bakerstreet | thursday pic prompt

thursday pic prompt

the picture prompt meme

i. COMMENT WITH CHARACTER
ii. OTHERS LEAVE A PICTURE (OR TWO OR THREE....)
iii. REPLY TO THEM WITH A SETTING BASED ON THE IMAGES.

THIS POST WILL BE IMAGE HEAVY.

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[While I did ride a lot but haven't in a long time, we had a boring farm - cows, pigs, and animal-food crops. Nothing too exciting but sometimes I miss the space and nature compared to living in the suburbs. Going home for holidays is lovely.]

"I would say science is very similar here. Even though we don't have magic, we're trying to understand the world and the universe around us through the means we have. Trying to understand how we even work. We don't have instant transport like that, not even close, but non-physical things we can do more with." Yet being told that Humanity is a dying species in Aurus' world was sort of a sad thought, given how hard humanity fought to keep itself strong even as it tore itself apart here. He shook his head at the thought, frowning.

"Does that mean that you believe they will eventually be gone? Or is this last city strong enough to remain?" Because it was a curious thing. The last stronghold of a civilization... quite a different thought from how civilizations had slowly vanished here through conquering and the like purely because they were all still human. Certainly he didn't believe mutants would (and most certainly shouldn't) try to take out humanity. It was beyond a foolish notion.

"It sounds like this.... singular sylvari is less than well liked. Is it due to her actions or simply because of her desire to study science?"

[Ahh, farms are never boring though. And your family still has it too--that is lovely. I don't ride nearly as much these days as I always want/intend. I sort of miss the time in my life where horse work took up the bulk of my time every day, but I also found that I couldn't build a whole life just around that, so I get what you mean about the space and the nature...and for me there was something about the kind of work and the animals too.]

In spite of all their myriad differences and the differences between their worlds, there were still so many thing that Aurus felt he and Charles held the spirit of in common. Somehow, there was even a sense of that here in some way that Aurus couldn't quite put his finger on. Maybe it was simply an extension of what bound all races on Tyria together and the humane spirit in which Charles asked after his own race's potential extinction there.

"If humans die out, it will be because we have all died. The threats we face are planetary, and no one race could reasonably imagine its own kind spared while the others fall. But at least for humans now the wars with the charr have subsided. There are peace talks backed by the human crown and by the High Legions of the Black Citadel. The centaurs continue to be a threat--that is unlikely to change, but they threaten only the settlements and outlying areas, not Divinity's Reach itself, nor Ebonhawke.

"The real threat to us all is the Elder Dragons. There are six. One has been defeated.

"As for Scarlet Briar--Ceara as she was called when she first awoke--she orchestrated attacks on settlements from Ascalon to the Shiverpeaks, facilitated the spread a toxic pestilence over Kessex Hills, mounted an attack on Lion's Arch which destroyed the city, and killed thousands in the process. All of which pales in comparison to her final act before she died: she woke up another Elder Dragon. I'd say the dislike is justified." Aurus said all this very dryly, as though he was merely reporting neutral facts, but he managed to make it perfectly clear nonetheless that Scarlet Briar was not by any means someone he was proud to call sister. (Though sylvari being all born from the same tree, technically were all brothers and sisters regardless.)

[I loved working so much with horses - my mother had a good friend who was a riding instructor and owned a ranch and I would go there for lessons for several years. In the end I really enjoyed Western a lot more than the English she taught which kinda nipped things a little, plus going to college... I would love to be able to start riding again. I love city life a lot, but sometimes it just makes me happy to go get lost in the mountains near my mom's place.]

"...there was a darkness in her," Charles said quietly, a certain sadness in his voice to hear such a thing. The rotten seed amongst the good. It was sadly something he knew something about and wished he didn't. However, this mention of a dragon... "Dragons... are not something we have in this world. Perhaps you could explain the significance of what the dragons mean to yours?"

Something wasn't quite making sense. He understood the idea that these dragons seemed to be evil, but- "are all dragons evil? Or only these Elder dragons? Why were they asleep?"

[I have been a dressage person for years and years but lately...something hasn't quite been jiving for me, so I'm actually trying to go back to western a bit and see how it goes--I did loads of it in my youth, but it's been a long time. I have a horse, but life complications lately mean I've not seen her very much, alas.]

The darkness in Scarlet was a topic on which Aurus, for the time being, had only half the story. He did not, however, know that. Virtually no one did. He didn't know how these things were connected yet. He had no way to anticipate how partial his answer to Charles' question about dragons was about to be.

At any rate, he considered how he ought to explain it all as he gave a slight nod of his head to indicate that perhaps they might continue on their way as they talked.

"The Elder Dragons are like forces of nature, though saying it like that is also a bit misleading. They do have will. In fact, they almost seem to be pure will at times. They are, so well as anyone knows, as old as the world itself, and they are fundamentally linked to its magic. When they awake, they consume, corrupt, destroy everything--all life. And in so doing they absorb the world's magic, every last bit of it. It is taken into their bodies, and then they slumber, and as they do, the magic seeps back out of them and into the world. It's simply a cycle, like the rising and falling of tides.

"To my knowledge, the people of Tyria have never united to oppose them before now. Certainly they've never been killed. Now one has been killed though, and two others are awake.

