Have you encountered massive disasters previously? [it's a question asked in earnest, though the neutral nature of her voice might make it seem somewhat dry.]
No, but I've read about some. They're not infrequent. [That's sort of the same thing, right?] It's usually gods getting involved in things that they should really leave alone; but I don't know what kind of gods--if any--are here. Maybe they're all stuck in time, too.
[She pauses, briefly giving Cecelia another curious look. There's clearly a question on her mind, and it seems unlikely that it has anything to do with the Calamity.]
Speculation runs the gamut in that regard, and there's only sparse evidence for much of it. [because some argue that the ceremonies done in the name of gods proves their wakefulness, while others have strained in vain to hear their lords' calls.
Cecelia has yet to hear the whispers of the nephilim, but they aren't gods, so it's neither here nor there.
in any case:] For now, we can only work with what we have. In this instance... [she'll gesture.] There's an instrument over there you can use to observe it in more detail, if you like.
[The telescope is a good distraction--certainly better than whatever personal questions Klaudia was considering. It gives her the momentary restraint to table those for a later time, and she heads towards the telescope.]
Nice of them to set up equipment here. I don't have one of these yet.
[But she's certainly thinking about getting one. Either way, she'll lean down to check the view through the lens, making some minor (slightly clumsy) adjustments to the knobs to bring the view into better focus for her. When she finally gets a good look at the thing... She pauses, her brow furrowing. Her back straightens so she can look skyward with her normal vision, then she takes a bit of her skirt to clean her glasses and looks through the telescope again.]
...What am I seeing here? It's just blackness, and there's... Things? Flickering in and out on the edges? Is that magic? Are they visions, or... [They can't be actual places, right? She's never seen anything like this before, but it has to be some kind of illusion...?]
[Cecelia moves over to the bench behind the telescope, bending and picking up the journal she leaves there and sitting down with it in her lap.
while thumbing over to the latest empty page:] Without any other divination instruments, I can't say a hundred percent, but they appear to me as edges of other places. Like pieces of a picture book that fell in water, pages rumpled and bleeding.
Given the impact this has upon several different worlds, it's not wrong to assume it could be other places reflected in the rippling impact of the explosion.
[That gives Klaudia pause for a brief moment, as she looks through the telescope for a third time. This time she scans the flickering images, straining to recognize any familiar places from among them. Some of the sights are distinctly foreign to her, but some are vague enough that they might be places she traveled through once. It's hard to say, given how small the list of places she could reliably recognize is.]
[She sets her pack down by the telescope, opening it up to retrieve her own journal and pen. Holding those out to the side, she juggles between looking through the lens and writing things down.]
...If these are the worlds that have been affected then, it's possible to see our own worlds here, right? So... have you ever seen yours?
[while procuring her quill:] Signs of how to undo what's been done, for one thing. Warnings of the spells keeping things in stasis failing, for another.
No, I haven't. [she taps the quill to paper a couple times to wake the ink up before starting to write.] Which is what this little book is for. I've been logging status with each subsequent visit, trying to note any changes not only to the barrier or calamity itself, but the surrounding area as well.
Have you tried touching the barrier? Is it permeable?
[Not that it would be a good idea to try and go past the barrier, but Klaudia's pretty sure it would be good to know just how protective this barrier is.]
I bet if you asked a Kinetic mage to come out here, they could test how solid it is. Or a familiar that can fly. I'd ask mine, but I'm pretty sure she'd tell me no.
That's not something I'm keen to test without getting more detail on the spell from either its caster or someone adjacent to the caster. [she sighs.] Which means getting a word in with that court wizard of the King's, should he ever spare a moment from taking photos of himself...
... Merlin was the one that cast this spell? [A pause.] I never would have guessed. He seems like an idiot. I'd more readily believe that he stumbled across it.
I can't confirm if he did at all, but seeing as he is one of the highest points of contact for information of this sort, he will be who answers my questions first and foremost.
