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[worthtempting]

[sophie is holding the comm too close to her face, so it isn't all visible at once--it's a pair of pale eyes, a mass of dark hair, the sort of sharp cheekbones acquired from poor diet. the camera wobbles and then settles into place just far enough away to get her entire face, and the glimpse of a dark room behind her. the only light in the room is coming entirely from the comm. when she speaks, her accent is lilting and her voice is low.]

So I have discovered that the light comes from lightning channeled through metal wires in the walls. [that might explain the darkness around her.] Which is quite clever, truly. But it doesn't answer my question of how technology differs from sorcery, except in that people seem to believe in one or the other. Is technology simply an aspect of sorcery that has not yet been discovered where I am from? While difficult to believe, I suppose even my father could not have known everything.

[a pause, and she pushes her hair back from her face. it's clearly a nervous gesture.]

Also, how many of you have come here alone? It seems many are in familiar company with others from their homes, but I believe I have arrived unaccompanied. Not that this is an unusual situation, but still...

...Groeneveldts?

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[capsize]

Bless you.

[ Haha hahaha anyway. ]

As for technology and magic, they're very unique things. Technology seems to have a few more rules and limitations, as far as I've seen — unless, of course, we're assuming the ship itself hasn't got magic. In that case, technology's just as bad.

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[worthtempting]

[that gets half a smirk. where she comes from, no one would dare.]

Has no one determined whether the ship possesses sorcerous power? That should be rather straightforward, should it not?

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[capsize]

They've certainly tried. I think the general consensus is that it's magic, but from what I can tell that's simply because the scientists can't make sense of it.

This is your first encounter with technology, I assume? You're doing quite well with your phone.

[ Comms device, whatever. Same thing. ]

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[foundafamily]

I'm in the same boat--nobody I know from home's showed up here at all.

[As firmly as he can, he continues:]

Damn good thing, too. I wouldn't want any a' my friends to hafta deal with this place.

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[worthtempting]

Is it truly that bad? I have been reading through the archives, but it is...time consuming. Nothing I have read yet is any worse than where I have come from.

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[foundafamily]

...You come from a place full a' monsters and screwy hallways where your head gets messed with every day?

[Well, most days. Don't be dramatic, Firo.]

[daringwaistcoats]

The question of difference in name should bear little meaning upon the effect, non? You've a light, and it provides you sight and -- for most -- comfort. There are many greater things to be concerned with that lurk in the dark.

[worthtempting]

So I have been told. But as of yet, none of them have made themselves known. So until the darkness comes for me, I think it not unreasonable to explore the lights.

[she gives a little shrug.]

That and, well, all magic comes from somewhere. Knowing the source, one can understand what it strives for.

[daringwaistcoats]

Ah, it is better that way. You shall do well to steer clear of them, too, Mademoiselle, that they are no easy feat to fight.

[Shrugging back, and leaning forward a little, a smile on his face as he chuckled softly.]

Not at all -- a curious mind is always a gift, to be sure. What constitutes as magic from your world, then?

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[blackmagus]

[ Fortescue gets her chuckling out of the way before she opens up a communication, wondering if this would have been her reaction if she'd been born one hundred years prior. ]

Where I'm from, magic infuses technology but the two are largely separate. [ At least in discipline. Technology had come from a want to do things without magic, seeing as magic only manifests in about ten percent the world's population. ] But it may... very well be semantics, for you. Hard to say.

[ She still has people trying to convince her that magic and technology are the same thing. Bothersome. ]

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[worthtempting]

How are they separate, though? What is the force that drives this technology?

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[blackmagus]

[ It occurs to Fortescue that she doesn't know what, exactly, the engines run on. ]

Energy, of some kind. Presumably of a kind it renews.

[ Or are they slowly dying in space? Now there's a terrible thought. ]

Back home there's natural energy, and then there's magic. I suppose an argument could be made that they're one and the same, but it's just... tradition, to think of them that way.

[ Not to mention science at large won't acknowledge where magic comes from, which might cement it as science a bit more, actually... ]

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[wentdowntogeorgia]

It's been said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

You can read into that however you might like.

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[worthtempting]

I don't find that a particularly satisfying answer, but I suppose it shall do.

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[wentdowntogeorgia]

Satisfying answers are hard to come by.

Technology, if you want a simple definition, is the collection of techniques, processes, and methods in achieving objectives. It's more than electricity and computers and spaceships. I suppose you could include sorcery under that umbrella-- it's yet another means to an end.

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[troops]

...lightning channeled through metal?

[Right. He'd kind of gleaned that a little, something about electricity and wires, but the image that she gives him is separate than the one he'd managed to conjure up in his head.]

How did you discover that?

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[worthtempting]

I, ah, took one apart. The room was unoccupied anyway.

[at least he might be ignorant enough about the ways of technology to not realize that a wee bit of electrocution might have been involved in this discovery.]

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[troops]

The fastest way to discover things, I suppose.

[Good... good job, Sophie.]

As to your other questions, I don't know. I don't believe that magic could make half of the things that we see on this ship, but there are lots of things about magical theory that I'm not aware of.

[wiped]

Technology isn't actually sorcery. It's science. It's different.

[ kind of. ]

I was alone for a few jumps. And someone I knew was here alone before me.

[worthtempting]

But what is the difference? Is it in the source of the power? The method of use?

[what he says next gives her pause.]

I am...unsure if I should want my family here or not.

[wiped]

Technology is powered on electricity. I don't know what powers magic.

[ but he wants to ask if she does, tbh. ]

I think--I think no one wants to be alone. But maybe having the people you care about here isn't the best thing for them.

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[knackered]

Electricity, the channeling of electric currents, is really something else, isn't it? [As is plumbing, but he's not going to be vulgar. The mention of sorcery is really what piqued his interest.]

I'm sorry that you haven't found someone you know. One can only hope, I suppose? There are two that I know, but I didn't expect to see them--I've only just arrived, you see.

As for technology and sorcery, Ma'am, I've found that most see those as two different things. Maybe they're not wrong. As if building a house or tracking the orbits of the planets is different than putting together a spell! --Those things aren't all that different. Sort of. They both require knowledge, method, application and skill...

Perhaps if someone saw technology far advanced from what they know, they would think it was sorcery, and while they have similarities, they are sadly very, very different...

Excuse me, I'm rather passionate on the subjects of science and magic. My apologies.

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[worthtempting]

No, that was all quite interesting. You come from a place with both sorcery and technology?

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[de_void]

So there's this saying back where I'm from. Something like, "any technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic." [flapping a hand dismissively in front of his face] I'm paraphrasing, I don't remember the exact wording but it's close enough.

And it seems like for some people around here, back home they either have magic, or they have technology. And in those instances, I can see your side of things.

But for the places that have both. Well. [little half shrug now.] Magic and technology tend to look nothing alike in those instances.

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[worthtempting]

They don't? What is the difference?