"Each of the Elder Dragons, however, has its lieutenants--its champions. That's what Glint was before the ritual gave her her free will. These champions may be active even when their masters are not.

"I suppose it is not a matter of whether or not they are evil, precisely. They are each their appetites, and the corruption they spread has only one purpose: to extend and consume everything until it is gone. For the people of the world, the effect is equally malicious whether or not it makes sense to describe the dragons themselves as evil."

[Dressage is so beautiful...! I'm very much a 'riding to ride' sort of person. Maybe because I never owned a horse myself? So every time I got to ride I just wanted to ride. Ride as far as I could go and be out there with my horse away from everyone. ^^; Next time you see her, give your horsey some love for me.]

Interesting. So these dragons were as much a part of the world as anything else, from the sound of it. Not created or evil within themselves but a way for the world to keep itself in balance, in some odd way. "Do you fear that your world will be thrown out of balance with the death of one of these dragons? If this is a repeating cycling, won't surely something be off kilter? For all of the destruction it brings, I would fear that a greater destruction, perhaps one slower in coming and all the more unknown because of that, would eventually come."

Realizing quickly how that would sound, he added, almost musing out loud, "not that I could see reacting any differently. Everyone will fight to remain alive and their people safe, in the face of such danger."

They moved slowly through the well manicured grounds, maintained by a small host of people who were paid very well for their work and discretion. It seemed in many ways that no matter how incredible the land may sound, there were just as many problems, possibly even greater ones, that laid within. No world was careful and completely safe from danger.

[See that's precisely what I need to do--just ride to ride again. Moving the the UK was not the greatest thing for my horsey life. I am constantly trying to recoup, readjust, get my riding mojo back. Also, well done Charles for anticipating precisely the exact story arc that is now coming out in GW2! lol Two elder dragons have been killed now, and suddenly it's like whoops! Here's this great big THING that's been happening to the world while you weren't looking, and it's at least in part a result! Of course we don't know where the devs are going to go with it and whether they'll pursue that angle of the story, but I really really hope they do. I think it's some of their best storytelling so far. Absolutely no one in Tyria saw it coming at all though, which is pretty funny in retrospect.]

Aurus paused, cocking his head at the questions Charles posed. His hand had been lightly brushing across the surface of a hedge as they passed, but now it was completely forgotten, and for a moment he just blinked at the man. Charles was proposing a possibility that plainly hadn't occurred to him before.

After a moment, he said, "Honestly, I was mostly just surprised that they managed to actually kill one at all. And with relative ease, no less, though I'm sure that the Pact members who brought Zhaitan down would thoroughly dispute that it was easy.

"What I mean is that, in the end, the dragon's death was quite straightforward. It died as any mortal creature would die. It was powerful and strong, yes, and the firepower required to bring it down was tremendous, but once it was dead... Well, I suppose it surprised me that the elder dragon of death had only a single, brittle grasp on mortality--no different than any other living thing."

He didn't directly say that he'd never thought of the world being thrown off kilter by the cycle's disruption, but clearly the idea was a new (and potentially compelling) one, something he most certainly needed to think about.

[You'll get it back. ^_^ And HA! Charles knows his shit. XD]

"Things are rarely as they seem," Charles said with a wise tone, almost older than his years as he looked out across the grounds. "When you believe you finally have a grasp on something, it all too often turns out you knew nothing at all. It's something I've had to learn through experience, and yet even knowing it, it still comes up to surprise me." He had no idea how true his own words would be in not that long of a time in the future. "However, your world has been changed in a way that possibly will rock the balance to the core, with the death of this dragon. I imagine you and your people will need to figure out a way to handle those changes because it sounds like more of them will be coming, and more quickly. Now that people know these dragons are capable of being killed, they will go after more of them with even greater ferver."

Charles, watching Aurus closely, could see the gears moving behind those elegant eyes. It was clear that the sylvari would have much to think about; perhaps he had returned the favor on an idea he would not be immediately able to let go of.

"For the time being, you're here, for better or worse. Maybe we'll be able to give you a way to work through this that your own world could not provide. You've..." his voice turned slightly dry, "already given me a great deal to think about myself."

[Here's to being ever hopeful! And yes! I love it--it's so right that he zero in on exactly this issue! (It makes me so curious to know how he'd react if he learned the Super Secret Spoiler about sylvari that Aurus doesn't know yet too.)]

Aurus was quiet for a moment, thinking before he spoke again. He would not deny the wisdom of what Charles had said, and now that he'd said it the issue seemed glaring, the double-bind unavoidable.

"I was not part of the battle again Zhaitan--what I know of it has come to me through the Dream. I have been away from Tyria for quite a long time. But I can say this: defeating the dragon required unprecedented cooperation, the formation of a Pact between ancient Orders, the skill of the world's greatest military minds. All the world's races stood together in that campaign. The Pact fleet--airships armed for war--now knows its power. I do not think that they will fragment or turn their course aside easily, not when Mordremoth attacks ever more boldly, striking in places presumed to be safe.

"But indeed I am here, and I will admit that even now I feel no urgent need to hurry back. Having absented myself from the events of my world these last four years--arguably longer given all the time I spent as nearly a hermit--I've grown to feel almost like an outsider. Now it is all, literally, a world away, but it already felt like that for a very long time before this."

