Video

[trivialization]

Welcome to podtown, here's some cash, get a job?

[Her face twists slightly in irritation.]

Now, listen... I understand every community wants its unexplained supply of human flotsam to do something productive with their time. Suspicion of the idle you can consider basic human nature. And the lackadaisical approach might be calming, for people who need that kind of thing.

But for all this is preferable to, I don't know, being told I have to claim the heads of 99 other pod people to be anointed champion of this timeline, it doesn't quite resolve the frisson of waking places unexpected.

So this is your collective invitation to tell me something interesting and get in my good graces. Not an opportunity that comes around often, have at it.

Comments

[youfool]

[Challenge accepted! He's a treasure trove of 'interesting' information.]

Did you know that, however solid or rigid an object may seem, it is, atomically speaking, composed largely of empty space?

[He thinks that's interesting.]

[trivialization]

Interesting but trivial. [Plus she's probably heard that one.] I was hoping for something specific to our current locale.

[youfool]

Ah, I see. Well...

It's a bit of a tautology, but if you cease wanting to live here, I suspect you won't. Disappear right off the face of the earth. This earth in particular really can't stand the weak-willed and halfhearted. Got to have some desire in you, however faint the flame.

[trivialization]

And how's that? Just vanish as suddenly as we came, back into the ether? Eaten by grues?

video;

[icyheart]

No, it just means don't be a bum. Unless you like that kind of thing.

[Charmer this one is.]

[trivialization]

'No' what? That's what I said. [In way more words, because she likes to hear herself talk.]

[icyheart]

No it doesn't mean people are trying to get into your good graces. Just telling you to not be a bum.

[scarlet_devil]

[ And here is another vampire. ]

Perhaps your time would be better spent getting used to this place.

[trivialization]

The thing about getting used to places is that time need not be spent on it as such. Live and you grow used to what you live.

[scarlet_devil]

Does this happen to you often?

[ But yes, Eva might as well see about getting a job here. For a vampire, Everglade might be best to go to. ]

[trivialization]

Moving from place to place? Not quite like this, but it happens, inevitably.

[ Everglade's in theme, but she does love her robots... ]

[Video]

[im_gonna_heal_u]

[ Konoka actually stares for a moment at the face opposite the video screen. She's familiar. As a matter of fact, Konoka wonders if it's Evangeline, given the sort of bearing she had in her speech and her blond face. But this Eva-chan was... different. Whether or not it was a glamor she couldn't be sure, but... ]

Eva-chan, is that you?

Oh, um, you probably want something interesting? I run a charms shop in Everglade, and right now Everglade seems to be going crazy.

[trivialization]

[ Well. There's a face she didn't expect to see. Though that's the plodding, unimaginative sort of expectation that takes nothing unfamiliar into account; seeing people from different times of course lies well within her concept of the possible. It just isn't common.

In any case she's hardly going to show any surprise to Konoka. ]

Konoka, huh. And running a shop? Right in the spirit of things, aren't you?

In your case I'm not going to let you go at one. Why don't you tell me everything?

[im_gonna_heal_u]

[ That cunning ability to wax poetic and put you on the spot at once? Definitely Eva. She couldn't even stop herself from blurting out a comment that would probably get her murdered if she was in the same room. ]

Your glamour looks pretty good, Eva-chan.

[ Fortunately, no one outside of their world would know what that meant. Konoka was sweating buckets mentally while still talking as easygoing as usual. ]

You could say that. I um... where do I even begin? I guess I can start when I woke up here.

It's been more than a year. Before I got pulled here, many of us were helping solve incidents caused by the fallout of Negi-kun's plan to link Mars to Earth. I got drawn here, among many others, for reasons we still haven't figured out. I get the feeling that we may be even further from home than we thought, and I don't mean just distance. It's hard to describe, and I can't put it in words.

I um... got charmed by a succubus the second day I came here and was forced to live in a giant place called Castlevania. It's run by Lord Dracula, and he's... powerful. [ For lack of a better word. ] He paid me no attention though, and in a few months I was able to make my charms store. After that, someone abducted me to break the succubus's hold over me. This actually made it possible for me to talk some sense into that succubus, and about five or so months ago, we left Castlevania for good.

