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]

"Why're you so big? Does that make you smarter, what with the thing where the smaller ones are not even people?"

[cardistry]

"Probably. The scale between power and intelligence doesn't seem to be perfectly consistent, though, and I'm not sure it's as simple as converting thaums to smarts. I haven't known that many other Devices to compare myself to."

Bite of ice cream.

"And I'm so big because I'm built to destroy planets," he adds, post-bite.

[alicornucopia]

"Did Keo check you out before you left your circle?"

[cardistry]

"Yep. And helpfully removed the control program that was trying to make me destroy planets. I do not wanna destroy planets, I like planets, some of them have people and I like people and some of them have ice cream and I think you can tell how I feel about ice cream."

[alicornucopia]

"I can tell you feel pretty positively about ice cream," agrees Kaylo. "Okay good. How hard would it've been to make you?"

[cardistry]

"Extremely. The people who did it were on the cutting edge, granted that it was about four hundred years ago so the cutting edge has probably moved."

[alicornucopia]

"What kind of lifespan have you got there?"

[cardistry]

"Indefinite. Devices just keep going until we're destroyed."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm gathering you don't starve - what would do it?"

[cardistry]

"Uh, if I took enough magical damage, or if somebody got into my systems and dismantled me, and I guess there's probably an amount of physical damage that would take me out but it'd be a lot. And I know some Devices have design flaws or unstable modules that mean they damage themselves when they cast spells close to their power limit, but lucky me, I'm good on that front. So basically there is nothing in this universe that can kill me, unless it's some of your weird magic."

[alicornucopia]

"Describe 'magical damage'?"

[cardistry]

"Blast enough mana at something and you can destroy it," he says. "Different combat spells are modulated differently, so some of them have almost no spillover and only hit magically defended things like Devices and mages wearing Barrier Jackets; by default, though, they'll hit undefended stuff a lot harder. A combat spell with enough raw power to flatten this school would knock me back a long way, but it wouldn't damage me much. Physical damage, like, I dunno, big rocks falling on me, accidentally stabbing myself with a fork - it'll damage my form but mostly superficially. It hurts some and it takes mana to repair, but getting crushed by rocks wouldn't be dangerous the way it would be if I took enough magical damage to make it look like I'd been crushed by rocks."

[alicornucopia]

"Interesting. Is one of your forms default?"

[cardistry]

"Not really. They all have different sets of functions," he says. "I like this one the most because it has the most - sensory depth? It also has direct access to high-power spells, which my other two forms don't. Staff form can cast them but needs a wielder to do it; dormant form can't do it at all. So I guess this one is sort of a default that way. But dormant form feels more defaulty."

[alicornucopia]

"Why those three forms?"

[cardistry]

"Dormant form's small and portable, staff form's wield-able, human form's autonomous."

[alicornucopia]

"What's the point of having somebody wield you when you can run around like this and do all the things you can do?"

[cardistry]

"From their perspective? Having a Device makes a lot of spells way, way cheaper, and lets them cast from the Device's power instead of their own, and it's just generally way more convenient, and also they have more control over exactly what things I'm running around doing. From mine? Who the fuck knows."

[alicornucopia]

"Huh. Sounds like a good deal you wound up here."

[cardistry]

"Yeah."

[alicornucopia]

"You didn't have one of those wielders? More than one? Is it a one-to-one-thing?"

[cardistry]

"It's a one-to-one thing for me, definitely. There might be some mages out there who use more than one Device, there might even be Devices out there who can have more than one wielder somehow, but I haven't seen any."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm asking whether you had one because I'm curious if there's a magical connection that might persist across worlds, not because I felt like intruding on your personal life."

[cardistry]

"I didn't have one when I got summoned, no. But it's definitely the kind of connection that would persist across worlds, at least in the group of them I'm used to."

[alicornucopia]

"I'm curious about that grouping, too, how does that work?"