nexus_crossings | From the Land of Magic

Aal winces and cringes in a bracing ort of way slightly at the smoke and flame a mite, but her ears perk up as does her shoulders at the carefully landing and manners.

Her lips twitch a little bemused at the familiar sort of words that normally she's used to hearing come out of her own mouth. As she carefully but at a slightly speed walking pace pads over closer.

She softly clears her own throat and slightly turns her head til the smoke passes. "Aye I would say tis a good a place as any." Least if you were looking for a good-sized and varied hmm focal group. She looks up at the dragon-y fellow with a warm friendly smile and asks in turn. "Yer not a Welsh green by any chance are you?" As they were a rather personal favorite.

She hums half-thought and nods as she listens raptly rubbing her chin before she replies, "Ah well, I say nowadays it's a bit of a mix in most places though it started with magic being rather common an occurrence. Or naturally and not occurring. " She tries her best to explain.

Gorbash is a bit of a show-off, and likes displaying his skill with his fire breath.

The dragon shakes his head, surprised. "A Welsh Green? I've never met a Welsh Green, but I suppose there are dragons in Wales and some of us are green. Dragons come in many different colors - red, green, gold, blue, white, black." His own scales are an emerald green. He's really rather proud of them.

"So there's both where you're from?" Gorbash is interested. "So they've found a way to coexist in peace? I'll need to tell my world how you managed to do it."

She nods softly however it was likely a long shot anyway but well if one didn't ask questions, you didn't get an answer. It was worth a try. "Oh, aye neither have I but I'd like to someday." She murmurs warmly. Her ears wiggled. "Well if there anything like you I wouldn't mind meeting them." She murmurs warmly. Trying not to wiggle too much overly exciting puppyish way.

She gives him a curious once over, "Love yer coloring by the way." She murmurs by way of friendly commitment. She wouldn't mind giving him a pat if he let her but she thinks it best to start slow.

"Aye, more so than before, and hmm." She tilts her head. "I'd say for the most part. Though naturally there's always debates about whats the best way for certain things to be done." She informs him gently. She coughs slightly wryly, "Lots of trial and error from what I've seen..It's easier when folks are more erm willing to find common ground though." She murmurs

"Thank you." Gorbash can't help but pose a little to show off his emerald scales. He tries not to be arrogant about it, but he does like the way he looks. "Well, you met me, and there's astart." He flashes her a toothy grin, then settles down.

"So, where exactly do you come from? Your people have magic too?" He can't help but be curious. "Do you have dragons too? I wouldn't be surprised if we're different across different worlds."

"Your most welcome." She murmurs warmly making a soft bemused sound when he does so. "That is very true. " Her eyes twinkle before offering out her hand, slightly. "Speaking of which, Most folks call me Ash by the way or Aal if there from back home. " She informs him warmly. After all, she very much wanted erm would like to be pals er friends with the big fella might as well go straight to the nicknames.

Her ears wiggle a little, "Well ahem Mist Haven is what other Realmers tend to go by though to most it's The Enchanted Forest." She begins to explain. With a small smile. She softly nods, "Aye a few types..Though many are wild sorts." She informs him in a slightly soft sheepish sort of tone and clearing of her throat.

She tilts her head to the right, "Aye, from what I gather most creatures are in some ways." Though there were a few things that were universal. "Many types, many names." She murmurs an almost purr in her tone as her eyes shone in almost childlike wonder or a bookish scholar's glee.

Well, what did you know? A real live dragon within the Nexus. Nothing new there. Tony is just perusing around when he happens to stumble upon said dragon in the Plaza area. The smoke ring was pretty cute.

"Oh, you know Rogers? The Cap? You're not wrong about the whole questions thing there, Scaley. Ask away."

Tony studied the huge dragon and noticed it wasn't the dangerous angry kind who breathed fire and roasted people for fun. Always good. This guy was friendly and liked to ask questions which was always better than wanting to roast people in Tony's book. Too many dragons had a bad reputation.

