More than one
This is supposed to be more funny than anything, just to be clear up front. Also, please bear in mind that I suffer from paranoia.
MJ, for some reason, I can't help but think you're secretly hoping I do get stuck in an infinity loop. For one thing, you wouldn't have to run the game anymore. I'd be stuck reading the same thread for the rest of eternity.
(Doing Therapy)
"Well, I can try, you know."
He turns toward Sarah and shakes her bed.
"Hey, girl, don't be scared. It's all right."
Sarah wakes up.
Sarah screams.
Sarah pulls the pistol out from under her pillow and empties it in Terry's direction.
The noise hurts your ears, but you manage to avoid crying.
Terry vanishes.
Sarah fires a few more shots, then drops the gun, and collapses on the bed, sobbing loudly.
--M. J. Young
Hopefully, Sarah will pass out and dismiss it as a nightmare. Did I not tell Terry to get her under control? He's an angel of God. Can he not control a 5 foot 5 120 pound woman?
Call Terry back. Now I wish that didn't take an hour to do!! But with a 100% chance of success, it's worth it.
Same ritual, this time when Terry shows up, ask him to not vanish until he gets her under control.
Sarah pulls the pistol out from under her pillow and empties it in Terry's direction.
Sarah fires a few more shots, then drops the gun, and collapses on the bed, sobbing loudly.
How can she empty it, then fire more shots? (Teasing)
(Doing Therapy)
Sorry--long before Sarah falls asleep you do.
--M. J. Young
So summon Terry when I wake up.
You awaken in daylight, and a visibly exhausted Sarah smiles weakly at you.
"There you are," she says sweetly. "Mommy worries so much about you. I don't know what it was that was after you last night, but I think I got it. I hope it didn't give you bad dreams."
She shudders, but goes back to her weak smile.
"Come, let's get you changed and dressed and fed, and then we'll have to think about where to go from here, since apparently someone knows where we are."
--M. J. Young
OK, enough of this. Put my right thumb in my mouth, then my left thumb in my mouth, one at a time. Pray loudly and forcefully (which would be louder baby babbling) for 5 minutes for Sarah to pass out for at least 4 hours. Just fall asleep, lay down and pass out where she sits. If she picks me up, or her passing out would otherwise immediately endanger my safety, cease and desist immediately.
"God, my mommy (which is to say, this person I'm with) needs some sleep. I ask that you grant her at least four hours of uninterrupted sleep right on the spot. I want her unable to awaken for four hours."
I could see that backfiring, but I need her out for a little while.
Following that, do the feet in mouth one hour hands raised as much as possible prayer to bring Terry back.
Tell Terry my plan for avoiding infinity loops, described a few posts up. And take another look at that diagram, now that you know what it is.
"And Terry, Sarah will be out for a few more hours. Could you stay with me? A few minutes before she wakes up, (And I hope you know when that will be) you get the drop on her, keep her restrained, and speak to her for me. I have a lot of things I need to tell her. And while you're here, can your feed me and change my diaper?"
If I can stay awake for 4 hours, then this shouldn't be a big deal.
Two
When Terry shows up after Sarah passes out (hopefully) it is imperitive that he get her under control so that I can talk to her. I would make that abundantly clear to him. In this infant body, I can protect Sarah far more effectively than she could ever hope to protect me. I need her to understand that. Terry has got to get her under control.
Three
Regarding the prayer to make Sarah fall asleep. I think more what I want is for her to fall asleep the moment he starts praying. If the prayer is going to work, she falls asleep the moment he starts praying it. If I start babbling loudly, she will pick me up for certain, then I can't do the prayer. I want her to fall asleep the moment I start praying. Can that be done? If it involves time travel of any kind to do so, forget it. I guess God would know that He was going to answer the prayer before I started praying it. I want him to answer it, if it's going to work, the moment I start praying.
IIRC, the angel summoning has over a 100% chance of success, so I'm not worried about having her incapacitated with Terry on the way.
I guess how this would play out is if it's going to work, she falls asleep, he keeps praying to keep her down. If it doesn't work, she picks him up, he stops praying (so he won't get dropped) and that's why it doesn't work.
