video; @Qubit

[superposition]

[ Though Qubit generally prefers text, he's found that for whatever reason, people seem to think he's more sincere when he uses video. So he goes with that - you only get one first impression. ]

Good morning, Anchor. You may have noticed a grocery store, of all things, has appeared just outside the main airlock... Ah. I'm Qubit, by the way, should have led with that. Anyways, I've taken the liberty of scouting the place out, and I have good news and bad news.

Good news - near as I can tell, the food's still fresh. Bad news - that's more than I can say for the customers. If you do go, don't go alone, and be ready to defend yourself. It turns out the place has a bit of an undead problem.

[ He shrugs, as if to say "because of course it does." ]

On the plus side, the radiation levels are rather lower than I expected. I'd still recommend suiting up if you can, but you should be all right provided you don't - aah!!

[ As he was talking, something whirred in the background, and now a laser bolt hits the wall not a foot from his head. Startled, he drops the comm, but his voice can be heard receding in the background. ]

Son of a bi- [ the feed ends. ]

Comments

[superposition]

[ Look, he had to check!! He knows real magic exists, but that doesn't mean he's gonna waste his time with fake magic. ]

Well all right, there's no need to get snippy. [ - he said snippily. ] You said it's done with runes? Some sort of inscription?

[braidmage]

[ Reynir has siblings, he knows better than to let this devolve into a "who started the snippiness" war. Not productive. So he just takes a deep breath and lets it go. ]

Not really inscriptions, they're more like specific patterns. It depends on the situation and what's called for but usually I'll either write them on some paper for people to carry around, or paint them on a door or a wall to keep an area clear. I might need to test some variations to get them to work on the undead, not just ghosts.

[ But he's seen the wonders that a little trial and error can do. As long as no one gets killed in the process. ]

I don't think it's a good idea to just leave them there, even if I do get some protections up. If they're clever they might find a way around eventually. Isn't there anyone in this place who can... guide them, on to the next life?

[superposition]

[ Hmm, interesting. The description brings to mind those long paper talismans he's seen a couple of times in Japan - which he's sure Kaidan told him the proper name for at some point, but damned if he can remember it. Still, it could be a viable option - maybe not for this little outbreak, but it'd be worth figuring out how well it works, at least. ]

Honestly, I'm not sure. Carlisle says he's got some method for dealing with them, which for all I know may be exactly that. But on the other hand, these things are basically mindless. There may not be anything left to guide.

[braidmage]

[ Carlisle. Wasn't that the name of the mage Pratt had mentioned, too? Reynir has got to meet this guy one of these days! ]

If his method doesn't work, let me know. Guiding trapped souls isn't really my specialty but I can ask Onni, he's got a lot more experience with it.

[ Onni might not appreciate being volunteered for it like this, but Reynir also knows how seriously he takes his duties as a mage. He will probably grumble but Reynir knows that he'll be able to convince him. Hopefully it won't be necessary, though. ]

There is something left. I've seen ghosts that were abandoned for more than 90 years finally find their path to the afterlife. They seemed vicious and mindless and beyond saving, at first, but it just took the right kind of priest and a little luck to help them.

[superposition]

[ Ahh, great. Just what this problem needed, a moral dimension. Why can't anything just be simple?

The idea that there could be some vestige of humanity left in those rotting shells is... not something he wants to consider. Especially after he already wrote them off and killed a few of them with a crowbar. But was he actually wrong to do that? ... No, preposterous. ]

... All right. I'll keep you posted. I'm all for helping them if it's feasible, but don't lose sight of the needs of the living. We still need to secure those supplies as soon as possible.

[braidmage]

I understand the importance of your mission, believe me. I'm not an idiot.

[ He could leave it at that, but Reynir can be quite stubborn, when he wants to. So he adds: ]

I just have plenty of sight for both.

[ And drops the mic. Or, rather, sets down the device carefully because he would have no idea how to fix it if it broke. ]

[superposition]

[ Ahah yeah sorry Reynir, he knows you're probably right, he's just... projecting. He doesn't attempt to go further with it, but he does follow up with a text a little later. ]

I didn't catch your name, by the way.

