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[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?

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[He tilts his head, considering.]

I deem it must be so, though conjecture leaves it most mother fuckin uncertain. I know other species must in fact dwell in the leagues beyond, but I've split the shit over little of it all. I do not believe us to venture all that often, but knowing no other to do so, my kind must be most often travelling after all. It is the desire of the Empress. Her Imperial Incandescence seeks to cull the galaxy so that all shall be under her care and afforded that which is needed. A lay priest now and again may to take trip to a colony, but the Highblood chose to remain in place of his motherfuckin roots and righteous sproutlings. I do not believe I shall ever leave planet.

[He pauses and looks up at Katherine.]

Well, I suppose that an untruth for righteously i must decree that I now have.

Well, I don't think it's quite the same.

[Katherine punctuates that with a laugh.]

Pressing an icon on a panel and instantly coming here isn't like boarding a ship and sailing off into the ocean, now is it?

I would not know, sister Katherine, for I have never sailed.

[Even in a time when Trolls could board ships into space, sailing across the ocean seemed a huge endeavor. He had been told so firmly and repeatedly that it was dangerous, and he was far too young besides.]

It sounds different, I suppose. Though I have come to discover numerous miracles I would never otherwise know. Have you sailed?

Edited 2017-03-30 03:23 (UTC)

Not into an ocean, no, but it makes sense, doesn't it? A journey made on a ship is committed to. Once you depart, it will take time to arrive and time to return. No time is lost when you use this device, which means-

[She smiles, almost laughs.]

-yes, you could discover as much as there is to see here, and never miss a single moment at home. It's as if you never left. That's why it isn't the same, you're not really gone, the way someone at home might see it.

[He listens raptly to her explanation. And she humors his ignorance, smiling all the while. He thinks hard about all of this, rather seriously so now.]

By word of thee, then, true travel is not mere the distance traveled nor the wonders uncovered, but to be missed by those left behind.

[Like when his ancestor was made to depart on important culling business. Like his lusus... who never came back.

And now he realizes, he thought nothing of it when he opted to come here. If he'd had no way back then would he have been missed? Meulin and Mituna, surely. Would the rest of his friends...?]

...Have you anyone to miss you by your world, sister Katherine?

I meant the time committed to it, but I guess that's...that's part of it, too. Time spent away from the familiar, and others.

[She sighs quietly.]

I left my dog this time, but he knows about this place. I don't know that he'll miss me if it doesn't feel like I've been gone. The rest...well, they've all traveled first. I'm the one missing them.

[Time committed makes a sort of sense too. That might mean more if he had a better sense of time, however. This place makes it all the more confusing at times.

He listens to her story, however short. It's a sad one.]

My apologies true, sister Katherine. It is the worst feeling that can be, to be left for motherfucking missing. I do not know what a dog is to be, but it does good upon this pusher that this is had.

And... I shall not leave thee. [He's not sure he should promise that, but it feels right in the moment.] If it means to prevent such sadness, I swear to leave no one behind in such a form I would be missed. I vow it.

[And for all it's an impulsive vow, he is solemn in saying it. He means it.]

[Katherine gestures "no" with her hands, looking apologetic.]

Oh no, it's nothing that's permanent! I'll meet with all of them again, I'm sure of it. Life sometimes...well, it separates people sometimes. Different paths to walk, as a poet would write it. It's rare people never leave one another for some time.

Oh. [He blinks. That's... better. He's glad for it. He really is!

(He's not lonely at the thought that he is the only one to know such a thing.)

He puts a smile back on.]

That is a definitive truth for certain. As a poet would preach! That is a miraculous thing, if such is really to be.

Oh, yes - [She chuckles - if he's such a poet, there must be some poetry in separating and reuniting. He's sure to like the spin she's about to put on it.] - and when you reunite with someone you've parted ways with, there are so many stories to share! As much as I do adore spending time with my friends, getting reacquainted and hearing what sort of adventures they've been up to is just as wonderful.

[She reads him right and reads him well. But it's not just the poetry that makes it wonderful. It's the idea of reuniting, of doing so and things becoming better.

It's so much so, his blinking becomes such that he may very well be trying to fight back tears.]

That is truly beautiful, my wicked sister. I would like that very much. Oh! I shall require a device of recording that I may share my own ventures! Only then shall it be a truly fortuitous mother fuckin exchange or the miraculous! Thank you, sister Katherine!

[Getting a quick read on someone turns out to be a useful skill to develop for basically everything she does.]

You could use the CALL device itself. I should too, actually - there's nothing like it at home...

[An air of mystery and proof of concept for everything here in Tomorrow, for sure. She wonders how her friends would react.]

video | CALL | un: wardenka

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