1354/In Which Nothing Gets Lasered

In Which Nothing Gets Lasered
Date of Scene:	17 January 2015
Location:	Boston-666
Synopsis:	See title.
Cast of Characters:	591, 618

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Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Boston was an interesting place. Every now and then, the Empire would find a world on the cusp of space travel, and they would be brought into the fold, as it were. Equestrians seemed to like tourism to such places... Seeing bits of the past. Like a 'what if', as well, because of cultural and societal differences influencing everything. How life could be so different, while being just the same. It was like looking into a mirror of the long-since lost homeworld.

Perfect Grace would never claim it was a simpler time. One leg over the other, with a burger almost as big as her head in her hand, mused even as she waited for that laser woman to show up - and had a meal, of course. Everything was just the same, really. Everyone going nowhere and trying to get there as fast as possible. Paperwork, jobs, computers, cars, it was all the same, just primitive. Like looking into a mirror, indeed. She took a big bite out of the burger, and grinned. She didn't like people staring at her, but the multiverse seemed pretty inured at this point to weirdness, so a yellow and red winged horse chowing on beef probably seemed like Tuesday to these people. It was great. Funny just to think about. That was half the reason she ordered it in the first place... In the Empire, she couldn't do this without horrified stares.

And this was an Empress-damned good burger.

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    The promise of food (free or otherwise) will probably never fail to lure the younger Aozaki sister out, even if it's obviously a trap. Not the deadly sort, just the boring sort. The sort where she has to taaaaaalk and explaaaaain things. Ugh. Oh well! She's bored, anyway. Today's pretty slow.

    Thus we cut to Aoko arriving, in the same white t-shirt and boring jeans she tends to always be wearing. No briefcase today, since she's close to the HoH Tower and can just leave her stuff there anyway. It's true though, this Boston absolutely doesn't care about the supernatural because... well, because Psyber, honestly. Anyone with an issue'd have to bring it up to him, probably.

    "Hey horsie! No, wait. Pegasus? There's no slang for that. Pegasie? That just sounds like plural. Dang. So! What's up? And do I get a free meal?"

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace puts the burger down reluctantly as the one she was waiting on approached. She clasped her fingers and grinned, motioning to a chair across from her, while she uncrossed her leg. "Hello to you too. I don't think we were actually properly introduced before. I'm Perfect Grace. I only know your first name, and that seems a little rude for me to use, so... And yea, I'm paying this time. Don't worry about it."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "It's Aoko! Aozaki Aoko. Ah, but you can just call me Blue if you want! That's fine too," the red-headed magus answers with a grin, before she glaaaaances towards the menu. It's probably never a good idea to pay for her food, but this time it looks like she's settling for two burgers of her own. It's Grace's fault, you can't see someone eating one without wanting one yourself.

    "Oh, yeah! Hello, Perfect Grace. I don't think I caught your name either so we're square now. So what's up? Usually people only call me places when it's to yell at me, haha~."

    She laughs but it's unfortunately true.

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace waves the issue away and leans back in her chair, an arm over the back of it. She eyes her own burger, wanting it so bad, but it'll have to wait. "Blue, huh? I..." No, she probably shouldn't ask. "Well, anyway, I'm curious about how this servant thing works, basically. I've been hearing it a lot lately. Holy Grail War this, and that... If there was a war between magic users in our universe, that's pretty much four-fifths of the population right there. Apparently mages aren't nearly as common for you?"

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "I dunno about numbers, but for the however many billions the Earth is up to I'd guess there's maybe only a million magi. Maybe less! Maybe more. Hard to say for sure, there's no way to track it," Aoko answers, before considering the matter of the Holy Grail Wars and Servants.

    "I don't really know a lot about the Wars. A whole bunch of years ago some magus decided he needed a ritual to achieve his goal and came up with the idea of summoning ancient heroes and making them die to use their mana to fuel the wish-granting ritual. But then it must have hit him he couldn't support all those heroes on his own! And it must have hit all his helpers the ritual could only grant one wish. That's my guess, anyway."

