TEXT ✦ un: scion

[shtola]

[Hey, City network! What are you up to today? Having fun exploring the liminal spaces, reliving past memories, getting locked into vaults — or maybe just fucking around? Because apparently someone's in the mood for the latter.]

what's a girl got to do to get a little attention around here? ;)

[A short time after that initial post, a follow-up appears.]

because i certainly wouldn't mind being asked out for a meal and an evening in good company, myself. by someone worthy of the honor, of course; naturally, i'm a lady of discerning tastes.

[And then, a little bit later still: ]

takers must feel the unquenchable thirst of the pursuit of knowledge and be willing to participate in intellectual debate for bells on end. oh, and graciously accept defeat when i inevitably hand it to them. or don't — i'll best you at it whether you accept it or not. i'm ever so brilliant that way. how's that for sharing?

[OOC: If the content of this post sounds suspiciously unlike Y'shtola, that's because it isn't — Thancred (onlythans) and his sticky fingers have "borrowed" her network device for a short time. Responses will come from both Thancred and Y'shtola or possibly just Y'shtola after she murders Thancred in cold blood for this!]

Comments

[shtola]

( kaveh and alhaitham flirting in front of her? more likely than you think. because this definitely constitutes as flirting in her book. )

I take it you're his other half.

( of the debates, obviously. )

Might I ask the focus of your studies? Both of you, if you don't mind my asking. I have a specialty of my own, of course, but that is not to say I've closed my mind to other subjects.

[justscribing]

[Oh yeah, totally. Just of the debates. Nothing more.

If Alhaitham is agreeably pleased by that assessment there's nobody here to see it but him.]

I'm the one he's attempting to solicit you with.

I studied linguistics and Kaveh is an architect, though I spend personal time reading about a much wider range of subjects. And what of you?

[shtola]

( yep. totally. mhm. and we all believe that. )

A linguist and an architect. I can't imagine much overlap with the two, but I've been pleasantly surprised before.

Mine is the study of aether, which I've seen referred to by other names. 'Tis the source of life, and the basis of most our magicks and spells, though recently my ventures have been dedicated to searching for a means of travel between reflections.

[justscribing]

Our viewpoints have nothing in common at all. [That's the best part!]

Would it be traveling through reflections like a doorway, or for longer distances?

[shtola]

All the better, I find. Collaborators are well and good, but it isn't until one has to defend their arguments do they realize how it may be better reformulated and structured - if they were even right at all. Building theory atop a fragile foundation would only serve to be a waste of time.

A doorway is best for my aim, as distance is one I do not have a quantifying measure for. I've succeeded in travelling to one such realm, but I will admit that the current state of what has been done to it already is what made the feat easier in comparison.

[justscribing]

Saying that, you sound like a true scholar. [He's seen enough pompous academics who but pride and prestige before understanding, so he appreciate Y'sthola's view. Maybe she'll be a worthy debate partner after all.]

Travelling to another realm? Now you've got me curious. Just what was so special about it that you could more easily travel there rather than the next street down?

[shtola]

One could say I dabble in the circle now and then.

The short of it is thus: there are weaknesses in what little remains between our star and theirs in a failed attempt to merge the two. Due to this unique arrangement, all manner of being continually bleeds into ours through the fractures scattered about. Some mages have even been known to summon them with dubious success. Travel between the rift is most often documented to be from theirs to ours, but does show that a corridor for it exists and can likely be made use of by us as well.

I'm all but certain that I was not the first to make such an attempt, but the corruption beyond would have made the return unlikely. At least, not in the same form of which they were originally.

[justscribing]

[Star, presumably a term for world. He can get the gist of it all, though the bleedover certainly seems less natural that everything that goes on in Teyvat with the light realm and abyss realm.]

Yet you were able to return. [At least in similar enough form that she would not include herself in the unproven plight of others, long lost.]

It sounds like you have more experience ending up in otherworldly places than I do. I'm curious to know your assessment of this one.

[shtola]

I had the fortune of allies and the pleasure of collaborating with some of the finest minds in the land. For our aether to remain untwisted by the influence of the void is a wonder credited to their tireless efforts.

To speak plain and without fanfare, I am not without worry. The land is barren of life in ways I am more familiar, save for us. There's a yawning chasm where there ought to be aether, even leylines I am usually able to draw from are nonexistent. Theoretically, there is but the one place I could fathom where this may be possible, but my imagination fails me in conjuring up reasons why we would find ourselves summoned into such a territory.

[justscribing]

It's possible there's an issue of compatibility between this world's ley lines or elemental energy and our own, or it doesn't exist. Is your ability to discern it innate or learned?

Putting the reason aside for a moment, what's the most likely place you think this could be?