So, all of my magic is constructed through math. We know the basic parts of magic, like digits, and you just have to put the parts together the right way to do a spell. You can calculate how to do anything magic is capable of, or figure out what a spell does if you know the parts. We call that process of putting together metamath.
[ Again, Jack is getting that feeling he hates, like he's so far behind the times that he might as well be a caveman. He's more educated than the average man, for his time, much more educated than almost all of his pirate peers, and yet this is completely over his head. If this conversation were face to face, he would be glaring, through no fault of Quentin's. ]
It all sounds very scientific. I always gravitated more towards the arts.
Yeah, magic turns out to be like, not NOT an art but more of a science than an art.
I guess the art comes in because there are things inside the magician that affect your spells, some of which are simple like intent and some of which you have no control over
Yeah. Or at least, I was when they tested me. It's been a couple of years.
I'm like pretty sure my Discipline is somewhere in physical magic, because I can do most of the stuff physical kids can do, but that's really broad. Like saying your favorite place is a whole continent.
Illusion, psychic, nature, healing, and knowledge are the other big categories. Physical magic tends to be the least common category. Illusionists and psychics are most common usually. You'll be better at stuff that's in the same category with your Discipline, and then the specific spells of your Discipline will come really easily to you.
Yeah, basically anything that affects like the laws of physics. Inanimate objects, light, matter. I don't know of any spells to physically create something but that would be physical magic. I have a friend whose Discipline is basically the manipulation of light, that's a physical thing. Another friend can move things without really needing to cast a spell, he can just do it
Well you said "take a crack at you" as in like try to convince you to sleep with me and I don't really know what my selling points are other than the mouth thing
I guess I could have tried a hole pic
I didn't think "I can fix a coffee mug real good" was sexy
[ Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, Jack... ]
You can give yourself a little more credit than that, I think. All of what you just said is more interesting than lube on demand, given that's the way this city runs by default.
I mean you effectively told me be sexy, not be useful, so that's what I did
[He was fulfilling (read: apparently failing to fulfill) the assignment given, and doesn't really understand why it was apparently something else all along. As a socially inept, not-neurotypical nerd, this whole be interesting, be useful thing is frustrating him a little because it feels like shifting the goalposts. Jack may feel like a caveman for his lack of advanced math knowledge, but Quentin feels shitty for yet another social interaction that seems to have taken a turn somewhere that he missed.]
If you want me to discard the "be sexy" brief and just talk more about magic then I can do that because apparently no one likes what I have to say to these "everyone is attractive" comments
[Quentin thinks seriously about, like, trying to ask how the fuck he was supposed to get "be interesting" and not "be sexy" out of "don't dance around wanting me to fuck you" and "take a crack at me," but he concludes that it's not worth it. Maybe he will, later, when his brain has stopped trying to eat itself.]
[He's not feeling particularly interesting, either, but "infodump" is his default setting.]
Anyone can technically do small amounts of magic in my world. If you know the right hand movements, the right words to say, anyone can make some sparks or some wavy lines or some little rainbows. You have to have Potential to be able to channel serious magic, but some people theorize that technically every human has a Discipline, the vast majority of them just can't do anything with it.
I could try my hand at it. At the very least, I would be interested to see it for myself. There’s nothing like that, where I come from, at least as far as I’m aware.
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It all sounds very scientific. I always gravitated more towards the arts.
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I guess the art comes in because there are things inside the magician that affect your spells, some of which are simple like intent and some of which you have no control over
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I was "inconclusive."
[can you feel the depression radiating off him in waves]
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I'm like pretty sure my Discipline is somewhere in physical magic, because I can do most of the stuff physical kids can do, but that's really broad. Like saying your favorite place is a whole continent.
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I guess I could have tried a hole pic
I didn't think "I can fix a coffee mug real good" was sexy
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[ Don't ask questions you don't want the answer to, Jack... ]
You can give yourself a little more credit than that, I think. All of what you just said is more interesting than lube on demand, given that's the way this city runs by default.
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[Please tell him you do not need hole explained.]
What I think is interesting and what other people think is sexy have historically been entire planets away from each other
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It might not be inherently sexy, but everyone here is attractive. So what? Better to be useful, I'd say.
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[He was fulfilling (read: apparently failing to fulfill) the assignment given, and doesn't really understand why it was apparently something else all along. As a socially inept, not-neurotypical nerd, this whole be interesting, be useful thing is frustrating him a little because it feels like shifting the goalposts. Jack may feel like a caveman for his lack of advanced math knowledge, but Quentin feels shitty for yet another social interaction that seems to have taken a turn somewhere that he missed.]
If you want me to discard the "be sexy" brief and just talk more about magic then I can do that because apparently no one likes what I have to say to these "everyone is attractive" comments
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I never asked you to be sexy. I asked you to hold my interest.
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[He's not feeling particularly interesting, either, but "infodump" is his default setting.]
Anyone can technically do small amounts of magic in my world. If you know the right hand movements, the right words to say, anyone can make some sparks or some wavy lines or some little rainbows. You have to have Potential to be able to channel serious magic, but some people theorize that technically every human has a Discipline, the vast majority of them just can't do anything with it.
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Fair warning it's pretty precise and fussy
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