abraxaslogs | Set my sights on the setting sun

Great. Reassurin', thanks.

[He says it dryly, attention still on Dertsi, but despite the comment he is somewhat reassured. She's probably not going to attack spontaneously, at least, so he'll just avoid being too annoying.

So, finally, after several seconds he looks back at Lucifer again.]

I've been working on that. The studyin' thing, I mean.

[It's been tough to figure out a place to start, but he's at least looking into it at this point, and has a good handle on the power he'd found himself with spontaneously as well as creation in the Horizon, so there's that?]

Is magic somethin' that exists in your world, or was it all new here for you too?

[Let her enjoy the sand and don't harm her host or the handful of people that never visit but could visit and really she's chill. Maybe because she isn't infused with Wanda's Chaos magic like the five ravens in Istredd's domain are, created by Lucifer but do their own damn thing.

Sometimes to an annoyed point.] It exists but it's not... common. And I'd feel quite dirty using it. [It's all witches, mostly. He's grown more respectful to witches now courtesy of Wanda (and redheads, too), but it was a Work in Progress.

So was the magic-thing.] It took me quite awhile to put up with the fact that while I don't need it [he kind of needs it] my life is made exponentially easier with it.

[This is the first time Jayden thinks he's heard that particular sort of situation, where magic's a thing but unusual, especially in a negative way. It's almost like here, in a sense, depending on the faction and type of magic anyway.

He nods thoughtfully at Lucifer's last comments, because that part he has a slightly better understanding of.]

Yeah. It definitely makes things a lot easier; I don't know what kind of technology you have in your world, but there's so much that could be done easily through tech that you need magic for here, unless you want to do it the really long way.

[It's annoying, and definitely played into Jayden's motivation to get past his extremely unpleasant introduction to magic here.]

Twenty-first century Earth technology. [He's not sure that will mean anything to the guy, but there's a chance, anyway. It'll give him a read of him at the very least.] So. A lot.

[But Lucifer's not very tech-savvy either sssssoooo. He's better recently, primarily from vessel-hopping like it was going out of style. That sure helped pick up gulfs of knowledge.]

[It does indeed mean something, and Jayden nods in agreement.]

Same. I miss the internet, and phones, and cars.

[And a whole bunch of other stuff, but especially those.]

[Eugh.]

Was any of that really worth it? The internet is basically subliminal mass-brainwashing, oftentimes without the subliminal part.

Yeah, sure, but we've got the same problem with the network here and it's harder to turn off.

[He's sort of joking, but at the same time it sure would be nice to just mute everyone when they get on some particularly stupid topic. Or, alternatively, be able to save conversations to read later.]

It's also a lot faster to get information through the internet than havin' to track it down the old fashioned way.

I'm just used to white noise. [To emphasize, he unleashes his control constantly holding down the MUTE button on his oh-so lovely, poor-sense-of-humor, Singularity 'gift.' The sound rudely tunes through their surroundings with Lucifer as the source.

He Does Not Appear Amused by it, and 'jams down' the button to hold it back once more after he's made his Point.] Ignoring the scrolling text of the 'network' is hardly difficult. I very rarely pay it any mind, and frankly I get 'bored' just as quick. [Lucifer will either 'religiously' stalk the Horizon texts for useful information or just literally ignore it entirely. It'll make life difficult for him eventually.]

[Jayden is not expecting the sound and jolts in surprise, but after the initial shock--]

That's so fuckin' annoying.

[He says it both as a general remark and in sympathy; he's not sure what it is or why it's a thing, but by what Lucifer said it seems to be thing he has to deal with, which sounds awful. Literally and figuratively. But it makes sense why the network wouldn't bother him in comparison.]

So if the internet, phone, and cars aren't the sort of technology you're missin', what is? If anythin' I guess.

[It could be that Lucifer is using magic to replace something other than technology, after all.]

[Yeah it really is!!!]

Ohhhh, I suppose I'm what you could call archaic when it comes to technology. Sure all the little people [sorry] need it, but it's not really my speed. [He misses power but he's not about to say that at the moment. He makes a line through the snow to the sand and connects the many unusual squiggles.

The red lake freezes over and changes to an active aurora borealis instead of water beneath the ice. Somewhere else in the domain something shifts, unseen. Lucifer looks satisfied for a moment, but then shakes his head and moves to a different cluster of symbols and erases them entirely, and half the lake just outright disappears to blank canvas. Just ice/aurora, and then a straight cut-off of nothing.

He sits back, pondering, his focus back on the man.] Is it miserable sounding to say I don't miss anything from my world?

[There are a few explanations Jayden could come to for the first part of what Lucifer says, especially when combined with his previous comments about not normally using magic. There are at least a few supernatural beings around, some of which Jayden's met, and so that's his theory for Lucifer.

But he decides not to ask, especially when Lucifer starts messing with the domain, which is fascinating. It's not at all how Jayden alters his own, but it's interesting to see how other people do it, and his sample size for that is very small so far.

He is about to comment on that, but then Lucifer makes his last remark, and it's not at all what Jayden might've expected him to say. But he shakes his head, the answer easy enough.]

I don't think so. Sometimes people just don't have anythin' going for them in the place or situation they're in, and when they get somewhere new there's nothin' to miss from what they left. This is kind of a bigger scale, but still the same thing.

[So he's not judging, and he'd be a hypocrite if he did anyway. Even though he lamented the loss of technology, and he misses his job, those are pretty much the only things about his world that Jayden feels any sense of loss for. He knows that so many of the people here are missing friends and family, or have some grand purpose or goal, and there's just nothing that significant connecting Jayden to his own world.

