I'm happy to accept your numbers on it.
You pull all this together, but get no relief from it.
--M. J. Young
Bother. Well, the last time I used the circle I was singing, so maybe those go hand in hand. I've had to alter the incantation to fit the tune, but there's four bars of suitably creepy minor-key that I remember off of the promotional website for Coraline that ought to do. Revised spell:
Block Pain in Self M13@1 caster arranges five wingnuts [must be wingnuts; contrast with material requirement for Create Darkness] in a pentagon on the ground and, sitting crosslegged within it, makes begging gestures with both hands while singing the following in a slow minor: "Todo gente lo buscan; por favor, lo me das. Ésos que lo tienen ganan nada; ¿preguntas que quiero? 'No dolor'." Arcane magic, 0:18, lasts RS/5 hours, sound vital, self only, +42 SM.
Minus two for reduced time, plus three for singing. Round two, fight!
You find that the pain makes you unable to complete the song.
--M. J. Young
Ouch. That's worse than I thought.
All right, drink lots of water, down twice the recommended dose of - Motrin, was it? - and do my best to go back to bed. With luck, the pain will be less crippling in the morning and I can try this same spell again.
If not, and if I don't get better soon, I might not be able to perform my long-awaited ritual on time; and, seeing as I've already spent nearly three hundred dollars in preparation, that would leave me a little miffed. In the morning, it will be the 25th of June. According to my personal calendar, which marks the day I woke up in front of the coffee shop in Columbus as Sweetmorn the 1st of Chaos in the Year A, that makes the 27th of June (local Gregorian) Setting Orange the 50th of Chaos, a day more commonly known as Chaoflux. That leaves me two days - the 25th and the 26th - to both finish preparing my materials and to get rid of my brainburn (or at least the pain). Incidentally, I think I told Mel on the phone I'd be back to work on the 27th unless I called him again and said otherwise.
For now, my plans don't extend beyond "try the spell again in the morning about an hour after taking a dose and a half of painkiller." Let's hope they don't have to.
You get through the night and awaken a bit less pained, take a megadose of Motrin (Alice says that you can take a lot more of this stuff than you can of other things--they make pills with eight times the dose of one of these, but those are prescription only), and then force yourself to sing your song.
Your headache clears.
--M. J. Young
Oh, good, a working spell. (Mental note: songs and circles seem to go together.) Now I can either get to work prepping my materials or have a go at teaching Alice a spell or two. If this spell proves reliable, I'll be able to go back to work tomorrow, regardless of how long the brainburn lasts.
If she's free and interested (after lunch, perhaps), I'll make an attempt at teaching Alice the Darkness spell. It's the first one I cast, so I figure it's a decent place to start; also, the rhyming and melody ought to make the words easier to learn. I have access to all the material components (the black cloth), I have pencil and paper with which to write down the incantation for ease of teaching, I have easy mnemonics for remembering how to pronounce Spanish vowels, and I have the teaching skill that I picked up in imitation of the Architect - which, by the way, I have never used before outside of telepathic contact.
I'll do my best to get her casting this spell (including casting it myself for her observation once I've already explained and demonstrated the components separately). If she doesn't get it after significant effort on our parts, I'll try the cleanliness (self) spell, because that's so much simpler to cast. If that doesn't work out either, then we'll lay off for today and I'll get to work carving the Hodge-Podge Transformer into the base of my plastic mixing bowl.
If I get even the slightest hint of pain returning from my currently-unfelt headache, I'll immediately try the spell again. I don't expect the effect to last forever, but I'm not sure how much protection I have, so I'm prepared to drop and begin casting at any time (wingnuts in my pockets, etc.).
You are able to cast the darkness spell, but nothing she does works.
You shift to the cleanliness spell, and again she tries--and you realize that there is a fundamental problem undercutting her ability to learn: she does not understand magic. She does not know what it is or what it does or how it is supposed to work. She is treating the ritual as if it were a voice code command with a spatial motion detector--trying to make it work like a machine. Casting a spell to her is not different from starting a car, riding the elevator, or using the telephone--and it occurs to you that in a very basic way, it should be.
--M. J. Young
"I think I get what we're doing wrong. I'm sorry, I really should have made this clear earlier. These are not - voice commands. This isn't a trick you do with a trained monkey, where if you say the words and make the motions he'll do what you want. This isn't some kind of cheat where the universe is listening in with an electronic microphone so that whenever I tell a riddle in Spanish it knows to temporarily suspend physics. You can't do this by accident. You have to have . . . an idea, in your head, and a desire in your chest.
"You have to know what you want and you have to want what you want, and you can't get what you want if things stay as they are, if things keep working according to reason and logic and physics, according to laws and properties and matter and energy. Your only recourse is something beyond those things, something beyond the material, the corporeal, and the actual - something out in the realms of the imagination, or of the supernatural, or of the non-existent. The only way to achieve the idea that you desire is to reach out to this beyond, and this, this ritual, this muttering and singing and gesturing, this is your way of communicating with this beyond in the best way you know how.
"You're not speaking in a secret code, you're speaking through . . . through interpretive dance, through charades and tone of voice, through basic human commonalities that transcend sentience and non-sentience. It's like talking to a squirrel, or to the ocean, or to a great blind dragon, long deaf, who never spoke in a human tongue. You reach out to this beyond, your petition in your hand, with your desire to give it force and your idea to give it shape, communicate in the best way you know how - and hope for a response.
"That hope, I think, is more important than any one other thing I've said. Can you feel the difference? Between that, and what I've been telling you to do?"
"I think so; but why should it work? I mean, this magic of yours--and obviously it works, because you can make it dark where there should be light--why should you be able to do that? What are you doing that makes it possible to do the impossible?
