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So Aegis might have let me get my hands on his copies of the first three Young Wizards books and I'm in the process of revising Mirror, Mirror so it does in fact have magic... *hopeful smile*

I found some larger paper (doing it on a standard sheet made it too small to fit the words in), so I'm working up a fair copy of the banishment spell. This version actually gives Lise a different Wizard's Knot - since she wrote her own name, Jacob didn't change it to match the others he drew.

Once I've worked out all the kinks in this one, I do intend to go back and redo Delta Juliette's spell. And then, if either you or Scapegrace ever flippin' cast a big spell, I'll get to work on those. :)

hS

That makes sense - thank you both!

And I think I'll be able to go back through and do that - might not be able to stick it all in one post, but it's doable.

Non solid though, but it still has it's uses.

Congratulations, Scapegrace! I mean... sort of congratulations. You've been the Silver winner twice so far, so this is kind of a step down... but on the other hand, Pewter! It's not many contests that even offer that. ^_^

hS

Which is quite nice—means I can wander off for an hour and a half to let my energy recharge fully.

You can earn the in-game currencies by playing, though it's rather slow—I'm hoarding gemstones at every opportunity so I can buy a cool looking robe, but other than that, the only thing the currency is good for is speeding up energy regeneration and unlocking quests sooner.

Honestly, if it was anything other than Harry Potter, though, I'd have abandoned it out of sheer frustration, but dammit I want to know what happens, so I'm sticking it out.

Let's see... in theory I can probably shuffle the day around to be present at any time during Saturday afternoon(UK)/morning(Eastern). Or any time before... quarter past 8 or so in my evening, so if you want 7pm / 2pm Eastern, I should be free.

(Of course now I need to decide which of my team I'm bringing along...)

hS

So the Lone One was specifically playing on Marisa's insecurities and issues, rather than making general statements? That makes sense.

I think you could definitely rework that line; are you planning to post a cleaned-up version of the story at the end?

hS

Either at the earlier part of that or the end part. I'll know more Saturday morning Eastern Time, when exactly I am available. But I suspect 8:00 your time is best for me.

Addressing the points in order: Yes to the confusion - I don't know how I'd move that sectioning line - and I'd always grown up figuring (A)I wasn't Allowed in the grand scheme of things to even register accounts to leave comments (on deviantArt it would have at least been allowed for me to do so with parental permission) and (B) that not having anything to contribute was a Bad Thing. =P At ten I'd already figured being Only an Observer was both the only thing I could do and meant that I had less value.

That, and I was trying to put several old berserk buttons in the one chapter - the Lone Power covering all Its options and whatnot. :V

No, not the convention - we'd both love to go to that but also can't. The Speech-badfic thing.

Our compromise conclusion, reconciling the enactive nature of a wizard's Speech with the fact that accidental misspeakings haven't in fact filled the universe with rogue spells and dead wizards, is something like this:

Wizardry is the right to have the universe listen to what you say in its language. When the Speech is used in its enactive mode by a wizard, that's the equivalent of ringing a bell and summoning it down to pay attention. The universe doesn't have to do what you say - you might not have enough power, or your spell arguments might not be convincing enough - but it has to listen, and usually something will happen.

The rest of the time, wizards use the Speech non-enactively (in the simplest reading, this is just 'don't end a statement with the Wizard's Knot) - but they still have to watch what they say. They're not compelling the universe to listen - but it might 'choose' to do so regardless. That could be based on how hard you meant it (yelling 'go away' at someone, for instance), or could just be wizardry being wizardry. It's not prone to sticking within the boundaries people set for it.

hS

Does it at least let the timer tick down without the game being open? If so, you could treat it as a 'one quest per day' thing, where you start the countdown the evening before and then pick it up once it's unlocked.

One mark of how good a mobile game is, is how successfully it balances gameplay without paying, and the incentive to pay. One that I've had on my phone for a while, Star Trek: Timelines, is very stingy with its currency; it almost never gives out the best of the in-game currencies (which you can use to buy powerful ships and characters), and only trickles in the one needed for performing actions.

The saving graces in that game are that you don't actually need the stuff you can buy (I mean, I'd love to have access to a third shuttle, but two works just fine)... and that whenever they have connection issues, they apologise by giving out a thousand action currencies at a time. ^_^ It makes it pretty hard to run out unless you really try. It's impossible to ride that to a position high on the scoreboards in the various events (I tried once, burnt through over 2000 action points and didn't crack the top 10,000), but it's perfectly fine for just playing the game.

Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like this one has anything similar, and the result is what you say - frustration for free players, which is more likely to make them abandon the game than pay for it. Hopefully they get that balance sorted out soon.

hS

And in that challenge he had some 'mons, for [EAIUO].
With an Aurorus here
An Aurorus there
Here a 'rorus
There a 'rorus
Why are there so many 'rorus?
Old Huinesoron gave a challenge - [EAIUO]!

