Wᴀᴠᴇʀ Vᴇʟᴠᴇᴛ, Lᴏʀᴅ Eʟ-Mᴇʟʟᴏɪ II (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
professor_charisma) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
returnjourneylogs2022-02-22 01:54 pm
professor_charisma) wrote in returnjourneylogs2022-02-22 01:54 pm
Entry tags:
(no subject)
Passengers: Waver &Volk
Location: SIRE
Date: Backdated to Feb. 17
Summary: Dare these two try to do something to entertain themselves?
Warnings: None yet
[Waver would have been checking on Volk daily, but giving him a few days in his private room to get some peace and quiet. Waver really needed a couple of days himself to do the same, but he can't his in his room and read forever. As much as he really wants to.
One thing he did, though, was look up Volk's name in the library to see if he could find anything he's worked on. Volk mentioned briefly that he worked as a creative in the entertainment industry, and lo and behold, there were scripts available with his name in the credits.
This gives Waver an idea. So today, the two will be visiting the SIRE to give it a shot. Time to see what this thing was capable of.
Walking into the SIRE room, Waver takes out his tablet and boots up the program before turning to his inmate with a smile.]
So. Where would you like to go today?
Location: SIRE
Date: Backdated to Feb. 17
Summary: Dare these two try to do something to entertain themselves?
Warnings: None yet
[Waver would have been checking on Volk daily, but giving him a few days in his private room to get some peace and quiet. Waver really needed a couple of days himself to do the same, but he can't his in his room and read forever. As much as he really wants to.
One thing he did, though, was look up Volk's name in the library to see if he could find anything he's worked on. Volk mentioned briefly that he worked as a creative in the entertainment industry, and lo and behold, there were scripts available with his name in the credits.
This gives Waver an idea. So today, the two will be visiting the SIRE to give it a shot. Time to see what this thing was capable of.
Walking into the SIRE room, Waver takes out his tablet and boots up the program before turning to his inmate with a smile.]
So. Where would you like to go today?
no subject
Already I'm afraid this is unlike anything I've heard before. [Which is saying something, coming from him.] But my guess is that it might become more familiar the more you explain.
A Prince "happens". How? And, I'm assuming this Throne is some nexus of power. Is it the source of power, or are there others? [Volk said "ours", leading him to believe there must be more.]
https://saklas.dreamwidth.org/2445.html <- ooc i can explain it better, just finished this
[How does. A Prince happen. Shit. Okay. Uh. It isn't that it's complicated, it's just that he's never had to explain to someone that sometimes plants get really big and they grow tough skin and we call them trees, either.]
No. No, I just ... do you not have a Throne? You might call it something else. It's the, it's where the world came from - probably - and it's the reason the laws of physics work? Gravity. Thermodynamics. Courts.
Uh, Princes happen, when... when a person gets popular enough. It's a popularity contest. Once a certain number of people are willing to jump off a bridge if you told them to-
[Volk has one hand covering his face, and the other makes two fingers walk across the air and then jump - whee!]
- every one of those idiots gets cosmically rewarded with magic, and so does the idiot they're following.
whoo booking marking that baby for later
[He's on board with this idea. It's the rest that is a totally new concept to him, and he's fascinated. He's thinking on this, trying to piece together how popularity could equal magical power. A transfer of energy that he's never really considered before.]
How popular is "popular"? Is it only one person at a time who can become a Prince? Competition must be unbelievably fierce.
no subject
[So at least he doesn't need to figure out how a world even exists without a Throne.]
No, no, there's usually... I think right now there are twenty, but now that the internet is big, they come and go really quickly. Only about, mmmmmmeleven? Are really serious contenders, CEOs or activists - the others are just content creators. Idol bands. They've got it but it's reallllly temporary. I think the threshold is usually between three-hundred-k and a million people who think of you as THE person that's most important to listen to, and if they go to rehab or people turn on them, which, like, you know - they will - their Prince title will just drop right off of them and they'll go back to being a regular idiot with a ton of money and a great bone structure and tons of industry contacts.
You're ...I'm probably getting lots of things wrong, actually, I'm not a physicist.
What's the difference between Magic and Magecraft...?
no subject
[He really doesn't want to dwell on those ideas, and moves along quickly.] True Magic is beyond that. Limitless. Miraculous. With Magecraft, there's a price to casting - energy, reagents, your own skill level, what have you. Magic has no need for any of that, drawing directly from the Root itself.
[He's trying to not go full-blown professor mode here, but he can't help himself. Waver stops for a moment, looking like he's about to turn around and talk to someone who's not actually there. He pauses, frowning.]
... I was about to ask Gray is she could fetch us some tea. This simulation is a little to real for my tastes. Anyway. How do you fit into all of this? You seem to at least know a fair amount about it. If it takes than many followers to become a Prince, I imagine this is mostly common knowledge where you're from?
no subject
Okay. We have Magecraft, then - I've never heard of someone being born better or worse at it innately. WELL-
I don't know, tall people are innately better at basketball? If that's what you wanted magic in and you're short, you're shit out of luck? But, I don't think ...either we don't have circuits, or nobody's discovered them. We're not uh. Breeding, people, for more magic, like Pomeranians...