"I guess, what I mean, there's a difference between believing that something can happen and believing that it will happen. I can see that it can happen, but on what basis can I believe that it will happen? What gives me this power?"
--M. J. Young
"First off, it's not what I'm doing, it's what I'm aware of. Most people go through their entire lives thinking this is all there is, that what they see is what they get and the rules are inviolable. I, and thanks to my involvement, you, are of the fortunate few who know otherwise. It is that knowing, that believing, that makes it possible for us to reach outside of the game and break the rules from - from off the board. You have to know there's an edge to the board to leave it, hm? And now you know. We know.
"Well, I know because of where I've been, what I've seen, what I've done. For you, I imagine it's a little harder. I mean, I'm telling you, but . . . hm.
"Maybe we can make this easier, take a shortcut. Do you have any religious beliefs?"
I doubt she does, given what I've seen, but I'm hoping for anything that includes a soul. Belief in souls would make this much easier. If she's really got nothing, I may to fall back on 'trust me,' and I would much rather not.
"What do you mean, religious beliefs? You mean, like, mythology or something?"
--M. J. Young
Hoooo boy.
"Eh heh heh. No. Not really.
"How do I put this? Well, I mean, kind of like those things, yes, but things you actually believe. What you think the truth is. Or rather, what you think the truth is close to; it's a little arrogant to think you know the real deal, without a doubt.
"The Norse, for example, knew - knew - that the world grew out of the body of the slain frost giant, Ymir (I think it was Ymir, anyway) - that the earth was his flesh, the mountains were his bones, and the trees, his hair. He was slain by the first of the Gods, who dwell in Asgard, and who in the beginning won a great war with the evil Giants, who dwell in Jotenheim and who the Gods do not permit to leave. There were nine worlds, of which Asgard and Jotenheim were but two - three above, three below, and three between, and we mortals dwelt in one of those between. Below were the Underworlds, where most dead souls went after they departed mortal realms, but there were a few - great heroes, or those favored by the Gods - whose souls would be allowed to ascend to Asgard upon their death, to dwell with the Gods and feast with them until the End came. Until Ragnorak.
"I could go on. But the point is that while these stories are mythology to you, they believed them. To the Norse, these were truth, as sure as the sun rises in the East and eggs come a dozen to a carton.
"Then too, you have the Greeks - well, before I get to that, do you know a Christian? Have you heard of Jesus?"
I have somewhere I think I'm going with this, but her input will likely steer me.
_
Disclaimer: all that Norse stuff is off the top of my head and probably riddled with errors, so I apologize ahead of time to anyone who's cringing and/or grave-rolling at my impromptu explanation. In my defense, I don't exactly have any reference materials in Alice's apartment.
"Christian? Jesus? There's a butcher on third street with a name something like that, Jesus. You don't mean him, do you? Greek, I think. Maybe he pronounces it Yeesoos, but most of his customers say Jesus. As to Christian, I don't think I've heard the word."
--M. J. Young
"Oh, well. That one was pretty popular where I come from, and it would've served as a nice contrast to the Norse stuff.
"The basic idea is that in the Beginning - because you know there had to be Beginning - there was only formless void, and the One who dwelt in the void, who had always been. And he grew lonely in the emptyness, and so he said, 'Let there be light' - and there was light. And he separated the light from the darkness . . .
"Actually, that story goes on for a while, but over the course of six days the One, whom men now call God, created the world through his words one concept at a time - first separating sky from sea, and then sea from land, and then creating all the fish of the sea, and all the beasts of the land, and all the birds of the air, and then finally a man, whose name was Adam, and a woman, whose name was Eve; and finally, on the seventh day, he rested . . .
"And the story's too long to tell, really. But you can see the Christian idea is very different - there is only one God, for them, and he created the world from nothing with his words. 'Christian' comes from a word 'Christ,' meaning savior, because much later in the story Man has become so wicked and corrupt that the only way for God (who still loved men, seeing them as His children) to redeem them was to send his Son down from Heaven into the physical world to absorb their evil and be punished for it in their stead. God's son's name was Jesus, and he was called 'Christ' because - because Man's sins against God's laws were like a debt; if Jesus had not suffered and died for those sins, taking the punishment Mankind deserved, God would have had to inflict it on Man. In this way Jesus was their savior. But really, God only let that slide because he loved them too much to hurt them. And afterward, he promised that anyone who remembered Jesus's self-sacrifice and who really tried to be good could live forever after death in Heaven, where God himself dwelt, but that those who rejected the Christ and were ungrateful for what he had done would instead, upon their deaths, fall into a lake of fire, brought down by the weight of their unforgiven sins.
"Of course, there are those who say that this, too, shows the love and mercy of God; for eventually, the fires of Hell (that's the name of the lake) would burn away their sins, and at that time, they too could rise to Heaven and join the others in eternal paradise.
"I have a point with all this. My point isn't that either of those stories is what you should believe is true. My point, in part, is that there were many such stories, and that nearly everyone really and truly believed at least one. And in part my point is that all these stories share something. They share some elements of setting and some elements of character:
"There is always, in every story, a beyond or a before - a reality that is somehow unreal, a kind of existence which we cannot see or touch but which is nonetheless crucial to defining who and what we are, and what the world around us is. And there is always an element that is both invisible and eternal - a realm of the spirit, peopled by spirits. Sometimes they are our spirits, sometimes the spirits of those long dead; sometimes the only spirits are the Eternal Spirits, which existed before Time and will continue to exist after Time ends; and sometimes there is a spirit inside not only every person but every thing, every tree and rock, every bird and deer, every breeze or cloud or stream or whisp of smoke, each one a spirit in tune with the invisible workings of the invisible world, inviolate, immutable, eternal.
