"I do think that those two virtues, as described, would be ones I appreciated cultivating.

"Oh, and - metacognition, in this case, is meant to mean 'being aware of what you're thinking and why you're thinking it'."

"Yes, that definitely sounds like a Wisdom thing."

She nods.  "...So, you were saying something about the Empire placing some Eternal under neutrality?"

"Was I? Oh, yes, Ylenwe. Although I think Roshanwe's the one who's most into - metacognition - at least in a slightly more useful sense, Kimus will break the whole thing down into can you even really prove you're perceiving anything but Roshanwe is more into questioning why people believe what they believe. The one Eternal who claims to have been converted to the Way, too."

"Fool that you are, for you trust the chemicals in your brain to tell you they are chemicals; will you fight, or will you perish like a dog?" spills out of her in a mutter, without the intervention of conscious thought.  "...Anyway, Kimus and that completely inexplicable reference aside - seriously, don't ask me, it's absolutely absurd even in its original form, but boy do I want to try it on Kimus sometime...  ...Roshanwe seems pretty cool.

"...Uh.  Were we going anywhere with this?

"If we were I have completely forgotten.

"...And, hm.  Trees falling in the forest make sounds because sound is just...

"...Okay, actually, that depends on your definition of what sound is, but still probably.  It's just air that's wobbling in a particular way, after all."

"We were working out what Virtue you might like and whether you wanted to try out an Anointing."

"Before you interrupted we were going to find out more about explosives."

"...Now that I'm thinking of it, I don't know most of the actually good ones.  Sulfur-saltpeter-charcoal is all well and good, and I think I remember some of the ratios even, but, hmm.  It makes a huge fucking mess.  Lots of smoke and suchlike.

"...And then there's stuff where I know what the ingredients are but certainly not how to make them, heaven help me if I know what the 'fuel oil' of ANFO is even if I can make an educated guess about the ammonium nitrate...  Then there's stuff I never learned the translation from chemical-engineer to atoms for, the famous trinitrotoluene one of those - its precursor in exploding things, nitroglycerin, practically explodes if you touch it so I'm not inclined to guess about how to make that - although I think it sometimes sweated back out of the more-stabilized successor...  ...And I'm sure you all know about powder explosions in general.  Fine airborne particulate and fire: a bad combination.  Though I suppose that's not even getting into magic.  I bet I could talk some fancily colored water into exploding if I had good enough special effects.  ...Maybe without even doing hydrogen-oxygen separation by electrolysis first.  ...That'd probably explode, actually."

"...okay, so when we mix sulfur-saltpeter-charcoal, which we absolutely have tried, it goes up in a nice little flash of light and is very pretty if you sprinkle some Tempest Jade in, but if you try to propel or destroy something with it, it just gets kind of warm?

And we do not, in fact, know about powder explosions?"

"...Ri-ight.  Fuckery.  I mean, you've got to get the ratio right, I think there was something about five to three to one of...something... being decent, but I bet it's the same force stymieing your lightning experiments that's interfering here.  As for powder explosions...Sufficiently well-suspended aerial particulate, plus fire, equals a big fucking explosion."