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Cookie is in a corner, fiddling with a Dreamcast that’s been torn open. “If I Could Turn Back Time” is playing from nowhere in particular, and he’s got, well, milk and cookies sat next to him. He’s dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and linen shorts, looking like his beach weekend was interrupted by the turn of the millennium or something.
And Kay, bless her sense of humor, arrives in a somewhat matching outfit: A Bright yellow button up with palm trees, a white bathing suit underneath, blue bermuda shorts, a sun hat, flip flops and a towel folded over an arm, a massive yellow-frame sunglasses.
In her other hand, a capri sun.
"I figured this was why my outfit divination was messing with me." a sip of her capri sun.
“Outfit divination? Wait, do you actually do that?” He slides the cookies closer to her, and takes one himself. Looks like oatmeal raisin and walnut, peanut butter (with crunchy, of course), and snickerdoodles are on the menu today.
“How’ve you been?”
"I only do it if I have to have some form of official sort of interaction with a body of political power that isn't my own." Kay explains with a little wave of greeting, they take a cookie and a seat. "And it's less of a divination and more of "which of these should I pick" and today, well, it steered me to match you."
"I've been doing rough for the better part of a few months, if I'm quite honest. Since Balm's passing. Lots of heavy, unpleasant implications."
Cookie nods. “I…yeah, I get that. Or I should say, I sympathize with the loss and the questions.” He smiles slightly. “If you ever want to…just hang out in a ‘civilian’ capacity, I’m always down for a movie or video games or whatever. I know sometimes just getting your mind off something that’s weighing on you can make a difference.”
"I appreciate the offer very much." Kay lounges a little in their seat, finishing the drink in hand and appreciating the cookie. "I think focusing on some of these issues urgently is an unfortunate necessity. But playing a game or two would definitely be welcome too."
"I've been inspired to work on some of the lessons you've given me on Time before. Through that whole ordeal, and maybe to pick up a trick or ten of another kind." Kay explains. "But my questions kind of exceed what I can reach on my own at the moment."
He nods, leaning back in his chair and dipping a cookie into his milk. “What’s on your mind?” He adopts his Magpie mode, smiling at Kay. “Interesting questions, I’m sure.”
"I have questions, worries and ideas about things beyond the abyss, in the supernal. I know the answers could be limited or unreachable at all." Diamond explains. "I've been curious about branching paths, potential futures and pasts that could maybe infer some things about the natures of our abilities."
"And trying to push forward with what I can personally grasp is granting me no wisdom on it. Even my dreaming ability is... dubious at best for the pondering of my mind."
He taps his chin, thinking for a while. “These considerations are theoretically researchable. Digging to the point of…discovery about the nature of our abilities is certain to be dangerous, but possible. Regardless, it will require becoming an Adept of Time to gaze upon possible futures, and to regard alternate presents, vis a vis alternate pasts.”
"Oh I'm already there and it hasn't worked. I can't divine the intent of a Watchtower from where I stand, unfortunately." Diamond leans forward tilting her head to the side. "Time alone may not do it, but being capable of moving backwards and re-examine choices from that point of view and comparing answers ought to offer 'some' of the inight."
"Plus, if I can reach higher than I can right now, I might be able to like, defend better against whatever time fuckery those assholes are cooking up."
“Ohhhh, I see better now. Yes, indeed, that is quite a reach, as it were. If it was possible, with the Abyss standing before you, I would think Prime might be required. I’ve been studying that avenue myself, if not with this goal in mind. And perhaps Space, too. The three would likely be useful in defense, along with Fate to allow for conditional effects. Shielding the city and turning back the effects of ‘time fuckery’ is, as for many things, plausible enough. There may need to be a meeting of the minds on how to proceed with such a venture.”
"There's that part too, but I..." A deep breath. "Will you help me reach higher with time? I can't do it on my own."
Kay then look to the side. "Fate might hold secrets for what I'm seeking too..." Kay looks upward to the ceiling.
