James Bond classic collectible plates
May. 5th, 2014 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThis morning's dream involved Bond, James Bond, Daniel Craig edition. So it's ahead on points right there.
There was a little girl called Amelia, and she was really important, so he and I were protecting her. But he couldn't be out and about for more than 12 hours, he couldn't stay up late, he'd start looking really rough and then just get gone when I wasn't looking. So this turned out to be because he had a whole lamp genie thing going on with a set of bone china.
... look, my brain is a weird, weird place. But I can work with this one.
In GURPS every spell needs power, either from a human caster or a powerstone, and powerstones have to be of a certain monetary value in order to hold a high level of power. So usually they're shiny gemstones, because those are resilient and valuable. But what if you wanted a spell and wanted to be able to break it fast? You don't want resilient. But china can get ridiculously valuable. Google reckons Antiques Roadshow valued one at £100,000 , which is more 0s than I was thinking of. But if you have something worth thousands then any given plate could power a really exceptional spell, and an unbroken set would be even more valuable together. Alternately, or additionally, ceramics are a really nice surface for doing complex pattern work on, so if magic is primarily symbol magic then you could get some very fine interweaving of symbols going on.
How such a set could get acquired by my mum would be part of the plot. It's easy enough if it walks into a charity shop, but it's not like anyone who knew their worth would do that.
So say someone captures James Bond and wants him to stay that way. Any normal prison he's in the habit of breaking out of. So bind him by magic. The first time he escapes he'll run into the time limit and pass out, not knowing he needs to get back to the plates to recharge. Then he's easy to reacquire. The second time he escapes he'd need to find a set of 12 fine china plates, and carry them with him, without so much as chipping any of them. Which would significantly impede his escape. His captors on the other hand only need to smash something fragile and already in their possession to know they'll never need to worry about him again. Much better than metal lamps.
But he's James Bond, so he manages to both figure this out and achieve it. But then he hits his time limit, 12 hours after waking up, and has to put the plates somewhere while he recharges. He uses the needle in a needlestack approach and finds a shelf full in a nice charity shop, then fades back into them to rest. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know he needs to be called out of them and can't get out on his own. He'd still take the same risk to get free if he knew that, he'd just have contacted someone about it already. Instead he's stuck in a stack of plates until someone sufficiently magical happens upon them.
Which would be me. And then magic person plus plate enchantment equals unexpected but really welcome reinforcements.
See, it's all perfectly logical that way.
;-)
It might not be a prison though. Magical prisons are hard, especially inert ones (it's easier hiding someone in a tree). But there are spells for creating magical duplicates when you only have samples of the original, say blood and hair. Then the limits on his excursions and the length of recharge time would make sense, because even valuable powerstones can only sustain a spell for so long, and then they need to sit and wait until they trickle charge. If they're stacked together they have to charge all from the same slow points per day divided between them. If they're arranged further apart then they can each charge at the basic points per day rate. So if he stacks them all together then he'll be stuck waiting much longer before he can get up again. Hence being stuck in the plates while in the shop or the cupboard, but getting up if someone decides to arrange his set along the display rail in the sunlight. Actually some powerstones might require sunlight to charge in, or only recharge at sunrise or something, they get quirky. The duplicate would know what the original knows, hence it would not know it is a duplicate. And it would be a really exceptionally useful way of questioning enemy agents. If you have to capture them, they've got allies looking for them. If you can, well, pirate them, make a copy to poke at leisure, you've got much more time with them.
So, magical doppelganger James Bond escapes... what does original James Bond think of that?
Further twist: while enemies would have to go out of their way to get blood samples and so forth, his bosses probably have a fridge full. If Bond was missing, presumed dead, or had vanished along with a large amount of money and/or data (which, lets face it, happens to him a lot)...
Then it would be Bond and copy Bond vs Her Majesty's Government.
