blood sweat tear

[imeanforever]

He's moving her to a different court to see if it'll improve her attitude. She's allowed to fly. It's been a long, long time since she was allowed to -

She is only allowed to fly to her destination, not anywhere else. She notices that she is not where she should be, that she cannot progress to where she was told to go, and she careens out of control when her wings won't flap anymore, and she crashes.

---

with Miles (kappa)

with Minus (kappa)

Comments

[kingsidecastle]

"All right. Tea, back to the spectator seats with you."

Castle and Royal clear away the protective items and Tea's glass pieces from the floor diagram.

[eversomuchfun]

Tea returns to the spectator seats.

[imeanforever]

Promise goes in the place where people being chessed go.

[kingsidecastle]

"Thoughts on your preferred piece now that you know more about how they work? Should I explain some of our metaphors in more detail to give you a sense of what they say about us?"

[imeanforever]

"Explaining the metaphors might help, but I think queen. ...You could make a case for knight. It is not necessary to bother making a case for queen."

[kingsidecastle]

"Noted," she says. "Well, for the record: I am very solidly rook-as-tower. I'm calm, reliable, strong-willed, and protective. Spell-wise, my metaphor integrates well with protective wards, and can make a solid foundation for building most anything else. I find it easier to construct spells that are supposed to take hold and then have permanent ongoing effects than spells that are supposed to change something from one state to another but not stick around to make sure it stays that way."

[summa_iniuria]

"I'm a queen/king split who works okay as a knight," says Royal. "Since a lot of what Castle does are wards, I spend a lot of time being queen-as-sword and king-as-crown, but those aren't my only metaphors. My queen side is active, powerful, kind of the superhero type; it relates to how I handle my role as the Slayer. My king side is more of a planner or administrator, strategist rather than tactician, the person who arranges for things to get done rather than going out and doing them. And there's also a balance of masculine and feminine going on there."

[kingsidecastle]

"I admit to being amused by Tea's bishop-as-book since he's named after a book character," says Castle. "Bishop-as-book can mean someone who likes books, or someone who's a more abstract intellectual type generally. Bishop-as-arrow can mean freedom of movement or restlessness, in a more narrowly focused way than the queen and without overt connotations of power. A generic knight makes me think of... I'm having trouble articulating it. Royal, what's your interpretation?"

[summa_iniuria]

"Knights are the weird piece," says Royal. "They're powerful in a way that's different from the power of any other piece on the board. A generic knight comes across as eccentric, a lateral thinker, someone who thinks and acts their own way and doesn't follow the crowd. And that armour - Castle was right about the 'champion' interpretation, I think. Some protective instincts in there. But mostly I'm reading the weirdness."

[eversomuchfun]

"I cheerfully admit to extensive weirdness," says Tea.

[imeanforever]

"...I may be slightly knightier than I was anticipating considering the crowd whence I came. Not sure. I still think queen."

[kingsidecastle]

"We'll see," says Castle.

She lays out the pawn-promotion square for Promise out of pale wooden pieces. Queen in front, knight behind, rook to the left, bishop to the right. The steel outer square remains in place. Castle and Royal sit back down.

Castle makes her speech to the pawn about possibilities and choices.

The queen reacts instantly, flaring with a brilliant light. The knight throws bright sparks that don't form a clear image. And against all predictions, the rook flares too, dimmer than the queen but with equal clarity.

Floating in front of Promise, the light from the queen forms a sleek fountain pen wearing a beautiful crown woven from branches and leaves.

And all around her, the light from the rook forms an enormous tree. Her tree, to be specific, not the one she started in but clearly one of the same kind. Its faint, translucent wood and bark manages to give a strong impression of unwavering solidity. Its image rises majestically through the ceiling, up and up to a towering height.

Castle doesn't let the surprise throw her off to any measurable degree. She thanks the pawn and lets the spell fade.

Then she says, "Well, that wasn't exactly in line with expectations."

[imeanforever]

"That was - not my exact tree but a tree that could be one of mine."

[kingsidecastle]

"Interesting," says Castle. "It definitely seemed very... you-focused. I'm not sure how easily I could incorporate your rook-as-tree aspect into a spell to protect anyone else, but I have high hopes for how well it would integrate into a spell to protect you. Is there anything in particular you'd especially like to be protected from?"

[imeanforever]

Oh, so many things.

"...What is an example of a 'thing' that a spell can be designed to protect from?"

[kingsidecastle]

"Well, for example, I have Royal protected pretty thoroughly against hostile magic. Someone trying to use magic to harm her, spy on her without her permission, that sort of thing, would find themselves thwarted unless they had enough power to wreck my spell. She's also somewhat protected against physical harm, although that's more difficult and the protection is imperfect."

[eversomuchfun]

"Soul removal and other mind-altering magics," suggests Tea. "Since you seemed worried about those as a category."

[kingsidecastle]

"That's definitely an example of a thing I could design a spell to protect from," says Castle.

[imeanforever]

"Mind-altering magics are. Concerning. Physical harm is - less concerning at least in a long term sense but I don't relish the prospect. If you could ward off orders..."

[kingsidecastle]

"Well, tell me more about orders and we'll see."

[imeanforever]

"When there's a combination of people including at least one fairy and at least one party whose name is known to the other or who has, without already having vassalized the other, eaten food the other has a claim on, and the claim stuck which it may or may not do according to various factors, then there is a master and a vassal. Mutual vassalization is possible.

"Orders which are delivered by a master to their vassal and are possible to carry out, are; exact wording matters but so does the vassal's sincere interpretation of the sentence; most recent orders take precedence regardless of source and ordering someone to ignore an order does not work but going deaf does; orders may be enforced or not as a toggle, which can't be directly observed but I don't have to watch my mouth around the vampires lest I accidentally utter an imperative; forgetting a name ends a mastery based thereupon and it seems likely that an unused food claim can wear off but a used one is permanent.

"If you forget an order which does not require cognitive work of any kind to complete you obey it anyway but if you would need to know what it was to obey it you will be stuck in a loop trying to remember; orders may compel attention to or thought on subjects but cannot except by displacement forbid thoughts about other subjects nor affect emotions, memories, etcetera; and, smallest mercy, someone who is under more than the most trivial of orders cannot have their underlying personality learned well enough to supplement that gap with mental sorcery."

[kingsidecastle]

"And orders have to be delivered verbally? Not through writing or sign language or, I don't know, telepathy...?"

[imeanforever]

"Telepathy would probably work. Writing only works if you are watching the master write it out; a written note you read any later than as it's written won't work. Sign language presumably works."

[eversomuchfun]

"Is it possible to construct a ward that prevents someone from ever hearing or seeing an enforced order...? Or even just introduces a delay?"

[kingsidecastle]

"Good question. I can't think of any reason it wouldn't work in principle... would a delay fulfill the purpose, do you know?"