Audio; UN: username

[fuelingfire]

For those that might be interested, I have through considerable effort figured out how to tweak these devices into allowing the display of color video and images beyond sepia.

[There is a steady tap tap tap, like a claw on metal.]

Which I would demonstrate, save that this is a physical change to the device and requires me to put in several very small items to function. Thus if you have interest in seeing each other in color, I can be found at the Second Time's The Charm shop, which sells these communicators, for the next several days. Make an appointment. As I am generous, I will not charge for my considerable time and efforts in this, though I will not refuse donations. You will have to turn your device over to me for a bell or so, there's no way around it. If you refuse, you may purchase another, I can update that one, and you may turn in your old one for recycling.

Technically I can't refuse anyone who asks for my aid. But if you are rude, violent, or otherwise not on good behavior something unpleasant may happen to your device while my talons are in its guts. Try to at least feign civility.




[OOC: The first watch update is here, IN LIVING COLOR. Lahabrea absolutely must get his hands on a watch in order to upgrade it. While this interaction can be handwaved!! you may also come visit Lahabrea and have it done in person for delicious CR! He won't refuse anyone, and he'll take into account rude people at least making an effort at being polite. Upgrades are freeeee! Make an appointment (in this thread or inboxes or etc I don't mind~) and come get your color upgrade!

Although he didn't mention it in this notice, he's willing to teach others how to do this as well, so other people can do upgrades! If you're interested, find an excuse to ask him! I welcome any and all assistance; the more hands I get the faster I can do future upgrades too!]

Comments

[fuelingfire]

Certainly not up to standard. Did you see the 'foundations' of their work? Shoddy craftsmanship all. The magic portion might have been nearly acceptable but they wholly ignored the physical underpinnings. Imagine if our cities and towns were a set of shacks concealed by illusion!

[Lahabrea had major issues with their magical excesses - mostly because they ignored everything they put it on. A solid base to work with was all but required, and if pride couldn't be taken in conjuring up the stone and wood and creating something aesthetic from it, then nobody got any points for decent illusion and glamour later.

But at least they made an effort at it. He makes a brief negating gesture with a tiny screwdriver, scowling. Once a teacher, in some ways, always a teacher; he couldn't simply let go of the idea that these 'true fae' and their pets had simply skipped over the first several steps and gone right to trying to make everything look nice.]

The price they pay for short, pointless lives.

[He returns to his work, still scowling. It's easy to tell when his focus shifts mostly to that instead of conversation, his tone changes, more absently following sound than actively being alert to it. It's fragile work, and he doesn't have all the tools he'd LIKE to have. Or his magic. But for the moment he's overcome that particular handicap.]

By the time they've even begun mastering the basics, they're already withering away. What choice do they have but to smugly think their poor worst is actually the best they can do?

[unsundered]

Oh, they're not worth particular praise, [Is an easy sort of concurrence, as he muses more on what he could remember of the place.] I wouldn't care to live in one of their houses overlong unless I had no other choice.

[Enchantments could be broken, could fade... but carefully wrought constructions like they had in Amaurot and its contemporaries would last across time and disaster.

Still, he didn't think the fae's work to be excessive, and any higher use of magic was better than none at all, as far as he was concerned. That it was in a more frivolous direction- he didn't think it was the worst thing.]

It still speaks of a potential that's since been squandered. Not that humans have much of a choice.... Such are their limitations.

[He also falls quiet for a bit, as Lahabrea seemed to be concentrating. While he doubted the other man would accidentally damage his watch in some way irreparable, there was no need to test fate.

The mortal lack of available years... though they had any number of flaws, he'd long suspected this to be the foundation of most of them. Without time, they lacked perspective. Only few cared overmuch for the world they left behind for generations to come, and for those that did, there was no guarantee that those generations would make any use of it.

--Yet he wanted to see them try. If left on their own, without immortal interference, what might they accomplish?

Shaking off the thought, he adds with a sigh:]

Even their rudimentary magic isn't mastered in a day. Who knows, perhaps it's not as feeble as it seems, but in human years there's no chance of any of them ever reaching its true pinnacle. While the longer lived of monsters aren't even permitted to try, limited by nature.

sorry for delays RL is. ... a challenge.

[fuelingfire]

[There would probably be ways to get around the limitations of mortal aging.. if they had any actual interest in doing so. They rewrote the very laws of reality once, editing mere flesh and bone to at least maintain some vestige of generational memory might not even be terribly difficult.

But for Lahabrea at least, that would be very much akin to admitting defeat, and that they would not one day be the very people they once were. Caring about some fragile mortal now, when in another few centuries or an eon or two would again be ancient, timeless and perfect was simply a waste of time. He knew there was a place for timewasters, he was indulging in one right now, but ... not mortals. He never had the strange willingness to spend entire lifetimes among them the way Emet Selch did.]

One would figure at least some of them would have a greater ambition in even extending their own lifespans.

[A tiny screwdriver is waggled, as if this is somehow an example.]