Of course, maybe that is just miserable, but misery loves company and all that.]

[Lucifer would be surprised if many changed their domain like he did. He could imagine worlds'-worth of landscapes, but his mind spirals, and wanders, and branches off into hundreds of different directions, and the result to the Horizon is... undesirable.

This is the only way he has to pull separate ideas and try to really build something substantial.

He thinks he's supposed to be dead and 99.9% of the population thinks he's evil and to be blamed for the rain pouring and on-top of that, he supposes the planet is apparently nuked so like.

Whatever.

Why go back? For some delicious, instant-gratification, honestly-unpleasant, demons worshiping him?

Nah.

They're fucking weird.] I'm not exactly 'about' my current living situation here but it's likely the best scenario I've got. [He sure keeps going back to Thorne willingly.]

Best of all the bad options?

[He gets that idea, as although his world certainly isn't having issues on the scale of Lucifer's, his personal life has definitely been a mess for just about as long as he can remember.

Though of course Jayden does realizes he should ask--]

Which of the nations are you in?

Thorne. [yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay]

Ah. Heard that's not exactly a great place to live.

[To put it mildly.]

Super swell. Though the climate itself isn't terrible, outside of winter. [He's not particular about the cold anymore, which is hysterical. He spreads his arms to his domain.] And thus! Here we are! Sometimes.

Oh, does it get cold there?

[It feels slightly humorous that he's had multiple discussions about the weather in the past few weeks; even in a completely different world, it still seems like the go-to talking point. Nice to know that's universal.]

Yeah, I think the Horizon's my favorite part of being in this world, actually. Haven't really seen anythin' better yet.

Harsh winters, grand ol' time. [He Does Not Like It.

He sprawls out a bit, careful of his scrawled work.] I think I'd have to agree with you there. The amount we can build. Such a small space but there's so much that can be done with it. It should get more use out of it.

[It's nice to hear someone else speak so positively of the Horizon; there have been a few others he's talked to with similar opinions, but most are much more neutral or even hesitant. He's gotten a definite sense that although most are willing to use the Horizon, they're doing so more out of convenience or obligation than because they actually like it. It seems strange to Jayden, the neutrality; at least hesitance or nervousness makes sense.]

It doesn't seem like it's all that popular with everyone else. People seem to use it regularly enough, but without actually spendin' much time here or exploring what they can do.

[He stops short of mentioning that they also seem concerned when Jayden says he does.]

[He might not actually judge Jayden for it but he's got his own reasons for not being here as much.] We simply can't take the risk for being here long periods of time. ['We' being the Thorne Summoned.] Not just for how it's perceived by the locals, but I always fear for something going wrong in reality while my mind's hooked up to this realm.

Yeah, makes sense.

[Both parts of that are reasonable, and not really what Jayden meant; the Thorne Summoned in particular have plenty of reason to not be taking full advantage of the Horizon, but in the Free Cities, that isn't much of an issue. It seems more like people aren't as fond of the whole idea in general, or even suspicious or concerned about the idea of spending a lot of time there, which isn't entirely weird--Jayden had felt similarly when he first heard the idea--but still feels strange. Or maybe he's just imagining it.

Either way, he doesn't mention that part, instead commenting--]

Istredd told me a bit about how tough things are in Thorne. I'm not sure how much sorta' coordinating is already going on between the Summoned in different nations, but is there anythin' we could be doing to help?

[He shouldn't be surprised that Istredd, for as introverted as he is, has other connections outside of Thorne. But sometimes.

Sometimes it catches him off guard.

Still, where does he go with this? He could pull something reasonable but still equally necessary.] Our resources are limited. [It's not impossible to make money. They can get jobs.

It's just highly disapproved. So if you're someone like Lucifer that needs some form of decent rep with the castle, getting a job in town to snub the court isn't valuable to him.

He sighs. It's mostly even a real sigh.] But... I don't know. No one's ever asked me that before. [Also true.] Maybe put a pin in it?

Yeah, that's what Istredd said. I'm pretty broke myself right now, but I know there's a lot of Summoned in the Free Cities who're loaded, so settin' up a way to pass some resources along should be possible.

[Is he volunteering the rich Summoned for this? Sort of. He'll just do it himself if he can get some money coming in finally, but is hopeful that maybe some of the others just haven't realized they could help the Thorne Summoned this way, and will volunteer to do so if it's brought up.]

But yeah, of course. Just let me know if there's anythin' I can do in the future.

It's dangerous funneling resources across the borders, though money in theory is easier. [He hopes. As the guy that needs to get money to Crane; however, the difference is Thorne will know what it's for. Well. He's still gotta work that all out. And, ha, pray a little.] It isn't like we go through security checkpoints or anything. [Probably??? Who knows with those portals.] But any other future endeavors may come at a high risk, on both ends, especially anything specific to a faction. [Smuggling Free Cities-specific goods to Thorne? Nooooot a good idea.]

[Jayden nods in agreement, not at all interested in causing--or getting caught for causing--some sort of diplomatic incident. But he's also unwilling to just let Summoned in Thorne fend for themselves, and as Lucifer said, in theory money might not be as difficult. If they're careful, anyway.]

It's somethin' we'd have to be careful of, for sure. Just seems wrong not to at least try, especially when it comes to the more subtle things, if there's a way to make life easier on those of you stuck there.

Set my sights on the setting sun

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