outer_divide | [video] Sunday Afternoon, Week 39

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[video] Sunday Afternoon, Week 39

[ While trying to figure out what path to take, Helga has been studying the communicator device that she was given. It is unlike anything she has ever seen before. It does not resemble something that even great Archimedes would have crafted. It is sleek. There are no gears that she can see nor can she see any moving parts. She cautiously experiments, buttons are pushed. The screen flashes on. People talk. It startles Helga into dropping the device as though it had just burned her.

What is that? The device is pointed up at her and it shows a woman with long, red hair wearing an even longer mustard-colored dress. She is sitting outside of the great ship. There is an expression of uncertainty on her face.

She watches it for a moment before picking it back up. ]

Is this a two-way mirror of some kind? Can anyone hear my voice?

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Two-mirror would be one way of thinking of it. And to answer your other question, yes, several people can actually hear you, I would imagine.

[Straightforward warrior Mulan is straightforward.]

[ Helga appreciates the straightforwardness. Several people have heard her. She is not speaking into nothingness. That is good news. However... ]

What would be another way to think of it?

[That query gets a brief, wry smile.] Where I come, the quickest way to describe it would be as some sort of magic crystal. However, I've been made aware quite insistently that it is not magic at all, but some kind of very clever technology.

Mirrors are difficult enough to create. I know of no crystal, magic or otherwise, that would allow communication so easy as this. This does not feel like magic, I must say.

[ It feels foreign. ]

Perhaps you know more of it, to have a better feel for it than I. I have never been one who wielded magic for myself, only to have seen it done.

How often have you witnessed magic being used?

Edited (Grammar. I'm not sure if wielded was grammatically correct.) 2013-06-26 02:24 (UTC)

To be frank? More times than I'd like.

I know magic is but only another tool, but it's one in my homeland that is more often at the disposal of those with darkest inclinations.

[ Helga makes a note that Mulan's homeworld must be filled with dark witches and wizards. ]

In your opinion, do you think this communication device is dark?

No, not at all. Everyone who arrives from the ship has them, and while I can't speak for everybody, the majority of those I have met are good and capable. There's some small chance that outside forces could use the devices to spy on us, so it's better to be careful what one says through them, but other than that there's nothing to fear from them.

I shall make an effort to learn all of it's functions then.

[ Helga is processing this. It is a lot to take in. ]

For what purpose are we here? I am having great difficulties imagining a beneficial reason for those left in the pods. Were we meant to repopulate this world?

[Well, there's an option no one so far has she knows has ever raised yet. It gets an eyebrow raise.]

I should hope not, plainly speaking.

[ Helga lowers her head. ]

I do not like this but then, I cannot imagine that many do. May I ask how long you have been here?

Several months now. There have been...many changes, since my first arrival. It is difficult to explain.

I do not doubt that.

[ About it being difficult to explain. ]

[Should she just move on at that, or should she actually give said explaining a try? Well, nothing ventured...]

It was only a short while back when something strange happened, and all of us became abruptly...lost, at other points in the the history of this place. Some went to the future, I'm given to understand, but others went...back.

And the things we did there, with or without our meaning to...when we came back again to the point we had known as the present, we found out we had changed some things in time.

[ Helga listens. ]

Are you saying that the fabric of time was altered?

[ She is no student of time or its great workings. Helga leaves the higher subjects to Rowena. However, Helga has a sudden and new found additional wariness of this place. ]

It is not wise to meddle with time. Is time still in flux here or has it subsided?

That is what I'm saying, yes. But nothing else seems to have changed again since we arrived back. Those of us who left remember the way things were, but no one else does.

Oh. You will have to forgive me. I seem to be at a loss.

[ She doesn't know what to make of this. She's been taken or rescued from her own world. This world might be in flux. How does anyone manage? With time, she suspects. ]

Are there any dangers that I should know about?

[ In other words, just how bad is it? ]

It's nothing to apologize more. Many of us were brought here out of out depths. [For Mulan, it's more the technology at times than the situation in general.]

The biggest threats at present comes from the wildlife. If you do not have experience travelling or fighting, you should not leave the confines of the city alone. The Authorities...used to be more of a concern in the other time. But a little wariness of them would not go amiss.

No one is sure, still, how we really came to be here. Or what kind of a role in this world we are meant to play.

How would I recognize these Authorities?

[ Helga does have experience traveling, extensive experience. Fighting isn't entirely unknown to Helga. Sometimes, it is necessary but she would prefer to avoid it. ]

Edited 2013-07-15 01:17 (UTC)

They tend to announce themselves. They represent the ruling body.

How do they feel about magic?

Complicated question. It isn't outlawed, if that's what your afraid of. And people here are, I think, more or less used to seeing it performed openly by now.

But if others become concerned that your abilities might constitute a threat, or you do something to go against the Authorities, you could end up with them suppressed. There are collars here that when worn restrict or even negate a person's capability to use such powers.

I see.

[ Blending in as a Muggle will not be a problem for Helga, not in the short-term at least. However, she is very certain that she will have to perform some feats of magic to survive and get herself established. ]

Thank you for this information. It will be put to good use.

It's no problem. I'm sorry if there wasn't more I could do to help.