Curator POV

It's been a few days since my lil skinkle have moved in. I've been, mostly, laying low, just watching, and answering questions at times. Letting Babe, Vekla, and Poppit handle most of the things as that seems to be easier for the skinkle to understand than well...just a mysterious voice coming from no where. Man I really hope they don't start worshiping me or something, that would be SUPER awkward.

Looking at how they structured things in that camp site, it doesn't seem like they set up with any rhyme or reason just setting things up in the direction each 'family' deems fit. No central walk way, no real order or structure to it...it's honestly chaos, which explains why I keep getting snippets of just pure annoyance from Babe each time they head that way. Their tent style also isn't that great, and looking at them, we could likely make them more efficient by converting them to teepees, which would use alot less material and allow for fires and such inside them, when we can secure a reliable source of combustibles.

Yep, I think it's time to give a little lesson on the civics sides of things with how to organize a village, town, or city. With that in mind, I'd give another last look over of my domain. It's not really grown since those initial influxes, it's still much larger than what's used though. That just means I've space to enact my ideas I guess. Every so often I can 'see' groups of Poppits shifting through the sand and kind of patrolling the unused areas to keep threats handled.

Speaking of the Poppits the largest of them has stayed near my core room, occasionally it'll head out to get something to eat, which, at times does give a mana influx, but that's usually when it over eats. The larger mid sized Poppits have started roaming outside my domain, hunting and bringing things back at time, which has helped the skinkle a good bit, while also giving Babe some things to start learning from by observing how they are butchered. The smaller of the mid sized ones are the ones actually patrolling inside, with the occasional larger mid sized one mixed in. The smallest however have seemed to pair up with the Skinkle, Vekla and Vahlu included, and stay close by, like a mix of personal guard and pet. Maybe like dogs were treated back in the day for a long while, but not quite dog like and more spazzy. It's honestly relaxing to watch the younglings playing with their Poppits, and vice versa, and as that's continued, the entire little clan of skinkle has calmed immensely. Don't think they've ever had safety and security to the point that children could just, play.

Taking a moment to reminisce on the momentary panic that'd resulted as the flood of Poppit had flowed down the sides of my residence, I'd mentally shake my head while shifting my focus to the 'tent city' and speak up.

'Good morning every one. I hope you all rested well. We need to talk some, about the current state of things, and improving this little huddle of huts we have going here.' (Curator)

Giving every one a moment to finish rousing and come out to the 'center' area for that little place, where they tend to keep the water pots to keep things close for late night drinks. The first one there is Vekla, only beating Babe by a few moments, although, she can't move as quickly over the sand as he can. Much like how snow shoes are better for fast moving over snow than just boots. The third to arrive is the Chieftain, followed quickly by his brother Vahlu. The rest of the skinkle gathering up and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. It's not super early, the sun's at least 3/4ths the way up over the horizon after all!

"It's pretty early, and it's the first time since we've got here that you've called for every one to come together is something wrong?" (Chieftain)

'In a sense yes, and a sense, no. Looking at how the tents and such here are set up, it's...dissordly. That, and by changing the shape on them, we can reduce the amount of material used to make each one, both for the supports, and for the leather covering portion. The new shape would also allow for a heat source like a fire in them while letting out the smoke so no one suffocates. For them, we'd need 3 strait poles of some type that are roughly the same shape, tied together in some manner so that the bottoms are all in alignment. Once that part is done I can show you how to pull them up to be the framework for the structure. We could, probably, make two of these from the materials of just a single one of your tents. I'll make the first covering as well, and lay it out, so it's easy for your crafts folks to see how it should be, then show how it lays out while assembled, and how to take it down so it makes sense and keeps everything together.' (Curator)

Watching as some of the skinkle set off to start tearing down and disassembling one of their tents, at the insistence of the Chieftain as he understands the implications of what I just said the best, I'd then turn my attention to him more directly.

'Now, as they are working on that, I'd also like to give some slight instruction on organization that'll help quite a bit. Since you keep supplies in a kind of central location, the tipis I'm showing you all how to make, should all face inward to that central area. This will also mean you can pack the sand some in the areas folk travel the most, allowing people to move a bit more quickly as the ground won't be as shifty under their steps, and help with people going here and there.' (Curator)

While explaining this, I'd draw it in the sand, doing a little jug shape then triangles for the tipis with a flat side facing the 'jug' in the center, then padding down the sand in that center area, then padding it down in a few directions leaving that 'circling' of the water jugs they keep.

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'It may seem, strange, compared to what you are used too, but it will help, trust me on that. Organization like this is very much useful especially as more children are born or hatched, and the size of the settlement grows. Down the road, we'll likely transition away from tipis to more permanent structures, but for now, this is a good step toward giving every one more space, and allowing for easier moving about to do various things.'

Watching as the chieftain observes the diagram in the sand and mulls over what I've said, it's not long till I feel that influx of mana from teaching that I'd gotten before with Babe. Oooh, that's really the ticket there.

