Fortuna Verto

49-Forgotten Passions

By midday, both girls had brought their daily activity over to the world on the other side. Even without an ambitious goal to aspire towards, the girls knew it would be irresponsible to neglect their other half of their life's obligations.

Kori was still finding herself off drift even in that regard. Sure, she was still a bit tired, having slightly underslept due to restlessness, while Rosa had instead actually overslept in exhaustion. It had given Kori a lot of time to think.. but even that had proved as efficient as it had all dawn. Rosa meanwhile was back in Drew's office.. and supposedly doing nothing important. That concept was leaving Kori feeling baffled, considering Rosa had marched there with an obvious feeling of obligation.. but then had just started to slack off doing nothing but casual conversation about matters of industry? Of course, Kori had taken time for herself last dawn in a very similar way, she wasn't complaining about that. It just felt strange, somehow, like Rosa was still working to accomplish something even while relaxing. However, if Rosa was going to invest her attention into the place's leadership, Kori would have to check with Tristine to see if anything else around here needed help.

"Oh, hey, Kori. You pick a funny time to show up. We had a mid-dawn power failure here, old core might not be getting enough maintenance. I actually just finished fixing the darn thing." "Oh, sorry." "Oh, not blaming you or anything, technically that was completely my bad. Drew gave me such a hard time about it, something about needing to respect the foundations of my own people. All of that stuff.. was made by conduits? It was rough enough getting into this industry, I'm surprised just how much our people just.. at a time.. just did." "Oh, yeah, it's quite the sight, really. Historically though, our people would have only done this sort of thing for a short while. Conduits learned as they were threatened by humans, then things got too tense, humans then took their many.. many more generations of experience and shoved it down our throats." "Idiot humans. I mean, not all of them.. but..." Tristine sighed, a feeling Kori was all too familiar with. This was a factor of life Kori had complained about for years, silently, like many conduits. However, there was more familiarity about it than just that.

"I.. I actually don't think this is just a human thing. Ignorance stemmed with being possessive of the accomplishments of their people. I mean, if humans had come here and found conduits at a far more technologically progressed development, we would have still had conflict. Then, if the conduits had won instead, it would possibly be the humans being oppressed for being foreigners to the world." "That's some deep thinking, for someone who..." "I'm saying this because of the societal conflicts of the other side. There, humans and elves aren't at each other's throats, but mostly because there didn't seem to be a reason for it. What we have instead is some grand organization that has basically achieved world domination by monopolizing the most valuable resource. Seems there is even a secret behind their success, and they are doing everything possible to protect it. It's basically the same idea, all over again." Kori filled Tristine in on a few of the related details, just to build a comparison. All of this stuff was on her head, especially considering the current issue she was seeking a resolution for. Tristine listened, trying to understand as much about the people of a world where most of the science didn't make as much sense.

"Ah, so now you're going to have to stand up against that overbearing oppression, too. It makes sense you don't want to just fight it out though, we did.. and look where that left us. But if the goal is to make people like you, both you and Rosa, then I'm sure you've both got this in the bag." "It's really not going to be that simple..." "Well, of course. But to the people there, you're not a conduit. You're just one of the regular people. That's already an advantage. Think about that scene in the aerospace terminal, when you sort of walked in and saved me from getting bullied. You did that as a conduit, the people most hated around here, and people were talking about it for ages afterwards. I'm certain there are still tales about that scene, of the enforcer that held the peace. Take away your conduit handicap, suddenly everything is actually even easier. I mean, really, can you honestly say that this foundry is so many times more intimidating than not just the collectivity of humanity, but even the outstretched reach of aerospace stuff. Aerospace is basically a branch of the human government, so it should be pretty easy to compare." Tristine was actually finding Kori's tale of politics actually far too easy to understand. It seems matters of politics really didn't change much between such diverse realities.