    "The usual ones are only a war between seven magi who each have a Servant though. It's not like it'll involve the whole world or anything like that."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace says, "So these servants are mythical heroes?" She considers that for a moment. Now what Kaiba was talking about, and what Taxes was so upset about. She sips some of her soda, then decides, fuck it, she might as well. Grace grabs a big bite from the burger, and savors it for a moment, then she just swallows it. She doesn't want to make Aoko wait for her to finish chewing. "Hmm. What happens when they die? I mean, if they're mythical, can they really just... Die like that?""

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "Yeah! Are you familiar with Earth history? You can summon people like King Arthur, or Achilles, or even Death itself. As long as it's a great mythical figure, I think it qualifies. But I don't know the inner workings very well, so maybe not." Aoko shrugs. She really isn't too familiar with the Holy Grail rituals, despite being in one.

    "And if what I read is right, when they die, they just go back to the Throne of Heroes. It's this weird super afterlife that exists outside time, and it's where they get summoned from. So when they die they just go back, no fuss. No idea what it's like there though. Pretty select entry list, plus it needs you to die! No thanks, I'll pass visiting for now."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace listens to this, nodding thoughtfully, and then perks up as a thought comes to her. "Okay, so, basically, immortal warriors who were, in their time, beloved, respected, and had everything they could want, and some random mage decides to summon them up and tell them what to do, calling them a SERVANT?" She snorts at that, and sits up a little straighter, with a grin. "I'd eat them like I eat this burger. How do you make something like that LISTEN to you, even?

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "Nah, not everything they want. They have wishes too. Stuff they wanted to do but didn't get to. Or maybe regrets they want to fix. The Servant on the winning team gets his wish too, far as I know. So really, they have something to gain out of that too. Maybe they want to be alive again, or correct a mistake they made when they were still alive. Holy Grail's a pretty potent thing, from what I felt. I don't know if it could change the past but I wouldn't be surprised."

    Aoko chomps into a burger, finally, glancing around at the crowd. Wouldn't do for weirdos to slide close and listen. "Oh, that's easy. The summoners get Command Spells." She raises her left hand, showing three red marks on it. They vaguely form a Grim Reaper-esque figure. "You can use them up to issue absolute orders and stuff. But, really, the promise of getting their own wish is usually enough, I bet. Unless you get a really mean one."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
What could death POSSIBLY want? Really! Grace nods, looking over the marks, and nodding slowly at that. "Okay, that makes sense. Hmm. You know, now I'm thinking about what kind of heroes and villains from my home might be sitting around that Throne of Heroes, waiting their turn..." She waves a hand dismissively, though, at that. "Eh, we have too many of them. Pretty easy when magic is the cornerstone of not only reality but all life.

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "Probably none. I don't think it reaches cross-world. But, what you said is probably to blame too. The more common something is the more distilled and the less heroic it becomes. Magecraft used to be really powerful if we believe the stories, but now it's kind of tame. Too many people doing it. Same amount of awesome points to go around, but a thousand times more places for them to go to," Aoko answers truthfully between bites, spitting out what little theory she has on the matter. "So that's the catch. The easier it is to do great things the pickier the universe gets, I bet. I think eventually magic is going to disappear altogether here. When it reaches a certain saturation point and everyone is able to use it, it won't mean a thing anymore."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace says, "That's... Really, really, REALLY weird," Grace says bluntly, leaning back with a low whistle. "We've been using it for billions of years. Magic is like a science to us. It's not even outside physics, it's a part of them we teach in every school," she explains, taking a second to take another chomp from the burger. "And for us, it's more like a resource than a power pool. Reusable, rejuvenating itself..." She then taps her cheek. "But then again, it is harder to use magic if a lot of creatures in the area are doing the same. That's why battlefields aren't utterly dominated by mages with assault rifles." She laughs at that. It's a funny mental image to her."