"The world I come from? It has a bit of both---science and magic. We do seem to manage to strike a balance between the two with the supernatural and the scientific blending into one. Sort of like technology and myth mixing. You know Thor and his pain in the ass brother Loki? I know them and then think me, Iron-Man, technology and science. We sort of work together like that. Well, Thor does. Loki---not so much."

At least the one he'd spoken to so far had dispensed with throwing him out of windows.

"I haven't met him. I just saw him in the moving picture." Gorbash smiles a little. "You know him? I didn't know he was here, too. There isn't anyone else from my universe, I think, and I haven't seen any other dragons."

He hangs low a little, sadly.

"I lived with my uncle. Another dragon killed my siblings, so...I never had any brothers or sisters."

Gorbash shakes his head. He's never met either Thor or Loki, though he wonders whether he will if he hangs around long enough. "I know knights who wear metal armor for protection. Is that like what you do?" Gorbash doesn't need armor. His scales usually can do the job, though dragon scales can't turn away all blades.

OH! A dragon! Walter stares for a long time and then bursts into a child-like squeal of glee. It takes a moment and that question for him to do much more than stare like a wide -eyed child.

"Well. I think Arthur C. Clarke best answered this question oh.. many years ago now. 'Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.'" Walter pauses before going on. "It's true and we see the outcomes when scientists were persecuted as witches and modern fear of people who push the envelope of what is possible. .. of course, there's too far but you can't see that until you look back on what was done."

"It wouldn't surprise me if that happened back home," says Gorbash. "Science is very new there, and people are scared of things that are new. But humans are fast learners, so I think they'll figure it out."

Gorbash doesn't know the name Walter mentioned, but he knows the general gist of what's being discussed. Clearly this man's never met a dragon.

"OH! You are going to have fun." He is getting more excited by the moment. "Humans have to learn fast because nature moves without our input or choice."

Walter has never met a dragon but he accidently made one once, but he's not going to mention that right now.

Isamu looked up. That was quite a worthwhile question to ponder. With a deep passion for the sciences, the elder Uchiwa twin might be a little biased, but he gave the dragon’s question the thought it was due before replying.

“Assuming I am to take the translations of those words literally, our world is based on science. Magic is seen as mere fantasy, or the subject of fiction. It does not exist.” He stated matter of factly. “However, our world does have a similar concept that, while not magic per se, suggests supernatural influence on the natural world. We call that religion. And when taken like that, the answer is not nearly as clear. Because despite the lack of empirical evidence for religious beliefs, they still hold a considerable amount of weight in our society. Both to the believers of such doctrines and to the rules and behaviors they influence. And finding balance between those two concepts has been the subject of debates for centuries.”

It really was a muddy topic.

“I do not know if one could truly call it balance, but the country my brother and I grew up in is rooted in separating church and state, if you will. Science and religion are meant to be seen as separate spheres of influence entirely. I grew up witnessing a lot of that firsthand - Papa has quite the scientific mind, very successful in his chosen profession of biomedical engineering. Science has its place. He and Mama are also devout shintoists, maintaining their faith in the traditional ways. Mama is more formal with the daily rites, but that is beside the point. Religion also has its place.”

"Where I come from," the dragon explains, "both exist, but the belief in science is pushing magic to the sidelines, so to speak. So we voluntarily separated ourselves from the larger world so we could continue to exist without interfering. But to some extent magic - including magical creatures like dragons - rely on people believing in it."

Gorbash is able to follow surprisingly well. There are perks to having shared his body with a man of logic at one point. He can see both sides.

"At the same time our powers work in specific ways. Dragons need to eat certain minerals and rocks to breathe fire, and gemstones serve a useful purpose for us. We don't care that they look pretty. We feed on them like chickens eat gravel, to help us breathe flames and grind up our food. So science applies to us, too."

