2020-09-26: Introducing Evie to the Nexus and Express 999
| Introducing Evie to the Nexus and Express 999 | |
|---|---|
| Vic takes Evie to the Nexus via the Express | |
| IC Date | September 26st, 2020 |
| IC Time | Afternoon |
| Players | Evie, Hector and Vic Rasmussen |
| Location | Express 999 and the Nexus |
| Spheres | Traditions |
| Theme Song | People are Strange by the Doors |
The following text conversation uses user:Nerdvana's IC "text message" formatting.
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Evie arrives on foot from the west, one backpack on her back and one notebook in her hand. "So I'm going with a drawing, because lint just sounds /rude/. Also you just keep getting more and more eccentric with literally every word you speak."
Vic was drinking an early afternoon milkshake on the patio at Prospect Roasters when she got Evie's text messages so she waits about fifteen minutes while she finishes it. During that time she also puts away her laptop and at the point she thinks may be the right amount of time stands up and walks towards the entrance of the nearby alley so that, when Evie arrives, she is clearly visible. "Wow, a drawing, they're really going to like that," she says and drags her companion into the alley.
Vic asks, “Ever been back here, Evie?"
Evie peers about, expecting perhaps a mugging or something even though it's still broad daylight. "Couple times, maybe? And are you sure this thing isn't just something from your home...?"
Vic nods. "Absolutely certain," she says confidently, "Never saw anything like this before arriving in Prospect." She leads Evie to the Steel Door and passes though it herself.
"Uhh." Yeah, Evie's wowed. She takes her time getting her bearings once through the steel doors, seeing the train. The mice. The what-the-fuck-is-that-literally-Shenron? Also the mice. She has her Eevee sketch out ready to exchange for... something? Ah. It's for a train ticket. "Spirited Away meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. We aren't gonna meet any Vogons or evil witches on here, are we?" She tries offering her drawing for a train ticket, but the mice give her a funny look. A moment of discomfort, then she nods her head toward Vic and says, "Same place she's going."
Vic grins at Evie's reaction to the place. When her companion gives the picture over she ooohs with impression over the picture and hands the mice a rectangular yelllow Post-It Note(tm) (one of the half-sized ones) upon which was written "Good for One 999 Express Train Ticket" in sparkly purple ink and says, "Thank you very much," to the little creature when it bows to her and dashes off with her 'payment'. "Shall we?" she asks motioning Evie to board the train.
Evie follows Vic, making sure to find a seat that doesn't have anything /too/ terrifying sitting nearby. "Yep, definitely getting a Spirited Away vibe right now. Your parents aren't turned into pigs by chance, are they?" Not waiting for a response, she tacks on, "Sorry. Pop culture joke, don't mind me. Just a bit nervous! Haha... ha... god help us if there's poetry on this ride."
The trip from the alley behind roasters to the Nexus takes /exactly/ thirty minutes. During this trip the pair of mages discuss nothing of major of consequence. Vic has Evie explain Spirited Away to her. She, in turn, discusses the fact that she is missing the Manimal revival 'back home'. There's some people/entity watching - Vic discretely comments on at least four people being extremely attractive... two men, a woman and an... indeterminate. Then their stop is called and the pair exit the train.
"...so anyway, you really do need to watch all of Hayao Miyazaki's works sometime. They're really good." Evie hops off the train with Vic, sneaking one last peek at that indeterminate before continuing to their destination the rest of the way. "Wait. I need another thing for the return trip, don't I? You only said to bring /one/ thing!!"
"Breathe at them or blow them a kiss or something," Vic says almost dismissively as she leads Evie into the Nexus, still speaking: "Astra mints little nothing coins that she gives them. Find something fun for you that they'll accept. I've started just making my own passes as you saw. I have a whole pad of them."
Once they are fully in the courtyard she waves a hand about, turning in a circle as she does. "This, is the Nexus. Its even got a Node in it," she says and then asks, hoping she doesn't sound condescending doing so, "You know what a Node is, right?"
Evie decides to blow the one Umbrood a kiss, but she's a few minutes late; the other passengers have already dispersed for elsewhere. Ah well, it's the thought that counts right? She follows along behind Vic, taking in the scenery. "Ooooh. So this is the Nexus. A very important node, I bet, everything connects to it. That's kind of what a nexus /is/." Is she talking about the same Node Vic is? "A strange thing to say, though. You could say Roasters is a node, or those other platforms are nodes, or..." Oh. She means nodes on a /graph/.
