Dec 03 10:16:06 109 PA - Not Getting Lost With Angles and Directions

From Chronicles

Dec 03 10:16:06 109 PA.

KINGSDALE CITY MUSEUM (LIBRARY)

Some people might feel emasculated - or whatever the female equivalent of that may be - standing deep inside the Museum among its wards, spells, runes and other such things. Not if you're a human from the 20th Century. Nope, you might actually feel pretty good about things. Gabriel is one such human, standing at the end of one of the long stacks of maps, a simple roll tucked beneath his arm. Yes, it's a Tuesday, which means work hours so his uniform is neat and snappy.

Rubidia walks into the museum, as really there’s no other way to get in there.. To say she looks speculative on the choice of location would be quite accurate as she seeks Gabriel out at her heightened pace. Which is oddly enough undampened by the museum.

Gabriel looks up to wave the rolled map at his instructor as he moves over to a table to straighten the large scroll. It's a large regional map, with only the basics of scale, north, a grid and some locations noted. "Hello, Ruby. You ready to go on a trip?" His finger punches a spot on the map just beneath a small dot labeled, 'Lwallen.' "I was here a few long months back, but got there by helicopter. I'd like to get there again. Maybe you could show me how to do it without following the terrain and such?"

Rubidia shrugs lightly. "Not following the terrain? So following the stars instead? You have star charts? Astronomy is a pretty detailed subject you know?" She points out with a developing smirk.

"I thought maybe a compass or something? I feel like I've been doing more surveying than navigating. Y'know... like a ship's captain. Go somewhere where there isn't anything to help - not even a sextant or a star chart. But still, you're the teacher. I leave it in your capable hands," Gabriel says, stepping back with a short bow, arms outstretched. Genuflecting for the perky performer?

Rubidia shakes her head. "One should never navigate blind. But sure we can strip it down to the bare essentials..." She agrees and takes a closer look at the map. "So we're going there. Where are we?"

Gabriel taps the dot labeled 'Kingsdale.' "Okay, that was the easy one." Lwallen is clearly to the west-southwest. "You must have come across times when this is the best you had, and needed to get somewhere, didn't you?"

Rubidia snickers and shakes her head. "I can know exactly where I am at any given time. But that’s not your point. My point is this is not the best you have. You're not blind, you can see what is around you. And you need to to navigate accurately. This map surely uses true north. Your compass being magnetic cannot take you to your destination with this map alone. You need a reality reference."

"Thus, why I'm here with a map, and you," Gabriel chuckles. "I've got my 'pack all ready to go as soon as you have us pointed in the right direction. Sure, I could get look at where the hills are, and where the Kingsdale river goes. But that seems to go back to referencing what I already know." He holds up a finger. "You know Charles Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic from Long Island to Paris and barely even had a window. And that was in '27. I was nine, it was pretty exciting."

Rubidia nods again. "So you need a star chart then. If you're not navigating by the land, you have to navigate by the sky. Star charts are available at most outfitters. But I think you're looking for the ability to get by without using either at all. Which really isn’t advisable. Ignoring the fact you need to convert your compass to true north, you have to account for error. That means referencing reality frequently. Sure if you are flying in dead fog you follow your compass for that time. But as soon as you get out of the fog you have check you location."

"Okay," Gabriel says, sweeping a hand toward the distant exist and smiling - as he leads - "Show me. I don't want to see the Sanctuary though, I don't want to make a map. I need to actually go someplace. Otherwise the ability to figure out where I'm going seems a little pointless."

"That’s a lot easier than what we did at the Sanctuary." Rubidia notes with a smirk and puts her finger on Kingsdale at the map. "So we know you are here. And we know you want to go there. You have a compass and a map. A sextant would be useful as well given the relative flatness about Kingsdale. All you need to do is have a reference to find true north. Then you know how much to compensate with your compass. Then you can go in a straight line to your destination."

As he downs the outer steps of the Museum, Gabriel chuckles a little with a twinkle in his eye. "I know where north is, not to worry. So let's suit up and start moving? Gotta keep the arrow pointed north, the compass where I want to go. Right. Where else should we go, if I manage to get us there?" He hooks south along Main, hurrying to his office.

Rubidia follows, now getting curious about Gabriel's intentions. And a bit surprised he actually intends to visit some place on a whim. But she does follow and look good for playing long. "Ok, so you have true north, take the angle on the map, and convert it to magnetic north for your compass. Take the measurement to your location to the scale a figure the distance. Set your speed of travel. And then we see if we're in the right place in the right amount of time." Apparently she'll worry about where to next after they successfully reach place one.