“I suppose it may also depend on what exactly one defines as balance. Do the two concepts in question need to be of equal proportion? Or merely the correct proportion for the situation? It could be argued, that in separation, there is balance.”

He thought for a moment more.

“Though, it seems more than a little troubling to hear you assert that your existence (what I would clearly call an observable truth) depends on whether or not other beings believe in you. Please, tell me that is not to be taken literally.”

Because if it was... then WHY?!

"It's more that...people don't believe in magic, and we're finding ourselves in a position where we would have been replaced. So we agreed to seal ourselves off for our own safety and the safety of the scientific world - though some of us do visit now and again in secret."

He's one of those few, though he's cautious about it. Glamours are useful, and it's handy to work for a wizard.

"Dragons were being hunted, I'm afraid. Some of us gave the rest a bad reputation, and people wanted to understandably protect their herds and flocks from hungry dragons."

“Fear of being replaced is certainly not limited to magical creatures, I assure you. The same could be said of many human occupations left antiquated by the rise of various scientific advancements. Telephone operators, toll booth attendants, television repairmen, and the like, just to name a few.” Isamu noted. “But that does not answer the question entirely. If they cease believing in magic, as you put it, you do not also cease to exist, do you?”

Dragons were still animals, right? Fantastic animals, no doubt. But scientifically verifiable creations of nature, nonetheless. Right?

"Magic was starting to fade - whether that means we would have disappeared, become something else, or simply lost our powers we don't know. Or we could have been hunted to extinction. That's not uncommon in your world, animals being killed because too many humans find them more useful or valuable dead than alive."

The dragon puffs a startled smoke cloud. "Humans have to worry about being replaced?"

Isamu nodded thoughtfully.

“Not on a species level, and not in the manner that you are describing. But on an individual level, a personal level, I dare say it is a valid fear among many humans.”

He attempted to explain, though he did not know if dragons had anywhere near a similar reference point.

“Just as scientific progress moves forward at a rapid pace, many things get left behind or rendered obsolete. Outdated technology is a relatively harmless example - perhaps frustrating if you need to procure a new laptop because yours no longer functions correctly. But entire industries and the people who specialized in those industries, could easily find themselves struggling to adapt or lose their livelihoods entirely.” He noted. “Even a function of age. As he has grown older, despite remaining current with the scientific advancements in his field, Papa struggles with the concept of being increasingly ignored in favor of younger colleagues and what are perceived to be newer, fresher ideas.”

Deet is perhaps incautious, but the moment she sees him flying overhead, she gathers her cloak to one side and spreads her own wings, taking off to hover in the wake of those massive wingbeats. Maybe some sixth sense tells her this is a New Big Friend or maybe she's a bit of a daredevil (both. it's both), but Gorbash has a flight companion for the last several hundred yards of his swooping.

She lands near him, giggling, hair more mussed then usual from the wind, and listens to his question with a happy grin. Unfortunately, she doesn't have much of an answer for him.

"Thank you, that was fun!" she says, then looks thoughtful. "We have knowledge, in books and scrolls and carvings. And we have magic, and we have dreamfasting. I think the only time I've heard science mentioned in Thra was talking about skekTek, and he's a terrible, wicked person."

"But people here talk about it, so I don't think science itself is evil, just bad when it's practiced by bad people, same as magic. That's all I know about it, though. Maybe when the goals are to do good, it doesn't matter so much what the means are?"

That's naive, probably, but she has a point.

Gorbash appreciates the company. There are few winged creatures who can keep up with a dragon, and where he comes from airplanes haven't been invented yet. He likes the idea of them, but they're loud and noisy and he can imagine dragons hitting one by mistake.

Is Deet an elf? She looks a little like one, except for the faerie-like wings. Odd.

"I've never met an evil scientist, but I've met evil sorcerers before, and they practice magic. Is this skekTek a human scientist?" skekTek is a strange name. The only scientist he's known was a human being, and not at all evil. But it figures there are bad apples, too.

