Scott was in Scott Free or Not in the archives. My last post there read:
Alice has never seen anything related to superheroes or supervillains, or any fiction about nuclear war or tensions that might lead to nuclear war, or stories about what might happen in the future. She is puzzled at the idea that something like this would be entertainment, and wants to know if it's a children's history book in another universe.--M. J. Young
This is the reaction he has gotten from his hostess, a waitress named Alice, to the famed graphic novel The Watchmen. I will ask him to fill in other details as we progress.
--M. J. Young
It's been a while, but like I mentioned elsewhere, I'm trying to prioritize my players over myself, and I'm still not very good about posting on their threads regularly. In any case, I think I'm ready to pick up here again. Since a goodly portion of what I'm responding to comes from your penultimate post in the archives, I'm reprinting portions of that here:
Yes on the pay. As to the random expenses, you were making dinner half the nights, and you were buying the food for two for that, so I'm comfortable with an average of $40 per week spent on food and miscellany. If you want clothes, that's extra. That's nine weeks (at 63 days), $360, unless you can persuade me that you can eat on less than that (and I cut it pretty thin on the assumption that she's still carrying the staples, spices, bath tissue, cleaning products, wraps, and that sort of stuff).
I'm fine with that. That brings my total local cash to $1,703.94 (which, incidentally, is comprised of precisely 200 bills and nine coins) as of Monday 8/20/2007, including all expenses except the wingnuts and/or any days off from work I may end up having taken.
There are four dishwashers who speak Spanish . . . The dishwashers are glad for someone who muddles through Spanish, as they are trying to learn English. That will count as training for you.
Groovy.
It occurs to me that wingnuts come in a wide variety of sizes and (more to the point) weights. In fact, they can be acquired in plastic, steel, and brass, at least. Would you care to provide more information about these particular wingnuts? I was envisioning the last batch to be small galvanized steel, about half an inch tip to tip, probably fifty to a pound.
As for the last batch, galvanized steel is fine, but I was picturing something larger. The wingnuts I'm most familiar with – the ones I used in my junior year, for the betterment of Mrs. Giardi - were about twice that size, an inch from tip to tip. That's the same size of wingnut that went on my crutches the time I broke my foot. I would have bought that if they'd been available, but if the hardware store in Columbus hadn't stocked them, I'd have gone with whatever they had.
On this trip, I'm struck by the variety available. I'll inquire of the staff exactly how many materials are used to make wingnuts, and if they know of any wooden varieties. Then I'll just buy two hundred of the 1" galvanized steel kind and maybe come back for the others later.
Because, you see, I've gotten An Idea. I'm wearing wingnut pentagon around my neck for symbolic reasons, and that's all well and good. But couldn't I take that symbolism further? If I were to have five different kinds of wingnuts, perhaps each symbolizing one of the five elements . . . and so it goes, until I eventually cook up the plan that I'll post later. (I'm almost finished!)
That night after work, I'll write this entry. The local date is 7:00 AM Thursday, 7/5/07; thus, the computer-clock reads 8:00 AM Monday, 8/9/07. (That converts to 4/64/CUQ computer time, and it's my twenty-eighth day since becoming a verser.) Entry follows:
Pungenday the Sixty-Fourth of Bureaucracy in the Year CUQ | Pungenday the Twenty-Eighth of Chaos in the Year A
Stumbled into a vault today, and the gears in my head are flying. I hadn't considered the potential variety of brain-tackle until now; it's exposed an elemental flaw in a previous plan. I may yet reach mutual understanding with the warehouse janitors, though such things take time and a healthy Luthor. Speaking of which, I lent my friend my favorite corpse a few days ago, but I'm afraid I only confused the poor barrel-smith. Elder siblings can be over-protective that way.Just Taking In The Sights: Cogitation Pending
As for Alice, I'll take the time to explain a few things. I'm pretty good at extemporaneous rants (and by "rant," I mean "passionate explanation"); rather than get long-winded right here on the forum, I'll briefly outline the points I'm trying to cover:
I'll also briefly explain the idea of super-heroes and super-villains if she asks ("what if there were individual criminals beyond the power of the government to control, and equally para-normal free citizens were needed to stop them?"), but I don't consider that to be the most important point to clear up.
My next journal entry will come two weeks later on the 19th of July (42nd of Sweetmorn in the Year A, by my personal Scriff calender); at that time I will be as finished with my Plan as I can be and ready to draft a shopping list for the materials I will need.
I'm sure the one inch variety of galvanized steel wingnuts were available in Columbus; I make them about thirty to the pound, on a guess, unless you've got better information.
As for materials, wingnuts are made of galvanized steel, brass, aluminum, and plastic most commonly. One of the guys in the store has seen wooden ones, but they were probably three inches tip to tip and went on a deep-thread dowel an inch in diameter in an outdoor collapsible furniture set, and were probably custom made for the job.
Alice accepts your explanations of the book, but it's not clear she really grasps the concepts you describe.
--M. J. Young
Thirty to the pound sounds fine. I looked back at the other thread to see what wingnuts cost me in Columbus, but the Architect covered my costs, so we never established a price. The wingnuts are the only expense so far I haven't accounted for in my cash total ($1,703.94).
I wasn't really expecting Alice to grasp the concepts fully, so that's fine. It's further evidence that the goverment here is turning the people into Thuddites, though, and that makes them my enemy. That's too bad; I had vague dreams of a government license to practice psionics.
