Throne: For angels' magic, there's a ratio between original and converted mass and volume – is this per "batch" that they change, or is this an over-time thing?
(I don't know if things instantaneously change, or gradually change, or what, so I'm trying to visualize it better.) Alicorn: per batch
like, they can keep shrinking a thing till it's v v smol
but can't do it instantly like that Throne: is the change that they pick instantaneous? Alicorn: No
Throne: does angel magic have any visible effects other than the change itself? (glowing or something – pretty sure no but just confirming)
also: how difficult is it to make food? outside an angel's abilities unless they've specifically trained for it? (I'm wondering if he can be eating while getting a summons, or if this is a semi-special occasion or something) Alicorn: no side effects
and not very unless you want to be really picky about the grain of your meat or something Throne: so an apple is totally doable? Alicorn: yeah Throne: sorry, clarification for the question about food – it's easy for an angel to make the food? Alicorn: yes angels can do food just fine but will need some practice to get complicated texture accurate
Throne: any particular synaesthesia for what a summons feels like or what accepting it feels like?
(e.g. a tug and then letting it pull you, a call and moving towards it, …?) Alicorn: I don't remember if I've committed to a description anywhere but don't feel strongly about it
Throne: tech is difficult to produce for angels iirc – is this due to a lack of knowledge of the internals, or it being difficult to change things on such a small level, or…? Alicorn: knowledge of the internals.
Throne: an angel could, if they desired, make the edge of an object extremely thin, I think? is there some actual boundary for how thin they can make it due to angel powers, or is it due to the fact the edge would break, or…? Alicorn: The latter.
Throne: I don't know if you can get blue iron, but presumably if you can it's by changing it to some alloy – if an angel tried making some iron blue, would they have to know what alloy or can they just desire the change? the material will presumably not be magically-blue iron? Alicorn: maybe if they naively blue iron they get it anodized Throne: how quickly could he make something blue? are certain changes slower than others or is it just the mass/volume thing?
I don't need a precise value, just sort of "cubic meter takes five seconds" or whatever Alicorn: it'd depend if hew as doing surface or all the way through Throne: all the way through – if it's consistent for "color change" and "change from dirt to gold" or something, this will hopefully give me an idea of how fast his power acts Alicorn: color is faster than dirt->gold
couple seconds to recolor a cubic meter I guess? and like fifteen-twenty-ish to re-material it with that much density change? Throne: were he just to recolor the surface of a cubic meter, would it look pretty much instant? Alicorn: yeah
maybe a second Throne: would the recoloring appear to spread from one of the corners? or would it all slowly recolor? (trying to visualize it now) Alicorn: He could do it any which way. If he's just trying to do it all at once it'll fade in from where he's looking. Throne: right, but it's from the point that he changes first or chooses to change in whatever order, he can't do "slow change simultaneously across the entire thing he wants"?
I'm possibly not being clear Alicorn: He can make it fade in simultaneously everywhere if he wants
Throne: it's preferential to see it – does he have to know where he's changing relative to where he is, or could a unique descriptor do it? Alicorn: Has to know where. Throne: if it were "five meters behind you" – would this mean he alters wherever he thinks "five meters behind you" corresponds to? If he had some warped definition of a meter, I'd think it'd use his warped visualization? Alicorn: yes. Throne: can he do something like "increase this thing's mass by 5%"? if he did "increase by 100%", and he had to do it in batches, would that be possible? can he do "make this thing's mass 10kg"? does it rely on how well he can visualize these things or does it use his authoritative definition as with demons? Alicorn: it's much more visualizationy with angels.
so he'd pretty much have to eyeball it.
Throne: I assume he can't change things to be "in motion" Alicorn: yup
Throne: he could presumably do a keratin bubble, although it'd be slow? Alicorn: Yeah.
Throne: Making a black hole is also feasible, probably, depending on how much density you actually need for a black hole – it might be really slow for an angel to do, but I don't think there's anything prohibiting it in his powers? Alicorn: They're short-range, so the hole would grab them. Throne: could he do the same trick as Cam does?
keratin iirc to get out Alicorn: An angel who wants out of a black hole would be better served shrinking it, but yeah, I guess.
Throne: mechanism for taking animals home excludes humans – is this because humans are special or is this because of a certain level of intelligence or consciousness, do you not care or know, …? Alicorn: personhood
I often allow magic systems to treat personhood as a discrete thing
Throne: opinions on whether an angel can change magical items? can't produce them but could he turn a magical item to stone or something? Alicorn: Depends on what about it is magical.
If Loki has attached a song to a rock, you could change the rock, but if you changed it enough that the illusion couldn't recognize what it was supposed to anchor to anymore the illusion would break
if the material itself is magic, no changey Throne: if I had some stone, then a magical material surrounding it, could he still affect the stone inside presuming he knew about it? (I assume yes) Alicorn: yes.
