluctuation in the air that seemed ubiquitous, just as Thancred had said. This had to be the same thing he'd felt at the aetheryte - the aether, in its raw form, the endless ocean that had nearly swept him away.
Colin raised his hand in front of his face and saw, to his shock, that rivers of aether moved inside his limbs, flowing slowly through his flesh along pathways marked out by his arteries and muscle fibers. This was no illusion - there was really something there that he'd never seen before, a real substance. Looking down at himself, he could even see the aether disruptions along his chest, pockets of white that matched closely to the locations where he'd been hit with fire and cold. When he looked into the distance, he spotted a glimmering shape that matched closely to the location of the aetheryte he'd touched, its glow so brilliant it was visible straight through solid buildings.
"Amazing…" he looked up at the sky, and marveled at the currents he could see gleaming in the sky, only barely visible in the distance. Even as he took all this in, he felt a queasy feeling in his stomach. It was a realization that none of this made sense in light of the assumptions he'd been working from. So either the world was wrong - or his assumptions were. And only one of those scenarios was reasonable, lamentably.
Aether would not have been missed, back on Earth Bet. Even if mundane science might have ignored it through sheer ignorance of what was possible, tinkers had exploited far more esoteric forces than these. Someone, somewhere, would have found this substance and reported on it. Colin had kept a close eye on tinkertech developments out of professional interest, and he'd never seen the slightest hint of anything resembling aether - there was no gap wide enough in existing theories to support it. And yet… it was real. It was like someone had altered the speed of light, and yet kept the universe more or less the same despite this - utterly preposterous. Yet… true. It didn't seem possible.
"You spoke of thaumaturges earlier," Colin said slowly, his fingers twitching with the urge to write rather than residual impulses from electrocution. "You said that my armor needed aether-resistance to protect against… spells." He licked his lips nervously. "Tell me, when did the first powers show up?"
Thancred raised an eyebrow. "Uh, not where I thought you'd start with questions, I have to say. Though, if you're asking about the origins of magic - it's said that the first spells were crafted by prayer in the Second Umbral Era. Why do you ask?"
"...And what's today?" Colin asked slowly, lowering the Sharlayan goggles. "What era?"
"Ah, but a few scant years ago I could have given an easy answer…" He smiled thinly. "It depends who you ask whether we've arrived in the safety of another Astral Era, or if we yet remain in the shadow of the Seventh Umbral Era, and have been since the Calamity." He sighed. "As for how long it's been since the Second Era? Well, thousands of years at least, perhaps more - the Sixth Astral Era alone lasted something like fifteen hundred years, all told. Civilizations have come, gone, and been forgotten since the Second, their cities and wonders reduced to rubble and ruin…"
Colin stared ahead, chilled to the bone by more than aether-borne ice. His hand slacked on the haft of his spear as he stared at the aetherometer in his other hand. "I am… really not from around here, am I?" he admitted, more to himself than Thancred. "This is not Earth."
If he was right - he was further afield than he'd thought in his wildest dreams. He'd assumed, at its base, that the Multiverse of many different Earths all shared the same basic building blocks, the same inherent laws and constants. Earth Aleph was, in most respects, a copy of Bet until only a few decades prior - it shared billions of years of history, and the same fundamental qualities. But what if there were places, out in the Multiverse, where that was not the case? Wherever he'd ended up might be so distinct, so different, that the very planet he trod on might not be the same - because how could the same Earth form in a universe where matter and energy were not equivalent, or where light did not move at c in a vacuum? Or a universe where the mystical fifth element, aether, was real and could manifest as genuine magic?
It made sense, in a strange sort of way, and it had all clicked when aether-resistance was brought up in the context of the unconscious Elezen - aether and powers were linked in this world. 'Magic' like spells of fire and cold were some sort of aether-derived abilities, manipulation of a resource that his own world lacked. They were scientifically explainable in their own way, just not with any science that applied to his own universe.
'Thaumaturge' had been the name Thancred used for the unconscious parahuman - but that label was inaccurate. What he'd fought was closer to an actual wizard - the mystical spell-flinging kind from fantasy books. Thaumaturgy, as he recalled, was the ability to perform miracles, or wonder-working. In this world such capabilities were common enough to form organizations around them - whole Guilds dedicated to throwing fireballs and summoning the thunder. Lamentably, in this world Myrrdin was right. If Colin ever made his way home, he was sure he'd never hear the end of it.
