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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 2023-03-14 01:24 am UTC (link)
	Someone in sociolinguistics ought to look into it. Or maybe not; it might be my imagination that surnames ending with -ski are more frequently latched onto than others. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	yourplanssuck 2023-03-14 01:32 am UTC (link)
	Maybe it’s just that catchy as a name. You know, like how pet names so often end in “ee” sounds? That or our first names really just terrify people. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 02:12 am UTC (link)
	I suspect they are catchy. I just can't help but wonder what the catch is. Multiple syllables? The aforementioned -ee sound? And what about the human brain likes it so much? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	yourplanssuck 2023-03-14 02:31 am UTC (link)
	People like diminutive sounds. You know, “cute” words. Bunny, sunny, funny. All that. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

gentlemandemon
2023-03-14 12:37 pm UTC (link)

But why do they like them? And do we like them in the same way in different languages? English uses -ee as a diminutive sound, but it's neutral in Russian, where they rely mostly on -ka and -ya and ever increasing stacks of sibilants. And how does the relationship between the human brain and sounds affect our ability to work magic with words? These are the sorts of questions that keep me entirely too busy.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	yourplanssuck 2023-03-14 02:48 pm UTC (link)
	Do you speak any other languages? Spells and magic I don’t know much about at all. Is that a big part of what you’re interested in? How words affect magic? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

gentlemandemon
2023-03-14 03:05 pm UTC (link)

I speak Dutch, French, and Mandarin, and I can read and write Latin and Greek. I'm passable in Portuguese but wouldn't claim fluency and would struggle with the Brazilian form of it.

It's more how everything affects magic and how magic affects everything. Words are interesting because they're powerful; there's a society at Yale whose entire specialty is crafting magical language into binding contracts with deadly consequences. What we call "death words" can banish a ghost, but interestingly enough they don't seem bound by language--I've seen Stern banish ghosts that were almost certainly strictly English-speaking with death words in a dialect of Spanish.

The area in which I have the most specialized knowledge, though, is how places affect magic and gather power. There aren't many places in America outside of New Haven where powerful magic is possible, because the land doesn't have the kind of power that New Haven does. I've spent a great deal of study time on Why New Haven and How New Haven and If New Haven.

But I'm going on far too much about myself. What are you interested in, if not magic?

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

yourplanssuck
2023-03-14 03:20 pm UTC (link)

Really? That’s all? Wow man you’ve just been lazy haven’t you.

Everything? That’s kind of a broad subject isn’t it? I mean my lack of knowledge about magic aside I feel like you’re casting a pretty wide net there. There are definitely people in my world who know magic. Or at least, some form of it. But Deaton’s an elusive guy and getting information out of his is like pulling teeth.

No seriously keep going this is interesting. Back home I was looking at something in Criminology maybe, to study. I like figuring stuff out. Georgetown university have an FBI intern program. Plans have been a little derailed now. Otherwise? The last few years I’ve been focused on what we’ve had going on in Beacon Hills. The town’s like a supernatural lightning rod.

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	gentlemandemon 2023-03-14 06:48 pm UTC (link)
	A little bit of everything, at least. "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?" Georgetown--are you from the D.C. area? I don't have a reference point for Beacon Hills. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	yourplanssuck 2023-03-14 08:06 pm UTC (link)
	That’s one way to interpret a poem. At least I remember that as being from a poem. No, Beacon Hills is in Northern California. Couple of hours drive out of San Francisco. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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