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aldersprig(Setting: Modern-postmodern urban fantasy dystopic surveillance state. I wrote this on the bus, so totally up for logic holes being pointed out)
Magic in Jen’s ‘Verse works by encouraging or discouraging what’s already happening in the world. The more you go with the flow of the world, the less magic it takes.
So you can encourage water to flow a little more heavily over a spot, or to move to another spot. If it’s another low-lying spot, it’s not so much magic, but if it’s a high place, then that takes more magic.
Magic makes little pulls in the fabric of the world. Small pulls, only someone who is actively looking for them AND sensitive to the magic and to the pulls will find. The larger the pull, the more likely a magic-user will find. And really big pulls leave runs in the fabric of the universe that even laypeople will — and do — see.
Magic accretes where it is used. If you use a sigil to make yourself look younger, over and over again, eventually the pull is going to be visible in ways that a normal person will notice — you seem creepy, the wind goes the wrong way around you, grass dies or grows under your feet, you have witch-marks or the mark of the moon…
To move magic off of yourself, it’s generally clever to use more magic to benefit others than to benefit yourself.
The Agencies deal with this problem by delegating the magic use to Agents, Workers, and Faces.
Magic in Jen’s ‘Verse works by encouraging or discouraging what’s already happening in the world. The more you go with the flow of the world, the less magic it takes.
So you can encourage water to flow a little more heavily over a spot, or to move to another spot. If it’s another low-lying spot, it’s not so much magic, but if it’s a high place, then that takes more magic.
Magic makes little pulls in the fabric of the world. Small pulls, only someone who is actively looking for them AND sensitive to the magic and to the pulls will find. The larger the pull, the more likely a magic-user will find. And really big pulls leave runs in the fabric of the universe that even laypeople will — and do — see.
Magic accretes where it is used. If you use a sigil to make yourself look younger, over and over again, eventually the pull is going to be visible in ways that a normal person will notice — you seem creepy, the wind goes the wrong way around you, grass dies or grows under your feet, you have witch-marks or the mark of the moon…
To move magic off of yourself, it’s generally clever to use more magic to benefit others than to benefit yourself.
The Agencies deal with this problem by delegating the magic use to Agents, Workers, and Faces.
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Date: 2017-04-05 03:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-05 03:23 pm (UTC)It made me happyish.
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Date: 2017-04-05 05:35 pm (UTC)It gives a lot of connotations to the setting, is what I was thinking.
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Date: 2017-04-05 05:36 pm (UTC)… Oh. I’m having that sort of bad day.
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Date: 2017-04-05 07:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-05 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-05 04:59 pm (UTC)Magical BVG ended up being more like world-of-superheroes, but high school.
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Date: 2017-04-05 05:33 pm (UTC)Also yesss. Hey, if you have some time to spare later, I have a magical girl webcomic for you to read. For research. Ping me on gchat when you're home and have some free time.
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Date: 2017-04-05 11:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-14 05:00 am (UTC)Blindsprings
Backlash
Tamberlane
The Hues (also magical girls)
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Date: 2017-04-06 06:43 am (UTC)The last two paragraphs feel like they meander further away from the rest. No mention of magic for neutral or malign purposes? What makes a magical action more or less for oneself or others? How much is this honest attitude and how much is it technicality?
And then the Agencies thing is just out of left field with no structure between there and the un-capitalized magic-users and laypeople.
What do runs in the fabric of the universe look like to laypeople?
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Date: 2017-04-06 10:21 am (UTC)I’ll have to poke at that first set, ‘cause I’m not sure yet, write more about The Agencies, and think about that.
A small run, they just… don’t see. A big one ends up with glitches, deja vu, things that don’t make sense, UFO sightings, yeti...
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Date: 2017-04-07 06:42 pm (UTC)Can doing a lot of (benign/beneficial) magic on another person, a layperson, cause them to develop magic creepiness?
If magic is intended to be beneficial but turns out to be detrimental, how does that affect magic creepiness/buildup?
How aware are laypeople in general of magic working and magic workers? How seriously or unseriously do people take UFO and yeti sightings and and dead grass footprints across the lawn and other "glitches"? (Don't default to here-and-now assumptions unless you've thought about it and mean to. :)
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Date: 2017-04-09 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-10 12:22 am (UTC)Posting to come.