(no subject)

[sythyry]

Esory and a Clock [27 Thory 4261]

Esory has acquired a clock.

Now, this is not the usual sort of clock, which has a spell which understands dawn and can count time since the last dawn, and which needs to be re-cast every few weeks.

Nor is it the usual sort of clock in the form of a talisman which can cast What Time Is It for the user without limit.

Nor is it the fancy kind of clock made from twisted bits of metal that unwind regularly, and need to be re-wound every few hours.

No, it is none of these. It is a clock in the form of a large glass globe with a tiny opening at the top and a tiny opening at the bottom, fused on the top of a tall graduated glass cylinder, the whole set in the midst of a stout golden wooden stand. A minor enchantment that I could easily do keeps the funnel full. The tiny opening keeps it dripping very slowly. The markings on the cylinder tell the time, correct to the ninth part of an hour. And another simple enchantment destroys all the fluid in the cylinder every day at dawn, so that the clock keeps perpetual time.

(The latter enchantment is done in a peculiar way. It can only be used once a day. It has a trigger condition of "yes, please go off now!". Ordinarily, a device with that trigger condition is used when a continually-active effect is unduly expensive -- e.g., it might be cheaper to ... what did Spreen give for an example? ... I must consult my notes ... she didn't give an example. Hmph. Theoretical Rassy! But one might, for example, use it in a sort of defensive weapon -- the continual enchantment would surround one with fire constantly; the yes-please enchantment would surround one with a separate fireblast every few seconds.)

In this case, though, the yes-please enchantment is on a device that can only be used once a day. In this way, whenever a new day starts -- that is, at dawn, in case monster-world days start at some more horrible time -- the device will get the power to be used once. It will, instantly, use it. For the rest of the day, the enchantment will wish to go off and destroy the fluid, but, since it is out of charges, it cannot.

This is a nifty and a cheap approach. Ordinarily, a device that would go off at the same time each day would be significantly harder to do. I suppose that getting it to go off at dawn rather than some other particular useful time ought to be easier than some other time... wouldn't it? [Sythyry dives into discussions of theoretical enchantment which I cannot follow. -bb]

The other peculiar feature of the clock is the choice of fluid. One might ordinarily use water, and Aquador. This device uses an intensely yellow fluid: the urine of a mule fed on grass-roots and largely denied water. It is entirely Corpador. Using such a specialized choice of fluid renders it (1) somewhat more complicated than the otherwise economical design would indicate, and (2) easier to read, and (3) unfit to mention in polite company.

The thing is, all in all, a very strange design, considering how simple it is. Esory invited me over to contemplate it, but not too hard. After that we sipped small amounts of very ordinary brandy, and did not eat grass-roots nor deny ourselves water, and discussed some even odder designs that probably wouldn't work very well.

(And, in case you are asking, the thing is a student working of Esory's grandmother, and somewhere between a family heirloom and a family shameful secret. The grandmother was notably displeased with Aquador magic, and chose to do the urine-based enchantment as, in part, a way to express disagreement with the grandfather's insistance that she learn Aquador. Peculiar people!)

Comments

[redbird]

Some monsters begin our days at sunset, probably on the theory that there fewer sensible people will be awake to notice dawn than to notice sunset. And some begin them in the middle of the night--I suspect the theory there is that the beginning/end of a day is such a weird activity that sensible people won't want to be aware of it.

[cattitude.livejournal.com]

What happens when a mouse gets in the mechanism? I can imagine having to go through all sorts of horrible contortions to get it out again, especially if it has fallen to the lower chamber.

How does it smell (assuming it has no nose)?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

The enchantment destroys all corpador material every day at dawn, so the mouse problem should take care of itself!

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

It's sealed. I suppose somewhere there is a breed of mice that teleport, and I suppose one could teleport in, but then it would teleport out again, wouldn't it? I imagine that a mouse could stand on the drip-hole and clog it, making the clock slow 'til the next morning.

It is odorless, being entirely sealed. Which is an important stylistic point for a urine-clock, isn't it?

[cowboy-r.livejournal.com]

There is a great deal of discussion on my world (which, of course, means a great many dead discussors, since my species can't seem to argue about anything without killing someone over it) about what time the day begins. Some claim that it begins at dawn; others, that it begins half way between sunset and dawn.

