Terra - Ottawantreal

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A huge North American city, built in a mishmash of styles from many eras of architecture. the spaceport is bustling and filled with cruise ships, racing yachts, and transport craft. It's full of shops, clubs, gardens, and tourist attractions.

The weather is currently cool but sunny.

Matt chuckled and wheeled backwards a bit so he could turn around. "Come on kids, let's go find some fun experiments."

The kids followed along with varying levels of excitement. Some of them were really interested in anything the cool magic guy with the fangs said, others were a little skeptical that science could be interesting. But hey, it was worth a try.

Ellie tagged along with Shane. Meaning she grabbed him by the arm and tugged him. She was definitely glad to have Shane back.

Shane easily went with Ellie, though he tried to be careful of the plants in her arms.

Matt picked out a few things that looked fun. The "make a water tornado" which involved spinning a crank fast should keep them distracted while he searched his pocket space for a jar and a plate for something he'd seen once and wanted to try out.

The kids argued over who could spin the water tornado and for how long, apparently their competitive nature trumped their lack of interest in science.

The minotaur watched Matt suspiciously as he fished things out of his pocket space. "What are you doing?"

"jar." Matt held up the jar, not explaining how the heck he'd fit that into a pocket. "For water." The edgy minotaur he decided was no fun at all. What sort of museum needed that much security? maybe there was stuff to steal. Hmmmm...

The minotaur lady had been hired to protect the museum from people who might hurt the exhibits or the visitors, and she apparently took her job very seriously. She sniffed the air, then nodded. Seemed legit. Maybe.

The kids had no such concerns about jars and plates. The ones who noticed what Matt was doing were pretty impressed. "How can you hide those? They're so much bigger than coins," one kid asked.

Matt grinned. "I have my ways." He handed a plate to a nearby kid. "hang onto this for a minute okay?" and filled the jar with water with a touch. "I dunno if this will work, but if it does, it'll be neat."

The minotaur watched as the kid took Matt's plate. She wasn't sure what was going on here, and she didn't like that much.

"Hey, you're about due to take a break," the other security guard told her.

She snorted.

The parents watched too, albeit with a little less paranoia.

Shane watched this all with interest, it was certainly more fun than pranks to him.

Matt looked around. "I need some way to heat this water." he told everyone. Hmm, this is where a fire elemental would be useful.

"I can do that" Shane said, moving to kneel beside the wheelchair. He made a version of a tiny griddle that didn't have an electric cord. It would run on magic instead of electricity. He even made a little knob for Matt to control how much heat it would make. "It's just metals after all." He added quietly.

"Duuuude," Ellie said, watching Shane. "Duuuude, this is trippy and awesome." She looked delighted by Shane's latest trick. "I had no idea you could make kitchen appliances."

The kids and squeezed in to try to watch.

The adults and the guards hung back, but watched concernedly.

Shane looked up to Ellie then shrugged a little "I didn't either, until my aunt taught me. Just one of the things I have learned recently." He said and smiled then looked to the adults. "Don't worry, we won't let the kids or equipment here get hurt." He added, glancing to the guards. He would make a shield if it was needed, but until then they would just let Matt play around.

"Man, you are full of surprises." Matt told Shane with a smile. "who needs supplies when you can just make stuff?" he laughed and heated the water up, finding a surface to place the jar and griddle onto. "okay, so inside the jar it's hot right? " he turned the griddle off when the water started to steam slightly. He took the plate from the kid and placed that on top of the jar. "Right now, as the steam rises it'll cool but not enough to turn back into water.. unless.. we get something cold." He touched the plate, sending a thin layer of ice over the surface. "This is how rain works. The air near the ground gets hot." He tapped the jar. "but the air higher up is cool, so then you get clouds and when they get full enough of water, they can't hold it any more, so it rains." He moved so the kids could see the jar. "Watch."

After a few minutes the jar filled with condensation along the walls and then the water in the bottom started to ripple as water dripped down into it. It looked like it was raining inside the jar.

It wasn't as cool as magic, but he had no pyrotechnics, there was only so much you could do with water experiments after all. And he had no effervescent tablets to make things fizz. also he wasn't a science teacher, so he only had very limited knowledge of experiments you could do with household stuff that was actually safe.

"Man, you learned so much while you were out there with your aunt. She's such a neat lady," Ellie said to Shane. "She knows so much, she must be one of the most knowledgeable st--people around." Don't mention star dragons in public, that was just asking for trouble, she reminded herself.

The kids watched the jar, fascinated. Even the ones who had seemed doubtful pushed in closer to take a look.

"But the air doesn't get that hot," one kid protested. "It doesn't get hot enough to make steam, right?"

"That's what fog is, dummy, it's ground steam," another kid said.

"But how does it get hot enough?" the kid asked, glaring at the other kid.

The other kid looked uncertain, but persisted. "It's ground steam! It just is."

"sunlight." Matt suggest with a shrug. "heats up the ground, like the hotplate. But you know, on a bigger scale so it takes waaaay longer. " He wasn't totally sure, it had been a while since he'd done any schooling.

"The sun also heats the plants, lakes and oceans, taking the vapor from them to make rain." Shane added, with a smile to Ellie at her words. Yeah, his aunt was awesome.

The kids nodded, that kind of made sense. A lot of them looked fascinated. "Science is kind of cool," one less enthusiastic kid said a little reluctantly.

"definitely." Matt agreed. "without it we wouldn't have like.. space ships and stuff right? or tv! or processed food!" He laughed.

"Yeah!" Ellie agreed. "Potato chips are totally a science, and so are electric lights and cool guns.Life would be waaay worse without science." She nodded sagely.

The kids nodded, eyes wide. Life without spaceships! That would be awful!

"believe me guys, science and technology is good." matt nodded, yeah he'd grown up with limited tech around and it had SUCKED. Space ships took them away from that, he liked technology.

The kids nodded. Come to think of it, they liked science. A lot. Who knew?

"We should get going," one parent told their kid. "We're supposed to be meeting your aunt, remember?"

"Aww," the kid said, but he nodded.

Matt waved "Have fun with your aunt!"
He'd continue to chat with the kids, play with the exhibits and generally enjoy himself though. Despite the minotaur's occassional suspicious glares.

"Thank you!" the kid said, waving happily, before hurrying off with the parent.

The others stuck around a while longer with their new friend, but gradually their parents dragged them away for various reasons, until it was just the three adults again.

They'd look around the museum for a while and then buy things at the gift shop, probably.

Matt was in a pretty good mood by the time the last kids left him. He really came into himself around children, it was, he thought, hard to be miserable around children. They were generally such enthusiastic optimistic and accepting sorts of people.

He had a brief moment where his mood faltered as the last kid was told it was time to go, not because the kids were off, but because he thought of his own child and his mate, so far away. He missed Thalia terribly and seriously feared he'd miss out on the birth of his kid.

But he shook it off and distracted himself with the gift shop.

Ellie loved watching Matt with the kids, it was so good to see him genuinely enjoying something, and that had happened all too rarely in the past few months. She noticed Matt's gloom when the last kid left, and patted his shoulder reassuringly.

At least the gift shop would help a little, all the colorful polished rocks, and science experiment kits, and mugs and t-shirts with science quotes and slogans, were amusing. Lots of stuff to look at and distract yourself with.

Ellie kind of forgot about Matt's habit of pocketing things though, she got a bit distracted by some shirts.