Waking up in a bed was a strange experience after so long sleeping on the ground. He had nearly convinced himself that the whole thing was a dream before he really shook himself awake, but there was no mistaking the Fort for a modern home, even if it was the closest thing they had. James stood gingerly from the bed, getting the sleep out of his legs. The sun was bright shining in from the tiny windows near the roof, a shaft of light revealing his surroundings. He hurried to get dressed, finding the 'clothes' he had discarded on the floor. Thankfully, Gen had said something about getting real outfits made. Regardless of if they matched factory quality, wearing some new threads would be far more satisfying than the sort of tribal-wear they had fashioned for themselves. It was a hint of modernity that made him just that little bit more optimistic of fashioning a new home here, even if they couldn't go back to their own.
The entire city was a strange mish-mash of old technology and new. Kat's story had impressed upon them quite clearly that some big changes were made, and quite quickly. While she and Gen weren't qualified to be much of anything as teens- their specializations laid elsewhere- the Imposter had dabbled in a bit of everything. The most obvious improvements they made were to the quality of materials. Ayala had been content to leave the mine as a sort of natural landmark when they took over the city, but Merrilyn had spotted a number of useful materials that the Warden had probably written off as 'dumb rocks', especially including limestone. The new residents had been quite confused as to how the complex buildings of the city's builders had actually worked, and with brand new hydraulic lime- and all of the extra stone they didn't need- to work with, they got to work. Even now, many Gomen who had been without work or misplaced were set to mining. The next big project was replacing or re-creating the gate that Merrilyn had blown up, now that the commerce and travel districts were done.
The city had been quietly renovating and developing over the course of the month, but that was set to change, or so the goblins had insisted. They sent out parties through the system of roads, heading off to various settlements with strong goblin presence. It had been a long time, but considering there were no motorized vehicles to work with, that was to be expected. Merrilyn was many things, but she was not proficient in internal combustion- that was where they hoped any other humans to arrive would come in handy. James' group had a few engineers, but none seemed to have a strong grasp on thermodynamics. They seemed to favor electronics and robotics, which had long since overtaken combustion and mechanics as dominant fields of study. While their application was more limited, it was still important- they hoped to get an electrical system of some kind up and running before the year's end. For their entire expanse and grasp of advanced tech, it was hard to work backwards to the things that started it all. Still, it was progress, and that was important.
Finally feeling properly awake and ready to go be a goddamn wizard, James stopped mulling over silly little things like "civilization" and "the state of affairs". He practically flew down the halls, ignoring the greetings of a number of other exhausted people. Kat was a great storyteller, but she had gone on forever. Granted, it had a lot to do with just how much the three of them had accomplished in such a short time, but it was still a detriment to their general well-being. The people who hadn't already found their beds clambered up the stairs half asleep, hunting down a room. It had been a great night, but it made for a hellish morning if you already had a problem with that sort of thing. Luckily enough, James had always been a morning person. A couple of the more excitable kids were already milling down the halls towards the main room, and when they saw him jog down the stairs, they sped up. Even if it was Mister Moses, they wanted to be the first person to make it to class. Which was strange, to say the least, since usually education had the opposite effect on people, doubly so for children.
They all barreled into the hall. It was largely empty, but the three of the 'first group', namely Gen, Kat, and Merrilyn were already on the stage. They didn't even look tired, which annoyed him for some reason. Kat beamed out at them as they entered the room, while the other two just looked a little expectant. Waiting for the rest, no doubt. James took a seat, and tens of other people began to funnel into the room, yawning and stretching and generally in poor shape. He noticed that Merrilyn's entire demeanor had changed almost instantaneously, as though she had been replaced in the little bit of time he had looked away. She wore a prim little smile, and with the way she held herself, she conjured memories of kindly old schoolmarms long past. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that was just 'the way she was', but Kat had been quite clear on who and what Merrilyn was. As long as she wasn't threatened or stirred from her particular mode, she would be the perfect magic tutor. The moment the cover was challenged or blown, things would change a bit. Honestly, knowing what he knew now, Gen's initial warning may have been a bit too lax. Everyone else was going a bit insane because their world was falling apart around them. Merrilyn? She just was.
