Well, that was... something. Rita could only hope the rest of her new contacts would be more informative and less crazy-sounding than Rose had been. That didn't necessarily mean Rose was lying, but it did leave Rita with no coherent or applicable information.
Her next appointment was with a man called... Lingormr? She wasn't sure how to pronounce that, and she wasn't sure what he looked like, either.
She was already in the Sun Room, so all she needed to do was dispose of her emptied lunch bag and move to somewhere conspicuous, so the stranger could easily find her. Since the bulletin had worked well for that purpose last shift, she made her way there, finding a dark-haired man waiting in front of the board. Could that be...?
Briefly, she made eye contact with him. If he didn't react to her appearance, she'd simply move on.
The first other person in the room fit the description Rita had given to herself, and she had pointedly looked at him, so that seemed good enough. He approached, notebook tucked under one arm. "Rita? I am Lingormr." For good measure, he added a polite bow. "Please, where would you like to sit?"
Good. Not only was he the man Rita was looking for, but he went ahead and said his name for her so she wouldn't have to fumble with the pronunciation. She nodded to confirm when he addressed her by name, then looked over her shoulder, locating the pair of armchairs where she had her conversation with Rose. Though there was no such thing as real privacy in the institute, they at least weren't too conspicuous.
"Let's go over there," she suggested, gesturing to the location. From the way he bowed, and how he tried to address her as 'Lady' Mordio earlier, Rita had to wonder if he might be a knight or a noble. There weren't many other kinds of people who acted like that, from Rita's experience.
Eager to get started, Rita led the way over to the chairs, sat down in one, and immediately got to business. "To start, why don't we share our backgrounds in magic? You said something about research." It was a word choice that sounded promising to Rita, though she knew she shouldn't get her hopes up too much.
"Of course." Loki followed Rita to the arm chair and sat, lounging comfortably. He opened his notebook and balanced it on the arm of the chair.
He nodded. "I am a... scholar originally. My primary interest is in maths, sciences, and the arcane arts, and I have traveled widely across the kingdoms and jarldoms available to me in pursuit of texts, scholars, and practitioners."
Idly, he sketched a curling symbol on the corner of the page. "I have found that all three disciplines overlap into a unified field when you delve into them deeply enough. So any talk of theory will involve a discussion of the various types of the fields and the means by which they are manipulated. You will have to let me know how mathematical as opposed to conceptual you wish the discussion to be." He smiled. "And of yourself, Rita?"
Rita never thought she'd be happy to meet another scholar in her field, considering she lived in a city full of them and found most of them hard to tolerate, but her heart made a little jump when she heard him make reference to science and mathematics. Being surrounded by the bizarre and irrational had left her starved for logic
( ... )
The moment Rita spoke of theory, Loki sat up a bit straighter. "Employed as a researcher. Such a profession... sounds almost beyond belief. I come from a society of warriors, where strength is far valued over scholarship. I do not often get to associate with other scholars."
He grinned. "Of course, that sounds like a good plan. My main areas of interest within the general field are the bending of light and space, though I have investigated extensively into manipulating matter in its various forms, particularly the biological." The pen tapped a little rhythm against the page. "I have much less experience with purely offensive magics. If you'll forgive me saying, it's always been a little too flash and bang for my tastes, but I'm curious to know what theory you apply."
Rita knew what it was like to live with no one to fully relate to, though in her case, it certainly wasn't due to a lack of scholars. She couldn't begin to imagine living in a society where magic was overlooked and devalued like that
( ... )
As Rita said the words blastia and aer, Loki wrote them in his notebook idly in runes, then added a few notations. "Interesting," he said. "So any human can use magic so long as they have one of these blastia?" After a moment he sketched a few more symbols.
"I find the concept odd, because for us the talent for magic is an inborn thing that one either has or has not. Though I think many who might have the talent choose to squander their time on other pursuits, since the study required to master the arts is rather arduous and dangerous besides."
He looked into the distance, considering the idea. "How common are these blastia, out of curiosity? Are they the sort of things one can buy in a shop, or is there a certain amount of... questing involved?"
Rita nodded at Lingormr's comment. "That, and an understanding of magic formulas, which can take years of study." Which put Rita's society in a similar position to his; most people just didn't feel like making the effort to study.
But magic as an inborn talent... This wasn't the first time Rita had heard of that. "That sounds a bit like heraldry. I've been told it's a type of magic that you're either born able to use, or you're not." Fortunately, it appeared that Terca Lumiresians were in the 'able' boat.
As for his questions about blastia... "Most of the blastia we have were excavated from a previous civilization. We can't produce new ones, which makes them extremely valuable. In the past year, I was able to find out where they come from, but..." She shook her head. "The required materials are produced in the bodies of Entelexia, a species of aer-consuming beings. On top of the ethical problems with making blastia, there are only two Entelexia left in the world. Despite how much we rely on it now, there isn't much of a future for
"Heraldry," Loki repeated. He was familiar with that as the art of looking at family crests and understanding their construction, and he doubted it was the same, since there was nothing magical about that sort of knowledge. "I'm not familiar with that particular art. Is that the other form that your society practices?"
A few more notes were added to the runes he'd already sketched, and Loki nodded as if that all made a lot more sense - and it did. Names were powerful things, if one knew the right way to look at them. "There is always a price. That one sounds particularly dreadful, if it requires a life in order to operate." He shook his head. "So I assume you are working actively at a second method?"
