best ship in the fleet

[heresyandlace]

Who: Anyone aboard the SS Pathstone!
Broadcast: Probably not
Action: Yes! Even if that action is mostly sleeping.
When: All month!

[watch, dear audience, as the intrepid crew of the SS Pathstone handles beaches, bugs, and storms!

with nothing but teamwork and sheer emotional maturity, they face each and every obstacle with dignity and grace.

there will never be a crew in the entire Fleet as stalwart and bonded in the eternal ties of friendship as the Pathstone.

watch, and be amazed.]

Comments

[radiantwingedone]

[ Duke is realizing that. W h y him. ]

I would say that computers look like the interface, but that is simply the order I was aware of them.

[heresyandlace]

[because he's quiet and unobtrusive, probably.]

Interesting.

...Are there always this many numbers involved with your magic?

[radiantwingedone]

[ Ah, so its like attracting cats. ]

Yes. You learn shortcuts as you use the spell more, so it can become less.

[heresyandlace]

[the more allergic you are, the more magnetic.]

There is only one hall of mages that I know of that include numbers in their practice.

...They also happen to be the ones commonly considered to be the most boring. But that's probably only a coincidence.

[radiantwingedone]

Perhaps understandably. It must seem dreadfully boring to those who bargain for their magic from spirits, or something of the like, to listen to mages debating the easiest way to memorize the formula for the area of a cone.

[ Sorry, were you calling him boring? He seems to have missed that. ]

[heresyandlace]

[still, something about that makes him smirk at least somewhat appreciatively.]

So, that's all it is-- numbers and formulas? Where does the energy come from?

How do you harness it, if not granted from elements or gods?

[radiantwingedone]

The numbers and formulas are the shape. The heat, the light intensity, the speed of the wind.

[ Ah, this is the interesting part. ]

Originally, we used a form of ambient life-force. Our world produced this energy we called 'aer', which was harmless unless harnessed to be otherwise, or in concentrations where it became visible.

It was bound to elements shortly before I was pulled, and became the ambient magic known as 'mana', which was elementally separated, and also much less likely to cause your metabolism to accelerate harmfully in concentration.

[ Can Tek tell he found a topic Duke has paid a lot of attention to? ]

[heresyandlace]

Interesting.

[fortunately-- or unfortunately, depending on who is stuck in the conversation --this is a topic that Tek quite easily geeks out about.]

Do you need an innate gift in the ability, or is it something that can be learned by anyone?

[radiantwingedone]

It's a mix of the two. There's a bloodline that can innately use magic, although for them, the amount of aer consumed is far greater than the magic reflects. It is a matter of study and having a casting aid for everyone else.

[ ... Except for him, because he cheats around the last part, without having the bloodline. ]