At some point during my planning (which I'll finish posting sometime; I've got all kinds of scraps already written, just no finished posts), I'll reflect on Mr. Tea's words about magic (here). I would like to incorporate a Golden Delicious apple as the core of my symbol, but I don't want my achievements to rot from within. For whatever reason, magic was inoperative in that world; according to Mr. Tea, it is not so in all worlds - and if the "magical battery" here has not yet run dry (perhaps because of a complete suppression of imagination and fantasy?), my difficulties with the apple would be trivial in the face of a simple Purify Food and Water. I've been assuming that the cops here operate psionically, based on something the Architect said (because psionics were easy there, he assumed someone - probably aliens somewhere - were capable of powerful psionics, and so he elected to maintain his defenses) - my telepathy works, and the cops are "watching for that," so they must be psionically capable. What if I have it wrong - what if their most powerful tool is magic, and fantasy has been suppressed not only because it stimulates imagination, but because it betrays state secrets?
As a test of the magical battery, then, I have here a spell for Darkness (first-level, just like P F&D), designed to shape magical energy via structured ritual as per Herr Herbal's instructions. I will perform it in the night, soon after Alice leaves for work but well before I'm due at work myself.
I would have tried Light, but no appropriate chants came readily to mind. The verbal component I have stolen from an animated version of The Hobbit, and it is sung thusly:
Cannot be seen, cannot be felt,
Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt
It lies behind stars, and under hills,
And empty holes it fills
Comes first and follows after
Ends life, kills laughterThe answer is dark,
the dark,
the dark . . .
It's sung in a slow minor (used in the film to skip time during the riddle contest); I timed it at about forty-two seconds.
The caster arranges five wingnuts [or other small object which the caster associates with ritual] in a pentagon on the ground and sits crosslegged within it. Holding with both hands a black cloth large enough to use as a blindfold, he sings the incantation while performing a symbolic, pantomimed accompaniment with the cloth. On "ends life, kills laughter," he ties the cloth loosely around his throat, and with his newly freed hands, gestures vaguely along dimensions of the area to be affected (one axis on each iteration of "dark") - said area being no larger than a bedroom. The darkness is total, affecting the visual spectrum only.
I'm using a black T-shirt for my cloth, and I'm casting in Alice's bedroom. I have no duration in mind. As far as I'm concerned, this is arcane magic.
Edited for mechanics:
Looking this up, I find 4@1 Darkness, with a baseline TF of forty-five seconds. I'm three seconds under, for a -1.33 (rounded to -1?) sit-mod. The words are appropriate (+5) and sung (+3), and since in my mind a Silence spell prohibits spellcasting, the sound is vital to the effect (+2). I'm using both arms, but I'm not sure if I get credit for the legs; they are committed, preventing me from walking about while I cast the spell, but they aren't doing anything. That's +3 for the hand with a possible +6 for the legs. That brings me to a total of +13 (or +19), plus whatever the wingnuts and the T-shirt are worth. I can't imagine that "five small objects the caster associates with ritual" can be that hard to come by, so I'm expecting +1 for that; the black cloth I'm guessing might be as much as +3, but that's not my call.
2@6 BRA + 1@4 bias - 4@1 = -1, plus ritual modifiers that might get as high as +22 or so. At least my success chance will be higher than my chance to botch. (Despite my speculations to the contrary, I'm assuming the world bias is below level one.)
I don't remember how many wingnuts you were buying, off the top of my head, but they run about five cents apiece singly, probably four dollars for a five pound box (roughly one hundred fifty).
You fail to call any darkness with that ritual, at least this time.
--M. J. Young
I was gunning for around two hundred, but one-fifty for four dollars seems convenient. That brings me to 392 lose wingnuts, three on single-nut necklaces and five on a quintuple-nut necklace, for 400 wingnuts total. Cash drops to $1,699.94 (one hundred ninety-six bills and nine coins).
You fail to call any darkness with that ritual, at least this time.
Ah, well. I feel a little silly, but at least this answers my question about the magic. Maybe.
Perhaps a wax apple . . .
A wax apple? Are you devising another ritual for the same task, or doing something else?
--M. J. Young
It was a reference to one of the factors that prompted the experiment in the first place - the desire to have an apple as the "core" of the Symbol without attracting masses of fruit flies. If I can't preserve an apple magically, perhaps a wax apple could provide a decent substitute. Sorry to post without leaving you an avenue of response
Or perhaps not. Perhaps I'm simply going about this whole "magic" thing the wrong way. His Imperial Infusion mentioned that he fell in with "real magicians" before he started working with magicians; as a total amateur, a virgin practitioner, perhaps I'm missing something so fundamental to the Art that Mr. Tea didn't even think to mention it.
Having reached that hypothesis, you might think the next step would be "oh well, I guess I give up until I meet a magician," but as it happens I have a guess at what I'm missing: mystery words. My spell is framed in riddle, yes, but any fool can understand what I'm saying. A proper incantation is incomprehensible - after all, how can it be arcane if people know what it means?
Accordingly, I have translated my riddle into very bad Spanish (apologies for the lack of accents, I really don't feel like looking up the ampersand codes):
No se puede oir, no se puede ver,
No se puede tocar, no se puede oler
Esta detras de las estrellas y bajo colina
Y alguandos vacio, llena
Sigue despues, ocurre primero,
Termina viva, mata risaEs oscuridad - oscuridad - oscuridad . . .
The night following my failure, I'll attempt the spell again with the new script - kneeling instead of sitting crosslegged (Merlin never sat like an Indian) and being a little more freeform with the gestures, but otherwise keeping to the same ritual. It takes the same amount of time to sing.