Anyway, you can see how seriously I'm taking this. ^_^ [EvilAI]UberOverlord, I challenge you! I'm, er... pretty much around from ~8pm until ~10pm UK time most days, though I may be able to wiggle that one way or the other, depending. So if you propose a day and time around that, I'll see what I can do.

hS

I would say that as more of a negative, except I feel like it was meant to be confusing - that we're meant to feel as unsettled and disoriented as Marisa is. Towards the end, that definitely takes hold: the Lone Power is insufferable in Its 'I know something you don't know' attitude. (Minor editing point: this section:

She couldn't move, again. "Ah, ah, aah~" the Lone Power taunted her.

"Naughty wizard. &c

Would work better with the line-break moved to before the Lone One starts speaking. 'She couldn't move' is about Marisa, whereas all the speaking goes together on a separate line.)

I think childish!Lone Power is a hoot; it's not as serious as the versions Nita usually encounters, but Nita is a very serious girl. Marisa strikes me as someone who'd be absolutely wound up by someone treating her the way It's treating her, which is... why It's doing that.

The one thing that I feel really falls flat is this line from the Lone Power:

"You know this place; it's for fun times! ... Not that you've been doing your fair share of them, lately." It leered at her - or sure sounded like it was, at any rate.

"Or at all, really - you consume a lot more than you produce! And while I can pick up the slack, why should I care? An act of not creation, if you ask me, is an act of furthering entropy!"

I really don't get what It's trying to say here. What hasn't Marisa been doing? The obvious answer is 'posting stuff', but a) the internet is for having fun by consuming what's there, and b) she's too young to post on most sites anyway. And what slack is the Lone Power not picking up? Is it saying 'I could generate internet funnies if I wanted, but I won't'? And if so, how is Marisa supposed to take 'the devil says It won't post on the internet' as anything other than a win for humanity?

I realise it's just one line, but it really threw me off. So you get comments. ^_^

hS

Aka: this is beautiful and I love it.

Having tried a couple of impressionistic diagrams in the first thread, I thought it was time to step it up a bit. So, taking inspiration from Arabic and Georgian scripts, plus a bit of the Cherokee syllabary, I cobbled together a 'Speechesque' alphabet.

Yup.

Now, obviously the writing system is only half of the deal, and I didn't exactly feel up to inventing a language too. So what follows is a translated spell circle - the words are all in English, but in a curlier alphabet. (English orthography has been used, too - so the Welsh name 'Cafall' has been written 'Cafall', despite being pronounced ~'Cavalth'.)



(Larger version)

The whole spell (this is the one cast by Jacob and Lise to feed Bran power and banish the Afanc) is a single unbroken line, read counterclockwise around each circle in turn. Most of the writing is alphabetical text, but there's also a sprinkling of unique symbols in there - the upper-left circle (Bran's name) includes prominently both the dragon-sword 'Pendragon' and the infinity 'wizardry'. You can also find 'Pendragon' in the outer circle (over on the left), and the related three-symbol concept 'Wales' facing it on the right (the dragon there is the centre).

I did my best to make the image match the story. I wrote about how weird Jacob found Will's and Bran's names, and the diagram bears that out. Lise's and Jacob's names (bottom left and right) follow the same pattern as each other, differing only in the details. Will's (top right) starts dropping details, replacing his entire 'Present' chord with a quartered circle (that seems to kind of contain the symbol for magic). Bran's name not only contains the name of Wizardry itself (deeply unnerving, if you're a wizard), but also has two Future chords - one of which crosses his Past chord.

Finally: the spell reads counterclockwise and left-to-right, which means that every word of it is outward-facing. In other words, the spell isn't designed to be read from the inside (though that's where the wizard is doing the reading) - it's meant to be seen from the outside, by the rest of the universe...

hS

PS: The full text of the spell reads: "This is a power transference rekwest, target {Bran Davies}, for the purpose of driving from [Llyn Barfog] Afanc Darkborn [Pendragon]-banished Maidenbane. {Lise} as spell originator and power-donor/enactor alongside {Jacob} enacted in [Wales] and calling on the Old [Magic] and the Light: {Will Stanton}, High [Magic] implores aid for Bran [Pendragon]! Will you give power?"

I can't really write out the names in full because they rely a lot on contextual information from their structure. Jacob's 'past' line, for instance, reads: {mid [Lower Thames] natural [father's name] 46447.4 [mother's name] reader male-nonstereotypical past}, which is hardly human-readable. ~hS

Oh, gosh darn it! There goes my plans for world domination! But does the hologram thing still work?

I'll join you when I've got it figured, just gimme a moment...

I'll see, I'm not sure if I'll be doing family stuff then or not.

Hi! Welcome to the board. Here is a replica of the Apple of Eden, have fun with that; just don't try the mind control thing, it won't work, it is only a replica.

This really is an interesting setting, and it's a good thing it's been resurrected. I might contribute to it one day, assuming I can actually work up the will to write. :P

However, there's one thing that bugs me about it. This is not the setting or creator's fault, but rather my own. For, you see... I took an embarrassingly long time to get Delta's ship's name. I will go sulk in my shame now.