I made a charm store! I've been using that as an excuse to learn more about eastern magic, so I can sell barriers and other protective wares. I'm still training in healing, of course!

[trivialization]

Uh, hold up there kid, I meant in person. It's been how long and you don't even invite me by when I ask you a question?

[Okay, a lot longer for her, but still.]

And since you think this is just a 'pretty good glamor' maybe you can give me your expert opinion on how I should improve it while I'm there.

[Video/Private]

[weavemyownfate]

[Satsuki just so happened to be sipping tea then nearly choked on it when she heard the familiar voice over the network- It both shocked her and put her mind at ease since, from what she's heard, Yukihime's introduction is so similar to the first she heard. The question is does she remember who Satsuki is?

Satsuki stares in silence at the feed for a moment, then takes a moment to regain her composure before she responds.]

How does knowing that your name is Yukihime rate?

[trivialization]

[The expression she gets back isn't one of recognition. For Evangeline that name is a quandary. Though it is a pseudonym - no, closer to an identity, meant to put behind her the lonely, blood-drenched figure of the Dark Evangel and all the infamy that attended her name - most of those she uses it among are friends, while her enemies, of course, still know her as Evangeline. Having no memory of past visit and having no memory of Satsuki's face, she can only guess from how she's found Konoka that Satsuki might be in turn an acquaintance from somewhere along one of her own timelines she has not yet seen. Or else has other sources, something like the the Orbis Sensualium Pictus...]

I can say I'm interested.

Though what I make of it and what it makes of you depend on how you came by it and what you intend to do with it.

[weavemyownfate]

[The returned expression isn't exactly deflating, but it is certainly disappointing to the Deputy Guardian. But the response is oddly nostalgic in a way.

The plus side to all of this, though, is that she can make a far better first impression.]

Fair enough; the only intention was to get your attention- You, or at least a version of your self, has been here before roughly three years ago. I rather enjoyed your speeches, and asked you to become a teacher at my school, Second Honnouji Academy.

[Just a smidge of revisionist history. She can't just go and admit Satsuki was being a brat after all.]

[trivialization]

You liked my speeches.

[That isn't quite surprise or disbelief or embarrassment, but she's close enough to any of the three that the statement comes out a bit abruptly and lacking any follow-on or flourish. Oh, she knows she runs her mouth, and she enjoys it, but there's part of her that rues how far she often takes it, and she's usually so adversarial it bothers her when anyone just accepts what she says or thinks too well of the experience.]

...leaving aside the questions that raises about what exactly you intend for your students, is your interest the same? Looking to scout me? Or is this just a greeting for a familiar face?

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[moviemagic]

You sound like your trying to talk to yourself, but failed because the device is on.

[A pause for a moment.]

Like, am I meant to answer what you are saying or what?

[trivialization]

Since you sound like you're grasping for anything to say, no, you don't have to answer. It's not for everyone but some people like batting ideas back and forth, without any simple questions and simple answers.

Though 'tell me something interesting' isn't exactly complicated, is it?

[moviemagic]

No, but that would depend on what people actually found interesting. You have people who might say 'oh look this building is interesting' but others might find it boring and plain.

So by saying tell me something interesting, someone might in fact not actually tell you something interesting. So actually it's a bit more complicated when you think about it like that, more so if you don't know the person well enough to know what one might find interesting.

[Video]

[bigbadrose]

[Giggles.] I'm new myself, so I don't know that it'll be much help, but I doubt it's because they want to turn you into slave labor workforce as much as help you get situated. Bit friendly, actually. First universe I've ever seen to do that kinda thing!

[trivialization]

Oh, good. Had to think I might be the only person who had wandered out of there in ages and nobody would even know what I was talking about.

Anyway... most universes are properly universes. Containing their own pasts and futures and not... borrowing parts. Makes you wonder how it ended up this way. Or who made it thusly.

[bigbadrose]

Gotta say, I'm surprised not to be the only one as well.

Hmmm. Krillitane maybe.