"Right now, that's all I'm asking you to believe: that what you see is not what you get. That there are things beyond your perception that are no less real for not being perceived. In particular, that you are special. Haven't you ever had the feeling that you're special? If you were nothing but bone and blood, cells and synapses, how could that be? I, at least, am special; the part of me that is me, that makes me me, is eternal, and it is eternal by virtue of inhabiting the same invisible world of invisible things as the thing that makes you special - and trust me, you're every bit as special as I am. You are more than the sum of your parts because your parts are solely material - the things you ate and drank put together in clever ways - and you are both material and non-material. Your existence straddles the line between the corporeal and the ethereal, and it is this dual existence that gives you a connection to that which is beyond the world you see, that allows you (if you only open yourself up to it) to communicate with that Beyond.
"We call that non-physical part, that invisible element, your soul. It's my soul that the Outside is listening to when I call for darkness. Nothing came for you because you were asking with your mouth and your hands. The difference is that when I perform the ritual, the ritual is for ME. I'm sort of . . . stroking my soul into the right shape to ask favors of the beyond . . .
" . . . and I'm an idiot. Of course the ritual is for me, so why am I trying to give you my rituals? You'd need your own, whatever would work for your own soul. And since the important things are the idea in your head and the desire in your heart - well, you need your own idea of an outcome, and it needs to be one you really want.
"I'm sorry I gave you the run around with these spell lessons, but I think maybe it wasn't a waste of time, in the end. Do you see what I mean about the world, at least? The invisible, the beyond, why my magic can work? And why someone who didn't buy this stuff, who wasn't honestly trying to communicate with something outside the world and outside the rules, could never ever do it if he tried for a million years?"
Edit: And Christianity gets the same treatment as the Norse mythology, so see the disclaimer for that, above. (I'm on a roll! Maybe I should mutilate Buddhism next.)
Not that bad, really. I've heard Christians massacre it worse--and that part about "really tried to be good" is really not at all what any New Testament writer ever wrote. But this is not the place for that.
"Um--so, there is really something, um, real, that's real beyond all the stuff thats, well real, and this is apart from the powers that the police have? And there's, like, a person who is not a person, who doesn't exist here but exists somewhere, or maybe nowhere, or--it's very confusing. Wait, did the world form from the body of the dead giant, or did someone talk it into existence, or was there really some big explosion that started everything? What is the truth? What are the facts?"
--M. J. Young
"First, this is nothing like what the police can do, and I tell you that from personal experience. It might look the same on the surface, if you squint really hard, but at its core the two are fundamentally different. One comes wholly from the mind, from within the doer; it's like using thought to get things done instead of using muscle. It's all within this world, it's all done under your own personal power, it's all quote-unquote 'real' - it all follows the rules. The other - magic - is nothing like that at all. The power I used to make the room dark does not come from me; it's like the difference between cooking a meal yourself and ordering a pizza. You didn't make the pizza; you just asked someone else who lives far away to give it to you, and he brings it into your house. Maybe a policeman could use his powers to make a pizza, but that's very different from ordering it. You see?
"In the metaphor, this universe is the house. Everything - everything here on Earth all the way out to the farthest star, every speck of matter and every scrap of energy, the whole thing. Everything that can be seen and measured and explained. That's your 'real' world. Your mistake comes when you assume that the 'real' world, the measurable, knowable world, is all that is.
"You mentioned facts. Well, the facts are probably what you've been told - trust your teachers and professors, trust your science books. Most of all, trust your own two eyes and your own observations and judgment. With magic, with the supernatural, facts aren't at issue. Science is strictly concerned with the empirical - what is known, what is knowable; the only valid theory or law in science is one which could potentially be disproven by new data (you'll hear people talk about 'falsifiability'). Magic is concerned with everything else - what cannot be known, what cannot be proven or disproven. What cannot be observed, or measured, or predicted or pointed to or in any way cataloged - that is the realm of magic and of imagination.
"What sort of monumental coincidence would it be if everything that was true also happened to be observable?"
She puzzles over this. "So, there are things that are true, but we can't prove them or see them or know them? But we can know them, because we can know that they are true, even if we can't prove that they're true. I can see that. And magic is some of this stuff that's real, but not real in the sense that it's part of reality--real in that it really comes from somewhere that's not real in the same sense. Well, it's terribly confusing, but I guess yeah, I can see that. And anyway, you must have gotten the darkness from somewhere, and you didn't seem to be trying to keep it dark by concentrating on it or whatever.
"So, what can you do with this magic? Or maybe, what could I do with it? And if the magic isn't in this world at all, but has to be sent here from somewhere else, how do I get to that other place to get the magic sent here?"
--M. J. Young
Beautiful. Given where we started, this is a shining success. Refinement and actual magic can come later.
"So, what can you do with this magic? Or maybe, what could I do with it? And if the magic isn't in this world at all, but has to be sent here from somewhere else, how do I get to that other place to get the magic sent here?"
"You have me there. I'm only just beginning to explore the possibilities myself. I mean, in theory one could do anything, but in practice it can be difficult to achieve even a simple effect. I'm still doing the basic research in that area - I can summon light and darkness, repel insects from my person, clean myself and others . . . tricks, really. But I'm working toward bigger things, and I'm confident I can get there in time. More than likely, you can, too. You've come a long way just today; I can't stress the importance of believing in an outer truth.
