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

[alicornucopia]

"I don't think the dragon council will talk to you, as you are not a dragon or even a thudia. But feel absolutely free to attempt to glow my dragon shape so I can scry on it while I've got hands to cast with."

[or_coincidence]

"Does the dragon council not talk to people who aren't dragons? Why not?"

[alicornucopia]

"It's not what they're for. They're a dragons-only sort of deal, to coordinate the species for species-relevant things."

[or_coincidence]

"It's species-relevant that you happen to be the only species that can deliberately turn into glowing creatures to be scried in Lialen - isn't it? Are you? It doesn't really get any more or less species-relevant depending on whether or not whoever thinks of it can find a dragon to talk to the dragon council about it for them, anyway."

[alicornucopia]

"I mean - yes, it is species-relevant that that, but they're not set up to take requests from non-dragons. If you want to talk to them about something dragon-relevant you go through a dragon, and I don't want me and my dragony-ness too close to Lialen theory. They figure if you can't find any dragons to pass up the message it can't be that important."

[or_coincidence]

"That's very silly of them," says Blueberry. "But I suppose I'm not likely to convince them of that. Anyway, a glowing spell shouldn't be too hard, I'll look one up when I get home. Ideally one that stays on once it's cast and doesn't need active maintenance, but can be turned off afterward. It would probably be inconvenient if you just went around glowing forever."

[alicornucopia]

"A little bit. I mostly just use my dragon shape to fly and breathe fire occasionally, it wouldn't be that big a deal, but yes, one that you can turn off would improve the situation. When you're home can you also look up that stuff about other creatures turning into unicorns? Dragons don't get species-specific magic from, say, vampires if we turn into those, but since their magic is also shapeshifting it's hard to be sure why."

[or_coincidence]

"Yes, I'll do that too. Are there wizard spells that - oh, but they'd probably break when you switched - hmm. Do wizard spells on people break when they switch shapes?"

[alicornucopia]

"No, they remain active, but on whatever shape's in use - like, if you put a sunscreen spell on a vampire they will still be sunscreened in bat shape and still be sunscreened in humanoid shape again."

[or_coincidence]

"Hmmmm. What if you cast a spell on a specific part of a person? Like, I don't know... making the end of your nose glow?"

[alicornucopia]

"Sometimes that'll fall apart - oh, you know what's a good example of that, there's this ultra-basic one-trick spell called the Lanfen trace, it makes the tip of your right forefinger leave a glowing white trail wherever you move it until you reverse the spell. If I shift while that's on, my natural form doesn't have fingers per se and the spell breaks."

[or_coincidence]

"Aha. Hmm... actually, you said you could take objects with you, what about if they're glowing objects?"

[alicornucopia]

"That'd be a good thing to try, I can get a lamp or something and tuck it and check that, see if it still glows - it might not, but it's an easy test."

[or_coincidence]

"Yes. And you can do different kinds of glowing things. Does fire burn in Lialen?"

[alicornucopia]

"Suspect not - if my sleeve catches fire and I shift and shift back it will not be on fire anymore."

[or_coincidence]

"That seems pretty conclusive," she giggles. "But if you tuck a non-fire lamp that's on and then bring it back does it still... lamp?"

[alicornucopia]

"I don't know about lamps in particular. I did once tuck a waterspout that was still spouting and then when I shifted again it was still doing so..."

[or_coincidence]

"Waterspouts spout water?" she guesses. "That's interesting. Is there a way to find out if it was spouting while it was there?"

[alicornucopia]

"Not without looking and seeing if there's a lot of water floating around the relevant place, I don't think."

[or_coincidence]

"Hmm. Which you can't do because it's very dark there, right... are there scrying spells that don't rely on light?"

[alicornucopia]

"There are spells that'll do sound, but I didn't hear anything either."

[or_coincidence]

"I wonder if you could make one. A scrying spell that shows you what's somewhere without needing the things it shows you to be illuminated where they are."

[alicornucopia]

"Maybe... I'm envisioning dizzying practical problems with what 'source' the objects are supposed to be lit from in the rendering..."

[or_coincidence]

"Project an illusion lit as though the objects are in the room the illusion is projected into?" she suggests.

[alicornucopia]

"What if Lialen is completely tiled with solid stuff...? I guess as long as you aim at specific objects they could be divorced from that context in the scry..."