Daily reminder: Transphobia actively contributes to sexism. If you don’t fit the beauty standard and are seen as masculine in any way shape or form, you are seen as transgender and as a “problem”
I think it's incredibly important here to not overlook the fact that she is a Black woman. Transphobia, racism, and sexism overlap significantly because of the incredibly eurocentric beauty standards women are judged on.
"No one can love you until you love yourself" is like the worst possible way of articulating "if you don't respect and value yourself, it's very easy to become attracted to people who don't treat you right and then justify their mistreatment, so be careful."
A thing that bothers me about wizard schools in popular media – outside of the magic-grade-school stuff, anyway – is that they're typically depicted as being basically magic universities, but their actual curricula and pedagogical approaches look much more like those of a technical institution. Like, buddy, that's not a wizard university, that's a wizard trade school. You can't just slap university student culture on top of trade school pedagogy. It doesn't work like that – the one emerges from the other!
"Well ACTUALLY wizards are" wizards are made up. They can be analogous to whatever real-world class or vocation the author wants. Wizard-school-as-university and wizard-school-as-technical-institute are both perfectly fine; what I am grumping about is wizard-school media that doesn't seem to have a clear picture of how different sorts of educational institutions actually operate.
Okay but now I really want to know what a Wizard technician would look like. Would he wear magical overalls with all kinds of reagents and magic tools sticking out of his numerous pockets?
A guy like that walks into your tower with a toothpick in his mouth, takes one look at your summoning circle and goes
“I see yer problem. You used chalk B12 instead of S3. B12 is only for transmutation circles. Gimme a sec I think I have a piece somewhere here.”
He fixes your circle, test summons an imp and goes.
“The chalk? I always use that chalk, it’s never been a problem.”
“Ah - yes. This stuff will work just fine for most circles, but, uh - here, take a look with my loupe. You see the off-color flecks? Can’t hardly see them with the naked eye, but those are impurities. Silicates, might even be some iron in here, to be honest. Usually won’t cause a problem, but - you said you hadn’t tried this particular summons before?”
“First time trying a 5th level, yeah.”
“Those silicates will make your scribing a little fuzzy when viewed from the astral plane. You see, for example, these three fine lines here? With this chalk, on the astral that looks like one thick line with fuzzy edges. They can’t tell exactly what you want, and they’re picky lil’ critters so they just won’t do anything in response.”
“Really? Oh. I always thought the expensive chalk was just fancy to be fancy.”
“Making pure chalk is difficult, you need a dedicated production line or dust gets in the finished product. To be honest, you don’t need to bother with it for most things, but 5th and up, 5th level and up, it actually is necessary. Anything with lines within about two millimeters of each other.”
“So I need to start over?”
“Unfortunately yes. You’ll have to erase all this, but with some good chalk it should work just fine. Next new moon your summons should go off without a hitch.”
“Dang. At least it’s not my sigils, I was worried it was my sigils.”
“Nah Your sigils look good. Even and balanced. You know what you’re doing, it’s just an equipment problem.”
“Thanks for the help, sorry to make you come all the way out here.”
What about magical artifacts?
"See, it's been acting up lately." The farmer holds up a polished but clearly used shortsword with lines of tiny, dense runes etched into its blade. "Sometimes I've got to say the activation word three or four times before it starts up – watch. Me'jhronim."
The entire blade lights up with red-orange flames, making a loud SNAP.
"Of course it works now, and not when I was fighting those goblins… It was doing it before, I swear! Kop." The blade extinguishes itself. "Me'jhronim." A flurry of sparks dance along the edges of the farmer's sword, but it flickers out with a small fwoomp after a few seconds. "A-ha, there! I told you."
Trying not to look amused, the wizard nods and says, "Alright, let me get my aura reader. With any luck, I'll be able to detect what's goin' on as it tries to ignite." He walks over to the griffin he flew in on and rubs its beak affectionately, earning a musical trill. Then, the wizard grabs a long, flexible rod from a large bag attached to his griffin's saddle and holds it over the sword. "Me'jhronim."