They'd be different kinds of fragile. Biology is squishy, we know this. But the copy would be healed whenever he was cast again, fresh from template. If the template kept updating, that could be a problem, since his original might get all kinds of mangled. He'd also keep gaining memories in two sets, which he'd notice pretty fast. Except the memories are based on a different and more complex spell than the physical form, so that could split out within the spell logic. Clothes are also fun, like, would he step out naked every time, or would he be wearing whatever outfit his original happened to be in, or would he have a set point? The clothes would be as temporary as he was though. Still, if he was created from the same record, the same moment, every time, we'd have an unageing and instant healing James Bond... with one very fragile vulnerability. You wouldn't need to catch him, just his plates. And he couldn't afford to keep them with him, or get further away from them than his spell would last. So if he hid the plates in 12 different places he could increase his geographic range, but he'd have to protect 12 places equally well.
If one plate got smashed, he'd suddenly have an hour less time awake. 11 hours a day instead of 12. That would be unpleasant, to learn you can lose your life by pieces.
One day Bond and Bond and I are running from the house where we've stored and secured the plates, and the house goes boom. One Bond would fracture like ceramics, the fire showing through him, and then just be gone.
Other Bond would what? Would take quite a lot to persuade him to help me.
Would not take much for the bound version if someone tried to put control spells into the plates. That would be unpleasant to realise, that he's not helping me from the goodness of his heart but from the bindings forced upon him. But if he was bound, how would he escape? ... well all the stories of attempting to bind dangerous beings have quite a lot of opinions on that one. They are tricksy and not to be trusted. Or, alternately, binding people is a very bad idea.
If plates shattered, I wouldn't want to leave him dead. Plates can be repaired. Maybe magic can be repaired.
To hold the spell the plates would need to be valuable. It wouldn't matter after they were cast if mum paid 50p for them in a charity shop, the spells were already in place, but it would matter greatly once you were trying to recast spells. I'd try fixing the plates with gold. Kintsukoroi. Make plates stronger in the broken places, and more valuable. At least in theory. Who would you find who would pay as much for gold streaked patterned antique china? They'd still be all charity shop and repair, until someone had at least made an offer. So then the spell would refuse to take, and I would be all :-(
But then alive Bond would offer to buy them. I would be >:-( because why trust him to want a copy back? So then he'd roll his eyes and gift me with his rather large amount of money, and ask me, what would I give him for those plates?
Answer: All my worldly goods, for my James.
And then the spell would work like shiny.
Restored, James would be a little different though. Like, gold sparkles repair lines.
That would look awesome.
Also, copy Bond should have eyes the colour of the plates, white and green, not quite like the original. Make him look more magic.
... it's not like I'd notice anyway, I don't look at eyes much.
So this one could be fun.
I'd have to think of an actual plot, why Amelia needed protecting, what had happened to land Bond in this particular situation, and how magic use wove through this 'verse.
Also I'd need to decide on some superpowers for me. I'd have to be magic to make any of it work, but I'd need a skill set that complimented Bond, or I'd be a bit superfluous. But Bond is such a ridiculously accomplished character it's hard to pick an area he doesn't already rule. Maybe focus on the Seek spells and Detect/Analyze, be about the subtle magics. Anything less subtle he can give a kicking. At least for 12 hours a day.
ETA: ah, if I focus on Enchantment, which I'd need in order to repair him, then it gets simples: I'm Q.
Magic Q that is. Providing items of unique abilities, to get Bond out of specific corners.
/ETA.
Having an awesomely powerful ally on a timer sounds fun for a movie but not a TV series. I mean, you know he's going to run out at the worst moments, it would probably get boring to do a lot.
But the Green Lantern ring does that, needs recharging every day, and they've made that work for a really long time now.
As per usual, bunnies would be more useful if I sat down and wrote them proper.
Anyone is welcome to grab a bunny and run with it, it's not like any two people would write the same things, just credit the prompt.
