o1 ♚ especially coffee

[slaveking]

FORM: Sending crystal
SENDER: Marcel Gerard
RECIPIENT: Public; any and all interested
WHAT: A Rifter would like to futilely inquire as to the incomprehensible physics of Rifting and seek actually unavailable instruction w.r.t. how to get the Hell back home, please and thanks.
WHEN: Timing (backdated, covering a span, etc.)
WHERE: Skyhold
NOTES: Maybe P3-13 for language? If somebody gets emotional!

Good morning, Thedas.

[By now, the name of the world sounds comfortable enough in his mouth, but his accent is likely remains somewhat Other, cutting the consonants of his deep voice.] My name is Marcel Gerard. In the world I come from, magic is a secret pretty well-hidden from humans, and the full strength of abominations waits every month on the full moon. [Sorry, werewolves. Somebody hates you.] We also have horseless carriages, ballet, instant coffee, and the Internet. The world is called New Orleans. If you know what any of that means, we should talk.

And if you don't, you might be just the person to help me get home. You got thoughts on how to prolapse a Rift? I want to hear 'em. Talk to me.

Comments

amazing \o/

[slaveking]

Yes, it is.

[By now, he knows the name. Corypheus. Is Thedas prepared for a new level of war? Questions that we might actually have answered. Marcel only wonders about the morality of all this for five seconds before stowing it for some later vampire brooding time.]

Who are your people? Who am I speaking to?

[rathercommon]

Oh. I'm Kitty. I'm a dwarf. So - by my people, I mean the dwarves. Though they wouldn't reciprocate that claim, to be sure.

[ She gives a shrug. ]

Anyway. What about the other things you mentioned? What are they?

[slaveking]

Sounds like a long story. Maybe when you have less to do.

[And when he isn't feeling around a half-dozen Thedosians on these peculiarly superpublic talking crystals.]

Ballet is a form of dance. Requires a Hell of a lot of athleticism, discipline. Usually follows a story, and music's probably the most important piece after the dance itself. Some of those songs are older than I am.

[Pretty fucking old.]

You all have tea here? The kind that can wake you up early mornings?

[rathercommon]

We do have teas, yes. Though I don't know about early mornings, or waking you up. I suppose if you could afford a few luxuries.

[slaveking]

[That takes him back a little. Tea used to be a luxury, it's true.]

Coffee has a similar ingredient in it. Guess you could say the essence is the same. Tastes different, though, and the concentration is a lot stronger because of the way the beans are prepared. Similar principle to drying mushrooms for the taste.

It's a good pick-me-up for some people. Keeps you alert, gives you energy. Most people it lasts a good couple hours.

[rathercommon]

So...What makes it instant? Or what's different about instant coffee?

[slaveking]

Less prep. Comes in powder, you throw some water in, and it's ready to go.

We actually have eggs that way these days too. All kinds of modern conveniences. [A beat.] Probably doesn't sound as fun as a horseless carriage.

[rathercommon]

[ That draws a laugh from her. ]

Believe me, if you spent as long as I spend tending to the stew-pot in the tavern, you'd understand that instant food is actually quite a bit more exciting than fast transportation. Though I'm having trouble imagining instant eggs. It's a powder too? And you throw some water in and it becomes an egg? What sorts of hens produce such things?

[slaveking]

That so? Yeah, all right. I can see where you're coming from.

[He hasn't thought about the earliest human parts of his life for a long time, but this does take him back. Marcel's smile is audible.]

Well they come out scrambled. You know, just kind of a light yellow, like all the whites and the yolks are already mixed in together. You can use 'em for baking and stuff like that too. Great shelf life. Nobody's really in love with eating them compared to fresh, in the time and place I come from, but you're right. The convenience is a luxury. And we still have people starving, other places.

[His voice turns thoughtful.] We've really worked out how to use dehydration in my world and time. I mean I figure you guys have spices and jerky here, but we've started applying it all over in my time. That's technology for you. The things you don't appreciate.

[rathercommon]

Yeah? [ There's a laugh in her voice when she asks: ] What else do you have? Dried soup? Dried water?

[slaveking]

Dried soup.

Dried water. [Marcel's voice grows unmistakably dry at that -- something he's fairly sure she'll catch onto.]

[rathercommon]

[ But don't mistake her: the question was quite facetious. And she continues on, with increasing absurdity: ]

Dried air, dried dirt, dried emotions - oh, do tell me you all have invented instant happiness.

[slaveking]

You don't have that here? [A cherry dose of mock-naivete.] Instant happiness? We call that true love.

Invented it after we realized job promotions didn't last too long, and booze takes awhile if you've been drinking long enough.

[rathercommon]

[ With mock shock: ]

Really? I've always heard that love is pain and misery, not joy.

[slaveking]

[Laughter then, low but bright.]

Didn't say it wasn't. Just that the good part lasts a little bit longer than the gap between wages and bills. And it works faster than booze, even if you've drunk your liver down to a rock. Can't say much for a hard heart, though.

[He figures she knows what a liver is. Before powdered eggs and other nice conveniences, they hadn't wasted any part of an animal.]

[rathercommon]

Unfortunate for us hard-hearted people, then. That sounds easy.

[ She gives a little laugh, like she's joking. She's honestly not sure if she's joking. ]

So - what was that other thing you mentioned? Inner-something.

[slaveking]

It is unfortunate, [Marcel agrees, easily. But it's the kind of joke that's funny precisely because it isn't really a joke.

—inner-something. That takes Marcel a moment. Oh, yeah.]

The Internet? It's-- an information network. You need devices to access it, and people can transmit all kinds of things. Audio, like this. Visuals-- moving pictures, recordings of things. Texts. You can fit a whole library into a device the size of your shoe, if it's done right. Very valuable. People can talk to each other as instantly as you and I now, and from just as far away.

[rathercommon]

[ Oh. That sounds awfully interesting. ]

How does it work? And who runs it?

[slaveking]

[It is awfully interesting.]

In my era, we've advanced a lot of important technology. Electrical power is probably one of the biggest. [The absence of fossil fuels from Thedas' economy has yet to occur to him, so hilarity with buggy fish-oil starter vehicles could well soon ensue.] That's what powers the devices I was talking about, and it powers the machines that hold Internet data too. All over the world. A lot of different people run the Internet these days.

It's kind of a problem, some times. Plenty of liars and scam artists-- uh. Do you have scam artists.

[rathercommon]

[ A quick laugh - ]

A couple. A few of them here in Skyhold, actually. They tend to scam for socks, though, so largely they're quite harmless.

So - what's the problem with it?

[slaveking]

With anonymity comes... [a beat. He considers.] A certain lack of accountability.

Means you get away with stuff like theft easier, 'course. But other stuff too. Here you have my tone of voice to go off of, but there's even more separation when I'm reduced to just a couple of words written down on a panel. It's harder to read people. You could say it's harder to care.

[More or less impairing than vampirism? A conversation for another time!]

[rathercommon]

Really? But...You are still talking to people. That's not exactly something you can forget, is it.

[slaveking]

Unfortunately, you'd be surprised. Guess it's the same kind of mind trick as... [he thinks.] Wearing a mask, I guess. We have some real bastards who like to hide behind that kind of a thing.

Guess there's nothing like that here?

[rathercommon]

[ With a little laugh - ]

Nothing like the internet, or nothing like your bastards? Because we've got plenty of bastards.

[slaveking]

Nothing like our bastards hiding from comeuppance behind anonymity.

[Honestly, the Internet is one of their least concerns. Witches, body-hopping. That's real chaos.]