"Is invisibility a possible magic?"

"Maybe? But I haven't learned it, so I can't teach it. I think it's possible, though."

"Are there textbooks or what? For that matter, what is the - basic procedure for magic-doing? Chanting? Burning incense? Drawing pentagrams?"

"Drawings and chanting are both present. Natural talents you don't need either but if you want to do it the hard way, you need to draw diagrams and chant a spell."

"How much of this is gotten from ancient scrolls and how much can you figure out with - the magical equivalent of a dictionary and stoichiometry?"

"Some from ancient scrolls, but since, self-taught - lots of what I do is with the magical equivalent of both of those. I mean between the two I'll take my method, even if it's less easy, because I understand the concepts behind what I do."

"Yeah, agreed, more - modular, I'm imagining."

"Kind of. You can apply some concepts to other concepts but I don't think you should reuse things too much unless it's the exact same kind of thing. It could end badly if you forget the concepts behind the modular stuff and it looks like it does one thing on the surface but beneath that it's not going to work with something else and then - bad things happen."

"Right, so, heavy heavy dose of theory, no cosmetic pick-and-mix. Sounds up my alley."

Darren grins. "Then you will probably enjoy magic. I do, certainly."

"Yaaaay new hobby besides reading old fiction and notetaking."

"I recommend Dungeons and Dragons, if you're looking for another hobby. Just homebrew the creatures, the Monster Manual is racist."

"...Oh my god, tell me all about how the Monster Manual is racist, this sounds hilarious."

"Perytons are always evil. No exceptions. That's just the one that personally applies to me, there are tons of races that they deem to just always be evil and therefore okay to brutally murder. A large portion of them are sentient, but no, they are all evil, every single one, so they get to die horrifically at the hands of an adventurer."

"Are there ways to be evil and non sentient?" asks Bella, resting her chin on her forepaws.

"Probably not, now that I think about it, it's a conscious choice not a - if you aren't sentient, if you can't comprehend that there is even a choice to make between good and evil then you don't fall under the category of evil. It can do evil like that, certainly, but at a basic level the creature is innocent because it doesn't understand what it's doing. It's entirely possible that it could be helped, taught to do something that isn't evil, because it can't make the choice itself. So, the Monster Manual's racist in that sense, too."

Bella giggles. "What's it have to say about sphinxes?" She wants to have a tail. She acquires it and lashes it, as lashing is what one does with a tail.

"There are several types of sphinx. There's like four types of sphinx and three of them are always male and only one's always female. If you're male, you get sorted into alignment by species. Either always good, always evil, or always neutral. Female sphinxes are only neutral. So the Monster Manual is both racist and a bit sexist, now."

"Wow," snorts Bella. "So you 'homebrew' your own critters to run through with swords or whatever it is you do in D&D?"

"Kind of, I actually let some of the critters from the Monster Manual in, I just - make them less racist. Like races aren't always evil, or always good, so it depends on the individual. It's more fun that way, I think. If you kill people it's because they have done something terrible and there's no other way to stop them and not because they were born a specific species."

"That must make the running through of the creatures with the swords so much less efficient, though," she teases. She slides off the couch onto the floor and goes fullform there with more room to stretch out. She's quite stretchy.

"I'm perfectly okay with killing things not being efficient. I tend to play wizards, anyway, so I threaten ultimate cosmic power until they behave. Or, if I'm under level five or something, I cry in a corner."

"Who do you even play with? Savannah doesn't seem like the type, Angela's never mentioned it..."

"Really no one now, it kind of sucks. I had a group I'd play with in Detroit, but haven't managed to replace them. Thus, why I suggested it as a thing you should do." He coughs. "I'm kinda selfish, sometimes."

"Oh no, selfishness, how terrible, Dad you should arrest him, he wants me to play Dungeons and Dragons."