03/10/07 AS75 Amulet

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

and who changed my title?

That would be me. As per standard, although I usually leave a note to say I did it.

[Aridas]

I never knew someone to change something back after a mod changes it...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Oh, it happens. Not often, and usually only once per person, but it happens. *shrug* We give the person in question an explanation, and it never ever happens again. ;-]

Although... there are the changes that admins make on the mods. Bill changes those back all the time... :-]

[ShadesFox]

I can't help but wonder when Kira gets its the amulet back.

[luiqui]

Hi, I just registered to say that if Abel's wings don't go *sproing* or at least *POP* when they reappear, I will be very sad.

I'm going to vote sproing. Sounds classier.

Also: I wonder if anything weird will happen to Hennya when she holds the artifact?

[Fex]

Oh, it happens. Not often, and usually only once per person, but it happens. *shrug* We give the person in question an explanation, and it never ever happens again. ;-]

Although... there are the changes that admins make on the mods. Bill changes those back all the time... :-]

*whistles* hehe ^^'' uhm I changes it back but it would be nice if you left a note why you did it becouse me are slow with some stuff =3

[superluser]

Nah. I'll leave the guesses about what will happen when Hennya takes it until later. After all, we've got a whole week before the next update, no? :-)

Good.  I do hate redundancy.

And keep in mind most mods are instilling a new policy to put the strip number up to help lesson confusion for readers since sometimes the date isn't enough.

It might be helpful to stick that new requirement in the Rules.  I think that most of the people who are starting new comic threads will have read the posts that led to this change, but some (clearly) haven't.  I think that just about everybody reads the rules, and would reread them when they've got that (new) tag beside them.

Just a suggestion.

[Goatmon]

Something about a Mythos touching that amulet gives me a bad feeling.  I'm probably wrong, but if I'm not... it's not gonna be pretty.

[Fex]

Nah. I'll leave the guesses about what will happen when Hennya takes it until later. After all, we've got a whole week before the next update, no? :-)

Good.  I do hate redundancy.

And keep in mind most mods are instilling a new policy to put the strip number up to help lesson confusion for readers since sometimes the date isn't enough.

It might be helpful to stick that new requirement in the Rules.  I think that most of the people who are starting new comic threads will have read the posts that led to this change, but some (clearly) haven't.  I think that just about everybody reads the rules, and would reread them when they've got that (new) tag beside them.

Just a suggestion.

*reads the rules again* O.O being banned for a day if you make a typo in the first post .... *hides*

I kinda wonder how do the tentacle heads of Abel look like? becouse so far I can remember we never saw those. We saw them hold swords but no heads

[Tapewolf]

I kinda wonder how do the tentacle heads of Abel look like? becouse so far I can remember we never saw those. We saw them hold swords but no heads

I'm not sure he has those.  Apparently Dan and Destania have them because their clan leader is still alive (although I'm struggling to find a reference to that fact).  I do not know if all 'Cubi with living clan leaders have this as a normal trait like the headwings, or whether it's a 'service' provided by Cyra to all his/her descendants which stops operating if he/she is killed.

Fa'Lina has them, but I suspect she is her own clan leader, so to speak.  If it's a spell and not a default 'cubi property, it's probably something that only an exceptionally powerful 'cubi can do.

[superluser]

*reads the rules again* O.O being banned for a day if you make a typo in the first post .... *hides*

I think that's ``you're banned for one day if you publicly mock Amber for making a typo in the comic.''

Seriously, there's nothing more annoying than seeing some gal come in and point to the typo and laugh.  And that's from my perspective of having to read it, rather than from Amber's perspective of being mocked.  There's a PM function; use it.  Nobody's going to give you a metric tonne of bay leaves for your insightful pedantry.

If it's a spell and not a default 'cubi property, it's probably something that only an exceptionally powerful 'cubi can do.

Dan didn't cast a spell to make them appear (A) when they made him coffee or (B) when they nuzzled Matilda.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

*whistles* hehe ^^'' uhm I changes it back but it would be nice if you left a note why you did it becouse me are slow with some stuff =3

Sure thing, I'll try to remember.

