All Comments on 'Subclasses Ch. 08'

Speaking is quite problematic. When Beatrix says, "Freeze," my first thought was, "Oh God, you've just murdered Sarah." She obviously can't stay alive if her blood is frozen. You need to be careful with words when Speaking. Beatrix might have preferred to say, "Don't move," but again, that could be misconstrued. Should her heart stop moving? Or her lungs?

I know it's been established that *intent* matters more than the words you choose, but if that's the case, do words matter? What would the result be if Beatrix Speaks "lie down" but intends for Sarah to sit? Also, we know that Beatrix doesn't need to Speak out loud for her intent to become a reality, so spoken words must not be that important. Can Beatrix cause something she didn't intend? I'm thinking of a scenario where Beatrix is unaware of what she herself wants, and so her unconscious intent is different than what she thinks she is intending.

Another logistical question: When speaking, when does the power drain occur? For instance, if Beatrix Speaks, "I'm 24 hours, Sarah will do a cartwheel." Does Beatrix need to pay upfront for Speaking, or does the power draw occur when Sarah is compelled to cartwheel the next day?

Just some ramblings I had about the magic system.

Good questions! Yeah, so far basically every effect has had a hard-magic answer that I just haven't revealed to the reader yet, and I may never do so within the story itself since that's not really focus of the story.

Intent is, indeed, the reason for your first paragraph questions. The words are important/required. She can't produce an effect that is contradicted by the words Spoken, even with clear intent. In Chapter 7, when she produces a tumbler instead of a mug when she Speaks the word "mug", it's because a tumbler is a type of mug (i.e. container for liquid with a handle). If she Spoke "lie down" and meant "sit", Sarah would lie down. If she Spoke "Freeze" without the intent behind it, it *would* likely try to do the most literal thing and freeze Sarah's temperature, but that would cause harm and so it would have no effect.

You said that Beatrix doesn't need to Speak in order for her intent to become reality. That is only in the case when she is only targeting herself, and she's the only one (as far as she knows) able to do that. TBH, I haven't figured out why or how she can do that yet. This system is still in development.

As for when the drain occurs, a little happens up front, kind of like the energy it takes to set up some dominoes, and then once the trigger occurs, a larger drain happens.

Thanks so much for your comments throughout the chapters so far! Keep 'em coming. I'm glad you're enjoying my story. <3

I went back to reread, and it seems like I misunderstood Beatrix's explanation of when she can Speak without the verbal component, so thank you for clarifying that. The system you've thought up is just so excellent. I've had a great time imagining the different possibilities and being surprised when Beatrix does something I didn't expect.