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Darlington (gentlemandemon) wrote in valloic,
@ 2023-03-13 06:56:00

Entry tags:

!: network post, critical role: essek thelyss, the raven cycle: adam parrish, the raven cycle: ronan lynch, ₴ inactive: alex stern, ₴ inactive: darlington, ₴ inactive: edwin courcey, ₴ inactive: galadriel higgins, ₴ inactive: sabrina spellman, ₴ inactive: stiles stilinski, ₴ inactive: tyler lockwood

It has been brought to my attention that I failed to introduce myself properly to the network. This is what happens when your sole contact in town was raised by wolves.

Good morning. I'm Daniel Arlington, usually called Darlington to differentiate me from the four previous Daniel Arlingtons. I am recently assigned to the Special Collections department at the Great Library, which I've learned still includes making people wear gloves before handling fragile texts, but also includes preventing them from being bitten by particularly aggressive literature. Pleased to meet you all.

A question, while I'm here: do those of you who used magic in your worlds of origin find that your magic has altered at all since coming here?

[Filtered to Stern]
There is little more humbling than attempting to look up local history, finding yourself bereft of any context, and discovering that you need to start in the middle grades section of the library. I was able to move through it quickly, but my ego may never recover from the initial shot.
[/filter]

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	gentlemandemon 2023-03-13 10:42 pm UTC (link)
	Intellectual and arcane curiosity. Is it too personal of a question to ask here? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-13 10:51 pm UTC (link)
	Some people have been hiding their magic abilities for a long time or have grown up persecuted for them, but I don't think it's too personal. Those who want to answer will. Have your magics altered since coming here? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 01:09 am UTC (link)
	Thank you. I'm still learning the etiquette here, and I do prefer to be correct. Any magic I'm capable of working comes as easily here as if I were standing on top of a shiny new nexus. In the world I came from, significant magic usually requires some measure of sacrifice and usually a mess. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-14 01:28 am UTC (link)
	Some of the magic we had at home required sacrifice. But I can't say whether or not it would go as far as yours like you mentioned above to Edwin. We didn't practice often. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 02:10 am UTC (link)
	We do at least have smaller magic that doesn't require a pocket full of candied ginger to get through without vomiting. The kind I'm capable of working is mostly object- or spell-based, sigils and words and physical components rather than blood and dead birds, and sacrifices more along the lines of "this potion tastes foul and will one day cause kidney failure." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-14 02:20 am UTC (link)
	And you did this while attending Yale? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 02:24 am UTC (link)
	I did. I was a member of a society there which held the responsibility of keeping an eye on the ritual magic done by the other societies and keeping that magic from running wild. It's a time-consuming work-study job, but fulfilling. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-14 02:36 am UTC (link)
	Were you recruited for this? Apply for the position? ~~Do all Ivy Leagues have~~ I can't imagine this was something you accidentally stumbled into. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 02:40 am UTC (link)
	Sort of accidentally. I attempted to brew a potion that would allow me to see beyond the Veil. All I succeeded in doing was landing myself in the hospital, but that was good enough to get the attention of the Lethe society. I was recruited after they finished pumping my stomach. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-14 03:01 am UTC (link)
	I'm not unfamiliar with being recruited when getting too close to the secrets. Now, when you say the Veil, do you mean as in the veil between death or something else? Scrying has allowed me to see beyond certain limits of the world, but I don't think that's what you're talking about. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 12:23 pm UTC (link)
	The Veil between our world and the afterlife, yes. What does "limits of the world" mean in your scrying context? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-14 12:28 pm UTC (link)
	The future. Possibilities. Whatever the world is capable of in a moment in time. I'm less a psychic of people and more a psychic of the world and how people fit into it. Sometimes that future has finite limits, and sometimes other paths are infinite, it just depends on how far I can reach. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 12:30 pm UTC (link)
	Fascinating. And I assume you don't even have to examine any entrails to do it? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	tamquam 2023-03-14 12:33 pm UTC (link)
	I can confidently say I have never needed to use entrails. ~~Or that I would want to if~~ Just a bright light or a bowl filled with water. One of those is safer on the eyes than the other. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 12:41 pm UTC (link)
	I love that for you. Does magic take a physical toll on people in your world? In ours it's almost entirely the province of the young, because no one's body, no matter how healthy, can stand up to using it for long. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

tamquam
2023-03-14 12:53 pm UTC (link)

~~I've had~~ There have been incidents where if you spend too long away from your body while scrying, death is an inevitability. But that's a risk associated with scrying, not necessarily the repeated use. But if I'm being honest, there isn't a lot of research into this where I'm from. I was trained by a house of adult women psychics, who had been doing this for their entire lives, so that is the experience I'm basing my knowledge on.

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gentlemandemon
2023-03-14 12:58 pm UTC (link)

Ah, so your scrying is similar to our astral projection. That's the specialty of one of the Houses of the Veil at Yale.

I wonder sometimes if the magic in my world is brutal because it was designed by brutal people in pursuit of power. If they used it differently, would it use them differently as well? But it's not a question there's any room to ask in my world, much less answer. There's lots of research where I came from, but it's guarded carefully--I had more access than most, and there's still so much I don't know.

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tamquam
2023-03-14 01:14 pm UTC (link)

There's always a chance that your research would arrive here, and you could have unlimited, unrestricted access. Or maybe you'll even be able to find new avenues to make your magic less brutal and more inclusive to others who might want to practice. Vallo has a way of opening doors that were once locked at home, as painfully optimistic as that sounds.

I'm Adam Lynch, by the way. And the eldritch horror in a human suit is my husband.

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	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 01:29 pm UTC (link)
	I find I could do with a dose of optimism. I'm not in the habit of it, but wallowing in negativity is hardly productive. I may as well choose hope today. He's by far the most charming eldritch horror in my acquaintance. A pleasure to meet you, Adam, and your husband as well. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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