milliways_bar | (no subject)

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When Thor steps into the bar this time, he's looking much more normal. (For Earth. Not really for Asgard.) He's in black jeans and workboots, and a sturdy brown jacket over a t-shirt -- borrowed clothes again, but this time they mostly fit, and they're suited to the New Mexico winter he's come from.

Of course, humans feel cold rather more acutely than Asgardians do, but Thor is pretty close to human at this point, like it or not. Anyway, he's used to wearing heavy layers of clothing. The jacket's honestly kind of a comfort.

He also steps up into Milliways, because he thought he was getting into a van.

Milliways is unexpected this time too, but his confusion passes rapidly. (And it's much less existential this time. Half a day and a good meal after his first Milliways entrance, Thor has his feet under him much more solidly.) He heads for the bar, although he's perfectly willing to be flagged down along the way.

[Tinytag: Thor Odinson, Darcy Lewis, Leela]

[OOC: Closed to new threads, sorry!]

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"I'm a computer program. We're called data sprites."

"A computer program!"

He knows about computers, sort of. They're the boxy devices of calculation and communication that Jane Foster half-explained but won't let him touch. Programs were mentioned enough for him to pick up the vague idea by context, but Asgardian techology is -- really different.

"I knew not that computers contained people."

They seem awfully small to hold even one, though.

"Or do you mean that you construct them?"

"No, I live in one. Most worlds, programs aren't people, but... in mine, we are."

How odd!

"I would hear more of this," says Thor, who is a direct fellow.

He accepts directness in turn -- I don't want to talk more about it is a perfectly valid rebuff -- but he's not expecting that on this subject, given that their last few topics.

Direct it is!

"Okay, but then you tell me about Asgard. My name's Enzo, by the way. Enzo Matrix."

"And I am Thor son of Odin."

To judge by Thor's manner, this is probably acceptance of the bargain.

"Nice to meet you. So, where do you want me to start? I mean, I'm talking about a whole world here."

Yeah, that's fair.

"I have seen computers on Midgard, which mortal humans call Earth. But I know little of their inner workings. Our own technology is very different in form."

'Little' is here 'basically nothing.' Except that they're probably pretty fragile, from the way his current human companions keep reacting.

"Whatever a stranger ought to know for courtesy to a data sprite, I would learn."

Loki's curiosity would be very different. He would want to know everything, and then to know what underlay all he had learned, and on down in layers of delving. But Thor is a different man than his brother, and he has a simple pragmatism in many ways.

And a warrior's curiosity about a strange people -- their means of fighting, their vulnerabilities, their land and its features -- isn't really polite to ask about.

"Well... first off, like I said, most worlds don't have sprites. I mean, we haven't found any from the outside. So you probably don't need to worry about that. If you can bring something for us to test, a disk or something, we can find out..."

He'll answer Thor's question properly, but one of the major items is very important if there are sprites, and just plain silly if there aren't. It also tends to horrify people. So.

Hmm.

"I do not know if I will acquire such an item," says Thor, who believes in being upfront as a rule, and who also takes his given word very seriously. In this case, that means he's going to be careful not to promise anything more than he's sure he can deliver.

And there's only so much claim on his actions that a chance-met stranger can have. This is also a factor in what Thor will promise.

"But if the chance arises, you may work such tests as are fitting."

Thor reserves the right to determine that, but mostly from princely habit.

But if there's a people of the Nine Realms that they don't know about, it's worth establishing that fact! Otherwise, how can diplomatic relations occur? (Although Heimdall may well know, because he's Heimdall. And Odin Allfather, for similar reason.)

"Thanks." That's really all he can ask.

"Anyway, if you're using a computer... well, most stuff you'd do doesn't really cause us problems. Just try to take care of your computer, like you should even if you don't have sprites. Be careful of viruses, shut down properly, don't run too many big programs at once, defrag the hard drive, that kind of thing."

Pause.

"And... unless you know for sure you don't have sprites... don't play any computer games, okay?"

"I shall remember," Thor agrees, looking faintly amused. Jane hadn't even let him touch a computer, and he fully expects to return to Asgard soon. He doesn't think he's likely to have the opportunity to use one, let alone for gaming.

Agreement to remember has swiftly become his standard Milliways half-promise to people asking him to agree to things when he owes no fealty to them. Outside of Milliways, in Asgard, people know his rank and what it means, and what the word of a warrior of Asgard is worth. So it doesn't come up so much.

But Milliways patrons aren't Asgardians, so far, and culture gaps of this sort aren't worth making a fuss about.

"Cool."

Really, if Thor does have occasion to use computers, he will find that everything Enzo's said (except for the gaming part) will make his own life easier as well as that of any hypothetical sprites. So there you go!

"Anything else you want to know?"

Indeed! Although if Thor does have occasion to use computers, he'll find a steep learning curve ahead of him. Asgardian technology is as much magic as science (insofar as the terms even apply), which makes the entire interface fundamentally very different.

Thor waits for a second, because this doesn't seem like much of an explanation so far, but the question seems genuine. So: "You seem very large to fit in the computers I have encountered."

Maybe in his world they're different?

Enzo grins. "Well, yeah, Milliways fixes that kind of thing. But also we're not exactly physically inside the box. I mean, you wouldn't see us if you opened the computer up. We're made of energy. It's sort of a different level of existence. So I don't think size is really an issue."

The confusion on Thor's face clears, because this is an explanation that makes perfect sense to him.

"That's why I can smell energy," he adds. "My whole world is energy, so I can smell that but not matter. Since most of the stuff around here is matter, anything energy-based stands out to me."

"Most useful," Thor approves.

Slightly vaguely -- it doesn't sound as useful to him as the ability to actually clobber people with that energy, or whatever -- but the sentiment's still genuine. It sounds useful in battle too, which is what Thor's mind will always go to first.

If Thor were a more curious or philosophical person, there would be any number of follow-up questions he could ask at this juncture. But he's Thor, and half his mind is concentrated anyway on the prospect of getting Mjolnir back soon. So this explanation seems to cover all the immediately important stuff to him!

"Sort of. I can ID magic or gods in Milliways, but I can't smell almost anything else. At home I just smell normally, 'cause it's all energy, and if I want to visit Earth, I have to turn human, so then I smell matter the same as any other human.

"Your turn. What is Asgard, exactly?"

"A realm."

The youth didn't seem to recognize basic concepts like Yggdrasil, but on the other hand he's of an unknown people made of energy. It makes it a little hard to calibrate the explanation.

"Far from Earth."

"Another planet, or another dimension?"

He's been around. If he was able to learn about planets and space on top of his world's network structure, he can probably handle cosmic nonads connected by giant trees.

The giant tree is sort of a cosmic metaphor! And sort of not a metaphor at all.

It's complicated.

"A planet," he agrees, "of another sun."

It's one that functions by ~~comic book science~~ somewhat different geographical rules than Earth, but Thor doesn't think to mention that. He doesn't find it weird.

Neither would Enzo, really. His world doesn't even have geography as humans would think of it.

"Any star I'd know?"

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