Gen stepped forward, clearing his throat as loudly as humanly possible. The room quieted down, 'good mornings' and little discussions ending. He stood a little straighter, entering a stern posture that let the awkward kid they had started to really get a handle on far more dignity than he should have been able to muster. "Good morning, soldiers," he said, embellishing with a sweep of his hands to address them all. Their three hosts had also made quite clear that so long as they hoped to survive and strive for somewhere to call their own, there was no such thing as a 'civilian'. A few men at one table saluted almost instantly, which seemed to satisfy the General. They were a group of actual soldiers who had become fast friends on the long march, a few from the ninth pod they had just rescued mingling with others that had survived in the long haul. James could only hope that the rest of them could manage the same comradery now that they were all in this together. The more unified they were, the better a shot this thing had. Even if having his flock so thoroughly ripped away hurt him somewhere deep inside, it was worth it if it meant they all survived. He had spent a long time preparing himself mentally for that outcome.
"This will be your first day in the city, and your first day training your possibilities." He continued. "Assuming she stuck more or less to script, Merrilyn should have already pointed out that the biggest thing we've got at our disposal is how varied we all are." He looked at the lady, who nodded a few times, smiling. He gave her a little grin in return, and then swung his head back over to the crowd. "Any and all resources will be at your disposal if it's meant to aide in your primary pursuits. I'm sorry to say that not everyone will be able to become a literal magician, however" he said, to which he received a small volley of boos- that he ignored, finishing with "everyone will be doing magic." Everyone unilaterally perked up, even those not as enthusiastic about the whole magic thing. Kat laughed at their reaction a little, seeming to enjoy the whirlwind of confusion they went through. How could one 'do magic' and not be a 'magician'? James had a few ideas just based on the story last night, but he needed to hear it first-hand. At that, Merrilyn spoke up.
"Of the three of us, I am the most innately talented at using and abusing Mana. Allow me to explain- quite simply- what is going on. The few of you who stayed awake long enough may remember Kat glancing over the 'internal mana' and 'external mana' delineation. In truth, we were operating under some misapprehensions." She said. If she had chalk and a blackboard, James was certain she'd be tapping on it right around then. "Think about your favorite mobile device. We had believed for a short while that 'internal' would be like the sensors or functionality cooked in, while 'external' was like broadcasting information or making calls." She mimed texting as she spoke, emphasizing the 'internal' and 'external' with sweeping hand movements. "Around the time Ayala saw reason, we got some more specifics, and started really working on R&D. In actuality, internal and external mana was the same, only different in origin. Internal mana is generated inside you as a consequence of simple existence, and it can be played with in many ways." She made a zigzag pattern with her hands, and a thin black sheet of something hung in the air where her hand moved, decorated with neon lines- not unlike the thing that had been trailing her footsteps yesterday. "It's limited, and you have to grow it. Most races can use it, and the ones that can't are perhaps the most dangerous. We would technically qualify in that category, since only a select few seemed to have figured it out back home."
James was getting a grip for it, now. Rather than the connection being the main point of contention, it was more like internal mana was the 'battery'. Which, in that case, would make external mana a charging station? "External mana is… different. It plays by its own rules, but at the moment, it seems to favor us. It's common practice to war over control of terrain simply for access to it, and Gen threw us into that struggle. My internal mana let me do that neat little trick back there with some ease, while if I tap into the reservoir that is 'the city', I can do this." Merrilyn stamped down her foot, and the entire room turned pitch-black. It was like being lost in the void once more, like the day they had been taken. Some people stumbled out of their now practically invisible chairs. Color expanded through the space in the form of little neon-blue bolts that crashed into each-other, forming a spider's web of hundreds of interchanging lines. This time, James got a real feel for what was going on.
