[audio] @missprincessmary; two for the price of one; [open]

[withsadness]

1.

Can anybody tell me what this is? I got it from the scavenger hunt that was awhile ago...but I forgot about it because of the ferry crashing.

[Attached is a picture of an SD card! Presumably, someone will be able to identify it for her before too long and explain how she can put it into her tablet, and I don't want to make two separate posts for this, so, a bit later, Mary's back on the network again!]

2.

Oh! It's a map! I won a map for my pictures!

[She's not uploading the picture of her map. It's her map.]

Does anybody want to come on an adventure with me? Maybe we'll find a treasure!

Comments

[originallutece]

If this were an ordinary sky, I could show you. But as it stands, the sky here is different than the one at home. So we have to substitute Polaris for another.

Do you see those?

[Those two overly bright stars, one right next to the other.]

They're fixed, meaning we can utilize them as a marking point for directions. But the question remains: how do we figure out which is north?

[She walks a little ways. It's not hard to find two sticks, setting them up in alignment with those stars. She kneels primly, then beckons.]

Lie on your stomach, and line up those stars with the sticks, so it's all in a straight line with your eyesight. And tell me which direction it moves in: left, right, up or down. It will, sooner or later. The stars still obey a 24-hour cycle.

If it goes up, those stars are in the east. Down is west. Right is south, and left is north.

[withsadness]

Lie on your stomach...

[Mary murmurs the instructions to herself as she lowers herself down, making sure that her skirt is properly flattened as she goes. It takes her a moment to properly adjust the sticks to her vision, and she takes on an intense air of childish concentration, before finally she seems to notice the movement.]

Ooohh! That's amazing! They went down! So that means north is, um...

[She points to the right.]

That way?

[originallutece]

Very good.

[Rising to her feet, she offers Mary a hand.]

Now you'll be able to find yourself no matter where you are, or where that map leads you. Would you like to go over that as well?

[withsadness]

Yes, please! I want to know as much as I can. That way, nobody will worry about me so much.

[I mean, they'll still worry. She's nine years old. It makes her feel more confident, though, regardless of anyone around her.]

I'll be a great leader!

[originallutece]

You certainly have the correct attitude.

[She nods, one hand at her back, nudging her into heading back into the laboratory.]

Let's see it, shall we?

[withsadness]

Okay!

[Mary would skip her way back in, but it's been a long month full of more sustained injuries than she cares to admit. So she takes a bit more caution in her steps, but that hardly means she doesn't seem enthused. Once they're inside, she pulls out her tablet and finds the map that downloaded from her SD card. It appears to lead to a completely unexplored area...exciting.]

[originallutece]

Hmm.

You may wish to take this slowly. Chart out a bit of the path at a time. Are you going with anyone else?

[I say, like I don't also write explorations with you.]