Let's call this the 17 of July. (I feel better picking a date in advance, just in case I botch in a big way.)
The space before you and immediately around you (I'm assuming you cast it from within the area you intended to affect) is flooded with darkness, locking out all light.
The darkness remains for about seven minutes, at the end of which time it begins to dissipate rather rapidly, but over the course of several seconds which if you were alert you could probably notice from within faster than someone could tell from the outside.
When it is gone, there is no evidence it was ever there.
--M. J. Young
Momentary elation, followed by increasing nervousness. I've never handled total darkness very well (one of the reasons I prize my night vision), and the fact that I've called this darkness forth from God knows where isn't helping matters. I don't think I'll last ten seconds before leaving the area by the most expedient route, much less still be there seven minutes later when it disperses.
I do watch it from the living room, making note of the time I cast the spell and the time it disappears. And thinking, hard.
I retrieve the sapphire I bought for Oak and put it in my pocket. Then I consult my Spanish dictionary, memorize a new incantation (see below), and attempt the darkness spell again (same place).
If the second attempt at the Darkness spell succeeds: I quickly retreat into the living room, take the sapphire from my pocket, and try to cast the Light spell I've just dreamed up. I couldn't think of a riddle for this one (except for the Eye in a Blue Face, which doesn't have a tune anyway), so I've adapted a Christmas carol. I'm hoping that the wholesome nature of the song will prevent the spell from being hijacked by unsavory influences (as I'm afraid my Darkness spell might be if I'm not careful).
The incantation is sung to the refrain of We Three Kings, with an "arcane" translation of its lyrics:
Estrella de luz, estrella de asombro,
Estrella de belleza real y luminoso
Adelante conduciente, todavía procediente,
Guíanos con su luz glorioso
The caster kneels, cupping a sapphire in both hands while he sings the incantation (twenty-four seconds). On "Adelante conduciente . . .", he raises the sapphire above his head in his right hand (or left if he's left-handed), and on "Guíanos," he stands. (+15 verbal, +9? somatic, +? material)
I'm not sure exactly what this spell does, because I have two conflicting ideas of what it is. On the one hand, it is conceived as an equal and opposite counter to my Darkness spell, which would imply that it is a 4@1 Manipulate Light*. On the other hand, V-me expects radiant light to be shed from the sapphire, and further that the spell will call forth light even where there is absolutely no light pre-existing (something which 4@1 light manipulatives don't seem equipped to do), implying that it is in fact a 9@1 Create Light**. In either case, the light should appear to come from the gemstone, and both the area and duration should be equal to or somewhat larger/longer than the Darkness spell. I expect light with a bluish tint (from the sapphire, or as starlight seems to have).
Once the spell is cast (if I succeed, that is), I will slowly enter the darkened area with the sapphire held over my head and carefully observe the results.
If the second attempt at the Darkness spell fails: I'll try the light spell anyway, and if it works I'll set the stone beside my right knee in the bedroom and attempt the darkness spell once more, wanting to see how it takes effect while the light-stone is already active within its area.
__
*Manipulate Light M4@1, 24sec TF (+0), 12 min duration (+10), 12 ft. cubed area (-7), subtotal +3 SM
**Create Light M9@1, 24sec TF (from instant: +20), 8 min duration (from 4min: -10), 2.5yrd radius (+20), subtotal +30 SM
You succeed in repeating the darkness spell, but not the light spell.
--M. J. Young
Augh. The riddle is an inherently arcane construct; I knew it was a mistake to discard it. I'll need another spell.
At the same time, I really don't want to have to perform No Se Puede again, so I need another spell I can devise in under five minutes. As it turns out, I've got one: it's not exactly a riddle, but it's at least a question, and I only need to look up three new words to finish translating Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star. (Besides, wonderment and light have been associated with each other for eons, so perhaps this is better than a riddle anyway.)
Centellee estrella,
Medito qué erés tú
Sobre el mundo tán alto
Un zafiro en el cielo
Centellee estrella,
Medito qué erés tú
By some convenient coincidence, this incantation is also twenty-four seconds long. The somatic component will be the same as before, minus the part about standing up.
If that fails, I'm not sure whether I'll put away magic for the night or sit down and hammer out the best possible light spell yet known to mortal man. It could go either way.
__
"Centellee," arcane Create Light M9@1, +62SM (TF:24s, 2.5yd radius, 8min) The caster kneels, cupping a sapphire in both hands while he sings the incantation. On "Sobre el mundo . . .", he raises the sapphire above his head in his right hand (or left if he's left-handed). The light remains centered on the sapphire and has a bluish tint.
Again you fail to create the light, although for a moment you thought there was a glimmer within the sapphire. It seems that the magic is within your reach, but it is going to require a greater power than anything you have yet done.
--M. J. Young
It is disturbing to me that I can and have called up what I cannot put down. The search for a working spell for the evocation of light is on.
The newest incantation (which I won't try until the next night, July 18, for reasons including "not having finished it yet") is based on a set of riddles concerning celestial givers of light. English plaintext follows.
1. It gives men both food and thirst,
blinds a man or helps him see.
The father of all shadow, it shows us the face of madness.
2. A man, his wife, his dog.
On its visit, the woman bleeds,
At its visage, the dog cries out.
Though it touches not the man, it wears a man's face.
3. A fish that never knew the sea
A man that cannot hunt
A bull that never grazes
Look at them all; what do you see?
Original riddles, written with minimal poetic device to facilitate translation. In my only working incantation to date (the darkness spell), I provide the answer to the riddle in the end; thus, in this spell, they'll be followed by a statement that there is a gift that all three answers give, followed by four sentences revealing the answers to the riddles and the identity of the gift (light).