Vic keeps herself from laughing. At least out loud. Hints of the suppressed laughter may be able to be discerned in her answer despite it being firm, teacher-ish mode. "No, Evie. That's math. We're talking magic. A node is a well source for power." She then sounds very slightly pained as she says, "You know what Quintesence is, right? Maybe Tass also?"
Evie stares at Vic for a moment when she explains there's a different kind of Node. "...oh! Quintessence, quintessence.... that's raw mystic stuff, right? And I'm guessing Tass is related?" Evie looks down at her feet for a bit, talking to her Converse sneakers. "Okay, look, I know I'm really new to this stuff but could you please have patience with me? I'd like to think I'm not entirely hopeless here." A beat, before she looks up, quirks an eyebrow, and looks Vic right in the eyes. "By the way, I was talking topology."
"Its not raw mystic stuff basically," Vic says, "Refined and crystallized." Then the Request is stated. She nods. "Honestly I am. I'm not the world's best teacher. Except computers. I teach computers awesomely. But I'll try, Evie, sorry if I offended you." She then also quickly points out, "Topology is a study of geometry and space. Geometry is a form of math. Thus you were talking math," speaking with a grin and punctuating it with a friendly wink.
Evie bobs her head up and down, keeping up with the topic as best as she can. "Right. Sorry. I coulda sworn you were... nevermind." Laughing? The word is unsaid. "Could definitely go for computer lessons though. In particular how you connect everything to the spheres. I do know about the spheres, at least." A friendly elbow connects lightly with Vic's rib cage. "Alright, where to first?"
"Well, I like the library and the computer room personally," Vic says, "Other than them and the Node I've not explored the place fully even." She heads in the direction of the library if nothing on that topic is addressed. As she starts that way she asks, "Did you have something specific you wanted to discuss though?"
"Library sounds like fun!" Evie says that without a hint of irony. "What kinds of books do they have?" She almost even leads the way into the library, only still behind Vic because Vic had started moving a split second before. "Let's see... topics, topics, topics... Iunno. Everything I'm wondering about can be summarized as 'tell me about this miniscule and unimportant thing, but from your world'."
Vic chuckles and says, "Well, I mentioned that there was a Manimal revival starting with modern CGI and story writing theory, right?" as they pass into the library.
Evie forgets entirely about the conversation she was having with Vic, and starts meandering about the library in absolute wonder. "Holy mother of mother lodes. This is /amazing/. Wheeeeeeeeeeee....!!" She's quiet in her words, but her excitement is plain - she even beelines to the adult section... and finds herself with a book on Zeus' more sensual exploits. Okay then. "That's weird. I was looking for a history of contraceptives, but I guess this'll do."
While Evie explores the library, Vic finds a table to sit at, setting her bag down on it and pulling her laptop out of it. Upon seeing the book she laughs (with Evie) and says, "That's a history of 'wish there were contraceptives'... or divorce lawyers. Hera had an awesome case against Zeus."
Evie can't be mad. She shakes her head at the book she pulled, decides to just heck with it and read up on it. "Sheesh. Of course the Greatest Library Ever has to be obnoxiously complicated to navigate. Seriously, I wanna learn COBOL here and I have to put on ruby slippers... with heels /exactly/ three and one-quarter inches high? That is oddly specific and not at all related."
Vic nods and smiles at Evie. "I tend to just run around until I'm just slightly winded, put a random hand on a book and take the one to the right or left of it depending on which hand was the one that touched a book first," she says. "You might be surprise how effective that is."
Evie gives Vic a look of disbelieving skepticism. A look of 'please quit messing with me'. A shake of her head that says the same. Then, without comment, she starts reading up on a random chapter in the sex life of Zeus. "Wow this guy was a cheating bastard. Had sex with basically every woman in Greece, even while married. Wonder how many of those were willing..."
Hector heads in, typing on his phone as he walks, "There's entire books written on historical and mythological rape culture that detail that kind of thing." he responds to Evie as he heads for a chair to flump down into.
Connecting her laptop to the internet somehow while sitting at the table she selected, Vic pulls up some information on an online encyclopedia and says, "He actually kidnapped Europa as a bull and fathered three children on er so... yeah, who knows how much of that was totally on the up and up," practically talking at the same time as Hector. She grins at her fellow V-Dept and says, "S'up, Aitch-two," to him.
