chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[cardistry]

"Well," shrugs Brilliance, "guess I'll find out if it comes up. But okay, what's the draw of reading my specs? Is it just that I'm made of weird new magic, or what?"

[alicornucopia]

"Yes. And you're also the only person I've ever been able to hear. It only works with things, usually."

[cardistry]

"I'm a magical Device. Guess that counts. So how's it work? What languages does the me-voice speak? Does it just kind of ramble about me in no particular order or is it organized somehow?"

[alicornucopia]

"All hhikiiias talk in vampire. It does exactly the rambling unless I ask questions."

[cardistry]

"You can ask questions? Like what?"

[alicornucopia]

"I'm not sure what to ask. I've never been listening to a person before. I don't know if I can - read your mind or what."

[cardistry]

Brilliance contemplates this prospect. "That would be an extra helping of weird on top of the weird that's already going on."

He nibbles up some more food, randomly chosen from his selection. Leekath probably won't need magical powers to tell that this pleases him immensely.

[alicornucopia]

"It would," agrees Leekath. She tilts her head. "You're turning all the food into magical energy. That's interesting."

[cardistry]

"Yep! Not a lot of magical energy, but whatever, it's not like that's why I'm doing it."

[alicornucopia]

She nods.

[cardistry]

A thought occurs to him. "If it's all in vampire, you're not getting much specialized vocabulary - can it tell you how much magical energy I check out at? What units does it use if it can?"

[alicornucopia]

"Hmm?" Pause. "It's - well, the voice I hear is in vampire, but I get more information than is really in the words. I know how much but I don't have a number or units."

[cardistry]

"Huh. Okay, what other scary stuff are you getting?"

[alicornucopia]

"It's still coming in all linear, I don't know everything instantly. You were made by a group of people, eight of whom were involved magically - I don't know who else might have been helping them because they didn't leave the kind of imprint on you the hhikiiia is talking about now - you really like ice cream..."

[cardistry]

"I do really like ice cream, that's definitely true. I really like most food, I've only started having it today, it's an experience."

[alicornucopia]

"You don't need food, or air, or a specific temperature - I don't think I'm mostly going to be finding anything that's news to you unless you tell me what to ask."

[cardistry]

"I don't think you're going to be finding anything that's news to me any which way. I can access my specs too. Anything I know to ask, I know the answer, pretty much."

[alicornucopia]

She nods. "You used to have an attached part that tried to make you do things, and now that's gone because Keo deleted it so there's only the control codes left -"

[cardistry]

Brilliance looks alarmed. "That part's news to me, what control codes?"

[alicornucopia]

"...do you just want me to recite them? They won't work for me even if I do because I don't have the right kind of magic."

[cardistry]

"I more want to know, like, about them - are they the kind of thing Keo can delete, can you tell?"

[alicornucopia]

"...I don't know. They're not as complicated as the attached part, they might not count as a mind thing. It would be worth a try. I can ask if the hhikiiia knows how you could remove them by yourself though."

[cardistry]

"That too. I'd rather remove them by myself if I can."

[alicornucopia]

"Mm?" Leekath says, apparently to his hhikiiia. She's silent for a moment, then starts repeating what it says about the procedure to extract them. It's complicated and involves loophole exploits, but the hhikiiia reports on it in a very step by step fashion.

[cardistry]

He listens intently as far as how to get into the right kind of maintenance mode - a kind he didn't know he had until now, this is supremely weird - and then says, "I got it from here, thanks," and runs through the rest much faster than instructions can be delivered; the individual steps from that point are as intuitive to him as the rest of his systems now that he knows where to find this one. No more control codes.