trade my soul for a wish

[from_scratch]

This is a successor to "call me maybe", which is getting crowded.

Cam is dipping a grilled cheese sandwich into a bowl of tomato soup when he feels the summons. He goes ahead and grabs it. Doesn't even drop the sandwich.


with Mark (kappa)

with Adanya (Aestrix)

with Sable (kappa)

with Ari (andaisq)

with Metella (kappa)

with Miles (kappa)

with Isabella (Eva)

with Steel (Rockeye)

with Daphne (Maggie)

with Edie (Maggie)

Comments

[kaolinandbone]

"Painlessly pierced your nose beforehand."

[from_scratch]

"I was numbed up. Pain's not the issue, it's just weird making objects inside myself."

[kaolinandbone]

Isabella inclines her head.

"I can understand that."

[from_scratch]

"What kind of painlessness do you have on offer? More magic?"

[kaolinandbone]

Isabella nods.

"Yes. Of the non-vampire type, this time. I didn't learn Old Lupinian on a whim: it was necessary in order to gain access to the best texts on the formation of Memni."

[from_scratch]

"Do tell."

[kaolinandbone]

The girl pauses a moment, closing her eyes.

"Just let me get my thoughts in order..."

She steeples her hands.

"Mm. Best to start at the beginning. Memni are mental tools that emulate the function of physical ones. They are acquired by ritually practicing the action performed with the tool until the physical tool becomes unnecessary. Those who practice for decades with Memni formed from tools that work well together occasionally form Memnodynes, which are 'sets' of mental tools that have... metamorphosed? Congealed? They work together fluidly as one ability, rather than individual tools."

[from_scratch]

"Interesting. Any downsides besides the time expenditure?"

[kaolinandbone]

"None that I know of. It is a much better deal than turning into a vampire."

[from_scratch]

"'Cause, I'm immortal, and picking up magic besides demon powers sounds great. What makes a practice 'ritualistic'? Does this require any features that might be exclusive to people from this world?"

[kaolinandbone]

"I don't believe so. The 'ritual' component is a extended period where you practice a specific action - say, picking up a stone - until you can do it in precisely the same way every time you do it. Once that is achieved, you begin attempting to substitute your will for the last component step - say, drawing the stone up into your palm with your fingers. It's an exercise in extremely precise visualization, more than anything else."

[from_scratch]

"How do you pick up anaesthesia that way? Inject it into patients on a tremendous number of occasions?"

[kaolinandbone]

"Yes. I know of no other practicing mages with a true medical Memnodyne. This is not to say that they don't exist, but we're thinly scattered enough that we don't have weekly meetings."

[from_scratch]

"What other kinds of tools can you pick up?"

[kaolinandbone]

"Practically anything that can be sufficiently ritualized. One of the most common and useful ones is to make a Memnos of your own hands, which allows for short-range telekinesis of anything you could normally hold in both hands."

[from_scratch]

"Nifty. I want one. What kind of time investment am I looking at?"

[kaolinandbone]

"Roughly a year of study to start seeing significant results, and then four more years to manifest your first Memnos, if you do it properly. If you have a particular skill that you're already an expert at, that can sometimes shorten the amount of time spent on an acquisition - but I would not reccommend using one of those to form your first Memnos. Many new students go from a quickly-acquired first Memnos to a much-harder-to-acquire second one, and that causes the vast majority of them to give up due to the disheartening spike in difficulty."

[from_scratch]

"I know my engineering and physics and chem and medicine, but in a very demonic way, and they're pretty demonic-magic-friendly territory, so probably best to start somewhere else anyway. Teekay would be nice. I can be a fairy demon."

[kaolinandbone]

"I'll be happy to instruct you in how to properly pick up rocks."

[from_scratch]

"Any particular sort of rock work best?"

[kaolinandbone]

"You are going to pick up this rock several thousand times. Choose something not too heavy, that's easy to grip, and ideally aesthetically pleasing. Take your time over the decision: after all, you don't want to get halfway through the process and then decide you hate your rock after it slips out of your hand for the five hundredth time."

[from_scratch]

"Switching rocks ruins it?"

[kaolinandbone]

"Switching rocks ruins it."

[from_scratch]

"So I'd better not go with anything somebody would want to steal, either, no getting fancy with an opal in the middle of a diamond or whatever. It has to be the exact individual object, one exactly alike down to the atomic level won't do?"

[kaolinandbone]

Lioncourt shrugs. "No-one's ever tried the latter. I would stick with the proven method."