tushanshu | second lighthouse; VIDEO

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second lighthouse; VIDEO

I've been thinking and writing some things down, and something I've wanted to ask...

What would you consider very... mm, 'defining' I suppose is the word I'm looking for? Something that you feel your reality wouldn't be the same without. Don't worry, I'll go first.

[ She flashes a knowing smile at that. ]

Certainly, there are certainly many historical events that shaped the world, but if I had to pick one that's affective to Columbia in my era would be the discovery a few decades ago of the Lutece Particle, which in turn is used to make a Lutuce Field. Another term for it is called 'quantum levitation', and it suspends atoms in mid-air by a controllable field, allowing things to be manipulated within the sphere of gravity, and to impart those effects onto other objects.

[ Someone's read The Principles of Quantum Mechanics a few too many times... ]

And that's how Columbia is an airborne city. So, I think things in my reality would be very different if that hadn't been discovered!

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<< You lived in a floating city before this? Yeah okay, that's pretty cool. >>

[Yes, it's this guy again. He looks healthier than he did before, but his brain is still stuck in Italian.]

<< To answer your question though...in my world it was the discovery of the Isu, and the Pieces of Eden. The former being an advanced sentient race that preceded humans by a few thousand years, and the latter being the technology they left behind, that humans...kind of built their technological leaps on. Most everything of the modern age where I come from started with the Pieces of Eden. >>

A floating city sounds pretty incredible. Do you have something along the outskirts, to stop people falling off? [The "or getting pushed off" remains unspoken, but it's there. ] Or are you all just really careful?

Would it not be accurate to claim that any alterations in events or circumstances could theoretically lead to one experiencing an alternate reality from the one they have come to know?

[She wasn't trying to mock or put a damper on Elizabeth's questioning. This was her legitimate initial reaction.]

[An airborne city sounds... interesting. Not exploitable from here, regrettably, but China will have to make a note of these particles.]

[And also consider how she might achieve a similar effect with sigilwork. Not necessarily because she wants to, but because she wants to know if she can.]

Do you mean environmental, or personal, I wonder? Certainly our world would be very different without a few specific people.

[The war always seemed to hinge on people, after all.]

Magic is an environmental defining factor, of course, but most mortals aren't aware of it.

[All the same, China would have died a few hundred years ago without it.]

Interesting. Some planets in my reality have floating cities, but that is completely technological.

If there's one thing to distinguish my universe, it is the presence of the Force and know how to use it. To the people here it would be best described as a kind of magic, though it is not... Come to think of it, maybe not so much the existence of the Force, as that we know of it and can use it. I've met Force sensitives from other realities here, so it stands to reason their worlds have it, they just don't know it.

A floating city is truly remarkable. What was it like to live in such a place?

For my own world, the most recent defining event would have been an interdimensional collision with the Beyond that resulted in New York becoming Jerusalem's Lot.

<<You still haven't solved your language problem, I see. At least there are people here who can speak Italian, though!>>

[ The foreign terms from Italian give Elizabeth a bit of a pause as she translates them mentally, but her eyes widen. ]

<<That's really extraordinary... how did people learn to use these 'Pieces of Eden'? Oh, does it have anything to do with the Biblical Eden, or is that simply a coincidence?>>

Edited (html) 2016-11-15 07:13 (UTC)

Well, there are safeguards in the populated areas, and the influence of the Lutece Field does extend a little beyond the actual buildings, although not very far... I suppose it's mostly reliant on people's conscientiousness of it all.

[ Parallel universe theory! Elizabeth has read about this ~~and everything else~~ trying to make sense of the Tears. ]

Certainly there are countless realities out there, and it's likely that some only differ by a very small degree rather than an order of magnitude. But I think, if one spends enough time looking at these many realities, it's possible to find common denominators in them.

I purposely didn't specify! That way people aren't influenced one way or another. Certainly there are both who can heavily influence the course of history.