[braidmage]

[ He is surprised to see another message from the person from the network. Huh. They had skipped that part, hadn't they? Or, well, he'd skipped it.

It seems weird to answer aloud so time to get some practice with this whole texting business. ]

Reynir Árnason.

[superposition]

Thank you. I'll be in touch.

[ Although, as an afterthought- ]

What is that, Icelandic?

[braidmage]

[ Oh wow, someone actually knew that. Reynir is surprised; most of the people he's met here don't know much or anything about Iceland at all and certainly wouldn't have been able to guess where he was from by his name. ]

Yes, it is.

I'm sorry, but I don't know what country the name Qubit would belong to...

[ That's seriously one he's never heard before. ]

[superposition]

[ Well, when you can teleport to anyplace on Earth in the blink of an eye... That is to say, he's traveled a bit. ]

It doesn't. I'm more of a world citizen.

[ And also it's not his real name, but shhh. ]

[braidmage]

I'm not really sure I know what that means, in the way you're using it.

They don't have countries in your world?

[ Honestly some of the stuff he's heard about places people are from is so wild he's starting to believe just about anything. ]

[superposition]

[ Uh, well... MAYBE NOT ANYMORE, but that's a whole other can of worms. ]

No, they do. The term "world citizen" just means my first loyalty is to Earth as a whole, not to any particular nation.

[braidmage]

[ This is rapidly becoming just sort of a friendly conversation but Reynir doesn't mind one bit. He's quick to forgive and quicker to make friends, whenever he can. ]

So you've traveled to a lot of places? What about Iceland?

[ A beat, and then: ]

Have you ever seen palm trees?

[ He asks, as if that were at all a normal thing to ask someone. ]

[superposition]

[ Yeah, weird. How'd that happen? ]

I've been a couple of times. Always on business, which is too bad. It's a beautiful country.

And yes, I have seen palm trees. You've never gotten that far south, I take it?

[braidmage]

What kind of business?

[ Reynir can tell very clearly Qubit not only isn't from his world but isn't from one anything like it, either. ]

No, though I have been as far as Denmark.

[ Not gonna mention that he thought there would be palm trees, there. ]

Traveling is really dangerous where I come from. Especially for people like me, who aren't immune. Nobody really does it except for the military. The expedition I was part of went further than anybody else has in 90 years or so.

[superposition]

Superhero business. We were there stopping volcanic eruptions - same volcano both times, actually, but the second time it was artificially induced.

[ So yeah his world's just a little different. But Qubit's as curious about Reynir's world as Reynir is about his. ]

Really... What happened? Some sort of pandemic?

[braidmage]

[ The translation on that first word must be a bit screwy but Reynir thinks he gets the general gist of it, probably. ]

WHAT?

Stopping a volcanic eruption? How?! I don't think even the most powerful mages in the world could do that. And how could anybody get a volcano to erupt artificially? I mean why would they even want to?

[ Maybe there was some kind of divine intervention? It's still just about the wildest thing Reynir's ever heard. ]

Yeah. A bad one. Not that there are ever any good ones, but this one was really really bad.

Most of the world population outside the region around Iceland is totally gone. Maybe all of it? Nobody's really sure. The Old World collapsed and it's full of Beasts and Trolls, now... animals and people who were infected by the Illness and became monsters. Like your undead, in that food store, only different. They're hard to describe. Just be glad there aren't any in this place, that I've heard.

[superposition]

[ Oof. Well geez, it's hard to talk about good-old-days superhero shenanigans in the same breath as an apocalyptic plague. ]

I see... I'm sorry to hear that. Truly.

[ For as much of his life as he's spent screwing around with other dimensions and worlds beyond understanding, Qubit has relatively little direct experience with alternate Earths in particular. But on his own, he's seen what basically amounted to an apocalypse, in the form of the Plutonian - and worse, humanity's desperate, suicidal, futile attempts to stop him. He's witnessed devastation on a comparable scale. Countries of billions, depopulated overnight. Entire cultures, destroyed. Streets choked with the dead and dying, and no one left who could answer their cries for help.

