entranceway | ⎊ [Video]

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⎊ [Video]

[The feed opens to Tony's form from about the waist up. His sleeves are rolled up and his left arm is covered in burns that look to be about a week old. He's holding a strange device about eight inches long. It's encased entirely in a shell and seems to have a small domed sensor on top.]

I just wanted to say, if you start seeing these around, it's not a tiny alien invasion, they're sensors. I'm setting them around key locations in the hopes of finding a way to predict these event things. In light of the most recent catastrophe, I think it's only a reasonable step towards surviving something like that again. There has to be something preceding these things, right? Like a low-pressure system before a storm. We get a warning, sure. Sometimes, anyway? Maybe, if we can figure out what causes them or where they're coming from, we can delay or stop them?

[It's... all he's got, okay? He hates feeling like he isn't in control and he hates that people die because of it, even more.]

I'm... [He sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose, the beginnings of a sleepless headache coming on.] officially out of retirement. Hold the "I told you so"s. You know who you are.

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[She's figured out the video portion of this thing, at least, but she hasn't gotten up to 'texting' yet.

Still, this post has her curious...]

What do they sense?

Well, hopefully, they sense everything from electrical currents to... eh. Magic. I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around this magic stuff, but I'm getting there. It'd be a lot easier if I could put some kind of scientific backing to it, but we're not quite there yet.

I've pretty much opened them up to sense just about everything that isn't normal that they can reach. Which may or may not be helpful given how many people around here have powers that they might pick up on. I'm just hoping I can weed out the interference.

[The humans in Thedas, especially those associated with the mages, aren't exactly technologically advanced. The Qunari had been the ones to invent black powder, optics, and looking glasses ... so she's just going to skip over the electrical currents part.

She manages a soft laugh.]

I'm sure that we will understand magic when the Maker decides we are ready, and not before. I would not be much help with understanding it, but if you would like to study the effect of spells, I would be happy to assist.

[That would help with weeding out interference, right?]

[One of the easiest ways to catch Tony's attention? Offer to let him test something.]

That would be incredibly helpful. I take it, you're another spellcaster? There are more of you guys around than I ever would've imagined.

[Don't mind him if he starts geeking out about tech at you. He's subjected Isabela to many a ramble in the time they've spent together. He's almost fascinated that a place like theirs exists, all magic and little tech.]

[Bethany has always been curious about other worlds, but too wrapped up in trying not to get caught as a mage and then as a Circle mage to really ever venture out on her own. She understands the curiosity, in a way, and might feel similarly to Tony. Especially in Kirkwall, there had been little time to positively interact with enough Qunari to learn much about their technology.

She nods.]

A Force mage, by most recent practice. This place does seem to have a penchant for people from Thedas.

[Not that she's complaining, since this place has brought her back to Carver.]

I have no idea where that is--it is a place, right? And okay, bear in mind, this is coming from a guy with very limited magical experience: Define "Force Mage" for me, if you could? Like, there's a difference between magic?

[He doesn't like feeling like he doesn't know something, but he sure as hell won't let his pride get in the way of learning something new.]

[Fortunately for Tony, Bethany is an Enchanter - teaching students about magic is her bread and butter. She nods, lips pursed briefly while she attempts to figure out how best to explain to someone who doesn't know much about magic.]

Yes, Thedas is the world that I come from. From my reading, it seems similar in scale to a place a lot of people here call Earth.

As for magic, it isn't so much that there's a difference between the magic itself. All mages can manipulate energy, but it's the sort of energy that makes the spells different. Elemental spells draw from fire and ice, primal spells from earth and sky, and so on. A mage can occasionally focus their studies on the less common specializations. Force mages, for example, use their magic to manipulate the energy of the world itself. Gravitational rings to draw enemies into their centres, that sort of thing.

[It's probably one of the more dangerous sorts of specializations, barring blood magic.]

Does that help?

Yeah, that helps a lot, actually. It also stirs up more questions, but that's a good sign. Okay, so, roughly the size of Earth. You manipulate different times of energy, depending on the type of mage. Makes sense. I know a kid that uses magic to manipulate reality and a woman who uses magic to manipulate minds, but I have no idea how either of those work. So this, this is helpful.

[Which mean he's going to have to harass the little reality warper for more demonstrations and see if he can't identify how his magic manipulation works.]

Okay, question: So, you're a force mage. Could you suddenly decide you wanted to dabble in the elemental realm? Change specialisations, so to speak? Like, I'm a mechanic. I specialise in engineering and machinery. But I'm a quick study. If I want to take up astrophysics, all I'd need to do was crack down and read up on Dr. Foster's notes.

[Please never mention blood magic to him. He does not need that to worry about with Billy and Wanda.]

Force magic is often tied in with the magic that is used to manipulate objects with the mind, so perhaps her magic is related to that.