He looked at Charles earnestly and admitted, "That probably makes me sound horribly callous and apathetic, I know. I don't mean for it to. I only mean that I feel that for now I ought to stay right where I am, whether it's to learn something that your world has to teach me or purely because of you. So long as I don't wear out my welcome, I'm afraid you might be stuck with me." The warm, familiar smile returned to his eyes as he said this--not flirting at the moment, but undeniably fond.

Edited 2016-10-13 19:18 (UTC)

[I never even heard of this game until you came to tag me. XD I would have no idea.]

The look registered with Charles and it was returned. Not quite the brightness of eye that had been there before, dulled by their earlier conversation, but something closer to it. It came with a small smile, then a shake of the head. Really, he didn't believe it of Aurus. It seemed more like this was a young man who simply had different goals, different focuses than the whole of his world. There were many out there to look into that picture, and while he wondered if Aurus wasn't the one who could bring a completely different look on the outcome if he was involved, he also knew not everyone could handle that pressure. Still, a tiny part of him disagreed even with that logic and suggested someone who could bring together the legends as Aurus did should be involved more than any other.

Maybe because he had been forced to make those sorts of decisions himself.

"You need to do as you feel you need to do. I only know a small part of your existence and the path you've been walking, so all I can say to that is that you are something special. Everything you've spoken to me about, the spirits of those who reside with you... it speaks volumes." He let that hang in the air between them for several moments before shifting things slightly. "Other than learning about volcanos, is there anything else you'd be curious in seeing in this world? I have to admit, I'd be curious to see more of your magic."

[I blame my partner completely--I'm like 100% not a gamer, but he has played from this franchise since GW1 and eventually he dragged me kicking and screaming into playing it. I always figured I'd hate any MMO, but once I tried it I got hooked. It was the lore that really grabbed me ~~that and all these talking cabbages~~.]

Charles' assessment of Aurus's difference was about as accurate as anyone could ever come. Aurus had always marched to the beat of a different drum. It was in his pith and his sap, and he didn't actually want it to change. Years ago, before he'd left the Grove, one of the Firstborn had tried to convince him to become a mender, given his already extensive knowledge and interest in drugs and their effects. For Aurus, the suggestion sounded about as appealing as stuffing cotton batting down his throat until he stifled himself.

Working alongside the right group of people he could (and would, whether he knew it right now or not) become a valuable asset. But whereas one of the Firstborn had now become the Pact's Marshall and leader, Aurus knew that the last place he belonged was in a similar role. It wasn't self-deprecation or humbleness that drove that assessment; it might almost have been the opposite.

That didn't mean for a moment that he disregarded Charles' words though--it was something quite significant, he felt, for the man to tell him these things aloud, to say to him that he considered him something special. What Aurus took from the remark wasn't a sense pride or flattery, but instead a focus on the on the honesty and intimacy it carried. "It pleases me that you think so," he smiled, not bothering to disguise the fact that what mattered to him most was less the praise than it was Charles himself.

And then, since Charles had asked to see more of his magic, Aurus decided to take the opportunity to show him some.

Stepping just to the side of the path, he knelt down and pressed a hand to the grass. He gestured towards Charles with a tilt of his head, encouraging him to come closer though it would be easy enough to see regardless: Aurus closed his eyes for a moment in light concentration, and things began to grow--wildflowers of yellow and white and blue, trillium, blue aster, birdfoot violet, all spreading in a tidy, obedient line edging the path. They were New York's flowers, native things to this soil, but for many this was not their time of year, and they'd not bloomed or been planted there regardless. It took only moments before the blooms were full.

Aurus selected the one that grew nearest his hand--a broad purple aster with a golden center--and plucked it. Turning to Charles, still on one knee, he presented the blossom to him with a slightly coy smile. For the moment, he was most definitely flirting with him, but a lighthearted, sweet flirting that was deliberately a bit corny. Hopefully Charles would take it well.

"There are a few things I'd like to see, yes."

[This weekend was absolutely beyond exhausting. I don't like getting up at 6:30 in the morning on a weekend day! It shouldn't be allowed. Still... worth it to get everything done. The MMO stuff, though?? *giggling* That's pretty awesome, though. It's obvious how cute you guys are! And man... lore makes or breaks an MMO. I've been playing FFXIV for almost two years now, and played FFXI for 6-7 years before that. The lore in these games is what keeps me... the story is so god damn good. Even when the gameplay is frustrating me, I want to find out what's the next part of the story soooooo badly. So basically, I feel you! (...now I want to badly play someone from FFXIV... this is your fault. XD) Is Aurus an NPC? The player-character? *so curious now*]

Charles' eyes were wide, watching with something that very much approached joy and went beyond. It was beautiful to watch, those elegant little flowers coming up along his path as neat and tidy as if he had asked for the gardeners to do so, yet entirely out of their season. He took the flower, feeling it real and delicate between his fingers as he spun it slowly between forefinger and thumb, a smile splitting his lips. Oh, he saw what Aurus was up to with his little bit of flirting, but his excitement (almost child-like, every time he found a new mutant) went beyond that.

