Hammond straightens his tie, taking a minute to admire the surroundings. For reasons of demographics, he hasn't been out in the countryside like this as frequently as he would have liked.

He steels himself and knocks on the door with an outstretched flipper.

That's odd, people don't usually knock on the door of the lake house. She goes to see who it is. She opens the door and...

That's a walrus. She takes a moment to collect herself and then asks the obvious question.

"Hello, do you usually look like a walrus?"

"I do!" he agrees with a nod. "I've been a walrus all my life. Do you have a few minutes to answer some survey questions about magic?"

"I'm not sure I've seen any magic. I guess maybe you're magical but I'm not sure. Afterall, I can talk so it's clearly possible for animals to be able to talk."

"Oh, no, I'm sorry — your universe doesn't have native magic," Hammond explains. "I am magical, but I'm from a different one. No, your universe just recently finished developing far enough that it's going to gain magic soon, and I've been sent to gather people's opinions on how it ought to work."

"That's soo cool. Sure I'm happy to answer questions. Do you want to come in? There's also a pond out back if it would be more comfortable for you to be in water."

"Yes, please. To the coming in, not to the pond — I do like the water, but my notes aren't waterproof."

He wiggles the clipboard full of papers demonstratively.

"And thank you for being willing to answer questions; you'd be amazed how many people refuse to talk to me."

"I wonder if they're just overwhelmed by the surprise of a talking walrus." She steps to the side and backs up so he can come inside and leads the way to a sitting room.

He follows her, deftly hopping up into a chair.

"Yes, well, I'm used to it; so it's hard for me to judge how shocking it would be to people here," he observes. "Although given how careful the bosses are about preventing sampling bias, I have to believe they don't think it will be a problem ..."

He trails off for a moment, and then shakes his head to recenter himself.

"Anyway — I should start by saying that we can skip any questions you want to; just let me know if you'd like to move on. The first one is pretty general: Do you think magic should be 'hard' or 'soft'? That is, should it be quantifiable, following mathematical or physical rules, or should it be more based on feelings, language, or another less formal system? And this is something of a spectrum, not just an either-or."

"I'm not really sure I have a preference. I've read good stories in both directions. And it's not like a magic system being like physics means there's less to discover. Well, some hard magic systems are really narrow, but they don't have to be."

He nods, scribbling this down on his clipboard.

With a pen held in his flipper. Somehow.

"That's perfectly fine. Is the magic system having a lot of things to discover about it important to you?"

"Yes! If you're going to have magic it shouldn't just be pressing a button in your mind to do a few specific things. That's just boring. I also want magic to be something anyone can use. Otherwise I might not get a chance to use it."

"That makes sense!" he agrees. "How do you feel about magical abilities being 'continuous' versus 'discrete'? That is, should abilities be more of a spectrum of related skills and effects that you can tweak, or should they be a collection of individual, specific effects — a large collection, that is?"

"I'd prefer continuous if I'm understanding you correctly. There's a bunch of stories where people can invent spells and then other people learn them but I've always assumed that there's a lot of other spells that could be invented that just haven't been yet. And I'd want that to be true if magic was about casting spells."

"When you say 'if magic was about casting spells', do you just mean that as an example, or should I put it down as a conditional preference?" he clarifies.

"I mostly mean that as an example, but I would actually want that to be true if magic was about casting spells."

"Right, okay."

He jots this down.

"Anyway, yes, that is the distinction I was trying to get at. Alright ..."

He flips to the next page on his clipboard.

"You mentioned wanting magic to be something anyone can use; do you think that anyone should be able to learn some kind of magic, all kinds of magic, that magic shouldn't come in 'kinds', or something else?"

"Hmm, if there's enough magic that nobody could learn it all it would be okay if different people had different magic. It might even be more interesting that way. But I also want to be able to explore every bit of the magic so I'm not sure. Oh, that's something, I'd like it if magic had a way to live forever so that I could keep exploring and finding things out. Not a nasty one that requires killing people or something like that though."

"So would it be right to say that you would be fine with a system where people have an easier time learning different parts of magic, but that with enough effort someone could in theory learn them all?" Hammond questions.

"Oh, that would be good. Then other people would be able to teach me things. It's always good when that's true."

He notes her general preference for teachability.

"Okay — on living forever: how do you feel about an 'afterlife' system, where people have an immortal soul that persists past the 'death' of their body? I ask because those come up weirdly often."

"It would depend a lot on the afterlife. Anything where people are tortured forever or even just punished forever for what they do while they're alive for a limited time would be bad."

"Entirely sensible," Hammond agrees. "So you want there to be some way of remaining alive that doesn't require killing people, and is not itself infinitely torturous or punitive, but you aren't opposed in principle to a system where people are relocated on the death of their bodies?"