[and whether or not he's an idiot? she can't rightly say. she sure doesn't enjoy his outward persona...but she knows more than a thing or two about that sort of theater.]
Hmm. [She still looks skeptical. Enough so that she's stopped her own note-taking in order to watch Cecelia properly. There's definitely a small amount of judgment in her tone when she responds:]
You think that because he's closest to the King, he'll know more about this? Or his information will be more trustworthy? Isn't that putting too much faith in status?
The status was there before us, and there for reasons before us. Until a more substantial truth presents itself, I must work with what is in front of me. And so far- [she'll glimpse at the bangle idle at her wrist.] -it is yielding some result.
[She should probably refrain from being too judgmental, but the longer they talk, the more comfortable she feels speaking her mind. And giving a small eye-roll as well.]
Status isn't always deserved, and reasons can be stupid--even more-so if they're old reasons. Those are probably the most stupid ones.
[The oldest families are often the ones that are furthest removed from the reason for their power, after all. And she's overheard far too much idle gossip and political drama in her lifetime to feel any sort of reverence for status.]
What about that... Morganna? I bet she would know something about all of this.
I imagine so, though entreating her for an audience is something more of a challenge I've yet to surmount. [and she's not sure if the return on investment will be much at all, especially with the way most high-powered, high-ranking sorts are.]
For now...it seems as though most are confident that the stasis you see before you will hold for the time being, as there's not been any real rush to act upon it yet.
[Klaudia gives a nod in agreement--the air of this dilemma hasn't been very urgent. In some ways, it's felt like they're all just mutually stumbling about in the dark with regards of what to do. The fact that someone might actually know something and not be telling them about it... That's a new thought for her.]
How about this: You can work on Merlin, and I'll try my hand at Morganna. If we have a bit of time to work, then I bet I can come up with something that'll pique her interest.
[Cecelia arches a brow at that, lifting her head enough to peer the girl's way.
it's not her style to rope excess people into things and schemes, but this is a very extraordinary case, yes? and it behooves everyone to use their skills and resources to find a good outcome, not just her. so this kind of initiative is...refreshing, actually.]
[She actually looks genuinely excited about the agreement, given the brightness of her grin. Her thoughts are already spinning ahead to what she might be able to do in order to bargain for an audience--perhaps a few steps ahead of where she should be starting, but this is a topic that she's always eager to chatter about.]
I've only seen her address us once, but she seemed interested in magic. Not the kind that we're learning--she called that basic; but something more unique might catch her attention. So if you come across anything like that, let me know, okay? I have a few ideas of my own that I've been working on, but I need more practice and also an assistant to get those anywhere decent.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2021-08-02 05:43 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-08-02 10:05 pm (UTC)From:[She pauses, briefly giving Cecelia another curious look. There's clearly a question on her mind, and it seems unlikely that it has anything to do with the Calamity.]
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Date: 2021-08-02 11:39 pm (UTC)From:Cecelia has yet to hear the whispers of the nephilim, but they aren't gods, so it's neither here nor there.
in any case:] For now, we can only work with what we have. In this instance... [she'll gesture.] There's an instrument over there you can use to observe it in more detail, if you like.
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Date: 2021-08-03 07:02 am (UTC)From:Nice of them to set up equipment here. I don't have one of these yet.
[But she's certainly thinking about getting one. Either way, she'll lean down to check the view through the lens, making some minor (slightly clumsy) adjustments to the knobs to bring the view into better focus for her. When she finally gets a good look at the thing... She pauses, her brow furrowing. Her back straightens so she can look skyward with her normal vision, then she takes a bit of her skirt to clean her glasses and looks through the telescope again.]
...What am I seeing here? It's just blackness, and there's... Things? Flickering in and out on the edges? Is that magic? Are they visions, or... [They can't be actual places, right? She's never seen anything like this before, but it has to be some kind of illusion...?]
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Date: 2021-08-03 06:16 pm (UTC)From:while thumbing over to the latest empty page:] Without any other divination instruments, I can't say a hundred percent, but they appear to me as edges of other places. Like pieces of a picture book that fell in water, pages rumpled and bleeding.
