deercountry | 15 . JOHNUARY

[ Very little of that meant anything to John. He decides to cherrypick interesting terms and see how long he can get away with sidetracking them; experience suggests not long, but there's a spark of genuine interest underlying his urge to push the line. ]

Got it. I'll walk you back a bit. Can I get definitions for 'aether' and 'voidsent'?

... Right, right. Aether is the substance that makes up my world - you can channel it to wield various magicks and abilities. It's elementally aligned as well, unlike 'atoms' which other people seem to have their worlds made of.

[It's weird as hells to him.]

Voidsent are creatures from the void, a world covered in darkness. ... The elemental kind, not just that it's dark. Though it's true there's no sun there anymore. People twisted into monsters after their world fell. Often times people from my world will summon them for pacts of power. They're somewhat like the 'demons' I've read about in some books from Earth.

[ John is drawing parallels. He's very helpfully not sidetracking them into whether or not catboys are still made of atoms. ]

I think I follow. You say 'elementally aligned' - we're talking earth, wind, and fire?

[ He does not unpack people twisted into monsters after their world fell, but he's making a private note. ]

[They are and aren't. Possibly.]

Earth, wind, fire, ice, water, and lightning in particular, yes. There's also Light and Dark, though they aren't 'good' and 'evil' as some people might initially think.

Well, at least there's that.

[ It's at this point that John's chair gives him a light jolt, which he shows only in a suddenly unhappy twist of the mouth. He sits forward some, feeling watched. ]

It's not quite as big a playing field, where I'm from. All we have is necromancy: your elements are life, death, and spirit.

But, like I said, not a lot of schools for that. Not back then, anyway. We have some solid ones now.

Necromancers tend to be in pacts with voidsent where I'm from - and those have a terrible hunger for the aether of living beings. So they tend to be bad for everyone around.

'Back then'? - Ah, when you were younger. The omni did mention you were quite old.

[Not that he has a problem with that. He's met some people who are even older.]

I'd imagine these schools try to curb the dangers involved? The thaumaturge's guild did that.

[He jerks a little from the zap.]

... Most of the time. They tried to be responsible with setting things on fire and such.

Voidsent. That's quite a name. [ Big bad things from down below, that reach for the living - this does have his attention. ] And, hey: I think I look pretty good, for ten thousand.

[ He catches the jolt to Nara'a, and his eyes darken in consideration. Quite calmly, he says: ]

Our risks aren't the 'summoning demons' kind.

[ Well, that confirms a theory; they zap him for that one, and John sets his jaw in a humorless smile. ]

Most of the time.

No, you do. Some people - such as yourself - age quite gracefully.

[He's known older and also found them attractive, it's fine.]

I see. There was a place near where I grew up that had a reputation for having a thin barrier between here and the Void. I grew up seeing some of the results of those... experiments.

What are the 'usual' risks, then?

[ You know? He'll take the flattery. John spreads his hands in played-up humility, but it does take some of the hardness out out of his expression. ]

Oh, you know. Throw a novice necromancer at a living subject and you can get all kinds of things going wrong... just the mundane stuff, though. They overdo it on cell growth and swell something up, kick off a cascade and necrotize tissue they didn't mean to kill, fiddle with one bit of the body and never realize how it'll wreck something else down the line... humans are fragile, you know?

Or they start inviting hungry ghosts into places you really shouldn't put them, but that's not hard to sort out, at the end of the day. The body knows what shape it wants to be in, and ghosts only have so many footholds among the living.

[... Ah. His lips press together in a line as he tries to get over his distaste, but it's brief before he moves on.]

People definitely are. And I've seen places infested with soulkin - a larger word for ghosts and things like that in my world - and they're not pretty. None inside of a person, as far as I'm aware.

But there are many types of monsters in my world... that may exist somewhere. I've seen possession, but it's more of the... memory of the person, usually inside crystal.

Soulkin, huh? Snappier than 'entities composed of spirit magic,' which is what I think our textbooks are going for, these days.

[ He politely pretends not to notice the distaste, but does not politely stop talking about dead things. You can only get necromancers so far off their craft. Everyone knows it. ]

You could bind a soul to crystal, where I come from, but it'd be a rough deal for the soul. Not much to do when you have crystal for a body, is there? Not when you're used to eyes and ears and hands. It's why I'm so interested in the squid thing, here in town... it's like we take the shape we expect to keep. The memory of the person, inside a squid.

Not really, no. I've seen someone be possessed by the memory of someone else... I haven't had that happen to me, though.

[That was a very weird case with a very weird Black Mage. Thankfully it seems to be resolved these days, but oof.]

Well, where I'm from memory is also made of aether. It's not inconceivable that it could have a powerful effect on the body, if the squid bodies are naturally unstable.

[ He tips his head in thought and easy acknowledgment, at that. ]

I'd be interested to hear the nitty-gritty of how aether works, or is thought to work, one of these days... If you're interested in talking.

[ He splays his hands like appeasement, like no pressure. Both of them are aware of why half of town wouldn't be thrilled to work with him. ]

I'm getting back into the research game. No natural disasters on the agenda.

I wouldn't mind sharing. Most of what I know is common knowledge. It's the particulars of how the star - the planet is that is less well-known. It was shattered at one point... but that's a long story.

[Oh, he's aware. He's wary of John, but not afraid. Sure, maybe the other could kill him if he wanted to, but Nara'a's survived worse people than Jod. At least as far as he's aware - he really doesn't know the full story and he knows it.]

Research is always worth it, in my opinion. I did my own when I was young - managed to burn my eyebrows clean off in the process.

[He chuckles and waggles his eyebrows.]

And good. It's a pain to swim in an ocean that's pitching a fit, ability to breathe underwater or no.

[ The planet was shattered is the kind of thing to catch his attention and keep it: John looks openly baffled, and interested with it. Still, he drops his hands and quirks a wry smile in answer to that laugh. ]

Sounds like a plan. You don't want to hear about the necromantic equivalent of burned eyebrows.

Probably not. I'm no chirurgeon, but it's got to involve body fluids. I'm guessing, at least.

[No! Thank! You!]

Edited 2023-04-01 23:42 (UTC)

15 . JOHNUARY

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