Drunkard's Walk Forums

Moved so it doesn't interfere with the flow of that story. This happens at least six months after http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/8517]The Gauntlet, and only if Mal lets magic loose in the world.

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Kohran looked up from the infirmary's computer. "I'm sorry, dad, but you're a mage."

"You're sure?"

"As sure as I can be with this equipment," she replied while shutting down the laptop that held the grimoires and magical theories left behind by The Girls. "On the bright side, the tests indicate you have even less magical ability than I do."

"So I can't actually cast spells, then." Noah sounded relieved.

"No, you can, but only ritually, and it'll take you at least an hour to get an effect off. That said, you may be able to get some pretty powerful effects off, in your area of ability."

He scowled. "Well, I guess being an aspected ritual mage is better than being a combat mage, but it's still worse than not being a mage at all. What's my aspect?"

"According to the scans, it's knowledge of some sort. I think this is why you're so good at creating AIs - you 'know' what needs to be present to create us the way you want."

"Agatha didn't turn out the way I'd hoped."

Kohran nodded. "You flubbed a roll. It happens."

"Aspected magery, flubbing a roll ... when did our lives become a roleplaying game, Kohran?"

"They haven't, dad. That's just a framework that we both understand for the concepts we're going to have to live with."

Noah thought for a moment. "I can work with that. What about Yayoi and Sora?"

"Don't work too hard - you might get locked into that framework instead of one that's better for you. I haven't been able to test Sora yet. Yayoi has a minor magical ability that appears to have been grafted on to her. It's only enough to energize the glasses that Skuld gave her."

"And you?"

Kohran gestured to the laptop, which began to levitate. "Minor effects, and they tire me quickly." The laptop settled back onto the desk as Kohran sat down. "The big surprise is what happened to the rest of your magical ability."

"The rest of... Explain. Now."

"Eep!"

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"That's okay; you're upset. Everybody has a particular signature to their magical ability - call it your soul's reflection, the colour of your Linker Core (whatever that is), the harmonics of your chi, or anything else. The theories that Lisa left behind say that no two people have exactly the same magical signature. But you and Safety do."

"Clumsy, nearsighted, naive Safety is a mage?"

"Anyone can be a mage, dad. Safety is a combat mage, both in power and technique. Haven't you ever wondered where she keeps her bow and arrows?"

"Oh, dear, Ghu... I poured most of my magic into the first girl I built after the magic awoke, didn't I?"

"That's how it looks to me, yep. Dad, sit down, please."

"What's wrong?"

"Leda's a combat mage, too. She's got a lot of Sailor Jupiter's abilities."

"She does have a biomod that's a lot like Makoto's powers. Is that what you picked up?"

"She has that too. Do you remember who trained her to control her biomod?"

"Yes, it was... Oh, dear. Have you told her?"

"Yesterday, after I examined her and Helen."

"Helen! Is she...?"

"The daughter of two mages? Yes, of course Helen's a mage. Or, at least that's what the tests indicate."

Noah buried his head in his hands. "I was hoping she'd have a normal life..."

Korhan put a hand on her father's shoulder. "She will. It's just that normal for her will include magic."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

This is only a suggestion, but perhaps Fenspace has extremely low background mana levels everywhere, and no leylines, nodes, or Tethers to speak of. Handwavium can be used as a readily available mana source, but it "'waves" the spell to impose a Quirky side-effect or restriction (causing the spell to fizzle in various humorous ways if not met) that is consistent only with regards to that mage and that spell (and maybe even that strain of Handwavium). Certain magical fields of study are completely overtaken by Handwavium itself: magical Artificing, Alchemy, and Potionry are replaced entirely by Wavetech engineering, materials science, and chemistry, respectively. Under this scheme, spellcasting for Fenspace-native mages is effectively applying a 'wavejob to the local fabric of reality, which the universe eventually repairs back to cosmological baseline.

I like Proginoskes idea, it would allow that "sufficiently advanced" (handwavium) tech is similar to "sufficiently advanced" magic. Not that the Fen will get there anytime soon.