"And from this, one of these trails would head toward the filling water pool, another to a place we could clean up or relieve ourselves, and others to lead to other areas of importance here. That is...it's so simple and strait forward, why didn't I see that before?" (Chieftain)

"Well, for starters, Curator has a much different point of view. They also have a wisdom and knowledge well beyond their years, and from...snippets, seem to have memories of a time when they were much like us, but, not like us. There are wonders in those memories I have had the pleasure to glimpse into that are truly wonderous. Like a glossy hide that is unfolded, showing various animals heads, size in relation to the average of what the memories are from, notable dangers of said animal. Whether it is edible or poisonous, and even if it has a venomous bite or sting and how dangerous said venom would be. Or box set against a wall, with doors, that when open, have contents that are kept cold, or freezing, keeping food fresh for longer without needing to dry it out. My favorite of those was shiny tubes that when opened were full of meats, fruits, and other plant parts that are edible, like that, or after being heated but kept safe and in stasis until opened from how it seems. With time, I doubt we will be lacking of such wonders, but, as stated, it will take time to lay the foundations of such. Am I incorrect Curator?" (Babe)

Blinking mentally, and taken a bit aback, I'd not realized Babe had gleaned so much from those few times I day dreamed of the past. Honestly, such mundane things to the former me would be magical to this place.

'Correct, although those won't be exactly the same as from what I know, as while I know the basics of those things, that doesn't mean I can recreate them perfectly here. Nor that I would need to. After all, here there is magic, where as there, it was all mundane, which gives us here an edge to hit that level of advancement much more quickly than it took those I was of, before.' (Curator)

Vekla, looking between Babe and where I am 'watching' from looks dumbfounded by those small revelations.

"So...you could keep things cold, or frozen, without magic? How could something like that be done? What other wonders did you have before this of that nature? You call it mundane, but, to think of freezing without using mana is...how, just how could you do something like that?" (Chieftain)

'Well, since we had no magic, we had to get creative. Some materials insulate well, kind of like how you use tents to keep the heat out in the day, or in at night, it's the same concept, but taken to the extreme. From there, we'd add in pumps and very specific blends of gasses and chemicals kept under so much pressure that they stayed a liquid, kind of like how water evaporates if it gets to hot, if you keep it confined it takes immensely more heat to make it turn to gas or vapor. Those chemicals were then moved by the pumps I mentioned earlier to pull the heat away from the place we wanted cold to a place where the heat could be 'dumped out' thus, keeping the inside cold. That's the basic layman's explanation on it, I can't really go into things like refrigerants such as Freon, or electric pumps and heatsinks right now cause they aren't something we can do much about at this time. But yeah, that's the basics of it.'

With that I'd be met by stunned silence, as a much larger surge of mana flows into me and I hear Vekla mumble softly.

"Just like he said, ice isn't the opposite of fire, but the extreme lack of it..." (Vekla)

As he says that, the craft skinkle get back, to see the shocked, awed, and otherwise slack jawed gathering of their clansmen and look around confused.

"Is every one okay?" (Head Craftskinkson)

"What, oh, yes, everything is fine just....learning the basics of a truth of the world's quite a shocking thing...especially when it's explained and handled so casually, like it's no big deal" (Chieftain)

Chuckling along with the skinkle chief, I'd smile internally as the craftskinkle lay down the materials from the tent, having placed three bone rods of roughly equal length out first. As they are laying them down, I'd take the opportunity to grab the coverings they had and pull them into my inventory, and quickly set about pulling them apart. Unsewing the hides then, resewing them into the disk with a hole, flaps, and overlaps for some spots before laying it out next to the skinkle to look at. I would then take a single long strip of that hide and weave it over, under, around and back, repeating to bind the three bone rods together, making sure to loop every now and then around the middle bone as well to make a 'rope hinge' type situation, before tying it off. Spending mana to move and manipulate things like this out of my 'inventory' is...inefficient, but, the mana influx I get from the craftskinkle more then offsets it as they learn that weave method and start to excitedly chatter about potential uses for it.

'Now, we've got the bulk of the things done for making a tipi, which is what this kind of shelter is called, as you can see, there is a large amount of extra material from just one tent being converted like this, meaning we could get more tipis out of the same amount of bones and hides than we could the prior type of tent. From here you lift it like so, while moving the rods so the tied ends are like this and, wala, you have your tipi frame done, up, and ready to cover. For covering, you do it like this the first time. Hooking this hole here over one of the 'ends' up at the top, then simply moving around the base and pulling it fairly tight till you get this over lap, Which, if you notice causes these slits to line up, you then take a bone, cut like this, and slot it in, then turn it till these long side to side bits are now up and down and that keeps it from just coming apart as easy. You repeat this with all these slits and it's good to go. Now, I know some of you noticed the slits along the bottom as well, for those, we just use bones that are, slightly pointed at one end, ribs would work perfectly for this, and can, get things taut, and, held tight to the ground so the wind doesn't blow under the tipi as easily. There are lastly, two other things to keep in mind, one is this flap up at the top with the long hide trail down, if you pull it this way, it opens up the top of the tipi some, this will allow you to let out smoke if you have a fire inside, or, help keep it cooler during the day, and pulling it this way, closes it up, to help hold the heat in, but never have it closed like this if you have a fire going inside the tipi, as this would trap the smoke and suffocate you. Last, is this big flap here, this, is actually how you get in, and out, of the tipi, there are some rocks sewn into that kind of 'pocket' along the bottom there so it is weighted and doesn't flop open or about should there be strong winds, either in the day or at night, and as you can see, the inside area where people can do things is still quite large, while being more efficient than the kind of dome like ones you had before!'

Whelp, tipi lesson done, and judging by that massive flow of energy, understood by most there. Watching as they take down the tipi I'd put up to show them how, I'd watch them realize they can leave the hide over it like that to easily move it and keep it all as one bundle as the chieftain explains how to reset up their camp, allowing a killing of two birds, one tipi lesson.