Colin looked up at the huge white moon looming overhead, and wondered at its nature. He recognized its similarity to Earth's Moon, but at the same time he remembered Momodi claiming there had been a second, lesser moon which had fallen from the sky to wreak havoc below, releasing some monster in the process. Perhaps that story had been a local retelling of Gold Morning as he'd assumed, exaggerated and deformed by time and the Master's influence - but what if it hadn't been? Could there have been two different cataclysms which happened close together in time across such different worlds? Surely there had to be a link there, to explain his own presence on this alien planet? Or to explain why local people mostly resemble humans, and spoke English despite the large differences between their histories.
"What do you call it?" Colin asked numbly. "This world?"
Thancred seemed nonplussed at the question, which doubtlessly would sound a little strange to a native. "You mean the whole planet? Hydaelyn, of course."
"Hydaelyn," Colin repeated. His fingers slipped across the edges of the aetherometer, taking in its minute design features without consciously thinking about it. "That name. I've heard it before." He felt a soft tug in his chest, an instant of nostalgia. Was it because of that name, or the aetheryte connection? "I need… more information. Knowledge. Where can I find that sort of thing?" He tapped the aetherometer. "Where could I learn how these are made, or aetherytes for that matter? Where could I study the nature of aether itself?"
Thancred hesitated, but there was a familiar gleam in his eyes. "Well, to start with, Sharlayan technology is… private. It's not shared with outsiders, so you'd be hard-pressed to find any teachers. And don't ask me - I didn't earn these for scholarly pursuits." He gestured vaguely to his neck. "Knowledge of aether is more common, and it's fundamental to working out how our devices work - and the same goes for magic. Ironically, your best bet is probably the Thaumaturge's guild. They're housed right here in Ul'dah, and they've got a library full of tomes on the subject, though you'll have to disentangle it from some… religious interpolations, I'm sure." He smiled thinly. "I might know a couple other places, but… well, we'll see about that at a later time, won't we?"
Colin inclined his head and was about to hand the aetherometer back when his idle fingers found something. There was a small irregularity on the back, embossed within a cleft to the side of the main mechanism. He gave it a look, and found a symbol resembling the Rod of Asclepius, the serpent on a stick used as a symbol for healers, though this serpent had wings and the stick was straighter, more pointed. "A signature?" he wondered.
Thancred took the device back and spotted the image of intrigue. "Ah, yes. It's a depiction of - well, if you're ever in Mor Dhona, you should head over to the lake there, and things should become fairly clear." He shrugged. "Quite the tale behind it, I can assure you. It's ancient history by now. Pre-Calamity, you know?"
"Something else to look up," Colin observed tersely, grimacing against the pain that flared back up across his chest. "You said something about 'conjurers'?"
The blond smiled warmly. "Yes, they'll have you back in fighting shape in but a moment! We're off to Momodi's tavern after we dump this host of rapscallions with the guard." He kicked the Elezen in the side, eliciting a groan. "Trust me, even if they might be on the same side, you won't be seeing them around here again. Nobody likes failures, especially the Syndicate." He gestured back towards the main road as he dragged along two of the unconscious bodies by the ropes he'd tied around their arms. "Come on, Momodi said she prepared a room for you, and you are not going to leave her hanging, right?" He winked. "She took a shine to you, I think. Might get a free night out of telling her what happened here. Who knows?"
Colin grunted an acknowledgement, staring at his fingers as if he could will the aether into becoming visible again through sheer willpower. When he held that aetherometer, he'd felt something… different. Not the aether itself, or even the pull of the aetheryte, but something else - familiarity of some sort that transcended all that. Like a word that lingered on the tip of his tongue, a memory he'd only just forgotten. He fully intended to find out what that was.
I'm kind of curious how Colin's full set of power armor would hold up to spells and the like, rather than just his under suit. Would it be comparable to the more local armor or no?
I'm kind of curious how Colin's full set of power armor would hold up to spells and the like, rather than just his under suit. Would it be comparable to the more local armor or no?
