Swingin' on By Nice and Early [Amelie]

"In my experience, 'blatantly hostile' is more than sufficient enough to describe them." But sheesh, the fact that they were able to clear out one of those nests was impressive enough. And heck, if it worked it worked! Luke shared a nod with Amelie's comment in regards to the Knights, but it did beg to wonder - why was there so often a rag-tag group in the vicinity to deal with these problems?

Blah, that hurt too much to think about. Clearly abnormal gravity and theoretical math was a better use of brainpower!

"Yeah, some sort of central 'pivot' in the middle of the room. I don't think anything we build will have significantly more pull than the walls here, so if the platforms are low enough, you can just think of 'down' as 'pointed outwards' and 'up' as 'towards the anchor'. Though it if applies to everything in here then maybe a building or two would skew the path?"

Interesting to think about. "Definitely worth experimenting, anyway. Better now while there's nothing in the way!"

"Either way, flying should be a nightmare in here, right? Then why were the DexDorumon here at all?"

"Hm... maybe they were used to it - or maybe this is just what a DexDorumon nest does, or something?"

"Heh, I'll keep that in mind - but keep in touch anyway, if you need a hand!" When it all came down to it, Luke figured, it was easy to tell that both teams were on the up-and-up, and there wasn't a reason they couldn't work together. Well, other than his obligations to the guild on the flying island, of course.

And even if he wouldn't be the engineer building it, he could definitely help design it. After almost stumbling, he sat next to Amelie, mulling over the design. "Hm... a sphere wouldn't work. What you'd want to do is take the rough shape of the room - or, at least the building-habitable area - and create something of an ellipsoid shape in that exact same shape. But as far as I'm thinking, you don't need to put too much material in the center..."

If Amelie would allow Luke to borrow a pen, he'd sketch his idea out: metal joists, affixed to the edges of the room, were drawn up towards the center - where he'd sketch a rough, jagged 'football' shape of metal, the cross-bars holding spools of cable or rope to be brought back down towards the surface. The infrastructure itself looked a bit like a convoluted jungle gym...

"... And you might be thinking that this would cramp down on the space, but you could double-up on the vertical girders by establishing your building structure around them. For taller buildings, and especially with this room's physics, you'll have to support them around their central point anyway..."

As Luke and Amelie theorized away, Amelie brought up a new point. Wait, these properties were... new?

"Then aren't you two jumping the gun a bit?" Iko sighed, as Luke looked over his shoulder. "What if this place's physics change back like next week or something?"

"Um..." Huh. Interesting point. "... I wonder if spellcasters or something can do appraisals on that..."

So much theory, but such a rocky foundation! Only now did either Amelie or Luke think of the longevity of the field. At least in this case, Iko was a touch more helpful. "Hm... there might be a 'mon or two who could take a look at it. If its magic its just a means of supplying the source, and if its actually a new distortion, it... probably won't revert."

"Either way, I don't think either of us have anyone specific in mind. Hm..." Well, maybe this makeshift blueprint would have to be put on hold a bit, but at least they had a baseline! "Considering the progress of the construction here already, it might be better to ask one of them. I mean, with all the 'floating islands' and underwater cities, it might not even be the strangest thing they've ever been asked about."

"Maybe. I mean, I'm not a construction nut myself. Maybe one could be found in Terminus or Luminas? I mean, floating islands and all..."

Sheesh. Luke shook his head, looking to the place as a whole. "Anyway - underground is great and all, but it might be kind of limiting if this idea takes off. What do you have planned when the word of this place starts to spread?"

"If only it were so easily to walk into laboratories and find a scientist that randomly knows what you're talking about." Iko jested, of course - the security of those places existed for a reason. But it did spur an idea out of Luke's head, at least:

"Well, obviously not a lab, but maybe a... school or university? I don't know how any of that's structured in the Digital World, but certainly they have to learn from someone else." Maybe Mikemon would have a better lead on something like that. As an Aato, Iko was unfortunately no help on that front, simply giving an unassuming shrug.

"Hm, fair enough. Especially with all this 'Spire and D-Reaper' stuff going on, I wouldn't want to stir up the tense nest Luminas is very much right now."

But yes, Luke was already talking about expanding, and for good reason! "It might not even that you get overpopulated, but its certainly possible that some might not want this place to succeed. Some thrive in the chaos, and I'm sure there's a few milking Fragment Village that would just love to try and get their hands in using a place like this."

"Just something to keep your eyes open for, of course," Iko gave a nod. "There will come a time when this place is a bit too much for just one person to handle. Eventually, you'll reach a point where you're governing it instead of overseeing every little thing!"

"Terminus... and maybe Whitewater, but that's more a market town."

That aside, Iko was glad to hear Amelie's conviction on this. No shady business, weed out the bad eggs, and run a nice, tight ship - they could get on board with all of that. And heck, she was already thinking to make a group out of it! "Ah, nice!" He gave a nod, appreciating that Amelie was going in the right direction on this.

Whether she stuck it through to the end or not, well, Iko had faith in her. But, indeed, this was still a young project, already built on a potentially unstable cavern. "Mhm. I'm in with the Knights, of course, but if you need help with any of this, you can shoot me a call. Between the 'Rose' and this place, I don't think we're going to be doing too much that conflicts."

"Trying to get our foot in the Dark Area nice and early there, Luke?" The Ankomon openly jested, butting his elbow against the tamer's ribs, as Luke pushed right back. "Well, that can't hurt, but its hardly why."

"Oh, I get it." Iko grinned: "Third time you're sticking your neck out for her in two months, right?"

... Oof.

The Knights were open to the council, and in turn it seemed like the Council was nice and open to the Knights as well! Luke returned a nod, before giving a small chuckle at Iko's teasing. Yes, the teasing was rather harmless...

... But it might have hit close to home? Letting a brief spot of red pass his cheek, he gave a smile to Amelie. "I'll keep that in mind." Though they hadn't seen the spirit user fight, she did have her hands much deeper into that mess than Luke or Iko did - so she had to be a capable fighter, at least in some respect! "Ah, but don't think you have to repay me for anything like that, of course!"

"Don't think she said that at all." Iko gave a whistle, as Luke rolled his eyes. "If you got any more projects you want me to look at, just let me know."

"Heh. I'll keep that in mind if I need an extra hand with something." Trading favors back and forth seemed like a pretty good deal as it was, and as Amelie joked about the shift being over, Luke took one more look into the cavern.

"Hm, I guess-" Whatever Luke was about to say was interrupted by a small vibration in his pocket. Checking the D-Terminal at a glance, Luke gave a sigh. "And that's the Knights. Alright, I guess I will be off. Catch you later!"

Luke had to hurry that up just a bit, unfortunately, as he soon picked up to take that call, Iko following a short distance behind. Over the last few minutes, Iko had that same grin on his face, just entertained about the silent pins and needles that his tamer seemed to tread on. "Well, good luck in Terminus. It'd help if you already had some kinda 'sciency' person to help you from scratch?"

Just a thought. He would follow Luke on out, and the two would be on their way to handle their own business.

Late next morning, though, Amelie would see a text, just two words:

Coffee, Thursday?

[Exit]