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Consumption

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I feel like playing into her preconceptions will get us sucked into this system, and we may end up with questions that we can't reasonably answer...

[x] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[x] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
 
[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
--[X] Ask her more about traveling dimensions since it seems to be common knowledge.
---[X] Can you tell me about the differences between the houses?
 
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[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
--[X] Whats Aura?
---[X] Ask her more about traveling dimensions since it seems to be common knowledge.
----[X] Are there any Houses that I should avoid or any Houses that could help?
 
[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
--[X] Ask her more about traveling dimensions since it seems to be common knowledge.
---[X] Can you tell me about the differences between the houses?
 
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[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
--[X] Whats Aura?
---[X] Ask her more about traveling dimensions since it seems to be common knowledge.
----[X] Are there any Houses that I should avoid or any Houses that could help?
 
Also earth is a coreworld. ... space magic D :

I honestly think our best bet is to lay out how we are from out of town way way out of town. This world seems to have hostile masquerade and if we can get safety from this girls house it would be useful.
 
Well. She seems... nice enough? She's already made it so we can't join the anti-magic guys, who, by the way, she is RIDICULOUSLY biased against. Don't trust anything she says about them.

I'm tentatively in favor of full disclosure?

[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
--[x] Ask her more about traveling dimensions since it seems to be common knowledge.
-[x] Ask more about Houses and differences between them.

Removed the aura question because it's.. you know. An aura. Lowercase a. Melia knows what an aura is.

I seriously doubt the House question is going to be relevant. We aren't going to be doing any traveling and are most likely going to be crashing here unless she kicks us out.
 
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Hrm. We're operating under a universal translator, so if "Inquisitors" is the wrong name, she's going way the hell out of her way to use insulting slang.

Her claims about torture, suicide, and burnout for "official mages"... she's either completely falsifying everything, we're living in a civilization that's so totalitarian that tortured people don't talk about being tortured, or there's a full-blown war going on and everyone's operating under medieval modes of thought wrt prisoners and civilians. This isn't a case of Gitmo; official mages are going to be public figures and it will be noticed that they've all been tortured and that they only live for a couple years. Either way, I have a feeling that there's a reason everyone hates the mages so much.

Especially given this:
Alivaril said:
"'Oh, Vanessa, they were our sworn enemies thousands of years before these decades-old upstarts came along. They have one trick and I'm going to conveniently ignore the fact that they've killed over half of all mages, ever, with that trick.
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Over half of all mages ever to have lived were killed in the last few decades? Sounds like someone has a longevity thing going on. And people don't really talk about "decades-old upstarts" unless they're either really old money... or if they're just plain really old.

Personally, I'm guessing vampires. I'd say illuminati, one of the really evil variations, but "decades" is long enough that the population would've started to forget how bad things used to be, and you have to be really super dedicated to hate people so much that you give them horrible death sentences just for being able to use magic.
 
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[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
 
pressea said:
Removed the aura question because it's.. you know. An aura. Lowercase a. Melia knows what an aura is.

I seriously doubt the House question is going to be relevant. We aren't going to be doing any traveling and are most likely going to be crashing here unless she kicks us out.
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yeah your right about the aura it just for some reason when I read that it seem Melia was curious about it as for the Houses dimensional travel seems to be common and there is a chance we may run into a hostile traveler so I want to know if there are any Houses we should avoid or if there are friendly Houses out there that can help a lone travler you don't have to vote for the question if you don't want to
 
