ataraxion | Video

-Oh no.

[The video is washed out, too bright underneath the generic lighting of the even more generic passenger's quarters. Merlin's face slowly eclipses it, eyes wide and a little concerned. With a little trial and error, he's managed to master the device's functions faster than a medieval boy probably has a right to. But technology hasn't come up with an answer for clumsiness. Yet.]

All right?

[Merlin picks the communicator up, sighing in relief before he starts to grin.]

Are we really up there? Up in the stars, I mean. I know everyone keeps saying it, it's just hard to imagine. To think that a servant could be among the stars. I really used to look up to them.

[Merlin presses his lips together, quite possibly the only person amused by that. Arthur's always told him that he shouldn't try to be funny. This would be why.]

Has anyone ever been up here before? Do you think if we stepped outside the ship, it would be like falling out of a tree? Except that there are no trees in space, because there isn't any dirt.

Which makes me wonder...where do we get the apples?

[Merlin finally has the decency to look sheepish about his ramblings and odd questions.]

Sorry. And I've already heard about there being no air and space radiation, so I won't actually be trying to get out there. My guardian just always wanted me to take more of an interest in science. I guess this was one way of doing it.

[Merlin glances off-screen, and there's a hesitance with his last question that the others was lacking.]

Uhm, it is science, isn't it? And not magic?

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But maybe it's not quite what it seems either. Maybe we just...need to learn more about it.

[ he goes a little quieter, kinder. ]

Don't be a fool, Merlin.

[He exhales.]

You don't believe it's possible at all.

[ jfc stop looking like he's killed your puppy. ]

Perhaps the magic this woman saw turned out to be science. But I doubt she's known true magic. Science is reasoned, or so I'm told; magic is chaos. The two couldn't be more different.

Have you heard about some of the science-y things that exist outside this ship? Sounds pretty chaotic to me.

[Please don't make him mention the radiation again.]

I'm sure it all makes plenty of sense to those who've studied it. The couldn't have space training, otherwise, could they?

Erm, yeah. I couldn't sleep for two nights after that.

Don't tell me you're scared, Merlin.

Weren't you?

Of course not. Might as well be scared of a thunderstorm.

[ thankfully there's no-one around to enlighten Merlin that Arthur used to hide under his bed during a storm when he was younger. ]

Have you ever seen a cow that's been struck by lightening? Because I have. And it's not a pleasant sight.

Oddly enough, Merlin, I haven't spent a lot of time around cows. And anyway, I'd say we're well-protected from the lightning, as it were. That's why they have training in the first place.