Swimmingly

Still, the question is: who would win a bagpiping contest? The kandra could certainly adapt their biology to provide a steady stream of air into the instrument, but the Returned have perfect pitch and are perfect physical specimens.

I'm just imagining streets lined with vaguely disapproving skulls.

Stress and tiredness make me more verbose. There's a point where I can write nice prose without too much purple. That point is many cups of coffee and a sleepless night or so behind me.

We haven't started on the Catquisitors yet... Besides, I've always been curious to see what happens if you're spiked with the strength of a bear.

There is a book called "The Name of the Wind". Buy it. Read it. It's different writing, real wordsmithing by an expert at the art of it. Brandon Sanderson says that his goal is to write with words like windowpanes, letting us look through it the story. Rothfuss writes stained-glass windows in the shape of eyes, thin like eggshells, clear but for the tint in some places; thick and beautiful but obscuring exactly where they need to in others. It all glows, and there's the air of a quiet forest behind every word. Each sentence runs like a polished riverstone.

You're surprised that the immortal magical shapeshifters are highly ranked?

No, I'm just casting about for ANYTHING to distract me from an impending exam.

An UNCOMFORTABLE TOPIC appears? What will you do? BreathTaker selects RUN. Can't get away![

It can be light as a cake-sugar powder, dusting your hands and dewing into tiny water droplets. It can be heavy as dough that turns your digits first hot, then numb as you hold it. It can be a storm of sharp flakes, whipped to driving by the wind and stabbing like tiny knives. It can be the soft flutter of feathery confections, drifting to kiss you softly and leave teardrops behind. It can be hard on the ground, a shell of brittle glaze that guards the gentle white beneath. It can be a vast unmarked expanse lying untouched on a hill, some early weekday morning. It can be the mounded wreaths on a tree, defying gravity by delicate suspension. It can be the brooding white mass that flocks above, then falls - black against the glowing sky. It can be a thin, impoverished thing, thin on the lumpy dirt and showing brown and green all through it. It can be the imperceptibly tiny flecks of snow that drift downwards, near invisible to the eye but for the wind that whips it in subtle patterns. It can be a force of nature, or an accent to a winters' day. It can be the fairies that drift outside your window, late at night when the low white clouds reflect the yellow light of cities, dark falling shadows among jaundiced shadows. It can be a memory of dreamlike ice, mounded around you while you skitter down impossible hills forever ago. It can be a drift of dense quality, mounded by your father's tractor, filled with the gravel diaspora of a dirt road and hollowed out, to make a tiny, imprecise igloo. It can be the flakes that fall on cold water and are lost, moments of subzero chill in an all-encompassing grey mire. It can be a transitory toy of the cold times, sweeping down like a seasonal playmate to keep your childhood busy as the days lengthen. It can be many things.

Better idea: Step 1: Hollow out wall behind urinal, with crawlspace. Step 2: Touch the wall about a foot to the right of the urinal from behind the wall. Step 3: Wait for frantic user. Step 4: Apply Reverse Lashing. Giggle. (Optional) All of the above, but from the space directly below their foot/slightly behind them, so it actually curves down and back.

I need a flowchart with this: What is awesome? -> WRITE IT -> What awesome does it make? -> WRITE IT Warning: Do not overuse. May cause Michael Bayitis.

When you imagine trains as Chasmfiends when you're stuck at a railroad crossing. And your Toyota is a Ryshadium. Your airbag is Shardplate. YOUR AIRBAG IS SHARDPLATE. YOU ARE INVINCIBLE!

Well, to be fair, that's partly because the moderators tirelessly wait on the side with fire extinguishers that double as banhammers.

Papier maché

Well, let's see: -Hemalurgy transfers bits of Investiture in the Spiritual from one person to another -It's not an underlying mechanic of the Cosmere - it is Ruin's magic system. As a magic system, it likely has rules like needing intent, a focus, a target, etc. -However, it's implied that Atium used Allomantically breaks some of those rules itself, by supplying foreign Investiture within the framework of a system designed for Preservation's Investiture -Therefore, it would make a kind of sense for Lerasium to break the rules of Hemalurgy a little bit, by using Preservation's Investiture within a Ruinous system. -So, Lerasium used Hemalurgically probably is limited by the rules of Hemalurgy (must be placed in the body, degrades Investiture in transit) but also sidesteps some of these rules by already containing Investiture - it does not need to be taken from somewhere else -If indeed Lerasium can be used like this, hemalurgically, it should make sense that Atium provides it's own effects, not needing to use other Investiture. However, atium in fact can be used to steal anything. So, atium's Ruinous Investiture probably is a passive effect, doing whatever specific metal spikes usually do, but doing it with anything. -That suggests that using lerasium hemalurgically either drains Ruin's Investiture to perform the associated effects, or that it degrades the Preservation Investiture each time it is used. -Related assumed info from this: Hemalurgy consists of two sources of Investiture - the transferred effect and the direct effect. The transferred effect is the bit of the spiritweb ripped off and grafted on, and is determined by the type of metal used. The direct effect is the energy that keeps the hemalurgical creation alive while they are being spiked. This comes from Ruin, normally. Lerasium, used hemalurgically, provides both of these effects without needing a victim. Atium, on the other hand, has the Investiture that powers the latter effect contained within the metal; instead of replacing the stealing of Investiture, the ruinous investiture powering the first effect allows any piece of Investiture to be taken.

That could get tiresome, though, as it's Steel - so to run on it, you would either need to shuffle, crawl, or speedwalk. On the other hand, I'm imagining a blur of speedwalking death moving at the speed of thought around Newcago. The oscillations of their hips create high-frequency soundwaves.

I think the reason people like the University and Hogwarts so much is that people instinctively appreciate balanced, focused systems - case in point, look at what our obsession with Brandon's magic systems. The schools, as institutions presented as having a lot of history, having working by-products, and remaining stable without being boring, are things we're fascinated with. We can see the slots in the world there where we could fit in, as opposed to the more individual nature of the adventurer or traveller.

You couldn't do the arm one, sorry. Everything acts on your centre of mass. Compounding tin to enhance your sense of taste. Iron pulling while playing dodgeball with cannonballs. Using a Divine Breath to cure someone of being an idiot online, just to make a point.

How far we have come. Oh my.

Returned are like Twilight vampires: They sparkle They're immortal, but need human life-force every week to survive They're perfect physical specimens Oh wait Never mind They've got character development. Sorry.

That's what she was trying to be, anyway, even if she failed miserably. Besides, the entire scene is presented from Light song's perspective - and he's a little bit in love with her.

The craziest ones have transcended this reality. They have reached a level of fandom that has transposed their existence into the Cosmere, where they live their lives in utter contentment. Read the minor characters carefully - you might have known them, once, though their footprints upon this inferior Earth have been washed away.

Just a note, I feel that Truthcaller precognition is more along the lines of 'cryptic or self-fulfilling/defeating prophecy' than atium's "become an untouchable god of combat".

Oh god that is terrifying.

Yeah, a little late to the party. At this point, it might be better to start a new thread.