Story Friday December 21, 2018

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, hkmaly said:

More importantly, in the Mall, she already knew Rhoda is marked and didn't bothered to scan her, paying attention to Catalina instead. She had like few seconds between too bored to pay attention and realizing that Rhoda is using new spell. And that's ignoring the possibility that she KNEW Rhoda awakened and her "When the hell did she awaken" was because her previous assumption was "ok, I did noticed she's awakened, it was probably recently considering when I marked her".

I'm having a tough time understanding this statement. You're saying that Pandora knew Rhoda had awakened this whole time and when Rhoda used her other spells, she acted surprised just for the heck of it?

I apologize if that's not what you mean, but I figure that Pandora would have to look at someone with the intent of assessing their potential in order to know if someone can be marked or awakened or how close to awakening they are. For Pandora I would imagine it'd be a quick matter, but I don't think she'd have done that to Rhoda until after  the surprise.

2 minutes ago, hkmaly said:

Depends on how big organization the paranormal division is. But he WAS head of it for some time and certainly DID uses his abilities to choose which agents to promote and who to recruit.

I can even see him going to some military academy, scanning everyone and recruit the ones with magic talent. I don't think anyone would consider it suspicious or extraordinary.

Looking back, it was said that he was head of the local branch, so he would have mainly covered the Moperville area or at most the Illinois state, he still could have hand picked the agents for that branch if he had any influence within the FBI.

 

[hkmaly 490]

4 hours ago, Scotty said:

4 hours ago, hkmaly said:

More importantly, in the Mall, she already knew Rhoda is marked and didn't bothered to scan her, paying attention to Catalina instead. She had like few seconds between too bored to pay attention and realizing that Rhoda is using new spell. And that's ignoring the possibility that she KNEW Rhoda awakened and her "When the hell did she awaken" was because her previous assumption was "ok, I did noticed she's awakened, it was probably recently considering when I marked her".

I'm having a tough time understanding this statement. You're saying that Pandora knew Rhoda had awakened this whole time and when Rhoda used her other spells, she acted surprised just for the heck of it?

I apologize if that's not what you mean, but I figure that Pandora would have to look at someone with the intent of assessing their potential in order to know if someone can be marked or awakened or how close to awakening they are. For Pandora I would imagine it'd be a quick matter, but I don't think she'd have done that to Rhoda until after  the surprise.

I consider most likely what you said: that despite the analysis being quick and simple for her, she didn't do it until after the surprise. To support that idea, I noted that it wasn't that long since the first point where she MIGHT do it to the point she did.

However, there is second possibility, which interprets her surprise differently. In that case, she would know that Rhoda awakened the moment she saw her, but didn't do any detail analysis and just supposed that she awakened recently. But after seeing she has not one, but TWO new spells, she was surprised by it, because it meant enough time passed from her awakening to get third spell.

Clearer like this? Again, I consider the first possibility more likely. While someone like Pandora probably COULD have the analysis always on, she likely opted not to, so she can be surprised more easily.

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, hkmaly said:

I consider most likely what you said: that despite the analysis being quick and simple for her, she didn't do it until after the surprise. To support that idea, I noted that it wasn't that long since the first point where she MIGHT do it to the point she did.

However, there is second possibility, which interprets her surprise differently. In that case, she would know that Rhoda awakened the moment she saw her, but didn't do any detail analysis and just supposed that she awakened recently. But after seeing she has not one, but TWO new spells, she was surprised by it, because it meant enough time passed from her awakening to get third spell.

Clearer like this? Again, I consider the first possibility more likely. While someone like Pandora probably COULD have the analysis always on, she likely opted not to, so she can be surprised more easily.

That's clearer, yes.

As for how possible that is, there is Pandora's statement that she thought Rhoda a D-rank talent with an S-Rank spell, which she also used to describe Sarah. We know that in Sarah's case, Pandora told her that awakening should take longer than getting enough power to cast the spell on her own, so maybe she was taking Rhoda as an example of someone who should have taken longer to awaken, like "it has happened once before so maybe it'll happen with you too."

[hkmaly 490]

On 12/23/2018 at 3:45 PM, Scotty said:

As for how possible that is, there is Pandora's statement that she thought Rhoda a D-rank talent with an S-Rank spell, which she also used to describe Sarah. We know that in Sarah's case, Pandora told her that awakening should take longer than getting enough power to cast the spell on her own, so maybe she was taking Rhoda as an example of someone who should have taken longer to awaken, like "it has happened once before so maybe it'll happen with you too."

... ok, now I'm having a tough time understanding this statement. Did you confused the timeline?

Chronologically, first, Pandora marks Rhoda thinking she's D-rank talent with S-rank spell, either due to not looking closely on her, or ... maybe Rhoda's shyness made her harder to mark and Pandora mistaken that for low talent?

