[ video & text; user: c.danvers.01969 ]

[wiccecraft]

[ Caleb is outside! On a bench, in the afternoon light, holding his phone selfie-style to take this video, which means it's a little off center but there you have it. ]

Hey everyone.

Happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate.

I was wondering if people would be willing to talk to me about magic. If it even exists where you come from - if it doesn't or it's just a myth that's cool too, we can still chat - how it works, stuff like that. I got here at the beginning of the month and I've started working at Gramarye Magic Reseach so I guess you could say I'm curious? Magic seems to have different rules in different places for different people.

[ Okay, that was a lot to get out all at once. Caleb takes a breath and smiles. (It's not a bad smile.) ]

Even if you don't know the rules or you just want to lament about a lack of fried turkey or something, we could talk about that too!

[ He gives a little wave to the camera and shuts it off, but there's an addendum in text added to the video post in about 3 minutes: ]

PS - if Chase Collins gets himself arrested or on someone's shit list, can somebody let me know? Thanks.

Comments

[wiccecraft]

Okay, so that sounds...more like a scientific endeavor. Where I'm from, magic doesn't happen without innate ability; presumably, you could read any number of books and be unable to change that about yourself, but I don't know for sure. You'd probably have to ask someone who tried that.

I don't know, actually, I mean...when I say lost to time, I'm not kidding. [ Chase shrugs. ] The big obsession as I understand it was changing base metals to gold to obtain wealth, or longevity through some elixir that grants immortality. In some parts of the world leaders ended up with mercury poisoning as a result of those attempts.

You've been to other worlds before coming here?

[alchemyfreak]

[There's just the slightest perk in his expression at that response, because quite frankly over the years of being beaten down on this subject repeatedly by magic users he's gotten pretty settled into assuming he wasn't changing anyone's mind on it.]

As my father explained it to me, alchemy works through something called The Gate. We're all born with a small version of The Gate within us, so we all have the potential to learn alchemy, it's just a matter of tapping into that potential by studying the texts. Like any other hobby or profession it requires practice and discipline, you can't do it just because of some innate ability.

[A blink at that response, and the shrug. Okay. So, then...]

Lost how?

[Ed waves a hand at the concept of changing lead into gold and all that, starting to brush it off]

Turning lead into gold is illegal...

[He doesn't say impossible, just illegal, but golden eyes snap wide at the prospect of immortality and he glances off screen momentarily.]

Both of those things are big obsessions on our world, too. It's not an uncommon theme from what I can tell.

[That's all he's going to say about it, though. Shrugging casually at the last question, because that conversation and the various reactions never got tiring.]

A few.

[wiccecraft]

Like, none of the records of it are taken seriously, out of what remains. That kind of lost. Is there, like...a universal Gate somewhere?

[ Okay, illegal is not impossible so that gives Caleb a bit of a better understanding into where Edward comes from. Or at least into what's possible enough to require law and legislation on the topic.

Also Casual Shrugging like changing worlds was no big deal?! What?! Caleb has to laugh at his own surprise. ]

That's pretty awesome. Totally unheard of back home; strictly the stuff of fiction.

[alchemyfreak]

Sounds similar enough, my room mate used to laugh at me whenever I brought it up. Can't get taken any less seriously than that.

[He doesn't answer the Gate question right away, seeming to think it over before responding cautiously.]

The Gate is... sort of a portal between worlds. Energy from the other world fuels alchemy in our world, so that's how it works. Which, in theory, is why it only works that way in our world.

[That logic doesn't explain jamjar RPs though, so he's a little skeptical of the whole thing.]

It's 'totally unheard of back home' for me, too.

[To borrow Caleb's wording. The casual shrugging is more or less because the topic makes him uncomfortable since the reactions to it are all so unpredictable. Which means he downplays how messed up the whole thing is when it comes up. Sorry Caleb, his life only continues to get more complicated.]

You're here, right? So it's not strictly the stuff of fiction anymore. It's the same thing, really. Different world, different portal, different reason to be pulled into it- The portal on my world isn't exactly public knowledge, most people that get pulled in don't survive at all.