It doesn't take long for Gabriel to run up the three flights to the office, slip into his armor and lock his jet pack in place. "Okay! So where're we going? Just keep me away from Coalition territory right now." The office has a wide variety of regional maps, though obviously not nearly as thorough as the Museum. "Don't try to take me to a love nest and take advantage of an old man, either," he adds with a wink as he pulls out an ancient compass and starts to align it. Apparently.

"If you know distance and direction, you can go anywhere you see on a map Gabriel. So you want to go to Lwallen... By the map its 273 degrees true. What's the conversion?" Rubidia asks, following patiently as Gabriel dons the jet pack.

Gabriel has to admit, "I've forgotten local declination." He's soon back out on the street, ready to go. Somewhere. "But the scale said about two hundred miles, if that's what you mean. You can keep up, right?" he has to ask belatedly.

"No but you won't notice me hanging on." Rubidia answers before shaking her head. "You need that declination Gabriel. Otherwise we're going in the wrong direction." She points out before consulting the map. "Ok this lake is en route and in sight range of the city. Take us to its northeast corner and we'll get the declination." She directs before moving beside Gabriel to light up and grab on to someplace secure..

NORTH AMERICAN WILDERNESS

With a nod, Gabriel makes a show of being the sugar daddy with a hot girl on his shoulder, then after tucking his submachine-gun against his side, lifts off with a blast of debris into the air. The lake isn't far, certainly close enough for him to find easily by what he already knows. Though he flies with his arm outstretched to see the old compass, he does comment - necessarily shouting over the speakers - "I'll probably be better at this even sooner. Now that I have a really thorough reason to use it, the implant is getting more useful. Lake's down there."

"Good, find the angle back to Kingsdale according to your compass. Then find the angle according to the map. The difference is the declination." Rubidia instructs. Letting Gabriel take the bearing before handing him the map. "We're doing this by air so things are a lot more forgiving. If we were on foot you could walk within a mile of your town and never know it. That’s why it's important to check your position as you travel."

Gabriel takes a long sighting from both map and eyes from beneath a flipped-open faceplate. Then perhaps from something even more mechanical. Eventually, he points north. Almost. "Only about half a degree off, to the east. Fair?" He looks back to Rubidia then, to ask, "But in the air and on the water, you have currents to deal with too. At least on the ground, it's just your feet. But still, I want to learn this stuff. Where to next? Ever been to Lwallen?"

"Never heard of it." Rubidia answers before pointing to the map. "Now take the angle from the northeast corner of the lake to our destination. Use the declination to get the angle to go by on the compass. Then go the appropriate distance." She instructs with a nod. "Very good points if viewpoints are hard to come by. But unless the wind is very high today we should see this place when the time comes."

Snapping his faceplate back where it should be, Gabriel's head quirks to the side. "Lwallen? Yeah, nice little place. Anyway." He plots an angle with an armored finger. Probably not the most accurate way to do it, but he didn't bring a straightedge of any kind, an error he'll undoubtedly be sure to correct in the future. A spin on his heels offers, "Thataway." Then like Superman, except with full use of his limbs and not in genital-hugging Spandex, he's off. "C'mon, you'll love the place!"

Rubidia is still on the man’s shoulder as she'd either be left behind or leave him behind otherwise. She seems mostly indifferent to the scenery passing bellow. Traveling, the forgotten love.

Miles go by, and Gabriel starts to drift off course. He doesn't even notice it until he and his lovely passenger cross over a short spine of rugged mountains. "Aw, hell. I remember these from the map. I'm too far north." He stops to hover in the air, then descends toward one of the highest peaks. "Sorry, Ruby, gotta check my bearings. I don't want to rely on this kind of thing, right?"

Rubidia shrugs. "Relying is bad. Using is fine. If you rely on this alone then in flat lands you'll be out of luck. But you know how to do this. So instead get your bearing from then sun." She offers.

Gabriel nods, then does his best to keep his eyes on the sun, old compass once more outstretched. "Okay. That way." He points behind and down. "I'll go as fast as I can, shouldn't take too long. Grab on. And don't get any ideas, I'm a happily married man," he chuckles.

"Men in armor was never my thing anyway." Rubidia notes with a shrug and hangs on without difficulty. Pretty easy when one can just float along and has super strong grip. Just don’t look in your rear view.

An hour goes by, with Gabriel needing to stop three more times. Two of them were pretty nice confirmations of correctness - the other was a 'thank God I looked' moment that put the duo back on track to the small kingdom. He settles on the outskirts, and waves Rubidia toward the city. "There's a great little pub in there, or you can give me a new destination, or another project right away?"

"Actually I’ve got a better idea.." Rubidia offers and dons a smirk. "But you have to trust me completely and turn slowly as I instruct." She explains before waiting to see if Gabriel can go with that.

"Sure. Just keep it above the waist," Gabriel jokes. "What do I need to do?"