"As for how to get to that beyond - well, you don't go there so much as call to it. You communicate, like tapping in Morse code on the window glass so that your friend on the outside knows what to send it. Except, it's probably a private code, one you have to work out yourself . . . but we can get to that later. You've got enough to think about for now, I think, and I'm not going anywhere.
"For next time we talk, think about what makes you wonder; what fills you with a sense of something bigger than yourself, or older, what gives you sense of the mysterious and the imponderable? I have to attend to some preparations for - that thing I'm doing - that you've helped me with - but I'm looking forward to talking about this more tomorrow, once today's ideas have had a chance to settle and you've thought of all the questions you don't have yet."
And I'll proceed to attend to said material preparations - carving the Hodge-Podge transformer into the mixing bowl, et cetera. If/when the pain returns, drop to the floor and perform the blocking ritual again.
___
Post-hiatus thread summary points:
* My brainburn has persisted for three days so far, and your GE roll for its duration came up 14: not desired, but generally favorable.
* It is currently "after lunch." Late this morning, I successfully learned by necromantic pain-blocking skill, earning myself six pain-free hours which have yet to expire.
* It is the 25th of June. On the day of the 27th (a Friday), I am scheduled to begin Phase 1 of my grand undertaking.
* On the night of the 27th, I have told my boss that I will have recovered from my injury and will return to work. (The ritual times all take place in the day, so my 00:00 - 06:00 work shift should not interfere with that.)
* All necessary materials have been purchased, but those requiring preparation have not yet been prepared.
* I'm set to receive a skill mark in each of the following skills come August 20th (assuming I get that far): skateboarding, Tur Ki Foo basic style, Tur Ki Foo feint ("Gobble-Gobble What?"), fall impact absorption, cooking (toward an as-yet-unspecified 2@ specialization).
* I have an iguana. He lives in a cage, and I bathe him and rub him with oil once a week.
With hope, within the next few posts we can move forward to the actual execution of the long-awaited holy symbol ritual, which is overviewed here and the first phase of which is outlined here.
Given the GE roll, your brain burn will dissipate just before noon on the twenty-seventh of June. You'll be worried about whether you can start the ritual on time, but since you need only begin before sunset you manage to be free of the pain in the nick of time. (I would normally make a 14 GE roll last at least a week, but that's because I've seen brainburn last a month.)
That means that June 27th is Day One of the ritual of the creation of a Holy Symbol of Eris and Confusion; but it also seems that June 26th is Day Two of the ritual of the resolution of the confusion of Alice concerning magic, and I would be more comfortable proceeding with that first, and then the holy symbol thereafter.
"I remember when I was a little girl, this one time we went to the mountains, in Pennsylvania. I think they were the Poconos, because I remember thinking they were something like the Poken Nose, and thought that was a funny name. Anyway, usually we went down the shore*, and so this was different. I remember that there was a lot of riding up and down through the woods, but every once in a while we would come out around the side, and we could see these really tall mountains. They were like--like something from a fairytale, huge hills that rose way up.
"Anyway, when you said to think of something bigger or older, something mysterious and--what was the word? Imponderable. That's what came to mind. Does that help?"
"If we know that there is this other place, but we can't go there, how do we know what's there? Or how do we meet someone from there--and how can we tell whether whoever we meet is, well, a nice person? And, not to be too suspicious or anything, but, what do they get out of it?"
--M. J. Young
"Or how do we meet someone from there--and how can we tell whether whoever we meet is, well, a nice person? And, not to be too suspicious or anything, but, what do they get out of it?"
"About meeting the residents of the Beyond, and what they get out of doing you favors - well, first off, let me say that I don't think I've actually dealt with any spirit powers with any of the magic I've done here. Not sentient powers, anyway; nothing with free will. I suspect that there are two kinds of magic, really; one is the sort you're thinking of, where you call out to some sort of spirit sentience and it responds. The other is the kind I'm doing, where instead I communicate with a sort of sub-sentient magical energy, a kind of raw power that responds to thoughts and hopes and desires. Think of it like water that wants to flow downhill: if you give it the right kind of path, it'll follow it. Or perhaps it's more like moths drawn to lights, where you make a beacon of yourself to attract the power. If the moth analogy is more correct, then the moths don't 'get anything out of it,' it's just what they do, acting in accordance with their nature. Or, if the water analogy is more correct, then the whole question is moot; you don't owe the river anything for turning your water wheel.
"That said, I'm sure you can meet spirit powers, and if you ever do I advise you to be very careful indeed, because you're right that there's no guarantee they'll be benevolent. Be very careful, don't assume they tell the truth, and don't offer anything you're not prepared to give. Remember that you don't owe anyone anything that you haven't consciously and willingly promised them, and don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise.
"(That, by the way, is why I'm not concerned about the possibility that some unknown spirit power has in fact been doing the magic I've been asking for as a favor; since if it exists it hasn't revealed itself and I haven't offered or agreed to do anything in return, I owe it nothing even if it does eventually turn up to try and collect. But I don't think that's the case, even so.)"
"If we know that there is this other place, but we can't go there, how do we know what's there?"
"Understand that when I say 'place,' it's only a metaphor - since it doesn't exist physically, it isn't somewhere you can go. That's because you are, in part, physical, so it isn't somewhere you can be, physically. But you are also, in part, non-physical, and so in that way you are already there - your non-physical element occupies this realm constantly, and that is why you are able to communicate with the presences and energies residing there."
"Anyway, when you said to think of something bigger or older, something mysterious and--what was the word? Imponderable. That's what came to mind. Does that help?"