"That's the way I look at things. There's dark magic, which is nasty stuff, but maybe half the problem is the kind of person who gets attracted to it."

"Definitely balance between the two," Raz looks up at the dragon, completely at home with his size and form.

"With the gods living among us and encouraging our development, religion never held science or magic back as it did on some worlds. The two on our planet are almost inseparable."

Gorbash looks down to greet the stranger, pleased that he didn't accidentally frighten this person.

"We hope we can reach the same on our world, someday - but there's work to be done before we get there. Your world sounds like an incredible place."

She's moved among the great Nocturne Dragons of the hell realms, and is protected from the effects of smoke by her magic. As for the possibility of being fried to a crisp, Raz takes it on trust that the AVF will boost her defences, if need be.

Not that this dragon seems at all hostile. He just might cough again, or sneeze.

"Oh, ours isn't perfect, there's always work to be done. For us, dragons and magic go hand-in-hand. Is that the case on your world?"

"Yes - dragons are magical creatures. Some of us are associates of sorcerers, including myself. We aren't magically adept ourselves, but we contain magic and are associated with it."

Gorbash is interested when the newcomer mentions other dragons, native to her home universe.

"There are dragons in your world? What are they like? I should introduce myself. My name is Gorbash."

"We have several dragon races. The smaller Arboreal fruit dragons, of Tarenshore. The great Nocturnes of Nadherna, and a good handful of others.

A small green catlike creature appears at Raz's feet, rubbing itself around her ankles. Absently she reaches down to reassure it.

"Pleased to meet you, Gorbash. I'm Razia Sulaman, High Mage to the Tzars of Keldra - but please call me Raz. And this is my Familiar, Keeta.

"Pleased to meetchya, mister Gorbash, sir," pipes up the alien-looking cat.

"Raz. You're a mage? We have them where I come from - I am a friend and companion of Carolinus, the Green Wizard." Gorbash instinctively bows in respect. "Greetings, then, to both of you."

He wonders what kind of creature the familiar is. Keeta looks rather like a cat, but looks and scents differently. The green dragon is curious.

"We have dragons, of course, where I live. Ogres, dwarfs, gryphons, the usual. There are also sandmirks and worms, who are our less intelligent and considerably less friendly cousins. I'd stay away from them if you ever find yourself where I come from."

Raz bows too, because dragons are ancient and venerable creatures. They're justifiably proud and are even respected by the gods. Even Keeta dips her little head.

"They sound much more diverse on your world," Keeta says, excited to learn of new races. She and Razia will be happy to explain anything Gorbash asks.

"We have great diversity, Raz explains, indicating Keeta. "But our dragon races are relatively few. It's partly why they're so cherished."

Edited 2021-05-30 21:41 (UTC)

"What are they like?" Gorbash is interested in learning more about Keldra and its native dragons. "Your world must be very exciting to live in."

He decides to explain a little more about his world's native creatures.

"Sandmirks are pack hunters, each pack led by a queen. Cowardly, but dangerous in large numbers. Their cries are so irritating that they can drive people violently paranoid. It's really quite nasty."

"The Nocturnes are a trifle lofty," Raz tells him. "They command respect. quite rightfully. The Arboreals are much more playful."

"Are Sandmirks big?" asks Keeta. When she's in animal form, everything is big.

"I don't think there are any worlds without science. There are just worlds where the inhabitants haven't figured out how to do science yet," Ford says, sitting down; this is one of his favourite topics, and unfortunately, sometimes also one of his favourite rants.

"The scientific method is a method of investigating questions to try and find the best answer to a question about how something works. It can be applied to 'magic'--whatever that means, in a given world--the same way that it can be applied to anything else. The only problem is that in some worlds, the ability to perform 'magic' is a talent that some people have and some people don't, so people tend to stop believing in magic when they find out you can't get the same results no matter who's doing the experiment."

Ford shrugs.

