006 ✳ day 98 ✳ video/action

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue is sitting in the gazebo as she fiddles with the wrist comm. Jazz is visible in the background, on one of the rails; he has a beetle pinned under one black paw, apparently for his own amusement.

She's staving off a headache by taking a break in her fishing. Using magic has its problems.]

Our worlds seem to share plenty of differences, but the similarities, I think, are just as interesting. Shared ideas amongst the multiverse. So, if you'd care to indulge me, what are some of your favorite things in popular culture?

[private to Donna Noble]

[She schools her expression into a more serious one.]

Given the recent disappearances, I think it would be a good idea to spring our 'list' plan into action. What do you think?

[private to Erik Lehnsherr]

I understand you've been teaching B— Dilandau how to cook? I hope it hasn't been too maddening.

Comments

[blackmagus]

Hm. [She considers, head tilting slightly to the side.] Well, where I come from there are both humans and different Houses of elves. We use both magic and technology. My country, Imperium, invented the 'Angel Gate', which lets us go to other universes. We use it to make advances in science, technology, and culture.

[purplishgreen]

Elves?

[There seems to be a distinction between humans and elves, the way Fortescue speaks of them -- not merely a different race, but something more.]

What are elves? Is this some sort of subspecies of human that exists in your reality?

[blackmagus]

It's inconclusive, at the moment. Some elves would be offended at the idea of being related to humans. Science, at the moment, thinks that it's the other way around. That humans are a strange off-shoot of elves. Elves are taller and more distinctive looking than us. A very long time ago, their race split up to different parts of the world — forming different Houses. Governments, essentially, separate from humans.

[She doesn't mention the fact that elves used to hunt humans and keep them as slaves. That was a long time ago, even if the Elben Mahr and the Inveterates want to revive that way of thinking. She's going to stop them. That's all there is to it.]

Most elves get along with us very well, now. But no House looks exactly alike.

[purplishgreen]

Distinctive?

[A physical difference, then, something distinctive. Humans have a wide variety of skin tones -- but then, so do asari, so do most species, and many have an old cultural holdover from primitive times assigning value to one colour or another. She knows this.]

When you say distintive, what do they look like, then?

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue thinks for a moment.]

Well... Leshsune have very odd skin, like the bark on trees, and are sort of featureless otherwise. Ulacrum look a bit more like humans, but are pure white — skin, hair, everything. Lykos are more like wolves, but their appearance is from magic. They're where our legends of werewolves came from.

[purplishgreen]

[Different skin tones, skin textures, appearances... and yet, a related species? She's no biologist, but if that's true, then that's something she's certainly never heard of.]

And they are also native to Earth?

[She's almost incredulous. Bark-like skin could almost be a primitive's description of a turian. She's not sure what a wolf looks like, though, and she doesn't know a species that might be entirely white.]

[blackmagus]

[She nods.]

Yes. We've both inhabited the planet for as long as we both remember.

[It's a joke, and she smiles. Bones and fossils paint a much better picture than written records.]

Elf physiology is very odd and adaptive. They've been using magic longer than we have, so magic could be the cause for their ability to change so dramatically.

[Fortescue shrugs her shoulders lightly. That's just the popular theory, and it's been a long time since she studied history.]

[purplishgreen]

You keep speaking of magic. Forgive me, but outside old myths and legends, I can't say I know much about that.

[To say the least, she's sceptical.]

What do you mean when you speak of magic?

[blackmagus]

For us, it's a sort of energy that certain people can access. [Fortescue pauses for a moment. Has her headache died down? ...it has.] I can show you, if you like. A little. I've been using it to fish, and using magic too often wears me down.

[purplishgreen]

I would like that very much.

[Magic implies illusion or superstition, but this sort of description implies some law of physics that can be exploited.]

[blackmagus]

[She nods, holding up her right hand so that her index finger is pointed directly into the air - separate from her other fingers. Technically she could just use her whole hand, but she doesn't want to accidentally alarm Shiala. That lesson had been learned with Daneel.

She takes a deep breath, and then her slender finger sparks into flame like a torch - flesh unharmed, but the fire just as harmful as a normal flame.]

This isn't all I can do, but it's the least draining example.

