crystal

[undergrunn]

( Behold, a new voice on the crystals. Soft, good-humoured, with an accent that sounds Scandinavian / relative equivalent. The crystal catches a quiet breath of laughter before she speaks. )

I don’t know if you’re really lucky to have an engineer turn up, or if I’m really unlucky that I need to figure out the machinery.

I mean, learning about the infrastructure of a city in a whole different world isn’t even a “once in a lifetime” kind of opportunity, and pretending I’m some sort of genius at kinetic motion just because I know some mechanisms from home would be pretty fun, but…

Wow.

( Maybe that sounds a little weightier than her first "wow.")

Oh, I'm Abella. Riftwatch, you’re gonna have to have a lot more ramps by the time I’m done with you. Somewhere has to accommodate wheelchair users, even if it’s some kind of fairy tale world.

( Hmmm. )

Wait, can you just make them float, here? (More softly, ) Flying wheelchairs would explain the lack of ramps. I mean, this crystal thing is remarkable, so... let me know if I don't need to think about the ramps.

Comments

[allthatgleamsisgold]

[Unfortunately the pun falls flat - not on account of any lack of interest in engineering, even if it is unlikely he'll turn his hands to such things. Just Vlast's usual under-developed sense of humour.]

I am Vlast.

My own world is called Tyria and it is not so different from Thedas. More technologically advanced in places, I suppose, though I have read that Minrathous has magitech comparable to that of Rata Sum. The prejudices between sapient races are less pronounced, but no less petty and absurd. The people in general are not such withering cravens in the face of peculiar magics.

What of yours? You mentioned two wars.

[undergrunn]

( “Withering cravens” does sound a little like something a priest would say or a line from an old novel. The latter is a more charming and less unsettling thought, so she actively tries to make herself associate Vlast’s vocabulary with fiction. )

We… have much more advanced technology, and it turns out magic is real but kind of kept to secret occult groups. I don’t know what role magic played in our advancement.

( “I don't know what parts of the history books are real” feels a little too unhinged. On the other hand, her world feels as though it’s become unhinged. )

This is going to be weird, but… imagine you’re standing on a bridge crossing a river. It’s a stone bridge, wide enough for tru— for, um, carriages to go each way, and totally solid. There’s lanterns, so even though it’s night, you can see clearly, and the ground is solid. How would you feel, in that kind of situation?

[allthatgleamsisgold]

[Vlast doesn't reply for a good ten minutes. Not because he's ignoring the question, but giving it the consideration it's due. After all, he's only had insight to a mortal perspective for a few short months. For him, the experience of being alone on a bridge in the dark would be very different for a human.

But he does try to see it from her point of view.]

Tranquil.

[He quickly reconsiders this answer; the word has different weight, different connotations here - the kinds that earn Templars and Chantry brothers and sisters the most disdainful of Vlast's perpetual sneers.]

Meditative. Serene. If you are one who finds solitude restful. If not, it may be isolating. Cloying, perhaps, with dark all around and you have only lamps to rely upon.