{VOICE OTA}

[rootandbranch]

[Today you feel a few strange pulses in your signets before you hear anything over Qri's network. It's fairly pleasant, exactly as the signet communications tend to be, and fortunately doesn't at all resemble the strange fluctuations that plagued everyone back on days 103-105. It's more like someone poking at the network to be sure it's stable and not going to do any more of that before they speak. They seem to conclude it's safe after all.]

Hello? Oh, hi-- hi, everybody. It's Geir. If you don't know me, I'm the dragon.

[He's very matter of fact about it. He's the dragon. You're probably aware, his tone seems to say.]

Listen, I don't actually care if you know me, you should just help me and Nines out! He knows all kinds of technology things, so I asked him what we could find out about the Hub with them. But the question is really, what does everyone want to find out? There's been a lot of weird to chew on!

Chew...on? [9S echoes this thought quizzically, for an instant quite distracted. But right, right, the matter at hand—] Er, anyway, like Geir said we’re lacking data on our surroundings. And to know what we’re dealing with, gathering more would be best, so I was thinking I can probably scrape enough parts together to build a pod for that job, once we know what kind of information it should collect. I mean, unless we want everything...

[Geir's tone is still bright and interested. he loves hearing about this, even if part of him is still skeptical.]

Nines isn't even the only person who knows how to build... robots. I know a bunch of you build stuff. Who wants to help?

[9S clears his throat, quietly tacking a little disclaimer on:]

...Not that pods should be mistaken for machines or anything.

[When your kind’s fought machines for millennia certain lines get drawn. Thin, confusing grey lines. (Geir doesn’t know what to say to that, so he just lets it stand.)]


((both 9S and Geir may reply to your toplevels, and also feel free to jump each other! this is the start of a player plot to get a little more technology on the island. ♥ more details here!))

Comments

[deem]

I'd always welcome the help. And I've been teaching Alphonse some, and Riku before he disappeared, so I've got a little experience with sharing information now. Maybe it'll even come in handy in more ways than just this project.

[antemeridian]

Perhaps. I can't see any downside to having the knowledge on hand, in any case. ... Especially if more of us disappear without warning?

[ Just imagine if all the coven's mechanics and builders and actual survival experts vanished suddenly...

Oh, hm. ]

Alphonse... he is here with his brother, correct? Both of them have agreed to lend their aid as well?

[deem]

Yeah, they're both nice guys and scientifically inclined. I think where they're from doesn't have the kind of technology I'm used to, so they might get some use out of it.

[That's the hope, anyway. If he can help them out in return then he's pleased to do so]

And you're right, the more information's shared the less of a chance we'll be left without somebody who has it.

[antemeridian]

I had an interesting discussion with his elder brother on the semantics of calling things 'magic' around the time we arrived, though I didn't catch his name then.

Regardless of how few of us might be familiar with your level of technology, they might have an interesting perspective on hybridizing technology and magic, I think. [ From their brief discussion, it'd seemed that their science and 'magic' systems, even if Edward had refused the term, were more closely interrelated than other worlds' might be. ]

[deem]

That's Edward. Or, well, he said I could call him Ed.

[And he's pleased with this small honor, of course]

Their alchemy does seem like magic, from my perspective, but I know they get pretty offended by the suggestion... And somebody told me what I am is so out of the realm of possibility for them that it might as well be magic too. So I guess it's a little flexible how we define it all.

[antemeridian]

Edward, then. I wouldn't want to be presumptuous.

[ she hums a little, thoughtful. ]

I believe in his own words, any science or technology advanced enough to those not familiar with it would appear to be like magic. I cannot say he's entirely wrong. The line between the two, if any, seems hard to define, especially here. If any given 'magic' followed a certain set of rules, even if esoteric, would it then be considered science?

[deem]

According to Waver, magic has its own set of rules, so I'm not sure even that'd be a solid enough differentiating factor. I guess I tend to see technology as something more constructed, and so, more concrete. Like the parts I'm built with and why they work the way they do is all pretty grounded, seems to me.

At the same time, Waver's magic and Edward and Alphonse's alchemy both rely on exchanging something for the end product...

[antemeridian]

If you can believe it, the basis of the magic system belonging to my world is exchanging emotion to affect an end result. Harnessing emotions as energy, simply put, with all the typical trappings of equivalent exchange and conservation of... emotional energy, I suppose.

