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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 2:26 pm
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 12:54 pm
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The back of his neck tingled at her words, and Chester quickly found a seat before the blotchy pinkness could spread to his face. Luckily, the other things she'd said distracted him from his embarrassment well enough, though he did clear his throat before he replied.
"Yes, the cliff face. Was that really you? Meaning the you here now, not one from another cycle." The Vivien in front of him was far too young at the moment to have been the age she had been in the sixties, but he was hopeful. If this one had that one's memories, maybe he didn't have to forget either.
"My link is strong," he almost muttered, unlooping his bag and resting it at his feet. Differentiating didn't make you stronger, did it? He packaged up his resentment over the possibility and shoved it away. "But kismet. Yes. It seems that way."
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 2:00 pm
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"Hmmm," said Vivien, tilting her head to the other side, then back, and then to the other side again, like she was thinking. "How to explain this..."
She seemed to hit on something pretty quickly, because she adjusted her position to be sitting up straighter. Like a TA going from your-buddy mode to teacher mode. Unfortunately for Chester, this TA believed in the Socratic method: "So, you know baseball, right? Say you have a man on first and a man on third. Who's more likely to make it to home? Who has to expel less effort to get there?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2017 3:12 pm
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"Yes," said Vivien, who seemed to be going somewhere with this. "That's where the analogy kind of falls apart, fortunately. The difference here is that it's possible for the man on first base--the undifferentiated man, you--to pass the man on third base. Not only can you pass him with a little more work, you can also do things he can't. You aren't limited by the fact that you're on a base at that particular point. The differentiated man, the noble or the were or the warg? All he can do is run the bases. You could pitch, or catch in the outfield, or whatever."
She paused for a minute, and then admitted, "I'm not really a sports person. I'm a computer programmer. Or I would be, if I was alive."
She leaned towards Chester. "The undifferentiated don't have a lesser bond with magic. They have a different bond with magic. The undifferentiated are what created the weres and the wargs and the nobles. You could do something similar, if you wanted to work hard for it--but those who have a class or a role or whatever you want to call it? They're evolutionary dead ends, too specialized to survive in the wild."
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2017 11:23 am
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Chester hadn't truly smiled since he'd arrived, not even when he'd loosed his cynical chuckle, but as Vivien's allegory continued, the corners of his mouth crept higher and his eyes crinkled with the barest fraction of the amusement and relief he felt.
"I was a mechanical engineer once. And your analogy was perfect." It made him feel lighter, happier than he had been since before the ball, when everything had been new and full of possibilities instead of endings.
"Do you know what's happening outside?" Because she was dead, and while that explained a few things, it made a mystery of so many others. "Is there truly time to create anything when I won't remember what I was in the middle of? I mean, I've never been more excited to be an outfielder, but nobles seem to have the advantage here when it comes to long term projects."
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