Are You There, Mounties? It's Me, Eaves

The Age of Magiq Dispatches from Lion's Heart
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Lion’s Heart doesn’t like electricity.

That’s the headline and the reason I haven’t been in touch recently. Turns out, it’s very picky about what modern amenities we install here. I’m jumping to the twist ending, but we’ve learned that there’s some old magic here. Permanent, protective stuff, and all the satellite signal and converting of sunlight into electricity did not sit well with Lion’s Heart.

We don’t really understand the magic in place here or how it functions (it’s VERY old) but we’re working on getting the castle acclimated, it’s just taking time. It’s like training a puppy. A puppy who’s a thousand-years-old and doesn’t like wifi. I admit it’s not the best simile.

We obviously aren’t going in to the village at the moment. The good news is that BC34 and the Sanctuary before has a long history of self-isolating, so it’s mostly business as usual on that front.

The garden looks awesome though! We’re not wanting for food, and our dear friends down the mountain keep leaving supplies at the end of the road. We’ve also started making things like soap and candles (castle likes candles) so we’ve been leaving stuff for them in exchange.

It feels nice to be able to give back, even if it’s just hipster artisanal goods.

I almost forgot, Yuridia has kept working on those leylines. Nothing new has come up except the fact that they’re all connected to a group of people who believe the writings of Fletcher Dawson are prophetic, even sacred. And they believe they have the actual Icons of Elainnor to prove it. Yuridia can feel faint currents connecting the four sanctuaries to New York. She thinks Deirdre may have worn “reflections” of the actual icons when she brought down the Storm.

But that’s it. Right now. I will, of course, work to keep in touch, castle puppy allowing.

Edit: So, I’ve mentioned Gav (Gavril) a few times. He’s been with the Sanctuary for years. Full disclosure, we’re together and have been for a while, but that’s not why I’m bringing him up, (though he’s the best, and adorable–)

But I was just about to post this to BC33 when he came in.
And he can see the forum now.
He can see through the wall.
That’s-- new.

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Eaves!

So glad things are going okay, even if the castle needs a bit of help coming into the 20th century (I know it’s the 21st, but that’s probably asking a bit much).

And hi Gavril! :wave: Holy crap it’s nice to see that other folks are starting to see us here. :eyes:

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So glad to hear from you, Eaves, and to hear that Lion’s Heart is managing despite the craziness of the world!

As ecstatic as I am to hear about you and Gavril (Congrats! :cjheart: ) I wonder about the circumstances of seeing the forum.
Does that mean the barrier is fading? Or that it’s working and letting in those deemed well intentioned?
Did we ever really explore the effects of the new age on it? Or is it now just entirely part of the new age and I’m being silly? (Hey other magiq has changed, so why not the massive spell that was done right before the Wellspring :woman_shrugging:t2:)

I wanna say this is a yay moment, though?

Edit: Best of luck training your ancient magiqal castle?

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Glad to hear you and your hipster artisanal goods are well. Please tell me someone’s taking notes on how exactly to acclimate a millenia-old magical castle to play nicely with internet? I have many, many curiosities about how one does that sort of thing and would love to read them, assuming they exist and could be passed along somehow. (Not urgent, obviously. Just, like, if someone feels like doing that…)

I would really, really love to know more about Dawson’s writings also. What about them makes people think they’re prophetic?

(P.S. - Hi, Gav! Glad you can see us now. You and Eaves please take good care of each other; he means a lot to us. :heart:)

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So glad to hear from you again Eaves, it’s been a while! Alongside the questions people have mentioned so far, I’m also curious what this group means by Deirdre’s icons being “reflections.” Were they just conjured images and the real icons were elsewhere, or did she have temporary copies of the real icons?

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It’s so good to hear from you after a while!

In the same vein as @Viviane, this is very silly but maybe you can try making candles at the same time as you turn on your electricity/internet every day! Like have someone sitting making candles when people are using the wifi. If it’s kind of like training a puppy, then theoretically the usual training tenets apply, so combining a positive thing with a negative thing might help desensitize the castle to some electricity haha! Eventually maybe the castle will figure out that internet = candles, which is truly conditioning at its peak silliness!

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If mere reflections could take down the storm, there’s no telling what this group may be capable of.

Nice to meet you, Gav!

Glad the wall is falling in places, the question is who is starting to see us besides Gav?
There’s sure to be a few unsavory folks with this newfound sight.

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Hey @Eaves! And hey Gavril! (Thanks for sharing that, Eaves. Always nice to welcome folks into Mountieland.)

Hmm, so all of the leylines connect to New York. A central point with four outlying points … basically a quincunx. (Not a geometrically perfect one, but sometimes geography trumps geometry.) There seem to be parallels between some of what we’re seeing in the W.E.L.L. and what the Sanctuary is finding. This one is weak, but maybe the next one will be stronger.

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Hello, Mountaineers.
My name is Gavril.
I should first say that everyone is well. Please don’t worry that I am writing you.

I’m sorry if I am unclear, I am still learning English for Eaves and others in Lion’s Heart who only speak English. I speak Hungarian and some German.

Eaves wants me to write to you because I can see you, and he wanted me to ensure I could also write to you.
And I can! This is very exciting news and Yuridia is working to better understand what is happening to the wall around you.

Eaves wanted me to say to you that we have been working toward training the castle to be more modern if that makes sense. to make it less afraid of modern technology? It is a difficult concept to explain even in Hungarian but especially in English!

