[voice] → "Eagerly I wished the morrow."

[bookworldly]

[Thursday's shoes have scarcely disturbed the soil of Luceti since its most recent Shifts. Her accustomed jogs around the grounds have wound down. She has not found herself out at the fringes of the forest or stood staring down streams. Her name has not lingered either on the library's ledgers or its logs for countless days

Comments

[semper_cogitans]

Ah, an artistic sort of person. [Robert has never been good at that sort of thing. He's too concrete a thinker for the abstract.] Well, I could certainly oblige.

Something I cherish...

[Several answers run through his mind. Don. Vivi. Having friends. Not being alone anymore.

But those are things that Luceti brought, and this person is requesting something from outside Luceti. So his mind goes to his work, of course. And what better for it to go to than his beloved Institute?]

Picture, if you will, a massive structure - easily several hundred metres tall - of smooth metals... primarily various titanium and iron alloys, so mostly a lustrous silvery colour; worked into the material are trillions of microscopic circuits, and Terran photosynthesis-mimicry solar panels, which are a deep bluish-purple in colour, coat the building's external surfaces.

Around the perimeter of the building are set many tall, cyndrilical towers, mostly made of translucent epoxies and polymers; at the top of the tower are enormous globes, which serve as receivers and transmitters. The towers themselves are studded with input/output ports, for nanocomputers of those who might wish to interface with them... These structures are nearly always gently glowing, and humming softly with electricity and trillions of petabytes of information...

[Robert's voice is very dreamy and faraway. It's reminiscent of a small child describing a fantasy land.]

That is the Randi Institute of Linden's exterior... where I was appointed as a certified astrobiologist for several years. I have loved the facility since I was very young... I first visited it when I was merely three, in fact, and I recall that it was only at my behest that my parents would take me there time and again...

...

... Ah, but if you need more detail, I would be happy to oblige.

[bookworldly]

[The detail provided puts her in mind of her uncle. Circuits and photosynthesis, petabytes, they're all a long way out of her comfort zone. That is not to say, however, that she doesn't find herself drawn to the mystery - the potential of these words. She was one of the few who took an interest in her uncle's work; she had him describe each of his devices to her, demonstrate them. She was proud, even now, just to think of Aunt Polly and him.

It was a pity he never got started on the memory erasure device, though.]

The "Randy Institute of Lindon." - got it. [She'll write the name somewhere - on a banner or a billboard. And she'll do it wrong - but then, she only has what she's hearing to work with.]

Are the circuits visible? You said the structures glow blue... Is that because of the circuitry? Microscopic circuitry... so you can't see the circuits but the light that they give off is visible?

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble picturing it that's all. Oh, and these towers, are they strictly geometric in shape or are they rather more stylized instead?

[Voice/Written]

[semper_cogitans]

[Her uncle sounds like the kind of person Robert might have taken quite a liking to. He appreciates intelligence, even if it's from a world that feels comparitively backward.

Robert kind of winces at the spelling, and because he can't help himself, he lapses into writing to make sure his intent gets across clearly, writing with a script so precise it might remind Thursday of a typewriter.]

Randi Institute of Linden.

[And then back to his voice.] I apologize, I should have clarified on the spelling.

The circuits, due to being microscopic, are themselves not visible... and the glowing, mostly restricted to the terminals, is actually mostly an aesthetic feature; though it does serve to show when the towers are in use, but it is simply the electrical currents at work.

Ah, not an issue at all. I understand that my world is... a unique one. [Does Robert sound a little proud? Perhaps almost arrogant? Though it's not entirely misplaced... this is his beautiful (to him) home that he's talking about.]

They are more stylized; much of Terran architecture lacks hard edges, though the most efficient shapes are used, and when those are explicitly geometric, a building's form will follow its function.

There are often pits in building sides that allow for the successful placement of many of the common climbing floral species that adorn much of Linden's residential and commercial units.