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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
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first_chair
"Indoor plumbing is also very nice. Hot showers are something I took for granted until I couldn't always get them and now I recognize they are one of life's great luxuries."
from-the-land
"I don't think I understand how that would work," says a man whose closest experience to a shower is someone ducking under an incredibly cold waterfall on a dare, "But I'll believe you that it's pleasant."
first_chair
"Oh right, so the way showers work is that you pump water through a pipe to a shower head above you that disperses it into a bunch of small streams of water and those then cascade down onto your body."
from-the-land
"And there's some heating system to make sure it gets hot enough that the water's still warm by the time it gets to you?"
first_chair
"Oh, yes I'm also used to heating systems that also heat up water for use."
from-the-land
"I suspect only royals could afford it, and ours wouldn't want it. It would certainly be very convenient, hot baths are an enormous hassle even when they're very much worth it."
first_chair
"Things can get cheaper over time... there was a time when nobody had hot showers on our world and now, I won't lie and say everyone does but an awful lot of people do."
from-the-land
"Sounds nice."
They're walking back a different way than they came, and coming up is a sizable building standing fairly alone on a cobblestone plaza. It has prominent symbols of hammers and lightning bolts decorating it, much of it in silver, but maybe more noticeably all four corners have tall iron antennae(?) pointing straight up into the sky.
first_chair
"Huh, are those lightning rods? Also is this another temple?"
He also checks his scanner.
from-the-land
"Is that what you call them? Spires of Tor, which ensure that when lightning strikes, it strikes his temple instead of somewhere else."
And yeah this looks like a temple. Divine magic and all.
first_chair
"On our world we have similar assemblies but they're generally on the taller buildings in an area. We connect them with conductive materials on paths straight to the ground and it helps ensure lightning does less damage to the buildings."
from-the-land
"I don't remember where these ones end, but it might be that. The one in the capital has dozens and it draws storms even in times of good weather for the rest of the city."
first_chair
"That is definitely the divine magic. Lightning rods on our world aren't nearly that dramatic."
from-the-land
"Then I suppose their claims that they divine Tor's messages in the pattern of lightning strikes are probably true. I was never sure whether they were addled by too many short-range thunderclaps and blows to the head."
first_chair
"I don't think that necessarily follows but it sounds plausible at least. This world is making me say so many things I never thought I'd say before."
from-the-land
"You're skeptical of magic," he says, in a tone that invites a reply but does not seem much like a question.
first_chair
"And in my experience 99 times out of 100 I've been right to be. Aside from the uh... the people who used to be Ancients and a few rare people with psychic abilities that are usually just telepathy all the times people have claimed magic before we came here have either been superstition built around nothing or deliberate lies by people using advanced technology and calling it magic as a way to oppress others."
from-the-land
"...Where 'magic', to them, meant 'you can't do it so don't bother trying'? Well, I can't say no one says that here but it would be hard to hide if they were lying."
first_chair
"Most of the examples I have are from the Goa'uld. They claimed to be gods too. Anything to place themselves in a category that other people wouldn't think to challenge or resist."
not_so_golden_retriever
"Unfortunately. We are making progress but it's an uphill fight they were the premier power in our galaxy for thousands of years."
from-the-land
"Doing better than we have, then. Sounds like if our positions were reversed I'd be offering to help pretty immediately."
not_so_golden_retriever
"I appreciate the sentiment. We're certainly interested in helping I'm just not sure how would be best to do that. Also there's the whole maybe we'll be executed thing. And the thing where there's people depending on us back home."
from-the-land
"The Plotter... damn, I should have asked one of the priests to tell you the names on holy ground, if only so you recognize them if you hear them - makes a lot of things harder. Trust chief among them. I think only the vampire-blooded issue with Miss Teyla is going to keep us nervous about any of your actions for any length of time but I won't make you promises I can't keep."
He knows more than that but you'd have to be pretty sharp at reading people to notice. All this man's ranks in Bluff are for hiding that he knows things.