The Oasis

[greatcleavage]

What the heck was he doing here?

Beneath the shade of the palm fronds, Roy stared out at the desert that stretched out in every direction. Somehow he'd found himself here, against all logic. A weird sidequest? A dream? Maybe he was dead again and his spirit had been hijacked.

Well, what could he do but wait and see what came along? The oasis showed signs of being used by travelers, so he wouldn't be stuck here forever anyway...

Comments

[greatcleavage]

Okay. Okay. He can handle this. Calm breath.

"I feel I should clarify that where I come from, cards are in no way involved with the greater cosmology or any uses of magic, equipment, or skills."

[najaran]

"Then how does anyone get anything done?" she asked, perplexed.

"Most people aren't Cepters, Naja!!!!"

[greatcleavage]

"Casters rely, generally as a rule, on verbal, somatic, material, and focus components to tap into the source of magic from which they derive their powers," Roy said, settling into patient-explanation mode.

[najaran]

"Wow...." she said, awed.

"You didn't follow any of that, did you, Najaran?"

"Nope, but it sounds impressive. Betcha Alta would get it though."

His mustache dropped and his eyes closed. "I weep for your future, Najaran..."

[greatcleavage]

"All right." Roy pressed a finger between his eyes, feeling a headache coming on. "Let's start with terms. Magic. What is magic?"

[najaran]

"Um.... are you teaching or am I?" she asked, confused.

[greatcleavage]

"I'm absolutely certain I am, but I need to establish just what you know or what you think." Which would apparently be a short conversation.

[najaran]

"Well.... Master Horowitz would know best...."

[greatcleavage]

"I'm asking you, though." Plus he wasn't sure he agreed with her there.

[najaran]

"Oh... so this is a test..." her shoulders slumped. "Well.... magic is anything that can't be done with science and stuff, right?" she asked, considering. "And... I guess being a Cepter is using magic, since not everyone can do it, even if they have the cards?"

[greatcleavage]

"Hmm, well, that's a start. So magic is a process by which the laws of physics in general are bent, then." Please don't say that was too complicated.

[najaran]

"Laws of physics?" She frowned. "How do you bend a law? The paper it's written on?"

Don't mind the soft sobbing noises coming from her staff.

[greatcleavage]

"You perform an action that is ordinarily in violation of that law." Thank you, Elan, for teaching him patience.

[najaran]

"Wouldn't that be breaking the law?" she asked, with a frown.

[greatcleavage]

"Let's not take the concept of 'law' too literally here. Fundamental precept of physics, let's say."

[najaran]

The staff was listening intently. Najaran... seemed more lost. "Physics?"

[greatcleavage]

Okay, now this was getting into weird territory. "You know, the rules that reality operates on? Gravity? Temperature? Motion? Base Attack Bonus?"

ROFL

[najaran]

"Base attack bonus?"

Even Gooligan seemed confused by that one.

[greatcleavage]

"You, uh." There was no delicate way to ask this. "You... are familiar with the core rulebooks, right?"

[najaran]

"Core... is that some sort of cook book?"

[greatcleavage]

Oh. Oh dear.

"You know, I think we may be coming at this from too great a distance to easily bridge," Roy said, doing his best to hide his alarm at such a statement.

[najaran]

"Well that was why you were explaining it, right?"

[greatcleavage]

"Well, I was certainly trying, but I'm not exactly sure how to at this point. I was presuming we had an adequately shared common ground of understanding, but..." How could he even begin?

[najaran]

Her shoulder slumped. "But I;'m too stupid to understand?" she guessed.

[greatcleavage]

"No one who can wield powers like you do," Roy said, fire coming back into his voice, "is stupid. You and I just know very different things."