revenance_comms | Physics... How Do They Work?

Entry tags:

Physics... How Do They Work? - 002 [audio]

[The quick, light breaths coming from the audio indicate that the person speaking is performing some form of physical exertion.]

My apologies for any brusqueness, but I require the assistance of a healer immediately. I have just witnessed a person leaping from the edge of the tower in the Fourth District of Traverse Town. I do not know if they could have survived a fall from such a height, but if they have, I suspect my own first aid knowledge and potion will be insufficient to provide adequate care for such traumatic injuries. I am making all due haste to the area at this moment. Thank you for your attention.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I bet magic was a surprise to you, too!

[Edge can still barely imagine a world magic isn't a part of. Even some of the worlds that couldn't accept things like the basic premise of ninjutsu still had their own things that might as well be magic, like Lin's earthbending.]

Eblan's my kingdom. Literally, I'm King of it.

[Three members of royalty all pulled into the same realm, two from a different place than the other? What a peculiar coincidence. Jeeves attempts to eradicate any further tone of annoyance.]

It is my honor to meet you, then, Your Majesty. Magic has certainly been most surprising to me. It is the stuff of legend and folklore in my native realm. I have made efforts to curb any shock related to its practice, but as my original missive may have indicated, there is still much I have to learn about it and what limits for it exist.

Are there any limits to your magic as regards falling or leaping from great heights, sire?

Edited 2014-01-20 19:35 (UTC)

Forget the courtesy, if I wanted that I'd have opened with my title. We're all equal here in the dreams, right?

It's not magic to jump or fall, though. That's just training. You learn how to land right, how to slow the fall, it's easy. Now passing through walls is a little more complicated...

That would be taking a liberty, sire. [No. They are not equal. If pressed, Jeeves will relent because this is royalty, but being asked to do something as progressive as refer to a king as if they were of equal social standing makes the valet's skin crawl.]

And I am familiar with acrobats who have some talent in falling on my world, but even they often require nets for any significant falls. Passing through walls would also fall within the realm of physical impossibility. How might you accomplish such a feat?

Now that's ninjutsu! Which is something like Black Magic, but it has much more utility to it. In the proper circumstance, you can become nothing but shadow and whisper for a flicker, just long enough to pass through a wall. Helps if the wall is prepared though!

[Jeeves is beginning to feel slightly lost with how utterly nonsensical this conversation is becoming.]

Prepared, sire? Do you mean in the sense of a physical preparation that you might apply to the wall or that the architecture of your realm has anthropomorphic qualities?

The... physical preparation one. The Trap Doors and the Living Wall were pretty much contained to the sealed cave as guard mechanisms for the crystal there, that's the only sentient architecture I've seen!

[Yes. Yes he has seen sentient architecture. Very annoying sentient architecture.]

[Jeeves decides to focus on the portion of this conversation not related to sentient architecture. It will be better for his sanity in the long run, he imagines.]

And does this preparation have some magical property along with your particular variety of ninjutsu, sire?

It's a matter of symbols. Ninjutsu's big on symbols, that's where the hand-gestures for casting it originated from. So preparing the wall is a lot like preparing a technique scroll.

[Jeeves' vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds in this conversation and he's not entirely sure he's happy about that.]

Is the ninjutsu magic itself dependent only on the proper hand motions, sire? Or is there some form of meditation or other piece necessary to ensure it works for the one using it?

You have to have the internal energy for it too. [At least Edge doesn't blatantly call them 'Magic Points' or 'MP'...] Performing ninjutsu takes internal strength, and eventually you just run out till you use some restoratives or get a good sleep.

It is akin to endurance, then. [That makes a form of sense, though not a great deal considering it's magic.] Does exercising this internal energy through use allows you to store greater reserves of it, sire? Or are you limited to a fixed amount? [Endurance has its own upper limits, at least.]

Of course! Practice makes perfect, right? The more you train, the better you get, and the more ninjutsu you master as well!

I'm sure there's a limit, but even I haven't reached it! [Though he's closer than anyone else at this point.]

I see, sire. Your world seems a most interesting one. To what purpose did you put your skills, if not as assassins and spies for the local governmental authority, may I ask?

Defense of the kingdom, of course! Eblan is in the shadow of the Tower of Babil, from which all sorts of strange creatures and objects emerge!

[His voice drops to a bit more of a confidential tone.]

Much, much stranger than here, in fact.

[Jeeves allows his brow to rise more than he normally would as the audio connection hides the expression.]

Does this Tower belong to another kingdom, sire? It would seem prudent to demolish such a building if it is within your purview.

Wouldn't we have loved to! We only found this out recently, but it was built by the Lunarians, who have magic and technology far beyond what we have. Also there was no way for us to get to it. Mountains and a great chasm surrounded it.

Given your ability to fall great lengths without injury, I would not have anticipated a chasm posing any great challenge, sire.

[His tone is dry. Is that humor? Quite possibly.]

Aside from the mountains leading to it being impassible, the chasm leads clear down to the Underworld! That's a bit of a fall on a good day, even if people have survived it!

[While exploding themselves, but let's not mention that part.]

Sire, there may be another matter of cultural confusion in play. When you refer to the 'Underworld,' do you mean to imply the plane of existence to which damned souls are sent after their mortal death?

I -- the -- ju-- what?

[Have some confused sputtering, Jeeves. What did you just say?]

No, the land beneath the ground, where the dwarves live!

I see, sire. [And that is why it's important to clarify these things. Jeeves makes a mental note to do so going forward.] If I might make a further query: If the mountains are impassable, how came you by knowledge of the Tower? And how has anything from it reached your native lands?

That's a long story.

[Long enough that Edge has to ponder briefly where to begin it, only to realize that picking up near the end might be the best way to ascertain if the other man even wants to hear it.] It was all part of a plot by a small sect from the people who lived on the second moon, which was actually a huge ship that traveled through space, to purge Earth of human life.

[That... certainly sounds like the beginning of a highly implausible tale. Jeeves has already forged into inexplicable territory with this man, though.]

As the young gentleman who jumped is not in need of medical attention, I find myself with time aplenty, sire. If this would be a discussion better carried out in-person, though, I would be only to happy to meet you at the tea shop in the 4th District.

Sure, that might be easier! Wouldn't be the first time I've told that story there... though unlike the other times, you're not my type. Guess I can't have everything.