Are you starting this prayer before you are changed and fed? I think you have maybe seconds--she'll be reaching out to pick you up while she's saying that.
A prayer that puts someone to sleep immediately is a six-second prayer. Your prayer doesn't do that. (You can see why this would be inappropriate when you recognize that a sleep spell can be used tactically against your enemies, or by them against you: if you can increase the power of the spell to a certainty by promising to keep doing it for ten minutes but have the effect be immediate, then you get an unfair advantage. If you want an immediate effect you have to pay the price up front to get it--you have to put something into the skill that will cause immediate sleep.
Now, maybe you want two prayers, one that causes sleep immediately and a second that keeps someone asleep for a long time; but I can't give you a bonus for a long ritual if the effect is at the beginning, since the game reason why the long ritual works is that it gives the detriment that the target can take action while you're casting it.
--M. J. Young
Are you starting this prayer before you are changed and fed? I think you have maybe seconds--she'll be reaching out to pick you up while she's saying that.
OK, you're going to hate this. How long does it take Sarah to change my diaper? She would put me on the couch or somewhere else safe. Start praying loudly and forcefully (Does anyone else see the irony in yelling to make someone sleep?) for the time I'm being changed. When my diaper is done being changed, Sarah is to lay down on the floor and fall asleep for four hours, minimum. She needs it. Terry can take care of me in the meantime. With 5 sons, I'm sure you've changed a diaper or two in your time. How long does it take? That's the time frame. Terry can feed me when he shows up.
I know you hate the open-ended time frames, but I have no idea how long it would take her to change a diaper. I'm asking you to give it a time frame, based on your experience at changing diapers.
JOHN!!!! STOP!!!!! ONE ACTION AT A TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Notes:
Dreaming training exercise.
Can Terry give me the ability to speak to Sarah?
(Doing Therapy)
Two
"God, my mommy (which is to say, this person I'm with) needs some sleep. I ask that you grant her at least four hours of uninterrupted sleep right on the spot. I want her unable to awaken for four hours."
I figure that it takes about six minutes to change a baby's diaper, although it might take an experienced mother considerably less (it would be a skill, now, wouldn't it, and an expert could do it in a third the time of an amateur). Sarah has not been practicing long enough to be a professional yet.
"My, but you are really worked up about something today, aren't you? Maybe you're just really hungry."
She changes your diaper, and then gets your bottle, cradles you in her arm, and feeds you.
--M. J. Young
Am I being breast or bottle fed? I'm starting to understand this a little bit better, I think. My hope is that I am being breast fed. This next is going on that. Pray for Sarah to fall asleep after I'm finished being fed. This is contingent on having a stomach full of mother's milk. (Any mother, cow, goat, etc.) I would think it being my own mother would heavily bonus it, but that's your call. That is going to be rather rare circumstance, ya know? I don't want Sarah to drop me falling asleep, (obviously) so she is to fall asleep after I am placed in a safe location.
How long does it take to breast feed a baby? Again, I have no idea. You give it the time frame, based on your experience in such matters.
With a stomach filled with mother's milk, pray, thinking silently.
"God, please put Sarah (or whoever) to sleep for a minimum of four hours. She really needs it. (Is it a bonus that it's partially out of concern for Sarah? She does need the sleep). I have some things I need to do. Once I am in a safe place, put Sarah to sleep."
Since I'm praying at the start of the feeding, "full" doesn't really have to mean "full" except that my stomach WILL be full when she's finished.
If it works, feet in mouth, one hour prayer to summon Terry.
MJ, you wanted to slow this down. If my plan works, it's going to slow down significantly. I'm going into physical combat training. (But how? I'm just a baby!!!) I just thought you might want to know that, that's all.
(Doing Therapy)
At present you're getting bottle feedings along with creamed cereals and strained pureed fruit. You start with a bottle today, reconstituted powdered formula, and about three minutes later it's done and she's putting you into a high chair to feed you your cereal and fruit. She'll strap the belts and put the tray across your lap to keep you from falling out.
Your prayer appeared to specify "milk" as a material component. I'm not entirely certain what the composition of infant formula is, but pediatricians at least would distinguish it as "not milk". How does that impact your prayer?
--M. J. Young
How does that impact your prayer?
