Consumption
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Original
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I dunno if I like that combo.
Seems to be throwing her into a uncomfortable situation immediately after a tough freak out. Do we need to do it today? Perhaps we could tomorrow after we have some time to get her head back together.
Seems to be throwing her into a uncomfortable situation immediately after a tough freak out. Do we need to do it today? Perhaps we could tomorrow after we have some time to get her head back together.
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Although they aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, you may wish to hold off on making such a commitment before or for soon after actually dealing with any delayed reactions. That's why it isn't included among a base addition for "alone time."
Melia has access to a magically enforced calm (hereafter known as Calm) if her pesky emotions try to stop her from obtaining help and resources.
That said, decisions that are likely to require Calm probably should not be made while already Calm if at all possible.
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
We should test if Calm affects anchor degradation. That should be easy enough, but testing querying the thoughts that aren't our own will be a bit harder.
also Morgan is cool. I liked his friends--colleagues slip :3
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BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
*holds chin*
Hmmm that is a good point. Let Calm go and watch what happens to the anchor, preferably when already actually normal calm under it.
It could be that strong emotions also negatively effect the Anchor.
We will want to check the anchor after our alone time is done. If it has degraded a lot well, it's not particularly helpful in determining if it's strong emotions or letting the Calm go that caused the acceleration. Since in that case it could be both. But it does tell us that something happens when we do it, which we need to know as it is basically a pre-requisite to either question.
I like Morgan too. Mostly because he was nice to Melia and seems to have an inquisitive but logical mind. Seems like a good teacher.
I think we need to learn about mana manipulation and meditative states first before we can get into questioning the Anchor Intelligence.
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Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
I'm surprised that the Calm effect isn't costing mana.
Good to see that we've found people that seem to be friendly. The offer of a care package is promising.
Phasespidersserpents is kind of a terrifying monster. Definitely getting the impression that all of these planes are going to be hilariously lethal.
I see no issues with this plan:
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
Definitely leave the observation period thing for a bit.
Do we think our friends can keep Melia company if she needs it? Trying to tough this kind of thing out alone can be a really bad idea. Unless Melia definitely wants to be alone, which I can't tell.
Also, observation:
...For that matter, where do our elementals get mana? Is internal generation a thing? Are we and they just always absorbing mana that's floating around the environment? Are living things little tiny mana reactors, as suggested by this:
Good to see that we've found people that seem to be friendly. The offer of a care package is promising.
Phase
I see no issues with this plan:
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
Definitely leave the observation period thing for a bit.
Do we think our friends can keep Melia company if she needs it? Trying to tough this kind of thing out alone can be a really bad idea. Unless Melia definitely wants to be alone, which I can't tell.
Also, observation:
It seems like our fire elemental friend probably flared up a bit there. How much can they do that?
...For that matter, where do our elementals get mana? Is internal generation a thing? Are we and they just always absorbing mana that's floating around the environment? Are living things little tiny mana reactors, as suggested by this:
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
They make it themselves. As you understand it, people and elementals both produce their own mana, with their production rates slowly increasing as they absorb mana from their environment. You think environmental mana is supposed to be useless for most other human purposes, but aren't sure.
Some creatures can also gain access to effects which consume their own mana. You don't know if that involves getting mana production of their own or if they're just using what's already there.
You don't know if the different types of mana have easier names.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Ahah, so that's what's been going on with the "absorb mana" thing! We have some very small persistent store of gathered environmental mana that we presumably never use, instead incorporating it into whatever system it is that runs our personal generation. Absorbing mana from the environment therefore slowly, steadily buffs up our permanent personal generation. Interesting.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Yeah... that's worrying/interesting/cool. It's probably directly connected to the Anchor then and fueled by it. I like the care package idea too, super helpful.
Phase serpents go away!
Our elementals are her main friends and much like pets so having them around will really help.
I think he/she/it did or xer started moving around crazily and freaked Morgan out.
It honestly sounds a lot like a dantian from Xianxia. Absorb environmental Qi, widen Dantian with it, Dantian generates more personal Qi.
Environmental mana being understood as useless may be preventing understanding of an ability that could potentially use it. I'm not saying that's what we're doing with the anchor, I'm just mentioning it as a possibility.