The key difference is that, ultimately, Tony had been able to stop it. By his calculations, there was still enough left of humanity to recover - to rebuild some of what they'd lost. It'll be a long road, he knows, and his Earth will never be the same.

But humans are nothing if not resilient. Reynir's Earth is living proof of that. It's a world where humanity is even more beleaguered, where the existential threat never ended - and yet, where little Iceland has survived ninety years past the end of the world. ]

I can go into the volcano story in a bit, but do you mind if I ask you some more questions first?

[braidmage]

Yeah. I know it must sound really bad to you. Everyone I've talked to about home here gets really sad and upset about it. But it's just how the world is to me, you know? It was like that for my parents and their parents, too.
Life goes on.

[ Qubit had been so brusque and, well, rude before that asking permission like this is a little jarring. But Reynir just goes with it.

(And he really does want to hear that volcano story, later). ]

Yeah, of course. I don't mind answering questions at all, promise.

[superposition]

[ Yeeeah, he'll find that a lot of things about Qubit contradict each other. But a written medium does force him to slow down and really think about what he's saying; that's probably part of it, in this case.

The remoteness of the tragedy doesn't make it any less unspeakable, in his mind, but he can see where Reynir's coming from. He can't imagine life is easy for the survivors, but they have their lives. ]

Right. You said "the region around Iceland" - what does that entail?

[ Since last he checked, most of what's around Iceland is, uh. water. ]

[braidmage]

There's Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, and Finns. Not a lot of them, but people survived the collapse of the Old World in remote areas and on islands. They figured out quarantines and how to fight off beasts and dealt with famines and stuff like that.

For a long time there wasn't any contact at all but nowadays that's changing. The expedition I was part of had people from every country.

[ He... isn't going to mention he was the only Icelander or how he had come to be on that expedition, entirely unplanned and by accident and a pretty big inconvenience in some ways. ]

Iceland is the safest, and has the biggest population by a whole lot. But a lot less of us are immune.

[ In a horrible way, it's logical. Natural selection, baby. ]

[superposition]

[ Interesting... that implies there could be other holdout societies out there, too, that Iceland and company still don't have contact with. It's just speculation, of course, and not particularly useful in this context, but it's interesting.

A multinational expedition sounds promising, though! It's always inspiring to see people band together for a common cause. It begs the question, though, what was a sheep farmer doing on an expedition like that? Granted, he's definitely picturing something a little more impressive than the real thing, but ... ]

Interesting. Can you tell me more about the Illness itself? Does it have an official name?

[braidmage]

Most people just call it the Illness, or the Rash. If there's an official name that's the same in all countries, I really don't know it, sorry.

[ He had known so few actual details about the disease itself, before he left home. ]

I don't know a lot of history about where it came from or any of that. But you shouldn't assume that just because I don't know that stuff, no one in my world does. I'm not a scholar or a doctor or in the military or anything

I know you can get it from breathing without a mask near someone infected. Or if a troll bites you and pierces the skin, it will get in your blood. And I know you can be infected for a long time and not be sure, but be spreading it to other people. We have long quarantines, for anyone coming or going from a place where there are not-immune people. You have to sit around in a room for weeks and weeks just to be sure you don't start to get a rash. It's so boring.

[ Reynir's thoughts turn to Tuuri, then. Some of the enthusiasm he has for sharing information wanes, then. The ache of losing her still isn't much better, even if it is not quite so terribly fresh. ]

Once you know you're infected, it's much better just to die.

[superposition]

[ Qubit's just quietly taking notes on all this, but that last line surprises him with its harshness. Up to this point, Reynir's been very matter-of-fact about it - how it really is just a fact of life for him and his, that this deadly pathogen is out there, and keeping people safe from it causes all sorts of inconveniences for the healthy...

... but there's also what he mentioned earlier, about the end result. Beasts and Trolls. Falling victim to this plague isn't just a death sentence - it's worse. ]

Rather than become a monster?