[She smiles, half-laughing at his next question.]

Of course. My family seems much more naturally drawn to the elemental side of magic, but perhaps that's just the nature of our tempers. Like most other things, there are types of magic that come more easily to different mages, though I couldn't tell you exactly why -- personality, family traits, or something else entirely.

[She's planning to mention blood magic to as few people as possible, to be completely frank. The fewer people who knew about blood magic, the fewer who could try to practice it.]

That's as likely as anything I've heard so far.

[The laugh brings a light smile to him, listening to her explanation rather eagerly.]

A natural talent predisposed to a certain area of expertise isn't uncommon among anything, really. That's good to know. It makes it interesting--flexible. Not that it wasn't already interesting. I still... I can't deny it exists anymore, but it still boggles me a little. "Magic" is usually a term used to describe something people can't explain or don't want to learn the truth behind where I'm from. This is making it a bit more tangible. If that makes sense/

It seems only natural that magic and technology are in competition.

[She pauses. Should she really bring up the complex politics of her world to a stranger in a post like this? It would help to solidify his understanding of why there's perhaps less science in her world than one might expect.]

In Thedas, one of the most popular religions - Andrastism -closely monitors much of the research into technology. There are many taboos about what one must not study, however.

The qunari, another race who are much less tolerant of magic use, are much more advanced than the rest of us when it comes to technology. I think it follows that one might suppress the other, in a way.

[As for his statement before she went off on that little tangent...]

It makes sense, certainly. I had always wondered what the world would be like without such a reliance on magic.

[Okay, now that's even more interesting to him. A culture that limits technological advancement?]

So, I take it, the two cultures don't get along very well? Or, probably at all. A shame. If they worked together, they could probably benefit from eachother and advance eachother.

I'm gonna back out here for a sec, to explain. I work with a team of people to keep others safe. I'm, as you've noticed, not magically inclined. I'm a tech guy. We've got two guys who have their own powers--let's call them super powered for the moment. They're a mix of science that went right or wrong depending, and gave them gifts. Two assassins, they're just normal people with incredible skills enhanced with tech. And then you have two people who use 'magic'. Now, that's not all of them, but you get the point. Together, they get things done that they couldn't by themselves.

Long and short of it is, they both have a place. So I think, at least here, we could make it work. I could give you a run-down of what my world's like, if you're really curious.

Unfortunately not. We've been at all-out-war with Qunari more times than I think either side would like to admit. In fact, there was an extreme conflict with them a few years back in the city I was living in, Kirkwall.

[And her brother totally killed the Arishok in one-on-one combat and became a huge hero, but she doesn't feel particularly proud of that little feat -- so she's not going to bring it up.

She nods, though.]

I do not doubt that you're right. Even among the Chantry's community, mages and templars -- the people who are to 'control' the mages -- are constantly in conflict. If we could work things out, I have no doubt great things could be accomplished.

[Oh, Tony -- you shouldn't have suggested giving her a run-down. She beams.]

I am very curious. Being in this place has been, at least, educational.

Kirkwall... why does that--? [He snaps his fingers and points at the screen when he makes the connection.] Isabela. Are you two from the same world? Eh, but yeah, war's no fun. That's a shame.

Yeah. It's a shame people don't always see what's best but what they want to see. [He's been guilty of that, he knows. But he likes to think he's learned.]

Okay, here--

[Tony pulls back the view of the video to include a work table. Now that he's walking away from the video, it's a little more obvious he has it mounted on something. The table is cleared of random parts and tools haphazardly. He places a tablet on the table and taps a few commands into the device. A holographic projection of Earth hovers above the device about a foot. The globe itself is roughly three feet across.]

Okay, this is home for me. Earth. I'm froooom... [He spins the hologram with hand gestures and pokes the North American continent, causing it to highlight and enlarge. With both hands, he makes an expanding motion and blows up the image to make it much larger, drawing in on New York.] here. Or, well, this is where I'm living right now. It's a state called New York. [He keys a few more things onto the Starkpad and the holographic image changes to show a rendering of buildings, roads, cars, a bird's eye view of Avenger's Tower and the surrounding area. All telemetry he pulled from his phone, so obviously it wasn't recent.] That's what a stroll down my neighbourhood looks like. Can you see it okay? This'd be easier in person, wouldn't it?

[As he points at the screen and mentions her good friend, Bethany all but lights up.]

Oh! You know Isabela? Yes, we're from the same place.

-- well, sort of the same! I'm not sure what might be different for her.

[Considering the whole 'your brother was the one who lived' thing that Cullen had told her about, and the fact that her other brother here was a mage ... well, anything could be different.

She watches with no small amount of fascination as Tony spins and weaves his design, pressing in a little closer to her tiny screen so she can see it a bit better.

She nods eagerly.]

It would be bigger, at the very least.

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