If we assume he had his full suit of armor, he would probably be a lot more resistant to spells - even if he can't counter aether-based anything, he could counter the symptoms well enough, reducing the heat transfer through his armor and thus leaving only the direct damage done by spells that don't really travel so much as erupt in situ. So he'd be fine against fireballs and thunder, but the ice spells might still hurt just as much, as would a variety of other spells that share similar traits. Anything higher than relatively low-level spells would, presumably, destroy the armor's systems long before they had any chance at mitigating all the damage.
I justify the relatively high damage the spells did by their nature as aether-based magic, by the way - you can only do so much against a form of energy transfer you've never interacted with before. That's why he got shocked by electricity when he'd definitely insulated against it - magic lightning don't care about your mundane protection.
I'm guessing gave him the echo and the ability to use Aether, so I'll expect him to be a major figure like the scions and able to fight primals but he wont be the primary target for the Asicans, WoDs, and other threats atleast if he doesnt show how good his weapon/armor making abilities are.
If we assume he had his full suit of armor, he would probably be a lot more resistant to spells - even if he can't counter aether-based anything, he could counter the symptoms well enough, reducing the heat transfer through his armor and thus leaving only the direct damage done by spells that don't really travel so much as erupt in situ. So he'd be fine against fireballs and thunder, but the ice spells might still hurt just as much, as would a variety of other spells that share similar traits. Anything higher than relatively low-level spells would, presumably, destroy the armor's systems long before they had any chance at mitigating all the damage.
I justify the relatively high damage the spells did by their nature as aether-based magic, by the way - you can only do so much against a form of energy transfer you've never interacted with before. That's why he got shocked by electricity when he'd definitely insulated against it - magic lightning don't care about your mundane protection.
Hmm, well if his current armor set doesn't quite work does his tinker power allow him to work with Eorzean metals and techniques? Or is his power relegated to only using Earth Bet techniques, forcing him to either learn how to smith normally or use armor and weapons made by other people?
Hmm, well if his current armor set doesn't quite work does his tinker power allow him to work with Eorzean metals and techniques? Or is his power relegated to only using Earth Bet techniques, forcing him to either learn how to smith normally or use armor and weapons made by other people?
A better series of questions. Does he still have his shard? Does it still function? How is it handling this barrage of OUT-OF-CONTEXT data? Is it having a religious moment via aetheryte or just healing the damage that Golden Morning inflicted? Or is it going to herp-a-derp it's way to throwing around actual magic? Or HALP it's host in the meantime and gorge itself on delicious data?
Hmm, well if his current armor set doesn't quite work does his tinker power allow him to work with Eorzean metals and techniques? Or is his power relegated to only using Earth Bet techniques, forcing him to either learn how to smith normally or use armor and weapons made by other people?
he should be able to at use Eorzean metals since they are stuff like iron, steel, bronze, Titanium and tungsten, through he will lack some tech he's used to like power tools, fossil fuels (so no plastics), so he may have trouble at first. and he will probably have to learn how to use materia and how to make armor/weapons that can take materia.
Personally, I'm wondering how long it's going to take Colin to realize that people are not speaking or writing English at all (since this isn't an alternate Earth at all), and that something (the Echo) is translating for him. I could see some hardcore paranoia come up when that happens.
A better series of questions. Does he still have his shard? Does it still function? How is it handling this barrage of OUT-OF-CONTEXT data? Is it having a religious moment via aetheryte or just healing the damage that Golden Morning inflicted? Or is it going to herp-a-derp it's way to throwing around actual magic? Or HALP it's host in the meantime and gorge itself on delicious data?
Personally, I'm wondering how long it's going to take Colin to realize that people are not speaking or writing English at all (since this isn't an alternate Earth at all), and that something (the Echo) is translating for him. I could see some hardcore paranoia come up when that happens.
Nero: "I feel utterly unappreciated by any of my peers, like no matter how hard I try, I'll never be good enough. I'm pissed at the world and will express it repeatedly, and at length."
Colin: (Reminds himself he has someone he's already dating.)
Wait I just realized one thing Colin will truly hate about being on Erozea everyone only knows Imperial Measurements and no one uses or knows about the metric system.
Colin:"I need a cubic meter of steel to make a new sword for you."
WoL:"Whats a meter?"
