faun

[shesepankh]

Saturday morning sees Bella with her notebooks about magic all in her knapsack, her medallion safety-pinned by its chain to her bra just in case she trips the wrong way, waiting with Charlie for pickup for the Avalon trip.

Comments

[castmyown]

"About a third. There are an absurd number of runes, it's ridiculous."

[shesepankh]

"And you don't even know about all of them. Well, I think that's all to the good, anyway, the more there are the more flexibility there is, even if it's a steep learning curve. We should see if photocopied spells work soon. Do you have a safe smallish one that would be a good test subject?"

[castmyown]

"Not yet, it's actually kind of difficult to find a spell that will probably be safe even if something goes wrong with it."

[shesepankh]

"Let's see... with the effects I know to exist... boiling water's not safe if it mistargets, same problem with freezing it, turning something blue would be bad if it was permanent and hit one of us... okay you're right this is hard."

[castmyown]

"Very. The best idea I had was something that redirects light, but then I remembered ultraviolet light and other dangerous things in light and realized that could end really badly."

[shesepankh]

"Are there any spells you can cast with one rune in the inscription? I wouldn't imagine it'd be very practical to produce a near-random slew of effects like that, but it'd be simple, it'd be predictable, and it'd tell us if photocopies work."

[castmyown]

"Theoretically it'd be possible. I'm not sure if that's the safest option, though. There'd be no aiming any of the random effects with just one rune. It would just - go wherever."

[shesepankh]

"It's kind of sounding like we need to be prepared for that eventuality anyway. But maybe one rune and something to aim it at a rock, two layers of protection, and then if it targets the rock we know scrolls work, if it targets something else we know exactly what it'll do no wiggle room and know that copied scrolls may partially work, and if it doesn't do anything we know it needs more than a Xerox copy of an inscription to go off."

[castmyown]

"Hmm. Okay, I'll start trying to think of two-rune spells that are harmless, and then we can work from there. Sound good?"

[shesepankh]

"Yeah."

[castmyown]

Darren smiles. "And we can also be scientific about it - Xerox copy, handwritten one, one made with a stencil, and a normal set of engraved runes as a control, and see the effects of each with the same chants."

[shesepankh]

"Yes. Science."

[castmyown]

Darren snickers. "I like science. It's orderly. Who says it can't be combined with magic?"

[shesepankh]

"Nobody who has the least idea how runes work, anyway. I suppose if magic worked very differently it could be prohibitively difficult."

[castmyown]

"That would be terrible and I would be annoyed with it but still use it anyway. Because it's magic. Unless it was like - the peryton ability, or something."

[shesepankh]

"The peryton ability's flaws have nothing to do with its amenability to science."

[castmyown]

"No, but I wouldn't use something that wasn't amenable to science and amoral like the peryton ability."

[shesepankh]

"Yes, I know. Unless part of its unamenability to science involved occurring without being prompted, I suppose."

[castmyown]

"Ugh, that would be terrible. Just - doing horrific things without permission. Worst magic ever, I would want a refund."

[shesepankh]

"Maybe the random evil magic would give you a refund! From some worthy charity's pocket, no doubt, as it is evil."

[castmyown]

"In that case, no refund, I would just want the random evil magic to go away."

[shesepankh]

"It would not. It is too evil."

Leansnuggle.

[castmyown]

Darren shakes his fist. "Curse you, evil magic!"

Leansnuggle right back!

[shesepankh]

Hee hee.

Is that the Sanders house there?

[castmyown]

It is!

"So, magic lessons and then uh," Darren looks shy but happy, "our date?"