hello milliways

[callmeleo]

Another day, another mysterious bar appearing out of nowhere. Leo is acquainted with Milliways and its lurking habits. He doesn't even bother calling Zanna; it'd take her too long to come over, and they get doors fairly regularly, so he just goes in and gets some absinthe with crushed cochineal. (Demonic tastes make for very odd mixed drinks.)

Comments

[calescent]

"I would like to not need sleep, but not if it might actually kill me. Or anybody else. I can just go around constantly on fire for awhile, including while I sleep, if that would help, but if that won't cut it I will go on sleeping at night."

[callmeleo]

"Nah, wait, it's- now I remember. It doesn't want to kill you, it wants to kill people you're angry at. So that regicide would probably be on the table. It's impervious to physical harm, not sure how well that extends to preposterous amounts of fire, I'll check the tome and all if you want."

[calescent]

"What would happen if I let it kill the king? I'm not angry at anyone else."

[callmeleo]

"It'd stick around until you got angry again, then-" Leo makes a demonstrative evisceration gesture. "Schlrk. I think the threshold would get lower and lower the longer you went without sleep, until it just went around slaughtering everyone you got irritated at. It starts out with a pretty high threshold, so you'd have some time to find it, but I don't know how finding the king minus his vital organs instead of just keeled over dead would affect your political situation, and he's definitely above the initial threshold."

[calescent]

"So, probably a no on the unobtrusive rage monster. Pity, sleep is a waste of time. Can you attach a shield bubble to a talisman so it can be carried around?"

[callmeleo]

"...Theoretically, yes. It would be very much like an invisible unbreakable glass ball. Not... particularly useful, I don't think."

[calescent]

"They don't toggle on and off? I wasn't imagining the ward as a permanent hermitage in the stationary version."

[callmeleo]

"Oh, no, that's- okay, yeah. I was thinking of the bubble around the talisman for some reason. That'd be weird. No, yeah, I can do that. You'd have to activate it as needed, and it wouldn't run for more than a few minutes on any talisman smaller than a mountain-climbing backpack, but it could work."

[calescent]

"Wouldn't run more than a few minutes at a time or total?"

[callmeleo]

"At a time. It'd suck in ambient energy until its battery was full, the rest of the time."

His eyes light up. "I wonder if I could make something you could power by setting it on fire? That would be cool. And convenient."

[calescent]

"That would be very convenient. I can also do temperature directly. Are you sure we have ambient energy of the right kind, given that Aleko couldn't cast a spell?"

[liakoura]

"Her directly doing temperature is useful in hot weather," says Aleko. "Or cold, for that matter."

[callmeleo]

"The energy isn't, like, magic energy, it's just- energy. Talismans are cold when they're sucking in energy, sound gets dampened around them, they look darker than they should, etcetera and so on. They aren't my specialty, so I can't guarantee anything on the instant-charge front, but- it sounds workable. And very convenient."

[calescent]

"I am definitely in the market for practical magical objects that I can power by setting on fire. I might also want to give some of these to my fellow primes, although none of them are normally as - energetic."

[callmeleo]

"Maybe I could set up a little water wheel in the middle."

[calescent]

"If that would actually work we'd be all set for any of them. They could all spin wheels made of appropriate materials and in Sarelle's case shape."

[callmeleo]

"It would not work, no. I mean, I've known people who could make it work, but the principle is way above my paygrade. For anything smaller than a house it involves literally microscopic runes. I might be able to make an appropriately sized version if you think of an enormous high-power talisman you want, but not for a pocket shield."

[calescent]

"Does a magic person have to draw the runes?"

[callmeleo]

"Not necessarily. They can't be etched by magic, but I'm beginning to wonder if that applies to direct elemental control..."

[calescent]

"Ekador and Patience could both make potentially extremely small - I don't know about actually microscopic - etchings in their respective materials. I'll write all the other primes and invite them over for magic experimentation, shall I?"

[callmeleo]

"Oh, let's."

[calescent]

This calls for leaving the library. Kiri leads the way; Aleko hovers at her elbow for reasons that become apparent when she trips going up the stairs and he catches her. She has a nice little office up the hall from the door into the library, and in this nice little office she has letter-writing materials. "What other details should I include in the letters?"

[callmeleo]

"Include as many as you like. I am useful and we have fascinating ideas of how to use me. Feel free to mention the potential assassination if letters are secure enough. Clumsiness is fixable, by the way, if you find almost cracking your head open on the stairs to be inconvenient. Drawback is decreased endurance, so you wouldn't be able to run with your newfound grace for more than a few dozen feet, but it doesn't look like you do too much of that anyway."

[calescent]

"I do not run as it is. It would not end well. How generalized is the decreased endurance, would I get tired riding a horse for a long time or staying up late or doing cognitive labor?"

[callmeleo]

"It's all physical. Horseback riding, yes, probably; staying up no, thinking no. You could dance for a while if you kept it slow."