Day 60: Arts and Crafts (Third Shift)
Sora wasn't quite sure what to make of his talk with Doctor Facilier. The man hadn't revealed much about himself even as he'd asked all those questions, so it was hard to form an opinion. Sora could only hope that he had proved himself to be more than just a kid over the course of their conversation, though if not, then that was the doctor's loss,
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Tolten glanced down at the card before him, gold glitter becoming the rays of a rising sun. Well, he had opened the door for the conversation.
"A great and final battle against a powerful evil," he explained, and realized that probably didn't help very much. But since Mikado didn't seem as outraged or confused by the idea of magic or great clashes to save the world, he didn't mind too much.
"There was a sorcerer who rose to power through vile magic and trickery," he tried again. How strange, to try and explain what had happened to someone who wasn't even from Plank! "He built great and horrible machines that interrupted the natural flow of energy in the world, so he could command it. Animals turned violent and weather behaved improperly and a dark time was falling upon the world. Every nation was at war due to the manipulations of one man, to keep all of us too blind and busy to see what he was doing. He tried to become a god - very nearly did, to be honest. We...stopped him. Well, a mage and an Immortal stopped him, really. A dear friend was lost but my home was saved. And I was there."
More than once, but the first time he had found himself on the wrong side. He hadn't known! Not that ignorance was ever an excuse for harm....
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A great and final battle. A powerful evil. Vile magic and trickery. The apocalyptic weather and changes, the one man ruining the world, trying to become a god.... It was another take on a well-played verse, and it had been done more than a few times. It was a story constantly retold, and here.... Here, Tolten would even say an immortal. (Though what was Celty, if not something that could continue to live--) But all of it... Was really just a bit too hard to grasp. A bit too cliched and overdone to be completely believed.
"Ahh...." He made a sound as if thinking, then let out a burst of nervous laughter. Instantly, the boy looked awkward, then looked up at the man. "Is this... some kind of joke?" The sentence was ill-spoken, and Mikado instantly waved his hands in an attempt to cancel it out. "No, I mean-- What I meant was, is this just a story?" He scratched the side of his neck idly, looking at the table. "All those things sound like something out of a book or movie. Nothing..."
Real. Is what Mikado almost said. But there was a part of him, that wished for those to be the real things in life, that wouldn't let him negate that so fully.
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"It's alright," he said, his hands stilling in their work for a moment. He looked back up with a small smile, almost sheepish. He felt silly when it came to these strange clashes of culture.
"Other people have told me the same thing, and goodness knows I've heard things that sound like a faery story here myself. I come from a world where magic is quite normal - we use it like this place uses elekricity. Monsters are perfectly commonplace and the roam the countryside in all corners of the world. I was raised by a sorcerer, after my father died. I'm a royal knight, in the service of the great country of Uhra. But it's really nothing glorious or wonderful. Quite the opposite, most of the time."
He wet his lips, nervously. "I really have no reason to lie. I don't like to tease people. I don't like to be teased myself..."
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The boy blinked, dumbed to silence at the further explanation. There was nothing of subterfuge in Tolten's mannerisms or way of speaking--in fact, he seemed awkward, like Mikado himself when needing to explain something further. But the explanation.... Magic. Monsters. Sorcerers. A knight. Mikado was having trouble rationalizing everything. Because if this was real--
If a person could exist without a head.
...Ah. That was right. Wasn't he... Thinking in too narrow a scope? The boy continued to blink, then shook his head slightly to clear it. "...I don't think you're lying, Tolten-san." No, that at least... Mikado was mostly sure of. "It's that...." The boy frowned as he tried to think. "I don't think any of that exists, really, where I'm--"
From. Is what the boy was going to say. But as the sentence was forming, another thought overtook his mind. He had been thinking too shallow, he had thought moments prior. But how deep was the water he was treading? "...Is it that you're saying that you're from a different world?"
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The young king didn't want to scare Mikado away. He liked Mikado! He was quiet and earnest and kind and that was the sort of person that Tolten needed in his life.
"I've known there was at least one other world for a while now. It isn't so strange to think there could be dozens, or hundreds. And it explains all the oddness...."
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...A clean, renewable energy source?
It made the boy laugh suddenly, quick and nervous. "Aha, my--" Home? World? "...Where I'm from," he gave as an echo with a briefly pained face. "Would probably give a lot for an energy source like that. There's all kinds of green movements, trying to get people to be more environmentally conscious. I didn't really think too much on it, but there's a whole... Um...." He had started rambling in a kind of light panic, and as he realized this, he swallowed the rest of the sentence he had been speaking. The man must have thought that Mikado was a complete idiot. The realization made something like regret churn in his stomach. This had been one of the few simple and easy interactions to this point, and Mikado liked Tolten, and could see them becoming friends. But....
A different world spoken of, and taken seriously, was enough of a blow. Tolten continued, and Mikado openly gaped. The thought of dozens, of hundreds....
It did explain all the oddness, as Tolten put it, but it also destroyed a part of the reality Mikado had attributed as fact. This did not exist as either a positive or a negative outcome. It was attributed to change, which served as both Mikado's driving point and a bane of his existence, and therefore was only taken as it was. A possible truth. A possible shift. And if the shift was actual....
He clapped his hands against his cheeks suddenly, hard enough for the sound to echo. When he dropped them there were red impressions, but the glazed look had somewhat left his eyes. He nodded to the man, giving a thin smile. "...It would explain a lot," he admitted quietly. Then looked slightly embarrassed. "Do you.... Can you do magic?"
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"We care about nature in my world, too," the young king said with a small nod, not wanting to make Mikado feel even more awkward or worried. Tolten liked him, and hoped they could speak again. They hardly could do that if he frightened Mikado away! "And...I can sometimes do magic. I was taught, but I don't have very much talent for it. I have some battle spells that...well, they're more for my sword than anything, but they make my sword very formidable! And what little ability I have is weakened here to the point of uselessness. And I don't have a sword...."
He wondered if a pipe would even take a spell. Probably not....
"And it doesn't matter anyway, this place isn't like my world. I'm learning about all sorts of new things! Like this... elekriticy?" Was that right? It sounded right....
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They switched roles suddenly, and Mikado found himself in the role of information giver. "Electricity," he echoed correctly. "It might seem like magic, but it's just science, really. The same kind of energy that comes from lightning." Which... sounded a bit like magic, that way. Maybe it was, and they had just learned it like science. Turning a switch to gain light seemed incredible until you learned the process behind it. It might be that Tolten's magic was a little like that....
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"We use magical energy to...well, to do everything I've seen electristy do. It power appliances and homes and hand held devices. We cook with it, clean with it, use it to power our plumbing. It even power our autos, from the ones we drive in the street to military vehicles."
And perhaps they were a bit too dependent on it, and perhaps they had used more than needed at first, but that was all Gongora's fault.
"Oh, everyone who has magic or some sort of ability or power or what have you is muted. It may be a device - the thing that caused last night to happen - but that could be a trick. Apparently it broke - the device, I mean. It's fixed now, but..."
For once Tolten felt like he knew what was going on. He had carefully laid together what he knew of this place, and often found himself perplexed. But the device! The device he could speak of. Even if it were a trick, the knowledge was in his head.
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As much as he was able to at the time, at least. Without breaking something in his mind. But despite acknowledging those limitations, a central part of him prompted speech--to question and clarify. He was delving too far into the opposite of his 'reality,' but it existed as something to know. "Are you saying that... It's common? That many people have, um. Abilities here?"
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