[The video feed is shaky to start with--a view of a corridor floor, to start with, and then the walls--a flash of grey wolf fur before it comes to fix on the ceiling-- There's whispered conversation in children's voices as well, one more irritated than the other. Whoever is handling this video is not accustomed to doing so, but eventually it straightens out enough to fixate on the subject of the video: Bran Stark, who is, impossibly, standing.

...and also wearing triangular orange sunglasses as well, but it's the standing that ought to be most astonishing.

He doesn't realize that the camera has finally found its focus, not at first. He is looking beyond still, at whoever is making the recording--but then he smiles, and glances self-consciously down at his legs.]

I don't want to make a very long speech. But--I'm Bran Stark. I have been aboard this ship for some months, so I have seen the threats and the dangers that lie on this ship. But I think it is important for people to remember that there are good things as well. [He bites at his lip, aware of how childish this might sound. He pushes his fingers through the thick ruff of fur at Summer's neck. The direwolf is standing beside him, and somehow the contrast of their size--a boy, and a direwolf nearly the size of a small pony--is even greater now, though Bran is standing.]

When I first came here, I was crippled, but as I have come aboard this ship, my friend Dirk Strider has made these robotic legs for me. [The way he pronounces the word is enough to prove that he is yet unfamiliar with it, and he smiles awkwardly to acknowledge that before he takes a deep and steadying breath-- and then he takes a step. It is a little uncertain, but he does not falter and, concentrating, he takes a second step, and then another, and he laughs, so pleased with his own success--he has practiced for this moment, but there is a difference between small steps in secret and a display such as this. His momentum is too great, and he knocks against the wall--Summer is there, pushing against him, and he steadies himself between the direwolf and the wall, his grin exhausted and exuberant all at once.

He gets in a breath to try to recover, but he is still grinning hugely, unable to banish the expression from his face.]

It isn't showing off--it's only proving that there are good things to be found here, too. And it's a surprise--I wanted to show everyone at once, in some way. [This is an unspoken apology, to Robb and Alayne and Jon especially, and he looks down with a little touch of shame, though not enough to quite overtake his smile.] And that's the end. Thank you.

[And with that, with his final little smile, the video turns around toward the ceiling again, shaky--there's a clatter, and it switches off.]

[Thus far, Anders has met one mage who calls himself a wizard, and that's all. He's also talked to a girl who does magic and refuses to name it magic, insisting it's all science and DNA and things. And he's given a demonstration of healing magic to a skeptical but open-minded warrior who's promised to teach him about space.

He's fairly certain Carver is probably going to tell everyone he's an abomination, or something, sooner or later, if not by design than by blurting it out.

He decides he'd better get some sort of handle on the ship's general opinion of magic and mages. Edgeworth used the communicator to pose a general question to everybody, Anders has seen, so he thinks that should be something he can do as well, rather than try messaging everyone individually. Recalling Ros' complaints, he doesn't use text, but for once he'll keep his face to himself. Voice it is.]

Good morning. [And, sotto voce, to himself but audible enough for the communicator to catch?] Is this morning? I think that's what that means --

[He clears his throat unobtrusively.]

Just out of curiosity -- do you believe in magic?

[When the video flicks on, there is an awkward moment where the device is turned around into position until it is set up against something to put the feed on the possibly familiar countenance of Charles Xavier. Before it settles, it shows off what looks to be one of the ship libraries and perhaps a mug of tea and also the inside of Xavier’s forearm.

SCI-007-047, in case anyone was wondering which Xavier was speaking today.

He is sitting in the library, shirt sleeves rolled up to the elbows, obviously deep into some sort of work with a notebook, his expression pensive as he reaches for the mug of tea.]

Many of us, who share a history of Earth, may be familiar with the ‘thought experiment’ or paradox of Schrodinger’s Cat. Schrodinger’s Cat came about from the physicist Erwin Schrodinger as an illustration of what he saw as a problem with the Copenhagen interpretation of the theory of quantum mechanics.

There is a great deal that could be discussed and even debated on this ‘thought experiment’ but at the moment I have been thinking on the superposition property that is tested by Schrodinger’s paradox.

[Pushing himself to his feet, Charles walked from his chair to a whiteboard he had found and drawn upon.]

( Non-IC text cut for theoretical physic geeking by a non-physic person )

In other words, to linear lines of origin, or home if you will, we are suspended like the cat, between the superposition of there and not there. To those who would observe us, our friends and loved ones, their observation determines our interpretative state.

They see us, interact with us there and so the wavefunction option determines us as there for those who know us at home. However here, on this ship, it is our state of observation that defines our interaction with this quantum system of superposition.

Or to boil it down further, there are theoretical physics that support the idea that though we are trapped here, experiencing a timeline that may feel like months of separation from our points of origin, we are truly not gone from those points or from the people who would look for us upon them.

This theoretical also addresses the question of why there can be different versions of the same individual on this one convergence of linear lines but that would be a lesson for another day.

Alex? Erik? There is the answer to your question.

[ooc: Holy crap but I am nowhere NEAR Charles Xavier’s level of intelligence. Most of this has been riffed off Wikipedia, interpreted and filtered through my long suffering science nerd of an RP partner.]