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[propulsion]

"You have reached the life model decoy of Tony Stark."

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stumbles back in

[propulsion]

[ There's a blink at the name Coulson, kind of glitchy, out of rhythm, but he doesn't interrupt, conditioned as he's decided to be to yank on the reins at any curiousity that has to do with Back Home in spite of, you know. It not meaning anything. It still doesn't, but some things probably need a little more familiarity, liquor in a glass. Sitting down.

Strange, too, at his own impulse towards skepticism at some kind of fear dimension sitting adjacent to his home planet, when here he is, Game of Thronesing it up with a nightmare plane that leaks demons, maybe people shaped from dreams.

He rubs his face, his own version of Fitz's nose pinching. ]

'Member when just outer space was the thing? Simpler times.

[ He refolds his arms. ] You recall if that energy was manipulable by anything or anyone who wasn't a wizard?

stumbles with

[technologist]

[ The glitch registers thanks to equal parts observation and paranoia. He has no idea what he'll say if Tony asks, which of course means he's fully ready for it — ready to be frozen by indecision, mostly. Tony dodging the subject entirely feels more like a raincheck than relief, but he'll take what he can get.

The question Tony does ask is met with the kind of small yet dramatic shrug that's universal for "who knows", because he genuinely doesn't know. After a beat, resigned: ]

There was nothing in the notes about it being manipulable by anyone. They closed the rift entirely to stop it leaking through. [ Another beat, this one distinctly cagey. ] And I don't think they had any wizards handy while they were running tests. Why?

[propulsion]

Just running similarities. Mages [ and six months or whatever it's been doesn't stop him from putting a bit of a sarcastic spin on pronouncing this word ] are gifted with the ability to pull energy out of the Fade and turn it into elemental forces. And fear, even, I think I read that somewhere.

[ Le shrug. ]

So if we're manifestations or copies, where does that leave us. Try to get back home, kill our good twin?

[technologist]

[ Mages controlling the Fade's energy is a little alarming in the context of them hypothetically being made of Fade energy. The thought doesn't get particularly far — they'd have noticed something as obvious as mages controlling or affecting Rifters by now, surely — but even if it had legs, Tony's follow-up trips it up cleanly.

Fitz gives him an inexplicably sharp look, moody and a bit guilty. It's his fault for floating the theory, but it's difficult not to feel punchy about the concept of more duplicates and more fallout. ]

No. We just— we get back home, and we figure out the rest later. There's no point having an existential crisis over one theory.

[ Says the guy who has steadfastly refused to engage directly with the "our entire world is a shitty mage dream" theory since his arrival. Anyway, now it's his turn to hard pivot into safer territory: ] How much of their tech's analogous to ours?

[propulsion]

[ That's a very fair and rationale perspective, Mr Fitz. Amusement iss cant and vague as it crosses Tony's expression, resettling his posture some as Fitz pivots the conversation around.

Very safe territory. ]

Warfare wise, artillery's pre gunpowder for most of Thedas, but the Qunari have something that sure sounds like it, and the dwarves are capable of lyrium-based explosives. Medically, everyone's in the miasmas and humours period, but Riftwatch's been given a clue.

Some of the local cities seem like they're crawling out of the Middle Ages and other places -- Val Royeux, and Kirkwall in a lot of ways -- are kind of Renaissancey. Relatively high levels of literacy, printing press, higher education for the wealthy and-or noble.

Low on scientific enlightenment. I think magic and a rock solid theocratic foundation's made 'em lazy, and even then they kept all their wizards in prison, so. The most cutting edge stuff is happening in Dwarf Town and Qunari Land, so we're operating off hearsay.

[technologist]

[ "This is an actual nightmare" is what he's thinking and not transcribing in expressions or fidgets, for once. He looks admirably chill about it, if a little distracted. Updating mental notes. ]

And the— [ A beat to grasp for completely made-up words. ] Corypheus. He's just got magic?

[ "Just" magic. ]

[propulsion]

[ "Just" magic. Tony's smile is thin, fleeting. ]

Yeah. And access to a resource called red lyrium. Or-- a willingness and ability to use it for anything. Mostly mutating his soldier recruits into superhuman monster things.

[ His watching of Fitz is a little more fixed as he says so, a curious cant to his head. He adds; ]

Also he has an undead dragon. So he gets points for aesthetic.

[technologist]

[ "Superhuman monster things" isn't good news, by any means, but there's at least some correlating data. Explanations he might be able to drag kicking and screaming out of their universe to explain something, anything here.

Tony's observation will catch what looks like deep consideration and the run-up to verbalizing it, and the rapid death of both when he says "undead dragon". Flatly: ]

An undead dragon.

[ He doesn't sound very impressed, with aesthetics or otherwise. ]