"Since Balm has made her attempt to ascend and managed it, I've experience a bizarre merging of timeline, people learning things only I could teach. Stuff I've made being brought over there..."
"I feel the pull to go Magpie... but I still feel as if almost none of that is my own volition, my own will. I need Time, I need Fate to make sure I'm not triggering a trap that'll make things worse."
Another deep sigh "And it's so difficult to keep my focus on here. Defending the city, protecting the people that lives here, it is getting complicated for me to picture how to deal with the time fuckery, especially since I was affected by it."
He drums his fingers on his glass. “Alright. I will assist you. And I will study with you, and teach you as I may.” He grins. “Feel the pull, huh? Damn, things are getting interesting.” He springs up, and starts pacing. “There’s nothing for it, then…I’ll have to Master Prime after I complete Mind…mmm…what do you have in mind for the moment? I mean, what process would you like me to assist with?”
"With Time, in particular, one effect in particular has gotten my interest. It's the one where you travel back for a sizeable chunk? I'm not talking about shifting sand here, but like, I know there's something higher than what I can do. I'd be curious how that in particular function, what's the limit of it and the consequences of that"
Kay seems to feel reliefs at this moment. "What sort of Sympathy would it be to like, return to childhood, for example? could you go even before that? Or is that Archmastery to travel where the subject doesn't exist?"
He sighs and nods. “Ding ding ding. You have discovered the most problematic and troublesome use of Time. You can send a subject to their own past, and they can change things. This changes the past, permanently, for all futures. Well, or the present they’re returning to, and it’s possible futures. The only way to avoid this is acting on them before they return to the future, which may have its own complications. Also temporal sympathy is needed to send them back more than hours, in a practical sense. And yes, it is Archmagery to go back beyond a subject’s existence.”
"If say, I was to send you back a year. But before I did, I protected you with magic, for example. Would those spells travel back with you? Their duration would be... continuing from 'their own timeline' or would they say, end up lasting until their original expiration date?"
“Oh, that’s easy! The spell sending me back is still in the present, so the me in the past is the me in the present. Super obvious if you use Time sight to look at the thing out of time. All those spells on me are also still in the present, when they’re in the past on me. That’s why they could be dispelled before you cast them, for example.”
"Someone in the past could dispel them or someone in the future could reach back in time with their own time magic to wreck them, right?" Kay asks, seeking to make sure she understands.
He waggles a hand. “People in the past could dispel them. Casting into the past isn’t possible, as far as I’m aware, except perhaps for Archmages. The issue is reaching back from the present: you can’t temporal sympathy with the past to the past, that is to say, the only way to target the past of a thing is with its present.”
"So if I send you in the past, which then becomes your present, you could use your magic to influence it, right? You could say, forge yourself a destiny and come out of the trip with a shiny new set of artifacts because of it, for example?" Kay asks. "Or could I forge you a destiny, send you back and allow you to fulfill it at a time stamp that's more convenient and then return with the rewards."
"I know it's a lot of the same questions, I understand that, but sometimes putting concept I've understood through the ringer helps me grasp shit better."
“Yes and no. If you send me in the past, it is not my present. It’s still the past. Anything I change is temporary unless I die or return to the present. Or, anything I do is permanent if the spell sending me back isn’t dispelled before I return. I could, however, go get an artifact that doesn’t exist anymore in the present, and I’d have it when I come back. This is the complicated part. If I, for example only, was sent back a year by you, and killed you then, I wouldn’t zip back to the present because your spell never happened—I’d come back to a future where you were dead.”
Kayla laughs a bit at that. "What a strange set of working rules that is, that's good to know though, don't send anyone backward that you have a beef with."
"Vaguely related, but different topic. Regarding Fate in particular, I'm curious about Dooms in particular. Call it the Moros in me." Kay says. "Let's say I imposed a doom on you that regarded time travels and sent you back. Would it means you'd be affected all through the trip? Or would that be still subject to the stranges almost narratives whim of fate?"