[purplishgreen]

Interesting.

[A form of biotics? Perhaps, in a way, and perhaps not. For all that it's labelled magic, she won't attach supernatural explanations to it. It's... obviously real. It must have some scientific explanation, though perhaps Fortescue, in her time, doesn't have one.]

And magic has changed the elves of your world? The asari are accomplished biotics, and that has shaped our culture to be certain, but our biology is the cause for our skill. Perhaps the biotics are partly the reason for our biology. It's difficult to say.

[blackmagus]

Magic comes from a connection to other... Planes in our world. Dimensions, if you like. It's a bit complicated. The official explanation is very... incorrect. [Fortescue stops the flame, replacing her hand in her lap.] But it's built on superstition and taboo, so it'll remain for a while.

[She's looking forward to the day when Magus are no longer a dirty secret. Every government has them. People know. They're just not acknowledging them.]

When you say biotics, do you mean... genetic sciences?

[purplishgreen]

No, not that. Biotics are abilities that stem from exposure to element zero in the womb. Thessia -- the asari homeworld -- has a great deal of element zero in the environment, and subsequently all asari are biotics. Even some of Thessia's animal life have such abilities.

Biotics are the ability to create small mass effect fields -- that is, distortions in the gravitational field. The end result is telekinetic in nature.

[A demonstration is in order. Shiala lifts a hand, her expression serious. A ripple of blue energy surrounds her for a moment, shimmers down her arm concentrates in her outstretched hand. A rock a short distance off becomes enveloped in the same energy discharge, lifts into the air, and then, with a gesture, Shiala flings the rock forcefully away. It goes flying off across the park.]

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue watches, brightening just a little.]

Oh, I see. So element zero alters you? Or does some of it stay with you?

[It sounds very similar to the Planes. Huh - that was the beauty of the multiverse. Though, in the case of the Planes, there was also the Guides. But the Guides were merely a method of exposure, too, if you thought of them scientifically. ...she would never, in a million years, tell Phineas to his face that he was a "method of exposure," however.]

That's very similar to something I can do, actually.

[purplishgreen]

Element zero actually forms nodules in the body, and an electrical charge triggers the mass effect field regardless of the application. In most species, an implant is necessary to produce electrical charges strong enough to accomplish much, but asari have an unusual physiology in that regard.

[Which in turn has to do with their method of reproduction. She won't go into that unless she has to.]

It does not have anything to do with a connection to other dimensional planes, but yes, I do see the potential for similarities.

[blackmagus]

[At some point, when she's not in danger of another vicious headache, she'll move something for Shiala. But not now.]

There's a lot of diversity in the Cape. Our captors don't seem to be picking too much at random.

[purplishgreen]

This is very true.

[Shiala leans back, and she flashes a warm smile at Fortescue.]

I admit I thought initially that this was a very homogeneous group, so many humans, but... that's proving not to be the case.

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue nods, smiling back.]

Quite a few look human and aren't. Or are mostly human. It makes me wonder how we're picked, and what the method is.

[If this really is a military operation, then why are they being made to just sit around most of the time?]

[purplishgreen]

In some ways it makes things more complicated. Where I come from, this idea that someone could be a species other than what they appeared to be -- well, it couldn't happen. Asari, salarian, turian, human, all the other assorted races of the galaxy -- we all look very different.

[That leaves out the possibility of indoctrination, of course, but that's something different.]

You are human. Does it need to be more complicated than that?

[blackmagus]

[She chuckles — perhaps a bit slyly.]

Not for me, it doesn't. For a time, those who used magic were considered freaks by the church. And inhuman. But they were let back in when the church realized how beneficial magic was. That was a long time ago.

[purplishgreen]

[She nods, slowly.]

It is my understanding that human biotics often experience a certain amount of distrust by those who misunderstand their abilities. They often believe that it is possible for them to read minds, or similar abilities.

But then, biotics are a new concept for humans.

[blackmagus]

Paranoia does sound like us.

[To say the least.]

[purplishgreen]

I can hardly claim it's a trait entirely unique to humans, either.

[She flashes a small, but kind smile.]

[blackmagus]

[Fortescue laughs quietly.]

Paranoia's kept me alive a few times. But a lot of it is terrible.