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "Oh, we have a school. Well, a couple. The Mage's Association is the big authority on magecraft. There's a couple rogue schools here and there, but all of it's kept a secret from normal people, so it's not the same scale as you. Still, that's how it goes. I think it's true of most worlds. The more common something is the less impressive it is on the large scale! It's like if you sent a gun back to the dark ages. It'd be a super big deal. But here? Psht, everyone's got one, right? Maybe more. Everyone knows how to use them too. So nobody really cares. If you want to stand out with a gun you gotta manage to come up with a gun 2.0 or be so good with it you can do impossible stuff."

    She hms, reminding herself of Chinese history a bit. "You know, back in the Three Kingdoms era, they had a guy or two who knew how to make flamethrowers. They could pass it off as magic, that's how impressive it was to people. I bet those guys became Heroic Spirits. But I doubt a random military man who's good with a flamethrower would nowadays. Even though it's the exact same thing, the context makes it a lot different."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace says, "Magic isn't really... Weaker, just harder to use when it's concentrated like that. Something like the pressure of it being churned around like a whirlpool," she says with a shrug. "Pegasi don't use magic directly, so I wouldn't know. But anyway, I'm glad you're a mage," Grace adds with an air of concern. "I mean, fighting around all these guys... I'm guessing they're way more powerful. It's something that you can be in that kind of danger and not balk at it." Finishing her soda, she rubs her finger around the rim with a thoughtful expression. "I mean, even with those command seals, if your hero has the wrong idea, they could probably just... Kill you, right? And then go do what they want anyway.""

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "I dunno if I'd say weaker. I'd just say... if everyone can do it, can you really call it powerful? It becomes the norm, and powerful starts meaning things like... I don't know about your world, but here that'd be Magic, capital M. True Magic. Magecraft can throw fireballs, True Magic can... warp reality completely, affect parallel universes, time travel. Miraculous stuff. Only two people alive who can use it right now. One's an old lovable doof of a man, dunno about the other." Shruuuuug. She's just an awful third-rate magus, what would she know about Magic.

    "Me? Yeah, probably. Servants are a tier above magi. They're super strong, super fast, super sturdy. They could snap a magus' neck before they have the time to start casting a spell. There's a few super rare exceptions, magi who could stand up to Servants, but you can count them on one hand. You kinda have to think bigger if you want to fight a Servant. I dunno, become a vampire or something like that. Even then it could take you centuries to reach that level."

    "But, without a master, a Servant is going to disappear really fast. The master supplies the magic needed to stay in the physical world, so unless the Servant has a special power to exist without one, killing their current master is a bad idea. Unless there's a new one within immediate reach."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
Perfect Grace says, "Yea, I gotcha," with a grin. "Shoot, only one person in our entire universe who can do magic like that, and that's because she's the goddess of magic. Which means, essentially, she /is/ magic," Grace replies with a tone that makes it sound almost... Dreamy? She probably really looks up to whoever that person is. "Either way, that's good. Except the vampire part. Vampires kinda freak me out." She takes her final bites of the burger, and waves the waiter over so she can pay. Once she's gotten it chewed down, she grins widely at Aoko. "Thanks, now I think I have a handle on the whole Grail War thing. I hope we work with each other again in the future, though, uh, maybe a little less fire next time.""

Aoko Aozaki (591) has posed:
    "Sure, sure! Can't make promises about the fire though. I guess you could say I drew the short end of the magecraft stick and I'm not very good at anything but shooting lasers and fire out of my limbs. It does the job, but most magi would tell you that makes me pretty awful. Still, when all you're good at is one thing, hone it to perfection, right?" She fingerguns towards Grace with her usual grin.

    "Take care! Though, if I were you, I wouldn't get involved in the Grail Wars, it's dirty business. I only did because I wanted to save Azzy from dying."

Perfect Grace (618) has posed:
"He seems like a cool guy. A little strange, and uptight, but alright," is her response, as she stands up, leaving a tip for the waiter. "Enjoy your burgers, okay?" She smiles, and as she turned away, she was still smiling. Perfect Grace didn't feel dirty, or even at all bad about this. After all, it was just how things worked. She waved to Aoko, like they'd be friends.

Probably now, when the week was out. She'd burn that bridge when she got to it.