"No," Rita replied promptly to the question about heraldry, "It's from a planet called Expel. I learned about it here, from another patient, but it looks like he's gone now." She could have gone into greater detail, but that wasn't the focus of their discussion at the moment
( ... )
"Expel," Loki murmured. He didn't know of that particular realm, but there were many possibilities there. It might not even be reachable by the bifrost, for example. He knew there were more places than the Aesir used the bifrost to go
( ... )
"If you like, I could write a summary for you," Rita offered. Though she wasn't particularly good at expressing herself in a positive way, she was delighted to meet someone interested in her work - and who might actually understand and appreciate the finer details of it
( ... )
"I would appreciate it greatly," Loki said, with an eager smile. "Please, when you have time. I'll await it with much anticipation."
Loki then nodded. "And I can only imagine so. Inventing an entirely new sort of magic... the implications are rather astounding. I suppose caution is to be advised." It was a sort of caution that he personally found impossible to exercise.
He considered for a moment, what he ought to say as opposed to what he could say. With the identity that he'd been trying to establish for himself, he probably already seemed far too knowledgeable about the sciences, though hopefully that would be excused with the same sort of hand waving that went into the explanation of aliens. And when it came to discussing theory with someone of similar mind and the knowledge to appreciate his work, he didn't want to be cautious
( ... )
Rita watched Lingormr attentively as he began his explanation, her notebook open with a pen hovering over it. His account started out normal enough, but at the mention of breaking physical laws, it quickly became clear that what he was describing was unlike any magic system Rita knew of. Immediately, a number of questions formed in her mind, but she managed to stay quiet as he continued, jotting down the occasional note for herself
( ... )
Loki nodded, eyes bright. "The more closely two things are related, the easier it is to do such a thing. But the limits are dictated entirely by the strength of will and the magical resources of the practitioner. So most would not be able to do more perhaps than change the arrangement of atoms... altering a thing's shape. Or perhaps transmute one substance to another if they are similar enough, such as gold and mercury." It was only the difference of a single proton, after all
( ... )
Her next appointment was with a man called... Lingormr? She wasn't sure how to pronounce that, and she wasn't sure what he looked like, either.
She was already in the Sun Room, so all she needed to do was dispose of her emptied lunch bag and move to somewhere conspicuous, so the stranger could easily find her. Since the bulletin had worked well for that purpose last shift, she made her way there, finding a dark-haired man waiting in front of the board. Could that be...?
Briefly, she made eye contact with him. If he didn't react to her appearance, she'd simply move on.
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"Let's go over there," she suggested, gesturing to the location. From the way he bowed, and how he tried to address her as 'Lady' Mordio earlier, Rita had to wonder if he might be a knight or a noble. There weren't many other kinds of people who acted like that, from Rita's experience.
Eager to get started, Rita led the way over to the chairs, sat down in one, and immediately got to business. "To start, why don't we share our backgrounds in magic? You said something about research." It was a word choice that sounded promising to Rita, though she knew she shouldn't get her hopes up too much.
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He nodded. "I am a... scholar originally. My primary interest is in maths, sciences, and the arcane arts, and I have traveled widely across the kingdoms and jarldoms available to me in pursuit of texts, scholars, and practitioners."
Idly, he sketched a curling symbol on the corner of the page. "I have found that all three disciplines overlap into a unified field when you delve into them deeply enough. So any talk of theory will involve a discussion of the various types of the fields and the means by which they are manipulated. You will have to let me know how mathematical as opposed to conceptual you wish the discussion to be." He smiled. "And of yourself, Rita?"
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He grinned. "Of course, that sounds like a good plan. My main areas of interest within the general field are the bending of light and space, though I have investigated extensively into manipulating matter in its various forms, particularly the biological." The pen tapped a little rhythm against the page. "I have much less experience with purely offensive magics. If you'll forgive me saying, it's always been a little too flash and bang for my tastes, but I'm curious to know what theory you apply."
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"I find the concept odd, because for us the talent for magic is an inborn thing that one either has or has not. Though I think many who might have the talent choose to squander their time on other pursuits, since the study required to master the arts is rather arduous and dangerous besides."
He looked into the distance, considering the idea. "How common are these blastia, out of curiosity? Are they the sort of things one can buy in a shop, or is there a certain amount of... questing involved?"
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But magic as an inborn talent... This wasn't the first time Rita had heard of that. "That sounds a bit like heraldry. I've been told it's a type of magic that you're either born able to use, or you're not." Fortunately, it appeared that Terca Lumiresians were in the 'able' boat.
As for his questions about blastia... "Most of the blastia we have were excavated from a previous civilization. We can't produce new ones, which makes them extremely valuable. In the past year, I was able to find out where they come from, but..." She shook her head. "The required materials are produced in the bodies of Entelexia, a species of aer-consuming beings. On top of the ethical problems with making blastia, there are only two Entelexia left in the world. Despite how much we rely on it now, there isn't much of a future for
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A few more notes were added to the runes he'd already sketched, and Loki nodded as if that all made a lot more sense - and it did. Names were powerful things, if one knew the right way to look at them. "There is always a price. That one sounds particularly dreadful, if it requires a life in order to operate." He shook his head. "So I assume you are working actively at a second method?"
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Loki then nodded. "And I can only imagine so. Inventing an entirely new sort of magic... the implications are rather astounding. I suppose caution is to be advised." It was a sort of caution that he personally found impossible to exercise.
He considered for a moment, what he ought to say as opposed to what he could say. With the identity that he'd been trying to establish for himself, he probably already seemed far too knowledgeable about the sciences, though hopefully that would be excused with the same sort of hand waving that went into the explanation of aliens. And when it came to discussing theory with someone of similar mind and the knowledge to appreciate his work, he didn't want to be cautious ( ... )
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