For all that the mortals of this world are weak and pathetic, they are ... after their fashion, whole. There is no reason to think they could not, in time, improve themselves bit by bit. And yet I hear no stories of witches or sorcerers dabbling in life-extension or reincarnation of a truer sense, or even better healing magics.

[That it seems, is important enough to drag him out of his work, though he returns to it quickly. This bit isn't as complex as some, though it requires a minute welding device.]

Our wretched mortals at least yearn for something greater. For all that they will never reach the stars, they stretch their feeble hands towards the heavens regardless. These truly do squander it. Mayhap because they have no knowledge even instinctively of the possibility of greatness.

take your time <3 god it's not like i'm not full of delays

[unsundered]

You would think so... but even the fear of their own mortality hasn't been enough to spur them on.

[Emet-Selch would have a hard time justifying his habit of spending so much time around mortals, living their lives... as it wasn't as though it had caused him to become any more fond of them. Much the opposite, really. Time and again, he'd made the mistake of getting attached to some mortal for reasons that grew ever murkier, even to himself. And time and again they would die, and the Ascian lost that bit more hope in all who remained. That hope was a bit more rooted now, but as for whether anything would come of it... it wasn't for him to find out.

And after so long, there was some relief in that.

The points that Lahabrea chooses to emphasize and protest amongst his work get a brief nod of agreement, and eventually a quiet hum.]

Those of our star who do reach... mayhap it is something unique to them, by virtue of who they once were. Some scrap remains, calling them to something more.

[Considering Hydaelyn's method of awakening more sacrifices in Her endless war against the dark, by calling up imagery reminiscent of the Final Days, something scarred into the soul of every Amaurotine, no matter how broken... it wasn't as though it were in question that something of their people remained in those peculiar mortal remnants.

Perhaps that was why he could never give up on them entirely, no matter how much he despised them.]

For all that they're whole, I wonder if the mortals here are that much more pitiable. [An idle musing, as he settles back with loosely crossed arms.] No Rejoining exists to improve their lot. Their history doesn't point to any time of being particularly more advanced. And from what I've learned of humans from other stars, the blight of mortality is the default.

[fuelingfire]

More the pity.

[There are lengthy pauses and silences as he works on his task; ordinarily Lahabrea would be snappish at best with interruptions to something he's focused on but it is allowed. An allowance he didn't grant to others, but if there could be exceptions made, surely they could only be granted to a fellow Ascian.

This, at least, made him feel somewhat less inadequate. If it was a job Emet-Selch could do himself, would he necessarily turn to others and idle about, bored, waiting for it to be completed?

Possibly, but unlikely by Lahabrea's estimation.

He can still manage something of value.]

It is some small comfort to know that timelessness isn't unique to our kind, at the least. I have heard of at least two other species that count their lives in the eon, not the year. And yet most of these short lived ones are indeed, human. Is it a flaw of that specific design, across all realities?

[Humanity was ubiquitous, and their grievous flaws alongside them.]

But it gives a glimmer of hope too, in turn. Once matters are settled with our star, we too may have the opportunity to turn outward, and find others like ourselves and build bridges across the cosmos. Rare though we immortal races may be.. we are not alone.

[unsundered]

[The pauses are congenial to him, the witch not requiring a running commentary to keep himself entertained. At the same time, if he'd been completely disinterested in speaking with the other Ascian, he would've dropped the watch off and returned once it was complete. At the same time again, quiet company wasn't the worst thing.

Sometimes observing, sometimes contemplating his own thoughts, Emet-Selch refocuses on Lahabrea as he speaks, though one part, naturally, gives him pause.]

Not unique, no. But far too unusual.

['Once matters are settled with our star.' A statement that has him fall silent after his initial reply, apart from a quiet sigh to follow it. If there was to be anyone reaching out to other worlds, it would not be them, but humanity with all their flaws.]

--Well. That won't be for some time in any case. The search for other worlds at home, that is, should there even be any others in reach. Or any that are worth reaching for.

[fuelingfire]

Oh, no. I imagine not for.. eons upon eons.

[A touch wistful, that. He wasn't sure he'd still be alive to see it, to be there, and he accepted that much ... but he could still imagine.]

But even we must have something worth looking to the stars for, don't you think? To have dreams outside our reach, mayhap even outside our lifetimes, long after the star is made right and Lord Zodiark's peace embraced by all. Eventually we must turn outwards.

[And bring their God with them, to star after star, extending the shadow of His greatness across the galaxy. He doesn't say it - it's basic, an unstated obviousness. His hands still for a moment, silence following, before he shakes his head, a rattle of tiny nearly unseen ornaments on his horns following the gesture.]

I do not think it will be part of my future. Dragons do not last that long. But I will not release those dreams so easily. If we have naught to look forward to, then all we can do is look back, and that's a terrible way to rebuild a civilization.

[A slight slip of a clawtip sends a tiny spring cartwheeling across the table. He watches it for a long moment before simply fetching a different one and replacing it.]