If it's a spell and not a default 'cubi property, it's probably something that only an exceptionally powerful 'cubi can do.

Dan didn't cast a spell to make them appear (A) when they made him coffee or (B) when they nuzzled Matilda.

I think TW was meaning "a spell cast by the clan leader"

From memory, Amber has stated that the heads on the tentacles thing is an indication of power. Oh, yes. In his cast page, "Dan's new wing tentacles have draconic heads. While unknown to Dan, this is actually a clan trait and if Dan had paid any attention, he would discover that he is from a rather high and powerful clan."

So, yeah. I seem to recall something about the -number- of heads being an indication of how powerful he may end up being. Precisely what the heads are, and how they're provided - either by the clan leader sortof passing them down as a byproduct, or whatever - would be interesting information to clarify. I guess we have to go catch up on all of Amber's past posts...

[superluser]

I think TW was meaning "a spell cast by the clan leader"

I'm trying to wrap my head around the logistics of that.  Does that mean that new spells must be cast every time new `cubi are born?  Does the clan leader have to see or know the child exists?  Is it physically/magically possible for the clan leader to gift heads to someone outside of the clan?

The other possible meaning (which I took for TW being deliberately ignorant to emphasize the fact that this information hasn't been explicitly explained and is thus non-canonical) seemed much more straightforward.

[Kenji]

I think TW was meaning "a spell cast by the clan leader"

I'm trying to wrap my head around the logistics of that.  Does that mean that new spells must be cast every time new `cubi are born?  Does the clan leader have to see or know the child exists?  Is it physically/magically possible for the clan leader to gift heads to someone outside of the clan?

The other possible meaning (which I took for TW being deliberately ignorant to emphasize the fact that this information hasn't been explicitly explained and is thus non-canonical) seemed much more straightforward.

It could be something aquired by the clan leader, then passed on through generations much like a curse would.
See: Miroku from Inuyasha, and Sasuke and Neji from Naruto.

For instance: Clan Leader casts "Form Clan Symbol". Leader's clan was infected by the symbol! Leader's clan passed on the symbol via magic! Leader has died! Clan symbol has dissipated due to "curse caster" dieing.

[Tapewolf]

I think TW was meaning "a spell cast by the clan leader"

Yes.

I'm trying to wrap my head around the logistics of that.  Does that mean that new spells must be cast every time new `cubi are born?  Does the clan leader have to see or know the child exists?  Is it physically/magically possible for the clan leader to gift heads to someone outside of the clan?

Amber seemed to be saying at one point that a clan leader is somehow able to project their power to all clan members - which presumably includes fragments like Dan.  Either that or the leader is aware of each new member of the blood.

What I was trying to say was that Cyra might suddenly have woken up one day¹ and decided that they wanted to have heads on their tentacles and devised a spell to do it retroactively to all current and future members of the clan.

¹Or whatever 'cubi do for inspiration

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I'm trying to wrap my head around the logistics of that.  Does that mean that new spells must be cast every time new `cubi are born?  Does the clan leader have to see or know the child exists?  Is it physically/magically possible for the clan leader to gift heads to someone outside of the clan?

Well, I'd assume magically casting something on a family, you don't have to re-cast every time the family changes.

But then, I -do- try to code things so that they deal with niggling details by themselves, and not come back and ask the user when the intent is clear. Maybe that's the sort of thing I'd expect the magic to just deal with...

I'd assume, as part of it, that the power that a clan leader gains by -being- clan leader is sort-of overflowed onto the other members of the clan, as it were. Tri-wing capabilities have been suggested to do that, it wouldn't be much of a stretch to consider some clan leadership to do the same.

The other detail is that it's -powerful- clans that have the tentacle-heads. So it's only when there's lots of power floating around that you get this side effect, as it were. So, in that situation, it seems reasonable that this isn't something the Clan Leader deliberately set out to do - like, say, Tapewolf's clan leader's screwing around with the genes of the clan to make them gay (most amusing, I do recommend reading that chapter to you. Especially the roses.) - but more a sort of side effect of the amount of power they gain by being what they are.