Given the impact this has upon several different worlds, it's not wrong to assume it could be other places reflected in the rippling impact of the explosion.
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Date: 2021-08-03 08:07 pm (UTC)From:[She sets her pack down by the telescope, opening it up to retrieve her own journal and pen. Holding those out to the side, she juggles between looking through the lens and writing things down.]
...If these are the worlds that have been affected then, it's possible to see our own worlds here, right? So... have you ever seen yours?
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Date: 2021-08-03 08:47 pm (UTC)From:That the entire thing is frozen still helps, at least, to give us time to examine it for that and other things.
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Date: 2021-08-03 08:58 pm (UTC)From:What other things?
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Date: 2021-08-03 10:53 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-08-03 11:13 pm (UTC)From:Have you noted any changes in this place since you first came out here? For better or worse?
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Date: 2021-08-04 01:24 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 06:24 pm (UTC)From:[Not that it would be a good idea to try and go past the barrier, but Klaudia's pretty sure it would be good to know just how protective this barrier is.]
I bet if you asked a Kinetic mage to come out here, they could test how solid it is. Or a familiar that can fly. I'd ask mine, but I'm pretty sure she'd tell me no.
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Date: 2021-08-04 07:46 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2021-08-04 08:42 pm (UTC)From:... Merlin was the one that cast this spell? [A pause.] I never would have guessed. He seems like an idiot. I'd more readily believe that he stumbled across it.
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Date: 2021-08-04 10:15 pm (UTC)From:[and whether or not he's an idiot? she can't rightly say. she sure doesn't enjoy his outward persona...but she knows more than a thing or two about that sort of theater.]
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Date: 2021-08-04 11:56 pm (UTC)From:You think that because he's closest to the King, he'll know more about this? Or his information will be more trustworthy? Isn't that putting too much faith in status?
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Date: 2021-08-05 12:12 am (UTC)From:[the pace is just...glacial.]
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Date: 2021-08-05 12:24 am (UTC)From:Status isn't always deserved, and reasons can be stupid--even more-so if they're old reasons. Those are probably the most stupid ones.
[The oldest families are often the ones that are furthest removed from the reason for their power, after all. And she's overheard far too much idle gossip and political drama in her lifetime to feel any sort of reverence for status.]
What about that... Morganna? I bet she would know something about all of this.
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Date: 2021-08-06 03:51 am (UTC)From:For now...it seems as though most are confident that the stasis you see before you will hold for the time being, as there's not been any real rush to act upon it yet.
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Date: 2021-08-06 05:05 am (UTC)From:How about this: You can work on Merlin, and I'll try my hand at Morganna. If we have a bit of time to work, then I bet I can come up with something that'll pique her interest.
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Date: 2021-08-06 04:12 pm (UTC)From:it's not her style to rope excess people into things and schemes, but this is a very extraordinary case, yes? and it behooves everyone to use their skills and resources to find a good outcome, not just her. so this kind of initiative is...refreshing, actually.]
...I've no issue with that.
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Date: 2021-08-06 06:02 pm (UTC)From:[She actually looks genuinely excited about the agreement, given the brightness of her grin. Her thoughts are already spinning ahead to what she might be able to do in order to bargain for an audience--perhaps a few steps ahead of where she should be starting, but this is a topic that she's always eager to chatter about.]
I've only seen her address us once, but she seemed interested in magic. Not the kind that we're learning--she called that basic; but something more unique might catch her attention. So if you come across anything like that, let me know, okay? I have a few ideas of my own that I've been working on, but I need more practice and also an assistant to get those anywhere decent.
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Date: 2021-08-06 06:52 pm (UTC)From:with a little nod:] I'll keep it in mind, yes. Do keep me up to date on your progress.
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Date: 2021-08-06 07:03 pm (UTC)From:...What's that face for?
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Date: 2021-08-06 07:16 pm (UTC)From:(no subject)
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