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It was programming, in its purest form. The neon lines were competing, each constituting different logic gates and inputs. His face lit with recognition. His attention was recaptured by Merrilyn's polite little laugh, as she looked right at him. "I see some of you are familiar with programming. That takes me to my next topic- what can you do with magic?" She flourished, and as she moved, the room started to gently change colors, dancing between dim reds and greens and blues. The neon lines went into overdrive, desperately performing the necessary actions to apparently maintain that state. "The fact of the matter is that it has to come from somewhere in you. I'm a bit more… flexible, so I chose the one that would be easiest to share with the most people. By visualizing and actuating mana into inputs and outputs, and 'interpreting' it into a basic programming language, I can give a bit of physical form to it." She said, and the room returned to normal, as if it never changed. "You are familiar with programming, yes?"
Over half of the people in the room grunted affirmations. It was practically mandatory for STEM positions, at this point. If they could levy that to do magic, then maybe those stupid courses were worth it after all. Merrilyn beamed out at them. "For this first day, we're going to try to engineer magic. The more correlation there is between our magicians, and the better access we have to their techniques, the faster our understanding will grow." She said. James nodded at that. If magic was so varied and odd, then having the same launching point would make things easier. Over the course of the next hour, Merrilyn sought to teach them how to focus their internal mana to one area or another of their body. Virtually everyone got that, even if some people were rather bad at it. Things were going smoothly, and it almost felt like a rudimentary course, like they should have already known it from the start.
Things got tough when Merrilyn started explaining, as she liked to call it, 'magic assembly'. Less than half of the people who knew how to program were even capable of keeping up with it. A few people in the group that couldn't program were so desperate that they actually figured it out, surprisingly. James wondered if they would have been 'untapped geniuses', back home. For his part, he kept up alright, but it was still quite difficult. The biggest hump over the horizon, he was ready to get to spellcastin'. That was when the real weed-out started: executing the program. "Alright," Merrilyn explained, "When you have your 'program' in mind, you need to bring it deep into your brain, and then feed it fuel. Visualize throwing wood into a smoldering fire. You can't smother it, but too little wood would kill it just as quickly." A few people had instant results, albeit not very impressive ones. Most notably, one collegiate who had been studying programming managed to make a stream of water shoot from his hand, but as it made contact with anything 'of substance', it disappeared. One blast soared right past James' head, but he didn't even feel it displace air.
No matter what he did, it just wouldn't work. He was pretty sure even a misfire would make something happen, judging by the weird shit appearing in front of a few people. No matter how much wood he shoveled, nothing happened. Nothing at all. Merrilyn turned and started mumbling to the other two at the front, visibly disappointed in this outcome. She sat, and thirty minutes later- James never got it to work, even after rewriting a simpler 'program' from scratch- She spoke up once more, distracting everyone from their magical tinkering or desperate attempts to make anything happen. Only six people managed to make it work, in the end. "Congratulations to the lucky few. You will receive direct tutoring from me-" she ignored the panic that sent through the 'lucky few' with impressive tenacity- "since we have managed to find common ground. I urge all others to not give up in your aspirations. While we've proven that some methods of 'spellcasting' can be shared, we're also quite certain that there's more than one right way to go about it." James fell back into his chair. He hadn't even realized how panicked he had been until the tension washed away. This wasn't the last chance he had.
"For the bulk of the group, that's all for today. My 'magic assembly' programmers are to stay with me for more studying; but otherwise, you're free to do as you please. Your homework is to find something you could improve in the city, if anything. We will have more tests tomorrow, and so forth. As our pool of knowledge about these New World sciences grows, it should start to snowball." James was impressed at how boring she managed to make something as awesome as 'doing magic' sound, but he supposed it was part of the teacher persona. He stood from his chair, trying not to let the disappointment get the better of him. He walked over to the soldier group, playing meet and greet. The people who had been following him for a long time- "Gregory 'Big Greg' Tortillo" and "Jim", James had never heard Jim called anything other than 'Jim', even by his family- smoothed his re-introduction over and vouched for him. After a break for a 'little' discussion about whether or not Merrilyn could hook them up with guns within the year, they finally decided to go out to scope out the town. James was a bit out of his depth as far as guns went, so it was a relief when they finally got moving. If they started quizzing him on trigger discipline, he was pretty sure that he'd be cast out by the time he finished a sentence. Over the past month, he had learned very quickly how to navigate 'acceptable' and 'in-group' topics, but these guys were all very serious about their firepower, quite possibly moreso than the Midwesters were about their religion. Most of the others had already filed out of the Fort by the time they'd gotten half way through the discussion.
