[text / action for Goldenrod / go ahead and make mingley top levels if you want]

[meteorman]

A. Text

To whom it may concern,

This is an invitation to a casual Hanukkah celebration to be held tonight at the Skellington House in north Goldenrod. Food will be provided, though if you wish to bring some to share I'm certain that no one will object.

No RSVP necessary. Anyone who would like to is welcome to stop by*. In strange times and places it pays to be able to find common ground in what little may be familiar.

- Dr. Stanford Pines

*Except for Rick Sanchez, unless he promises to behave himself. There will be children in attendance.

B. Action

[The mansion is hard to miss, partially because it's awfully large and partially because beneath the Christmas decorations the Halloween ones still appear to be up. Add the menorah in the window and the combined light the place gives off is probably visible from space.

As promised there is food: it's not a proper sit-down dinner, considering he figures people will keep trickling in as they have the time, but there are latkes and sufganiyot (he may have asked for Mabel's help with those) along with more Johto-appropriate foods and some things that fall squarely in-between. There are also driedels available, with markings that appear to be painted on in glitter, for people who would like to play or at the very least learn how.

It ought to be a nice night.]

Comments

[schachmeister]

[Thankfully, the inn where they are staying at is not too far from here. After a quick promise to be back as soon as possible, Armin shrugs on his coat so he can go get his book.

And it really is an impressive book. Size-wise if nothing else. The atlas Armin is carrying when he returns is actually big enough that one might wonder how he is going to lug that all across Johto. Thankfully Armin is a bit stronger than he looks. And he is committed to this book anyway. You'll have to pry it from his cold dead fingers if you want it.]

Here. It really is amazing.

[He's got a small list of questions brewing already, but first he'll allow Ford a chance to check out the book himself, holding it out to him. Ford is as nerdy as he is, so he trusts he doesn't have to go into any lectures about proper book handling behaviour here. ]

[meteorman]

[Oh, of course not. Ford may not always have the most respect for other people or their possessions but he absolutely knows how to properly handle a book. An atlas especially deserves to be handled with care because an atlas is such an incredibly valuable resource in so many different ways. He would have killed for an atlas of half the worlds he fell into in the past thirty years.

He carefully flips through the pages, nodding in approval the more he sees.]

You were right. This is incredibly well-made.

[schachmeister]

[Armin glows a little under the praise as if it was directed at him. But then, what is a book but the extension of a nerd soul?]

Eren really picked something incredible.

[But then, giving gifts is easier when they are flush with wealth and have so much to choose from. That is what it feels like being in this world, at least.]

[He allows Ford to look for a few moments more, before he reaches over and turns a few more pages, ending up in the part of the Atlas that describes the mountain ranges of Mt Mortar. He points at a small passage that roughly sums up the history of the area.]

Here, I don't understand this very well. What does it mean by tectonic activity?

ink bullshits geology

[meteorman]

Ah! An excellent question. Tectonic activity is one of the main processes behind the shaping of major landmasses. The surface of the planet is not a single uniform piece of land; were you to remove the extraneous details like water and human settlements, you would see lines delineating different 'plates'. Think of an insect with many different pieces of armor making up the whole of its outer shell.

[That's probably a relatable metaphor, right? One that Armin will be able to parse?]

In the case of my Earth and this planet as well, those plates are capable of movement and their particular behavior in relation to each other is described as plate tectonics. In some places they grind past each other horizontally -- this tends to cause earthquakes. In others they push apart from each other and here, as the Atlas describes, they form mountains by pushing together and upward. You can often mark a boundary between plates by either a mountain range or an area with an unusual amount of earthquakes.

I am gonna make you bullshit so much science

[schachmeister]

[Armin listens in the same way like a sponge sucks up water. He takes in each word with an almost greed and awe. There is going to be some interesting entries in his diary journal tonight. There aren't too many earthquakes where he is from, but it does answer some questions he's always had about them.]

What makes them move?

wikipedia will get so much of my time

[meteorman]

The working theory is that their movement is caused by heat from the planet's core. While the surface of my world -- and this world, and presumably your world -- is solid, the inside can reach unfathomably hot temperatures and is in fact liquid at the center. This hot material rises and cools to form new additions to the surface layer, while cooler material sinks, resulting in an overall shift.

Soon, we'll just be pasting articles instead of tags.

[schachmeister]

[Armin's eyes widen, shining with curiosity.]

Does that mean there is water inside of the earth?