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pressea said:
How about a bicycle? Yes, it's bulky, and yes, it will probably get stolen near immediately, but I quite like the idea of Melia learning to ride one and trying to spread the technology to every world she heads to. It's simple enough (at least, I assume it's simple enough? There were prototypes floating around for a long time, I know that without looking at wikipedia) that fantasy artisans should be capable of replicating it.
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If so, go for something capable of handling rough terrain. Non-modern roads are pretty poor in quality, and that can be bad for more simple bikes.
Random832 said:
We should probably get both a swiss army knife or other multitool and a knife-knife. Probably other survival gear too.
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They'd actually make pretty good trade goods, if a bit bulky. Then again, we're already considering hauling chunks of metal, and this would probably be worth more. Processed goods often are.
Alivaril said:
"It should be a crime to educate your kids this badly. Okay, look. You're on Earth, coreworld, yadda yadda yadda. Place your family probably got chased off even if they don't wanna teach you that part or claim otherwise. Inquisitors are big angry shitheads with antimagic, pointy knives, and a fondness for using both on any mage they can find. News travels, magic is known to be a dying art thanks to them, and letting a non-magical person, or norm, spot magic usage is fucking stupid. There's, like, an Inquisitor branch in every damn city at this point. Honestly, just the way you're dressed is a big hint. Any questions?"
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Well. That's brilliant.
Alivaril said:
"How did you get here, anyway? I heard and felt all the signs of a temporary portal except for the portal itself. Or is that a House secret?"
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...I'm personally in favor of just telling her the truth. I'd love to see her expression.
Vebyast said:
ALSO WHOOPS SUPER HOSTILE MASQUERADE.
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Not even a masquerade. Full on authoritarian magical police state, possibly fueled by some 'divine' magic and/or mandate. Like, the mages get forcibly drafted as public servants to keep the normal people from feeling afraid.

There's a lesson somewhere in here about books and covers, but personally, I'm too busy laughing maniacally to figure it out. Mostly to drown out the minor case of tinnitus I've got right now. My right ear's a bit blocked, and it's constantly ringing faintly.
Vebyast said:
Aaaand apparently our talent is neither unique nor particularly special, and we're probably just the first person from our particular corner of reality to get it. I smell a Stross novel coming on. Merchant Princes, I think it was?
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Maybe, maybe not. If not, at least we'll potentially figure out a way to control this crap. Dunno about you, but I'd love to manage to stay somewhere for more than a week.
pressea said:
Well. She seems... nice enough? She's already made it so we can't join the anti-magic guys, who, by the way, she is RIDICULOUSLY biased against. Don't trust anything she says about them.
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Yeah, I suspect that there might be a good reason for that bias. I don't think any of the worlds we're going to visit is going to be hugely hospitable, honestly.
Vebyast said:
Hrm. We're operating under a universal translator, so if "Inquisitors" is the wrong name, she's going way the hell out of her way to use insulting slang.

Her claims about torture, suicide, and burnout for "official mages"... she's either completely falsifying everything, we're living in a civilization that's so totalitarian that tortured people don't talk about being tortured, or there's a full-blown war going on and everyone's operating under medieval modes of thought wrt prisoners and civilians. This isn't a case of Gitmo; official mages are going to be public figures and it will be noticed that they've all been tortured and that they only live for a couple years. Either way, I have a feeling that there's a reason everyone hates the mages so much.

Especially given this:
Over half of all mages ever to have lived were killed in the last few decades? Sounds like someone has a longevity thing going on. And people don't really talk about "decades-old upstarts" unless they're either really old money... or if they're just plain really old.

Personally, I'm guessing vampires. I'd say illuminati, one of the really evil variations, but "decades" is long enough that the population would've started to forget how bad things used to be, and you have to be really super dedicated to hate people so much that you give them horrible death sentences just for being able to use magic.
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Nah, magically extending life-spans is an old trope. Personally, I suspect the mages trashed a fair bit of the world dueling at some point. Walking WMDs tend to be scary. Especially ones that organize themselves into Houses, and act like nobility. Can you say 'abuse of power'?

Now, I'm going try and drown out this DAMN RINGING with some speed-metal.
 
Nixeu said:
Nah, magically extending life-spans is an old trope. Personally, I suspect the mages trashed a fair bit of the world dueling at some point. Walking WMDs tend to be scary. Especially ones that organize themselves into Houses, and act like nobility. Can you say 'abuse of power'?
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Wouldn't last long enough; by Vanessa's report these people won their war almost generations ago. It'd be like if modern-day IRL places went around executing citizens of polities they were at war with during WWII.

Other possibility is that this planet is permanently fucked up and everyone still blames the mages. The burning ground, for example, which might also explain the metal shoes?
 
Didn't the mage guilds in the last dimension take an extremely dim view of mages who weren't affiliated with them? We liked those guys, and they could be described as working for the 'greater good' and 'reformed public servants', so there's a chance we'll like this anti-magic group too. I'm not saying run to them immediately when we have no reason to, just... keep an open mind, if Vanessa turns out to have some rotten parts to her family they are an alternative.
 
