video | CALL | un: wardenka

[boundinblood]

[At first, the wrong camera turns on, showing the book Katherine has laid out on the table, pages bathed in sunlight from a nearby window. It's nonfiction - biology, in fact, and its target audience likely in the young teens crowd. The open page displays a labeled diagram of a strand of DNA and a Punnett square with an explanation in small print, courtesy of a cartoonish character sitting on its corner, clearly drawn by an adult attempting to appeal to a younger crowd they only superficially understand. The normal-sized text at its side explains hereditary traits, with a side of how DNA determines everything about a person's appearance. It's helpfully colloquial.]

Well, I can't say I completely understand all of this, but- oh, wait, I've got it the wrong way, haven't I?

[She switches to the front camera to show her face instead, bags under her eyes indicating a rather long self-imposed study session. She raises a mug of something no longer hot enough to require one to her lips and sets it down offscreen with a gentle thunk. The window beside her reveals the skybridges, flying cars, and gleaming metal towers of Tomorrow, from several stories up.]

There we are! Now, as I was saying, am I right in guessing this means the...the essence of who we are is in...all of us? Does that mean spells that require a bit of, say, hair, from the caster have worked on the same principles as blood magic all along?

Comments

[video/un: ghostprince; ironically, he has since befriended a sorcerer]

[shootaro]

Yeah, 'scept blood breaks down and is replaced in the body. Hair falls off.

Maybe that's why the blood stuff renews itself?

[Trip, you're not helping your case from before (okay, but he wasn't involved in that stuff at the time).]

[boundinblood]

[Katherine gives the child on her screen a weary, concerned look. It's really not helping at all...]

That's a dangerous school to study.

[There is always some benefit to learning about these things, at least. The more you know about how it works, the easier it is to counter it. It's one of the reasons she's looking into this avenue in pursuit of something greater at all.]

Hair renews itself too, besides.

[And there are distinct non-blood magic spells that perpetuate themselves, as well, but she hasn't had enough sleep to be eloquent enough for more than one or two ideas at a time.]

[he just went from "I hate how she keeps misunderstanding me" to "let's mislead her for fun"]

[shootaro]

Dead hair falls off, it doesn't get broken down and reabsorbed inside your body. If you're losing blood the way you lose hair, you'd be a ghost and I'd be infinitely more interested in you.

[Is it possible to hear a wink because if anything was meant to be paired with a wink, those words certainly were.]

[Video/un: troubadourCatalyst // cw: drug mention]

[thygospelevity]

[He doesn't know what things he is being shown right now, but it looks like a business blasphemous scientific nonsense. Or at least some kind of nonsense. He's not all certain.

But then he's shown clear the face of his friend (who he has decided is his friend based on having talked to them all of once) with bags as dark as his own are without a bit of covering. She's in Tomorrow. This is rectifiable, therefore.

But science turns to magic and suddenly that part is okay again. He folds his hands together as he speaks.]

Perhaps the properties of blood lay in its sacrifice. To cut a hair is to bring growth anew at no cost. To bleed is to bring a greater risk, for gift of greater connection. As more is spilled, the closer one comes to death and so the veil of worlds thins.

Now do not move in slight, for I must attend to the travesty that has befallen you. I have many a piece and practice to remedy this. [He says having dropped the prayer hands and gone to gather up makeup and what appears to be some herbs rolled in papers.]

[boundinblood]

[That would handily explain the allure of its power, wouldn't it. What he says makes perfect sense to her, for once.

...And then it goes right back to near-nonsense. Katherine squints at the herbs for their brief moment on screen, trying to figure out what they could be. But then, it's hard to tell from sight alone when they're dried and rolled up like this. Is he trying to bring her a stimulant of some kind? But then why the makeup?]

Um... What are you doing? What travesty do you mean?

[thygospelevity]

[He fancies himself quite fond of (and useful in regards to) the occult. Only fools doubted in the reality of magic and miracles. Unfortunately, there were a lot of fools in the world. It was nice to know that Katherine was not one of them.

All the more reason to help her.

With everything gathered up into a bag, he's ready to go.]

The under of thine optics displays such unfortunate fatigue! This is an ailment I understand well and hence cannot allow to pass neglected. We may discuss further the delicate dynamics of sacrifice and bloodletting whilst I apply the necessary mother fuckin countenance concealment and we split sweet joint for rest. I assure it most needed. Your due thanks may hold, of course, until results have shown fruitful.

[boundinblood]

I...

[A finger touches under an eye. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she quietly corrects her initial assumption - she may not understand the terms he's using, as usual, but those herbs are a sedative, not a stimulant.]

...um.

[And then it all sinks in: his own makeup...]

I don't need...um, anything like that. I don't have trouble sleeping, I just sometimes get so caught up in doing something that I forget!

[thygospelevity]

[Don't need? Oh no, he is not so sure about that.]

And quite caught you have proven to be! A fish ensnared in the trapping teeth of the sea-beast. On the eves in which my diction is most permeated with the talk and tell of the bright arcane, my palest brother speaks to me words of wisdom; [He clears his throat first, so as to better mimic the voice.] bro, if you're thtill up vaporizing those thirthty demon bitcheth with your crazy voodoo thhit, we should totally hang out and thlam our way to thleep.

[Kurloz beams.]

[boundinblood]

Um...?

[He's lost her. Not an uncommon occurrence, of course, but in this case it's his use of "slam" she's unfamiliar with. It seems like anything involving slamming would keep one awake, after all...]

"Slam" what?

[thygospelevity]

[He blinks at her.] Working wicked verbiage. Throwing the soul into a fierce battle of wits and rhyme. Slam poetry? [Searchingly, he stares into the camera at her sleepy face.] It is an ancient art.

