markofthewise | Sokka the 61st

[When Sokka opens the journal, he does it with a very specific purpose and yeah, maybe it's New Feather season and the aftermath of some dumb experiment, but he has some news that he's been sitting on for awhile. News that only two or three people outside of the Avatar house are even aware of. So today, around lunch period at school, Sokka heads around the building, facing the playground, to make an announcement he'd been putting off for a bit. Not because he didn't want to make it, but it was hard to do it with people being all ragey with the Malnosso. Maybe a few days of New Feathers will have cooled them off?]

Hey everyone. So... this is actually a few weeks late, but uh, that experiment kind of got in the way and New Feathers showing up and... anyway. Forget all that.

If you guys happen to see Suki around town, say hi to her for me. After all, she's the future Missus Thunderaxe. [He allows that to sink in a bit.] Because, you know, we're engaged now. Just saying. Nice pretty necklace and everything. One of my best works, if I do say so myself.

[Yeah, yeah. He's feeling good about that, okay. Like, solid. Whatever that means. Anyway, he decided that tonight he is making dinner. That means he's going to the grocery and stocking up on steaks. He wants to make steak burgers, because he's heard about them (somewhere) and they sounded awesome. From Luceti he had decided he liked steak and he liked hamburgers, so a combination? Gotta be a winner. Nevermind that he's just getting regular old steaks and plans to just put those on a hamburger bun. He'll realize the bones are gonna be a problem later on.

He'll make his customary appearance at the smithy to help New Feathers with weapons. He'll also be around school during the appropriate times for that. In the evening, after his dinner fiasco, he'll be down by the river, on the southern end of town, making some modifications to see if he can't make it sea worthy. Like adding a sail. He's pretty unsatisfied with the results though. Looks like he may need to just make a new boat from scratch. Which necessitates another voice post in the evening. But only after excluding a certain pirate. No offense, Jack, but he wants his own boat.]

[Filtered from Jack Sparrow]

So... ship building. Anyone want to help make one? A big one. Not huge, just... sea worthy with a nice strong sail. And good for bringing in lots of fish, too. Any help would be good. Just materials would go a long way.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What kind of ships are we talking here?

The ships of my homeland use magic to sail rather than the wind. We also worked with different materials. It was necessary because a wooden ship that uses wind to sail would end up either sinking or being wrecked in the currents surrounding the island.

I could show you the design we use, I was able to find a book in the library that shows it.

... magic. On boats. [He doesn't sound as skeptical as he could. Bending was a common power source for vehicles in his world. Still...]

Uh, sure. It couldn't hurt to look into it.

[And to make it easier, Piers will just put the page that he had copied to design for the ship into the journal so it will broadcast to Sokka. Here's (http://goldensunwiki.net/Lemurian_Ship) about the best source of info on the ship that could be found. They do use some wood it seems, but also other materials and the wood is likely treated to make it stronger and able to hold up to the strongest of currents. This ship held up to a tidal wave, monsters and numerous whirlpools. Every other ship in the area was destroyed by just the tidal wave.

He did also add rough plans for the wings that were added to it.]

I've been working on adapting that to something smaller and wind based for use here since I'm lacking the item used to even power my own ship.

... wings. Why does the boat have wings?

[Boats are not supposed to have wings. If you want it to fly, you use hot air. Lots of it.]

[Wings plus Hover Psynergy = hover craft.]

That allowed my own ship to go over shallows that most ships would run aground on.

Right. With magic. [Makes as much sense as anything else.] I don't think we'll have that problem here. The entire ocean used to be all sand.

I know I was told it hadn't always been an ocean, but not what it had been. I do admit that design is more for my own reference about what I have at home so I could adapt for here. But truly, I would bow to your expertise on wind based ships.

[Bow to his expertise, huh? Err..]

Uh, yeah. Actually I may know about sails, but wood isn't a material I really used myself until last year.

[Well, you made it sound like you knew more, Sokka.]

Really? What does your world use then?

[He's pretty good at that, actually.]

Whales.

I admit, I'm curious. How do you use a whale as building material?

We used everything we could. Bones for the overall structure, dried out and hardened skin and blubber for lining. Pretty sturdy, altogether.

So when the skin is dried out it still remains hard even when getting wet? Or do you treat it in some way to ensure it stays hard? [Why yes, he does actually sound interested.]

Yeah, there was a lot of stuff we had to do it before, you know, boat. You'd think a big swimming fish-thing would be more weather resistant.

It may have been when it was alive, but who would want to sail on a living creature? After all that work, does it end up being more durable than wood then?

I think the whale would be happier about it. [Yes, he's joking about dead animals. What a monster.]

It's not more durable, but it stands up well to ice and it's easier to patch.

[Yet it is a part of life that a living creature needs to eat other living creatures to survive. It seems far more respectful to make use of such a creature for more than just food. Of course if it is less durable than wood, his own people likely would have preferred to use the skin for clothing rather than a boat.]

How do you even patch it to ensure it remains watertight? It truly does sound like a very interesting method even if it wouldn't be practical in my world with the areas that have strong currents.

Uhh, centuries of traditions of knowing what animals from the sea and land can be used for sealant. [Which would get into chimera animals and... eh, no need to go into that. Besides, it's not really relevant here.] Pretty much the same principle used to put it together.

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