entranceway | 02 [accidental video]

[There's no warning what's going on before the video starts, just a flash of bright light and violent motion as the recording device shoots across the room and bounces off a wall, landing to give a tilted view of Jowan's room. It's not a particularly interesting room, nearly as stark and empty as they all start out when claimed, although it does now feature a small fire burning merrily in the corner. Not in a fireplace, which is probably why it's starting to spread quite alarmingly, but it definitely brightens the place up.

It's also probably the reason why Jowan is panicking just a little.] That wasn't supposed to happen!

[He stands at the edge of what the device is recording of the room and looks largely uncertain, glancing around the room for an idea of what to do before swallowing hard and taking a step forward, brow furrowing as he extends his hands and frost leaves his fingertips. The flames crackle loudly at the ice and Jowan closes his eyes, pushing more power into the spell until a sheet of ice surges forward suddenly, dousing the flames and leaving a good chunk of the room covered in ice. But at least there's no fire any more, right?]

I don't understand what went wrong! It shouldn't be this difficult. [He wanders over to nudge the ice with a toe and sigh heavily.] Why does this always end up happening to me?

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What? [It's such a strange thing to talk about that Jowan looks utterly confused for a moment.]

But I wasn't trying to pull a rabbit out of anything. [He says at last.] Why would I even be trying to do that?

[Sarah laughs just softly, not at him, just the situation.]

So, you're going to think this is ridiculous, but, in my world, magic isn't...magic. It's just a clever slight of hand, usually. Or distracting someone away from what you're doing long enough to make them think you did something impossible.

[Jowan's brow furrows at that explanation, utterly confused about pretty much all of what she's saying. Not that he hasn't heard of charlatans existing before but...]

Why would they claim to be magic? That's just going to get them locked up, isn't it? Although... if you don't have magic in your world then that wouldn't happen I suppose. But that also means everyone would know that they're lying, wouldn't they?

It's a complicated relationship, my people and illusions. Most people know that it's a trick somehow, but they can't figure out how it's down. That's what makes it popular. Like...this. Watch.

[She goes to the closet and gets what she needs before coming back.] Now, I'm going to make this coin go right through my hand. On the count of three.

[She counts down and voila, the coin is on the table.]

It's super popular with nine year olds.

[WITCHCRAFT. Apparently the trick is also super popular with mages who can create actual magic because Jowan leans closer to the image with obvious fascination.]

Is that really a trick? You made it go right through your hand, and you're not even bleeding or anything! You really don't have magic?

Watch again, I'll slow it down this time.

[And she does, to show that it's all just a slight of hand.]

People can do things like this so well that they've been able to master the illusion of sawing a woman in half, right before your eyes, and then put her back together again, completely fine.

I suppose it helps if people know it's not real then. Sawing someone in half if everyone thought it was real would be horrifying. And at the very least the guard and templars would be after them, wouldn't they?

We don't have Guards and templars where I'm from. But I'm going to guess the equivalent would be police officers. So yeah, they would be. But the trick is supposed to be that she's sawed in half, and then he says some magic words and she's put back together again, right as rain.

So she's... not actually sawn in half? But how do you make people think that's happened? Can't they tell?

That's why people call it magic. [She grins a little at him, wiggling her fingers.]

We're a simple folk.

What else is your world like if it doesn't have magic? It's odd to think of Thedas without it for me anyway...

Well, it's like if someone took all the magic out of this place. What do you do with your magic on a day to day basis? I'll try and tell you how I do the same things...if I do the same things.

[She has a feeling their lives are completely and totally different, so who even knows if this will work.]

Um. [He has to really think about that because it occurs to him that they're not really allowed to use their magic for much in the Circle as apprentices and he'd done only a little more after leaving. But he does try to think of something.]

Lighting fires to cook food or heat water? Healing injuries?

Unfortunately, injuries aren't ever, and will never be healed by magic where I'm from. Either doctors are good enough to save you, or...

[Well, RIP.]

Fire and cooking and heating things have all been taken care of by science. which, back hundreds of years ago, probably seemed like magic when it was all first invented. You'll get that here, though. When you shower or bathe, the water is instantly hot if you turn the tap to one side? Not magic.

It isn't? Are you sure?

[Because he's pretty sure she's wrong about that one...]

It's water out of the walls, and you don't need to heat it at all! How could it be anything but magic?

[This is truly adorable.]

There are metal tubes in the walls, um, pipes, that the water travels through. And there's water being held in tanks, so when you want hot water, there's a tank full of hot water, and you turn the knob, and that opens a valve - boom, you have instant water.

[Look, she's not a plumber, that's about as good an explanation as he's gonna get. But she thinks it's not half bad.]

[It's... still kind of confusing to him and now Jowan is peering at the walls doubtfully, imagining tanks and tanks and tanks of water somehow sandwiched between them. It has to be a lot of water, surely.]

But what happens if a wall is damaged? Does all the water leak out? What if it all runs out, how does it get more?

There are people specifically trained to fix stuff like that. And there's usually a water source, like a lake or something? You're sort of getting beyond what I know, but what I can promise you is that in my world, not magic. Just mechanics and science. Plus really smart people.

[She'd love to be able to show him but she'd end up flooding something.]

If you have any other questions about how things work without magic, I'm happy to try and explain them.