piper90 | [Video]

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[Video]

Good evening.

[There’s a woman speaking, tone clipped. The corporate jumpsuit hangs off her small frame, and her hair is swept up into an old-fashioned bun. Or so it seems - she’s standing a bit away from the screen, and it’s tilted at an odd angle.]

I am given to understand that this is how to contact my new coworkers? My name is Beatrice Brewer, at your service, and I assure you I am quite qualified. I am - was - an apprentice of the fifth circle in, ah, a collection of magi, have experience in a thrilling variety of crises, and am quite keen to get started on - [a heavy sigh, more notable for the fact that someone observant might catch that she doesn’t breathe] - this situation.

[There’s a long pause.]

Drat, is this bloody thing even on? Dreadful place, what sort of dog and pony show are they running, honestly. Stuff? Stuff? Of all the names?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What? How did you change to typing-

[She's frowning thoughtfully at her comm now. There's rustling and her hitting a whole lot of buttons. A minute..or two..later the vid pops off and text is there instead. In all caps.]

IS THERE A REASON YOU PREFER TO NOT SHOW YOUR FACE?

[She has a gradual sinking feeling. The text, the lower case, the grammar...all reminiscent of a horrible, horrible trauma.]

YOU'RE NOT A TWITTER, ARE YOU?

i tried but my video doesnt work

im not a twitter. whats a twitter?

[please note that while everyone else has an icon with a bad picture of them, hers is broken, displaying only a small red x.]

Edited 2020-10-22 21:17 (UTC)

IT'S A PLACE ON THE INTERNETS WHERE PEOPLE GATHER TO WRITE VILE, OBSCENE THINGS. SOMETIMES ANONYMOUSLY.

[The lack of picture doesn't fill her with confidence, but at least this person claims to not know. Maybe safe? And hey, they know mages are needed.]

"SPELLSLINGERS" ARE USEFUL TO ANYONE, TRUE. ARE THERE OTHERS HERE?

hey if you want to stop WRITING LIKE THIS look for the key on the left side of the board that says caps lock. press it once.

theres a few other people with experience in magical stuff but i havent met any other real proper mages. sam has studied a lot but he can only do ritual stuff, stacia is a werewolf like mackenzie up there and knows about spirits and stuff, and im an adept - im magic but its all like physically expressed and intuitive and shit. my best friend is a mage tho so i know some stuff.

[She manages to hit tab first and all the text moves to the right. Also she's not sure who this best friend is but surely this is an incredibly cool and awesome lady ahem.] more wolves, joy. at least you show good taste in acquaintances. i am afraid i'm not familiar with the term adept - do you mean in the sense of the likes of expressing in speed and strength? many i know fall along those lines. do you skateboa[she tries to delete the start of her question, hits send instead]

huh why is your text all squished now.

yeah, im strong and fast and a bit tougher than usual, and im really hard to sneak up on.

i dont skateboard, no.

I DON'T KNOW. THE OTHER WAY LOOKS TOO WRONG.

YOUR WAY SOUNDS FAMILIAR, YES. IF YOU'RE ALREADY COMFORTABLE WITH THE IDEA OF SPIRITS AND RITUALS THAT PUTS YOU A HEAD ABOVE MANY. BUT IF YOU'RE NOT A TWITTER, WHO ARE YOU PRECISELY? I PREFER TO NOT PLAY TWENTY QUESTIONS, EVEN IF WE CAN RULE OUT VEGETABLE, MINERAL, OR ANIMAL.

[The anonymity of text and not having anything to place on this 'Saturday' makes her uneasy.]

just hitting capslock wouldnt have done that. anyway

well, like i said, my name's saturday and im from seattle. in my world, a couple decades back, it turned out magic was real and dragons and stuff started coming back, and people started turning into like, elves and trolls and stuff. like im an elf, and my best friends an orc, and our other friend is a human, but were all considered metahuman

DRAGONS

[There's a long silence before any more text shows up. Even if she knew how to capitalize properly, that probably would've still been in caps.]

WE DON'T HAVE DRAGONS. PERHAPS A CONCEPT OF DRAGONS AS A SPIRIT. AT LEAST IF YOU ARE AN ELF, I SHOULD BE ABLE TO SPOT YOU IN A CROWD. WE DON'T HAVE THAT SORT OF HUMAN VARIATION EITHER, BUT WE DO HAVE STORIES THAT USE THOSE NAMES WHICH IS AN INTERESTING OVERLAP. DID YOUR WORLD ALSO HAVE MYTHS ABOUT THEM BEFORE YOUR RE-EMERGENCE?

for sure but they werent myths it turned out they were memories

every few thousand years our world cycles back into magic being real. when the magic tide is highest these nasty fucking things from outside reality use it to get in and eat everyone. magic is made by life so eventually they eat enough that the magic goes away and they die. then it starts again. but most people dont know that, just me and my friends and some others.

were trying to fix it. not everyone else is. it's a whole thing.

dragons are hella cool though.

[There's a second long pause, before the text starts flooding in with a barrage of questions.]

