maskormenace | (no subject)

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[ The video is blurry at first before eventually focusing in on a gentleman in suspenders and what can only be described as some kind of cowboy coat. Leather duster? Whatever. Despite the apparent old-fashioned getup, Mal looks relieved when he gets the comm to work. Feels relieved, in fact. ]

… Well. Least the comm tech’s familiar. Can’t say as I tend to send many messages out all public-like, but this seems t’be a special occasion.

[ And he is desperately grateful for that familiarity. He adjusts his suspenders a moment before putting on a neutral smile. ]

Evenin’. The name’s Malcolm Reynolds. Uh - Firefly captain. And since that likely don’t ring no bells, that’d be my spaceship. I’m guessin’ that ain’t something anyone’s seen hair nor hide of here, but I’d surely appreciate anyone who might have a thought to it. Don’t hardly seem fair for this so-called righteous governin’ force to go takin’ our property. Anyone else get stuck with that particular hand? Or any chance of there bein’ a chance it’s been stowed away somewhere hard t’find?

Because I surely get tetchy all land bound an’ all. Don’t hardly do me no favors to keep me out of the sky.

[ All neutral still - since, y’know, the government has to be listening in on this too. Wouldn’t do to advertise a break-in right up front. Just a good citizen wanting to not go crazy in a new world…

While he figures out how the hell to drop off the grid as fast as possible.

After a few choice conversations, he adds the following message: ]

Anyone know a good bar to get drunk in?

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... Shapeshifter, huh. Well, I reckon we would understand each other on that.

Yeah. All spirits are, where I'm from.

[ She tilts her head a little bit. ]

It's strange for me to think about, though. Needing that sort of thing. Before I'd come here, I'd never left London. It's weird being away from it. The first few months, I felt sort of panicked at night, and it took me that long to figure out - it's 'cause there wasn't any street noise. Nobody talking and no cars. I bet you'll be better at adjusting to life here than I was.

[ He looks a bit baffled by the thought of street noise at all - he was a country boy before space, after all. ]

If'n by that y'mean I don't need a city, sure. Seems dreadful quiet without a ship's hum though.

[ A little nod. ]

You might want to get a noisemaker, then. Something that'll make noise to help you sleep. That's what I did, in the end.

But I meant more in the sense of...You're really used to adapting to new places, yeah? Changing the way you live to suit where you've found yourself.

Well sure. Hafta be, floatin' all round the 'Verse like we do. S'nice always goin' back to the same berth in the end though.

You might end up able to help people, then. New people, less accustomed to adjusting to new places.

An' what, me as ambassador on a world five hundred years afore mine?

I think you'd make an excellent one.

Reckon I oughta settle in more first. See if'n I hold.

I guess so.

It really is good, though. Being here. You can say whatever you want to. No consequences. No one will punish you for it. It's really...It's really amazing. And I know it's not like what you're used to, but - you have a really free range of travel. The entire country is open to you. And it's enormous.

Take it that second one's new for you?

[ A wry smile. ]

I didn't stay in London 'cause I wanted to. At least - not at first.

At first? Don't tell me you're a little lawbreaker too.

[ And an equally wry shrug. And, like she's reading off some career milestone: ]

Lawbreaker? You haven't any idea. I started with assault when I was thirteen and had graduated to high treason by fifteen.

[ Then, a little less facetiously: ]

I managed to make them think I was dead. Through luck more than cleverness. That was why I wanted to stay behind in London after all that - I was in a position where I could work to undermine the government in secret. But before then - yeah. You can be sure I didn't want to stay there.

Edited 2015-11-21 15:30 (UTC)

I'm gettin' that impression. What made it bad other'n the obvious?

[ Her face turns completely serious now. She takes a deep breath, and starts in - ]

They kept slaves. That was the foundation of their power. Slavery. And that corruption tainted every element of the system. Magicians summoned spirits and enslaved them. The crueler a magician was, the better he could keep his slaves in line, and the more magically powerful he became. And the more powerful he was, the higher he rose in government. And that put the absolute worst at the absolute top. And so those cruel, wicked few who ruled our country decided how the Empire was to be run, and it was to be run on oppression and paranoia. My people, the commoners - the people without magic - were ground down, kept in poverty and kept ignorant so that we wouldn't rise up against them. They kept us under surveillance to make sure we didn't think to organize, and they denied us legal rights and standing, and if we spoke out against them they had us arrested and tortured or simply torn apart by their police werewolves. And they sent us to die, too, on foreign shores, using us as fodder on the front lines of their wars. We've been ground down for centuries. The spirits have been ground down for even longer. And even the magicians themselves - They're not even hateful; they're pitiable, because they're all taken as children and taught all this before they're even able to question. They're instructed in the ways of wickedness, and they're presented with no alternative. It's a horrid system that corrupts everyone involved in it. It's a poison that corrupts our entire nation.

[ She scowls as she polishes a pint glass, getting her anger out on the water spots on its side. ]

And so I'm going to burn it to the ground.

[ Ah. She'd told him some of that before, but now it's all clicking into one terrible picture. His expression darkens immediately and does not lighten. ]

Reckon I'd help you do it, if'n I were there. Spirit or person, people ought t'be free.

[ That draws her gaze up from her pint glass to his face - and her face softens. ]

A year ago, I'd have held you to that. There was a point where I was trying to pull together an army of imPorts to march on my government. I've been talked out of it.

[ But then she nods, saying - ]

I agree. Completely. The servitude that my people are forced into is unbearable. What they do to the spirits is a hundred times worse. I want to stop it from happening. So my plan now is to make magic impossible. To eradicate all magic from the world.

[ He polishes off the last of the bourbon in his glass. ]

Huh. S'that a thing what's possible? Guessin' so if you're set on it.

I think so.

[ She meets his eyes, her eyes bright but her expression pragmatic. ]

The first step in enslaving a spirit is pulling it out of the Other Place - that's the dimension where spirits live. But the Porter technology - what pulled us here, and what keeps us here - it blocks interdimensional travel. So I want to get access to the Porter and bring it back to my world. Use it to block crossing over. Wall off the Other Place, in essence, and keep the spirits safe from our reach forever.

... Wonder if'n that weren't what happened here.

[ She tilts her head slightly to the side. ]

What do you mean?

Someone bringin' the tech here to stop somethin' else. Or keep somethin' trapped. Could be we're the side effect, not the sole purpose.

[ ...Huh. She leans back a little bit, frowning as she thinks that over. ]

It...Hm. I mean - I'm fairly certain that the government doesn't have any control over the Porter. So it wouldn't be them, if that were the case.

... What, the Porter just showed up one day?