- Location
- West Michigan
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
ConfusedPotato
Unverified Verifier
- Location
- Australia
[x] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[x] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
-[x] Hesitantly agree to be gawked at. This dimension is a lot like your homeworld, but who says the next one will be nearly as familiar or safe?
-[x] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
-[x] Hesitantly agree to be gawked at. This dimension is a lot like your homeworld, but who says the next one will be nearly as familiar or safe?
DeepWaters
No one will be the wiser.
- Location
- Land of Spiders and Shipping Charts
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
If memory serves, Alivaril did say something about making all of his worlds in this death-worlds.
I kinda figured it was that. Probably because of all the Chinese web novels I've been reading, as that's a pretty common magic system in them. It's not usually called magic, but that's basically what it is.
Yep. Complete with the risk of Bad ThingsTM happening if you absorb too much at once.
BungieONI
Seven gremlins in a trench coat
- Location
- Lickwidget
- Pronouns
- She/Her
- Location
- Somewhere!
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Hm. The visibly translated words thing is interesting. We have some basic stuff, like slang and local phrasings (kick something instead of ring a bell) but there's also something that must be esoteric, like how queen was translated even when it wasn't part of a title, and now you?
- Location
- va
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
1.4: Coping
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Renewed personal rule: Do not attempt to set deadlines for stories. It ultimately leads to slower updates instead of faster due to the extra stress / differing mindset.
...That and I'm increasingly convinced that, any time I try to set a personal deadline for a quest, real life will go out of its way to make sure I fail to keep it.
Anyway, this chapter gave me trouble even when I had time to write for it, but it's past now. I'm out of practice writing angst. Fortunately, I shouldn't need to do any more until further notice.
...That and I'm increasingly convinced that, any time I try to set a personal deadline for a quest, real life will go out of its way to make sure I fail to keep it.
Anyway, this chapter gave me trouble even when I had time to write for it, but it's past now. I'm out of practice writing angst. Fortunately, I shouldn't need to do any more until further notice.
[X] Accept Morgan's offer of alone time and lift the veil.
-[X] Ask for a safe place where your friends won't cause any harm if they flip out a bit.
"That might be a good idea," you say slowly.
After a moment of thought, you continue at a more normal rate.
"Could you bring me somewhere my friends won't do any damage if they go into a temporary frenzy? An empty and fireproof storage room would probably be enough."
Morgan stops halfway to his feet and sits back down.
"Do you think that's truly necessary?"
You shake your head.
"I don't think so, but it's better to be safe than sorry, isn't it? I'm pretty sure they think that if I'm upset, something had to cause it. If something caused it, they can try to chase it away so I feel better. If they're going to chase it away, they need to find something to chase, and..." you shrug helplessly. "You know. It's led to some very disgruntled squirrels and countless dead insects."
Morgan eyes your elementals, smiling faintly. After an uncomfortably long time, he shakes his head and gets up, gesturing for you to follow him out of the room. You comply.
About five seconds of walking later, another question demands your attention.
"How come my elementals are too weak to exist? I thought they all started out this way."
Morgan shakes his head and briefly glances back at you. He quickly returns his gaze to the hallway ahead, appearing slightly ashamed. You're not sure why.
"We're not certain, but it's widely believed spirits are formed when too much environmental mana is combined with an excessive quantity of a single nonliving substance. No matter how much mana is gathered, only a single spirit will be created; as a general rule, they'll know nothing of the world around them and will be innocently destructive until an older spirit can teach them how the world doesn't grow back if they break it. I'm assuming it works differently where you come from or you've found a way to weaken existing spirits."
You try to comb through your vague memories of how they're supposed to work. You're pretty sure elementals are just born from large concentrations of their element. Although, now that you think about it, there has to be more than that; elementals only get weaker when their physical forms are destroyed and, as far as you know, are immortal otherwise. If there wasn't something keeping their numbers from growing too quickly, they would've conquered the world long ago.
Still, thinking about it does remind you of an example which doesn't fit Morgan's statements.
"What about wood elementals? Trees are alive."
