A bit of nonsense

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
The truth was, Enelen was happy to discuss most subjects. He was a curious sort, and while he did his best to try and be polite about it, it was all he could do not to lean forward every time someone said something interesting. Given the option, he'd happily talk everyone's ear off.

"Well, in theory, I could learn the other three types - but you wouldn't need to, and it would be very unusual for someone from my world to do so. They're all kind of... Ah, I guess you could see them as different ways of performing the same kind of magic? Like different languages saying the same words." And different languages were often better at different things, which made his metaphor quite accurate, as far as he was concerned.

"There doesn't seem to be a clear structure for magical types here, so it's hard to say what I could and couldn't learn. Some magic is similar enough I'm sure I could learn it, while other magic seems different enough that it's not the same kind of magic that I have." Sometimes it seemed more like something else - like some totally separate power.

"No, here seems more technology based. I mean, this island has a lot of magic, but not everyone has magic - when I say everyone, I mean literally every person on earth has magic." He paused, then corrected himself. "Well, almost everyone - some people were born without it, and they were super rare - like someone being born missing an arm."
 

Thirteen

Well-Known Member
Inactive
Nov 15, 2013
466
Cytus held a pen in her hand, staring at the paper they were given, and after just a small time conversing with her partner, had otherwise given up on attempting to write English. Instead, she started to write in Aenari instead on a separate piece of paper, not quite caring what the original questions had stated. Maybe if she got lucky, what she wrote would be relevant somehow.

"I was shown several systems of magic that are all relevant, and do many of the same things...my mentor spoke of a paradigm: the believe that all magic is the same, but is used in different ways like your Earth did. It is a shame that I did not exist in your time when magic was still a common occurrence."

The thing that Cytus wanted to do that she was effectively unable to do, was to go out into the whole of human society and say that there was a civilization other than theirs out there. From over a year on the planet, she had seen human civilization from orbit, watched their broadcasts, listened to music...but nobody knew she existed except for those on the island. Nobody knew they existed either.

It was a lonely place to be.

"There was no magic on Aridia. Our abilities by academy standards appear to be supernatural, but it is simply part of our biology. It does feel strange being compared to those that have true magical ability."

Another question came up. Slightly personal.

"Do you wish you could return to your time?"
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
"I'm doing a lot of research on different magic types. I spoke to a mage at the school who was really experienced, and she helped walk me through some of them." He couldn't truly say that they were all the same. Some were so specific that it seemed bizarre to him. They didn't seem like magic at all - they seemed like... well, like powers, or something else. Something that was unique to this world, and completely alien on his.

"Well, it's hard to tell. We were never clear - the best guess was that the part that allows us to use magic is somewhere in the brain, so it's possible that magic is biologically connected to us." He was misinterpreting what she said, more or less. People on this world treated magic like it was something otherworldly, but it had always been a standard, regular thing for him.

He startled a bit at her question, and then realized he hadn't explained himself - he'd just said he was from another world, and she'd inferred the rest.

"No. Well, not really - my world was dying, really just a husk of itself. If we'd stayed, we'd all have starved to death within a year. I'd like it back the way it was before that, but there's no point returning to it now." He might as well teleport himself to the moon and wait to die - it would have the same effect.
 

Thirteen

Well-Known Member
Inactive
Nov 15, 2013
466
"I will have to find them then. Although I am incapable of magic, I have found new forms of study quite exciting. If you are capable of multiple types of magic, are you currently studying one outside of your world school?"

It stood to reason that if Enelen was capable of learning a different school of magic, maybe it was possible to learn an entirely different type as well. Of course, then there was the matter of attunement. While Cytus' own mentor was open up to many, many different magical types, she was adept only in a select few, and not so much the others. Likely due to a particular 'resonance' that she had.

"If your magic is biological, then it's possible you may learn other things. Fascinating."

Cytus continued to write, occasionally taking a break after every sentence...or at least what looked like a sentence. Nobody but her was quite sure what it was she was writing.

"Then we are alike. I too come from a dead world. I apologize if I am intruding, but are there more from your world here? Or have they been spread out?"
 

Romi

Secretly a Bird
Administrator
Supporter
Jun 18, 2015
10,109
Gender
Female
Pronouns
She/Her
Posting Status
Irregularly
The idea of types of magic was a fairly interesting one. People often divided types of magic by what they could do, but his own world divided it by how you did them. The idea of limiting yourself was... unusual, to say the least. Why would someone just learn to control fire, when the same applications could be used on other parts of the natural world? It was so strange and backwards for him.

"Well, mostly I'm focusing on learning new applications for my existing magical focuses - that would be educational magic, unwinding magic, and teleportation magic." His older self had made it pretty clear where he'd focused, but Enelen wasn't going to necessarily focus on what his older self did. "If you try and learn everything - well, it's like spreading water around. You can fill a deep hole if you focus, or you can be shallow as a puddle and get over everything. Most people only pick two or three things to really focus on, and don't get much past the basics on other stuff."

He was curious enough to learn that she was also from a dead world, although he doubted they were from a similar sort of dead world. "Sort of. We chose to spread out, only it seems like high focus worlds - those that show signs of magical activity, and thus life - probably got several. I'm aware of two others, although one of them is actually an older version of myself from a slightly different variation of my own world, which is fairly unusual." Definitely unexpected.

It was only then that he realized she was still writing, and he paused, squinting at her. "What are you writing?" And weren't they supposed to be doing classwork? Oops.
 
Forgot your password?