In addition to the sapphire, I also bought an emerald, an opal, a garnet, and an amethyst, intending to give all five stones to Oak. In the interim, however, I don't think he'll mind if I use all five of them in my casting. The garnet will stand for the sun, the opal for the moon, and the others for the stars.
Él da comida y sed a gente
Cega un hombre o lo ayuda ver
El padre de todo la sombra, mostra a nos la cara de locura.Un hombre, su esposa, su perro.
Cuando este visita, la mujer sangra
Cuando mira este, el perro grita
Aunque no toca el hombre, tiene el cara de un hombre.Un pez que no conocía el mar
Un hombre que no puede buscar
Un toro que no pace
Mires los todos; qué ve?Tres acertijos, tres respuestas. Que es el regalo que todos los tres dan?
El primero es el sol. La segunda es la luna. La tercero es las estrellas. El regalo es luz.
The caster kneels, holding the stones in his left hand, and speaks the incantation (one minute). During the first riddle, he raises the garnet in his right hand, setting it on the ground in front of him at the end of the riddle. During the second, he does the same with the opal. During the third, he does the same with the emerald, sapphire, and amethyst in turn (one for each of the first three lines), placing the stones such that the five gems now form a star (or a pentagon, or nothing). He touches the garnet, the opal, and the others in turn on the words "sol," "luna," and "los estrellas" (with his right hand), and on "El regalo es luz," he picks up a gem and lifts it overhead; the gem he selects becomes the center of the light effect, and the light takes on the character of the celestial body the stone represents.
And if that fails, I'll bloody well set it to music and try again tomorrow. I can compose a meager tune, given a day.
__
Verbal: Spanish, necessary, +7
Somatic: Both arms, legs, +9
Material: +8, +[emerald, amethyst, opal, garnet]?
Appropriate: +5
TF 1 min (+20), duration 10 min (+0), 3 yard radius (+18)
SM = +59 +8 +????
The darkness dissipates on its own about half an hour after you cast it.
Are you attempting to recast it before trying your new light spell, or merely casting the light spell in an ordinary dark room?
--M. J. Young
Interesting. The darkness is of variable duration. I suppose, in that case, that I'll expect the same of my light spell (assuming I eventually write one that works).
And no, I'm not recasting the darkness spell until I know I have a working source of magical light. In the event that I do get a light spell to work, I want to hide the source of light (in this case, the garnet), summon the darkness, and then reveal the gem (hoping to test how the magics interact).
None of this will happen in view of the television.
Edit: When I hide the gem, I want to hide it underneath something completely opaque - I'll grab a pot from the kitchen. I'll place it close at hand so I won't need to fumble for it in the dark. If I fail to call darkness, no big deal.
Sorry about the duration; 7 minutes sounds fine. That will be how long it lasted. I just scanned back looking for the last roll and assumed an RS=duration result. My concern there was really that it had to last long enough for you to put together the light spell or the light spell was immaterial, but it also had to dissipate after a reasonable time because it was not permanent.
That complicated light ritual you perform the next day works, and the garnet glows.
You then cast the darkness, and bring the light and darkness into contact with each other.
The light is stronger than the darkness, although the darkness seems to push back a bit; the radius of the light is reduced slightly, but pushes the darkness back as it is pushed forward toward it. It does not remove the darkness beyond its radius, and if you retreat slightly the darkness reclaims the area abandoned by the light.
Again the darkness dissipates after seven minutes, the light after ten.
I am hoping that I can get you to turn that entire ritual into a single paragraph that begins "1@2 Create Light M9@1" and ends "+99 SM", so I can copy it into my character sheet and not have to organize it all myself. If not, I'll get to it eventually. Thanks.
--M. J. Young
I am hoping that I can get you to turn that entire ritual into a single paragraph . . .
Done:
1@2 Create Light M9@1 caster kneels, holding the stones in his left hand, and speaks the incantation (one minute): "Él da comida y sed a gente / Cega un hombre o lo ayuda ver / El padre de todo la sombra, mostra a nos la cara de locura. / / Un hombre, su esposa, su perro. / Cuando este visita, la mujer sangra / Cuando mira este, el perro grita / Aunque no toca el hombre, tiene el cara de un hombre. / / Un pez que no conocÃa el mar / Un hombre que no puede buscar / Un toro que no pace / ¿Mires los todos; qué ve? / / Tres acertijos, tres respuestas. ¿Que es el regalo que todos los tres dan? / El primero es el sol. La segunda es la luna. La tercero es las estrellas. El regalo es luz." During each stanza, he raises the gemstone which represents the answer in his right hand (garnet for sun, opal for moon, amethyst, sapphire, and emerald for stars). He sets them down in front of him such that the five gems now form a star (or a pentagon, or nothing). He touches the garnet, the opal, and the others in turn on the words "sol," "luna," and "los estrellas" as appropriate (with his right hand), and on "El regalo es luz," he picks up a stone and lifts it overhead; the gem he selects becomes the center of the light effect, and the light resembles sunlight, moonlight, or starlight depending on the gem; 1 min., lasts 10 min, sound vital, +99 SM
I tried to match your formatting, but I'm sure you can tweak what isn't right.
Edit: This is so trivial I hesitate to bring it up, but here it is. I looked at the darkness spell to check my formatting and I noticed that the duration (7:00) is ten times the time factor (0:42), which is the baseline ratio. Then I remembered that when I figured up the sit-mod, I included a -1 for deviating from the baseline time factor (0:45) by three seconds (+5 approp. +5 lang +3 song +2 sound vital +9 four limbs +4 materials -1 TF = +27); should the sit-mod be +28, in light of the duration?