"It does. As you pointed out a little earlier, there's no way to conclusively prove the existence or contents of the Beyond. No evidence is sufficient; you could invent alternative explanations for even the magic I've done in front of your eyes, and even though you feel that the unknowable nonphysical world must exist and be true, you can't prove it with evidence. What you can do, though, is trust. You can trust that your intuitions are correct, you can trust me when I say 'I believe it, and you should too', and you can trust your own feelings of wonder and awe.
"For me, there is a certain reverence to singing, and riddles are a thing ancient and almost mystical; I include them in my spells because they invoke those feelings, and those feelings make it easier to trust. Sometimes it can be difficult to trust in the imperceptible, and part of the purpose of the ritual is to allow yourself, ah, to put yourself in a state where you can trust, completely, that the Beyond you're trying to communicate with exists and is listening. For any magic you try, you're going to want to incorporate elements that give you those feelings, as well as elements that help you to concentrate, focus; also, elements that lend you a sense of expectancy, because belief in the result, confidence that you will be listened to is also very important.
"So if your trip to the mountains is a source for those feelings for you, perhaps you could incorporate things evocative of your mountain memories into your spells - an old mountain rock, perhaps, or fresh pine needles, or crushed dead leaves; or perhaps songs reminiscent of your mountain trip. Smell is strong key to memory, which is why I think those materials I mentioned could help, but they could also be hard to come by, and I'm sure you can think of other things that could help you cast yourself back into that state of mind.
"But of course we'd be getting ahead of ourselves if we started designing rituals now. The very first thing is to have a purpose, an effect that you genuinely want to achieve (and trust that you could accomplish, if you stepped outside the rules of the universe to do it)."
She's thinking about that.
You begin your ritual for the creation of a holy symbol/focus the next day, June 27th, in the afternoon. She asks what you're doing.
You go to work that night, recovered from your brain burn.
--M. J. Young
She's thinking about that.
Good. I expect that'll take a while.
You begin your ritual for the creation of a holy symbol/focus the next day, June 27th, in the afternoon. She asks what you're doing.
I suppose my response will depend on when she asks. Looking in the middle section of this post* [Edit: I can't get the direct link to work, but it's my third post in that thread], I find that today's portion of the ritual is estimated at around forty minutes, the majority of which is a bubble bath (preceded by an address to Ignominious and cabbage destruction) and the remainder of which is a short speech.
If she asks me during the ritual itself, I respond simply and obviously with whatever specific task I'm undertaking at the time - "I'm purifying myself with bubble bath," or "I'm issuing a Papal Buall" (and quickly ad lib my way back into the swing of the speech), or "I'm destroying this cabbage, just in case," or whatever. I suspect that this will stall her until I'm done (and if she asks again at that time, see below).
If she asks before the ritual actual begins (while I'm preparing the materials or something), I'll respond that getting ready, and that I can't tell her exactly what I'm doing until I've already started. I'll tell her what time I think I'll start so she can be there for the speech if she likes. (Again, if she asks what I'm doing.)
If she asks after I'm done, I'll tell her that I've taken the first step in creating a holy symbol for Eris, which, when I'm finished, I believe could provide some measure of protection against some of the opposing forces I might encounter here in New Jersey. 'Holy symbol' and 'Eris' are concepts I hope not to get into. "At the very least," I'll say, "it'll be a knick-knack with an interesting origin story. And it should be fun to do, so."
*Every instance of – represents a dash. They used to look like dashes, but I think something happened to them during one of the forum upgrades.
__
I'm glad my brainburn clears in time for work not to be disrupted. Now, if everything goes according to schedule, I don't anticipate any difficulties beyond Alice's curiosity until I get to Phase Four . . . which I've just realized isn't posted yet. I'll get on that. It involves the filing of ritually prepared forms in various places over the course of ten days, with a daily routine which escalates in a fashion based on the Twelve Days of Christmas.
She will ask early in the afternoon while you're getting organized for it, but she will be going to work while you are performing the ritual, so she won't ask again until the next day.
Work runs smoothly. Do you have to do anything on June 28th, or if not when is the next part of it?
--M. J. Young
Work runs smoothly. Do you have to do anything on June 28th, or if not when is the next part of it?
I have something to do on every day of the 23-day ritual. June 28 is Day 2 of the ritual, which is the first day of Phase 2. Phase 2 lasts for five days, and each day involves the mixing bowl, one wingnut, the use of the stove, the bongos, and a performance for "summoning" the appropriate element for that day (note: no summoning in the M11@ sense is involved). If the link works, the ritual for this is described in sufficient detail here ( http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/wingnuts-and-wizardry-ritual-magic-for-scotts-game#post-5238 ).
The portion performed on June 28th should take about one hour. Substantially similar activity should take one hour each in the afternoons of the 29th (Day 3), 30th, 1st, and 2nd (Day 6). All of this can be performed in the home. The exception is the 29th, which involves the direct application of fire to the components; I'll want to do that part out on the balcony just in case (it's not my apartment, after all).
She will ask early in the afternoon while you're getting organized for it, but she will be going to work while you are performing the ritual, so she won't ask again until the next day.
Well, if she asks what I did, I'll respond as I said before:
I'll tell her that I've taken the first step in creating a holy symbol for Eris, which, when I'm finished, I believe could provide some measure of protection against some of the opposing forces I might encounter here in New Jersey. 'Holy symbol' and 'Eris' are concepts I hope not to get into. "At the very least," I'll say, "it'll be a knick-knack with an interesting origin story. And it should be fun to do, so."
If she instead asks what I'm doing, I'll evade using the same strategy as I outlined before: maddening specificity and immediacy (e.g., "I'm adding more sugar", "I'm beating the bongos in a manner pleasing to the elements").
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I'm ready to move forward at whatever pace you like; just let me know what you need from me. (I'll write up Phase Four just as soon as we need it, or a little sooner.)