There's probably plenty of stuff out there that's technically 'magic' but is being explained away as a wave-effect, or it's practitioners don't realise isn't a wave-effect at all. There're plenty of things out there that shouldn't work the way they do, even with the wave helping.

It would actually give me an out to explain a few things....
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Yeah, the wave provides a lot of room for the Laws of Similarity and Contagion to kick in. Much like the doll in Weird Science.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

Proginoskes, if that's the framework you want to go with, feel free. (As Kohran implied above and Doug is likely to mention during the Harry Potter Step, there are plenty of different frameworks for magic.) I worry that it has a second-order effect of making handwaved devices only temporarily functional, though.

Is handwavium a magical thing, or a paraphysical substance that can mimic magic and superscience, or a construct of thought that responds to thought (much like a Lensman's Lens but in a different manner), or the extrusion into reality of the power of a benevolent god, or a mundane focus that allows someone to use magical ability subconsciously, or a physical expression of Haruhi and Yuki's reality-warping abilities that they cast off so that they could become "normal," or something else altogether? We've never answered that question, although I vaguely recall it being asked and dropped sometime in the previous decade...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

I think the answer to "Is Handwavium x, or y, or z?" is generally accepted to be "Yes". My main point is, whatever you hold Handwavium to be, using it to assist spellcasting would inescapably make the spell Quirky. And unless you have either

1. the ability to generate reasonable quantities of mana innately like Doug,
   
2. a planetary binding like a senshi, or
   
3. lots of mana bonds to places you've visited like a WotC Planeswalker,
   

you have to either take things really slowly using a ritual, or use Handwavium to assist.

You know, the big lizards in the cage green room do want to go walkies...

I think I have a new project. On top of the three already running.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

Quote:Doug covers at length, in great detail, and with counseling and suggestions to his students during the Harry Potter Step

Fixed that for you, Rob.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I like it. Mind if I chip in my own two cents?

I can't help but wonder if this would be something to call a convention over. Or, at the very least, quiet a meeting of the SMOFs to discuss the ramifications and measures that should be taken in light of this discovery. The reaction of the Senshi at 36 Atalante is, by itself, concerning for Ben and Gina. Just what is to be done if Sailor Atalante begins to show similar capability? (I have a pretty good idea, but that's just one of many questions that would need to be answered at such a meeting.)

It depends on whether people outside Stellvia actually notice it's magic.... and not just another splash of the wave(Or whether the Stellvians want to go public). What the Wizarding World call's Magic is really mostly wave-effects after all. If other people start showing talents like Leda's, the natural assumption is that it's another similar biomod unless they have reason the believe otherwise. DBZ and Ranma fen are going to start sparking off with minor Ki techniques (Breaking pebbles instead of boulders, Ryouga), and they're just going to naturally assume it's just a similar biomod effect too, based on their source fandoms.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

If I had to guess, it might be A.C. that would be the first to notice.

"I think I've been biomodded."

-several hours of tests-

"I can't find any evidence that you have a biomod."

It's either that, or someone will think they're biomodded... and then be exposed to sufficient Handwavium and get a biomod ON TOP OF their magical abilities.
--

"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

I see no reason for a convention. Fenspace is USED to all kind of strange magic... its just called differently. Handwavium is easily as magical as D&D style spells.

I would not even be surprised if quite a number of biomod/wave abilities are more like magic than standard Handwavium mechanisms.

Meanwhile, at Catgirl industries....

Quote:The subject was waiting in the test chamber like a caged jaguar. There was that same air of grace to her, a brutal finesse, of predatory savagery to her movements as she stalked beneath the observation lights.

Liquid reflections flowed across her lacquered armour as she strode, steel feet tack-tacking across the deck. Ice-blue eyes stared at their target with a hardness born from the coldest, deepest ice beneath a glacier across a rust-red anti-glare stripes on her cheeks. Red hair brushed off her shoulder.

