"I'd imagine so. Does it have any non-combat applications?"

"Yes. Healing, illusion, enchantment. Sadly, these also require blood to fuel, limiting the opportunities for their usefulness. Were I in my native world, I could draw upon the Fade, which is a realm of magic overlaid on the real world. That is the usual way of doing magic; blood mages are regarded with fear and suspicion by most of the world."

"Interesting." She frowns off into the distance. "I - don't think we have any feared magic types..." But she sounds unsure. (She's never thought about this before - the answer is obvious, of course no one hates magic - but that feels weirdly false - )

"In my experience, it's usually more about the practitioner than the practice."

She nods. "That makes sense."

"What other sorts of magic is there here, besides your stories?"

"I don't know what you fully consider magic, but there's powers that aren't traditionally sorted under that heading - a type of powered person called 'mutants' are fairly common, who have a mutation to a gene that usually suppresses the development of supernatural abilities. Most mutants have small powers, or ones that cause more harm than good, but a few have very useful things. Telepathy, weather control, teleportation, magic sensitivity, super healing, super speed... Most mutants get one main power and a few smaller powers related to it. There's also a few powers that arise from mixing bloodlines from different peoples - anyone with Skrull blood can shapeshift, for instance, and the Jotnar have the ability to control ice, so someone who is half Skrull, half Jotunn would have both those powers, and possibly a syncretic power from their interaction. There's also people who were altered by external processes - on Earth, mostly super soldiers from the pre-Unification wars."

"Those sound magic to me."

"We use a slightly different framing, then."

"Only to be expected, really."

"Yeah. It's neat to consider other ways of doing it all."

"Yes, that's one of the things I've enjoyed about interworld travel."

"I'd like to do some myself, I think." She glances over in the direction they're walking. "Though we're almost at the museum."

"The experiences of this world will have to suffice for now."

She laughs and leads the way.

The museum mostly focuses on the history of Genosha - both ancient, in terms of the assorted cultures of native people who've inhabited it - and since it became a focal point of the world. Erik Lensherr escaped the Holocaust (the display assumes you know what this is) with the help of his powers, decades ago. He rallied mutants to his cause, helping bring down the Third Reich despite his young age. He fought in many of the conflicts afterwards, helping refugees, organizing mutants, and drawing more and more people to his banner. 

The Unification War proper occurred in the 1960s and 1970s - the display talks about the wars leading up to it, such as the Second Indochina War, and, of course, the ongoing Cold War between the historic polities of the Soviet Union and the United States of America, and how mutant involvement in those wars was often seen as a major cause of escalations. Lensherr's cause quickly gained allies, notable among them being his five children. The most powerful of these are Cecilia and Miriam Maximoff, a sorceress and a speedster respectively, and the Unification War was won within a year of them entering the battlefield at sixteen, with Unification declared in 1979 and Erik Lensherr made King of the United Earth.

Genosha had served as a mutant sanctuary during the 1950s, and the local polities had remained ardent in their support of King Lensherr throughout the war. Genosha's largest city was selected as the capital of the new unified nation, and since then King Lensherr has pursued scientific advancement, social progress, and increasing trade with interplanetary allies. Asgard is mentioned as one of these, alongside a few other alien species.

Ah, an empire. Like if Andraste had been on Tevinter's side, instead of against it. The pattern is familiar, even if the details are not.

There's some more about important interplanetary peace summits hosted in the city, but the recent history displays are fairly sparse compared to the displays about things that happened centuries or even millennia ago. There's a definite cast to the information, a narrative portraying Genosha as a shining beacon of freedom and progress, but mistakes that've been made aren't hidden and are instead presented as something to learn from - Genosha's had its share of troubles and even revolutions and civil wars over the past five centuries.

Slightly better than it could be, perhaps. The government is at least secure enough in its power to admit to past mistakes.

There is an edge of a framing around the mistakes justifying King Lensherr's rule, but it's not too strong or blatant.

Loki's looking around, interested, stopping to read the displays as much as the visitors - she doesn't seem familiar with the information.

Well, she is a visitor too. But it's better if the group is moving through the museum at the same rate. Saves people from getting bored.

"It's interesting seeing how humans did on their own - Asgard was involved in Earth up until around one thousand A.D., then withdrew and declared Earth a protectorate, kept others from interfering - though that got broken somewhere in the nineteen hundreds."

"What made Asgard decide to leave?"

"Old King - my grandfather - died, and the new King - my father - was an isolationist, mostly. Didn't want to bother with administering a province with minimal resources, and didn't want anyone else taking it - Earth's in a vaguely strategic position - so just left them to self govern under Asgard's protection from external interference."

"As colonialist policies go, that's not the worst."

"Pretty much, yeah. Not that Odin - the King - hasn't been an asshole elsewhere."