Morgan leads you into an empty stone room nearly identical to the one nearby the guildhall's entrance. Unlike the earlier room, most of the floor is covered with a layer of thick green moss, with the exception of a scorched black circle at the very center. The room is dimly illuminated by one glowing silver sphere at each of the four corners of the room.
"I don't believe those exist on our world. At any rate, here we are. Are your spirits strong enough push open an unlocked door?"
You crouch down and poke the moss underfoot. While it is plenty soft, you're not going to trust it until you're certain there aren't any insects living in it.
"Not yet. Why do you keep calling them 'spirits' when I keep calling them elementals?"
Morgan tilts his head to one side, frowning. "Could you please repeat that?"
"They're called elementals, not spirits," you stress. "I'm pretty sure there's a difference."
Morgan slowly shakes his head.
"You're using the same word twice. I believe we may be losing something in translation. How does your world avoid being overwhelmed with mana if spirits are never formed from it?"
We don't.
"I think it just keeps building up where I come from until it's... 'spent?' Spent to expand a magician's personal mana regeneration or to change another living creature. By the way, I don't suppose you're willing to tell me what happens when someone absorbs too much mana at once? Nobody will tell me."
Morgan blinks and frowns faintly.
"I don't see any reason I shouldn't, just know I cannot promise your world is the same. Here? It usually leads to amnesia, a weakened body, sickness, a complete inability to use magic until your pathways recover, a vastly decreased tolerance for absorption for the same amount of time, and, in extreme cases, death. I may be forgetting some other issues as well. You'll be able to feel when you're close to your limit, yet the symptoms are different for everyone; headaches are the most common, but some start to develop stomachaches or worse. I don't suppose your world has a reliable method of measuring precise quantities of mana? Everything we've tried is too unreliable for more delicate experiments."
You silently shake your head. You start trying to think up another question before Morgan feigns a cough.
"Right, privacy. I should go. If you need anything, you know where my office is."
Morgan hurries out of the room and slams the door shut behind himself. You don't even really get a chance to thank him. Reviewing the contents of the room, you're soon able to settle on what you should do first: check the moss for any signs of insects.
You manage to burn a couple minutes on tearing up small patches of moss and pulling them apart. No matter how many you search, you can't find even an ant. You force yourself to stop when you find yourself continuing despite the obvious conclusion.
Gathering displaced moss to make an improvised pillow doesn't take nearly as long as you'd prefer. A quick test shows you don't need to stack up layers for extra padding; a single one seems to be sufficient.
Staring up at the ceiling, you're once again forced back to what you're supposed to be doing.
...I should stop stalling.
You try to remove the veil at a slow pace—and fail miserably. A deluge of unpleasant emotions and subjects immediately crash down into your mind.
What happens if I fall somewhere inhospitable? The ocean? Icelands? The lair of a monster? Is that why nobody's ever heard of someone with this Talent? We don't live long enough to go home? What will everyone back home think? How will the Scout explain it? He saw me fall into the rift, but would he actually tell them that? Would anyone believe him? How do I tell everyone I'm okay?
How will I know who I'm supposed to trust? Nobody lied about anything really important back home. I'm not a real mage yet and my friends are weak. Can I trust Ines and Eugene? (Why wouldn't I trust them? Where did this come from? They're nice.) Is there even any point to making friends if I'm just going to be torn away from them?
What happens if one of the rifts closes with someone or something partway through? Is that even possible? It didn't snap shut until after everyone was clear. Was that just luck or is it a true function?
Why are Talents a package deal, anyway? Tearing apart reality, anchoring myself to it, and understanding other languages? My first Talent, having spirits love me and being able to summon them without a real spell? ...Wait, why am I even thinking about that? I'm supposed to be having a meltdown and that doesn't fit in.
You deliberately direct your attention away from your thoughts and try to take stock. Your throat feels like it's closed up, your eyes hurt a little, you have a runny nose, most of your elementals are hugging you, and you're fairly certain more time has passed than you thought. The only elemental which isn't hugging you, your fire elemental, is darting around the room with obvious agitation.
Still, even with all that...
Morgan was right. You do feel better overall, especially now that you can let your growing excitement squash fear and dread. Really, your biggest concern is how people back home are going to worry about you. If you can get a message home and figure out some way to make sure you don't fall somewhere dangerous, you expect this whole thing could actually be pretty fun. You were already planning on moving away from home anyway; if you tilt your head and blind yourself squinting, this isn't too different. If this dimension is any indicator, you could even argue that it'll be safer than your homeworld.
