( #002 )

[brainiest]

Who: Hermione Granger & you!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: On the Vanquish
When: 10/08

[ There's a bit of movement as the feed comes on, and there's a flash of orange and a quiet 'meow' before Hermione actually gets the camera to focus on her - and she's smiling, a little shy but still there. She might have been used to making broadcasts in the Drabwurld, but things feel a little bit different here on the fleet - and a lot more public. ]

Hi. So, my name is Hermione Granger, for anyone that doesn't know, and I was hoping to start a sort of... Greenhouse, for all of us to use, for herbs and plants for the labs. I just wanted to see if anyone had anything that they wanted to grow there?

[ She stands up, moving to one side before she turns the feed, pointing it down at her desk where there's an odd assortment of seeds organised into little pots, all with neat labels and ordered into fewest to most, for those that care. There's a garden there already, but having one entirely dedicated to herbology might be useful. ]

I have a handful already, and I think I can handle setting things up with a bit of transfiguration, but if anyone had some ideas or wanted to help I'd be more than happy to listen. It won't be on the Vanquish, of course, but somewhere on the Iskaulit for anyone to use... Eventually. I'm not entirely sure how long this sort of thing might take to set up, honestly. I'm hoping to build a little potions room, too, if anyone's magical like me.

[ ... At least she has dirt, literally, from the planet? ]

Anyway! Thank you, for listening, and let me know. Thank you!

Comments

[wolfehawke]

I've heard of that, sometimes mages losing battles and the winners take their staves as trophies. Usually it's in wartime though. I don't know what happens in the Circle towers.

[He furrows his eyebrows at her saying she knows about the Circle. This Sebastian, he at least sounds sympathetic. It's too bad they'd never met, maybe they could have used his clout.]

I would have loved to be able to learn in a place like that, where magic is celebrated as the gift it is instead of a curse. The fundamental difference seems to be that where you're from, people who don't have magic don't even know about it. If they did, they'd likely be frightened, at best.

[Or do the same as Thedas, hide behind religion to persecute those who have the potential to be dangerous, as if anyone who owns a back hoe and gets angry couldn't decide to be dangerous.

The staff vibrates with a latent energy, pulsing cold every so often and exuding a soft mist around her fingers. If she were to make any move with it, willed it, she could produce small bolts of cold and ice without so much as a spell. As long as she has magic, she can make the staff work for her.]

[brainiest]

It's not traditional where I'm from either, not really, but it's the only real way to 'steal' someone's wand, unless that wand really didn't want to belong to them. "The wand chooses the wizard"; they decide if they want to work with you or not. They're not sentient, exactly, but they are magical. It gives them a certain nature that normal object just can't have.

[ Hermione knows a little, but it's not enough. Nasrin had been Inquisitor, after all, and had never really been 'in' the Circle; all she knows is from someone on the outside... That's hardly fair. ]

It's definitely a difference, but... It doesn't mean that magical people are all wonderful and kind. There are some magical folk that believe that muggles are dirty, or worthless, and want nothing more to kill them and their children, even if their children have magic.

[ Like herself. Hermione turns her head to focus on the staff, turning it a little and watching as the ice comes out - and it really is something miraculous, making her eyes light up a little, losing her train of thought for a moment. ]

[wolfehawke]

No, and there's blood mages and power hungry magisters too.

[He watches her, knowing that comments like that come from a place of first hand knowledge. He won't push, he can guess well enough the sorts of things that people like that do.]

But all that shows is that mages are just people, same as non-magic folk. They can love and hate, act or restrain themselves. Our magic is no more dangerous than a sword is in the hands of a Templar or a dagger in the grip of an assassin. The only difference is they can't disarm us, so they make up entire institutions to keep us under control, on the off chance someone might not want to play nice.

[He lets his eyes wander to the tennis balls lying around, now mostly ignored until his moody gaze falls on them.]

All that does is make more mages more likely to act out.

[brainiest]

That's probably true to every world. It doesn't need to have magic.

[ People want power, and they'll take it. There are magical and muggle examples of both, and she had learned them all. ]

The fact that they make those institutions is what causes the problems, though, surely? Isn't it better to educate and instruct mages and help them to understand themselves rather than back them into a corner so the only thing they have left to do is lash out? It's nonsensical, really, especially if you think about what kind of amazing work could happen if people tried to be amicable. Alliances, working together, schools, studying...

[ She huffs a noise. ]

Maybe I'm too hopeful.

[wolfehawke]

[At that, Adalwolfe smiles softly. She's not just smart, she's wise, but also still has hope. He really has found a kindred spirit, he thinks, and privately vows to himself to protect her at all costs. Another little sister that maybe he won't fail miserably this time.]

You're just the right amount of hopeful. It's only when people don't have hope that everything falls apart. At least, that's what I think.

[He spreads his hands.]

I don't know when the Sebastian you met was from, but I seem to be at least one of the furthest along as far as Thedas goes here in the Fleet and when I'm from, the mages and Templars are at war over it all. It's... actually pretty awful, but it's still something rather than mages living in fear under the Chantry's thumb. And yet despite all of that, the main force of the rebel mages have all joined something called the Inquisition to help defeat a common threat to all the world, and they were allowed to join freely, not through conscription. It's a step in the right direction, so yeah. I think it's important to have hope, because if you do, then things like that happen.