"It's incredible," he whispered, his smile growing even more as he looked to Aurus. "If I didn't have your word for it, I would have said this was a mutant power at work. It's facinating. It's so similar, in some aspects, to who we are yet... yet I know it isn't the same."

That smile curled up into a smirk on one edge, his expression of happiness turning into a bit of sarcasm as he added, "however, you are a terrible flirt, Aurus." It turned back into a real smile, showing he was just playing, before he tucked the flower into his lapel. No wonder Raven used to roll her eyes at him - he had been no better in his youth. Youth. Sometimes, he felt vaguely old even though he knew that was a lie. He was still a young man, but those college days felt like a lifetime ago.

[Oh goodness--what had you up at 6:30am? I had a really early morning on Saturday because I took my students on a walking tour of central London, and I was sick (still am) which made the whole thing extra miserable. BUT you won't believe it: We saw Patrick Stewart!!! Like we walked around the corner at the back of the theatre where he and Sir Ian are in a production of No Man's Land and he was just there heading towards the stage door! I practically walked straight into him! I was so stunned. I still can't quite believe it happened lol. As for the MMO things, I've not played FFXIV but I have heard pretty good things about it, especially the character visuals. In GW2 the player character's canon story is ultimately the same for everyone--you play as the Pact Commander and there's only a slight degree of variation early on for members of different races. A few chapters in, all the stories converge. Of course for RP that gets dull and redundant, so my partner and I have written this web of other interconnecting stories for our lot of characters. All of which is to say that Aurus is an OC. We've basically got a guild of characters whose stories are parallel to, but less centre stage than, the canon player character. (And ultimately, of course, even when they try, they never succeed in shaping the overall course of world events the way the player character does.)]

Aurus didn't try to disguise for a moment the pleasure it brought him to see Charles smile that way. Of course he knew that the man was right--he was being a terrible flirt--but he didn't care, since his gift had been accepted. (Actually, in point of fact, Aurus was much less a flirt than he was a seducer. But in this case it was clear that the only route by which to approach the latter project was by taking up the posture of the former. And if Aurus hadn't been specifically intending to seduce Charles, that perspective had rather changed when he learned that the man hadn't had a lover in the past decade.)

He let the smile and affection in his eyes linger before giving a self-deprecating bow of his head: "Guilty as charged," he laughed lightly at himself, and then got to his feet again. "To be fair, what I've just shown you is something that all sylvari can do. The Grove as you will see it in the Dream tonight has been shaped by our race--its whole 'architecture' grown by the careful sculpting of plants and years of willing them to grow in deliberate forms, which was begun with the Firstborn. A good deal of the magic that I am most practiced with has its chief application in combat. And much of the rest is largely quotidian.

"There is one other thing I've been saving though. Something I'd like to show your students--and you as well--this afternoon. Hank had asked if I would like to introduce myself to them in some way, and I do think I know just the way to do it." He looked quite pleased with the prospect of this, though he didn't specify precisely what it was that he was planning, seeming to quite want to preserve the surprise.

"And, since you did ask," (and he'd not yet given a proper answer beyond his flirting), "I think I'd rather like to see an example of the sorts of things your people send back and forth instantaneously across the earth with these satellites of yours."

[Yard Sale of DOOM on Saturday, 5K race on Sunday. (I walked, didn't run.) @_@ SO tiring. Still, worth it in the end. WAIT YOU WHAT NOW!? You lucky dog!! That is so awesome! Did you say anything to him!? AHHHHHHHH. I would have geeked out, I admit it. You clearly give the BEST tours. FFXIV is absolutely beautiful, no doubt. This is my character from a few months ago - same everything but the armor. https://images.plurk.com/C5FGr9yKqckokyJ7Fi4qe.jpg I gathered that Aurus was most likely an OC, but this explained it a lot better. And sometimes... you just need to write things to make it work. XD The player character is often the least interesting of all the stories.]

For the briefest of moments, Charles allowed himself to extend his mind to Aurus', brushing across it as he read the 'flavour' of the other's words. It involved the children, and after a moment of combat, it was almost an unconscious test. His ultimate goal was the protection and growth of the children here, and he had to be certain they would safe from whatever this spectacle was that Aurus was planning. When he found no feeling of threat, it wasn't a complete relief - without touching the other's mind deeper, he knew that the real truth could be hidden - but Aurus had yet to show any signs of deceit.

So he smiled in response and nodded. "We can put out the word for students to gather together after classes have finished for the day. Am I safe to assume this will need to be somewhere out of doors, then?" Spoken with a briefly raised questioning eyebrow before he gestured. "We have a few places where everyone could gather safely if this demonstration is... expansive." Aka: Dangerous.

"I suppose I see magic in the way that have been written in our books. I don't know... flashy? Lights." He gestured with one hand in a 'magicy' way. "To see it seem so similar to our powers is quite the surprise, and I wonder about the implications of it. However, your appearance in this world was more like I might have imagined. As for the return of showings... I would be happy to. I think you will find television as incredible as I found this." Pointing towards the flowers.

