Video: Late Wednesday

[oreskahouse]

[The video turns on to a very bedraggled, dusty Thero with a torn tunic and several nasty bruises, scowling and pressing buttons with an expression that makes it clear he might as well be poking a dead rat for all he approves of this little device. Eventually, he decides to accept that it's working. His expression lightens some, all the way to formality with an overlay of confusion.]

Third damn time... Ahem. This is L- This is Thero i Procepios. Most of you don't know me, but I've been given to understand this is an open-ended means of communication. As well as a monitored one, so I'll be brief. In the wake of the sky practically falling in the moment I... arrived and my lack of a stomach for battles, I've met very few of you, and I wouldn't blame anyone for distrusting me. However, when it comes to recovery, I may be able to make myself useful. I've been hesitant to explore even now that things seem to be quiet. I'm unfamiliar with this kind of combat and I suspect I'd only get in the way or get myself killed if things were to resurge, but if someone can direct me, I'm entirely willing to venture out again. I have some basic training as a healer, but I'd be best suited to removal of rubble or even assisting with reconstruction. And, frankly, if anything specific, especially anything odd, needs doing, there's every likelihood I could find a way to assist.

[Is that a good way to suggest magical help without outright saying it? He's never had to try that before. Close enough. For another minute he struggles with the device, scowling, until it finally shuts off.]

Comments

[femshep]

'This kind of combat'. I have to ask: What kind of combat are you familiar in?

[Because too much of the fresh meat lately's been damn near useless, so she's trying to take stock of who they've got.]

[oreskahouse]

[Some more fussing to try and make the camera work. Less this time, though.]

As a rule, it involved arrows, swords, the odd necromantic summoning. It's not thoroughly dumbfounding to me to see a building collapse all at once in flames. I could probably do that myself if I were desperate enough.

[No, he's not very good at being sneaky.]

Not that I'm a seasoned soldier. I've been caught in far more ambushes and standoffs than I've seen real battles. But I'm engaged to the Commander of the Queen's Horse Guard. I have some context and this... This is not it.

[femshep]

[So she's talking to an honest-to-god fairy-tale.

Well... shit. That's new.]

I put up a filter. Now it's not quite so public.

So let's start from the beginning: What's the highest level of technology your world had?

[oreskahouse]

[He scowls again, though he's mostly annoyed with himself.]

What's the highest level of technology in yours? Do you generally keep a hierarchy in your head? The only thing I can see to list is things that work by means other than magic and that I didn't understand as a child. Ship navigation tools, I suppose? Telescopes? Once in a while you'll see rich children's toys with a few gears inside, like a mill wheel writ small.

[Sigh.]

[femshep]

Mass effect relays that let you cover thousands of lightyears of space in the blink of an eye. [She's not sure if his question was a legitimate one, but she's answering in case it was.

Point being: They're working from entirely different homeworld-contexts here.

Let's try something new.]

Are you familiar with guns?

[oreskahouse]

[None of those words made sense. The last one included. Much as he hates to betray ignorance...]

No. And, frankly, even if I did have access to a bow... No one invites me hunting, I can tell you that.

[femshep]

So you rely exclusively on your... 'talents', in battle?

[audio]

[springs_eternal]

[No video this time. Saint Walker is still trying to mask his position as best as possible from the Authorities, so there's no need to show off the scenic background. He still has something to say, however.]

Need someone to direct you? Not used to these situations? Ah, Brother, perhaps you're too caught up in the details.

[oreskahouse]

[Video in return, because Thero can't figure out how to turn it off.]

[And that sounds like something a certain Aurenfaie would say. ...Probably right before nearly getting him killed because details are silly. That does not help Thero's mood.]

No, no, I'm actually quite satisfied with details as a principle concern, thank you.

[springs_eternal]

[Oh, fine - have your silly video, but let it never be said that Saint Walker was a vain creature; he stays out of the shot, projecting nothing but an image of a clear blue sky.]

[As he speaks, his voice is light and almost playful.]

Yes, I can tell. Maybe -too- satisfied, though? It sounds to me as if all those details are weighing you down, and you'll never get anywhere like that!

[oreskahouse]

[It is. It's like a drunk, pontificating Seregil trying to get a rise out of him. And, as a rule, it works pretty well.]

Empty, platitudinous rambling aside, what sense could that conceivably make? I can't think of a single instance where a lack of knowledge had any effect but a detrimental one, and I'm willing to bet you can't, either.

[springs_eternal]

[A short, gentle laugh.]

'Lack'? Oh, of course not! I speak of overabundance.

You know the situation. You know the enemy has lit their fires and now departed. You know that it is time to begin picking up the pieces.

What do you lack, Brother?

[oreskahouse]

[That's invitation enough.]

Why. What they gained or lost. When they'll do it again. What the damage is. What damage can be rectified, by my means or anyone else's, and where and how it'd be most useful for me to work. What best to do next. Their resources, defenses, weaknesses, and tactics. Their habits, ideas, and treasures and what best to do about them. The various circumstances of various powers, because there are never simply the two. The distances between any significant two points and best way to traverse that. The alchemical properties of the water supply and the reliability of any nearby compasses.

...I could just go on, but I suspect I might have got the idea across?

[Video]

[catchingflies]

[Here Thero, have a somewhat suspicious-looking, messy-haired teenager looking at you from the other end of the network.]

Hey. Uh. You tryin' to say what I think you're tryin' to say?

[He doesn't look like a mutant. But people don't, always. That Jean Gray sure don't look like a mutant, after all.]

[oreskahouse]

[And he looks a bit young for a wizard, but it happens, and it's entirely possible he's simply an acolyte or an interested party, or, given the circumstances, entirely misunderstanding.]

I apparently should have practiced my encoded dissembling a bit more.

[As a rule, it helps to know exactly who you're trying to communicate with and be confident that they have some idea what you might be getting at.]

What do you think I'm trying to say? Because at this point I think I may have confused myself.

[catchingflies]

If I was gonna come out and say it, then what's the point of talkin' around it? If there's people monitorin' our every conversation on these things, and all.

[Todd looks less than impressed by the idea that he should spill the "secret", first, if anyone's going to be spilling. He's not the smartest kid there is, but he's not that dumb.]

[oreskahouse]

[To Thero's credit, he's more frazzled than trying to get out of being the one who's first revealed.]

True. Fair, even. My mistake. I'm just at a bit of a loss for how to discuss... anything, when nondescript and incomprehensible enemies may be watching at any time.

[catchingflies]

[Which is, admittedly, a point, though Todd still thinks someone who's a mutant themselves would guess it. He scratches his head with another frown.]

Guess you do it in person? I dunno, I ain't been here long, and nobody's been goin' on 'bout what they can do on these things since I showed up. But people're sure bein' careful what they do say.

[oreskahouse]

What I wouldn't give for spies who had to be present enough to listen or leave themselves open to magical detection at the very least, and had to pass messages back and forth the reasonable way. Seems luxurious, now.

In person would probably make more sense, assuming they don't have other ways to monitor the situation. Which is an assumption I'd rather not make...

[lehnsherr]

[oh, these devices. he remembers just how annoying they were to get to grips with the first time round, so thero gets a certain amount of empathy for that. just enough to keep his tone light as he poses one, simple question.]

Anything "odd"? [don't mind him if he seems a little amused by that.]

[oreskahouse]

I'm more flexible than most in what I can accomplish. And somewhat loath to go into detail when I can apparently be overheard by people willing and able to drop fire out of the sky via machine, so you'll have to forgive my obtuseness.

[Life, he's learning, was a great deal simpler when he at least knew whether or not he should be hiding that he's a wizard.]

permalocked;

[lehnsherr]

The line's all secured now. Better?

[not that he particularly wants an answer to that. it's still the rest he's more interested in.]

Now, care to explain yourself a little further?

Re: permalocked;

[oreskahouse]

[He's got to learn how to do that. For now, he's tired of trying to be sneaky.]

I can try. I'm a wizard, Oreska tradition with a few less conventional techniques under my belt, but I suspect that doesn't mean anything to you. I suspect my most useful spells now would be manipulating objects, mind reading, and defensive wards and concealment spells. And messaged that can't be intercepted by... Whatever means this is.

[lehnsherr]

[had he never stayed in bete noire, he'd be attributing those abilities to a mutation. but given his...forced indoctrination in to all things alien, magical, and mystical, he has no trouble dealing with the influx of information this time round.]

Defensive wards and concealment spells. Do you think you'd be capable of protecting an entire building?

[oreskahouse]

[That's really a far better response than he might have expected. Now he can be all business.]

Given considerable time to prepare and some creativity, I could manage something. The lack of materials is an immediate problem, but at home that's the kind of task that would be up to more than one wizard, possibly the whole of Oreska House if the building were large and important enough.