OH. THAT SOUNDS WORRYINGLY FAMILIAR, ACTUALLY. ARE ANY OF THESE DEVOURING CREATURES IMMORTAL? ARE ANY OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED IMMORTAL? DO THEY NEED TO EAT LIFE FOR POWER?

I AM A TOUCH ENVIOUS THAT YOU HAVE DRAGONS, BUT WITH HOW MATTERS WERE UNFOLDING, I AM SURE IN MY WORLD THE DRAGONS WOULD BE EITHER EVIL OR DEAD SO PERHAPS IT'S FOR THE BEST.

uh yes to all three but the first two vary

but thats shown up in one other world i learned about here too so i think that just is a thing that happens sometimes. if theyre from outside reality they can probably get at other peoples metaplanes too.

THAT IS THE WORST CONSTANT FOR THERE TO BE BETWEEN REALMS. TRULY TAKES HUMANITY'S INCLINATION TO IGNORE THE COSTS TO A NEW LEVEL.

I WISH YOU BETTER LUCK FIXING YOUR WORLD THAN I HAD. SHOULD ANY OF US EVER GET BACK.

oh you got people thinking they can just ride this shit and come out on top, too?

fuck those fucking fuckers, man.

YES. WE DID. THOSE THAT THOUGHT BY LIGHTING THE MATCH, THEY COULD RISE ABOVE, AS WELL.

THUS FAR, THEY HAVE MANAGED TO ACCOMPLISH GETTING THEMSELVES EATEN ALONG WITH EVERYONE ELSE.

hey at least its one less goddamned thing to deal with. ours are still fucking about ruining shit.

THE ADVANTAGE OF HAVING PEOPLE THAT KNOW ENOUGH TO BREAK IT IS THAT, IDEALLY, THEY KNOW ENOUGH TO TRY AND FIX IT IF THEY'RE CORNERED. OR AT LEAST HAVE THEM TELL YOU WHAT THEY BROKE, INSTEAD OF PLAYING CATCHUP.

I FEEL ABSURD TYPING LIKE THIS AT YOUR LITTLE RED X. SURELY WE CAN ARRANGE FOR A MORE CIVILIZED WAY TO TALK?

sure. where you at?

NEAR THE RESIDENCE ROOMS, I BELIEVE, BUT I DO NOT REQUIRE SLEEP, SO I HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTING TO GET MY BEARINGS.

aight ill head over.

[one bat-transition later]

"Hoi! Brewer!"

Jogging towards Beatrice is a small woman with messy black hair, wearing a jumpsuit with both sleeves torn off. Her right arm is all metal, heavily engraved, and her eyes are dark and bright. There's a crooked, welcoming smile on her face as she slows from her jog. She's only two inches taller than Beatrice, but carries herself like she 6'5".

"Good evening, Ms. Saturday. It's nice to have a face for the name."

It is so much less unnerving. She studies the - elf? Nothing stands out in that respect, save that the woman is of a sensible height. Beatrice herself stands rather formally, face neutral, hands behind her back. Her hair lends her height, okay?? And her dignity and unwavering belief in it adds another few inches.

"I admit, you're not quite what I expected." Beatrice clarifies by gesturing towards the arm. "I don't associate that level of modification with magic, typically. Is it custom work?"

"Yeah, more or less," Saturday says, meaning it's a long story. "Magic as all get-out, though. An' how could you even be expecting much, when we'd just met?"

She sticks out her hand in greeting.

"Pleasure to see you face-to-face."

"Interesting." Beatrice eyes up the arm a moment longer. There's no way she doesn't want to know everything about how it works.

There's a distinct pause as Beatrice lets the hand hang in the air. It starts to rapidly gets awkward, but just as the moment seems to reach its breaking point, she gives the strange woman a brief handshake - letting go quickly. If the mortals want to try and make contact, her ice-cube cold touch is their problem.

"You did mention that humanity's tales of Elves originate from your people," she points out dryly. "But you don't strike me as particularly inclined to burst into poetry or as demonic - yet."

"Yeah, we don't really do that shit. 'Cept those weirdos down the Tir, but they got their heads stuck up seven thousand years ago. The stories got a lot wrong, and what got remembered was like - stuff people wanted remembered, more'n'the truth. Elves are just people who do stuff, like everyone else."

It's a remarkable little speech, the more so for how idly Saturday rattles it off, as if she's had to give it so many times it's become rote.

She womanfully does not flinch at Beatrice's icy-cold grip, and Beatrice will find that her right arm is as warm and response as a real hand. It barely feels like metal at all.

The touch of mortal warmth is more disconcerting than that it comes from metal, really. The handshake is exactly as brief and perfunctory as Beatrice can make it. Something about Saturday's phrasing seems to strike Beatrice's funny bone, however, judging by the minute turn of her mouth.

"What are stories of history if not what people want remembered more than the truth? Just some are more successful at blotting out the truth than others. Accounts such as the Norse Eddas - do they recall ancient warfare with and between the Elven people, then? History, warning?"

"I can only imagine how essential managing the impressions of such stories were for when you reemerged. My own people had - attempted a similar gambit of harnessing what people wished to remember but." A wry twist. "Those with their heads stuck seven thousand years ago."

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