[boundinblood]

So you...came up with poems until you were sleepy? That's an interesting way to do it!

[She smiles a bit, clearly not having completely understood the concept as described.]

I didn't think of you as a poet, Kurloz.

[thygospelevity]

Exactly, for my brother understands that one those bright things call loudest, that is when we are most in mother fuckin need.

[Like usual, her lack of understanding goes unnoticed. He inhales deeply, a wide grin forming.]

In the sirenic theater's chest cage, poetry lives.
It pulses, breathes, and teaches. At times even forgives.
Reaching deep within us all, it spills to the happy gathering.
Kindly scavengers, they applaud the sacrifice's unveiling.
Recognizing they readily eat what lays within as it lays the fuck within them too.
And how miraculous, to find mother fuckin company there in the devouring of truths.

[He finishes reciting and beams.]

I would deem Hamlet a sort of poetry. Hamlet is the mother fuckin shit.

[boundinblood]

[...somehow, it's much easier to understand what he's saying when it's in the form of a poem.]

I've never heard of it - it might not exist in Thedas. Maybe I'll find it here, somewhere. But I like that poem's message - grisly as the comparison is, that is the allure of sharing tales, isn't it?

[thygospelevity]

Yes! Fuck yes, my wicked sister! It is one of the greatest of miracles, to exchange tale and passion and all feeling we would not otherwise seek to expose. Seen though gruesome and ugly on the outs, we allow ourselves the freedom to express when the thespians take to stage and illustrate all we share. How mother fuckin beautiful it is. My dear matesprit finds similar joy in that. [And that thought of Meulin softens his exuberance. She would relate it to shipping of course, the wonder of romance. And he would pull her near.]

I must seek out a copy of Hamlet, so that I may share with thee. I suspect thou to be unable to read Beforan, but I may recite it's passages to thee, should thee desire it. [He smiles brightly at her.]

[boundinblood]

There's an app on this device that says it's for books - I wonder if buying Hamlet on it will translate it for me. Aside from one person I've met who arrived completely unable to understand the words we're speaking, I haven't had any problems reading anything here.

[ text | un: barnes ]

[notthaticequeen]

sounds right to me anyway

text

[boundinblood]

[Oh, text, how is she supposed to write on this tiny device with her level of sleep deprivation? She does make several mistakes, but, fortunately for her, the CALL device's programming is fully prepared for imprecise fingers.]

You're a Mage yourself?

[She isn't entirely sure why it believes "mage" is a proper noun, but it would have come out totally different anyway. She's grateful for the wonders of autocorrect.]

[notthaticequeen]

no, I'm a medic. what you're looking into is DNA. it's literally in every part of you, like you said. if your spells work because of a part of someone being used, it's probably because of the DNA. the flip side is if it's like some of the stories I've heard, then it's more because of the sacrifice than the actual body part.

this is weird. I'm from a science world.

[But this was another world for her to write down on her list of possibilities. That made... what, now? Seven? At least? Shit. Someday, she might actually have to ask questions about this.

...Shit. Why not.]

[boundinblood]

A "science world"? Is it like this one, then? This city of "tomorrow"?

[It had always struck her as odd. The technology in the city was a marvel, definitely, but that it would call itself the future... She couldn't imagine Thedas ever looking like this. So many redundant devices whose function magic would serve more easily.]

If your world doesn't have magic then it must not have spirits. Am I right?

Video, un: moonqueen

[story_and_teller]

Of course! Some people will tell you that blood's better, but that's really only if you believe it is.

[Loki pauses, and taps her chin thoughtfully for a moment.]

Unless you're a predator tracking wounded prey, then blood's king.

[boundinblood]

[She's turned the page since, with her free hand.]

It does mention here blood can be used for tracking - not even magically! But then, so can anything from that person. Even an eating utensil they've used! It's so fascinating...and hopeful, really.

[And better yet, she sounds like a fellow mage that is not necessarily a blood mage, just a mage who knows of blood magic, if the dismissiveness means anything.]

I'm sorry - there's so much here that changes everything I thought I had to work with, my excitement's gotten away from me. How did you study your magic?

[story_and_teller]

[Loki flashes a grin.]

On my own...? On my own. Mostly. It's a little complicated. [She flicks her fingers a little, as if dismissing the thought.] It doesn't matter much, now, except when it does.

[boundinblood]

[She's worse than Morrigan - to her sleep-deprived mind that takes a bit to catch up. The sentence sounds like a riddle at first blush, but actually makes perfect sense.]

And it doesn't now. So you're, um...a hedge mage? [Wait, that might not be polite.] A...shaman?

[The fact is, she's not confined to the magic theory Katherine knows. That part of her mind that grew up with the Chantry's view of magic balks, but part of her knows that as long as it doesn't veer into true blood magic, it could be one of her best chances. This is all for a quicker cure for abominations, but it's not some broad-reaching project for all of mage-kind, though that is certainly the end goal. Like so many of her highest ambitions, it's persons and events close to her heart that drive it first and foremost. If it works for them, she can apply it to all of them. But first, it is for them.]

[story_and_teller]

[Loki snorts with inelegant laughter, and shakes her head, black hair shifting around her face perhaps a little more than it should.]

Hardly, though I am familiar with shamanic practices... More like, I have the dubious advantage of the best sorcerous education love and money can buy, but I'm better off as an autodidact. Goes faster. Fewer messy preconceptions.

[boundinblood]

Such as...banned magic that isn't as harmful as they make it out to be? Like shapeshifting?

[She almost says not as harmful as blood magic, but doesn't want to steer the conversation that much. Start wide, and narrow down, that's how you learn things.]