That it didn't happen. I was kind of hoping you would just referee fiat that I was being breast fed because you thought the prayer was really cool. I almost said something to that effect, but I remembered a long time ago you told me not to do that. So, aside from disappointing the player, the prayer did nothing at all.
Don't most pediatricians recommend breast feeding? Surely the mother of the future messiah would breast feed her baby. Or feed him breast milk from a bottle. She would want him to have every advantage she could give him. I've heard of mothers who breast fed the children until they were 4 or 5. That's not their only food of course, but that's part of it. I mean Indian mothers didn't give their babies formula, ya know? What I'm saying is, I don't think she would EVER put me on formula. Have I really been drinking formula? I mean seriously, I want to discuss that a little.
I can't put my feet in my mouth in a high chair can I? I'm not going to be here very long. Mommy thinks there was another attack, from when Terry showed up. We're running again. I'm not going to have a chance to knock her out for a while. If I could just put her to sleep and call Terry, this would all be over in a few posts.
So where's mommy taking us THIS time? She's going to have to sleep soon. I'll call Terry then. So, tell me where we go, tell me when Sarah falls asleep. I'm not going to try to stay awake. If I fall asleep, I fall asleep. She will be asleep at some point when I'm awake. Call Terry then. Feet in mouth, praying for an hour.
(Doing Therapy)
Sarah seems upset and jumpy. She does examine the bullet holes in the walls while you're sucking on the bottle (you can hold it with two hands with a bit of help getting it in your mouth initially). However, she doesn't appear to be packing.
She spoon-feeds you cereal with a bit of pureed fruit in it after you've finished the bottle.
The issue of whether she would breast feed or bottle feed is not open for discussion at this point. Many mothers go dry, and the opinions of pediatricians concerning the benefits versus detriments of formula have swung widely over the decades. 1980's babies usually shifted to formula fairly quickly, for a host of reasons. The dice say you did, too.
--M. J. Young
Sarah seems upset and jumpy. She does examine the bullet holes in the walls while you're sucking on the bottle (you can hold it with two hands with a bit of help getting it in your mouth initially). However, she doesn't appear to be packing.
Ya know what? Now that I think about it, baby formula would probably work better as the spell component. I can carry a jar of that as an adult. I thought mother's milk would have some magical properties to it that would bonus it heavily.
How long does it take a baby to finish a bottle? I have no idea, your call. I'd try to stretch it out a little longer. So, your estimate plus 10%. It's not open-ended, I'm asking you to apply the time frame, as the one with the knowledge to do so. I think I bottle-fed a baby once, and I have no idea how long it took. You've no doubt done it hundreds of times. You apply the time frame, plus 10% for stretching.
Stomach full of baby formula, pray silently to be endowed with the ability to speak to Sarah in the voice I will have as an adult. I want to be able to speak to her as soon as I finish the bottle, for at least 20 minutes. As in, finish and throw down the bottle, and start speaking.
Sarah is about to learn the "truth" about her baby..... (You're gonna love this cover story)
"God, endow me with the ability to speak to Sarah. She has fears which need laid to rest, and I wish to do so. I can protect her far better than she can protect me. If I could only speak to her so that I could tell her this, she would rest easier. Endow me with the ability to speak clearly in the voice I will have as an adult."
I know that God endowed a donkey with the ability to speak. Does that count for anything?
Anybody else think I'm gonna burn for asking God to endow me with the ability to speak, in order to lie?
Regarding the breast feeding, I guess we just have different mental images of Sarah's mindset. I'm not the one running the game.
(Doing Therapy)
Two
She spoon-feeds you cereal with a bit of pureed fruit in it after you've finished the bottle.
I had to reread this, but she never gets this far unless the prayer fails. I'm praying whilst sucking on the bottle, and I will (hopefully) start speaking after it's finished.
I'd say about five minutes, assuming he stays awake the whole time, but you probably will on this occasion.How long does it take a baby to finish a bottle?