As the enchanted sword tries and fails to ignite again, the wizard's aura reader seems to reflect far more of the runes' purplish-crimson light than it should have any right to, as if it's trying to imitate them. The wizard nods, like this makes perfect sense. He puts down his reader and examines the sword instead, tracing the runes with one finger. "Ah, I see your problem! The regulator sigil's all worn-down. It's leakin' fire mana all over the place." He taps a slightly larger rune near the hilt, which does appear quite faint.
"Can you fix it?"
"Oh, of course. Got a set of engravin' tools right here." He stuffs the aura reader back into its bag and trades it for a thin, sharp tool with a bulb-shaped wooden handle.
"Would you happen to have a clamp or somethin' I could use to keep the sword steady? If it was just a drawn sigil, I wouldn't need it, but engraved sigils are a right pain."
"Um… no, I don't think I have anything like that."
"Hm. Well then, guess I'll have to improvise." Without warning, the wizard grabs the sword with both hands and thrusts it point-first into a nearby tree stump, burying it about halfway into the wood. Ignoring the farmer's shocked expression, he wiggles the sword back and forth experimentally. "Yep, that'll do."
The wizard then steadies the hilt of the sword with one hand and starts scratching away at the regulator sigil using the engraving tool in his other hand. After tracing along its length a few times, he wrenches the sword out of the stump. "Here, try now."
Still a little bit shocked, the farmer accepts the sword from him and speaks its activation word. "Me'jhronim." Immediately, the blade ignites again. "Yes! This is great, I was starting to get a little worried with how frequent the goblin raids were getting."
The wizard nods sympathetically. "Yup, I reckoned it was about time for the monster raids to start escalatin'. If you need any assistance with that, I know a mage in the village guard who'd be happy to come clear out some goblins."
"I think I can handle it now, but thanks for the offer!"
After stowing his payment in yet another small bag tied to the griffin's harness, the wizard jumps into his griffin's saddle and whistles piercingly, causing it to take off and start climbing upwards in a wide spiral.
"Remember, if you still have trouble with those goblins, just let me know! I'll pass it along to that guard I told you………"
S"I....why is there several summoning slabs outside?"
G"I need to get them upgraded to magic works 8."
S"What is their purity percentage"
G"5%"
S"Magic works 8 requires a purity percentage of at least 10%. I could still get 7 to install despite it needing a purity percentage of 6%, but you need to upgrade the slabs."
G"Is there anyway to increase the purity."
S"George ....If I recall, they were Packbell slabs, right? You are aware that Packbell moved from concrete to marble about five years ago and has since discontinued support for these slabs."
G"Can't you just do the upgrade in any case"
S"Magic works 8 fizzles if the purity is below 8%."
G"Dammit....fine so 8% is the mark right?"
S"...George. I am going to say this as a friend, because I know what you are thinking. Let me please quote you on new slabs. I will even give you them at a hefty discount. I know that look, and with my luck, you'll blow your budget on slabs that barely reach the minimum amount of purity needed"
G"Fine...."
George ended replacing the slabs with second-hand slabs he found. The total price was 4 coins less than the offer Sebastiaan gave him, and Sebastiaan ended up charging him 20 coins in total more due to the pain and suffering it took to install magic works 8 on everything...which had to happen twice because people complained they preferred version 7 over 8.
Incident report eleven:
K"Morning Sebastiaan. So, in theory...if my familiar started changing colour randomly. What should I do?"
S"Ooh, that is an easy....wait...you aren't planning on getting me to give you free advice?"
K"What I would never"
S"In that case....I am sure you don't mind bringing him in. I just remember that the issue you described has two possible causes, and I don't want to give you the wrong one"
K"Well played..."
Incident report twelve:
S"Morning flow. Odd to see you here what is the matter?"
F"Morning. Ohh nothing much, my mirror doesn't want to respond to this inscription."
S"Let me...." (Worked flawlessly on his first attempt)
S"Seems fine to me?"
F"What....no that can't be...let me see" (Works flawlessly)
S" Mmm..."
This continued for several weeks till Flow replaced the mirror. The exact issue was never pinpointed, but whenever Sebastiaan was not around it would appear.
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