Second, Pandora noticed Rhoda is actually S-rank talent. Third, she talked with Sarah. At that point she KNEW for sure Rhoda never was actual D-rank talent.

I think that she didn't wanted to misinform her friend Sarah, so she looked very thoroughly to not repeat the same mistake. And maybe that's the reason she admitted she's not sure about something?

That said, yes, her assumption that Rhoda is D-rank talent with S-rank spell could've influenced how long she expected Rhoda would need to awaken.

[Scotty 1,061]

1 hour ago, hkmaly said:

... ok, now I'm having a tough time understanding this statement. Did you confused the timeline?

Chronologically, first, Pandora marks Rhoda thinking she's D-rank talent with S-rank spell, either due to not looking closely on her, or ... maybe Rhoda's shyness made her harder to mark and Pandora mistaken that for low talent?

Second, Pandora noticed Rhoda is actually S-rank talent. Third, she talked with Sarah. At that point she KNEW for sure Rhoda never was actual D-rank talent.

I think that she didn't wanted to misinform her friend Sarah, so she looked very thoroughly to not repeat the same mistake. And maybe that's the reason she admitted she's not sure about something?

That said, yes, her assumption that Rhoda is D-rank talent with S-rank spell could've influenced how long she expected Rhoda would need to awaken.

I'm saying Pandora marks Rhoda thinking she was a D rank talent with an S rank spell and thinking it would take her longer to awaken, she didn't count on her using her spell frequently enough to awaken faster than expected.

When it came time to tell Sarah about her spell and how she could awaken, she would again think Sarah was a D rank talent with an S rank spell, but recalling what happened with Rhoda, Pandora's probably thinking that there's always a chance that Sarah be better than she seems.

 

Now this part's just a theory, but maybe there's more to magic users than just their power, like Pandora looks at a person and judges their ability based on power, but there might be something that dictate how quickly a person gains power, or learns a new spell, or something else that makes it easier, or even harder to pick up magic. Pandora would have been looking at Rhoda and Sarah and see someone with low power and believe that they'd be relying on ambient energy for a while to cast the spells, but what she didn't see in Rhoda would be an ability to exercise her power more efficiently and quickly be able to cast the spell with her own power.

[hkmaly 490]

10 minutes ago, Scotty said:

I'm saying Pandora marks Rhoda thinking she was a D rank talent with an S rank spell and thinking it would take her longer to awaken, she didn't count on her using her spell frequently enough to awaken faster than expected.

When it came time to tell Sarah about her spell and how she could awaken, she would again think Sarah was a D rank talent with an S rank spell, but recalling what happened with Rhoda, Pandora's probably thinking that there's always a chance that Sarah be better than she seems.

Except her comment seems more like she's saying she was mistaken. That Rhoda was already awaken because she's better talent that Pandora though.

Note that all comments about Nanase's being royalty suggests size of magic talent could be directly measured by looking at aura. There was no doubt in Andrea's statement ... or, at least, while she wan't sure it means royalty, she was sure it's related to inherited talent and not "hard work" or something. And, we know that seers are chosen by bloodline, so inheritance definitely plays important role.

Sure, we don't have much data points, so it may be just theory, or there are exception to that rule ...

... also, it's possible that measuring talent in non-awakened person is not completely reliable, but "Pandora didn't payed attention" looks like higher chance currently.

[Scotty 1,061]

Just now, hkmaly said:

Except her comment seems more like she's saying she was mistaken. That Rhoda was already awaken because she's better talent that Pandora though.

Note that all comments about Nanase's being royalty suggests size of magic talent could be directly measured by looking at aura. There was no doubt in Andrea's statement ... or, at least, while she wan't sure it means royalty, she was sure it's related to inherited talent and not "hard work" or something. And, we know that seers are chosen by bloodline, so inheritance definitely plays important role.

Sure, we don't have much data points, so it may be just theory, or there are exception to that rule ...

... also, it's possible that measuring talent in non-awakened person is not completely reliable, but "Pandora didn't payed attention" looks like higher chance currently.

That why I added my theory that there's more to it. like when Pandora marked Rhoda, she might have seen Rhoda's aura that suggested someone with low potential, as she would have with Sarah, but there might be many other factors that could allowed Rhoda to awaken quickly and may also even allow Sarah to do the same, but those factors would be something that Pandora can't see despite how much power she has.

[hkmaly 490]

22 hours ago, Scotty said:

That why I added my theory that there's more to it. like when Pandora marked Rhoda, she might have seen Rhoda's aura that suggested someone with low potential, as she would have with Sarah, but there might be many other factors that could allowed Rhoda to awaken quickly and may also even allow Sarah to do the same, but those factors would be something that Pandora can't see despite how much power she has.

... well, it's true that Pandora even in her age doesn't know everything (case in point - Seers), but I find it unlikely.