I'm good with day 2, and pretty much with skidding forward into you telling me about day 7, but that day 3 calls my attention to two concerns.
- Your list of tech skills is pretty thin, and fire use skills are not given. You would at the very least need skills in starting and containing a fire. Talk to me about your skills here.
- I do not actually remember stating that Alice's apartment had a balcony. I'm not saying that it doesn't, but it was not the image I had in my own mind. (I know they're pretty common in a lot of modern apartments, but I don't know that this translates to her situation, and I know that they used to be the luxury item, what defined a "garden apartment" as better than others.) If you specifically recall the existence of a balcony from some previous event that has slipped my mind, the balcony is there; if not, I will have to roll for it and you should provide a contingency for where you will host this fire if there is no balcony. (You might try the bathtub....)
--M. J. Young
1. I was in scouting ages seven to eighteen, aging out as a Life Scout (I never started my Eagle Project because I'm hopelessly disorganized). I'm not a master of the flame and I've never lit a fire purely from friction or body heat, but I'm a fair hand at a number of different firestarting methods, and fire safety and containment were emphasized in my training.
The goal of this fire is only to produce enough ash to be visible once smeared on a wingnut with glue. It need not be large or enduring. Looking at the ingredients list, it looks like I'll be igniting gunpowder from the fireworks I purchased mixed with whiskey. (Note that while I'm prioritizing safety in my actions, strictly in terms of the ritual an explosion would not be a bad thing, seeing as the element in question is Boom. While it could cause me other problems, the magic would be happy and contented.)
2. There is a balcony. I asked for and received a description of the apartment when I first arrived; here's the relevant portion from the archives (emphasis mine):
It's the third of seven floors, not too bad a place although not the nicest neighborhood. The door enters into a living/dining area with a couch and television closer to the door and small round table with four chairs at the other end. There are books and papers stacked on three of the four chairs, and a good part of the table is also covered with such, except by the one empty chair. The dining area is narrower than the living area, because to the right (as seen from the door) there's a small walk-in kitchenette and pantry. To the left near the front door there's a door into a bathroom, shower/tub, and another door from that same bathroom into the only bedroom, hotel-sized double bed but otherwise furnished for one, and connected to the dining room by a door near the far end. There's a sliding glass door beyond the table which opens to a shallow balcony that runs the width of the apartment but is only accessed from that point (there are windows from the bedroom and kitchen, but the bedroom windows are frosted).
It is sparsely furnished and there's not much food. There's neither coffee nor tea that you can find. There's orange juice and lemon-lime soda in the refrigerator.
That's from this post ( http://discussions.gamingoutpost.com/index.php?showtopic=83061&st=20&p=98847&#entry98847 ). It was fun to read back through the archives for it.
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Assuming that satisfies your two concerns, I'll move on to Day 7. This is July 3rd, the first of the five days (through July 7th) that will compose Phase 3. Again, the activity on each day of the phase will be quite similar to the others, and the ritual is described in detail here ( http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/wingnuts-and-wizardry-ritual-magic-for-scotts-game#post-5724 ). This is the "let's get to know each other" portion of the ritual. Spaced out over the daylight hours, there should be a total of about two hours of ritual activity (including games and meals) per day.
Some or all of the wingnuts in question will be on my person at all times during this phase (one on Day 7, all five by Day 11), but I don't anticipate that this will cause problems at work seeing as they needn't be visible. All of Phase 3's activities (beyond that requirement) can take place inside, with the exception of the game of Discordian Hopscotch on Day 11 (July 7th). That will take place in the park, which I am visiting regularly for skateboard, Tur-Ki-Fu, and falling-out-of-a-tree practice regularly anyway.
That satisfies my two concerns completely. Anyone who made it to Life Scout (or even First Class Scout) in my book almost certainly has minimally 2@1 at the Basic Fire Skills Package (and a host of other skills), so it's been added as such (a T1@1 package that includes maintaining, transfering, containing, and extinguishing fires). You've also got skills in starting fires one way or another, and sufficient enough that I don't think it necessary to roll.
I also think that if you are burning loose gunpowder, it is not likely to explode, and if you mix it in whiskey it is even less so. You'll have a liquid fire that sparkles.
We speed through the next phase. Alice has stopped asking questions, but she does watch you curiously as you play games with the wingnuts.
--M. J. Young
She's invited to join the games, if she likes. It's allowed, and more fun that way.
Moving on through Phase IV, as described in detail here (for subphase a: http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/wingnuts-and-wizardry-ritual-magic-for-scotts-game#post-10349 ) and here (for subphase b: http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/wingnuts-and-wizardry-ritual-magic-for-scotts-game#post-10537 ). I don't expect that the first day (sub-phase a, Day 12, July 8th) will be problematic, but the next ten days after that (July 9th-18th) carry a risk of exposure - small, I think, but real.
Details of implementation: Forms are a single page each, prepared first thing after waking and filed over the course of the day before work.
- For a File 13, I'll use a household wastebasket.
- I will prepare the balloons in the kitchen and release them from the balcony.
- I'll use the household freezer for the #3 forms, and when flushing the #4s I'll make sure they're folded tightly enough (and paper-clipped to stay so) that they shouldn't get caught in the plumbing.
- I'll use the same tree I practice falling from for the #5s, employing duct tape to keep them there.
- From day 6 (of the subphase, that is; Day 18) on, I'll make sure I'm taking the bus to the grocery store or the park or wherever at least once a day with the #6 form in my pocket, leaving it behind when I get off.
