This post has the following content warnings:
View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
It was supposed to be a low-risk mission just dipping their toes back in the water. And of course it's not. There's wraith there and they have to run. The manage to dial fine, they even manage to get to the gate but as they're jumping through several wraith shots hit the gate and something goes strange. The normally smooth passage of the wormhole twists alarmingly and it's normal teal green shifts to a much more menacing red. And when they're finally spat out. They certainly aren't back at Atlantis.
SGA-1 finds themselves at the site of a demon summoning
first_chair
"I guess we'll just have to see. If there's math involved in your magic it would be interesting to see how much it resembles what I'm used to. I also haven't scanned any magic actively being done. I could tell there was a lot of power when we visited Frosthome but it wasn't clear what it was doing, presumably preventing it from melting was part of that but I expect that it's doing a lot more than that. Having something more focused might help me understand better."
of-the-ice-and-snow
"Math has some applications in the balancing of forces, especially for larger spells which might try to escape your grasp or stable enchantments on an item, but it's not the primary tool we use to teach or learn. The concepts at play, and even the perception, are different from one witch to the next, in ways I would find difficult to reduce to numbers, though I once tried to sculpt ice to show some of it in space and could probably have managed it with a fourth dimension to shape it in."
"The parts of Frosthome visible to the external eye are largely power maintaining its form by establishing a conceptual law, though they can be a source of power to draw on for other workings, especially in emergencies."
first_chair
Rodney is at least tactful enough not to comment that if that's all the energy is doing that seems a bit inefficient.
"I suppose magic being based in math would be too much to hope for with what you and Teodor have said about how," don't say chaotic, "individual it tends to be."
of-the-ice-and-snow
"There's structure we can communicate, but it's linguistic, not numeric; very precise descriptions of forces and concepts at play, in specialized languages of enormous complexity. We use a different one from the southerners, but it's very similar for them, and I've been able to translate on occasion."
of-the-ice-and-snow
"I'll find you a short work on something inoffensive, but the Akshamksy Shoika and wizard Lingua Praestantia take years to learn, and the Kislevarin loses all the useful nuance."
first_chair
"If it will take years that just means I should get started as soon as I can. Assuming I can't find a different path, maybe with the Dwarves."
of-the-ice-and-snow
"I'll give it some thought. It could be misused - there are similarities with the languages Chaos uses for magic as well."
not_so_golden_retriever
"That's understandable. We don't want to ask for anything you're not willing to give."
of-the-ice-and-snow
"I think it's probably harmless, but it's unusual to try so I haven't thought about it, and ought to."
of-the-ice-and-snow
"It's sounded like you've run into some very strange things, in your past careers. All as this same unit?"
not_so_golden_retriever
"A number of the things I've mentioned were just reports of other team's encounters but the first hand strangeness mostly started when I got assigned to Atlantis and I've had this team for most of the time there. Ronon joined more recently but he's also been with us for a good length of time."
a_new_center
"The Wraith captured me when they attacked my world. They put a tracker in my back and hunted me as a game. Sheppard's people got the tracker out and offered me a place I could fight the Wraith. Seemed an easy choice."
a_new_center
"The Wraith didn't leave much. Didn't look everywhere obviously but scouting in a jumper we didn't find anything"
a_new_center
He shrugs, "It's an old wound." His expression betrays that it's still not a comfortable topic though.
of-the-ice-and-snow
"Well, are there any ...unambiguous successes, you've had, that you'd tell us about?", Teisiya says, and generally tries to subtly signal she's happy to let things devolve into small talk.
not_so_golden_retriever
"Our fight hasn't really been like that. We did destroy five Wraith Hives the last time they attacked us though and successfully tricked them into thinking we were gone so they left before we were overwhelmed."
greet_the_dawn
"You are greatly underselling the significance of that achievement. There are perhaps a few hundred hives in the entire galaxy. Nobody save perhaps the bravest of worlds would have imagined that was possible. I certainly wouldn't have believed it possible before I met you."
greet_the_dawn
"A single hive ship is almost three kilometers long and carries several thousand Wraith Darts and many larger craft along with tens of thousands Wraith."