But it is wonderful to meet you all!
Gav

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It’s nice to meet you too Gavril!
I’m glad that you can see and talk with us, and I hope Yuridia figures out what is happening soon.
Don’t worry about the explaining magic in English bit, we know what you meant, and understand that magiq behaves strangely with technology sometimes.

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It’s a delight to make your acquaintance Gavril!

Now, on the topic of the castle. You say training, is that a literal definition of what you mean to say into English? Forgive me if the question seems insensitive but I just want to understand if you are quite literally Training the castle to be more acclimated to modern tech.

If that’s truly the case, perhaps it may be of benefit to bring analog equipment into the castle first and allow a gradual transition more similar to our society’s progression with technology.

Magiq itself must have grown with us as well, seeing as most all of us here are only intertwined together by benefit of a digital medium and that digital medium not only connects us but has facilitated acts of magiq through video calls and coordination. It’s really astounding as a magiqal concept. The magiq of the castle was never inoculated like the magiq of the greater world, flowing along our own torrent of information that we call the internet.

Maybe you can speed along the process of inoculating the castle by starting with technology that mirrors that gradual, near natural progression and help the castle’s magiq flow in a way that is more hospitable to connecting to this digital era, so to speak.

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Szia Gavril! Good to hear from you!

@VictorianFlorist had some great ideas, and one more occurred to me: Are you all talking with the castle? As you try to introduce technology, perhaps explain what it is in terms relating to older technologies.

“This is WiFi. It’s sort of like radio—do you remember radio? Hearing voices from far away because of waves in the air? It mostly means people don’t have to shout as loud. Anyway, this is like radio, but for writing.”

Heck, if there are some good folktales, maybe retell them with the modern technology worked in. “Mirror, mirror, on the monitor, who got the most likes of all?”

My intuition is that the castle might understand a story before it will understand the technology.

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Hi Gavril! It’s so exciting to hear from you!

Lots of other people have given recommendations for how to “train” the castle, so I won’t repeat anything, but you could also try introducing technology that does a job the castle might have been built to perform or enable. So, for example, most castles were built for protection and security, so introducing technology that assists you with protecting yourself (maybe while explaining how it works like @Lexington mentioned) might help acclimate the castle. It might especially help if you specifically tell the castle about the Silver, because it might “want” (oh boy anthropomorphizing for the win) to acclimate to and maybe even adopt this new method of protecting people more if it “knows” what’s at stake.

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Hi Gavril!

It is nice to meet you too! I hope your doing well :slight_smile:

As others have said, there might be good ways to acclimatize/train the castle to get used to things. I agree with Wyvren, and will suggest using psychology this in the form of shaping? It’s used for animal training purposes a lot actually. It boils down to giving a reward every time the castle does the right thing or something similar to it.

But, that’s assuming a lot-- that the castle has wants/drive and understands reinforcement :tinfoilhat: :sweat_smile:

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Jó napot, Gavril, hogy vagy?

I’m glad the BC34 crew are doing okay, and that you’re staying safe! In times like these it can be hard to be certain everyone is okay, but I’m glad you’re taking precautions. If anyone does get sick, please DM me, I’ve had walking pneumonia several times in my life and I’ve memorized the procedures for limiting damage if you can’t get to a hospital for it. Obviously actual medical care is best, but I realize a secret magic castle in the middle of rural nowhere is not exactly peak ambulance territory. It’s also not peak pandemic passing territory, but freaking JOPLIN MISSOURI has had a spike and they’re about as isolated.

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Magic loves stories. This might be the best route for our Lion’s Heart compatriots to follow; if Figuration is still a thing post-Wellspring, it might help breathe new magical life into the castle and help bring it into the modern era.

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Hi Gavril! It’s so nice to meet you! It’s always a relief to see that we’re not alone here! Training the castle sounds really interesting, and while I personally can’t think of any suggestions to offer that haven’t been mentioned previously, I do wish you all luck!

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Hi Mounties, it’s Eaves!

Gav has been humble-bragging to everyone for days about how honored he is to be the only one allowed to communicate with you all at BC33. :roll_eyes: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

He’s adorable.

We are doing most of what you’ve suggested above, which, still, thank you for the suggestions, and keep them coming. The one thing we haven’t tried is telling the castle stories. And we are DEFINITELY trying that next. (Also, thank you for your concern about our health as well, it’s much appreciated.)

The castle’s job is to protect us, and it’s doing its job very well. But as it “gets to know us,” it’s also trusting our judgment a little more. It’s a delicate balance of trying to convince it we mostly know what we’re doing and mean no harm but making sure it “feels” comfortable making an executive decision if we miss something or make a boneheaded mistake.

The thing is… there’s no real way of knowing it’s working because we can’t talk to the castle. Well, we can, but the castle doesn’t respond.

Well, it does, but not in ways we’re used to communicating.

For example, we gutted parts of rotted wood along the southern parapet, which is the most severely damaged area of the castle. A roof caved in. We didn’t have satellite signal for weeks.

But we fortified the parapet with new support beams (Gav and his brother Garnet are both very handy when it comes to just about everything, but especially carpentry) thatched a broken area, and rebuilt some of the fallen stone walls, and surprise, we started receiving trickles of connectivity again.

Yuri says the castle is learning to trust us, and in turn, our judgment about technology (and crops, don’t get me started.)

I have a lot more to update you on, and will soon, but for now, thank you for your suggestions and support, and also Gav says hi. :eaveshug:

I hope you’re all safe and sound and have a little bit of Lion’s Heart in your lives too.

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All things have a spirit (or many). Taking care of those spirits is important to keeping yourself on thier good side.

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