You've said this a few times. Does this mean that the baby formula is one of the material components of the spell and it is destroyed by being consumed? When you say "stomach full" does that mean you'll have to drink half a gallon when you're an adult, but six ounces is fine now?Stomach full of baby formula
Also, it appears that the praying is concurrent with the consumption of the formula, and thus that you're not waiting until your stomach is full but you're filling it as part of the ritual. Yet you've said "stomach full" twice, which suggests that your ritual does not begin until after you've consumed the formula. Which is it? Is consuming the formula part of the ritual or does it occur first?
Does this mean "think", or does it mean something else? Since you're sucking on the bottle, you're probably not mouthing the words.pray silently
"God, endow me with the ability to speak to Sarah. She has fears which need laid to rest, and I wish to do so. I can protect her far better than she can protect me. If I could only speak to her so that I could tell her this, she would rest easier. Endow me with the ability to speak clearly in the voice I will have as an adult."
You aren't actually saying this, right?
--M. J. Young
I'd say about five minutes, assuming he stays awake the whole time, but you probably will on this occasion.
So 5 minutes plus 10%. 30 extra seconds.
You've said this a few times. Does this mean that the baby formula is one of the material components of the spell and it is destroyed by being consumed?
Yes. Exactly.
When you say "stomach full" does that mean you'll have to drink half a gallon when you're an adult, but six ounces is fine now?
Also, it appears that the praying is concurrent with the consumption of the formula, and thus that you're not waiting until your stomach is full but you're filling it as part of the ritual. Yet you've said "stomach full" twice, which suggests that your ritual does not begin until after you've consumed the formula. Which is it? Is consuming the formula part of the ritual or does it occur first?
Whilst in a seated position, think silently whilst consuming baby formula. As an adult, I could put baby formula on my cereal and pray whilst eating it. Stomach full is not what I mean. While consuming baby formula. Must be done in a seated position. So that's full body involvement and destruction of material components. (Bonuses bonuses)
Does this mean "think", or does it mean something else? Since you're sucking on the bottle, you're probably not mouthing the words.
Think.
You aren't actually saying this, right?
Right. All thought.
(Doing Therapy)
Must be done in a seated position. So that's full body involvement
Well, I get to decide what constitutes "full body involvement" and the definition I use is based on whether you could do something else at the same time. The only body parts you've clearly committed to this action are your mouth and your buttocks--if you had a straw you could suck formula through it while using hands and feet to fight an attacker. That might not qualify you for any bonus for body parts at all--it does not require even one hand, and all it prevents you from doing is talking.
Do you want to adjust your description so that it does limit your actions, or go with this?
--M. J. Young
Well, I get to decide what constitutes "full body involvement" and the definition I use is based on whether you could do something else at the same time.
Well, kneeling with head bowed (which is clearly full-body involvement) I could still shoot somebody. Point is, if that's your definition, then no one should ever get a bonus for full-body involvement. As long as they had a hand free, they could still use a gun. Even if they were waving that hand around, they could still use a gun. Not terribly accurately, but they could certainly still use it. Where do you draw the line? I'm just trying to milk all the bonuses out of this thing as I can. Given my current physical limitations, a seated position seemed like full-body involvement to me. Either it is or it's not. If it is, give me the bonus, if it's not, then don't. Pretty simple.
Well, kneeling with head bowed (which is clearly full-body involvement) I could still shoot somebody. Point is, if that's your definition, then no one should ever get a bonus for full-body involvement. As long as they had a hand free, they could still use a gun.
That's certainly a good point. I've always assumed that it meant very specific use of the hands--folded, or possibly raised, or pressed to the floor. If I thought you could fire a gun within the parameters of that description, I would not count it full-body involvement. After all, the very specific sense of "full body involvement" is that if you "had to" do something else you would be forced to choose between interrupting your ritual to do that and staying with the ritual whatever consequences come from not doing that.
If you had said that it was a requirement that you suck the formula from a baby bottle held with both hands while seated with your feet down, I would not have hesitated to give you full body involvement for that, because all your limbs are given specific tasks in the process. Your description actually seems to want to create options, the ability to vary the limitations slightly in the casting, and that makes it less restrictive and therefore less bonused.
I'm glad to give you bonuses that you deserve for designing a ritual with limitations; I'm not glad to give you bonuses you want to claim that you haven't really earned.