(Did I ever mention my agricultural background? I used to work in a nit field.)
- That's excellent; it seems to have pasted into my character spreadsheet complete with those completely unnatural Spanish characters, and the info all seems to be there, so I'm good.
- You're right on both counts--it is trivial, but it should be changed. It now has been.
- I think that you spent some time on my plantation, actually.
--M. J. Young
I'll spend the next two days finishing my plans for the holy-symbol thing. I'm planning to start it on the 27th (1/50/A), but I want the week of the 20th-26th to secure the necessary supplies and make alterations to account for items that turn out to be unavailable. (I can't know whether helium balloons are sold here until I check, right?)
Have I noticed a copy of the Bible in Alice's home, or any other reference to religion? Does she go to church on Sundays?
You find no trace of any traditional religious faith in her home or her practice, unless you count that there is a seven-day week and the names of the days and months are the familiar ones.
And you are correct that although in the main it seems as if you can buy most of the things you would be able to buy at home, you have already hit a couple things that are conspicuous by their absence (caffeinated beverages, as I recall, are absent).
--M. J. Young
I shall present Alice with the following handwritten List (on one of the pages from my spiral notebook) and ask her if she thinks I'd have trouble finding any of the items on it for sale in this city:
•Cabbage ||
•Duct tape
•Paper (lined & unlined)
•Crayons (five colors)
•Mixing bowl (plastic)
•Sidewalk chalks (five colors)
•Pen (blue or black)
•Inkpad
•Sugar bowl
•Matches (big box)
•Play-Doh
•Toothpicks
•Oranges
•Sugar
•Fireworks (tiny ones)
•Tang™ powder
•Chocolate (to melt)
•Horseradish
•Velcro
•Lemons
•Sports energy drink
•Whiskey
•Cranberry juice (unsweetened)
•Seltzer
•Orange Juice
•Bongos
•Parcheesi
•Chess
•Checkers
•Trouble™
•Twenty hot dogs
•Fourty-three hot dog buns
•Sweet pickle relish
•Cole slaw
•Ketchup
•Mustard
•Onions
•Paper clips (286)
•Balloons (uninflated)
•Helium
•Pump (for helium)
Also, this morning (6:30 AM Thursday, 7/19/07) before bed, I saved the following journal entry; computer clock read 7:30 AM Monday, 10/23/07:
Maladay - Boomtime the Fifth of Aftermath in the Year CUQ | Boomtime the Forty-Second of Chaos in the Year A
Curiosity concerning the leaf-man's battery led to some interesting experiments; with Luther's help, I killed laughter and imitated Satan. Gollem's pastime seems key, although staff and key are optional. Must remember to develop alternate methods before I have to bring the purple pebble back to tree-sensei.
Speaking of Satan, I'm all ready for Christmas; I just need the presents. Here's hoping Santa likes my list.
On the Twenty-Third Day of Christmas: Next Entry
Alice has never heard of Tang or Velcro. There are drink mixes, including orange flavored, but the brand name is not known to her. As to the odd fastener, your description is getting a blank stare.
"You mean, like, tape?"
--M. J. Young
Orange drink mixes that are not Tang are suitable substitutes. Tang would have been best, though.
"You mean, like, tape?"
" . . . no. I guess you don't have it here, but it's made from dozens of tiny plastic hooks placed very closely together, all with a flexible backing, such that if you press the strip hooky-side down against a fabric - not a tightly sewn fabric like my clothes, but a sort of poofy fabric, like a blanket - the hooks will catch in the threads and it will stick. The strip doesn't wiegh very much or anything, so the little hooks are enough to hold it there, but they're weak enough so that if you pull on it with any force, it'll come off. It's not very strong, but it's surprisingly handy.
"Tape relies on glue, so it loses its 'sticky' after a while - and anyway, it doesn't work on fabric too well. Velcro is reusable.
"I suppose I'll have to replace it, though. Um. Can you think of anything, well, prickly? That I could get to stick to a wingnut?"
___
So the balloons, helium and fireworks aren't a problem? I was worried about those in particular.
Edit: Also, the sports drinks and whiskey. (Is anything else both drinkable and flammable?)
[^Additional post]
If Alice can't think of anything prickly that I could stick to a wingnut, I'll ask if there are any campgrounds or wooded areas within a reasonable distance that might have plants from which I could harvest burrs.
Also, is there a telephone directory in the apartment? I want to see if "magician" is listed, and I want to do so without bringing it up in conversation.
Alice can't think of anything like you describe (the velcro); you've already been to the park, but if you're looking for campgrounds or woods you probably need to travel out of the city some distance--maybe somewhere in the Secaucus Meadowlands, or in one of the parks away from the Big Tomato.
I did spot those things as potential problems, but you got a rather favorable GE roll, so I was listing them mostly so I could wrap my mind around where there might be something lacking. Everything else is good. I thought about making the fireworks a black market item, but getting rid of velcro looked like more fun.
Yes, there is a phone book, and there is a section on magicians for parties, and a very short section of magical supplies.
--M. J. Young
As I ponder my options for procuring burrs, sweetgum balls occur to me as alternatives, but they won't be properly prickly until autumn. Blast.
Tonight (12AM - 6AM 7/20/07) I'll tell Mel that I need the 24th off to take care of something out of town. Between now and then, I'll purchase everything on the list except for edibles, the helium and pump, and the velcro. (I'm hoping for a clearance discount on the fireworks, actually, since it's July.)
