(no subject)

[sythyry]

First Date, or not [25 Consimbs 4162]

I did my best to track Zanniajaia down the Dissection of Spells examination. I used cunning. I used a pack of mighty-nosed Cani. I used location spells. I used spies. I used (or abused) my connections in the City Guard. I used Prince Nestrune Kreslink, but he didn't help much. And whaddya know, I caught her.

Well, it wasn't that hard, though she did leave the examination a ninth of an hour before I did, and I did ask Narngi which way she had gone.

And we chatted about the examination for some short while. Mostly we agreed. There was one theoretical question about offworld magic (as seen from Vheshrame) -- I thought that it would be cryptic, and Zanniajaia thought it would be just as detectable as ordinary magic. We looked things up in some books. She's probably right, except in the case of offworld magic from demigods and such, which could get very confusing. I hope this question never ever becomes practical.

And then I asked her to join me for dinner at Ghu Navage Ghu.

And she said yes.

The yes!

Well, she actually said, "Sure, why not?"

Is that less enthusiastic? Or just an ordinary thing to say? [The translation is accurate; it could be either. -bb]

Is she traff?

How hard would it be to make a device that told whether people were traff without use of Mentador? (Um ... the very hard... I suppose you'd need to snoop back in time and read and interpret the whole life story. And that would only work if there was much evidence for it too. Very hard, and probably illegal.)

Aren't traff-folk supposed to get to recognize each other?

If there's a secret traff tail-wave, I wish someone would let me in on the secret...

Comments

*chuckle*

[ionotter.livejournal.com]

In our world, we have a remarkable device which allows us to "see" objects in the distance, regardless of the hour of day, clarity of the air and sometimes even the distance between the viewer and the viewed. We call it "radar", which is short for "RAdio Detection And Ranging". Not sure how to describe "radio", but suffice to say it's waves of energy that can't be seen by the naked eye without special assistance.

Those waves of energy go out, encounter an object and bounce back off that object and are interpreted by the sender in much the same way certain creatures use sound to navigate their world. We get an image of whatever is out there.

Some people in my world prefer the company of their own gender, and in the search for a compatable mate, sometimes develop a sort of "radar" for their intended companions. Such people develop the ability to send out "waves of energy" and "listen for the return echo". Those who don't share their preferences don't return an echo, while those that do become more noticeable. And some people seem to "broadcast" their preferences, sometimes at levels that their preferences becomes painfully obvious to everyone around them.

So I suppose what you are looking for could be called "traffdar"? But to my own knowledge, such a thing can certainly exist.

Re: *chuckle*

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

My translator has botched this letter rather badly, I think. [No I didn't. -bb] What sort of energy am I supposed to emit, is that?

Re: *chuckle*

[(Anonymous)]

Okay.

There is a way of broadcasting and recieving a special type of energy. it has a name, called Radar.

People use this term also as a euphemism for understanding body language, since the original term and the deriviative term both have to do with sensing something that is subtle.

Understand?

Hey, is there a spell to give you the sensitivity and understanding and appreciation of scents that a Cani or Sleeth has? To better help you understand when someone is interested in you...

Re: *chuckle*

[gavinfox.livejournal.com]

oh, sorry, that was me.

Re: *chuckle*

[brynndragon.livejournal.com]

In actually, it's a combination of body language and certain behaviors that some people can identify as signs of being traff (for example, there is a certain speech pattern that is considered a sign of being our world's equivalent of traff if one is male), rather than a form of energy. A better way to put it is one can display one's traffness in manners both subtle and obvious, and your ability to determine if someone was traff or not based on such displays would be your traffdar. Oddly enough the obvious mannerisms are more frequently misleading than the subtle ones, but that's because the obvious ones are easier to mimic.

Re: *chuckle*

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

That's possible the worst explanation of a suggestion I've ever seen, just for the sake of explaining the etymology of a term you've never heard!

Step 1: Send out signals indicating that you're traff
Step 2: See if anyone bounces them back to you
Step 3: Try to distinguish legitimate return signals from random noise
Step 4: Go on a date with pigeons and passing airships, after failing step 3

Re: *chuckle*

[zeeth_kyrah]

I'm sure you do know that many kinds of thieves and confidence men have historically used "pigeon" to indicate the people they rob.