[Congratulations on the 5k!! Whether walking or running that's still fab! And I hope that the yard sale went better this go round than the previous attempt! Re: Patrick Stewart, I didn't say a word to him because he was clearly trying to look inconspicuous--he was wearing a blue baseball cap and a big checkered flannel shirt and kind of keeping his head down...and he was also clearly about to get swarmed by a group of fans waiting at the stage door. Also, I was trying to be at least vaguely professional about the whole thing. But would you believe that my students didn't even know who he was?!! We went round a corner and I showed them a poster for the play to point him out on it. Your FFXIV character is lovely! Do you RP from the game at all? (I could tl;dr about our gaggle of GW2 losers forever, negl, but I shall spare you ~~at least for now~~.)]

"Actually, it could take place anywhere at all," Aurus said of the demonstration he was planning which, when Charles reached out to brush his mind, had one clear enough association in his thoughts--Ventari. "Though I imagine that outdoors will be most convenient."

He glanced at Charles and then added, as though he could guess that there might be a lingering caution, "It's nothing you need worry about. Actually, it's all completely intangible, while being quite spectacular to see at the same time. Really, I don't think you need trouble about organizing them or anything so formal. I suspect that, should you leave me outside for a time, their curiosity will draw them over for a look.

"I'm happy to speak with them. I'll tell them whatever they'd like to know of my world if they're feeling bold enough to ask." Though he wasn't really a teacher per se, Aurus did have a tacit notion of personal pedagogy: straightforward questions deserved to be answered. The answers might just be slightly iceberg-like--evidently clear and distinct on the surface, but with a huge breadth of meaning that would only be appreciated by those who paused long enough to consider everything that lay beneath.

"As for the flashiness of magic, I suppose that perhaps the sort used by mesmers in my world might comport better with what you would picture. Lots of purple butterflies."

What in the world 'television' was or what sort of spectacle that might be, Aurus could only imagine and wait to discover, and the curious cocking of his head made it clear that he was eager to get to see it.

[Thanks! the yard sale went GREAT! Made almost $200 and got rid of SO much stuff. My basement looks faboo now. I AM SEVERELY DISAPPOINTED IN YOUR STUDENTS. Who doesn't know who Patrick Stewart is?!?! That makes me hurt inside somehow. I would LOVE to RP from FFXIV, I just haven't actually done it yet. Trying to pick just the right person... I think I have an idea on who I would like to try, though. (And nothing wrong with that. :3)]

Interesting. What did Ventari have to do with this? Charles brught up a hand, rubbing his chin as he thought about it, before chuckling. "I hope you don't learn to regret those words, but that could work out well. If you're out in the common grounds without Hank or I around, the children are absolutely bound to approach you. The majority of them can be quite forward... they've learned here you can ask questions about powers and differences without being afraid, as long as you're polite. We try to stress that as much as possible, even if they are still children... it can slip."

Charles raised a brow slowly at Aurus at the 'purple butterflies' comment because really, purple butterflies? of all things?! He laughed a little at that before he started to turn, heading them back towards the entrance into the house. "Dare I even ask why butterflies, of all things? That.. might have been one of the last things I was expecting you to say." They could pop into one of the sitting rooms; it would most likely be empty at this point in the day, given that students most likely were in classes.

[Ahh that is great success on the yard sale! We must be a little forgiving of my students since they are almost all east Asian year abroad students. ~~They didn't know who Robin Hood was either.~~ Nonetheless I flailed at them a bit because ?!?!?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN I NEED TO EXPLAIN SIR PATRICK STEWART?!?! Anywho. Are you thinking you'll RP one of the NPCs or a character of your own? I don't know how crossing over between these two MMOs would be, but if it seems like a good match up and you ever want to try something out with one of my GW2 characters just say the word!]

"I trust that you will come and rescue me should I get in over my head," Aurus laughed about the potential swarm of student interest he might draw. He wasn't actually worried though: he was quite capable of drawing boundaries and of asserting himself with a firm look when he needed to. Besides, he was certain that no group of students accustomed to being taught by Charles and Hank could be that rude, even at their worst.

As for the butterflies, "Honestly I'm not sure. I think perhaps it could be any symmetrical shape, if someone bothered to try and shift it. Mesmers are best known for making illusionary clones of themselves, you see. The clones often aren't all that durable though. They tend to shatter apart into tiny pieces, and the pieces most often look like butterflies when they dissipate. I suppose the whole effect could just be a trick of the eyes--a suggestion of wings or some such. But it is definitely purple."

Aurus followed Charles back inside and into the sitting room where he led them, feeling pleased with how the mood had lightened once more and relaxed. It had been such a long time since he'd had company that was alive and physically present and charmingly engaging to talk to. The companionship of echoes left by legendary heroes, though he valued it, was never like being around a living person, and Aurus almost hadn't noticed how he'd grown to miss this kind of social intercourse before now. It was illuminating. And it made him wonder whether it was now time to do something other in life than continue his wanderings.

[They are only minor-forgiven. It is a crime to not know the lovely Sir Patrick Stewart. XD I might give it a shot, RP wise, for one of the NPCs. I actually don't find the player characters very interesting. We're somehow very ridiculously powerful but yet we just seem to stand by and do nothing. Also trying to remember how television was broadcasted 30 years ago, not so easy!]