Hector clicks on his glasses and then yawns a bit, "Not much, just got done coding the cracking software I was working on, figure I should start on a defense system now, but thought I should do some walking and stuff, then heard you guys in here."
"Screw this then, I'm getting a different book." Evie tosses the treatise on Greek deific rapology onto the nearest book return rack and goes around looking for some other book. After several minutes of meandering, hopping on one foot, failing a headstand, meditating in the lotus position, and succeeding at a headstand, she comes back with another book. "Here we go. The life and times of Alan Tur..." She looks down at the book in her hands to discover that it is actually an instruction manual on folding various paper airplanes. "...this is /not/ the book I took off the shelf."
"Oh, shove it, Evie, run around and grab three books at random. I bet one of them at least will be the one you want and the other two might be interesting tangents," Vic says in all seriousness. "Anything interesting about your cracking software that you'd like to share," she asks Hector.
Hector swipes his hands through the air, likely changing whatever A.R. menus he was reading into something elese. "Uhhh, not really, it's just a standard prog, just the basics so it can target anything, instead of something more specific. I figure I'll get a standard cracker and a standard defense one, then go into making more specific things, unless people need me to make progs for them, then I can do that I guess. It takes me about a week to make each one." he nods and then looks around at Evie looking for books, "This library is, very inefficient." he says to them both.
"But I swear I grabbed something different..." Evie sounds equal parts confused and upset. "...okay, fine." Throw in annoyed, with Vic. "I'll go run around until I'm out of breath then grab three books." She dashes off, zipping about the aisles until she comes back with her chosen topics. "Phew... okay. Tell me what I picked out? After last time I'm afraid to look."
Vic takes the books from Evie and glances them over. "So, we have When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron, The Life of Elizabeth the First by Alison Weir, Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges," she says and then asks, "Weren't you looking for a book on Turning?"
Hector huffs in humor, "This is why I just read digital sources."
Evie looks down at the books she picked up in disbelief. "That... worked? What...?" Blink. Blink blink. She looks to Vic. Blink. Back to Hector, who gets a shake of her head. "There's something to be said for hardcopy." Then back to Vic. "Well then. I have no idea how this worked, but it did. I just sorta need to go with the flow, eh?" Then her eyes light up as she makes a connection from that. "Kind of like magick in general. Nudge reality, it'll tend to cooperate. Shove it, and it likes to shove back. That seems to be important for more than just actual spells."
Vic smiles knowingly and says, "Entropy likely," as her best theory.
Hector shrugs "If you like paper cuts." he says with a small smile, but then nods at the 'go with the flow bit'.
Evie reluctantly yields the point to Vic. "That'd do it wouldn't it." Yep. Entropy is a perfectly acceptable answer for her. Her response to Hector doesn't involve words, but rather one sheet of paper slid across with a state transition diagram sketched out on it. It's effectively a flowchart for a rudimentary program that controls the traffic signal at a single intersection.
"I haven't studied this place but I think there's some Correspondence and Time mixed in. Totally no Data though, it wouldn't have ended up so chaotic if it included my focused sphere in it," Vic explains while she reaches into her bag and pulls out a small first aid kit and, speaking to Hector, says, "I've got you covered if you're truly concerned about such things."
Hector pfffts, "Nah, I'm good, I'll stick to efficient, coded, organized data, thanks." he says with a chuckle. "It is a nice looking room though." he nods.
"Data's not a sphere." Evie deadpans to Vic. "There's nine spheres, and Data isn't one of them. It hardly even makes sense as the tenth. Sure, it's amazing at sorting through information," she's responding to Hector at the same time, "but it's still just a representation. Everything is still in meat... space... um." She starts moving a hand back and forth along imaginary axes, thinking on something. "Okay, let's say the world /is/ data. How do you code a soul?"
"There are three spheres that exist in parallel to three you know of, Evie," Vic says calmly, taking a moment to try to teach something. "Correspondence is space versus its equivalent, Data which is about information and isn't space-dependent but has serious overlap at the beginning levels," she explains. Continuing she says, "The other two I don't know as much about but the Technocracy doesn't use the Spirit sphere but some sort of inter-dimensional studies sort of thing and there's a bizarre twist on Prime that one of there Conventions uses in its place." She pauses and then says, "So, yes, Data is a sphere. I practice Data magic rather than Correspondence."
Hector shrugs lightly, "I wouldn't try to code a soul. And everything /here/ is just in meat space. The best exploring is done in the Digital Web though." he nods.