[Hope, or faith. Faith in Inquisitor Lavellan when Hawke hasn't had faith in anyone in a position of real power in decades. To think such a small elf could carry all that on his shoulders and still believe in the best of people. Anders would have liked him, Wolfe thinks, if it wasn't the most idiotic idea for the man who blew up a Chantry to go waltzing in to the stronghold of the Herald of Andraste. Still, hopefully they'll get to meet at some point. Gianni had been keep to hear about him.]

[brainiest]

[ Hermione knows that if she'd lost hope she'd never have made it as far as she had in the Drabwurld; she'd never have survived, not after all the things she faced and all the horrors she experienced. There was no going back, and she's aware of it - so she had to keep going forward. ]

If people stop hoping then there's no momentum to go forward, is there?

[ Her head tilts up and she watches, listening, completely rapt. ]

It's... It's more than they had before, isn't it? They were able to join because they wanted to, not because they were ordered or because they feared for their lives. That's something amazing, isn't it?

[ She breathes out, lifting her hand and huffing a noise, considering for a moment before she relaxes, leaning back. Her eyes turn back to look at Hawke and she tilts her head up, wondering, before - ]

I think Thedas can get better. There was a time in my world where witches and wizards were rounded up and burned alive. We've come to a point where there's some coexistance, but there's secrecy, too. If that same level could be met in Thedas...

[wolfehawke]

[He accepts his staff back and leans on it, his posture loose and nonchalant despite the weight of their conversation.]

I think you're partially right, eventually, and it would take some very big steps. There's no way to go into secrecy when magic is common knowledge and written about in the predominant religion of settled Thedas, and that's not even counting the Tevinter Imperium, where mages are the ruling class. What Thedas does need is a Divine on the side of the mages, one who won't allow us to be subjugated because we might maybe misuse our Maker-given gifts. It's the same as misusing a sword.

[He huffs quietly, then smiles, tired of the heavy talk. He's gone over it again and again with Anders, and others far less likely to take it to heart. It's out of his hands now anyway, since he's here.]

Let's talk about what we came here for, though. What other magic did this fancy school of yours teach? It's a lot more subtle than mine.

[brainiest]

Anyone can misuse something given to them. It doesn't have to be magic. Look at politicians or, like you said, warriors and soldiers. It doesn't have to be magical to make it dangerous, and that's something the world - Thedas - needs to learn. It's... Just going to take time. I really do hope your world can end up like mine one day.

[ But Hawke smiles and Hermione softens, relaxing a little, and she breathes out. Tilting her head up, she brightens a little at the chance to return to one of her favourite topics - school. ]

Transfiguarion, Charms, Potions, Arithmancy, Herbology, Care of Magical Creatures, Muggle Studies, Divination... [ Her nose wrinkles at that; obviously she isn't a fan. ] Ancient Runes was one of my favourites, but also Defence Against the Dark Arts, too.

[wolfehawke]

[As Hermione recites her courses, Adalwolfe quickly realizes that he doesn't know half of what that is and he's fairly certain it has less to do with them being from different worlds and much more to do with the fact that he'd never attended school. Never had a Circle education. Normally he's quite pleased to have avoided that given that Circle life comes with terrible abuse and essentially slavery, but there's always the niggling doubt over the learning he'd missed out on. His father had done his best from his notes, but he'd also not been the best at imparting lessons on things he himself wasn't terrible well versed in. Like potions and runes.

Anders would know, Adalwolfe thinks to himself, daunted by needing to ask about most of the classes Hermione listed. He picks one to start.]

Ancient runes? They taught Dwarven in your magic school? Whatever for?

[brainiest]

No, no, I don't think it's the kind of runes you're thinking of. We don't really have dwarves in my world.

[ She thinks, suddenly, with whiplash fondness, of Gimli and Legolas, and she has to force herself to stay calm before she summons some paper and transfigures a quill for her to use. She writes out some of the runes she memorised from the Tales of Beedle the Bard and hands it over for Hawke to look at. ]

It's an old form of language, obviously, and it can be used in stories or non-fiction writing. I studied it because I found it fascinating.

[wolfehawke]

Hmm... this looks a little like the enchantment runes we have back home. They're not technically magic, but I'm learning that what some worlds consider magic, others don't, and vice versa. For example, Alphonse is what he calls an alchemist, not a mage, but what he does looks like transfiguration to me.

[Adalwolfe shrugs, handing the paper back and feeling encouraged for not being judged over his lack of knowledge.]

What about arithmancy, what's that?

[brainiest]

It is very similar to transfiguration, you're right. He's my shipmate and what he can do is just... Amazing.

[ She shakes her head, flipping the paper over so she can write out some formula. ]

It's essentially the study of numbers and how they're magical. It's a mathmatical approach to magic and can be used with Numerology to help figure things out for the future.

[wolfehawke]

That sounds intensely dull.

[His eyes almost glaze over just at the sight of it. That's really never been how he's comprehended magic. It's always been something he can feel, a part of him that follows his emotions and direction.]

I just don't see how numbers can be magical.

[brainiest]

It is not dull! It's incredibly fascinating.

[ She frowns, taking her paper back, almost protective. ]

You can use numerology to find trends in magical power and the birth of children, or - or to figure out how certain spells work and how to make new ones! That's not even considering the ability to predict things that are going to happen by discovering patterns in the numbers!

[wolfehawke]

Alright, alright. I'm not trying to be insulting, it's just not to my taste. I've always felt magic and how it works. You know, instinct. Maybe there's something else like that. Defense Against the Dark Arts sounds interesting, and useful.

[More useful than divination mathematics, anyway.]