"Will the great warrior possibly need rescuing from the hoard of children?" Charles teased gently, chuckling himself. It was obvious Aurus could handle himself just fine, and he knew the children would behave themselves despite their curiosity. Most likely, though, Aurus might find himself overwhelmed by their matching desire to show off their own abilities to him, given how much they showed off to each other when they had the chance and 'outside' company could be very rare.

"There's just something very amusing about the idea of something breaking apart into little purple butterflies, though I'm not sure why. Just unexpected, I suppose, but then again I'm not quite sure what I would have imagined it being instead. Sparks, maybe?" He was pleased to find that the sitting room was indeed empty as he hoped, and he gestured for Aurus to shut the door behind he wheeled over to the telly. Aurus was right and their conversation from before still lingered at the back of his mind, something he would need to tackle, but for the moment he had it pushed back there on purpose.

"This," said with a pat to the large box, "is a television. Like the photograph you saw in my office, it is made up of millions of photographs in sequential order to make a moving photograph captured on film. The film is broadcasted by..." He thought how to explain something so complicated in a few sentences. "It breaks up each photograph, not physically, and sends it to one of those large white dishes, where it is sent to homes through wiring infrastructure. We receive it here." Another quick pat, watching Aurus to make sure the other had some idea before he reached down and flipped it on.

[I told some of my colleagues at work about my Sir Patrick encounter and found out that they had seen him in the West End once too, at a restaurant where he was sitting at the next table! They said he was there doing this performance of "an ordinary person" clearly trying not to be noticed and I realized that's the perfect description for what he was doing when I saw him too. He was performing a working class British man on his way to/from a job. It was like his "cover." (They also told me that at their joint performance of Waiting for Godot a few years back, Sir Ian had stepped outside during the interval with a cup of tea...and someone walked by and took him for an actual homeless man begging and dropped a coin in his tea cup! /dies) Also, 1980s era TV--ahh, those were the days...when the cable box had two rows of buttons and luxury was having 36 channels.]

"I won't deny the possibility," Aurus joked back, also knowing that he'd be fine with the children but wanting to encourage the idea that Charles ought to turn up to "rescue" (really just to join) him.

As to mesmer magic, he would have liked to show Charles some, but these were not skills that he personally had. Perhaps, he thought, within the Dream they might chance to see someone working them. Of course he didn't want to promise, but as he pulled the door closed and the conversation turned towards the topic of television, mesmers and their ways temporarily fell by the wayside anyway.

Head cocked at an angle as he approached the box that Charles was indicating, Aurus tried to parse the explanation as best he could. Honestly though, he was quite out of his depths. This "broadcasting," he thought, sounded vaguely like projecting--the sort of thing one saw with holograms where an asura (it was almost invariably an asura) had recorded themselves into some kind of a device for later play-back (usually to warn that lab security measures had been triggered and the self-destruct sequence activated). At the same time, though, it sounded like something completely different, and Aurus might have said so had Charles not turned on the television just then.

Whatever the sylvari had been expecting, it wasn't at all what he saw. It wasn't a box that held a perfect miniaturized world, with multiple people moving and speaking, both them and their surroundings in full detail and accurate color. If Charles had been wanting to surprise him, then he had certainly succeeded: for a long moment Aurus was actually speechless, staring open-mouthed at the box and its moving pictures. He couldn't even decide what question he wanted to ask.

In part, he realized, it was because he couldn't understand how anyone (or anything) could draw fast enough and with such minute precision that they could produce millions of images to be shown in sequential order in the first place. Especially considering that the pictures the television showed didn't seem to quickly loop back on themselves and repeat the same sequence over again.

As he'd watched, he'd moved closer so that he was now standing just beside Charles, leaning down to see the television more clearly (and then discovering that actually that didn't help at all and pulling back again).

Finally, after thoroughly exhausting his ability to sort the whole question out for himself, he looked back at Charles, jaw still hanging open and managed: "Perhaps it would help if I understood photography a bit better--am I to believe that someone somewhere has drawn all of this, like a flip book?"

[That's actually both sad and adorable. I imagine they just want to be unnoticed sometimes when your life is constantly being filmed/photographed, but you also don't want to disappoint fans... I can't even imagine having to deal with it. Also that tea-cup bit made me giggle. That's sort of even more adorable somehow. I also remember being my family's remote when I was very, very young!]

Getting to actually surprise Aurus to that level was almost childishly gleeful for Charles. He had a grin wide on his face, sitting back and just enjoying getting to watch the range of emotions that crossed the sylvari's face knowing full and well that had been his expression at least once since Aurus' arrival, more than likely multiple times. So he let the other try to figure it out for himself, first, and waited for the inevitable question before he puzzled out on how to explain.

So, carefully, he explained what he could of photography. Chemicals and light affecting the chemically treated film, creating a negative, the creation of the positive, and that television was the same thing simply much faster, recording things that could be broken up and sent as transmissions instead of physically. Very complicated stuff, no doubt, but while they had the time, he would go slow and answer questions as he had the knowledge of it. He was a bright man but certainly didn't know everything about photography and broadcasting, after all.

"In the end, it all has to do with light and electricity, which perhaps is about as foreign to you as your magic is to me."

