IC INBOX for The Last Voyages

[magician_king]

You know what to do.

Comments

[tetractys]

[Huh. And these guys have Narnia in the same universe? It's a wonder those two didn't get into some kinda legal tussle.]

HUH. AND NO POWERS THAT BE ENDED UP STOPPING HIM?

...I GET THE IMPRESSION YOUR GOVERNMENT ISN'T AS ORGANIZED WITH COVERING THINGS UP AS MINE IS!

[Oh sure, you got your big clumsy fuckups like JFK and Roswell, but most of what Bill has helped the CIA with are things nobody will ever hear about in the news or otherwise.]

[magician_king]

[That might be his mistake. Quentin talks about Narnia because other people here do; he picked it up out of the barge library so he could say 'YES, IT'S LIKE THE FUCKING WARDROBE,' but there is no such thing as Aslan on his world.]

The government is pretty uninvolved. Magicians have their own system of governance that's a bit more with it but not like much.

Anyways- when Martin went into Fillory for good, the family reported the boy missing and everyone assumed he was murdered, and that was that.

[tetractys]

RIGHT, YOU MENTIONED! BUT IT'S TIED TO HOW MAGIC WORKS, SO NOBODY CARED THAT THE INFORMATION WAS OUT THERE FOR, YA KNOW, PEOPLE FROM THE INTERNET TO MAKE HALF-IRONIC PASSES AT?

[All he'd really had to do was set the statue up. Every time someone goes to find it, the pull gets a little stronger.]

ANYWAY. DOESN'T MATTER, I GUESS! WE'LL CIRCLE BACK TO THAT. I GOT ANOTHER ONE WE CAN WORK WITH. FLATLAND IS AN ALLEGORY FOR EARTH'S VICTORIAN ENGLAND! IT AIN'T EVEN A PARTICULARLY SUBTLE ONE. NOBODY CLIMBED THROUGH A CLOCK AND HAD AN ADVENTURE THERE!

PERSONALLY, I'M NOT A BIG BELIEVER IN THE CONCEPT OF ABSOLUTE TRUTH! BUT HAVING THIS RING HAS ME THINKING. IT'S EASY ENOUGH TO CURSE SOMEBODY TO ONLY SPEAK THE TRUTH, BUT COULD YOU CURSE 'EM SO EVEN WHEN THEY TRIED TO MAKE SOMETHING UP THAT WAS A LIE, THE UNIVERSE WOULD BEND TO MAKE IT TRUE?

[magician_king]

Even magicians don't believe in Fillory. And the way through only opens for people under special circumstances.

Besides, people who go through usually find themselves killed immediately. You're set up to think it's a kids' book. Then you get gored by a unicorn.

[tetractys]

SURE, YEAH! I MEAN, THE REASON I KNOW NOBODY VISITED FLATLAND AND LIVED TO TELL ANYBODY ABOUT IT IS SIMILAR. A TWO-DIMENSIONAL EDGE IS PRETTY MUCH AN INFINITELY SHARP KNIFE, AND THEY DON'T LIKE ANYTHING THAT LOOKS WEIRD!

[magician_king]

Yeah, I can see that. We wondered a lot whether we'd find a fountain through to Flatland.

That's how it is. You get to the Neitherlands first, and then pick your door.

[tetractys]

I SENSE YOU'RE AVOIDING MY QUESTION!

[magician_king]

What question? 'Wouldn't it be cool if lies came true?'

[tetractys]

I MEANT TO ASK IF IT WAS POSSIBLE TO CREATE THAT SPELL!

[magician_king]

You don't need to. It happens naturally, if you're a good enough magician and you believe your own bullshit.

So the way magical training is set up, you memorize and memorize and rote learn and practice, and then when you're in fourth year, out of five, you go for a special semester in Antartica. They take your voice. You wear white, you live in a cell, you fucking cast until your mind breaks. At the end of it, they strip you naked and you go out onto the ice and walk to the pole, where a gate brings you back to New York.

It's a kind of- [struggling for words, he picks Mayakovsky's] -Rubicon you either cross or don't. Your mind intuits the shape of magic, you begin to be able to feel your way through spells instead of memorizing circumstances and formulas.

It's also incredibly fucking dangerous, because doing magic isn't always conscious. When you feel something, thereafter, that same intuition about the shape of magic can mean you pull the thing you're wanting towards reality. This is especially true of frantic self-delusion.

[tetractys]

WHAT IF YOU WANTED TO GIVE IT TO SOMEONE ELSE?

[magician_king]

I'm so unwilling to do that that it extends to discussing the hypothetical.

[tetractys]

HOW COME?

BECAUSE IT'D DESTROY THE FABRIC OF THE UNIVERSE REALLY EASILY?

[magician_king]

Because it's a dick move.

[tetractys]

WHAT IF WE PRETENDED I WAS NEVER REALLY GOING TO USE IT?

[magician_king]

Cool.

You also had that bridge you wanted to sell me, right?

[tetractys]

NO, ME ACTUALLY TRYING TO CON YOU WOULD LOOK WAY DIFFERENT THAN THIS!

[magician_king]

Yeah, I have seen you try to con me, remember?

Either way, no dice.

[tetractys]

I LIED ABOUT SOME STUFF, NOT THE SAME THING!

LISTEN, YOU'RE GOING SOON, I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT! LET'S JUST FORGET ABOUT IT. I'LL WORK ON IT SOME OTHER WAY.

[magician_king]

We're not fighting, I'm just laughing at you and hard passing. And remember the time you tried to get me to say that I owed you an unspecified favour with no limitations as to scale?

The first time I killed you.

[tetractys]

OH YEAH! THAT WAS GREAT.

[good and hilarious times]

[magician_king]

That is when I decided to make friends with you.

[tetractys]

YEAH, YOU SAID AS MUCH!

I DIDN'T CARE THAT MUCH THAT I DIED BEYOND BEING FRUSTRATED BY THE INCONVENIENCE, BUT YOU PROBABLY FIGURED THAT OUT.

[magician_king]

You've always been really chill about the learning curve I've been on.

[Which he appreciates.]

[tetractys]

OH, NO PROBLEM! I'VE TAKEN MUCH MORE DISRUPTIVE STUFF IN STRIDE. IT'S A TALENT!

["Talent," "personalty disorder," same thing]