video- bat signalling

[magician_king]

Okay, I guess I'm a little overdue for this-

[Here goes nothing.]

My name is Quentin Coldwater. I'm a magician. I used to teach at Brakebills, and for a while, I lived in Fillory. I've got a pretty good grounding in physics and mathematics, and interuniversal travel. Normally I would consider myself able to claw my way out of this shit, but no dice this time.

Is there anyone here who knows anything about any or all of the above?

[He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose, a nervous habit.]

I would like to get the fuck out of here, if anyone has any, uh, inroads on that one. Novel, I'm sure, but we've all got to start somewhere. Cheers.

Comments

[evocation]

I guess so. Yeah. Sure? What does that mean?

[magician_king]

If I can travel between worlds and you can travel between worlds but we're both here and coming from incompatible systems. I would think that'd mean we're from different clusters of connected realities.

Like roaming around on the twigs of respective branches of a huge tree.

[evocation]

I guess I've never thought of them being connected like that. Layered, maybe, but not... branches.

[magician_king]

I don't mean chronologically, though. I mean in terms of seed content.

Like, there's a woman here from my school, who knew me, who I've never met in my life- and she says I look different.

[evocation]

Oh, yeah. There's a guy here who looks like my best friend, but he's kind of a douchebag. I've never heard it called seed content, though.

[magician_king]

I made it up now. Needed a new metaphor.

[evocation]

[She lets out an indignant noise.]

Jesus, I thought you guys had some crazy classification system or some shit.

[magician_king]

Nope. These are new concepts, we're going to have to come up with our own terms.

[evocation]

I guess. I mean, people say that there are all sorts of versions of the same universe, right? Just with little differences.

[magician_king]

I'm pretty sure there are some big fucking differences at play here, though.

Like that theory falls apart under sixty seconds of scrutiny.

[evocation]

Alright, professor, let's hear some scrutiny.

[magician_king]

Different systems of magic.

I've counted five so far. Why would the base laws of the universe vary from version to version, and if so how 'little' could they possibly be?

[evocation]

Why wouldn't they vary if literally everything else about them varies?

[magician_king]

Because magic is like physics. It's a system of fundamental laws.

I mean, I don't disagree that the worlds are related, but these are changes that go beyond the standard 'the world where we lost world war one,' 'the world where the Pinto, Nina and Santa Maria sank.'

[evocation]

Not all of them are related though, right? There's a ton of shit I've never heard of.

[magician_king]

And that's my point. It's not just minor changes.

And that means the standard systems won't allow us to shift between the whole.