fandomtownies | The Infinite Consortium, Thursday Afternoon

Entry tags:

The Infinite Consortium, Thursday Afternoon

Liliana was able to appreciate the festive lights on the rickshaw today, as she had quite the haul to bring to the shop with her. There were the gifts she needed to drop off at the Photo Hut today before Prompto and Liz decamped to...was it New Jersey? Well, wherever they were going for the holiday. And then Steven and Marc's gifts as well. And after last night's realization of how vulnerable the mansion was, she'd gotten Planeswalked to several of her various homes around the Multiverse and then Portalocity'd back with various tomes of magic. Wards and enchantments in general were not her specialty, so it was time to hit the books.

...Which she was outwardly grumbling about, of course, but she couldn't pretend like she didn't enjoy this aspect of being a magic user. Studying old spells, putting together new ones, experimenting until you discovered the perfect balance of lethality and mana cost...Most of the useful tomes she had for this were for blue mana, not black, so there was the additional complexity of having to adapt whatever base spell she chose...

Yeah, okay, secretly Liliana was having a great time and before she'd been at work an hour, she'd already filled a whole page with jotted notes, half-solved equations, odd runes and geometric shapes, and a list of pages and titles for future reference.

As pretty as the lights were on the rickshaws, Liliana would have preferred another snacky day. Chunks of gingerbread wall or bits of a giant jelly donut couch would go perfectly with an afternoon of pouring over magic texts.

Hmm...if she combined a spell from The Tome of the Infinite to allow her to substitute black mana for blue and then cast the wards from Sarevok's - or, wait, was the one she was thinking of in that old wizard's spellbook - but find a way to integrate it with the spell from the book she'd 'borrowed' from that tedious one-eyed lich and had never gotten around to returning...

Magical Artifacts Make Great Gifts!
Come in and find the perfect gift today!

[Open!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yes, but also more complicated than that," Liliana said. "Here, come with me back to the counter, I'll show you."

She led him back over to the counter, where there was one tall chair behind it, the counter in front of it full of books and scattered papers. In front of the counter was a perfectly normal armchair that hadn't been there when he came in. Liliana took a seat in the chair behind the counter and pulled out her notebook.

"Don't sit down," she added casually. "That's not a proper chair, it's an ambush predator. Just ignore it and eventually it'll go away." She glared at the armchair. "Shoo. Stop trying to eat my customers, nobody thinks you're cute."

Humphrey followed Liliana over to the counter and did a small double-take when he saw the chair there. He was pretty sure it had not been there before.... his observational skills were not that bad since arriving and adjusting to Fandom.

"Wait...THAT is another magical thing that wants to eviscerate me?" Humphrey said with wide eyes as he took a step towards Liliana and tried to keep his distance from the chair. "Is EVERYTHING magical dangerous in some way?"

"Oh, it's not after you in particular," Liliana said. "And--in a way, of course?" She looked at him, a little confused. "Everything magical is powerful, darling, and power inherently carries dangers. The flying shoes I offered you before are dangerous because you could fall from a great height. An invisibility cloak can be dangerous if you're in a crowd that cannot see you." She shrugged. "That's just how life is, darling. But, what I believe you mean to ask is if everything magical was designed with the express purpose to harm. And the answer to that is 'of course not.' I will be both surprised and disappointed if you're still somehow working your way through the idea that magic isn't real, but make the snap decision based on two items that all magical artifacts are harmful."

"No no... just... trying to figure out how magic, in a world where it does exist, how it is utilized...." Humphrey said still looking at the chair with a mix of caution and curiosity. "Guess it's about the same as what they say... with power comes responsibility, it's all about being responsible with how you use that magic power."

"Precisely," Liliana said. "And, lets face it, from what history I've managed to glean, your world is no better than mine when it comes to putting a great deal of power and creativity towards the ability to kill things better and faster than one's peers. You don't have magic. We don't have guns."

Humphrey nodded. "I think I am glad that magic is not as big a thing... I've seen far too many crimes committed without it. I can't imagine the cases I'd be working on if magic was an option in the hands of people who can so easily hurt or kill with what is already available. I... would like to think there would be those... myself included... who would use it for good but I have a feeling we would be the minority by far."

"Define 'for good,'" Liliana said, propping her chin in her hands and letting him dig himself a hole if that's what what he desired to do with his afternoon.

"Well I mean... without malicious intent. Used to accomplish goals and needs but not with the explicit intent to do harm in the process..." Humphery said thoughtfully. "There's no true universal concept of what is 'good' or 'bad' in all situations so... I guess 'for good' would be to do what is needed with the minimal amount of harm or hurt?"

