#mocksalad

When Matt calls him out on his directions, Warren's reaction doesn't seem like that of someone who was just caught in a lie. To me, he looks more confused? Maybe disappointed? Am I reading that right? It seems like he almost didn't know the direct route, or didn't realize it was an option. He very obviously didn't know about his inability to point out the "easy path", but did he know it existed?

I guess I'm curious if his adverse reaction was based on the choice of route itself, or if it's more about communicating the information to someone else. Like, if Warren was alone, could he say it? If he knew no one was listening?

Oooo so about that:

The ‘easy path’ is technically visible to him, but it just kinda…ssssliides off his brain. Subconsciously, he’s ruling it out before he even fully notices it. Like it isn’t worth noting. It’s not till someone like Matt points it out that he’s like “oh right yeah, That.”

Warren’s mostly upset that the mortals know he’s been making the trip harder than it needs to be, consciously or not. He really does want to earn & keep their trust.

Feel free to answer as much or as little as you like. Thanks!

Hey there! I am always totally cool with questions. I got a dome full of background information and only a narrative to try and spill it into otherwise😅

I do apologize in advance though, as I cannot summarize for the life of me.

So! When Raymond was teaching back in the 60's, the magical community was still very secluded. It wasn't a secret, but access to that information was incredibly hard to come by without already being within it. (For comparison, this is technically the same universe as my Rose & Laporte stories, and the magical community is much more open and lax in that universe when it comes to 'mundane' folks.) So, what Raymond was studying and teaching in those days were mostly magical fundamentals and how it works. In this universe, magic is a fact of existence/force of nature in the same way that gravity and magnets and time and space are. It's like an energy that permeates existence itself, and magic users are just those that can latch onto that energy manipulate it for their own use, sometimes intentional, sometimes not. Raymond's classes were about understanding what that energy is, how it can be harnessed, and what forms that takes.

Which then leads into discussing magical mediums (i.e. potion making, gemstone magic, sigil/symbol/rune work, enchanting, charms, etc, etc, etc) and I could really just go into a long babble about what that actually entails bc I've been hammering out the details of this sort of Mental Expanded Fantasy Universe in my head since... =checks notes= 2005, but i'll stop myself there to save everyone some scrolling, but that's the nature of what he studied and what he taught.

He will tell people his interest is purely academic, for the sake of record and interest, but deep down he just wants to figure out for himself. Thinks that if he breaks down the whole of magic down to its core components and understands every facet, he'll eventually be able to use it himself. Nothing else has certainly ever worked for him.

All that being said, I do think he was a very good teacher. You need someone who is passionate about a topic, and there are practically no other Non Magic Folk with a passion for the study like Raymond Archer. He's deeply fascinated with it all, and he wants to share that with as many people as he can. He sees a lot of value in the information, and thinks it can ultimately do a lot of good in a lot of ways (for instance, in making it easier for the magical community to integrate more seamlessly into modern mundane society. Understanding leads to Acceptance, and I don't think it would be a stretch to say that his papers and books on the subject were incredibly helpful on a wider scale than he realizes.)

So... yes. He was a good teacher, and I think he truly loved the job. It wasn't a class a lot of people were looking to take, as it wasn't taken very seriously still, but those who were there cared about the subject matter and that made it much more fulfilling for him.

What's this? Another FPS? The wonderful @mocksalad and I played as Blink Lightly and M1-A respectively! In this FPS, M1-A seeks to Fix Something. Can Blink assist in fixing something he's not even allowed to know about?

You can listen to it here!

Bonuses under the cut:

I couldn't help but notice you said that his transformation back to Pillar Forme would happen in a city.

But do other residents of Prahd, like, know about him? Obviously Raleigh knows, but is it common knowledge? Or is he "just some guy" to most of the populace?

Is the sanity of other aliens also at risk?

(If that's the case, then a city would be a particularly bad place for that to happen)

His existence is not common knowledge, no. The few folks who’ve met him still don’t know WHAT he is. He’s perfectly happy to be “just some guy” to the people of Prahd. The existence of unfathomable gods IS common knowledge to galactic society, but most folks don’t know there’s been one watching/curating Prahd since the beginning. At most some speculate abt folktales of “The Warden.” The only folks who know everything are Raleigh, her late mother, & a tiny race of creatures who worship him cuz he accidentally showed himself centuries ago. He hates it & its hilarious.

So, how often *does* Seiv fall asleep reading? What kind of books does he usually read?

Huh…y’know I’ve never thought about it before. 🤔

If I were to describe them like animals I’d say they’re similar—but different—species. The Narrator is a being of pure thought, while Warren is a more concrete creature from another plane.

They both thrive on immaterial sustenance and have a core Purpose or Interest. If The Narrator stopped Narrating, he’d degrade & eventually cease to exist, but if Warren stopped [REDACTED], he’d go into a centuries-long hibernation.