Welp. You were right.
"he is"
Kinky.
Just make sure he preps you.
"then"
"attaches"
Wonder what he considers to be waste.
Because you nearly drowned them.
"than fix"
Unfortunately it's still in fashion in a lot of places.
And we're back to playing doctor.
Thank you, corrected.
That's Cold War technology actually, used as an anti-submarine weapon. In Real Life they were withdrawn from service by the nations that possessed them(including the UK) around 1990 partly because of nuclear disarmament and reduced tensions from the Cold War ending, partly because they were being replaced with longer ranged and more accurate conventional torpedoes that did the same job but better and without the scary "nuclear" tag.
Well, some men do have that problem, especially after a certain age. Don't worry, I'm sure the ladies won't take it personally. I see why OL's not too worried about the scanning process now, though.
Heh. I hope Ahri'ahn's got some less intrusive way to measure, because if they're doing that for a simple adhesion spell...
Ahri'ahn's mistake for thinking he knew better about something new than the person who's been using them for years now.
Because even a simple strap made by hand with no enchantments would still carry some background thaumic signatures, eh?
I suppose he'll just have to account for the distortions.
Okay, not invasive enough to set of OL's wardings. On the other hand, the imaging he gets probably won't be so precise...
At least Ahri'ahn's savvy enough to get that this is more than a casual examination.
Politically savvy indeed. And wise enough to want to skip the bullshit too? Man, you're making it hard not to like him.
Plausible deniability, of course. OL can't just say that's why he's here.
Do you want the short list or the long one?
Though they still won, it was a lot messier.
Hmm... Angry because of the waste of magical potential, or because he thought Orm had potential?
Of course, that would require him to actually care about other nation's opinion, which I suspect he only worries about as far as they may be dangerous to Atlantis.
Ah, he really needs to get up to date on modern international politics...
An apt analogy. Just leaving out the fact that some of those ogres also have short tempers. Though that probably falls under 'undesirable escalation'.
Which makes Ahri'ahn coming like a crotchety grandpa grumbling about 'this isn't how it was done in my day.' all the worse.
Still, other people would call it 'segregation' and that's only slightly less worse than killing them outright.
The problem is that he doesn't see that attitude as a problem.
Of course, there are always other things to divide people, that's just the way we are. It's overcoming that impulse that helps us aspire to be better.
Associations that have most of us readers against him, certainly.
Another sad fact of human history, and one that does get people pissed off at you these days.
Most of them, as the Sharks probably proudly proclaimed back in the day.
Though there would be the issue of accommodating all those now unable to breathe water. Unless they then cast the perfected versions on everyone.
So, would they require refreshes every few years or decades, or..?
Only one person gets to fool around down there, and she is halfway across the galaxy.
...Ow.
Seriously, ow. Good thing you were high as hell on magic at that point. Weren't you, OL?Besides, would you really want to be fooling around with OL's undercarriage?
Just noticed this error. There should be no space there.
He has not been paying the slightest bit of attention if he thinks either of those words can be applied to Paul.
In my experience, they always have.
It was mentioned way back during the bit where they were deporting J'aarkin back to Mars I think.
Thank you, corrected.
Affected.
Probably that someone who was so amendable to his goals is no longer in a position of authority within Atlantean society. Orem was a Prince; second or third in line to the throne. I mean if Orm had kept his cover intact until Ahri'ahn had shown up, things could have gone very differently under the shield; potentially to where Arthur and his son die through innocent means.
Thank you, corrected.
Over time, the archmage grows increasingly frustrated, convinced that the reason he can't quite comprehend how this whole thing works is the lack of readings on that one spot.
Oh, I'm sure Jade would appreciate the aesthetic. Perhaps moreso if she were the one in charge of the situation, with him bound up in front of her. Assuming she doesn't indulge in that sort of thing with OL as it is.
And often, those with less to work with are far craftier about how they use what they do have. Consider John Constantine's methods before his empowering, and those after.
After all, the subject doesn't need to know what's going on, does he? That arrogance...
I have no idea which he'd prefer. Probably the latter, since he seems so sure of his skills and knowledge.
To be fair, Earth did suffer at least one cultural collapse (in the Bronze Age) that likely set the progress of magic back considerably, and then various religious crackdowns verging on purges of magic-users... Those that remained learned to be far more discreet.
I guess he's not counting schizotech amongst those improvements, since many such devices are near-magical in their effects.
Ah, good. I expect this is the only chance he's really had to press the matter with someone who might know.
A surprisingly liberated decision. I half-expected him to have dismissed Sephtian as 'a talented dabbler' or something because of his piscine features. I guess our manta boy impressed him with his work.
Huh, that is a reasonable concern. While he hasn't been spamming them, his stocks would have to be dwindling a little, since he can't do all the crafting work himself...
Think of it as a small concession to the world's concerns. They aren't exactly in common use (I expect Alan and all the Greens have a modest stock for special use.) especially amongst the surface world militaries.
OL doesn't always have the luxury of swinging by, getting authorisation from some Atlantean quartermaster and then rushing back to whatever fight he needs them for, you know... Even with a greediport, that takes time.
All right, then, he'll have to take other routes to deal with magic.
Ah, this should be entertaining.
I expect the quality of the 'bootleg' versions may be a little reduced at first, until the folks he's contracting get used to it.
Well, when you're connected to it by the soul, as well as by his Rings... It gets a lot easier to do safely.
After all, why impose her desires when their existing ones are much tastier?
I suspect that little discovery has made her the cock of the walk amongst the Embodiments. "My servants get me such tasty experiences! You lot should try it, maybe."
At least until Ion points out he's been doing it for millennia as it is.It's a work in progress, but it does what he needs it to do, mostly.
The age-old difficulties of 'eating an energy field bigger than his head', eh?
At least OL is self-aware about his quirks. And that's an interesting question, considering OL's real sources of knowledge.
And that's got you extra curious, doesn't it?
Spoilers, sweetie. Though he may well be horrified when he works out the possible causes.
Oh, there's a great many things, but one or two stand out more than any other.
You know, talk, reassure them he's fine, let them discreetly check him for mystical mind-affecting control spells... Nothing to major.
Heh. OL has his diplomantic hooks in Ahri'ahn without doing anything more than stripping nude and standing there. Very nicely done.
Good to see him alive in this timeline.
I suspect that little discovery has made her the cock of the walk amongst the Embodiments. "My servants get me such tasty experiences! You lot should try it, maybe."
Thank you, corrected.
I think being cautious about the archmage who's had months to prepare his plan with no one else the wiser thanks to the rest of the world dealing with the Anti-Life is a reasonable course to take.