[Volk glances over at the door. No, it is not possible for him to forget he's in a hologram in jail. That sounds nice.]
Everyone knows it - I'm in Legends' Court, half of everybody's in a Court. A lot of jobs require you to join a Court as part of your employment contract, not that they can enforce it.
no subject
Yeah, it's not... ideal. But it is, unfortunately, how it works. You're born with a certain level, and learn to work within that limitation. And Mage families pretty much do just that.
[He sounds pretty unhappy about it himself. This is the guy who spent a lot of his young life trying to disprove lineage wasn't necessary. He was wrong.]
So, does that mean you've ascribed yourself to a potential Prince? Or you're just along for the ride because you have to be?
no subject
I am technically "loyal" to a current Prince. I don't really...
[Volk shrugs.]
He's an important guy. He's an entertainment billionaire, and part of onboarding besides being trained to use his Court gift is they sit you down in front of a lot of movies to convince you to convert. I guess it worked, I mean, it helps that the guy is a visionary. Everybody more or less knows Pinwheel as a brand, he's defined post-Empire culture for the last hundred years. Even if you don't agree with his values, you can't deny that he's, you know.
A Great Man. Like the kind we talked about last month.
If civilization went under tomorrow, the first three names aliens digging through the wreck would find Saint Sacrifice, Spar Cola, and the Prince of Legends. I guess I'm loyal. Could I stop being loyal, if someone else offered me more money? Probably.
no subject
I'd been thinking. You work in entertainment, yes? While we don't have much here in the way of actors, I'd assume, but the comms have camera settings, and we have this... thing. You could make any set you could ever want to imagine. Might be something to consider. Doesn't have to be right away. But it could be interesting to see what you could do with it.
[Everyone needs an outlet. Maybe he was getting ahead of himself, but he feels it might do Volk some good to have something to work on.]
Afraid I've only ever written academic papers, though. Nothing very exciting.
no subject
A switch has flipped, here, or something - he's checking every part of the room, the textures, where he knows the real chamber ends and still retains the illusion of depth.]
Mm.
[He gets up, switches the flashlight on his comm on, shines it at the walls directly - nope, still opaque, good. He thumps the wall with his hand, to see if it makes a wood sound, then thumps the door to see if the sound is different. Yeah, okay... He goes up to a lamp, clicks it on and off and on and off and onandoffandonandoff to see if the response seems realistic. He knocks the lamp over, dispassionately. Does the falling speed read correctly? Does it break?]
But how would you - ? You'd need- it's bad at people. I'd need my Court gift back... This isn't that different from what Court of Journeys can do. It's a lot smaller, but the advantage is that you don't need twenty of them channeling... I'd love to see it do water, deep water in several weather conditions, orrrrrr lava. Liquid dynamics. Can it pull from places neither of us have seen....?
no subject
The antique lamp tips over with that this, seemingly solid as all the other furniture. The physics were as real as anything else
around here.]
I know there would be a lot of limitations, but I think there's a lot of potential, too. You may be stuck with wardens and inmates as actors. I suppose that'd be up to you whether or not that was worth your time.
[Waver thinks for a moment, rising from his seat. Someplace he hasn't been, with water.]
SIRE - how about a beach in Perth, Australia.
[Lo and behold, the office fades into a busy public beach on a sunny day, choosing a year close to Waver's own back home. Plenty of blue water rendered into what looks like a expansive horizon, even if the room only ended about 15 feet away. Everything but the smell of the sea air.
Waver nods in approval.]
Not bad. Though I suppose I'm taking it at its word here. Never been to Perth.
no subject
[The surf looks good...
Volk has completely forgotten that he came here to learn about aliens and magic and magic aliens.
He's thinking: to change this place, he has to change some wardens. To change minds, you need a story.]
SIRE, can you put us on an indestructible safe platform above the middle of this... whatever this body of water is. And storming?
no subject
Waver seems impressed enough anyway, nodding again.]
Certainly is nice enough, a nice change of scenery if nothing else. [Space is a nice view, but the sterility of the Peregrine isn't.] What do you think?
no subject
The corners of the room are repeating, look.
[He has to raise his voice to be heard over the lash of the simulated rain, points - there is some odd, not-quite-right physics happening where the patterns of pseudo-random waves overlap. It's very, very, very hard to see -
Unless your job is making sure things look exactly right from specific angles.]
What you call Magecraft - is it someone who practices a skill for their whole life and becomes so good at it that it transcends ordinary possibility?
no subject
Someone can only be as good as their circuits will let them be. It doesn't matter how much you study and practice. That can't be changed.
[Solemn words from a man who knows all too well.]
feel free to fade out whenever you want to wrt the drop, im just gonna keep goin <3
[Volk gives a sour smile.]
Unless you're a Prince. Then you don't need to practice or work at all. Other people make your magic for you.
What about, uh, True Magic? Is that hereditary?