--M. J. Young
While in a seated position with feet down, using both hands to consume baby formula (so as an adult, I could eat a bowl of cereal held with one hand and eaten with the other) pray silently for 5 minutes and 30 seconds for God to endow me with the ability to speak in the voice I will have as an adult. So this is full body involvement.
Happy now? (Said with a laugh)
Two
MJ, I'm just curious. I asked about "Consuming mother's milk." As I'm sure you're aware, many mothers use pumps to extract breast milk, and feed it to a baby from a bottle. I can't get over the idea that mother's milk, and especially that of my own mother would have some magical properties which would bonus this very heavily. The roll on consuming mother's milk was 13, barely good enough. You said no worse than a 12 would mean I was being breast fed. However, that says nothing about whether I could still be consuming mother's milk from a bottle. (My character does have some ulterior motives for being breast fed, after all.) I'm forced to wonder if the 13 could mean I was doing that. If mother's milk wouldn't bonus it any more, or whatever, forget it. I'm not really trying to push the issue as much as I am trying to understand the mechanics of it. If mother's milk would heavily bonus it, and it's possible (on the before mentioned 13 GE roll) that I could be consuming that from a bottle, I'd like to have it considered. If not, no argument.
Just my two cents, if a 12 was being breast fed, then I would think "barely good enough" would mean consuming mother's milk from a bottle. I wouldn't want you to roll again, I'm not arguing, as Scott once said "There's a difference between accepting a ruling and understanding why it was made." That's more what I'm doing.
(Doing Therapy)
Answering the question, there were a couple factors that I took into account.
One was that I haven't ruled you aren't getting any breast milk at any time, but that you're not getting primarily breast milk and you aren't being breast fed. That means that you might be getting some breast milk every day; but you wouldn't know until you tasted it (and maybe not then) whether this was breast milk or formula. I did decide that you weren't getting cow's milk or goat's milk, which are commonly given particularly in poor areas but are disfavored by pediatricians for infants.
The other was that at some point you made the passing comment that "mother's milk" meant only the milk of some mother mammal, and since milk as such is only produced by mammals with recent offspring that wasn't really much of a limitation on what kind of milk it was--beyond that it was not formula, which is compounded of natural ingredients to attempt to duplicate the nutritional content of human milk. You have swithered on this point, sometimes suggesting that it had to be the breast milk of your own mother so that it would be heavily bonused, other times suggesting that it could be pretty much any mammalian milk.
There is also a feeling I have that you are sort of "playing the system". You are designing spells that you can do now that won't really cost you anything to do; the point of ritual is that it costs you something, it's the price you pay. So if we're talking about you being required to drink what you are going to be given to drink anyway, that's not really a cost. It would become a cost later, when that object would become more difficult to get. But if you make the requirement that you be drinking Sarah Conner's breast milk, that becomes an extremely rare material component and eventually becomes impossible to get. That should prevent you from being able to cast the spell at all, because the component would be unavailable. But then, you would resolve that problem simply by designing a new spell that had different required material components which were readily available in your situation at that time but had a semblance of rarity otherwise.
To illustrate the problem, if you had passed through the portal in The Dancing Princess into the related universe where the demons were staying, you would have found trees on which precious gems grew. Had you plucked gems from the branches and said you were going to use them as spell components, I would have been justified in giving you fairly high bonuses for those--I typically give gemstones values from five to eight points each. Even though they were plentiful where you were, you would be hard-pressed to take more than fifty pounds worth with you when you left, and eventually you would run short. But if you argued that you could use apples or chestnuts or other fruit on the basis that the spell required only that you use whatever grows on trees locally, suddenly the value of the material component plummets to one, because at that point you are shifting from something ordinarily rare that you happened to have in high supply to something extremely common in most worlds.
In something of the same way, you're designing a spell that uses material components that are readily available to you as an infant in this universe that will be more difficult to get later, but the way you're building your spells suggests that they're all throwaways--in ten years when you want to do this, you'll design a different spell that uses a bottle of soda instead of a bottle of formula, and claim that soda is rare.
So because you keep designing spells that make use of what's common around you, I'm forced to consider their values not in terms of how difficult they will be to get in the multiverse but how difficult they are to get now. It is the fact that a material component limits your use of a spell that matters, and if it's a single use spell all that matters really is how much work you have to do to get the component now. If the component is whatever they're going to give you, it's like saying that the component is whatever grows on trees around here--it cost you nothing to get that, so it's worth nothing.
