shitposting rave 2, electric boogaloo

(Eliana's aura flares brighter again - eyes more silver, hair more gold, the air around her gaining a rosy tint - and she firmly looks away.)

 

[Silver tilts their head, looking curiously at Eliana's aura.

It is very interesting, but now probably isn't the best time for Science Questions. They spread their own wings instead, iridescent undersides shimmering. Mirroring is obviously a Friendly Social Gesture everywhere, not just on their home planet.]

 

The contract has also given him the ability to invoke three proxies to fight alongside him in combat. They are representations of three chakra points within his body, one that represents his head, one that represents his feet, and one that represents his body.
...
They all appear to be manifesting as different versions of Cronus. O_o

 

I wonder, Eliana, would you consider the Ivory Knife cursed?

 

Dude, whaaaat? Why? One'f him's bad enough!

 

The three proxies will perish once he is safely out of combat. Only one of each can be summoned, and only for the purpose of killing someone, as many times as needed to get the job done.

 

Okay, okay, that does sound super useful, 'specially since it doesn't sound like he's got too much a crew of his own? But like. Why do they all gotta be him?

...they can't talk, right?

 

...possibly? It's certainly an artifact-level enchanted item. Jecht would insist that unless it imposes some kind of cost on its user, it does not technically count as 'cursed,' but he... struggles with nuance, for all that he's knowledgeable.

From what I understand, the Ivory Knife simply kills, anything, am I correct?

 

This is what we in the Multidimensional Paradigm Theory world call an FSA problem.

That's a totally academic respectable jargon acronym, you know, not something I just made up*. It stands for Fucking Semantics Again.

Eliana's defining "cursed" as "has properties inimical to the continued life and safety of the user," or at least "imposes some kind of cost on the user, as per Jecht".
Genie's defining "cursed" as "has properties inimical to the item itself and/or any consciousness it may possess".
"Cursed" can also be narrowly defined as "having literally been changed in reaction to a cursing spell cast by a magic user or a curse laid upon it by a being of superior power".
Cursebreakers like my wife tend to go with wider definitions that include any and every problem a person might develop after being involved with a demon or a malicious spellcaster, or handling an item which has been used as the material component of a malicious spell cast by a mortal or given malicious power by a being of superior power. They're not actually concerned with the problems of inanimate objects.

The actual argument you're trying to have is whether Genie is harmful, and I think that we're all in vehement agreement on that score; we're arguing about the technicalities, which can be useful in terms of figuring out what to do about the problem, but because of the nature of this liminal 8/9 space (type dreamscape), none of us can actually do anything about the problem unless we're in this idiot fucker's actual reality. If any of us is, then we might be able to help, but let's remember that FSA problems obfuscate reality and part of any plan of action has to be making sure you all agree on what the words you're using actually mean before getting into arguments about them. Otherwise, there might be better uses for our time.

*It's respectable academic jargon because I made it up 20 years ago and I wrote most of the commonly used textbooks in this part of the multiverse.

 

He controls them exclusively. They will talk if he wills it so, but have no special powers of their own due to his disbelief in magic. However, due to the nature of the game he has played, one has a high imagination, the second has a high vim, and the third has a pulchritude that is not quite so terrible as usual. They are Yam, Lam, and Om, respectively. However, he may name them as he pleases, since I cannot control what he decides to do with them. Just think of them as his oc's.

 

...I wasn't trying to have an argument?

I was trying to ignore the gun, and discussing semantics of a categorical definition that has specific repercussions in my original universe felt like a good way to do that, since someone else here seemed interested.

 

DOES THIS MEAN I CAN PUNCH THE GUN IN MY LIKE FUNCTION AS A SOON-TO-BE-CURSEBREAKER?

 

Argument in the academic sense--the argument you lay out in a paper or debate--not in the sense of actual hostility.

Although G-d knows we academics can be hostile and petty when we disagree with each other, but I try to confine the expression of that to pranking.

 

It means that after you figure out what would actually break the contract between Cronus and the gun, you can do that if he asks you to. It also means that you can destroy the gun, once you find out how to do it, and are able to meet it in a space where that's possible, as being a public menace.

But don't punch it here. It has the option not to let you connect, and if you do connect it'll let you connect only so that it can get something nasty on you that my wife and your sister and pride-kin and clade will have to figure out how to get off of you.

 

When do we get to go make crop circles in the quad?

 

All right then.

Using that definition, the actual argument I was trying to have was a discussion with Jame to explore the limits of what 'cursed' means in my setting, using an object she's familiar with as an example. I was specifically and intentionally not discussing the gun, as I am well aware I can do nothing about the gun here, and I am never going to that universe, and I'm trying to ignore it.

 

...welp. Time to fraggin' book it if any of 'em show up, thanks for the warning gun-dude.

 

I do have a hair trigger, and punching me may result in a bullet entering inside of you, and growing into a gun should you survive.

 

It kills anything its blade touches even slightly. It does feel to me that it has an eagerness to be used, but perhaps because I am its intended user?

 

I have mentioned how to end the contract, however. It ends when he shoots himself in the head, where we will "negotiate" the termination of the contract inside of his mind. Nothings will grant him power he may use to win the negotiations, which he may obtain by killing people. If I win, he stays dead, and if he wins, he will return to the land of living, and I will die.