Environmental... so it's naturally occurring? How does one quantify it?

Yes, it sounds like the same... Mme. Rosalind Lutece is a quantum physicist, I have both of her books. It's a shame actually, that I didn't have them on me when I arrived, I would have liked to share them and see how similar or dissimilar they are to what other people are familiar with!

Is the Force... a type of energy? Can it be measured? Many of the books I've read on magic -- fictional books, of course, although now I wonder how many of them were rooted in fact! -- seem to have a system of natural law that governs it.

[ Elizabeth falters just slightly at that; she hasn't done much in the way of living in the city. ]

Well, it's very productive... it's a good place for people to really make their mark on the world.

[ a hesitance ]

Of course, like any city, it's not without its problems.

That would be the War.

And not the 'world', but the entire fucking galaxy.

Assholes on one planet and its moon a million stars away have to ruin shit for everyone.

I would be very surprised to find a city without its troubles. Though from your tone I take it these are particularly unpleasant?

Okay, so I have a question for you. Since you're talking about your Lutece Field thing. Do you have Gems where you come from?

Edited 2016-11-15 17:16 (UTC)

I'm not sure I can point to any one thing that defines my world. History is a tapestry; there's no one thing or event that stands out on its own more than the others, yet remove one thread, and it all falls apart.

[Liar! You know damn well what defines your world. You're just not going to say.]

Though if I had to pick one, I'd say the existence of the largest contiguous land empire in history is a good place to start, due to its effect on world culture.

Edited (i forgot a thing) 2016-11-15 17:15 (UTC)

<< Not yet, no. There's a machine back home that could help me, but I wouldn't even know where to begin to build it here. Technology's not really my strong suit. I am thankful, though, that there are people here who can understand me. I was worried about that when I went on camera myself, trying to figure out what was going on. >>

[Desmond produces the Apple of Eden, it glows a faintly golden color in his hand.]

<< It's a little of both, honestly. In order to use Pieces of Eden, like the Apple here, you've gotta have a little Isu DNA in your genetics. Like...they kept humans as a slave labor force, and interbred with us at one point. Adam and Eve were actual real people in my world, who stole an Apple of Eden, and fled from the city of Eden, which was a big city constructed by the Isu. The Bible, where I come from, is a mixture of things that really happened, and events that were misinterpreted by people who couldn't comprehend the power they were seeing. >>

[Desmond focuses on the Apple, which causes a glass of water sitting next to him to turn from clear to a purple-ish color, as though he'd turned the water into wine.]

Huh. So I guess you have to be real careful in the outskirts.

[The fact that she was willing to entertain the notion, and even remain open to the discussion...it almost didn't matter how their conversation went from here. Aya was already smiling in enjoyment.]

Assuming the number of realities could span from an infinite moments in time, with changes ranging from the dramatic to the miniscule...I am inclined to agree.

One doesn't quantify it, mostly.

[China sounds amused, and a little indulgent.]

Oh, we have our scientists, those who are bent on understanding it and picking it apart and entwining it with mortal technology. For the most part, however, sorcerers simply live and breathe magic, and so many of them think about it no more than you would reaching out to pick up your clothes in the morning.

Ever heard of the Cold War?

I dunno, really. I never left the city I was born in.

<<Well, Italian's pretty well known, isn't it?>>

[ But that seems massively inconsequential in light of what Desmond does next, and Elizabeth's breath catches in her throat as she watches. ]

That's... I admit that's not the type of interpretation of the Bible I'm used to, nor I would venture that most people are used to.

[ She's not staunchly religious, not in the way the Founders Faith is implicit in all aspects of Columbian life. Part of that is because she's so segregated in her Tower, and part of it is because of the alternatives she's seen via her Tears. ]

[ laughing ] A smart person is careful everywhere, Adrien! It's really not so different than walking on the banks of the Seine, right?

So that's what I'm asking, what kind of things would you consider touchstones?

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