"The other problem with the question is that 'magic' is a very inexact term I prefer not to use. It can mean anything from prestidigitation, to psionic ability, to enhanced methods of prayer. People frequently have terrible misunderstandings when they use the word, because when someone asks you if you're doing magic, you'll tell them yes or no depending upon what you think magic is, and then you find out they meant something totally different. This can be humorous if you meant 'prayer' and they meant 'psionics'. But it can be absolutely the opposite of funny if you meant 'using a native ability to manipulate ethereal energy' and they meant 'worshipping demons, which is against the law, and we're going to burn you alive if we catch you doing that."

"The world I come from is, well, we have magic and science, but the magic is being crowded out, so to speak." Gorbash listens, interested. "But we still have to obey certain laws of nature - we need to create lift with our wings and certain gases, and our fire needs fuel. There's a reason why dragons in the old stories fed on gemstones and precious minerals. They're the best for helping us grind limestone to make our flames."

He breathes a short puff of fire to demonstrate. The dragon loaded up on limestone fuel before his arrival in the Plaza, thankfully.

Gorbash blinks a little. He can follow what the human's saying well enough - and Ford reminds him of Peter, somewhat. Gorbash thinks a bit of Peter stayed behind with him sometimes, because he has a much easier time understanding scientific concepts than other people in his world might.

"Science is just a mindset," Ford reiterates, frowning. "It's the idea that we shouldn't just accept explanations for why things work without testing them to see if they're true."

He sighs. "I frequently run into people who say that 'science doesn't work' in this world or that one, but what they actually mean is that the laws by which that universe functions are different, or that their technology isn't working correctly there. They're doing science wrong. Instead of trying to figure out why things work differently in the universe they're in, they decide to throw out the entire scientific philosophy...which is the best way sapient beings have ever come up with to figure out what's really going on."

"I'm not sure what you're trying to say. Are you saying that people are less interested in the study of magic--whatever that is in your world--now that they've discovered how efficient scientific experimentation is for figuring out how things work and creating new methods of doing things?"

He pauses for a moment. "Or are you saying that 'magic' isn't working as well in your world now that many of the inhabitants have found that magical experiments are harder to reproduce, and hard science is more effective for producing technologies you don't need a special talent to make use of? Because if that's the case, there are a number of things that could be happening. If 'magic' isn't working as well, it might be that your world's magic is religious in nature, and you're dealing with entities that feed on other people's belief in them, for example."

"We don't really know," Gorbash says. "In the case of dragons, humans hunted us to an extent. We're carnivores, and not all dragons draw a distinction between wild animals which are fair game and domesticated animals under human protection. We could well have become extinct. As for magic itself, it was starting to fade as science gained influence in the world. That's why we chose to separate ourselves - we gathered our most powerful sorcerers to preserve what was left."

He listen's to Ford's explanation, curious. "I think people always did that, to some degree, but they got better at it."

He gives a draconic equivalent of a shrug. "For our part, most of us don't have hard feelings about it. It's the way the world is going to be, and we respect their choice. Are you a scientist, then? You remind me of my old friend Peter. He was from the modern world, where people no longer believed in dragons or magic. But we needed a man of science for the task we needed."

"I am absolutely a scientist," Ford says with a big grin. "But I also use certain forms of magic, and in fact, I have applied the scientific method to the study of magic. This is the problem with the word 'magic'. That word can be used to describe anything that a person doesn't understand. There's even a proverb--Clarke's Law. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

He shrugs. "Most forms of magic shouldn't lose their power because humans are beginning to use the scientific method to study their world. When I use the word 'magic'--and I don't like to use it--I'm referring to the use of energies most people can't easily perceive or manipulate, by those who have the talent to do so, myself included. It is still subject to natural law. It just looks like it isn't, because in order to get reproducible results, you must accept that some humans can do it and others cannot. It shouldn't stop working just because fewer people believe that it works. If that's what is happening, then what you call magic and what I call magic are not the same thing."

