Reality doesn’t always give us the life that we desire

[magicalarchaeologist]

WHO: Istredd and anyone!
WHAT: Catch-all for April
WHERE: Thorne, Horizon
WHEN: EARLY April for now, will put later prompts up as time goes on
WARNINGS: PTSD from the event, NSFW thread in comments





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[earthborn]

Alright, the bird problem is getting awkward— you can't have a serious conversation like this.

"Sorry, I've—" She has to stop a minute to attempt to constrain the bird from, at the least, not actually standing on her head. It's a petty victory, but she'll take what she can get, "I've always kind of liked pets. Weird for a spacer, I know."

She has no idea if Istredd knows, of course, but— well, it's not like it'd be the first time she explained space travel to someone, if he asks. It's getting to be almost routine.

"They do that kind of thing often, where you're from? Public Execution?"

[magicalarchaeologist]

"Rooibos. Boundaries." He did not make the birds so they mostly do as Lucifer wants, but the raven seems to listen to him enough that he respectfully sits still where she wants him. Rooibos won't peck at her now, since he doesn't want to have to fly away.

"Certainly, I don't know many places where it isn't a possibility. I've never been to one myself, but they're in every town and city." Istredd comes from what might be considered a medieval-period era, or something adjacent to it in comparison. He says this very factually because it is true, he doesn't know if there is anywhere in his sphere where public executions aren't a thing. Perhaps a few places prefer private ones, but rarely.

"What is a spacer?" Yes, he has no idea what that is.

[earthborn]

"Are you familiar with the idea of a planet?" Well, fair enough, she saw that question coming, "Go up far enough, the air runs out, and keep going past that and you'll leave the influence of the planet. That's space. Anybody who spends more than nine months of the year up there, that's a spacer."

She knows how shitty it is to dump that in his lap like that, but there's no cleaner way to explain it; experience has taught her that drawing it out, particularly with smarter people, only makes them angry. They seem to think, somehow, that she's calling them stupid. More than one pointless fight had started that way, in her time on Abraxas... and Istredd... isn't stupid.

"I generally don't spend much time on the ground, if I can help it. Ergo..."

[magicalarchaeologist]

"Yes, but we call them spheres." Which makes sense, round giant objects, close enough. Istredd has heard them be called worlds and planets. He's spoken about it in that way before with the Conjunction and how many spheres collided all at once to create the current continent. But he's never thought about the actual outer space from there.

"That's fascinating." He isn't stupid, he can fill in the blanks. He has been so sphere-bound that the idea of what's outside of it has always been theoretical. Universes and other worlds, of course they existed, but never the space outside of it was questioned. "We know that there are many spheres - planets - but no one's experienced space as far as I know."

His sphere isn't even close to that level of technology. At least a thousand years away, probably. "Why do you prefer space to a planet?" An honest question, he wonders what it's like out there.

[earthborn]

"Why does anybody travel?" Shepard replies, deliberately arch— but it doesn't last; she grins and offers him a helpless hand, palm-up and placating, "For a long time, I didn't have a say in the matter; I'm a marine with the Systems Alliance navy. You go where you're sent, in the military."

Not that she wouldn't do it by choice, of course; she knows where she's needed. Normandy's path across the stars was evidence of that.

"I get the feeling that most people here are used to societies that live all on the ground, but my people are scattered across hundreds of worlds and dozens of star-systems. Ground conflicts are pretty small-change by the scales of economy we operate on, and me and my team are considered to be a commodity, so keeping us on-planet would be a waste."

Which is to say, in her sainted opinion, that the Free Cities military is wasting her potential, both because they haven't a reasonable potential for her to inhabit, and deliberately. But they've done little enough to inspire true loyalty, nevertheless... so why bother pretending to have faith in their competence?

"New horizon, new sky, every week. Until Abraxas."

[magicalarchaeologist]

"A space soldier. That does sound exciting, exploring multiple spheres." For them, it wouldn't really be likely. It has to do with the Conjunction and that the other spheres they know about are violent and dark. It's possible there are good ones out there, but many were destroyed. They thought all of them were, at one point. He isn't likely to go outside of the ground though.

"We mages are soldiers of a kind. Not in the obvious sense, but we are raised to work for and obey the Brotherhood of Sorcerers, the magical organization." The as in there aren't any others. There are magical beings but many of them die or they do what they can independently. Some mages do leave and do their own things, like Yennefer did, but they are always expected to come back. Also like she did. It's one of those things that always was drilled into them.

"They send us to courts and other places to try and guide them." He says that wryly. It's manipulation, obviously, through and through. Espionage, in a way, although right out in the open as court mages are required. But they are sent to try and control the kingdoms. It's a power that the Brotherhood keeps tabs on.

"I usually can teleport across the continent, there is no real traveling to speak of. They control that here, we can't travel across factions. I understand why but it feels very limiting. And that's just speaking as someone who does have his feet always on the ground."

[earthborn]

"It's fine."

It's fine in the same way the nightmares are fine, or the way food has gone back to being the background focus of every waking moment, or the way Garrus' plates are still brittle around the edges, or the way that... It's fine. It's fine, because it has to be. There's no other viable option, if she wants to go on. As Shepard had said; it took a lot to break her.

"I was due for a vacation, anyways," Which the Free Cities truly isn't far from. Most of what's hard is rudeness and lack of luxury; physically, this place is difficult in all the things it isn't, more than anything it is, "Spent the last few years yelling at people about the oncoming extinction event on their doorway, while they ignored Armageddon breathing down their necks... It's not what I'd choose, being stuck here, but there are worse things."

Like starving to death in a pit.

"So, what's like for you? There's not really such a thing as... magic, where I'm from. This much seem a lot more normal, from your end."

[magicalarchaeologist]

Istredd's eyes widen at the extinction event mention, but there's understanding in his gaze. "I've been warning my people of something similar, although I have no way of knowing when it will be." It sounds like she is far more aware of what is coming. For him, it's knowing the monoliths are probably the future and the past, and now knowing that when they are opened up, monsters come out. Monsters that could crash through the continent, destroying everything.

"Thorne is very magic heavy so I fit in well there. I teach beginner's courses to new mages or Summoned who never had any." It is a niche group but it is fulfilling. Several of the Thorne Summoned are taught by him and seem to have the will and way to become stronger at it. "I thought I'd managed to escape living at a royal court though. That I could live without. Especially violent royals."

He is allowed to be honestly disapproving of the monarchy in here. In Thorne they have to be very careful with what they say. The Horizon is one of the few safe places. "It's a dangerous situation, Thorne. It always feels like we're one step away from being tossed in the dungeons like the first group of Summoned."