(no subject)

[sythyry]

The Easy Way To Lose Some Weight [10 Consimbs 4261]

Ribbons are supposed to fit tightly. Especially formal ribbons when one is going to court, and especially especially this is the case when one is wearing nothing else.

So, of course, when I was going to court I tied on all my ribbons quite carefully. (The event of the day that demanded that I be at court was that one of Hezimikkinen's protegees was becoming Exchancellor of the Exquacker or something like that. Zimi wants me to be seen at court at least once a month.)

Of course, I was flying there as fast as I could when all my ribbons came loose at once. My tailtip ribbon fell off entirely. I don't know what became of it.

Of course I suspected a sorcerous attack at once! Some horrid enemy of mine expanded all my ribbons! Probably with a Locador effect!

I consulted one of my Insanely Powerful Artifacts, which said that nobody but me had cast any spells on me lately.

Well, I sat in a tree and retied all my ribbons, and debated whether it was better to be quite late and one ribbon short to the event or miss it entirely. Since the purpose in my coming was to be seen, I decided to go there.

Zemi bit my left ear off (which I never had of course, even before everyone started biting it off) about being late and badly-dressed.

She was very perplexed when I explained what had happened. To the point of not believing it. To the point of me insisting (afterwards) that she ask me under a truth-spell that it had happened. She didn't take me up on the offer, of course -- one rarely does -- but she looked tempted. She did remark that I seemed fairly agitated about the topic.

I didn't figure it out. Ghirbis did. (At least it wasn't Iska -- she was as confused as anyone!)

[Poll #662090]

Comments

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

A truth spell? I suppose that would be very very difficult to get a compotent magician to cast one, considering I would assume that mentador would be the main compotent in it....

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Not difficult, exactly -- there are a few very trustworthy people in the guard and such who know Mentador for just this sort of thing. And a few professors. Actually, I could probably learn it now or soon, not that I want to be known for such wickedness.

But yes, it's Mentador, and that makes it a rather serious social defense. "I believe this so much and care about it so strongly that you may use mind-magic on me to check." Once in a while people do take each other up on that kind of offer, too.

[kistaro]

Perhaps some variant of such a spell could be crafted in Destroc- a rather more, well, destructive variant, perhaps a worrisomely amnesiac one. I'm not familiar enough with your system of magic to be sure, but can Destroc destroy lies?

Oh dear. Better not let Vae get wind of this idea, or she'll Mutoc lies right into truth.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

"Lies" isn't a substance, the way that "wood" or "time" or "flock of geese" is (as far as I know, which is reasonably far for a sophomore magic student). It would be very challenging indeed to have a spell that destroyed lies -- in any manifestation -- without destroying truth and nonsense equivalently. Ditto any other Verb.

[kistaro]

Which makes sense. Then again, I wouldn't expect knowledge of a language to be any more of a substance (and Vae didn't have trouble with that), but I suppose it's much more concrete- knowledge of a language (or of an individual word) is a very particular thing, while it is not so obvious whether a given statement is a lie or not.

Unless, of course, it's blatantly obviously wrong, in which case it makes it a very stupid lie and doesn't need any magic anyway.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Well, knowledge of a language is a pile of memories and habits and such. It's not particularly different from knowledge of how to play the harp, or knowledge about spelunking, or knowledge about how to get around one's house in the dark, or whatever. A spell that targeted "knowledge of languages" but didn't get the other kinds of knowledge would have to be very smart and very challenging -- and is likely to be wrong sometimes.

Vae's spell wasn't targeting all knowledges of languages. She turned a particular memory of mine into a particular knowledge-of-a-language. Making a spell that turns one word into another isn't hard either. (Making the same spell change words but only to turn lies into truth is very hard.)

A lie is a spoken phrase (say -- the same argument goes for a written one or whatever). It's not very different from a true or nonsense or ambiguous phrase. There's no intrinsic magical way to tell one from the other. Reading the speaker's mind will do so, of course, but that's extrinsic -- it goes beyond looking at the phrase itself. (For that matter, the same phrase can be a truth in one circumstance and a falsehood in another -- "yes" being a good case in point.)

Manipulating spoken phrases in some uniform way is easy enough: they're all the same sort of thing. Sorting them out truth from lies is hard.

I hope this makes sense; I fear I'm babbling.

[OOC - Bard is sick and high on Nyquil and about to go to sleep.]

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

How about a kennoc tempador spiridor spell to examine the person's past and see if what they're saying actually happened? That wouldn't apply to all lies, but it might to many.

[devon-alek.livejournal.com]

Well, Pararenenzu isn't particularly careful about zir verb. So, assuming it doesn't fail outright, or give blatantly false (or obvious) information, that might work for Sythyry.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Creoc Tempador Spiridor, then. Make a sentient time-elemental to travel back in time and get then answer, then come back and report.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Just so. This may be simple magic for some people, but not for me!

[devon-alek.livejournal.com]

I think you're confusing "compitent" for "respectable". A mage can be compitent (good at), any magic, regardless of the social connotations of that magic. Even a feared and hated art such as Mentador can be used in respectable (in this case, socially acceptable) ways. Sythyry was "asked" (ok, insisted), so it's still more polite than just casting the spell.