I hope that helps.
--M. J. Young
So roll the dice already.
(Doing Therapy)
Two
There is also a feeling I have that you are sort of "playing the system". You are designing spells that you can do now that won't really cost you anything to do; the point of ritual is that it costs you something, it's the price you pay. So if we're talking about you being required to drink what you are going to be given to drink anyway, that's not really a cost.
I admit, I am. Given my physical limitations, there are far fewer options available to me. I kind of have to take what advantages I can get when I can get them. Besides, I can't do this again unless I get a bottle of formula. I foresee two outcomes to what I'm about to do. Either Sarah will breathe a sigh of relief and take me to go get my gear, or Sarah is terrified of The Exorcist, and is going to end up in a loony bin. Who knows if my next set of parents will give me formula so I can do this again? If I am drinking something else, I can't do the spell again. I'm kind of at the mercy of the person feeding me to do the magic. If that's not a limitation, I don't know what is. That's just the way I see it personally, but as Osevens would say, your mileage may vary. I don't want to discuss it, I just wanted to give you my opinion, as a budding referee. Just roll the dice, I just felt the need to explain my side.
The thing though is MJ, I've spent a lot of time considering this. As an adult, baby formula will be a practical thing to add to the VSP. It's a non-perishable food item, powdered milk, more or less. (Drink a bottle of baby formula while I pray for God to bring me a steak, ya know?) and in the Multiverse, it's probably kind of rare. The fact that I have to wait to be fed is the limitation at the moment. However, I intend to continue using baby formula for whatever further spells I create. I fully intend to even use it to create spells as an adult. It will be my trademark spell component. (Yes, I'm absolutely serious about all of this) This particular spell is probably a throwaway, after I can speak. I can't imagine a situation as an adult where I would be unable to communicate by means other than speaking, and still be able to feed myself baby formula. However, the baby formula is going to stay as a spell component. I might even get some formula IRL so I can experience myself. Baby formula will be my trademark spell component. I had that in mind for a while. They won't ALL be throwaway spells.
Baby formula right now is a convenient spell component, not without its limitations. It's also a practical augmentation to the VSP. Three days food and a can of powdered milk, made for babies. It would still give high-vitamin sustenance to an adult. Practical magic, you could say. It will be a spell component for worlds to come, I assure you.
So you see MJ, I am "playing the system" but only for the moment. I've heard it said that an adult can thrive on nothing but whole milk. Not survive, thrive. Considering it's a mother's breast milk, that doesn't surprise me in the slightest. What more perfect food would God have created? I'd be willing to bet that an adult could survive on nothing but baby formula for a very long time. What is baby formula after all, but a close approximation of mother's breast milk? What you see as a throwaway spell component, I see as a potentially valuable and practical survival tool, as well as a spell component. "Remember, crazy, not stupid."
(Doing Therapy)
You drink the bottle, thinking the magic and holding your position. Then you throw your bottle aside and start babbling like a baby.
Sarah smiles and starts feeding you the cereal and fruit she has set up for you.
--M. J. Young
Start banging my fists on the high chair and crying and throwing a tantrum.
HE'S FURIOUS!!!!!!
So, what do you think of the baby formula as a spell component?
(Doing Therapy)
"What's the matter?" Sarah says in a sing-song voice. "Don't you like barley and peaches? I thought you did. I can get bananas and oatmeal, if you prefer. Come, now, you need to eat. You want to grow strong so you can fight SkyNet. The world needs you."
--M. J. Young
Don't you like barley and peaches?
Actually no, I don't like peaches. When I was a kid, we had peaches for lunch the kid sitting next to me cut into one, and a little green worm crawled out. Damn thing was STILL ALIVE!!! I haven't eaten a peach since.
Start trying to scream "SKYNET" over and over. He is so frustrated that he can't communicate with her. I don't think you understand the magnitude of the tantrum he's throwing.
I want to design a new prayer. The listed ritual, repeated for my next 30 bottles. After consuming 30 bottles of formula, attempt to speak. So that would be what? 7 to 10 days worth of formula? Pray it 30 times, exactly the same way, before expecting results.