Some take the radical notion that the day begins when the sun passes above a line graven in brass at a given place in our world (Greenwich), but this lot is mostly dead, now, so their view is noted only as a historical curiosity.

[pobig.livejournal.com]

Whereas currently most people take the day to begin (and end) at every point on the clock in succession, along a strangely zigzagging line in the middle of the ocean where nobody lives, which probably is why no one that I know of has been killed over it.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

You are making this up, aren't you? Oh, please, please be making it up!

[pobig.livejournal.com]

I couldn't make up this kind of thing. Be glad you dont' know why it's this way; what it may lead to frightens some people here.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll forgive me if I'm curious about a small point. On one of the worlds I'm from, the length of time from one dawn to the next is not constant -- it depends on the season, and on one's position on the globe. Finding when that dawn is calls for a lovely figure called the analemma and an impressive-sounding but not difficult (nor magical) formula called the Equation of Time.

I gather that the clock does not understand dawn, and wonder whether the enchantment does separately from the clock? If it does not, how does it estimate when the dawn comes? Would the spell need adjustment if it changed position, or as the seasons change, or is the time between dawns not dependent on position and time on your world?

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

That's insane. On a properly-designed world, dawn is one of the basic physical constants. Our fire god may not be very smart, but It does indeed light the sun at very regular intervals -- as precisely regular as anyone has been able to measure.

In any case, dawn can hardly help but be the same time everywhere, for it is a singular event, of the sun being lit. What is your dawn, that it happens at different times in different places?

The clock and its enchantments do not understand dawn, as we understand understanding. However, as with any reasonable enchantment, its power is restored at dawn. So, I suppose, it understands dawn the way a stick understands fire.

[OOC: look up 'day' and 'sun' in the glossary. -bb]

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Is this same method how Flokin runs the sun?

I mean, from what I've heard of him, it's hard to imagine him putting a trigger condition other than 'yes, go off now' on something that makes a large quantity of fire. Or diligently and precisely lighting it manually, without ever screwing up.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

"It", I believe, is the proper pronoun. Yes, that is how it runs the sun. I do not know how it avoids mistakes. Perhaps it has a very good alarm clock.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Or maybe it screws up all the time, and Kaimiri's servants cover for it.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Well, to be honest, Dawn is when ever we say it is. AS are most times. It just so happens that its more convient if we all say it is at the same time.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

No. Dawn is, perhaps, whenever Flokin says it is, or Kaimiri. It corresponds to very obvious celestial and magical events.

The start of the new day by the calendar, I suppose, could be moved around.

[mmsword.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes, in your world. IN ours, our Gods, (if they exist, as no one has ever seen one or chatted with one, that we can tell. Some people claim to, but the courts are still out on if they did or not. If Gods do exist, they are very very shy here in our Monster world) have seen fit to make it change all the time depending on where you are and what part of the year it is.

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

I think it's that way in our world too -- dawn is when the sun appears. Or maybe it's when the light of the sun first appears, which would be a little more subjective. The start of the day by the calender varies based on politics and fiat.

Dawn (and the interval between dawns) varies based on the time of year and where in the world you're located. And, I suppose, on whether there are any large hills or mountains to obscure the sun.

Imagine if the sun was lit all the time, but the branches of the world tree rotated around their long axis so that half the time you were in shadow on the underside of the branch, and that was 'night'.

Now, as to the magical events that typically take place at dawn, I'm not sure if we have any equivalent.

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

So, on very cloudy days, there is no dawn?

Rotating branches is a peculiar idea. How would one live, if one were to be dumped into the void every evening?

And, um, when do you get your cley back?

[terrycloth.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. That describes about two thirds of the year, here, actually -- the difference between 'night' and 'day' is whether the everpresent clouds glow gray or orange.

As for cley... I'm still waiting. It's been about thirty years now.

[devon-alek.livejournal.com]

Like the debate about whether or not our world has gods, there are also many theories about if and how magic works on our world. Nobody can agree on those either.

physical constants

[tempralisis.livejournal.com]

We have other basic physical constants. Such as the speed of light (about 3 billion meters per second), which is so constant that even if you were moving 3 billion meters per second, light would still be moving 3 billion meters per second relative to you. I guess the best way to visualize it is to pretend that Here was running time as well as space.
-Tau

Re: physical constants

[sythyry.livejournal.com]

Eep! That alone seems like an excellent reason for not visiting!