auroraexpress | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Everyone
When: Day 45, early afternoon
Where: Everywhere

[ You've had your time to exchange candy and spooky stories, and the game has come to an end! Everyone who took part received a bag of candy to take to their train, as a bonus reward for the entertainment. Shortly before the game setting can fade away, Finn's going to declare the winners:

Thyme, Senna, Jasmine, and Clover ]

Aaand that's a wrap. With any luck, you guys had some actual fun. Don't forget to brush your teeth and, huh ... enjoy the candy?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Pure white! It’s not albinism and they do look very similar to a leucistic animal, but you can tell them apart by their gold eyes.

Leucistic? Does that just mean albino or something else?

Do they do cool things, or just like cool looking thing?

It's a different condition. An albino deer has a complete lack melanin and will have red eyes, whereas the leucistic deer has only partial pigment loss, so it still has normal eyes. White stags are magical animals, which means they generate a field like I do.

[Nod, nod.] Can they like....use magic? Are they intelligent?

They're not a human intelligence, like they still live with and act like regular deer, but they are very smart and they can understand a lot of intent and spoken word without being trained for it. And they do have magic! Historically that made them popular for hunts since they were basically impossible to catch, but nowadays they're also popular with really outdoorsy types since you cannot get lost if you have a white hart on your side.

That's...really cool.

And always fun to meet a strange new creature who can actually understand intent.

Obviously there’s exceptions, but most magical animals can. It’s part of what makes them possible to use as familiars or beast-summons.

Makes sense. To choose them as familiars.

Kind of interesting they end up smarter. Is there a reason for that?

You would need to ask a behavior specialist for a real answer, but a roc that's not smart enough to use its own magic isn't going to be anything other than a big eagle.

....what IS a roc's magic other than being an abnormally big and tough bird?

It's mostly support for being a big bird. Rocs and dragons like greater coastals need magical support for flight!

Gotta wonder if that makes it easier for the mathematicians or just drives them more crazy.

Neither! Magic-assisted flight is one of my areas of study.

Oh? So you know the math, because I would be interested in seeing that.

Do you want the basic equations or would you like to see a published article's worth?

....start with the basic and then maybe published.

I'm good at math, but I don't know if I'm that good.

Okay! I can make you a rough diagram for a Greater Coastal and one for a flowerdrake really easy.

[already digging in her bag for paper and pen]

Sweet.

[He will patiently wait because Cool Math Things.]

[it doesn't take long, she's putting the math down from memory. two outlines of featherdrake Lori and Greater Coastal dragon Tiberius, not in scale to each other— Lori is obviously tiny, but the measurements marked for Tiberius' length and wingspan make a massive dragon. his head alone is the size of a van. there's numbers marked for the individual dragon's skeletal weight, estimated live body weight, wing force, gliding speed, top powered speed, and some unfamiliar units correlating magical output with generated lift, acceleration, and total flight time]

So, two very different types of dragons, but they are both flighted so they do use it a degree! Lori's magic mostly allows her to fly without having a significant keel or extra muscle mass, while Tiberius has a focus on getting and staying airborne. Greater Coastals had an albatross-type lifestyle and while even a manmade glider can go unpowered for a while, magic enabled them have more maneuverability at different heights and let them come up from dives. Otherwise they would have had a majorly difficult time launching from the ocean's surface after hunts!

[He's watching her work, nodding along as the numbers are broken down. He can keep track fairly well until the magic comes in. He can do the stuff around it, but anything directly tying in is certainly a lot harder to get his head around.]

So some use magic to enhance their own physicality for flight, and the other....is it like affecting their own personal gravity?

No, they can't manipulate gravity, what he affects is more like controlling the wind and the shape of the air around him. Even though my familiar is a skeleton, with our efforts combined he's still able to fly in this fashion! He has a wingshape and flexibility that exists beyond the physical shape of his wing.

....that is quite the manipulation of wind to maintain momentum with a creature of that size.

Is that easier or harder than a skeleton? I mean, the skeleton obviously has far less weight, but magic would also have to take over the job of the muscles themselves to achieve movement.

That's part of the benefit of having a magical familiar! We can cooperate on that. He manages his usual flight, and I give the skeleton the ability to actually move.

Yeah, but I'm just wondering what is more energy. If he has a body, his own muscles and such can help power it, but no body and it has to rely fully on magical energy.

No, that's what I mean. He doesn't have to expend more or less energy, I fill the difference.