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[anchor_branded]

For this visit, Joris hardly looks (or acts) as if he is playing hooky as he enters in through the front door. He and Konstam just finished up a job, and while Konstam gets to deal with all the official paperwork and reports, Joris is free to walk the Bounds and pay a visit to the End of the Universe. (Sometimes it is nice to be the trainee and

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[makesthings]

Not far away, Sameth's at a table covered with mechanical parts from a car, many of them rusty and sketching on parchment, sometimes a stray Charter Mark will glow and move off the page. He doesn't want to have to make things twice.

[anchor_branded]

The car parts are familiar to Joris- or at least, mostly so. (He certainly isn't a mechanic, but there have been quite a few lessons on Repairs in the Field.)

The Charter Marks?

Far from.

He is just going to wander closer and watch, curiously.

[makesthings]

Sam's focused on his work and every once in a while, his forehead glows. His sketches are clearly of the car parts though with Charter Marks around them.

[anchor_branded]

Well. Those marks aren't Shen, or any of the other symbols the demon hunters use. But they're certainly not demonic-

And that's about as much as Joris can tell. So-

"Um. What exactly are you doing?"

[makesthings]

Sam looks up,

"Working on the best way to remake some of these and improve them."

[anchor_branded]

Which at least explains the (normal) drawings. Joris nods slowly, still looking puzzled.

"... But what are the symbols for? The... um. Glowing ones?" He motions vaguely at the papers.

[makesthings]

"Charter Marks, that's the magic I use. I'm wondering about the best way to get some shapes."

[anchor_branded]

It is odd. For all that his world has demons (which usually have any sort of supernatural powers), and the hunters themselves have tools, weapons, and gadgets that were made to fight the demons on exactly those levels-

It has never been considered 'magic'.

Joris just eyes Sameth.

"Magic. Really?"

There is a bit less disbelief than normal in his voice- this is Milliways, afterall.

[makesthings]

"Yes, I'm a Charter Mage,"

When he looks up, the Charter Mark on his forehead is slightly glowing.

[anchor_branded]

Unfortunately, that does not explain things at all to Joris. His eyes flicker to the Mark on Sameth's forehead, but it is still rather clear from his expression that he still has no clue.

[makesthings]

"The Charter holds my world together and I know how to manipulate it."

[anchor_branded]

Still all going over Joris' head. He blinks at Sameth.

"... Which world are you from? Because I've never even heard of such a thing, from any of the worlds I've been to or heard about. And I've never seen symbols like those- not even some of the older ones from the first demon hunters, and those symbols have been around since nearly forever."

Or so Helen said, when she went on about Uquar, the worlds, Them, and history.

Joris remembers a little bit of it.

...

Very little. But still.

[makesthings]

"The Old Kingdom and there aren't a lot of people from there in Bar. Most people have never heard of it and its hard to explain. Do you have magic of any sort in your world?"

It sounds like he does since demons seem to be a magic thing.

[anchor_branded]

He shakes his head, and pulls out a chair at Sameth's table to sit down.

"People used to call the demons magic, but..." Joris shrugs. "It's just power, and how they use it. There's nothing 'magical' about it, since it can be measured and countered."

[makesthings]

"That sounds more like science. I wish we understood more about how the Charter worked, I know its possible. What kinds of things do the demons do?"

[anchor_branded]

He blinks, mentally shifting from 'Charter' and 'magic', to demons- but at least that's a subject that Joris knows well.

"Demons? Well. They usually try to kill people."

That sort of sums up all the demons in Joris' world, in a nutshell.

"I mean, some of them aren't much smarter than animals, but... they're worse. A tiger can hurt you, or even kill you, but it won't just randomly go into a town and start slaughtering everyone in sight. A demon will. And then you get smarter ones, and...

"And they're just utterly malignant. Smart and vicious."