"Science wasn't my thing," he admits, better equipped for Lovecraft or movie references than explaining helicopters to Credence or knowing what happened to the earth when you fucked with its poles. He'd barely explained the concept to Casey when he'd asked about the auroras. "I only know enough about space to tell you your horoscope, but I'll need you to get on that telescope and tell me if Mars is in retrograde."

Kira's pretty sure that already happened this year, and the next one won't be until 2017. It's a little late regardless to tell Mark to be careful of his actions.

The easy, confident way Mark asserts it makes the pill both more believable and a little easier to swallow. Hadn't he told Sonny, this place felt like a bad dream, the lot of them left on meathooks to bleed out? "How would you though," he asks, the magic if it more believable to him than a level of scientific achievement indistinguishable from it. "They'd have to manufacture--everything? How do you simulate people who can read minds, or become smoke?"