144.98750: PUBLIC CHANNEL, D90 (evening)

[whattaprick]

[ Hey, guess who has his voice back? Turns out traveling to Mainframe gives you plenty of voices to hear. But is he actually going to report back with anything useful? ]

"All of Man’s works, all his cities, all his empires, all his monuments will one day crumble to dust. Even the houses of my own dear readers must – though it be for just one day, one hour be ruined and become houses where the stones are mortared with moonlight, windowed with starlight and furnished with the dusty wind. It is said that in that day, in that hour, our houses become the possessions of the Raven King."

[ For once, his voice isn't carrying that edge of mocking, actually managing to sound solemn and thoughtful -- not that it lasts. There's the sound of a book being snapped shut, and Lambert resumes the rest of the radio post speaking in his normal tone of voice: just a touch insufferably smug. ]

Maybe Master Strange should consider becoming a poet, if he ever gets bored of being a magician.

[ And then, as an off-handed follow-up to that: ]

All scouts and nightrunners, report in. Let 'em know what they're in for.

Comments

[insidescoop]

Oh! Actually, I had an idea!

[Uh Oh.]

[whattaprick]

What is it?

[insidescoop]

I'm proposing a demonstration! This sort of thing is tricky enough to explain over radio, they need to SEE what they're in for!

...Sort of. It'd be more like a presentation?

[whattaprick]

And who'd be giving that presentation?

[kingsroads]

[ who's ready for EMOTIONS. Because Strange just awkwardly splutters and stammers over the radio for a good ten seconds before, ]

That's from my book! How on Earth did you get a copy of my book?!

[whattaprick]

[ It's about as good a reaction as Lambert expected, and his grin is audible, being sufficiently dense enough not to pick up on the cue that EMOTIONS are upon to descend upon him like a sack of bricks. ]

I asked for it. You said you wrote a book, and I didn't believe you, or at least I didn't think it would be any good. [ He has no shame admitting that at all. ]

You couldn't have made it any shorter, though? Thing's heavy enough to kill someone.

[kingsroads]

But— [ 'but why would you ask for my book in the first place', no wait he can't say that ] I mean, that's— [ that's awfully nice of you but again, why my book. ] But back home I— [ I read that Norrell had vanished all my books in the first place, how could you obtain it?

Strange however isn't saying ANY of those sentences that are going through his head at rapid speed, instead stammering out half sentences which he starts then stops. There's a pause before he stops confusingly gawping and instead awkwardly asks, ]

Well, do you like it?

[whattaprick]

[ 'Because I felt like it' is probably the simplest answer to Strange's question, as well as being the most he'll get out of the witcher for the moment. He waits patiently though the sound of Strange eating his own words, and finally answers: ]

It's not very gentlemanly to fish for compliments.

[anti_nonsense]

[Rita's butting in because hey, she's heard of this 'Raven King' from Childermass and at least knows it's got something to do with magic. That's enough to pique her interest.]

You wrote that? What kind of book is it?

[kingsroads]

The title's A History and Practice of English Magic, which I think is also a fairly apt description of what the book's about.

And yes, I wrote it. [ don't mind Strange as he sounds a little bit proud of said book. ]

[anti_nonsense]

[With a title like that, it sounds like she was right on the money.]

Sounds interesting. You mind if I take a look at it?

[perverses]

I dunno, sounds like a dry read to me...

[ But right. Scouting report. ]

It's a computer city! Digital people, computer programs, video games! Man, I wonder if they have any of those dating sims stored somewhere... That might be fun...

[ Unless they somehow lose to a dating sim and yet another chunk of Mainframe gets wrecked, buuuut he doesn't have to break that particular bit of news, does he? ]

[whattaprick]

I've read a lot worse.

[ Seriously. Witcher textbooks. They weren't made with readability in mind.

There's that word again -- 'computer.' ]

Try explaining that again for someone who has no idea what those things are, will you?

[perverses]

Well, yeah. So I have. I just got a lot that 'worse' back, too.

[ Apparently Lambert wasn't the only person with books on the mind, although Shima doesn't particularly care for the textbook portion of his newly arrived reading material.

But moving on... ]

What? Really? Didn't you have one back on those islands? [ Lambert, what do you think a Pokedex is? ] Let's see. Computer, computer, a computer is... a... box? I mean, not much a box anymore. There are smaller versions. Uh. [ So helpful. ] Basically, a machine. It can do a lot of things. Store data, run games, browse the internet, voice chat, play videos. There aren't normally entire cities or people living in 'em, though.

[whattaprick]

It looked pretty different from this. Like you said, definitely couldn't fit a city in one.

[ Beat. ]

What's a dating sim?

[stillwinningthehardway]

Someone's got to mention that this place is one giant simulation with natural rules enforced and that means if you have any special powers they're probably damped or changed.

[Someone's still a little put out about it.]

Also you won't need as much glamor here as like in Alola, but it's there, because everything here looks low resolution and not very detailed. The people here are kind of divided into types. There are the living number people, and everyone else. If you end up looking like a living number, I can't promise no one will laugh at you.

Knowing our luck if you go out into that world it's possible you'll get caught up in a confrontation with a powerful entity from outside the simulation and if you lose you turn into a slug and lose your personality and memories. So, fair warning.

[whattaprick]

Good work.

[ Someone actually doing their job: miracle of miracles! ]

Didn't notice too many changes as far as my own go, but I wasn't trying to set anything on fire. Had trouble with yours?

[stillwinningthehardway]

[There's a marked pause. Scout knows here it doesn't matter if she admits to having any powers, but keeping silent is a hard habit to break, and she resents it coming up on a public channel.]

I think it's worse the more you can do.

[whattaprick]

[ That's an interesting way to phrase it, and it does give Lambert pause, but only for a moment. ]

Then I hope people are actually listening, because that's probably going to be important.

[ He sounds like he's smirking when he says that, but it's back to business right after that. ]

Heard a few names when I was asking around. A Guardian, Polymorph. Pick anything up about those?

[dorkypantsuit]

The Raven what?

Did a bird enslave humanity and destroy their buildings?

[whattaprick]

It's a magician thing. [ It's always a magician thing. ] You're better off asking one of them about it.

[ Never mind that he just read a whole book about it. ]

[dorkypantsuit]

Didn't you just read a book about it?

[showmystar]

[There's just a bunch of rapid beeps, scuffling sounds, and one big BANG as Allen attempts to get the walkie to work. Or push the right button.

It sounds like plastic getting murdered. Hope your volume wasn't too high!]

[whattaprick]

[ Whoa, whoa, whoa, go easy on that thing, some of us have sensitive ears. ]

Whoever's breaking their radio -- find the squishy part with all the bumpy bits and press that to talk. And don't yell.

[showmystar]

[It's a bit more fumbling and scuffling before a soft, possibly familiar voice comes through]

Oh! Did I get it? Thank-- [aaaand he lets go of the button. Please hold--]

--blasted thing. Can't you wire all this stuff to a golem instead?