[open] the elf and the smoking toaster

[arlathansgrace]

Date & Time: November 27th, Midday
Location: Outside the transport housing
Characters: Merrill and YOU
Summary: Merrill lights a toaster on fire and has generally terrible luck with technology.
Warnings: Depends on whatchu bring yo



[Having decided she will do her best to fit in, Merrill is taking action. She's not going to do something as crazy and wearing shoes, that's just ludicrous and hardly comfortable, but technology is something she's willing to tackle. If she can figure out how to live in a human city, surely human technology can't be so bad.

She is, of course, quite terribly wrong, and her being so wrong is the primary reason she stands outside transport housing staring at the still smoking toaster on the pavement in front of her.

It belches a lick of flame, clearly to torment her a little more. With a distressed sound, she paces in a circle around it.]

I'm sorry, but I don't know how to fix you.

[Genuine distress laces her voice.]

You're not like the Eluvian, oh, this is a disaster. I should have stuck with building fire pits, oh-- [She makes another nervous circuit of the toaster, and something inside it makes a grinding noise. Shrieking, she jumps back, summoning her magic at the same time. A stone fist punches upward from the ground beneath the toaster, shooting the offending bit of technology some feet into the air. It crashes to the ground and bounces twice.

Defiantly, it continues smoking.]

Comments

[arlathansgrace]

Materia? Is that a connection to the fade, too?

[The toaster belches smoke, groans, and something inside grinds against something else.]

...do we need to kill it? The toaster?

[shelkethetransparent]

I have never heard of the fade. Materia is a form of crystalized lifestream. Like this.

[She slipped her hand into a pocket and drew out the almost-round orange Shield materia she always carried with her.]

[And then she frowns faintly.]

No. It is just broken.

[arlathansgrace]

Oh, that looks like lyrium!

[Toaster utterly forgotten, Merrill reaches for the crystal before realizing that's not exactly a good thing. She jerks back, but her eyes remain on the crystal.]

But I've only ever seen blue and red lyrium. May I hold it? Is that alright?

[shelkethetransparent]

[Shelke hesitates. She barely knows this girl, but if necessary she could probably retrieve the materia if Merrill decided to wander off with it. And she hardly looked dangerous...or suspicious, frankly. Mostly she just seemed absent-minded. So after a few seconds, she nods.]

Yes. Be careful with it.

[And it was offered out.]

[arlathansgrace]

[Merrill plucks it from Shelke's hand with a quiet "oooh" and begins turning it over in her own.]

It doesn't feel anything like lyrium. How odd. [She looks at Shelke, expression curious.] Does it contain specific kinds of magic? Anyone can use it? Even dwarves?

[shelkethetransparent]

It contains a fully evolved Shield spell. [She pushes the toaster around slowly so she can examine the back. Hmm.]

Anyone can use them, from my world. I have never had anyone try here.

[arlathansgrace]

A shield spell? You mean like this? [Merrill set the materia down for fear of harming it when she cast her spell, then summoned a simple shield made of the energies of the Fade. It swirled around her quite fantastically before settling into white gusts of wind that swept by her face.]

I wonder what my world might be like if we had something like you do.

[shelkethetransparent]

[Shelke immediately reached out to pick up her materia again, unwilling to let it be sitting out like that for any length of time. She was silent as the woman cast her spell, her head tilted slightly to the side in consideration.]

Somewhat.

[She held the materia out in front of her, and after a moment a shimmering orange barrier appeared in front of her. Curved to cover about 180 degrees of the area before her, it did not move the way Merrill's did, but looked more like a genuine physical wall. She let it fade away after a few seconds.]

I don't know. Base magic was common on Gaia, you could buy spells in stores.

[arlathansgrace]

Buy spells in stores!

[Shock rockets across her face, eyes wide.]

I'll have to tell Anders, I bet he'd just love that! Magic is frowned upon where we're from. It's a bit dangerous. But if everyone could do it... What happens if someone sneaks up behind you?

[shelkethetransparent]

It will protect a full range, but only for someone my size. [She concentrates and the shield spell reappears as a ball around her body, though she has to duck faintly.]

It doesn't last quite as long. I guess everything has to have a downside.

[She frowns.]

...Why would it be frowned upon?

[arlathansgrace]

Ooh, that's lovely. I'd like to be able to do a spell like that.

[Merrill shrugs at her question. And speaks matter of factly.]

The Fade is full of spirits, spirits possess mages, mages go on rampages. It probably wouldn't happen as much as it does if more Circles were less strict and didn't threaten their mages with Tranquility.

[shelkethetransparent]

It is the only materia I brought with me. [And therefore, the only spell she knows, sadly.]

Magic doesn't have any particular downside on Gaia. I suppose mako poisoning could be an indirect one, but you wouldn't get it from casting spells.

[arlathansgrace]

There are... many dangers to magic in Thedas. [Her expression droops.] Many fear it, and it has been used for ill so many times in our history...

[She perks up.]

It makes me glad to know there are places where it's not the same.

[shelkethetransparent]

[Shelke isn't really certain what to say to that, honestly. Instead she just nods, and then turns her attention to Merill's previous focus.]

What were you trying to do to that toaster?

[arlathansgrace]

Make something to eat. A snack for my falon. Roommate, I think? Maybe not falon. But it didn't like the leaves I put inside it. [A gusty sigh escapes her.]

[shelkethetransparent]

...Why would you put leaves in it?

[arlathansgrace]

Why wouldn't you?

[She's genuinely baffled.]

You need to soak the leaves in a sort of broth. And then you wrap them around rats, on a stick. It's a lovely treat.

[shelkethetransparent]

[Shelke has eaten some awful things, and that still sounds terrible.]

You realize there are alternatives to that here. I don't believe you need to eat rats.

[arlathansgrace]

Oh, but it's quite good. Unless you know of something better?

[shelkethetransparent]

[Shelke hesitates because...uh...what do elves eat? And also she isn't actually that familiar with the food here yet.]

Anything? It's rat. Even in Deepground we did not eat rat.

[arlathansgrace]

Deepground? What's that? Did you live under the earth? Isn't that danger--well, I suppose it's not. You don't have darkspawn. Oh, did you have dwarves? I have a dwarf for a friend. He's very nice. He likes to tell stories.

[Her mind veers in a completely opposite direction, back on the topic of food.]

We eat deer, sometimes.

[shelkethetransparent]

I've never heard of darkspawn, or dwarves. We lived beneath the city of Midgar. [She hesitates.] Well, we were prisoners there.

[She nods faintly.]

Deer would be better than rat.

[arlathansgrace]

Prisoners? That's awful. Why were you prisoners? Did the people there not like you?

[shelkethetransparent]

No. I was kidnapped and kept there after experimentation...[She shakes her head.] It doesn't matter.

Do you want to know how to use a toaster?

[arlathansgrace]

Oh, if you say so. [Obliviousness: thy name is Merrill.]

You know how? I think I need a new one though. This one looks...

[The toaster has finally stopped smoking, but it's blackened and cracked.]

Um. I don't think it will work anymore.