[x] pressea

pressea said:
Didn't the mage guilds in the last dimension take an extremely dim view of mages who weren't affiliated with them? We liked those guys, and they could be described as working for the 'greater good' and 'reformed public servants', so there's a chance we'll like this anti-magic group too. I'm not saying run to them immediately when we have no reason to, just... keep an open mind, if Vanessa turns out to have some rotten parts to her family they are an alternative.
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Maaaybe wait until our exit strategy's fully charged just in case though.
 
I don't think that Vanessa could think she could pull this lie off unless substantial portions of it were true. There's a hell of a difference between "takes a dim view of" and "tortures to death". Either Vanessa is sharp enough to go straight from "new dimensional traveler" to "gaslight her like OPEC is having a going-out-of-business sale" and she expects to be able to keep us so thoroughly isolated from real news that we can't possibly find real statistics for "official mages", or the anti-magic group is serious bad juju.
 
Vebyast said:
Wouldn't last long enough; by Vanessa's report these people won their war almost generations ago. It'd be like if modern-day IRL places went around executing citizens of polities they were at war with during WWII.

Other possibility is that this planet is permanently fucked up and everyone still blames the mages. The burning ground, for example, which might also explain the metal shoes?
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...I think I missed the bit where there was a war. If you're talking about the Inquisition, that's like wondering why the Spanish Inquisition was still hunting for crypto-Jews, and kept a close eye on the conversos.
pressea said:
Didn't the mage guilds in the last dimension take an extremely dim view of mages who weren't affiliated with them? We liked those guys, and they could be described as working for the 'greater good' and 'reformed public servants', so there's a chance we'll like this anti-magic group too. I'm not saying run to them immediately when we have no reason to, just... keep an open mind, if Vanessa turns out to have some rotten parts to her family they are an alternative.
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Oh, I'm willing to bet they have a bad side. They keep ancient grudges and seem to act like nobles. Vanessa's probably a bit of a rebel, however, so there's that.

But uh...this sounds like a case of grey-vs-grey, here. The fact that the translator defaulted to Inquisitor, plus, the language used ('repent'), makes this sounds distinctly like a religious thing. They sound like Dragon Age Templar expies. Only without the addiction to magical liquid (as far as we know). Also, with a lot less sequestering and Traquilization of mages, and a lot more torture.
 
Random832 said:
Does "Inquisitor" have those connotations to us though?
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Very good question, but sacrifices must be made for the sake of writing this quest in English. So, assume the answer to that question is "yes" or "close enough." For example, Melia thinks of the torturers/headhunters of storytale villains, those who falsely accuse people of being fatally disloyal for their own benefit, etc.
 
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[X] Your talent tore a hole in the universe and you stepped through.
-[X] Don't bother concealing that you're probably from an unconnected dimension.
[X] Ask more questions of your own.
-[X] What's a Realm?
--[X] Ask her more about traveling dimensions since it seems to be common knowledge.
----[X] Are there any Houses that I should avoid or any Houses that could help?
 
I think that this quest needs a new tag. I'm tempted to make a discworld reference, but I think that "...Some of the sheep" would be too obscure. "Everything is trying to kill you"?
 
Alivaril said:
Very good question, but sacrifices must be made for the sake of writing this quest in English. So, assume the answer to that question is "yes" or "close enough." For example, Melia thinks of the torturers/headhunters of storytale villains, those who falsely accuse people of being fatally disloyal for their own benefit, etc.
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I kind of figured that part, since it was actually described, I meant more "does whatever it was translated from/to also suggest agents of something analogous to western organized religion in particular"?
 
Random832 said:
I kind of figured that part, since it was actually described, I meant more "does whatever it was translated from/to also suggest agents of something analogous to western organized religion in particular"?
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Ah. For "from," you don't know. Presumably yes; why else would it pick that word?
 
I am just going to say that saying "CALLED IT, THERE'S A MAGIC-PHOBIC EVIL TYRANNY IN THIS WORLD" is boasting about one's ability to build elaborate speculative constructs from very slim pieces of evidence, to the point where the speculative constructs cannot possibly be right all the time or even most of the time.

That, or boasting about being able to read Alivaril's mind and derive actionable information from zero or negligible actual evidence other than, say, "I know from years of experience with him that he likes Dragon Age, so there's bound to be a Dragon Age dimension." Which is the kind of thing that leads toward ragequit paths for me, not towards "respect the person who 'guessed' correctly."
 
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