[Video]

[10billionpercent]

[Visible now is Senku, and a smashed piece of glass. This is his new mirror already, but it was no accident. He holds up a shard.]

Well, I can report that this appears to be just ordinary mirror glass, I'm no closer to understanding how it works yet.

[It's quite possible that people haven't met him yet, but he doesn't consider that.]

Intersting. I was expecting some kind of technology to explain the so called magic effect.

Any thoughts?

Comments

[spectacularlyhighking]

Fair enough.

[Eliot had been lounging in the living room reading a book when he heard him talking and came to investigate. He leaned in the doorway, his arms crossed as he watched the fiddling.]

If you slice open your hand I'm not cleaning up the blood.

[10billionpercent]

Too bad I don't have a near limitless credit card here, I could set up a proper lab.

[ He'll have to find some way to do it on the cheap. He's done it before. ]

Fortunately.. [ He trails off and sets the shard down to send it to the other scientist who answered him. ] I'm fairly well versed in first aid. [ He leans backwards, looking at his roommate now. ]

[spectacularlyhighking]

A limitless credit card? Be still my beating heart.

[He chuckles, mostly teasing. As a magician it's easy enough to create what you need. Or get the money if you can't create it by magic.]

That's a relief, but I was more referring to you getting blood all over the carpet. Given what you've told me about your history I had no doubt you could administer first aid. In any case, have you discovered anything interesting?

[10billionpercent]

I did say near limitless. Let's just say, if I believed in things like a moral debt, I would owe one to NASA.

[He's amused by that, at least, but it's tempered pretty easily by the memories associated with it.]

Nothing at all. [ He hadn't given much consideration to the carpet. Should he be concerned about that? Nah. Probably not. ]

Which is just as exhilarating. It appears like an ordinary mirror.

[spectacularlyhighking]

NASA is still around? Interesting. I'd have thought it would have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

[Didn't they pull funding for NASA like three times? Not that he especially cared about such things but he thought he remembered someone rambling about it. Maybe Josh.]

I figured it would be. What was your hypothesis? Or were you just taking it apart for shits and giggles?

[10billionpercent]

No, not any longer. [He shakes his head.] But prior to every human turning to stone, it was still doing space exploration, specifically missions to the International Space Station. JAXA doesn't send astronauts to space itself, it works with NASA and Roscosmos.

[Senku glanced at the mirror again.]

I didn't have a hypothesis exactly, it works in a manner I'm unfamiliar with, and I was hoping to find out why. No such luck.

[spectacularlyhighking]

JAXA? What the fuck is JAXA?

[Eliot smirked at him]

It's real magic. There aren't any wires or computer chips in there.

[10billionpercent]

Hmph. [ That question is more bewildering than most of the questions he gets. ]

It was the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or rather, for conversion's sake, NASA but in Japan. Not that they do the same function, exactly. Especially since most of the launches by then were being done with the Soyuz, which is Russian made. Many countries had space programs.

Astronauts who get chosen study and train in the United States, and Russia, typically, until they go up into space. JAXA also does a lot of research with telescopes and trying to learn more about the solar system while staying on Earth. While they were planning on manned space missions in the near future, things changed with the whole petrification thing.

Fortunately, there were six astronauts on the International Space Station at the time.

[ He's off on a tangent again. It happens. ]

You're right, there aren't. I need to learn more about magic.

[spectacularlyhighking]

[Eliot listens patiently, though he vaguely zones out halfway through.]

I know a few people who would be far more interested in that. I, however, am not one of them. I can honestly say I was never one of those children who dreamt of being an astronaut.

[But he smiles at his roommate, anyway.]

Magic is something I can help you learn, though.

[10billionpercent]

[ A small sigh. That's disappointing. It's not that he doesn't enjoy the people around him but their lack of scientific knowledge really puts a damper on his ability to be a total nerd about it. ]

It's a lot of work anyway.

[ That was a pretty good summary of how science was and he got his attention with the comment. ]

Oh? Well then. Can you explain to me how the rules go? Are there constants that must be followed? Limitations?

[spectacularlyhighking]

That's a complicated answer... back on my version of Earth it is, at least. There are so many variables that have to be considered that influence casting. The location of the planets in relation to yours, the weather, what time of year it is, what time of day it is, what phase the moon is in, where the tides are... the list goes on. Here, however... I've yet to find that such circumstances have any effect on casting. It seems more reliant on intent and focus. Experience seems to have an effect, as well. I've found my spells are at a lower strength than what I'd expect, which I suspect is because I haven't been here very long. These "sparks" seem to have something to do with that. The more missions and whatnots we do, the more "sparks" we earn and the stronger and more reliable our magic becomes.

[This may be the longest Eliot has spoken in one go since he arrived. Maybe Fogg was right, he was meant to be a teacher...]

[10billionpercent]

[ Senku was quiet and looking at him, considering his words for perhaps a moment or two too long, but all the same, he shifted and nodded. ]

All of those variables are easily accounted for, but are not applicable here?

[ That was objectively helpful, just not in the present situation. ]

It makes sense that experience has something to do with it, but you did magic before you came here, shouldn't you be significantly more experienced than I am?

That sounds...fictitious, but I suppose it's a data point to be observed.

[spectacularlyhighking]

Correct. I've done a few experiments with this, myself, and none of them seem to effect the magic at all.

[He smiles and waggles a hand in the air in front of himself.]

Yes and no. I did pick up on how to use the magic faster than most, it seems. I also might have a little more control than others, but this kind of magic is still new to me.

[The comment about it being fictitious makes him laugh.]

Do you realize you're saying that to a man who became king of a world he'd previous thought was a complete work of fiction? Fiction is relative.

[10billionpercent]

Cause you wanted to be king or because it was the most convenient thing?

[ That may be a surprisingly pointed question, then again in a place called the Kingdom of Science, who could possibly be the ruler? ]

Still interesting. I can't imagine having a lick of magical aptitude.

[spectacularlyhighking]

Ah... neither, actually.

[He sighs slightly, running a hand through his hair at the unpleasant memories of his first trip into Fillory.]

Brief version, we needed an item to stop a psychopathic monster and the deal was whoever was meant to be king had to marry the guy's daughter. He had a knife that would only wound the true High King... and I was the lucky one.

[10billionpercent]

Oh, huh, sounds familiar.

[ He pauses like he's not going to expand on that, but then decides he should. ]

There was a girl in the village, the priestess Ruri, who was sick. As an outsider I wasn't permitted to see her, so it's not like I can make a diagnosis on a guess, although I did my best with that. I was nearly finished the sulfanomide, but I needed alcohol to finish it off and access to Ruri, so the only opportunity to let me anywhere near her was this bout the village had.

I happened to win. [ He'll just gloss over that part. ] The prize was village chief and to marry her, which was as simple as agreeing to do it, that's primitive cultures for you, but she was out of time, so I demanded a divorce and left with the alcohol to finish the antibiotics.

[spectacularlyhighking]

That sounds... incredibly complicated.

[It was refreshing to talk to someone whose life seemed as fucked up as his was. Something piqued his interest, though.]

Was it truly that easy to get a divorce?

[10billionpercent]

I suppose in one way or another, but it doesn't really matter in the end.

[ He offers an impassive expression. ]

A patriarchal society where they offer the crown, so to speak and a woman's hand? Pretty much. She didn't want to be married to me anyway. I'm sure they're scandalized about the whole thing, but I couldn't care less.

Last thing I need is some girl hanging off me, much less one there against her will.