Klaus glanced furtively at Clarissa. She didn't know what a chantry was. Either she had something to hide, or she really wasn't a Tradition Mage. At least she wasn't with the Technocracy either, or he'd already be in transport to a New World Order re-education facility.
Suddenly, with a start, he puts two and fruit together and sums up Coulomb's law. Seventy years in the future. Who knows if the Tradition Council is still around? He grows visibly agitated, and begins thinking furiously. He must figure out what the rules are, in the America of the 21st century, before he gets himself killed.
He pulls off his strange monocle and stuffs it in a labcoat pocket with his yellow rock.
"'Plane.' This means airplane, da? Und a map. Tell me, please, what you know of the war. Surely you must have history."
"Yes, a plane is an airplane. The war... well- Do you want the long version or the short version? The long version takes a really really long time. The short version would take only a minute or two and involve me explaining fewer modern technologies... which I would find preferable. " She paused for a second.
"You know what? I'm just going to start with the short version. The very, very short version. It'll take one sentence. The war began in 1939, ended in 1945, and Germany and the other Axis nations lost to the Allies. There. Wasn't that informative?"
"Clarissa, how could it be called a 'world war'? It wasn't even a decade long! That's nowhere near enough time for a war to cover the world." Natalia asked, surprised that a war could be so short and still considered a 'world war'.
"Um... What? No... It was a world war because of the sheer number of countries involved, and the sheer number of soldiers and everything. Over sixty million people died in those six years. We, um, have some very destructive weapons... and created more during that war. It was bad."
She looked back at Klaus. "Anything specific you want to know? Like, if your hometown was bombed to the ground? I wouldn't know, but I can google it when we get to my house."
((Ah Google. I was actually googling WWII to decide how to answer this, intending to go into more detail... when I realized that there was absolutely no reason to write a whole essay on the annoying episode for a roleplay on a forum for a webcomic set in an other world. However, it was interesting...:wink: ))
"Mein Gott. Sixty million... Sixty million... I must hear the long story. When we arrive, perhaps. Is there a scientist where we go?"
Klaus still squinted owlishly in the sun. It seemed as if he hadn't been outside in quite a while. He was scanning ahead to see if he could discern their destination.
"Um... no, no scientists as such... But my dad's a historian." Clarissa said helpfully. "We really are almost to my house... It tends to be right around the corner... Ah-ha!" Clarissa walked straight at a large clump of thorn bushes.
"Mom had this crazy idea that taking down the fence and building a holographic boundary around our yard would be more effective at keeping strangers out of our yard. Surprisingly, she was right." She walked tranquilly through the thorn bushes.
She said she wasn't a plant mage! Natalia thought to Anli.
Yes, she's not. Look, those aren't real bushes. They don't produce any scents. Anli informed her mage cheerfully.
But what are they then? And does that passage really lead to Clarissa's house?
How should I know? Anli asked, disgruntled, It smells like there are other people there, though.
Clarissa had completely disappeared behind the fictional plants.
"Hey, are you guys coming?" her voice called through them. Her hand reappeared, beckoning.
Natalia stared. Anli poked the bushes with her nose. There really isn't anything here... not even something as semi-substantial as the wind statues...
Clarissa stuck her head back out, "I'm sorry; I forgot. This is a hologram- a projection of light on air. Just pictures. They can't hurt anyone. Mom's an artist.... Come on in!"
Natalia cautiously stepped forward, stretching her hand out before her. It hit the apparent barrier and moved right through it.
"There's really nothing here... Not even a touch of any magic I recognize..." she muttered. She walked all the way through it, Anli just behind her.
They were now facing... a field full of what appeared to be some kind of fruit tree. In the distance, Natalia could see something that looked slightly like a roof, behind some strange structures she couldn't even guess the purpose of. They formed yet another apparently impenetrable barrier.
Clarissa turned back from encouraging the others through the hologram. She saw what Natalia was staring at and shrugged.
"Mom's an artist. Local laws require us to fence the pool. They don't say what kind of fence. Mom decided that this was as good a use as any for some broken machines a local builder was getting rid of..."
"Oh... What?"
Lysurus studied the bushes that his friends had just walked through. "Amazing," he said, "Didn't she say she wasn't a plant mage?" "Yes, but thos arn't real, in any way." his familiar thought to him. "Maybe shes an illusion mage." "I think she said she wasn't a mage at all. "Oh yea, forgot about that." He walked through the bushes and his jaw dropped when he saw the orchard spread out before him. "This place is amazing, what kind of trees are these?"
Klaus gazed in wonderment at the holographic bushes. Clearly he was dumbstruck by the magnificent display of science. Only with great reluctance did he allow himself to be drawn through the phantasmal barrier to the other side. Once through he only glanced around briefly before turning back to look at the hedge, pulling out his blue lens again, to aid his inspecting. "I've never seen the like. It is fantastic. I would very much like to see this machine later, if it would be alright."
Reluctantly, he turned to follow the group, still casting glances over his shoulder.