[My inner Brit weeps about the loss of a good cup of tea. I've clearly lived in this country too long lol. I can only imagine the frustration of being constantly recognized and approached though. This is one reason why I don't do the whole flailing fan thing.]

Aurus listened carefully, closely, pulling up a chair at some point so that he could sit beside Charles and give him his full attention. He watched the man's face while he talked, letting the television and all other distractions filter out into the background. Elbow resting on the arm of his chair, he leaned towards Charles as he spoke, letting the whole of context of the world shrink down to encapsulate just the two of them. It let Charles watch the play of expressions clearly on his face, of course, but it let him watch too and appreciate the enjoyment he saw in his companion's eyes.

"I couldn't explain what has been done with electricity in my world, nor the mechanisms by which golems operate though there's certainly some sort of energy that powers them. I know, though, that no one has ever used it to create a device like this. They've never used magic to make something like it either.

"What amazes me is not that it works--these chemicals and film and the processes you describe, nor even that photographs could be made to 'move' and 'talk' this way. What truly amazes me is that no one in my world ever thought to do it. I wonder if perhaps we never saw the need or if there's some more profound difference that I don't understand yet.

"The pictures that the television shows--they're of things that are really happening somewhere else in your world? They let people know about events from far away? Or is it only events that have taken place in the past and been photographed--filmed--sometime before?"

[YOU HAVE ADAPTED. YOU WILL NEVER BE FREE AGAIN! It is in your BLOOD. Your very soul! ...or something like that. XD]

"That... is what I find most fascinating about humanity. That constant striving to survive, that constant need to keep learning and inventing, the ability to outdo ourselves with greater and greater attempts at becoming master of a cosmos in which we are not only such a small part of but very much at the tail end of strength against other than our minds. It's taken us off of our planet and onto the moon and people wish to go beyond, yet we have yet to safely explore the whole of our oceans or the depths of our jungles." He smiled almost whimsically at those last thoughts, then faintly shook his head to clear it.

"As far as where they are happening... I would hope to believe you have some form of theater? Traveling shows? Television contains a mix of things happening around the world, even right now they could be happening and shown mere moments later at this set... as well as things filmed previously. Shows can be created much like a theater performance and recorded to be shown at a later time, whenever it would like to be viewed."

He was not blind to how close Aurus had placed himself, yet perhaps there was a tiny part of him that despite his earlier words, the verbal pushing away he had immediately done, still thrived on the old favorite game of flirting and charming.

[Englishness starts in small ways, see. First the tea. Then, before you know it, you're telling people things like "it's not the winning or the showing up; it's the crushing sense of despair" and talking about the weather with everyone you meet. XD]

"We do have plays, yes, and street performers, musicians, circuses, menageries. And the norn have their skaalds--storytellers and bards who sing the legends of their people. There is even an asura who has invented his own entertainment 'box.' It's completely unlike your television though. It transports a person into a game inside of it--a sort of physical puzzle and adventure track that they have to try and beat. But all of these are things to which one must go. None are broadcast to lands afar."

Aurus thought about what Charles had said of inventing and mastery, and how different the great works of humanity seemed in this world and in his own. By comparison, the humanity he knew seemed much more modest, its horizons less ambitious. But he was easily willing to pick up on Charles' momentary whimsy and laugh a little at these differences. "I can tell you with confidence that no one from my world has ever been to our moon! I suppose you're going to say that someone figured they'd just pop by for a visit there since they were up in the neighborhood anyway putting your satellites into the sky."

He joked like he thought Charles was teasing him still, but he didn't really think that now. He could believe all of these things were indeed true and possible for this world. Extending the posture of the faux teasing, however, was too good a flirtation tactic to simply let go.

For a moment, Aurus let that flirtation blossom in a pause of quiet, his gaze focused on Charles letting a heat build that echoed the earlier moments when he'd begun to let his interest in the man become visible in his eyes. But he didn't push it too far, didn't try to press them into territory that edged from playful to serious, and instead presently indicated the television again: "So tell me about this show then. And about all these--" he was pointing at the vehicles on screen though he obviously didn't know quite what to call them. "They seem to be very popular."

[You are infected. /snicker (to be fair, pennsylvanians do the weather thing constantly too as ours goes up and down and up and down way too much.)]

"Someone dreamed about going to the moon, that we could reach it, and thus, it became a goal, and one day, a reality. That's how we've managed things like television and radio and computers, I suppose." He looked around the room briefly, the corner of his mouth lifting. "Same with this school." One day, he had realized what he wanted... and it became reality, even if that reality had nearly broken apart completely in the face of life.

It would be Charles that broke that gaze first, fingers briefly clenching on the arm of his chair before he tried to relax it again. A part of him spasmed, clenched up, tore apart as Aurus' little notions reminded him of a past where pain still lingered in an open wound. Moira... he could have seen things going much further with her. A beautiful woman with a quick wit, a strong mind, and someone he believed understood him... but someone he could no longer stand to hurt as he had with his choices. Still, it was growing slowly and slowly less and less painful the more Aurus pushed against it.

The change of topic was welcomed, and quietly, he started to answer those requests. Cars and trucks and a little beyond that. A bit of the world, countries, where they were in relation to it all. He didn't go into too many details, but he hoped... enough. However, he would turn it on Aurus, asking about how they would travel. Could they fly? Horses? Did everyone use these teleportation methods Aurus had talked about earlier.