Before the 23rd, I'll see if I can get my hands on appropriate maps and find undeveloped grassland and woodland near the Big Tomato. Potential resources include Alice's apartment, Alice's library membership, and the photocopier in that library.
On the 23rd, I'll set out at around noon going in whatever direction I've decided will take me to the nearest weedy field, dressed in long pants. I'll bring the skateboard with me and use it whenever it won't slow me down. The plan is to leave town under my own power, arrive in semi-wilderness, and wade through tall grass and underbrush until I'm covered in burrs. I'm willing to devote all day and a significant portion of the evening to this, leaving the return trip home for the night-time (which is why I've asked the night off).
If my maps tell me I'll need to travel a significant distance, I'll take a bus just out of town and then walk from there, taking the bus back in the evening.
This is a loose plan. I intend to wing it where I have to. If I come up with nothing in the end, I can always wait until fall and use sweetgum balls.
Oh, and I'm making sure to use only local currency. I should be able to easily distinguish it from the Columbian money via scriff sense.
I'm not sure you're understanding the concept of The Big Tomato.
Even here, being in Perth Amboy is like being in New York City--not only it, but all the cities around it for many miles, are highly industrialized, focused on import/export trade centers. The "suburban" sections are house upon house on quarter acre lots with occasional one acre playgrounds and even more rarely little league fields and school playgrounds. It is right across the river from The Big Apple, and part of that massive megalopolis.
The Perth Amboy in your reality is enough of a rival to The Big Apple that it is recognized as a separate entity, a separate harbor center of comparable proportion to the one across the river.
I believe you're about thirty-five to forty miles from the swamps that are Secaucus. Unless you can find someone with an overgrown back yard, that's going to be your best bet. Of course, you can (this is you, the player), if you like, hit one of the online maps and tell me what you find anywhere near Perth Amboy that might be the sort of place you need, and we could roll the dice for whether it exists. You might even discover that I've badly estimated the distance to the Meadowlands, and you don't have to go as far.
It's rather difficult to sense scriff in objects that are not separate from you. You'd have to set the money on a table or counter and walk away to tell by that method. You might want to sort out your money before you go.
--M. J. Young
It's rather difficult to sense scriff in objects that are not separate from you. You'd have to set the money on a table or counter and walk away to tell by that method. You might want to sort out your money before you go.
Well, yes. It should help that I've been storing the money separately, but even so I'll perform this or a similar test before I leave to make sure I'm not bringing the wrong money.
. . . and I just realized that it would be almost impossible to make this mistake anyway, because nearly all of my money from Columbus is in hundreds, and none of my local money is.
I'm not sure you're understanding the concept of The Big Tomato.
I didn't even understand Perth Amboy, apparently. Hum.
Well, I didn't want to do it, but I'm down to using thorns. Even an industrialized pre-velcro megalopolis will have plants with thorns for sale. One rose's worth should be enough; I want to make sure I get one with at least two big honkin' thorns. (I'm thinking of mounting them on the wings of a wingnut.)
Add superglue to the list, if I can get it. If I can't, I'll have to trust in duct tape.
Wait a minute - forty miles? That can't be more than two hours by bus, even if it's a cruddy bus with a cruddy route. Two hours by bus is acceptable; I've got over $1,500 in local currency, bus fare isn't an issue.
In any case, west is probably a better bet for me than north, in general. What about Round Valley State Park? It might not be a state park in this reality, of course, but it's at least a lake. Or perhaps, um, wherever this is? It's further away, though . . .
If I can get hold of any kind of atlas or map, I'm headed for a likely-looking place away from the coast and the port cities. If I can't, I'm going by whatever Alice's suggestions are (which is probably where Secaucus came from).
The itinerary would be something like:
Noon - hop on out-bound bus.
2:00 - pay fare, start walking.
2:30 or 3:00 - arrive somewhere with weeds and move around in them, hoping to gather the fruits of any of these (or similar) plants. If the first weedy area proves burr-less, find another.
7:00 - start walking back.
7:30 or 8:00 - hop on in-bound bus.
10:00 - arrive back at the apartment
Midnight - head out to the park and make up the missed practice from this afternoon
If it takes less than four hours of hunting to find burrs, I might take advantage of my underpopulated location to experiment with psionic energy manipulation. In fact, I'll probably do that even if the whole trip turns out to be fruitless.
It does seem like an inefficient plan, but with immortality on my side, I'm not as concerned about wasting time as I used to be.
[Edit: just in case you're using the "Latest Post By" link, this is a second consecutive post.]
Maps aren't hard to get; it will cost you $30 to get a complete set of coordinated street maps for New Jersey, in a 15x12 glossy softcover book format. They are not waterproof; the waterproof set costs $45.
The park is indeed there. Bus transit information is free at bus stations, and you find that you can get a round trip ticket for $6.45, but it involves a transfer in Clinton. It's ninety minutes to Clinton, and only about fifteen minutes from Clinton to the park, but it's not certain how long you'll be standing at the bus stop in Clinton waiting for the other bus. You pay the whole thing up front, they give you the tickets out and back. If you want to do it piecemeal, it's going to be $3.75 each way on the bus to Clinton, and $1.20 each way for the Clinton to Park route. The return trip tickets are good for up to two weeks, although you can specify when buying them that you want them to be good later than that, by making them not good before a certain date. The outward ticket is good for forty-eight hours from purchase, the transfer for three days, so you could wait a day and a half after buying them and spend the night in Clinton before going to the park, if you chose--which of course is not at all what you're intending, but I thought it might be worth giving you some idea of the options for future reference. Again, you can specify that you're buying the tickets to use on a specific later date, and all those numbers then are initiated as of the date specified.