Having said all that - if it's something deliberate, I can't see why it wouldn't be able to be passed to someone outside the clan. Of course, that assumes that it's not gene-tied, the recipient is also a cubi, and a side effect of the passing is not pulling the target into the caster's clan. All of which are possible....

[Tapewolf]

The other detail is that it's -powerful- clans that have the tentacle-heads.

Of course, it might be that they have to be powerful to make the spell work.

So it's only when there's lots of power floating around that you get this side effect, as it were. So, in that situation, it seems reasonable that this isn't something the Clan Leader deliberately set out to do - like, say, Tapewolf's clan leader's screwing around with the genes of the clan to make them gay (most amusing, I do recommend reading that chapter to you. Especially the roses.)

Yeah - I had to cover a lot of the concepts we've discussed here to make that one fly.  I've tried to write it so that it's ambiguous as to whether the heads are a natural property in some clans, or something that's deliberately invoked.  My compromise in that case was that the clan didn't have full tentacle-heads, but Daryil worked around it to make it happen anyway.

The story is here for those who are curious: http://clockworkmansion.com/forum/index.php?topic=691.msg87201#msg87201

Having said all that - if it's something deliberate, I can't see why it wouldn't be able to be passed to someone outside the clan. Of course, that assumes that it's not gene-tied, the recipient is also a cubi, and a side effect of the passing is not pulling the target into the caster's clan. All of which are possible....

As you say, it might be that the spell uses genetics to identify clan members, which means that it might breed out if the clan fragmented and the blood diluted.

[Aridas]

and supposedly if the clan leader is dead, so much for the heads. It has to be some sort of trait of the leader. (well, duh. that was kind of redundant, wasn't it?)

[FlameSword]

Maybe he just didn't want to get his mom scared. ( Damned computer  )  my computer wasn't working well earlier.

[Alondro]

*Charline grins*  I suspect that not only will Abel's head-wings suddenly be revealed, but since Henya was not given the amulet by its owner, it will have a defensive reaction and KILL both her and Abel's mom!  Then he'll be all alone, surrounded by the bodies of his loved ones... broken utterly... ready to be taken in by Fa'lina and molded to cubi evil!   

I like thinking about these sorts of things!  *happy ebil lioness shuffle* 

[Manawolf]

The most a sensible person puts on such an item would be an eletrical shock.  After all, Kria required no chant to register it to Abel, and it's a simple disguise charm.  Not to mention it seems like anyone could cast detect magic to reveal its nature if need be.

[Aridas]

It would be cool if Abel's mom took it, and suddenly she wasn't Abel's mom anymore.

[Azraelle]

I just feel that bad things will happen to Hennya if she takes it ... seems to be the trend in this story that happy people are punished quickly and harshly.

[Alondro]

*Charline hisses at Mana*  You don't know how to have fun!  FUN would be to have the amulet cause their bodies to explode into liquidy-bloody flesh-ooze that would splash all over Abel and make him have seizures from the mental trauma.   

I'm sure Dr. Ink would agree with me!   

[superluser]

*Charline hisses at Mana*  You don't know how to have fun!  FUN would be to have the amulet cause their bodies to explode into liquidy-bloody flesh-ooze that would splash all over Abel and make him have seizures from the mental trauma.   

Once again, I must emphasize that exploding liquids on your enemies are never good, unless you have a tarp to protect yourself.

Or did you mean that no matter where in the world Abel is, whenever someone wears a charm, blood will splash all over Abel?

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

That could be entertaining....

[Manawolf]

*Charline hisses at Mana*  You don't know how to have fun!  FUN would be to have the amulet cause their bodies to explode into liquidy-bloody flesh-ooze that would splash all over Abel and make him have seizures from the mental trauma.   

I'm sure Dr. Ink would agree with me!   

Anyone can go after an innocent, it taks a MAN to rip apart zombie soldiers limb from limb with their bare hands.

The innocent are just no fun.  There's no sport in taking down someone who can hardly prepare for an earthquake disaster, let alone a killer on the loose.

[Reaver225]

What about hi-scores? Doesn't that count? You can make competition out of practically anything!

[Regal]

Hennya can't die. Who would make the tea?

[Alondro]

Dr. Ink would make the tea...