[Brits don't have nearly the talking-about-the-weather monopoly that they like to think they do lol. We're going down to spend the rest of this week in my partner's hometown in Devon. (Predictable weather remarks about English seaside towns in late October go here.) We should have internet at our holiday flat though, so I expect I'll still be tagging as usual. Also, waypoints = one of the biggest sources of argument for GW2 RPers--no one can agree how best to deal with them, but neither can they ignore them because they factor directly into the story of the game.]

"It's a lucky person who can draw a clear line between having a dream and seeing the reality come to pass," Aurus smiled. "There are many who lack the means, whatever their dreams may be, and I suspect that must be true in your world as well as mine." He was thinking here of Hakkyuu who grew up alone and on the streets, and of the best friend he'd been told the boy left behind in Ebonhawke when the city cast him out in fear; and he was thinking, by contrast, of Trahearne, one of the Firstborn whose Wyld Hunt had called him to cleanse the corruption from the land of Orr, a task which for decades seemed purely impossible.

He did not dwell on this point though, nor did he dwell on the momentary whiteness in Charles' knuckles. The way Aurus saw it, all the flirtation was all a bit like stretching a limb: you had to back off before it reached the point of strain, but if you backed off too far, it would never get more limber.

Besides, it was perfectly clear that if Charles would just let go of his resistance, he would actually be quite good at the game of it. The kind of good a person only got from having had a lot of practice. That rather made Aurus wonder what Charles had been like in the past, before his injury. (Of course it still wasn't really occurring to him to wonder much whether gender was any factor in the whole equation--given their species difference, the fact that they were the same sex seemed to him possibly the most minor point of consideration.)

For the moment, though, they could talk about modes of transportation. Aurus could even manage to flirt while talking about modes of transportation if he set his mind to it, since flirting was as much about delivery as about topic. He told Charles that horses, while not unknown, had not been seen in Tyria for many centuries, though no one could say why. They had oxen and dolyaks--massive, shaggy bests of burden--and most local transportation was simply by foot or in wagons.

They did have means of flying though: airships, primarily. The Pact had a whole fleet of them, and they were huge and mighty...but not terribly fast. "And, though I have teased you about people living up in your sky, we do have some who live in ours: the Zephyrites, stewards of the heritage of Glint, have a whole culture based on their own airship fleet which rarely lands at all."

As for the asura gates, some people found them prohibitively expensive, especially for moving goods or cargo, and waypoints were even more specialist: they could never take you anywhere you hadn't already been and were almost exclusively used by adventurous sorts and explorers.

"We do have vehicles that are more like your cars and trucks though. They are made by charr, of whom I've told you little so far. They are the greatest engineers of our world, but the machines they build are machines of war--tanks, helicopters, armored charrcars. They've been at war with humans for centuries, and its only within the past few years that a truce has finally been struck. They're a massive, horned feline race--like a cross between a war-cat and a minotaur. So perhaps you can imagine how unlikely they'd be to produce vehicles so brightly colored or shiny," a nod towards the TV here and the cars on the screen. "Or, I think, with so much glass."

[Eh, don't worry about it! FFXIV has all sorts of crazy that would be really difficult to explain IC sometimes - even when there IS an IC explanation! Also yesterday was... insanity. Something was wrong with the heater, so I had to call a guy out... turned out two of our radiators were freaking out and the boiler was dry. @_@ The piece that tells the water regulator to give the boiler more water is dead. So they got it working but now they have to come repair this damn piece. Blarg.]

Species seemed the less odd thing in the face of simply being. It was not easy for Charles to admit to himself what he had felt for Erik, in particular given the climate of this world as it currently stood in this day and age, and he would not have to anyone else. Not Aurus, not Hank, not Erik himself. That had been... too personal. Yet in this case, even gender seemed a far removed step in the face of species, and those both paled in the shadow of Charles' issues. Yet step by step, Aurus was slowly working his way into those places Charles had closed off to prevent further hurt, coaxing the professor out of that shadow even as Charles pulled himself back in.

"We have airplanes - not quite like your airships, but similar in certain principles - but no one would wish to live in them as a culture. Sadly, we have those machines of war as well. I'm glad to hear some form of peace is starting to occur with these charr, even if it is a very slow to spread peace. If someone other than the charr learn to produce these vehicles, I imagine that they would begin to make vehicles that look so very different as well. For ours, the glass is required to allow the driver to be able to safely see all around him, but if you see military vehicles, they're quite different. Much less glass, if any." Images from shots of war on the telly came to mind, things he had never seen in person but knew in that general sense.

"And what about you, Aurus? You've seen so much, traveled through these Mists... what is the greatest thing you've seen so far?" A vague little gesture. "In anything. Technology, culture, magic... what would you call the greatest?" He couldn't help but be curious, wanting to hear more about Aurus' travels. Who wouldn't want to hear about the things the traveler of another world had seen?

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The real answer about purple butterflies: bcuz game design. Ahem.

Lawl

I don't have an icon that looks nearly gobsmacked enough for this tag.

/just laughing

They're adorable. I have no words.

Re: They're adorable. I have no words.

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