Except for the part where I won't be in a heavily-guarded magical academy and shut up mind I'm trying to be happy.
Before, you belonged to a group of individuals rare even among magicians, the Talented. Tales of people raised and/or beloved by elementals indicate that you're not exactly the first of your kind, no matter how rare your Talent might be. Now? You're unique. You never heard of anybody who got to travel to other worlds before.
If you felt like it, you could even steal from people without any real consequences. Maybe. Depending on how your method of travel works, that might be a bad idea. And anyway, you wouldn't do that unless they really deserved it, and possibly not even then.
...Well, you suppose you do have another concern: what to do next. You don't really think it's worth worrying about Morgan's colleagues and their reactions; he's definitely better at reading people than you are. Even if your secret stops being one, that would only be a problem if you both return to this dimension and area at some point. You honestly can't think of any good reasons not to meet with them.
Given the high mana content of this dimension's water supply, you think it might be a good idea to summon all the water elementals you possibly can and encourage them to spend as much time as possible in it. You're fairly certain your own magic won't be suitable for combat until further notice. Morgan seems like he's going to take care of supplies, which was arguably your biggest problem. If he can get you notes on basic mana control, you might not have to spend any time learning it right now.
You're pretty interested in the stories, history, and legends of this world, but that doesn't seem like it would help you wherever you end up next. You suppose you can cross that off your list for a while.
Maybe you could try to get Morgan to prioritize some supplies he might not think of? Like, a portable mana detector. It'd make hunting for treasure much easier. Something to detect living creatures would be helpful for avoiding monsters, something to boost your strength would make carrying your belongings easier...
You sigh and carefully pet each of your non-fiery elementals in turn. Now that you're actually capable of such, you honestly feel like you're a little useless right now.
[] Summon your other two water elementals.
[] Tell Morgan you're feeling better, wait until Ines and Eugene have given you your share, and explore the town you're currently in. You might spot something useful.
[] Ask Morgan if he could try to get you some unusual supplies.
-[] A portable mana detector.
-[] Something to detect living creatures.
-[] A strength booster.
-[] Lightweight cooking tools. You know how to cook real food, but sticks aren't nearly good enough for your purposes.
-[] Something to make you fireproof. You want to hug your fire elementals, darn it!
[] Ask Morgan for advice. When in doubt, consult your elders.
-[] Could he help you find a job while you're here? Every bit counts.
[] Over the next few days, do your utmost to get basic control over your own mana. (Timeskip)
[] Ask Morgan to help you test how different environmental changes interact with your anchor. His own ideas would also be welcomed. (Timeskip)
-[] Write-in Experiments
[] Write-in
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- Location
- United States of America
[X] Summon your other two water elementals.
[X] Tell Morgan you're feeling better, wait until Ines and Eugene have given you your share, and explore the town you're currently in. You might spot something useful.
[X] Ask Morgan if he could try to get you some unusual supplies.
-[X] A portable mana detector.
-[X] Something to detect living creatures.
-[X] Lightweight cooking tools. You know how to cook real food, but sticks aren't nearly good enough for your purposes.
[X] Ask Morgan for advice. When in doubt, consult your elders.
-[X] Could he help you find a job while you're here? Every bit counts.
[X] Tell Morgan you're feeling better, wait until Ines and Eugene have given you your share, and explore the town you're currently in. You might spot something useful.
[X] Ask Morgan if he could try to get you some unusual supplies.
-[X] A portable mana detector.
-[X] Something to detect living creatures.
-[X] Lightweight cooking tools. You know how to cook real food, but sticks aren't nearly good enough for your purposes.
[X] Ask Morgan for advice. When in doubt, consult your elders.
-[X] Could he help you find a job while you're here? Every bit counts.
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
If by "exhaust" you mean "completely use up," then no. You already summoned two dirt, one fire, one stone, and one water since you first came to this dimension. Another two waters wouldn't kill your anchor. Would it accelerate the deterioration of said anchor until you regained the spent mana? Apparently.