[ For each hope, blessing, or wish, an equivalent despair or curse. She doesn't like the Incubator, but that doesn't mean she hasn't paid attention to the explanations it's given. ]

From what you say, though, my magic seems even further distanced from technology than theirs. I might not be the best person to be discussing this.

[ but it is a question that she lowkey wonders about every now and then, given the Incubator's claim of being an alien bent on combating entropy. ]

[deem]

Considering the way we're left to deal with magic now, the more information I have, the better. It's not something I was ever designed to combat, much less deal with on any basis.

[So even if it's far departed from what he's familiar with, it may be beneficial for him to even have passing familiarity with it.

After all, they're in the magic business now, whatever it entails]

Seems like exchanges are the one consistent factor.

[antemeridian]

Conversion of energy, I think, if in a way a normal understanding of physics isn't applicable to.

[ Exchanges, though. Magic and exchanges. It certainly feels like it's rooted in something concrete, and... alchemy? Well, given that Edward had been insistent on not calling it magic: ]

For them at least, I imagine the concept isn't too different from burning something for light and heat. Though I couldn't presume to say for sure. As for myself, I'm afraid the main purveyor of it wasn't particularly forthright with the details.

[ Its main target demographic is middle school girls, after all. ]

[deem]

Maybe it's a trend, a lack of transparency with this sort of thing. That or at least Qri and whoever it is where you're from have that in common.

[9S lacks the exposure to beings with magical power to really know much more than that]

Seems pretty troublesome...

[antemeridian]

[ Like she'd told Edward then: ]

They purposely obfuscated details. It would have benefited them greatly for no one to think to inquire too deeply. The ones where I'm from, that is.

[ So he can probably infer what she thinks of Qri at this point, despite her having accepted the scant information given them at face value. Like she'd told someone else, though, accepting the information given doesn't mean she accepts that there's all there is to it. ]

I'm not sure if that's enough data to declare it a trend, but. It certainly is troublesome.

[deem]

Obfuscation's a commonality then.

[As someone who employs the same thing for very different reasons, 9S can only regard it with a certain distaste. He tries to spare people from painful truths he expects will cause more harm than good, but intentionally misleading people is something else entirely.

Or at least from his perspective, it is]

So far as I know, we've got just about no access to Qri, except through her subordinates.

[antemeridian]

I briefly entertained the thought that it was because the abilities given us had repercussions of some sort. Ones they didn't want us knowing about.

[ It wasn't a stretch of the imagination, after all, but. ]

That was when I arrived, and it has been over a month since. As far as I can tell, no one has ever reported any adverse effects.

[deem]

Lack of control might be one of them. Something that wasn't truly a part of us could be difficult to wield, and if it has the capacity to develop...there's the chance it could go beyond what someone can handle.

[The problem with such modifications is surely the lack of predictability.

So he thinks, as someone who has most certainly altered himself in ways he did understand]

[antemeridian]

[ Her lips purse, thoughtfully. ]

That's very true. [ Dangerously so, especially with those of them who possessed no previous experience with magic at all. ] Outside of the... group training sessions, though, has any acknowledgment of these risks been made? Or steps taken to mitigate them?

[deem]

No, I don't think so.

[And here he still has to find someone powerful enough to easily immobilize or destroy him, if he ever becomes a liability, so he's no better.

So he thinks]

But it'd be beneficial.

[antemeridian]

[ Removal of the signets causes paralysis, but not more than that from what his experience with it sounded like. Does destroying them cause the same, or- something worse? ]

... It sounds as if everyone has a common weakness in the signets that we were implanted with upon coming here.

[ 'Perhaps it was meant for more purposes than one.' ]

[deem]

I'd agree with that. Doesn't seem like we're trusted, exactly, when that's done to us from the start.

[9S isn't inclined to mince words about it]

[antemeridian]

Do you think that it was meant to be a failsafe, then? In the case of someone losing control?

[ Jay's mentioned that Genette thought Qri could possibly be clairvoyant. Qri has so far been laissez-faire in regards to their handling; either the risk of anyone being unable to handle their abilities is a non-factor, or she already has safeguards in place.

That, or their system is even more flawed than thought. ]

[deem]

It does strike me as a very effective way to control us, one way or the other.

[Even if it's simply to impose a sense of dominion over them. Knowing nothing of Qri but their circumstances and that incident that made people lose consciousness, 9S wouldn't put it past her.

He's seen enough in his short life to doubt those with power]