Evie groans. "And here I thought technology would be easier to work with than Hermetic magick. I'm just... I'm just gonna read for a bit." And so she does, giving her mind a break from comprehending the Weird for a while.
"I wouldn't either Aitch-two, but where I came from I've heard some people do it," Vic says to her fellow V-Dept and then, addressing Evie, "The difference between the two could be an extremely interesting subject to study."
Hector nods at Vic and then shrugs lightly to Evie, "There's lots of Traditions, so it's more about finding one that makes sense to you versus trying to make sense of a Tradition. Technology makes sense to me, so it was a no-brainer to join up with the V-depts. Have you talked with someone from all the Traditions yet?"
Evie sets down her book on Elizabeth the First, groans again, and rotates her head about one degree toward Hector. "Bobbi tried to teach me Hermeticism, and all I remember is symbols have meaning. Khol showed me how the Akashics use martial arts, and it seemed to make sense for a bit, but that didn't work out either. Not touching Euthanatos, I /definitely/ don't get the Choristers or Verbena, but technology seemed simple enough. How hard could it be as a Virtual Adept? Haha... silly me." She rotates her head another five degrees. "At this point I'm just gonna cobble together my own understanding and see if /that/ reaches a breakthrough."
"Please don't judge an entire tradition by one person, Evie," Vic says, "Or your prejudices. Now, if being an Orphan is your best path that's what you should do." She pauses and thinks for a moment before continuing by asking, "Tell me how you see magic, Evie?"
Hector clicks the side of his glasses, and then starts typing on the armrest of the chair, letting the two mages talk about mage things.
"I'm really not trying to judge, honest." Evie takes back her little flowchart and ponders on Vic's question. "How I see magic? Let's see... if I had to take a guess. You imbue something with abstract meaning, create or use that something, and you make something happen. Martial arts, esoteric bibliocryptography, coding. Whatever. It gets easier the more it'd make sense to a Sleeper." And then a question of her own. "The heck's an Orphan?"
"Its a term used among the Traditions for a mage that doesn't fit into one of the nine, approved and signed off on Traditions." Vic sounds a bit cynical about this. "Just because most of us can fit into one, either like a hand into a glove or via hammering a hexagonal peg into a tight fitting circle, doesn't mean everyone will."
Hector nods to that, "From what I've heard people that go Orphan don't have to deal with all the standard Traditions politics, but they also don't get the benefits of being in an established, and respected Tradition. But you can get around some of that by joining a Cabal and a Chantry, if they'll have you. Though if you're still trying to figure out your deal why don't you just go through a crash course on the Digital Web? If you deal with all the challenges in a certain way, then that may point to a tradition. If you don't, then it might just point towards being an Orphan."
After glancing at the system time on her computer, Vic quickly starts shutting it down. "I'm going to have to get moving here," she says, "But Aitch-two has an excellent point. If you thought that V-Dept might work for you I'd like to suggest a few things that may help. One, lets plan on a trip into the D-Web together," she looks at Hector at this point, "Want to accompany us?" Continuing for Evie, she says, "We don't even need a full on VR-Rig, just use a pair of computers and an open mind really." A brief pause and she continues while she starts packing her computer into her bag, "Second, see if you can come up with a minor magical effect that you can wrap your brain around with either a technological, mathematical or linguistic approach to it," she intentionally doesn't use the word foci, but anyone thinking about it would see that is where she is going, "And three read that book on Turing and remember that this is a clensesd rendition of the history of one of the first true V-Depts." She stands and slings her back across her shoulder so it lies across her lower back. "I'll see if I can't find information for you about him from our perspective rather than one cleansed to be concensus approved," she adds before asking, "How does that sound?"
Evie purses her lips and now fully looks over to Hector. "Digital Web? You mean there's..." Her concern, unspoken, is deftly answered by Vic. "Ah. I think I'll give it a shot then. But with that, I'm going to just not think about things for a bit."
Hector nods "Sure, I'm always up for a D-web trip, gotta do my job as a Nexplorer after all." he chuckles, "You want me to scrounge up coordinates to an adventure, or do you wanna run the outing Vic?"
"That's not a bad thought either," Vic says to Evie as she starts to head towards the courtyard. "Awesome, Aitch-two and... for a first time outing 'adventure' is likely not the best option for that," she says to the cyberpsychic. "You both have my numbers, feel free to call or text when you feel the need for me."
Evie snerks as Vic advises against adventuring. "Dude. I've been in the Umbra, I think I can stomach adventure."