Sparks of light glinted off of marbled steel blades mounted to the subject’s forearms. They could split a bullet head on, slice a human being in half, or drive hard through battlesteel plate.

That, was a weapon. The android test-dummy in the chamber with her, didn’t stand a chance

Cathy swallowed the feeling in her gullet that the safety glass sealing her away from the wouldn’t keep her safe if this particular big cat decided to make a brake for it.

“Status, Cortana,” she demanded, keeping her tone hushed.

“All sensors recording. We will have the data to solve this mystery for certain,”

Cathy grinned. She brushed against a touchscreen control, opening a channel.

“You may attack when ready, Jet,”

The subject nodded, easing herself down into a fighting stance. The other catgirls in the room with Cathy started whispering, taking bets amongst themselves as to what would happen next. The cyber was staring at her target, which was completely incapable of comprehending the mortal danger it was in.

Data readouts tracked powerflow through the subjects body as she began to move, signals in her actuators spiking as she stepped forward.

With a bark she struck out, seeming to tag the dummy. It staggered backwards with the force, righting itself automatically within seconds. Inputs from the test dummy came alive, recording power and vibrations resonating through it’s frame.

Some of the catgirl’s ‘ooh’d’ and ‘ah’d’.... that’d been lightning quick. It’d been a blur of metal.

“I blinked,” someone complained.

“The energy isn’t dying out,” Cortana said, musing within herself. “It’s amplifying,”

The subject carried her momentum from the first attack, using it to turn herself around towards the back of the target dummy. It didn’t care.

“Hah!” she barked, driving her fist forward into it’s spine.

The dummy burst apart, shattering like tempered glass.

The catgirls yelped. Cathy jumped, a chunk of it’s arm smacking into the glass wall in front of her with a thump, spattering it with oil. The torso dropped inert in front of the subject, spitting sparks and bleeding hydraulic oil at her feet.

The head rolled across the floor leaving a trail of fluids before coming to a rest against the far wall, sightless eyes staring up at the overhead lights. Both arms and one leg had been sprung clean off the target, the other hanging loose by a twisted hose.

“Did you get that?” the subject asked.

“Yes, thank you Jet,” Cortana answered her.

The subject seemed to tense up a little, the lose air of danger surrounding her fading away as her own self controls cut back in. The catgirls started giggling among each other, trading credits and gadgets, while revelling in that post-horror-film catharsis.

The initial results came up onscreen for Cathy’s benefit. A hundred accelerometer and electromagnetic sensors on both the subject, and the target.

She could see the initial impulse build inside Jet’s body.

The impact of the first strike.

The vibration ringing through the dummy’s body, like a bell that’d just been hammered,

And then.

“Was zur holle?” Cathy hissed “Program error?”

“Not that I can tell,” Cortana answered her. “The sensors check out.”

“Then why is it gaining strength? Why is the amplitude increasing with no input energy?”

“I do not know,” Cortana responded, sounding just as confused. “I thought I eliminated handwavium effects. Maybe if I had more data, I could draw a conclusion.”

Cathy opened another channel, “Jet, how long can you stay here?

Jet smirked. “How many bots you got?”

-----

"Cathy: final entry of the 'Panzerkunst' experiment series. Our working theory that the same quantum effects governing rogue waves developing in the open ocean apply to these vibration techniques has been proven false. We have stopped working on the project, we have run out of test dummies. Maybe we should just accept that it doesn't make sense for us, that this really is just an effect of handwavium, as Jet believes.

Attempts by an exocomp programmed with the recorded data to replicate the result using glass beads as the target initially seemed successful. However, it became clear that the exocomp was cheating and using it’s IR laser, then deleting its logs to hide this fact. It appears, how to cheat may be the only thing learned from Jet.

We are submitting the results of our analysis to Fenspace at large, in the hopes that someone shall be able to make sense of them.”

________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

I don't know if magic is such a good idea...
Even if it would explain a thing or two about handwavium...

As I said, this whole thread only matters if Mal lets magic loose in the world. If he vetoes it, then we're just playing with possibilities for another universe's worth of stories.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012