... I don't know who would read it. I don't know who would read any of this stuff my brain comes up with.
There was a little girl called Amelia, and she was really important, so he and I were protecting her. But he couldn't be out and about for more than 12 hours, he couldn't stay up late, he'd start looking really rough and then just get gone when I wasn't looking. So this turned out to be because he had a whole lamp genie thing going on with a set of bone china.
... look, my brain is a weird, weird place. But I can work with this one.
In GURPS every spell needs power, either from a human caster or a powerstone, and powerstones have to be of a certain monetary value in order to hold a high level of power. So usually they're shiny gemstones, because those are resilient and valuable. But what if you wanted a spell and wanted to be able to break it fast? You don't want resilient. But china can get ridiculously valuable. Google reckons Antiques Roadshow valued one at £100,000 , which is more 0s than I was thinking of. But if you have something worth thousands then any given plate could power a really exceptional spell, and an unbroken set would be even more valuable together. Alternately, or additionally, ceramics are a really nice surface for doing complex pattern work on, so if magic is primarily symbol magic then you could get some very fine interweaving of symbols going on.
How such a set could get acquired by my mum would be part of the plot. It's easy enough if it walks into a charity shop, but it's not like anyone who knew their worth would do that.
So say someone captures James Bond and wants him to stay that way. Any normal prison he's in the habit of breaking out of. So bind him by magic. The first time he escapes he'll run into the time limit and pass out, not knowing he needs to get back to the plates to recharge. Then he's easy to reacquire. The second time he escapes he'd need to find a set of 12 fine china plates, and carry them with him, without so much as chipping any of them. Which would significantly impede his escape. His captors on the other hand only need to smash something fragile and already in their possession to know they'll never need to worry about him again. Much better than metal lamps.
But he's James Bond, so he manages to both figure this out and achieve it. But then he hits his time limit, 12 hours after waking up, and has to put the plates somewhere while he recharges. He uses the needle in a needlestack approach and finds a shelf full in a nice charity shop, then fades back into them to rest. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know he needs to be called out of them and can't get out on his own. He'd still take the same risk to get free if he knew that, he'd just have contacted someone about it already. Instead he's stuck in a stack of plates until someone sufficiently magical happens upon them.
Which would be me. And then magic person plus plate enchantment equals unexpected but really welcome reinforcements.
See, it's all perfectly logical that way.
;-)
It might not be a prison though. Magical prisons are hard, especially inert ones (it's easier hiding someone in a tree). But there are spells for creating magical duplicates when you only have samples of the original, say blood and hair. Then the limits on his excursions and the length of recharge time would make sense, because even valuable powerstones can only sustain a spell for so long, and then they need to sit and wait until they trickle charge. If they're stacked together they have to charge all from the same slow points per day divided between them. If they're arranged further apart then they can each charge at the basic points per day rate. So if he stacks them all together then he'll be stuck waiting much longer before he can get up again. Hence being stuck in the plates while in the shop or the cupboard, but getting up if someone decides to arrange his set along the display rail in the sunlight. Actually some powerstones might require sunlight to charge in, or only recharge at sunrise or something, they get quirky. The duplicate would know what the original knows, hence it would not know it is a duplicate. And it would be a really exceptionally useful way of questioning enemy agents. If you have to capture them, they've got allies looking for them. If you can, well, pirate them, make a copy to poke at leisure, you've got much more time with them.
So, magical doppelganger James Bond escapes... what does original James Bond think of that?
Further twist: while enemies would have to go out of their way to get blood samples and so forth, his bosses probably have a fridge full. If Bond was missing, presumed dead, or had vanished along with a large amount of money and/or data (which, lets face it, happens to him a lot)...
Then it would be Bond and copy Bond vs Her Majesty's Government.