Throne: do they have to know what they're changing something from, or just what they want to change it into? Alicorn: Depends on how much similarity they want to retain to the original. Throne: so he can't just specify that he wants to change the color, he actually has to know what it's turning into?
or, actually have visualized what it's turning into, rather Alicorn: I think he might be able to do colors naively, I said Throne: right, didn't think it followed here since in that circumstance he knew it started as "iron" and now he wants "blue iron"
any clear distinction for what he can do naively and what he can't or should I just query you as necessary? Alicorn: hmmm
I think you can increase density (without changing material) by naively trying to make a thing heavier
and lighter by making it less dense Throne: 'naively' meaning 'without knowing the original material'? Alicorn: nothing else you can do like that springs to mind
yeah
The speed of angels' powers. Visible effects. Food. Summons. Tech. Sharp edges. Blue iron (color changing) & what the change looks like & speed of change. Knowledge of where a thing is (visualization is necessary). Cannot do motion. Keratin bubbles are possible but slow. Black holes are possibly possible but dangerous (short-range angels). Personhood. Changing magical items. Requirements to change a thing.
Could an angel shrink themself? Could they get arbitrarily small if they were willing to take a while at it? This could let them be summoned by circles the summoners thought were too small to grab anybody.
Angels can shrink themselves but are limited in how shrunk they can get their brains before it constitutes enough damage that they can't maintain the intention not to heal back.
Plenty, within "healthy, symmetrical, and mobile". Note that even limboites can do some body modification by declaring things not part of themselves; not-part-of-themselves fat or muscle or whatever will eventually wither away. Indestructible people can also operate thinner than humans safely can because they don't need energy storage for anything.
Throne: do most angels have halos or just a few?
(is it weird not to have one?) Alicorn: it is not weird not to have one
Throne: can he convert something into fire? Alicorn: he can heat things. Throne: there's a magical thing that he can't change
I'm wondering if he can set it on fire in any easy way
how fast can he heat things? Alicorn: not trivially
I feel like he could boil room temperature water pretty quick in kitchen-y quantities Throne: could he do something with gasoline? Alicorn: like five seconds to get pasta boiling
I am limited here by not actually knowing how combustion Throne: is the temperature change affected by the material?
if so, do you have opinions on if it's the density or the "molar heat capacity" or whatever? Alicorn: I'm thinking maybe affected by phase. Throne: phase as in gas/liquid/solid, and if so, phase only? Alicorn: as in that, yes, and… maybe also density
quicker to heat up gases than liquids than solids, and quicker to heat less dense material (per volume)
Throne: if he tried to convert air into a liquid, such as gasoline, how much do you think he could get in what sort of time period? Alicorn: it is faster to get a little gasoline from the air and then expand it than to convert more air Throne: I haven't previously asked how fast it is to expand things, actually, so I'm not sure how long it'd take for what sort of expansion Alicorn: I think you can double a mentally-tractable volume of stuff in like twenty to sixty seconds across the range of what I'm calling "mentally tractable" Throne: mentally tractable to visualize or to apply angel powers at any one instant? Alicorn: the first
Throne: there's a noticeable feeling if there's a gag iirc?
is there a noticeable feeling if there are no bindings whatsoever? Alicorn: you can sort of tell by forming intentions to do things and noticing nothing stops you
Throne: does the healing of deava & limboites happen automatically? (happens when unconscious, p. sure.) Can they suppress it? Alicorn: it happens unless they have a sustained intention that it not. they could sleep without healing if they wanted but not be brain damaged without healing.
by default they heal.
Throne: the daeva language fluency is in the dialects the summoner knows, right? Alicorn: yup
Throne: you said the range on angels was about a block, I think (or maybe "less than a block") – I'm not actually sure how big a block is since I don't think we have them in the same way in the UK
says 80m × 274m on a quick google?
for Manhattan, that is Alicorn: I have no idea why you think I can comprehend double digit numbers of meters Throne: is it like a soccer field, if you know how big that is? Alicorn: I don't think I've been to a soccer field since I was like 14
the distinction I'm making is honestly that angels can do "over there" but not "all the way over there" Throne: "fuzzy on the details, not extreme", okay
I wasn't sure if you had a stock figure for number of meters in a block
is it a flat yes/no as to whether he can do it if it's near the edge of his range or does it get gradually slower and/or somehow more difficult Alicorn: hmmm… some fuzz if the object he's targeting is partly in and partly out of range
otherwise hard line
Halos, making fire, changing temperature, making liquids from air, gags are noticeable so is a lack of binding, automatic healing, fluency, range
