- Character Biography
- Click Here
Cryle had practically guzzled the water. So caught up in the spycraft and machining-learning, she realized she hadn't eaten* or drank anything since early last evening, shortly before making her attempt at getting inside the quarter. The coolness in her throat and stomach felt nauseating at first, but as she stood and breathed, a little pinkness returned.
She was, after all, still fumingly embarrassed. The last time she had let herself babble like that...
She handed the flask back to Kaii and mumbled something vaguely appreciative and respectful, but altogether entirely unintelligible. She wasn't sure her tongue or lips could do words for a while after that deluge. Buffer overflow was reading into garbage syllable data.
She distracted her mind, briefly, with the putting away of lenses and eyepieces, and the slipping of her telescope back to her baldric. Taking up position at the corner of the desk, she drew out her own notebook and pencil from her toolkit, and began scanning the design. For each gear in the schematic, she marked down the size, relative size, number of teeth, followed by all the depths and pitches as Kaii had provided. Then she wrote down a second list on another page, arranging them by size, and tore it out of the notebook to show to Swifttail. She had drawn a thick line dividing the smallest from the largest, and all the information was there, his own miniature schematic to work from.
On the first page, she simply crossed out the gears she would not be working on. Then, resting her pencil atop the opposite page of her notebook once more, the numbers began to flow.
She was vaguely aware of Swifttail's nervousness, and had she been less embarrassed about her outburst, she would have slowed to show him why certain numbers were manipulated so. It had been her own hurdle as a kit, watching someone trying to explain long division. They had shown how, but without the why, it was total nonsense. Why put that number there, why that number, why add or subtract this and that? It was all part of a method - one she had ditched in favor of her own, once she'd understood the concept at a later age. Correct calculations made sense, but for the calculations to be correct, the calculations themselves had to be sensible.
Cryle worked in silence, save for the scritching of pencil on paper, and a quiet grinding of teeth. Her eyes boggled slightly. For all her embarrassment and worries, this was, for now, a happy rat.
* With the exception of her candies. Which she usually tried to forget about, so that they would still be there.
She was, after all, still fumingly embarrassed. The last time she had let herself babble like that...
She handed the flask back to Kaii and mumbled something vaguely appreciative and respectful, but altogether entirely unintelligible. She wasn't sure her tongue or lips could do words for a while after that deluge. Buffer overflow was reading into garbage syllable data.
She distracted her mind, briefly, with the putting away of lenses and eyepieces, and the slipping of her telescope back to her baldric. Taking up position at the corner of the desk, she drew out her own notebook and pencil from her toolkit, and began scanning the design. For each gear in the schematic, she marked down the size, relative size, number of teeth, followed by all the depths and pitches as Kaii had provided. Then she wrote down a second list on another page, arranging them by size, and tore it out of the notebook to show to Swifttail. She had drawn a thick line dividing the smallest from the largest, and all the information was there, his own miniature schematic to work from.
On the first page, she simply crossed out the gears she would not be working on. Then, resting her pencil atop the opposite page of her notebook once more, the numbers began to flow.
She was vaguely aware of Swifttail's nervousness, and had she been less embarrassed about her outburst, she would have slowed to show him why certain numbers were manipulated so. It had been her own hurdle as a kit, watching someone trying to explain long division. They had shown how, but without the why, it was total nonsense. Why put that number there, why that number, why add or subtract this and that? It was all part of a method - one she had ditched in favor of her own, once she'd understood the concept at a later age. Correct calculations made sense, but for the calculations to be correct, the calculations themselves had to be sensible.
Cryle worked in silence, save for the scritching of pencil on paper, and a quiet grinding of teeth. Her eyes boggled slightly. For all her embarrassment and worries, this was, for now, a happy rat.
* With the exception of her candies. Which she usually tried to forget about, so that they would still be there.