That is a rather advanced question for someone to ask about Fate.
He blinks, and then smiles. “A Doom, such as lost in time, or something? Mmm, things do not flow so linearly, in that regard. I recommend choosing murder and then killing them yourself. Or laying a Hex that affects them if they travel in time, and then sending them on their way.”
"Fate always seems so adverse to control and intent, there's always this little twist it can turn inside out to completely mess with you." Kay playfully lament. "Even if I was using hexes and boons, the second you impose a condition, there's almost always wriggle room."
"It's that damn fickleness that makes it so.... frustrating." though Kay seems to be complaining about it, she also seems charmed by the idea.
"Yes, I did push my understanding of it pretty far too."
He smiles. “She’s a strange mistress, isn’t she? But you are right—it’s all about surge and flow and currents and things. You push, and weave, and let things flow. You instill control and intent with cleverness. You don’t Fate a man to die, you fate yourself to shoot him. You make it rain frogs, rather than let a distraction take the city in whatever way it will. Though those are big things of course. But you get the idea.”
"And all I wanted is to turn someone into a frog until someone kissed them." Kay says with a chuckle. "Which is simple enough, but you know, shit can happen and it's... I guess that's the bit of control freak in me that's struggling with the whims of something so far out that I'm not able to grasp it fully."
"It's a good insight into people drawn to Arcadia I'd say." Kay nods. "I have to say, it's sort of humbling to try and tackle it from my perspective."
He chuckles. “I suppose it can be…hair pulling from the outside. Sometime we can smoke some weed and I’ll tell you about how I incorporated Forces into my view of magic, I’ve been told it’s a real brain twister. By other Acanthus, even. It’s all so fascinating, isn’t it? But as far as Fate itself goes, it’s…like archery. How much do you focus on the bow, and how much on the target?”
"I focus on the math. Wind, gravity, angle, velocity. All variable... " A pause. an illumination appear in her eyes and her face "Son of a bitch..."
“Oh, I hope that was an insightful outburst. For me, it’s more…a lightning bolt is a transfer of data, and thus is an idea, flowing through time and dancing on the skeins of Fate. But I prattle, what have you thought of?”
"It's the bow analogy that led me to all the variable, I just got it. It's the variables. Even the lower effects play with variables. The dooms, the conditions, the hexes and the boons, they're just another like, aspect of variables I could deal with. Just like if I fire an arrow, I can influence a ton of stuff to make sure the arrow makes it." Kay nods "It's a simple realisation I think, but so far, I've always seen each like effect as something much more limited, now I feel like I got just how to approach it without control being foremost in mind."
Magpie beams. “Excellent! Glad I could be of help. Indeed, I think about it from the other direction. Or by feel, you might say. The arrow strikes the target because the bow throws it, and I hold the bow. I can make the arrow more likely to hit by making me more likely to shoot what I’m trying to. But for you, certainly. Adjust all those variables.”
"That'll definitely help me grasp it everything." Kay says, adjusting the bright yellow shirt over her shoulder. "I might slam my face into a supernal wall when I try to find out my answer, but at least, I think I might be able to see it coming or prevent myself from hurting myself."
"At least I hope so."
“Well, if you want someone standing outside the door just in case, I’m happy to be there.”
TheUserWin - She/They — Today at 12:08 AM
"I can already hear the screams on my end." Kay then proceed to fake scream. "Oh my god, why does it have snakes there."
"Want to go grab a drink? My treat, you just answered a lot of weird questions."
“Certainly! I’d like that very much,” he answers with a grin, slipping back into being Cookie Monster. “There’s this cool goth bar I found that serves like, drinks that are named Carnal Embrace and taste like purple mood lighting. Or we could go to a dive or something, I’m easy.”
"Yeah Carnal Embrace it is. We're going to clash that vibe." Kay laughs, gathering her things.
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