Rubidia says, "Get us to a good altitude." Rubidia instructs and once they are she puts her hands over his eyes. "Go straight for a bit." She says, giving the man a moment to get sorta comfortable with the arrangement. "Turn left.."

Going vertical is easy. Even high up is easy with an electric drive. Then without complaint, Gabriel leans over and goes straight. If it were purely him, then like every other human, his 'straight' would eventually deviate off course no matter how straight he thought he was going. But it's not just him, it's a damn bit of various alloys in his body that he's had to live with as a necessity, that keep him going in a straight line. Then left.

And so for the next hour Rubidia leads Gabriel on blindfolded with occasional corrections. When it's over she pulls back the veil of her hands to show completely different landscape to what was seen last. "Ok, now find the way home."

Safety first! Gabriel finds a small nearby rise from which he can inspect the area. It's going on later in the afternoon, and they're all alone in the wilderness. But, as it appears to be safe enough in this hopefully deserted part of a barren North America, he unrolls a map. Holds it up to north. South. Looks for some mountains. The sky. "Um. Okay, am I just missing us on here, or is this really the tough test, and this map isn't any better than materials for a large paper airplane anymore?"

"The map is the second step, finding your place on it comes first. You have no idea where you are so no landmarks can be trusted. You have to look to the sky and your compass. North hasn’t changed much, so that’s one line. You need one more for a good position. Two for an exact one." Rubidia explains, giving Gabriel a moment to see if he can't find another point to reliably navigate by.

Gabriel nods, his faceplate open. After a moment, he glances at his old analog watch, then up to the sun. His finger is raised, and he points, "Assuming you haven't completely flown us out of the area, that should be a fairly accurate west, with time and position of the sun. Yes?"

"Accurate enough to find a more solid land mark on the map yes. Otherwise we'd have to wait for the starts to come out.." Rubidia states with a nod.

"I'll have to learn about astronomy another time," Gabriel says as he places the map on the ground and secures it in place with a rock. The winds are gusty, and it would be terrible to lose it. A line is sketched with his finger from known north and oriented with general west. Some time is given for analysis before turning and pointing one arm south, one arm in front - east. "That way. Until I can get some better landmarks."

"Mountains and lakes work best. They are clearest on the maps." Rubidia advises. Either she's finding nothing wrong with the findings or no reason to correct them for him.

Gabriel nods, and squints west. Nope. He points east again. "Grab on, I know that's the direction, I just don't know if it's the best one. C'mon." He's soon in the air and flying east again. After only about ten minutes or so, he does settle down by a beautifully circular mirror-sheen lake and reorients himself. "Okay. So. Sun's even further that way. North is still that way. East. And... south of where I was going, but not bad. Agreed?" He holds out the map for a final inspection.

"Sure." Rubidia answers with a shrug to indicate she's patient enough to find out the hard way. At least she's present for moral support...

Gabriel nods, but not in an affirmation, just to slap his faceplate back down before taking off again. "This way, then. I'll have you home before Sage shows up on the doorstep tapping her foot and wielding a shotgun." Zoom! They're up in the air, traveling a few degrees south of east.

"Actually she has this rifle that will make you tingle in the most interesting places. On the stun setting. It can also shoot a sonic pulse strong enough to turn a brain into patte." Rubidia corrects with a nod.

"Mmm. Yeah, I think I saw her use it. You kids these days with your fancy technology," Gabriel chuckles. He make one further stop for a course correction, and just as the sun's disc has finally set beneath the horizon, they arrive at Kingsdale - south of it, definitely, but clear enough to lob a cannonball. "All in all, I guess that wasn't too bad for an entire day, was it?" he asks as he settles them down before Sage Alternatives with a roar of jets. A roar that thankfully winds down to only a hum as they remain spinning just to cool.

Rubidia nods in approval. "Well when push comes to shove you'll survive. A little more practice and you'll survive and make appointments." She determines approvingly as she disembarks and dampens her light.

Gabriel covers his eyes with an armored hand as the starlet hops off. "Well, thanks, Ruby. I sure appreciate it! Everyone from the Sanctuary, you gave them something, too. So thanks for that, too."

"Speaking of which. If I'm throwing a concert for fifty thousand, I could really use your help coordinating security and logistics for me. If we could meet to establish that in the next few days." Rubidia points out.

"Oh? Absolutely. Fifty-thousand at the Arena, I take it?" Gabriel removes his helmet when the jets wind down for good. "If I remember, you didn't have such great luck the last time you threw a big concert like that."

Rubidia nods; gaze locking on Gabriel with confidence. "Yep, but you'll prevent a repeat of that right?" Gabriel nods. "Yes. The concert's the fund-raiser, right?"

"Of course." Rubidia confirms and turns to head into Sage's for the evening. One can only resist the aromas from her kitchen for so long after all.