"And in this reality that you're imagining, how does the magic work?" Liliana asked, intrigued.

Edited 2023-12-22 00:25 (UTC)

"Well, I imagine that perhaps it would work based on the individual's strengths and abilities. Their natural talents or something based on their personality and character?" Humphrey said after a moment's thought. "Magic that helps with wisdom, insight, or learning would be something an individual who values knowledge wold possess? If... if there's magic for such a thing at least."

"Mmm, that's almost close," Liliana said, with a pause that might have given Humphrey a moment of excitement before adding, "but in a very fairy tale, story-for-children kind of way."

She looked around and then pointed to a wooden chair, much like her own, tucked against a wall. "Fetch that chair, darling, you're about to get a crash course into magic, so you might as well be comfortable for it." She frowned. "Carefully, if you please."

Humphrey was about to say something about the little reprimand reminder but... Ya know, that was fair. He carefully got the chair and brought it over. He managed to do so without incident too!

"So, what then is magic like actually?" he asked as he too a seat, gis natural curiosity starting to get the better of him just then.

You can have a reminder-free day when you've earned a reminder-free day, Humphrey.

"So magic - at least in my section of the Multiverse - runs on mana," Liliana explained. "There are five colors of mana - and colorless, though that doesn't matter, for this conversation - and each color of mana stems from a particular type of land, and is more or less suitable for different types of things. Which isn't to say there isn't an overlap or that you can't brute force certain things, but just because you can use the back of a hammer to unfasten a screw doesn't mean you should. The mana wants to be used in certain ways for certain things."

She drew a circle and then divided it into five sections, then labeled each section with a color: black, blue, white, green, and red, where the red was right next to black. "The five colors of mana," she said. "There's a great deal about the interplay of the colors, both their allied colors and their enemy colors, but that's advanced understanding. It's a philosophical question, does the mage choose the mana that fits them best or does the usage of that type of mana influence the mage - or both - but that doesn't much matter for our purposes. The easiest magic to do involves tapping into the mana that you are more philosophically aligned to and using it to do the kind of magic that it is best suited for. And none of it comes with a moral component. White mana isn't 'good,' black mana isn't 'bad,' it just is. With me so far, darling?"

Edited 2023-12-22 02:40 (UTC)

Humphrey sat and listened as best as he could. At some point, he had fished out a couple scraps of paper from his pocket and started jotting random things down as Liliana spoke.

"A bit like the nature vs nurture debate our psychologists have" Humphrey considered. "Does the way we are raised affect how we turn our or are we already programmed to be included in certain characteristics and behaviours? I personally tend to see both as viable. Might be the same as far as the mana goes."

He considered the sketch Liliana had made and jotted down a quick one of his own as he nodded. He was following so far for the most part.

Edited 2023-12-22 04:47 (UTC)

"So the types of things you were talking about sound like they'd be under the purview of white and blue mana," Liliana said. "White mana lends itself to things like law, community, structure, and conformity. The goal of white mana is peace through the imposed order. Which all sounds quite warm and fuzzy on paper, I'm sure, but, again, mana does not follow morality. So a warm and fuzzy collective of people who have devoted their lives to peace and sharing is no more valid under the auspices of white mana than a fascist regime where anyone who speaks out against tyranny is ruthlessly put to death. White doesn't care what kind of structure is imposed, so long as something is."

She pulled out a piece of paper from her own notebook and slid it over to him, along with a pencil. "A hivemind where there is no free will? White mana. A stagnant society where innovation and free expression are forbidden? White mana. The dystopian worlds of Omelas and ~~meta for-~~Harrison Bergeron? All of those are not only permissible with white mana but are, in fact, prime examples of it. It is not that people are corrupting the principles of white mana, it is that those principles exist in a vacuum and while it is the mana of morality, that morality is whatever the dominant society says it is, regardless of whether or not you would personally agree with it."

"So again, the idea of no universal moral compass or accepted idea of what is right and wrong in every situation" Humphrey said as he studied the notes for a moment. "So then based on this idea of white mana then black mana would be the opposite? Not inherently 'evil' or 'bad' but simply not as bound but ideas of justice and innocence? I'd assume black mana is focused on power, control, strength, and manipulation of one's environment. Again, not inherently selfish or wicked but more focused on the idea of self-preservation and using ones own strength and abilities to take care of wants and needs?"