Are you making any adjustments to your plan on this basis? If not, I'll assume you got there, and that it was easy enough to find burs (we've got them aplenty in New Jersey fields--in fact, you could get them in my back yard, in at least two annoying varieties), so tell me in more detail what else you're doing out there.
--M. J. Young
Oh, let's splurge on the waterproof set. (Cash upon reaching 8/20 adjusted to $1654.94.) Can I get a page count on that? You never know when you'll need waterproof pages. "Material component in a waterproofing spell" comes to mind.
Six forty-five for a round-trip ticket is fine. No change in plans. ($1648.49) Thanks for the detail on the transit system; if I stay here as long as I'm trying to, it'll come in handy.
Long bus rides are great times to cook up new spells. I'm bringing my dictionary and my spiral notebook in a plastic grocery bag and working on some translations while on the bus. These are just cantrips, really; I'm not getting too ambitious, and I'm not heavily invested in whether or not they work.
One spell to ward off insects while I'm burr-hunting:
Vampiros viniendo. No tienes ajo, ellos no queman en el sol, y no tienen miede de Dios. Han cruzado rÃos rapÃdos como nubes amorfos. ¿Cómo te proteges?
Loción anti-insecta.
In English, that's "Vampires are coming. You have no garlic, they do not burn in the sun, and they have no fear of God. They have crossed swift rivers as amorphous clouds. How do you protect yourself? / Bug repellent." It's a weak riddle, but it's a cantrip, so I don't care. Verbal component only (18 seconds), appropriate, sound necessary, and I'm not sure of the bias. It's meant to keep the bugs from biting me, and I'm not thinking too hard about the method. Probably not an 11@1 Dispel, because they'd still bite someone next to me; that implies not a 5@7 Antagonist Specific either, although that could be it if the shield conformed to my body. Perhaps a 5@1 Psuedo-Invisibility variant? I don't want to argue too hard for the version that I know will work . . .
Also, a cantrip to clean me up after I've done the deed:
Dicen que El Hijo se senta al lado de Dios. ¿Que está al otro lado?
Limpieza.
In English, "They say that The Son sits by the side of God. What's by his other side? / Cleanliness." This 'riddle' is even weaker than the other, but again I don't care. Verbal is six seconds, appropriate, sound necessary; gesture requires both hands. I'm going for the effect the Hunter gets in Friedman's Coldfire books; I want my skin, hair and clothes (Edit: and glasses!) cleaned up and generally spiffy. If this isn't an atypical 3@1 Remove Impurities, I'm not sure what it is, but it won't matter exactly because it won't work.
I considered cooking up a spell to help me find the things, but I couldn't settle on a method or a sufficiently narrow riddle.
I won't cast either spell on the bus, although I will memorize them. I'll try the first once I'm in the park and the second once I've found a good double-handful of burrs and I'm ready to stop hunting. (I'll keep the burrs in the plastic bag with the dictionary and the notebook.)
Once I've got my primary objective (the burrs) and I've tried my cantrips, I'll check to see just how deserted the park is. If I can find a place where I'm reasonably certain I'll be alone, I might try a few psionic tricks with sunlight.
We'll call it five hundred thirty pages, but because it's waterproofed it's half again as thick as the Multiverser rule book. It's bound with plastic spirals so that the pages will lie flat.
I actually think that your insect repellant is a dispel with a very short range but a long duration based on moving area of effect; I base that conclusion on the answer to the riddle--it repels insects, not blocks them. I think that means you've got a good chance to botch, given a 9@1 mag bias for the create light spell, but I'll put this off until we've agreed that this is what the spell does.
As to the weaker riddle, I laughed at it, but if it is a 3@1 remove impurities (a perfectly reasonable conclusion) I'm not sure why you say it won't work.
--M. J. Young
The dispel is actually the first thing I thought of. If you can swing an effect like that at the baseline (or close to it), let's go for it. If I botch, so be it.
As for the weaker one, I meant that it was anything other than a 3@1, it wouldn't work. I thought you might throw it under 3@6 NOS.
As near as I can tell, these are the skills:
Repel Insects M11@1, verbal only: "Vampiros viniendo. No tienes ajo, ellos no queman en el sol, y no tienen miede de Dios. Han cruzado rÃos rapÃdos como nubes amorfos. ¿Cómo te proteges? / Loción anti-insecta," 18 sec, lasts ??, sound vital, tiny area of effect moves with caster, +17SM
I've included a +15 SM for the time factor (baseline is 6 seconds), but I'm not sure how to assess the tiny-area/long-duration element. Although the baseline area is 30', the baseline duration is "as long as the caster remains in the area;" once we've switched to a mobile area, the baseline duration is meaningless, leaving the entire thing up to you.
Cleanliness M3@1, caster gestures with both hands while saying, "Dicen que El Hijo se senta al lado de Dios. ¿Que está al otro lado? / Limpieza," cleans caster and on-person equipment; 6 seconds, sound vital, -5 SM
I used the -20 sit mod for instant activation down from one minute. Is that appropriate, or is it better to do -30 for three halvings?
On the tiny movable area/long duration thing, I'm thinking that I'll make them a wash. If I've counted right, nine halvings of thirty feet comes to about seven tenths of an inch, which I can count as the distance from your skin; if I then assume a 1:10 TF:duration based on the six second TF in the book, we're looking at nine doublings, or five hundred twelve minutes, which divides to just over eight and a half hours. I think, though, that I've been generous, so I'm going to make it RS/10 hours, which means it will work at least an hour if it's successful, but until you get good at it you probably won't see more than three or four hours on the outside.