- For the forms that go in the mail, I'll put them in stamped envelopes addressed to the California Department of Transportation (I'll look up the address somehow), with no return address on the envelope.
- It's summer and I have sandals, so I don't expect #s 8 or 9 to be a problem; I'll leave the shoes in my (Alice's) bedroom.
- #10 I'll only have to file once, but I'll file it out of the kitchen window (which looks out onto the balcony).
I've tried to arrange things so that I draw no attention from law enforcement, but the potential is there. Lemme know if anything comes to my attention.
This segment of the ritual goes smoothly.
One of the other cooks gets sick, and you are asked to help cover a few shifts, which disrupts your schedule a bit; but you manage to get through the week without missing either work or ritual.
--M. J. Young
Sweetness. This is good, because there's only one day left, and the hardest aspect of it is eating five hot dogs.
Out of curiosity, are these extra shifts in the sense that I work more than my usual hours-per-week, and thus need to mark down additional money earned? My books are kept up through my fifty-second night of work, which I think is still in the future (possibly August 20th).
Next time, I'll have written up the last phase and we can roll the dice and have done with it.
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Edit: I checked my books. First off, a major error that crept in during one of those hiatuses - I've been saying June and July where I should have been saying July and August. This is clearly laid out in my notes: the final day of the ritual is 1/72/A, my seventy-second day in the Verse and my sixty-first day in this universe. On the local calender, that day is August 18th. Two days later, it will be Monday August 20th, my sixty-third day in this universe and the day my skill marks accrue (due to a now-ancient bookkeeping error on your part). It is the 20th of August from which we re-wound way back when.
Second, I've been working every day in this universe including the day I came, so on the day the ritual finishes (August 18th), I will have worked sixty shifts and will be due to report for my sixty-first at midnight. I'm not sure why my monetary notes have been brought up through 52 shifts, but I'll bring them up through sixty shifts right now - minus the nights I was crippled, plus any extra shifts I got paid for during Phase IV.
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Edit the Second: Not urgent; these are my equipment additions so far, not including ritual purchases. I'm posting this just in case you're curious or need to look back - I'm still maintaining my Word documents.
[Total PsOrwell Money]
[ 50 x $20
[ 59 x $10
[ 58 x $5
[ 56 x $1
[ 3 x ¢25
[ 1 x ¢10
[ 1 x ¢5
[ 4 x ¢1
[Total = $1,936.49]
Cage, from pet store: $35, is about six feet by three feet on the ground, four feet high, gaps about 1.5x2.5", three closable doors about 9" square--one near the floor, one in the roof, and one half way up. It's a multi-purpose cage, but has no floor to it, so if you lift it you can get to the bottom. There is a separate kit for a solid bottom that clips to it, $15. The cage itself weighs about five pounds and collapses to a roughly three foot square three inch thick package. The bottom weighs about ten pounds, and does not collapse. There are clip points inside for accessories such as carpeted shelves (for cats), bars and feeders (for birds) and some other attachments, all extras.
Spray bottle, $1, should be durable enough to last a year or two.
Olive oil, a gallon $8. [Used: 9/2 cups (2/1/A)] It looks like maybe half a cup will coat Iggy easily (you could do it with less, but it's tricky), and probably if you coat him after his bath it will hold for most of the week. It's an anti-parasitic, keeping mites off him. It also softens his skin, which makes molting a bit easier. Extra Virgin Olive Oil costs more, but is not really necessary.
Antibacterial hand soap, $2.49 for the pint squirt bottle that sits by the sink
Weight set with instructions.
+ 150 galvanized steel wingnuts
Complete waterproof set of coordinated street maps for New Jersey (W2), in a 15x12 glossy softcover book format; 530 pages, spiral bound.
Second post - I've written up the final phase. Unless the above post contains something we should pause and deal with (or takes up too much of your time), we could move on to the end of the ritual.
Edit: and that post is, of course, here -
http://gamingoutpost.com/discussions/topic/wingnuts-and-wizardry-ritual-magic-for-scotts-game#post-10561
Yes--you are working an extra three shifts this week, but you'll be paid straight time for them. They covered for you when you were sick.
You sense the presence of the supernatural in your holy symbol as you complete it. The wingnuts are your friends.
--M. J. Young
Rawsome. From here on out, we'll assume I'm wearing this. The wingnuts' names are Wonka, Tree-Nut Tom, Rose, Sonic, and Clementine.
I think I'll leave the ball in your court for this post. I've left the issue of Alice and magic to the side for the last three weeks, so it's possible she has something to bring to my attention or ask me about; if nothing else, my skill practice is continuing and should accrue a mark in two days (skateboarding, Tur Ki Foo basic style, Tur Ki Foo feint ("Gobble-Gobble What?"), fall impact absorption, cooking (toward an as-yet-unspecified 2@ specialization), cooking again (toward 2@2 Short Order Cooking).
I'm thinking of another trip to the Round Valley State Park sometime soon, but perhaps I'll lay low for a while first. We'll see.
Does it matter which wingnut is which, and can you tell which is which by appearance or position or by some other means?
Alice will ask about your new wingnut necklace, particularly whether it is supposed to be something ("You know, like, does it have the shape of a country or island, or something like that?") and whether it is supposed to do something.
My sheet lists your cooking skill as "Pizza Chef", which is not that different from "short order" but does suggest a different context. As to the "as yet unspecified" specialization, I'm assuming that means we haven't named it, not that we don't know what it is--it's difficult to envision you practicing a skill and not know what you're practicing. Presumably, too, this practice is connected to your work at the restaurant. From your understanding of what you make there, what sort of cooking do you think you're doing?
Your skills are improving.