"White mana will nod to the concept of justice, but has no place in its understanding of innocence," Liliana said before considering the rest of his commentary.

This time, the smile she bestowed upon him was neither shark-like nor a trap. It was pure pleasure and pride. "Precisely!" she said. "It's rare anyone gets that so quickly. Power through competence, or, some might say, ruthlessness. Black mana, at its most fundamental core, is the mana of free will. It is gathering and keeping enough power in order to control your own life and your own destiny. So, yes, it can easily be twisted into something power-mad and evil, far more easily than most other colors, but again, that is the individual doing the twisting, not something inherently twisted in the mana itself."

"Like giving a weapon to someone- the way they choose to use it and what they use it for is their choice and their influence, not necessarily the weapon's. Or even a tool- a medical tool can be used to heal or harm, it's up to the one wielding it to choose how to use its power..." Humphrey considered thoughtfully.

"And, take it from me, healing and necromancy are far closer than most people find comforting," Liliana said with absolute authority. "They are a Venn diagram with significant overlap."

"Then you have blue, which is allied with both black and white," Liliana said. "It seeks perfection through knowledge, and your mentions earlier of insight and learning, that's the purview of blue. Blue is all about that drive to learn, that need for precision, the search of mastery. For blue there are no limits, no boundaries, no destiny, other than the possibilities you can unlock by learning. It specializes in control, controlling what others can and cannot do - removing that sense of possibility from its enemies. And while it's also the color of cleverness and sheer brilliance, it's also the color of lies, trickery, illusions, confusion, and all magics of the mind."

She leaned back and smiled at him. "So, now then. Tell me how blue mana can be used for your 'good' and also how it can be used for whatever your definition of 'ill' might be."

Humphrey listened and looked at the notes he jotted down and the nonsensical sketches he had made. "Blue is like the untapped well. You can drink from it in moderation and have a good balance and understanding of the mana and magic associated with it. Or you can ration it and use it sparingly and never fully tap into it. Or you can gorge yourself on it and end up with a case of 'too much of a good thing."

Humphrey fell silent for a moment as he thought a little more. "Blue mana in a line of work such as mine, would help with perception, gathering and understanding evidence, and solving the unsolvable crime that comes my way. But it could also be just as easily used by someone to commit the perfect crime, to understand how to cover their tracks, conspire and manipulate evidence, and get away with what they want to do."

Liliana nodded, again giving him the pleased smile of a teach with a student proving exceptionally clever. "Though it can get even worse than that," she said. "Picture pure rationality without compassion or emotion to mitigate it," she said. "Policework where there is only the law and no room for clemency, mercy, or extenuating circumstance. Imagine a world where anything can be sacrificed, so long as it is in pursuit of knowledge, where any atrocity is seen as acceptable so long as something was learned from it. Individual intelligence is the sole standard of worth or merit, and only those who can meet some arbitrary standard of intelligence are seen to have value in that society. That is blue living up to its most perfect standards."

"That is a terrifying thing to even think about" Humphrey said with a slight shiver, thinking about all the time those very things, compassion, understanding, and clemency had come into play in shape or form in so many cases he had worked. "So basically... all mana, regardless of its color or perceived alignment, could be a tool for any cause- it is whatever the person utilizing it decides to do with it." He thought a moment more before adding softly, "I am not sure I'd want the responsibility of trying to manage that... it seems like a daunting thing to try and understand and balance."

"Exactly," Liliana said with a shrug. "The mana abides by its own rules and those rules, like all rules, can be twisted to suit somebody's ambitions of vice and cruelty. The fascist leader of a totalitarian regime can easily a master of any of the colors, it's the flavor of the tyranny that would give it away. That's what I would impart on anyone I try to explain my magic to; that it's not the color of magic that you wield, its what you do with it that defines a mage - and that even that is a difficult thing to judge, because you are only judging based on your morality, which is neither absolute nor universal."

Humphrey nodded thoughtfully as he looked at the various scraps of papers on the table in front of him now. It was a lot to figure out but, in some strange way, it actually made sense. For it being mana/magic and all that. It was both fascinating and also terrifying to think about too deeply.

"As for the responsibility--" She nodded in the general direction of the station. "You're a police officer, are you not? You're in a position of authority over most civilians--" was Liliana excepting herself from that group? Absolutely she was "--and so you have the responsibility to utilize the law fairly and uniformly, but also balancing that with mercy and compassion. Is that somehow less daunting?"

She sat back and looked at him. "It's one of the reasons I don't actually wish for power over other people. I do not wish rule, I simply refuse to serve."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject