[video: week twenty, friday]

[growingwild]

[The image that appears is of Briar, sitting on the grass just outside the ship and frowning at the device in front of him. Settled next to him is a potted miniature pine tree. But the most striking thing about him is the intricate leafy vine tattoos on his hands and forearms - which if you look closely at, you might be realise are actually moving.

When Briar starts talking, he seems to be addressing the mirror itself rather than anyone on the other end]

You can't be working, you know. I've never been able to scry - and besides, you don't even have any magic anyway, so I don't see how I'm supposed to talk to anyone with this.

[Not that Briar's all that sure he wants to talk who whoever brought him here. But magical objects without any magic is just plain bizarre, so his frown deepens]

Comments

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

[An androgynous face with angled eyes and a messy head of short blonde hair shows up in Briar's mirror. She looks somewhere between amused and annoyed. Her English (provided he's speaking in English) is lightly accented, but understandable.]

It is not magic. At least, as far as I have been able to tell. It is technological, machines and wires and electricity. Though they have yet to lose power, so maybe there is a little magic. Who knows?

[She flashes a tight sort of grin.]

So who are you? New here?

[Video]

[growingwild]

[Briar would call it 'Imperial', but it's English he's speaking all the same]

If it's got magic, I can't see it. But you say this thing works off of electricity? [Now Briar's going to eye it dubiously. The only person he knows who can control lightning is his sister Tris, and she had to learn iron control. He couldn't quite believe that someone could trap it into some kind of device without any magic at all.

But never mind that, he had a (lady?) to introduce himself to.] Briar Moss. All new and wondering where exactly 'here' is.

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

Haruka Tenoh, and this is a planet called Verdana. You have been asleep in a stasis pod for at least a century, according to the residents, along with a number of people who have woken up before you.

[She hasn't done that particular infodump on anyone yet, before, and she's curious how he'll react. She didn't react so well, herself.]

[Video]

[growingwild]

[Briar freezes, and stares at Haruka in shock]

What?! No, I can'tve been sleeping for a century! And what about everyone else, what about my sisters -

[Briar abruptly stops. He still can't really believe what Haruka's saying, but he has to check that his sisters are okay - so he dives into his magic, seeking out the magical connection he has with them. With relief he finds that the connection is still there, although he can't contact them at all. But wherever they are, they're alive.

Through all of this, to Haruka Briar would look just slightly unfocused for a moment, like he wasn't really paying any attention to her or what was going on around him]

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

Yo, wait, it is all right--

[And he's not listening. He's either spaced out or... well, all right, she's seen that look before. Usually it doesn't mean anything good. She taps her phone screen after a beat of looking concerned.]

Buriar-san?

[Yes, her accent mangles his name a little. She's still getting better!]

[Video]

[growingwild]

[And now Briar snaps back to Haruka, as if nothing odd had been happening.]

It's just Briar. And how is this alright? If I'd really been asleep for a century, then everyone I know should be dead! [And he knew his sisters weren't, so what was going on?]

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

That ship you woke on travels through time. I imagine once we get it working again, we will use it to travel back.

[She's hoping, anyway. Even if she was technically dead when she was... collected, or however it happened.]

There may be people you know on it, as well. There are people I know, from my world and time and such.

[Video]

[growingwild]

[Briar blinks]

A time travelling ship? That - that is definitely not a ship, how can it travel through time? I didn't see any magic anywhere in there. And even if I did, I've never heard of magic that can let you go back in time!

[Video]

[kazeninaru]

It is technological. Like whatever you are speaking on now. Not magic. And it is a whole lot bigger than it looks, most of it is crashed into the mountainside and buried.

[She shrugs helplessly.]

I do not know much more than you do, none of us do. Where are you now? Have you been to the city yet?

[Voice]

[evervarying]

You know, normally I'd pull out the old "sufficiently advanced technology" quote, but scrying? That's just - incredibly weird. [The woman's voice is more than a little bit raspy. She may be on tail end of infection, but that's not the same thing as operating at 100%.]

[Voice]

[growingwild]

What's so weird about scrying? [Then Briar frowns - he's no healer mage, but he knows enough about sickness. And she doesn't sound all that well] Are you alright? You don't sound too good.

[Voice]

[evervarying]

Aside from it being something out of fairy tales?

[There's a brief pause.]

Not important. And yeah, I'm fine. We're in the middle of an epidemic - if you can find an oxygen filter, you should probably wear it, but they're in pretty short supply.

[Video]

[growingwild]

What's scrying got to do with fairy tales? It's proper magic, not some myth. You can't have never heard of anyone scrying.

[At the mention of an epidemic, Briar's eyes widen, and he sits up straighter. For all that it was around eight years ago, Briar's memories of the Blue Pox are still plenty fresh.] What disease? Does anyone know how to treat it?

...What's an oxygen filter?

[Voice]

[evervarying]

Plague, with a side order of something no one's figured out yet. It's...complicated. And I'm betting if I said 'biowarfare', you wouldn't know what I was talking about there either, would you?

[Video]

[growingwild]

Well obviously it's a plague. [Briar sounds a bit exasperated, but then, in his world there's never been any one disease that's come to be known as 'the plague'. But then Briar frowns at the word 'biowarfare'. No, he hasn't heard it before, but it doesn't take him too long to guess what it might mean, and his expression turns to one of horror]

Lakik's teeth, someone's using disease as a weapon?

[Voice]

[evervarying]

Not a plague, plague. The Black Death? And yeah, someone was. A few centuries ago. It doesn't seem to've been deliberately set loose this time.

[Voice]

[growingwild]

Well why didn't you just say so? [That disease he knew, although he didn't know why it had become known as 'the plague'. In his world, magic had meant that the Black Death never reached the scale it did on Earth] But who would actually unleash that on purpose? [Briar shudders. It's an unpleasant thought]

[Video]

[prophetic_name]

[Oh, hey! Look who also uses a mirror for this kind of thing, not that he can tell what the other is using, but the point remains. And it's the mention of magic that really grabs Remus' attention.]

I'm guessing you've just arrived here?

[Video]

[growingwild]

'Arriving's' an awfully polite way of putting it, don't you think?

Re: [Video]

[prophetic_name]

Yes, I suppose it rather is.

Er...you perhaps ought to be a bit careful the sorts of things you talk about on this device. It isn't entirely safe.

[Video]

[growingwild]

[Briar looks sharply at Remus at that. He's not really surprised - why would whoever brought him here have good intentions? - but that doesn't mean he's happy to have his suspicions confirmed]

What sort of things, exactly, do I need to be careful about? Or is 'talking about what's not safe' also not safe? [He wouldn't be surprised if it was. People always seemed to expect other people to do what they wanted without ever telling them what they did want in the first place]

Re: [Video]

[prophetic_name]

[Remus frowns into his mirror, running a hand through his hair briefly.]

It would probably be better to tell you in person, yes.

[Video]

[growingwild]

[Briar snorted] Figures. Alright, how exactly do I meet you in person?

Re: [Video]

[prophetic_name]

Do you know where the Flop is?

[Video]

[growingwild]

The what?

[No, Briar doesn't have any clue]