He grins. "You know it's funny. I've travelled through many different dimensions of the multiverse, and I've met more dragons than you might think. Humans are pretty much the same wherever you go. Carbon based, red blood, lifespans of between 60-120 years unless they're killed by disease, violence, or accident, which means most people don't actually live that long without advanced technology. But dragons?

"Dragons are different. In some places they're carnivores like you. In other places they subsist on pearls and gemstones. Sometimes they have wings, sometimes they don't, because they can float and don't need them. Sometimes they're as intelligent as you and I. Sometimes...they're not really sapient at all. They're just big lizards that people call dragons. But dragons shouldn't disappear because humans don't believe in them, either. Actually, I'd think that if humans were to stop believing in dragons, there would be more dragons, because humans wouldn't hunt them. At least in places where dragons are carnivores and consider human flambee to be an appropriate menu item."

[[ooc: whoa, I'm getting major flashbacks from your character. I only saw that movie once when I was little, and I've been looking for a copy of it for a long time ;_;]]

Iago has never seen a dragon in person. He's heard stories of them in the air and the water in the lands just a little past those he knows. Beyond the bounds of the Turks' empire to the east, or somewhere past the Galician or Britons' coast, who knows what lies out there. He's seen monsters and great beasts of other kinds though, certainly, and he isn't shocked to see one here. Just confirms what the traders from the east were saying all along. He did not expect that the creatures could talk, though.

But in his breeches and tunic he doesn't look terribly out of place next to one, to the twenty-first century inhabitant's eye. He looks up into Gorbash's face.

"There are learnéd doctors and holy men whence I come. They know the qualities, histories and use of much matter through ponderous study. I have heard some change base substance into precious ores--still others consorteth with spirts, gods and fairies. And I have seen many strange wonders abroad. Call you that magic? Or science? Or the holy works of He who made us?" He shrugs. "I am a rude and unlettered soul, only a poor soldier, perhaps I cannot tell."

Not that there are many fairies in his neck of the Mediterranean. Better check in Greece.

"We have elves," says Gorbash, interested. "They're a bit like humans, though they have pointy ears and stronger magic. It's said that some of our world's sorcerers have elfin heritage somewhere. But it's only rumors." The wizard he worked for, Carolinus, was one of those speculated to either be an elf or connected to them - something helped by his strong connection to nature magic.

Gorbash met human soldiers sometimes. Knights, mostly - he had been rescued and then raised by a human knight, which gave him somewhat more positive feelings on humans than many other dragons.

"Science is in its young stages where I come from. Alchemy, astrology, that kind of thing. But people are learning quickly, and it's interesting to watch it take place. There are going to be things in the future that even a wizard wouldn't have believed possible. But I'm getting ahead of myself."

He inclines his head, folding back batlike wings. "I should introduce myself, sir. My name is Gorbash."

Iago bows deeply. The current of appropriate manners to those above and below one's station runs strongly through him and is as natural as breathing air. And while he doesn't specifically have a dragon-meeting protocol on hand, he makes the quick decision that anything large enough to pick its teeth with you without too much effort is worthy of the utmost deference.

"Iago. Ensign of good Othello, first among generals of Venice." He adds that last detail after a moment's pause to think. No one here knows his family, his quartiere, certainly not the name of his general. Perhaps even that last addition was unnecessary. But he had to say something, it was strange to be so contextless.

"And I know naught of the future. By my profession, I may predict the affairs of the next battle, but no further. And I am a poor reader even of those signs and auguries that may reveal themselves to me about that bloody matter."

"Hm." The dragon knows about Venice, but it's a new city in his time, freshly settled. But he's no expert on geography, and much was still being discovered when he was hatched in what would become England.

"We have fortune-tellers," says Gorbash, "and some of us can travel into the future with the help of magic. Which I suppose is different from what you mean." His consciousness was dimmed when he was fused with Peter, but Peter was from the future and would know about that sort of thing more than either of them.

"There are strange stories about dragons in human bestiaries, though."

From the Land of Magic

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