(Doing Therapy)
That's really sad. Gerber Junior Peaches are one of the tastiest desserts around--very sweet, a bit tart, creamy on the tongue. It's one of the best reasons to have kids....
You babble and scream loudly. She has no idea what you want or why you're upset.
To be clear, you are going to string the next thirty feedings together as one ritual; the ritual thus will be 5:30x30=11:00x15=110:00+55:00=165:00, with a penalty for doing it in thirty separate pieces. Are there any restrictions on your activities between bottles, such as whether you can pray anything else during that time or use other kinds of skills or attempt to speak?
--M. J. Young
You babble and scream loudly. She has no idea what you want or why you're upset.
Stop screaming, give Sarah The Finger, cross my arms across my chest (if I can) turn away from her and pout. Try to make a show of it. Make a point of the fact that I am doing this. How many babies would know what these gestures means? Intuition check for Sarah "Maybe something is different about him...." If I could at least get her to ask me yes or no questions of any significance.
To be clear, you are going to string the next thirty feedings together as one ritual; the ritual thus will be 5:30x30=11:00x15=110:00+55:00=165:00, with a penalty for doing it in thirty separate pieces.
So a large time bonus and a large penalty. Would it be worth it then? The two might cancel each other out, and I'd be no better off. You're not gonna answer that though. Let's do it. Just like I said.
Are there any restrictions on your activities between bottles, such as whether you can pray anything else during that time or use other kinds of skills or attempt to speak?
No, none.
(Doing Therapy)
give Sarah The Finger
You manage to extend your middle finger and roll the others down, and wave it at her.
cross my arms across my chest
You bang your arms on the tray; you can't tuck your elbows in far enough to get below the tray, which is holding you up to some degree.
turn away from her and pout.
I'll give you the pout for free, but you can't do more than shake your head, and you can't twist that far enough to have any meaning.
So all you managed to do was hold your hand in the shape of something that would be a rude gesture for someone a few years older than you. She is still watching you curiously.
"O.K., then, no peaches."
--M. J. Young
Try to say "SkyNet" again. Actually, try to say "I know SkyNet." All of that seems simple enough.
(Doing Therapy)
You say that.
She stares at you.
She collapses on the floor.
--M. J. Young
She should be out for a while. She apparently didn't sleep last night after Terry scared the living daylights out of her. Well, I seem to have achieved my objective of knocking her unconscious. I can't get my feet in my mouth with the highchair. OK, first right right hand, four fingers, then the left hand, four fingers, into my mouth, raise my hands to the sky (grab the back of the highchair for support if I can) in a seated position (so I'm hoping full body) pray speaking but quietly for 30 minutes for Terry to come and stay with me until after Sarah wakes up. I just woke up, so I shouldn't have a problem staying awake for a few hours at least.
"Terry, buddy, I need your help. Come and stay with me for a few hours. You're gonna have some work to do, but I would be most grateful to you."
I've got to have a faster way to get him to show up. Make sure to ask Terry if there's an easier way to summon him. Preferably, something reliable, (high success rate) that can be done in seconds.
I want Terry to tie Sarah down so that I can talk to her uninterrupted. Four point to a bed or something. Loose enough so that she could get out with some effort (Ever read Gerald's Game, by Stephen King?) but tight enough so that she will be restrained. Given an hour of effort, she she be able to get herself free, but not before that. Wake Sarah up, give her a remove fatigue, so she will be wide awake for this. After that, I want Terry to endow me with the ability to speak in the voice I will have an adult for 30 minutes. I'm going to be lying to Sarah, I hope he doesn't have a problem with that.
Also, explain to Terry my plan for how to use the infinity loop to my advantage. If you want me to repost it, just ask.
Assuming of course that this works, which I'm thinking it will.
Don't forget that 30 bottles to speak prayer. After Terry endows me with the ability to speak, my "genetically enhanced speech programming" will kick on every week or so.
(Doing Therapy)
Two
So, summon Terry.
First explain the infinity loop plan.
Second, tie Sarah up
Third, endow me with the ability to speak
After I talk to Sarah, he unties her and we go on with our day.