The city was alive. The moment they got out the door, they caught sight of goblins running through the grassy field. A small army of them were scrambling around, playing a game that looked like a mixture of hide and seek and tag. It was impressive how quickly- and quietly- they moved. In the distance, James could spot a few of the arm-heavy Gomen practicing their shot with some exceptionally oversized bows. They went for the bridge, goblins scattering in every direction as they approached. He really hoped that the 'alliance' Kat had described would last. The road had some traffic, residents and some members of the new arrivals alike milling around or chatting. For a hostile occupation, things did seem quite lax. He supposed that was the benefit of a world that was perpetually in a state of power struggle. That, or the Gomen just weren't as good at holding grudges as humans. There had been some dead, but it was mostly guards and combatants, in large part due to Ayala's quick reaction to the bomb scare, so it wasn't like there were too many who died needlessly. Merrilyn was apparently practiced at starting fires that gave people time to vacate, so even the burning of the west-end district wasn't too fatal. He was glad they wouldn't be at odds with the natives as a result, but he had mixed feelings about having a domestic terrorist- among other things- so high up the food chain.
They went westward, and quickly the replacement structures came into sight. They were multi-floor constructions, and the way they intermingled made it feel almost like a mall, with corridors interlinking or connecting otherwise separate structures, allowing someone to pass from store to store without returning to the main road. At first, he thought it was still abandoned, but the tavern had plenty of people. Quite a few of the Gomen were on lunch break from mining, hunched over huge steins of ale, or clapping along to the little ditty a girl was singing from her table. James recognized her- she was one of the eight survivors of Pod 5, and a talented singer, a real people person. She was a bit young to be hanging out at a tavern, but she- and her rendition of 'Space Flight in the Night'- were quite well received, so he let it be. He wondered if the miners had any clue what the words meant, or if they were simply too drunk to care. Jim and the boys plopped down at a table, and he followed suit. Back home he had never really been one to 'go out', and certainly not with such a tough crowd, so he was happy with the fact he hadn't stepped on any toes. They stayed in that tavern for quite some time, just drinking and singing along to the music and having a good time. He even made friends out of a few of the locals. It wasn't until evening came and went that they were reminded why people preferred to drink at night, but that was fun in its own way. There was a barfight or two, but things were so normal. Stumbling through the town in the dark wasn't half as bad as waking up with a water-wolf trying to bite your ankle off.
Eventually, he found his way to the bridge, and he keeled over the railing. He really hoped there weren't people working down there, or they'd be liable to get an unpleasant gift from above. It was a long walk, and in the process, he sobered up a little. A few of the Fort's windows burned with candle-light, but otherwise, the night was serene. James could see every star, every little speck on the horizon. It was an experience like none he ever had on Earth, just on the merits of light pollution alone. He hadn't known he was in love with the night sky, but he definitely was now. It had been shining so beautifully over them the whole time, but he'd never noticed. There'd never been time to notice, honestly. Everything was so beautiful, around him. If this really were some crazy advanced VR game, he would have adored it. It was like stepping into a world only told of in stories from the long past, with animals everywhere and crisp air and ancient stone cities and taverns, complete with entire other sentient races they were coinhabiting it all with. Now that the 'Spinosaurus-to-peaceful night sky' ratio had improved significantly, he was actually warming up a bit to the situation he had been thrown into. There was even a chance he could learn magic! Thoughts spiraled in his head as he stumbled to his bed- it took some effort to remember which room was his through the pounding headache- and he flopped down onto his bed. It was a modest thing, but it was his, and it was a bed.
It was the first day he had spent in the New World without having to fight for his life, and that made this strange little city of theirs something special. If it came down to it, he'd even call the place his home. They had finally found their 'Promised Land'.