milliways_bar | (no subject)

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The sun silently beats down on the grounds, waves of heat radiating off of everything. But then, a soft rumble begins. It grows louder and louder, starting in the mountains and crashing down down down until a great roaring avalanche of snow arrives...

The calm returns but the blistering heat is gone. "How's that, Autor?" Mia asks.

The boy smiles shyly at her, his warm, knitted scarf demonstrating a clear gradient of skill from raw novice to advanced beginner. "It's lovely," he says, squeezing her fingers in his gloved ones. "Thank you, Mia." Releasing them, he turns and places a hand on his hip to watch the next step.

At the mouth of the inlet a narrow cliff juts out into the water, covered by a thin layer of soil to which a mat of short grass is clinging, littered with demon bunny droppings. On this ledge, Korra stands, her feet planted firmly against the ground. Starting with that wide stance, Korra moves a foot and then pushes her arms in front and up, causing the lake bed to shift, and the waters to part as a narrow ledge of earth divides a smaller pond away from the larger lake.

Turning into the inlet, she leaps onto the surface and slides out into the center on a shelf of ice that stretches out in larger and larger crystals as it thickens beneath her. In the center of what will be the ice rink, Korra stops, and takes one calm, centering breath.

And then with her eyes closed she moves again, this time much more fluid in her motions, turning a slow circle on the ice with her arms in front of her, swaying as her weight shifts from foot to foot. A bubble of water rises in front of her, and as she pushes out, the bubble expands, passing through Korra so she's standing in the center of an ever expanding air filled bubble of water, stretching further and further out so by the time it hits the shore any onlookers will feel the cool sensation of water vapor from a fountain. She shifts her movement again, and the snowflake patterns of ice crystals appear at the top and the spread around the bubble, crystallizing and solidifying in a lattice of clear ice.

Then Korra opens her eyes, and finishes the rink as she slides back to the shore. There, a further turn and a sweeping gesture towards one side shatters a large hole in the side, perfect for a double door.

"Neat trick, Avatar," Autor says, accompanied by a saucy grin and an informal salute. With a few simple words, Mia sets a flurry fluttering down in the dome.

Once the rink is complete, the boy heads off to help an industrious ten-year-old set up the food and drinks table. There are some things too heavy for Rae to lift.

[Credit to the respective muns for their pups' part in the EP! Standard party post rules apply, all tags welcome.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"It used to seem like a lot. But I've put many years into the study of my subject. I even teach it now."

She offers an ungloved hand, her clothes still quite summery all things considered.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself. Mia Malfoy, a teacher at the Magic Guild."

"Howard Stark, industrialist and inventor." A magic teacher...well, why not?

"And you don't have to maintain some steady vigil to prevent the normal weather patterns from asserting themselves? I would think otherwise."

"A pleasure, Mr. Stark."

Her eyes light up at his profession. Inventors are always interesting.

"I do but it's not a great task right now. I will tire eventually but I can keep this up for the duration of the party."

"But you're connected to the weather right now?" It's fascinating. If illogical to him.

"Yes. It's just this small area."

She gives a small barefoot crunch in the snow.

"And you don't have any shoes. You don't feel the cold?" He's not in a top coat and is starting to feel it. Only a youth in Detroit gives him any resistance.

"Only a little but a comfortable kind of cold. Using my ice magic shields me from the effects of being exposed to the elements.

"On the other end of the spectrum, I can do the same thing regarding extreme heat by using fire magic."

"And how do ice magic and fire magic work? Or do I need to study magic for years before you can explain?" He knows that if someone came to him and asked out of the blue how a plane works, he could only give the bare bones to most people.

Mia scratches at her chin, considering how to explain it.

"I can explain some theory but magic, by its very nature, is not science. If anything, it's closer to theology in my world."

And an idea that hasn't occurred to Mia in some time comes back to her.

"By any chance, do you know of a goddess named Althena? Not Athena but Althena with an L."

"I can't say that rings a bell. But I never studied much myth." Even the myth that involves the Bible.

She nods.

"I have yet to meet anyone from Earth who is familiar with Althena. That could mean a few different things but I digress. Put simply, Althena is a mother goddess and widely believed to be the source of all life and all magic in the world. As a result, almost everyone can use magic or learn to use it, even if they might not realize it. I've seen remarkable swordsmen who can manifest energy instead of a physical blade and singers who can heal the sick with their song. I was just raised in an academic environment regarding magic, hence my particular specialties."

He considers this for a moment. "So...you come from a time and place with an active deity and with a very different set of laws of nature?"

"I guess you would need all of that for it to make sense. Let me try the introduction again with where and when this time: Mia Malfoy, from the city of Vane, Katarina on the world Lunar, and from the year 1044."

"Lunar, like the moon? And 1044 AD?" He would guess AD has no meaning at all to her.

"Yes, like the Moon. Though in my time, Earth is more like a moon to us, which we call the Blue Star. And 1044 in the year of Althena."

"How do you live there? It's not like there's air.

"Is there?"

This is very different. Very different indeed.

For the first time in a while, Mia laughs at that question.

"I get that a lot," she says. "There is air. It's just as livable as Earth is in your time."

"You are from a totally different version of reality. I didn't realize that was possible."

It's a good thing he's not a philosopher because this would be be mind boggling.

"That is possible. It's also possible that I'm in your very distant past or very distant future. I would know more about that if or when I finally meet someone from Earth who does know about Althena."

It's pretty confusing to Mia as well.

"The future could be a possibility. Though the shift from a scientifically plausible set of physical laws to one based on magic would take more than just breakthroughs in rocketry and large scale engineering."

"Perhaps if I tell you some of the lore, you might know what I mean?" she suggests.

"I am always willing to learn new things." Even if they collide with the things he is always sure of. That is how science advances.

Mia nods at that.

"Thousands of years ago, the people of Lunar used to live on the Blue Star. The world was more or less at peace until the hearts of man were poisoned by the influence of the demigod Zophar. This brought about a war that ended nearly all life on the Blue Star. Althena, moved by the plight of her children, brought the survivors in an exodus to the dead Moon. With her power, she turned it into the thriving world of Lunar. So if that war has not happened yet, that would place your world in my very distant past."

"Perhaps. Though our reality has no such gods. And if there is a god of any sort, He doesn't really make his presence known that directly." Or, in Howard's opinion, at all.

"That is where the other possibility comes in, the very distant future. It is not widespread knowledge on Lunar. If anything, I might be considered a heretic for what I'm about to say. But Althena has ceased to exist as a goddess.

"If that's the case, her influence may very well be gone and you might live in that prophesied time when the Blue Star is habitable again and we can return to it."

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