They'd be different kinds of fragile. Biology is squishy, we know this. But the copy would be healed whenever he was cast again, fresh from template. If the template kept updating, that could be a problem, since his original might get all kinds of mangled. He'd also keep gaining memories in two sets, which he'd notice pretty fast. Except the memories are based on a different and more complex spell than the physical form, so that could split out within the spell logic. Clothes are also fun, like, would he step out naked every time, or would he be wearing whatever outfit his original happened to be in, or would he have a set point? The clothes would be as temporary as he was though. Still, if he was created from the same record, the same moment, every time, we'd have an unageing and instant healing James Bond... with one very fragile vulnerability. You wouldn't need to catch him, just his plates. And he couldn't afford to keep them with him, or get further away from them than his spell would last. So if he hid the plates in 12 different places he could increase his geographic range, but he'd have to protect 12 places equally well.
If one plate got smashed, he'd suddenly have an hour less time awake. 11 hours a day instead of 12. That would be unpleasant, to learn you can lose your life by pieces.
One day Bond and Bond and I are running from the house where we've stored and secured the plates, and the house goes boom. One Bond would fracture like ceramics, the fire showing through him, and then just be gone.
Other Bond would what? Would take quite a lot to persuade him to help me.
Would not take much for the bound version if someone tried to put control spells into the plates. That would be unpleasant to realise, that he's not helping me from the goodness of his heart but from the bindings forced upon him. But if he was bound, how would he escape? ... well all the stories of attempting to bind dangerous beings have quite a lot of opinions on that one. They are tricksy and not to be trusted. Or, alternately, binding people is a very bad idea.
If plates shattered, I wouldn't want to leave him dead. Plates can be repaired. Maybe magic can be repaired.
To hold the spell the plates would need to be valuable. It wouldn't matter after they were cast if mum paid 50p for them in a charity shop, the spells were already in place, but it would matter greatly once you were trying to recast spells. I'd try fixing the plates with gold. Kintsukoroi. Make plates stronger in the broken places, and more valuable. At least in theory. Who would you find who would pay as much for gold streaked patterned antique china? They'd still be all charity shop and repair, until someone had at least made an offer. So then the spell would refuse to take, and I would be all :-(
But then alive Bond would offer to buy them. I would be >:-( because why trust him to want a copy back? So then he'd roll his eyes and gift me with his rather large amount of money, and ask me, what would I give him for those plates?
Answer: All my worldly goods, for my James.
And then the spell would work like shiny.
Restored, James would be a little different though. Like, gold sparkles repair lines.
That would look awesome.
Also, copy Bond should have eyes the colour of the plates, white and green, not quite like the original. Make him look more magic.
... it's not like I'd notice anyway, I don't look at eyes much.
So this one could be fun.
I'd have to think of an actual plot, why Amelia needed protecting, what had happened to land Bond in this particular situation, and how magic use wove through this 'verse.
Also I'd need to decide on some superpowers for me. I'd have to be magic to make any of it work, but I'd need a skill set that complimented Bond, or I'd be a bit superfluous. But Bond is such a ridiculously accomplished character it's hard to pick an area he doesn't already rule. Maybe focus on the Seek spells and Detect/Analyze, be about the subtle magics. Anything less subtle he can give a kicking. At least for 12 hours a day.
ETA: ah, if I focus on Enchantment, which I'd need in order to repair him, then it gets simples: I'm Q.
Magic Q that is. Providing items of unique abilities, to get Bond out of specific corners.
/ETA.
Having an awesomely powerful ally on a timer sounds fun for a movie but not a TV series. I mean, you know he's going to run out at the worst moments, it would probably get boring to do a lot.
But the Green Lantern ring does that, needs recharging every day, and they've made that work for a really long time now.
As per usual, bunnies would be more useful if I sat down and wrote them proper.
Anyone is welcome to grab a bunny and run with it, it's not like any two people would write the same things, just credit the prompt.
... I don't know who would read it. I don't know who would read any of this stuff my brain comes up with.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-07 11:04 pm (UTC)This was beautiful.