the white noise is deafening silence

[thespaceopera]

[In the very early hours of January 20th, as the Marsiva and her captives drift nonchalantly through the depths of the universe, there is a call. Every single personal communicator and console springs to life, spitting out a stream of indecipherable static and showing only gray snow on screen. It continues like this for a few seconds longer, going black and then going staticky, and then the signal switches to the encrypted channel generally used for speaking to the Interceptors when something big goes down.

This is a little more successful. The voice may be familiar to some, at least through the static.]

Zhade here! I trust I ███ your attention? I'm having some ██▓▓ble ██tting through. Some of the ░▓██▓█ are missing. I can't ░▓▓▓ read on their loc█████ns. [A particularly long burst of static.] ███stening. I'll s█▓▓█ more inf██▓▓▓▓▓█ I get it.

Stay sharp! [There's the sound of someone actually doing the fingerguns wink noise, and then static.

Any messages sent back won't get through, and Zhade isn't there to answer.]

[ A blip of lost time passes right after those words, before every passenger mysteriously wakes alone in their own unfamiliar room. The style of decor resembles that of the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck, if any passengers should remember what that's like. It sounds and smells the same as the host ship as well, all clean and chrome.

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round three of calibrations. ]

[ This mingle will cover all non-calibration room interactions. Please continue to come back to it for the duration of the plot! You are, of course, free to post any other mingles/posts/etc. that you'd like. ]

Comments

[abracafcku]

[Taako smirks and tips the brim of his hat.]

Guilty as charged and not a bit of remorse. Who else would be as brilliant as to cast Otiluke's Resilient Sphere and keep all of you away from the control panel?

[postocular]

It was either you or Loki, so I would've won either way. What's that? Some kind of forcefield?

[abracafcku]

Mmhmm - unbreakable sphere. As long as I have spell slots, I can keep it up. Nothing in, nothing out, can't be popped, can't be broken. It's perfect, no?

[postocular]

..Spell slots? I thought wizards had infinite magic. [ All the ones he's seen in books or media never seemed to run out. ]

[abracafcku]

Ooh no that's a common misconception. [Taako wags a finger as he shakes his head.]

All magic takes something out of you, just like a fighter can't swing his fuckin'- like smash shit endlessly without getting tired, magic can't be used endlessly without having a source. Wizards draw it from ourselves and tap into a well or something that exists in the world, but it's limited by our bodies' ability not to fucking explode from the overload. It's why we have spell focuses so that raw energy doesn't obliterate us when we channel it. Warlocks draw on a patron, use them as a conduit to power. Sorcerers have some fucking wonky shit going on with their lineage I think? But wizards are where it's at, my dude. You memorize and prepare a spell and you can do some gnarly shit.

[He pauses, realizing that was basically a free lesson. And sounded nerdy as hell.]

Like set someone's face on fire.

[postocular]

[ He's definitely absorbing this information like a sponge. Carl is always eager to learn- especially if it's something that wasn't available back home. That's how he learned Thedosian Elvish... Okay, that, and Leilani taught him because she's wonderful. ] That makes sense, yeah. Setting someone's face on fire is pretty damn cool.

[abracafcku]

Mmhmm, nice way to send a message and really drive the point home.

[Taako sweeps the bowl of eggs to the side and touches a finger to the next container of gel, concentrating.]

But before you get to all that? You have to learn how to tap into that well of magic and do something simple, like-- [He almost says Mage Hand, but that reminds him of Angus and he quickly switches gears] --Prestidigitation. If you can't get that one to work, then learning anything higher is a lost cause.

[The gel coalesces into chives and a bell pepper.]

I did agree to teach you before I uh, blew myself up and then we ended up here, so why not get ourselves into a lesson, huh? First thing to know? Everything has magic in it. Learning to sense it, tap into it, and then bend it to your will like a fucking badass is how you become a wizard.

[He plucks the bell pepper from the bowl and pulls a knife from the block, spinning the little paring knife in his fingers.]

Got it so far?