2020-09-06: You can eat it
| You can eat it?! | |
|---|---|
| Vic visits Hardy again and they share information. | |
| IC Date | September 6th, 2020 |
| IC Time | Late Afternoon/Early Evening |
| Players | Hardy/Hydra and Vic Rasmussen |
| Location | The Hydra's Lair |
Preliminary text messaging included using my Formatting Text Messages for Wiki Log Posts method.
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Late afternoon, the neighborhood around Hardy's place isn't that bad so when Vic gets off the bus she simply walks to the door and raps hard, waiting to be let in.
Hardy lets her inside and leads her over to the apartment with a smile "How have you been then? We assume you still have a thousand questions for us? Had a chance to talk to Bobbie?" taking a seat in the couch motioning for her to join him.
Vic joins Hardy by sitting on the other end of the couch, setting her bag down first beside it. She shakes her head and says, "No, not really, saw her Friday but didn't have a chance to talk privately and you're not a public discussion."
Hardy nods "Thank you, we appreciate that" smiling broadly to her "So, any questions then?" studying her curiously
Vic laughs and nods. "But it seems I'm always taking information from you," she says and then asks, "Don't I owe you anything back? Or do you feel like you're getting enough out of this still up to now?"
Hardy shrugs "Well you could tell us about your magics, we know some and we know the nettle you make when things go wrong"
Vic's eyes narrow slightly in confusion. "Nettle?" she asks and then, with a dawning expression of guessed comprehension on her face, she asks, "Do you mean Paradox maybe?"
Hardy shrugs "I do believe so" nodding to her "It clings with you and feels wrong. Not very tastey and to much is dangerous" nodding to himself
Vic bites at her lower lip for a moment and then nods. "Yeah, that sounds like paradox," she says and then says, "It was a huge paradox backlash that snapped me here from my world." She pulls her legs up beneath her as she continues. "So, my magic... I'm a technomage. Computer magic especially. I'm looking to find a way to put together a VR-Rig so I can start making dives into the Digital Web but that's only part of what I can do. Mostly right now my magic is sensory enhancements." She pauses a moment and adds, "Also I have a passive magic ability where I can adopt skills by studying briefly rather than putting in the long and hard work."
Hardy nods "We can eat nettle which have aided mages in the past, getting rid of it seems hard for you people" smiling to her "VR rig? Those you can buy in a store... or is this one diffrent?"
"Higher quality than commonly on the market," Vic says with a smile. "I'm finding most of the ones on the market are just VR goggles really."
Hardy nods "Oh that is not a VR rig?" tilting his head looking to her "We assume technomagic as you called it is involved?"
Vic laughs and shakes her head. "Let me see if I can give you a good analogy..." she says and then looks thoughtful for a few moments. She then says, "Think of the difference between a protective cup... like what athletes wear... and a full set of headgear, chest, elbow and knee pads possibly even padded arm guards," living at a gym is obviously having some sort of impact on her thought processes obviously, "Both of them will protect a person in a fist fight but which would you bet a person would prefer to be wearing? Just the cup or the full gear?"
Hardy shrugs "We have at most worn a chain mail... we did have a few breastplates from the roman legions" seeming to ponder it "Had some from some Hoplites too... but never wore them... it was mostly disguise more then anything.. not like we need much protection" nodding to himself
Vic rolls her eyes in only partially mock exasperation. "Okay, Hardy, but apply the thought as if you were a frail human being... I know, its a hard stretch to make, but which do you think Hercules' friends on the Argos would choose if those were the only options?"
Hardy smiles to her "Heracles" shrugging lightly "They wore hoplite armor, but yes, more armor is better, your VR rig is better then what humans can make, it is not that of a complex concept really" smiling to her "So what you do with it? We assume more then just games"
"I'll be using it to access the Digital Web," she says and then, "Oh, how to explain this... you grok the difference between an actual swimming pool and a wading pool, right?"
Hardy raises a brow "We think you need work on your metaphors but yes" nodding to her with a smile "So this digital web is deeper then in some way? Still don't understand what it is about"
Vic laughs, "I just made sure you understood where I was going. So the internet is a wading pool.... the Digital Web is the ocean."