--M. J. Young
I'm fine with what your sheet says; "short-order cooking" was my memory of what you'd said you'd put down, and your actual sheet obviously trumps that. However, that raises a question as to whether working at Mel's actually improves that listing or a different one. Short-order would seem to include bar-food to me, while pizza chef sounds pretty particular - just pizzas.
For the unspecified listing - well, I'm cooking dinner at home. If that's specific enough for level two, we're done; if not, it's southern style to a degree (I'm a mix of Mom-taught and Scoutmaster-trained, and all in North Carolina); as for particular dishes, there's a reliance on the faux-Mexican, the faux-Italian, and the traditional four-course (vegetable/vegetable/rice/meat, plus rolls and gravy optionally). As for what it's not - it's not breakfast, it's not deep-frying, it's not seafood, it's not over an open fire, it's not for more than four people (or two plus leftovers). I'm not sure what besides Home Dinners (Southern, Modern) captures that adequately, but I'm open to ideas.
I suppose it could matter which is which. They're Sweet, Boom, Pungent, Prickle, and Orange, respectively in the order I listed them (Wonka, TNT, Rose, Sonic, Clementine). I can tell them apart both by position (that ordering) and appearance (altered differently for each in Phase II, which affixed some of the mixing-bowl contents to each wingnut by some means, which varied).
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I'm hungry and working on a paper, so I'll post this much and respond to Alice in a second post. In all likelihood, that'll be before you get back to the thread.
Concerning "Pizza Chef", I would take that to include the sorts of sandwiches mostly made in pizzerias--steaks, hoagies, probably burgers--as well as the simpler Italian meals--spagetti, baked ziti, lasagna, tomato sauce, meatballs, sausages, alfredo sauce, clam sauce, scampi, which overlaps "short order cook" sufficiently. Also, although you are cooking at home, I was thinking that the bulk of your practice was because you were cooking at work. That's probably something more like the home cooking, so whatever it is the home cooking fits that; it is less like short-order cooking, I think, although it's been long enough that I'm not certain what exactly I said you were doing at that restaurant (and I keep confusing it with the one where Alice works, where Mel is the cook).
Identities of the wing nuts have been added to the item description.
--M. J. Young
Apologies; I thought you were asking what I was cooking at home, but it seems to me now that you were asking what I was cooking at Mel's bar. I agree that, as you define it, Pizza Chef and short-order cooking overlap sufficiently for our purposes. I imagine Mel's as mostly serving bar food - fried appetizers, cheese fries, various sandwiches, salads, probably some seafood seeing as it's in a port town.
As for the skill listings, my original understanding was that my work at the restaurant was sufficient to comprise a professional level training program for my pre-existing professional level restaurant cooking skill. In addition to this, I cook every other dinner at home, and at the time (a year ago) I lobbied to have that counted as a separate, level one training program, three hours at home every five days toward a non-restaurant cooking specialization which would reach 2@1 after four hundred days of home cooking.
I'm less committed to that separation of programs now, because my feelings on the matter have grown weaker over the past year. So, either we have a 2@2 Pizza chef(/short-order cook) and a 1@10| "home cooking" (where the | is a skill mark), or else just a 2@2 Pizza Chef which I happen to also use at home - whichever way seems best to you.
Again, I'll post this much and get back to Alice next post (which might be as soon as after I fix myself some dinner). I think I really will get here before you do this time, but we'll see.
I have no problem with a training program in homestyle cooking, and I'll indicate it with a skill mark. It's a level one training program, of course, but you knew that. I had lost that fragment of what you were doing, so I couldn't follow the thread. But it's been noted as 1@10 Homestyle Cooking T1@2 +1 on my sheet.
I agree with the rest, except the part that says you'll get back here first (insert appropriate emoticon here).
--M. J. Young
Alice will ask about your new wingnut necklace, particularly whether it is supposed to be something ("You know, like, does it have the shape of a country or island, or something like that?")
"It does have a shape; it's a pentagon, which is five-sided, and that's important and significant for reasons.* There are a lot of little things like that about it that are significant symbolically; it's basically a great big bundle of symbols tied up in string and worn 'round the neck."
and whether it is supposed to do something.
"Do something? It doesn't really have to, it is something. What I mean is it's not a tool that gets a thing done, but an influencing presence; its effect is achieved by being what it is. In the lingo, it puts out good vibes.
"It's a little like what I was telling you before, what I was calling 'stroking your soul into the right shape,' metaphorically. It has that kind of influence on people and situations, particularly for me, and the magician who knows what he's about can make good use of that.
" . . . and there's an idea, actually. Once you have an idea of what you might want to accomplish with your magic, maybe you could benefit from something similar - some kind of totem to bring you more in tune with the ineffable, something with 'mountain vibes.' What do you think? It might make things easier, and I think I could put something together for you. It wouldn't even have to be as complicated as this was; maybe just a few days, and not a demanding, um, input requirement from you."
Of course its moot if she has no need for magic spells (and thus no spell ideas), but it could be a fun project if she'll allow it.
*(That's not a typo; I often say 'for reasons,' without specifying.)
Moving back to the routine, my observations include that you are not practicing any psionic abilities (other than things like language skills), but you are practicing your martial arts and falling from the tree in public. Also, your schedule tells me that it's late summer, almost autumn, by now. You're working at the restaurant, cooking on the night shift; you're also cooking at home three nights a week. Alice is working at a different restaurant.
By now you have a key to her apartment, just because it's easier. She doesn't have much of a social life, although occasionally she goes out for coffee with a couple of girlfriends.
I'm interested in how long the routine would continue without disruption at your end (not promising that there won't be disruptions otherwise), and what might change.
--M. J. Young