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[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?

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

[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?

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.

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.

...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.]

[there's a short pause.]

Well, perhaps not the hallways, but I spent most of my time outdoors.

[because she was essentially homeless.]

How does your head get 'messed with'?

[If the hallways is the only different part of all that--]

You're pretty unlucky, lady.

Lotsa ways. You'll see things, hear things that shouldn't be here. One time we all got memories that weren't ours. And there's other stuff, too.

[He tries not to talk too much about what's been happening to him since recon; it might make people think he really is crazy.]

[he's talking to a soulless shapeshifter who was chased by the devil every night for more than five years and whose siblings have tried to kill her on the regular. her capacity for weird and terrible is extremely high. still, she frowns a little.]

I see. The memories part sounds rather inconvenient. Those are rather personal.

You're tellin' me.

[There are so many things he doesn't want people to see. As far as he knows, some of the worst things from his own life didn't get spilled, but he still worries.]

So what kinda stuff happens where you're from?

[Whatever he's imagining, it's probably nowhere close to the reality.]

My father and eldest brother are sorcerers of great renown, my youngest sister is a creature of protoplasmic shadow, and we live in the midst of a forest filled with elder creatures, manifestations of power, spinach spiders, and other such dangers.

[also both sides of her family are basically cursed, and that whole thing with the devil, which she'll just leave out. she talks about it like these are normal, everyday realities, as boring as anyone else's life.]

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. ]

Proto--

[Yeah, not even going to try that word. His eyes just get wider and wider until she comes to the end.]

Spinach?

[If even food is evil... Damn. He stares at her with a mixture of confusion and pity--though mostly confusion because what the hell.]

Spinach spiders. Their venom is rich in vitamins and antioxidants, as well as rather lethal.

So there is a point at which magic and technology are essentially the same. Interesting.

I pressed all the buttons many times before I attempted a real message. It seemed rather important to know, given the size of the ship.

[but it's lucky there aren't that many buttons, honestly.]

Wait, then what the hell's the point a' all that other stuff if it's just gonna kill you? Do they look like spinach? What if you eat one?!

You'll get the hang of it quickly. And if you have any trouble with the texting part of it, you can speak to it and have it do the writing for you.

[ Tech support with Captain Hook. ]

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.

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.

There need be a point?

[she doesn't really understand the question, so she just moves on.]

I have never eaten one, but they are leafy where they are not pointy, so I suppose they may taste of spinach.

That is a very useful thing to know. The letters are all in the wrong order, I've found it rather bothersome.

Well, I guess not, but...

[There's just something kind of disturbing about the whole concept. Vegetables should be good for you, darn it.]

So if the spiders are vegetables where you're from and your sister's a... whatever, is there anything goin' on with you?

[It's a completely tactless question, but sometimes his nosiness gets the better of him.]

Rather forward, aren't you?

[she gives a small, wry sort of smile.]

Each of the children of my father is unique. What about you?

Huh?

[For all his ease when prying into someone else, he's not sure how to answer the question directed at him.]

I dunno about "unique." Nothin' I got can top any a' what you just said and from what I heard my dad and I have the same job, so...

[ 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. ]

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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