Hardy nods to her "We will take your word on it, the internet seems very deep to us, there is a lot of it we have not seen or even heard of" tilting his head "But we have been learning alot from it"
Vic says, "Well, the Deep Web would be a swimming pool. Most people don't even know about that part of the Internet. But yeah, even the Internet is vast. That should tell you something about the Digital Web... which is actually another dimension."
Hardy smiles "Oh, why didn't you say that? We know dimensions, like the Umbra, Shadowlands, Dreaming... there are tons of them that we seen and can wander through"
Vic snerks and says, "Sure, just call a place my 'flavor' of mages may have created a simple dimentions," in total mock 'frustration' then breaks down into happy laughing for a few moments. "Okay, so... tell me how you can sense Paradox and help clear it off a mage who has some please," she asks.
Hardy shrugs "We eat it" looking to her "We can smell it on people, sense it really. It is not a pleasant thing, and we get really tired after devouring it... and it can be dangerous, if we eat to much we might just die" nodding slowly to himself. "Well it make sense that technology have its own realm. There are a lot of Umbral realms so it does make sense"
"You. Eat. It," Vic repeats somewhat incredulously. "And... it just goes away?" she asks but without letting him answer, "Eating means processing and changing, so yeah, it just goes way. Wow... so... if I get paradox I can ask you to get rid of some of it for me? How do you make sure not to overeat?" Yeah, lots of questions here.
Hardy smiles "Well it is harder but it is possible to not eat all of it.. but usually it is just making sure the amount is smaller then what we can eat. That is the only way, and even we can not heal back after eating to much nettle... no regenerating from that"
Vic nods. "So...," she grins as she asks, "How much can you eat?" And her expression seems to imply that she's not even certain that this is a question he is capable of answering.
Hardy seems to ponder. "Well it doesn't exactly come in measurements... but we know when it is to much... can't really ask for a cup of nettle" grinning to her
Vic smirks. "I know, but there are subjective measurements... I guess I'll need to collect some paradox and we'll work from there." Now that there may sound like madness, but this is a girl who wants to plug herself into a computer to enter the world of electronics after all.
Hardy tilts his head "Mmmm we prefer to not do tests on it, if you gain it on your own, that is ok but... we already know how much we can eat" smiling to her "So your world was very different from this one?"
"In many ways yes," Vic says. "Cybernetics were fairly common. Also the Technocracy was in charge of the ISA..." she pauses and asks, "Do you know who the Technocracy are?"
Hardy shakes his head "We do not" tilting his head as he looks to her "We assume they have to do with technology too?"
Vic nods. "Yeah, but ... okay, remember the Renaissance and how people started to loose faith and believe in magic?" she asks. As Hardy nods in acknowledgement she continues. "So, they are responsible for it and... many of them have bought into it also. They are mages who more often than not don't believe in magic."
Hardy tilts his head "That... is very odd.. mages who do not believe in magic" shaking his head somewhat. "Well we are glad you got here, we rather enjoy your company Vic" smiling warmly to her
Vic smiles and huffs in a mildly dismissive fashion. "I'm not all that, but glad." She quickly adds, "I find our talks entertaining and educational myself, Hardy," which, it can be told with ease, is a direct equivalency in her opinion.
Hardy frowns "You should not play yourself down in such a way Vic. You are smart, funny, pretty and you are from another world, and you are a mage... that is something to us at least. We enjoy your company and we enjoy our talks greatly"
Vic smiles warmly and actually says, "Thanks, Hardy." Then there's a noise like a drop of water falling into a small pool that emits from her pocket. Out comes her phone and after a quick check, she says, "I'm going to have to go, need to supervise the delivery of a server at the gym," as she reaches for her bag while unfolding her legs from beneath her and stands up. "It was a great visit of course, so don't loose my number," she says adding a rhetorical, "`kay?" added at the end.
Hardy raises a brow "We would never loose your number, we have it on our phone and we hear it is backed up on a cloud... we think that is slang for a safe on the internet. But we can retrieve it even if we loose the phone"
Laughing as she heads out to the street, Vic says, "Don't change, Hardy, that's precious."