Oops--my brain has skipped a track. Are these holy magic or arcane? I see no notation on your other spells that they are holy magic, but I know you were working on a Discordian holy symbol (which would be holy magic, of course), so I'm not sure whether I've just confused myself or whether I should know this.
On the instant activation question, if you use the conversion to repeat factor instead of halving, it means that you have done your magic for the minute and can't cast another spell until the time lapses; if you do the halvings, then as soon as you've finished the six second ritual you can start something else. I'm assuming you have no problem with the idea that you can cast one cleaning spell a minute, so your decision is fine by me. Unfortunately I can't adjudicate the success of the second spell until I've determined the success of the first one, since you'll be raising your bias a good twenty points if you succeed, and that will have a significant impact on whether this one works.
--M. J. Young
Every spell I've tried in this universe has been arcane; I wouldn't bother Eris with trivialities like these. I highly doubt that my holy magic (when I get around to trying it) will be in riddle form, or in any language other than English; it would be used sparingly, and only in pursuit of goals I that I think Eris would find appealing. Most of those spells would probably address her directly in the verbal component and/or involve use of the holy symbol (or at least the roman numeral V sign). I don't think you'll have any trouble recognizing the holy magic when you see it, but I'll be sure to point it out anyway.
I'm actually curious about which affiliation I'll fall into and how much say I have in that determination, but I suspect that can wait until I try for the symbol.
On the instant activation question, if you use the conversion to repeat factor instead of halving, it means that you have done your magic for the minute and can't cast another spell until the time lapses;
Does that mean that if I'm ambushed immediately after I cast the spell, I can't retaliate with magic for another fifty-four seconds? Or does it just mean I can't another cleaning spell until the next minute?
Either way, I'm fine with -20 for instant activation. The skill description above stands.
I'm fine with a net -0 for the mobile area and RS/10 hours duration. My math gives me -20 for bias, +17 for ritual, and +26 for BRA, for a final success chance of 23% for the dispel. That's pretty good, considering.
If it fails-but-doesn't-botch, then as soon as I notice (which might not be for a while), I'll try it again with a gesture component: I'll mime spraying bug repellent on one arm. That'll include two limbs and eliminate the verbal-only penalty, bringing the sit-mod up to +30 and giving me a second chance (at 36%) to learn the skill.
For the second skill, I've got +60 or +80 for bias, along with -5 for ritual and +26 for BRA. That gives me 81% if the dispel failed and 101% if it succeeded.
The dispel seems to work; anyway, the bugs aren't bothering you at the moment. In fact, they don't bother you for an hour; is that long enough for you to accomplish your collection process, assuming there are plenty of burrs available?
The park isn't exactly vacant, but those who are present tend to congregate in particular areas--the playground, the ball field, the picnic tables--and there is enough in the way of wilderness trails that you can get off by yourself pretty easily.
Next step?
--M. J. Young
Quite long enough, I should think.
First, stow the burrs in the bag. Next, get off by myself on one of those wilderness trails. I'm sorely tempted to use my new detection skill to make sure I'm off by myself, but it occurs to me that if the Elder Sibling has access to those skills, he's probably much better at them than I am, and thus likely to have a wider radius of detection - rendering my own worse than useless.
On one level, I know that by experimenting with psionics here, I'm putting my preparations and my continued stay in this world at risk. At the same time, I really miss those moments of knowledge-or-pain that come with pioneering new techniques. So: the experiment.
So far, all I've done with energy manipulation is disperse light, and even then only light coming straight at my face. For my first experiment, I'm going to try something a little more ambitious: personal invisibility via manipulation of light. I'm going to close my eyes and take a moment to collect myself. Then, I'll attempt to cause every wavelength of visible light striking my body which would otherwise bounce off to instead pass through to the other side, with no change to its energy level or trajectory.
Essentially, I am attempting to manipulate the light in my vicinity so that it behaves as though I were not present. Whether that is done by teleporting light from one side of my body to the other, by absorbing it and re-emitting it on the other side, or simply by persuading the light that I am air and not a solid body, I don't really care; I'm leaving the exact method up to V-me and the skill learning roll.
Unless it matters. Actually, if I can get changes in circumstances by altering my approach to the skill, go ahead and assume that I try those three approaches in turn in the event of failure. My guess is that this is a specialized P7@6 Redirect Energy application, probably either penalized or requiring high RS to be fully effective.
Note that my eyes are closed in the event of a botch.
Your effort to teleport light from one side to the other in all directions fails completely.
You then attempt to absorb energy and re-emit it from the other side, which also fails.
Do you want to explain to me what you mean by persuading the light that you are air, and not a solid body?
--M. J. Young
This works on the theory that every thing (sentient or not) has a supranatural existence completely independent of every other thing, and that what we perceive as the "universe" is the result of communication between these entities; that is, everything talks to everything else, and existence is what is said. Psionics, then, is the art of altering reality by tampering with communications; if I can lie to the light, telling it that I'm air, it will talk to everything else as if it has passed through me, and so (from the perspective of the universe) it will have done so.
Actually, that's starting to sound like a 14@ Alter Reality. Pooh.
Ah, well. If I botch, I botch - but if that sounds like a 7@6 skill to you (despite being distinctly not scientific or even psuedo-scientific), all the better for me. I'm trying it either way; I don't know any better, after all.