She thinks about it for a moment. "Yes. I think it would be better if there was a way to come back from the afterlife but I guess that could cause problems. Being able to talk with people there might be better. Ooh! If it's retroactive we could answer so many questions about history that we don't know the answers to. Also people would be sad if the people they loved died before the afterlife started being a thing."

"Magic can definitely enable time travel," he notes. "So I don't know if you'll end up with a retroactive system in this case, but it is possible."

Normally he'd move on, but she seems to keep coming up with latent details.

"Are there any other things that you want to specify about how you'd like immortality to work? We've talked about what it shouldn't be like; what do you think it should be like?"

"Oh, time travel! I have thoughts about that!

"But hmm, I think that good immortality keeps you healthy and also let's you keep leaning and growing. A lot of people get really set in their ways or have issues learning new things as they get older and it would be sad if immortality just meant being stuck forever.

"As for how to be able to become immortal, I mostly just want it to be something I can do so it shouldn't be too hard. Maybe there should be multiple ways so everyone who wants to be immortal can be.

"In general I think it's better when there's multiple ways to do things. Especially if there isn't one best way that's better than all the others."

"... multiple ... ways," he mumbles as he jots. "Alright!"

"What are your thoughts on time travel?"

"The main thing I care about is that you're not erasing the future when you travel to the past. There are great stories about desperate last ditch efforts but it's usually not worth it and time wars are really messy things that I don't think would be fun in real life.

"As long as you rule that out, I think the idea of being able to talk to your past self or meet historical figures or even set the future on a different path are all fun ideas."

"Oh, yes — my universe doesn't do time-travel, thankfully, but I've had to do the trainings and it was a headache," Hammond agrees.

"Do you care whether traveling to the past creates a separate timeline, whether things are predestined to have always been that way, or some other mechanic, as long as timelines aren't getting wiped out? What about timelines becoming inaccessible, but continuing to exist?"

"If I get to pick I'd prefer branching timelines. I think it's fine if they're inaccessible though. It might hurt people if they time travel accidentally but you can't protect people from every possible mistake."

He nods.

"Other than immortality and time-travel, are there other things that you think magic should definitely be able to do? Or that it would be nice if it could do?"

"Oh that's a big question. There's lots of things I would like but definitely at least one of teleportation and being able to fly. Maybe flying could be part of some sort of elemental magic or telekinesis. Some way of changing things into other things is also a classic and I figure that if magic can do immortality then it should also do healing."

"Telekinesis ... changing things ... healing ..." he mumbles to himself.

"Do you have opinions about whether those things should be separate, specific effects, or whether they should be particular manifestations of broader skills?"

"Hmm, in general I think fewer broader things is better than a lot of separate things but I don't think everything needs to be part of one big whole at least practically speaking. I would like it if there was some grand unifying theory for all of magic though. Even if it's hard to find it."

"Hmm."

He taps his pen to his lip.

"Does that change your answer to whether magic should be 'hard' or 'soft', or are you imagining that a grand unifying theory could be compatible with either?"

"I think a grand unifying theory is compatible with both."

"What kinds of things do you think should be involved in trying to discover something like that, or discover unknown magic in general?"

"Ooh, that's a fun question. Ultimately I think it should come down to studying known magic and trying things that are similar. Having magic you can use to study other magic would also be good. That could be anything from the classic of mage sight to elaborate divination rituals. I think needing to experiment is a good thing regardless though. Obviously it's more important for softer magical since those generally won't be precise enough to know exactly what's going to happen before you try it."

"How do you think people should get started on knowing magic, if you think learning more should be based on studying what exists?"

"Well I think that some magic can probably happen by accident either because it's just based on people intending to do something and not expecting it to happen or because it happens to mirror or encompass something people are doing already like art or religious rituals or something."

"Oh, that makes sense."

He flips through the list of questions.

"We've touched a little on what magic should be able to do, and how it should work; what shouldn't magic be able to do?"

"That's a less fun question. I guess the fast answer is that it shouldn't make it really easy to kill people or hurt them badly. Otherwise, I'm not sure. I think in general bigger effects should be harder to do for one reason or another but I don't think there's anything I want to be impossible. Well beyond the time travel thing I mentioned or other things that hurt a lot of people in ways that are easy to pull off and hard to fix."

"Do you mean things that are hard to fix right now, or does the boundary of what you care about shift when things become easier to fix?" he clarifies.

"It shifts. It's still not great when people are hurt but if it's easier to help people than to hurt them and easier to fix what's broken than to break it than that's better than how things are now in a lot of ways."

"Yes, I quite agree," he quite agrees.

"How do you feel about destiny and predetermination? For example, would you want it to be predetermined that everyone eventually finds a way of healing their injuries?"

"That specifically sounds good. I think it's a problem when it gets too specific though. It wouldn't be fun if I always knew what was going to happen before it did."

"Hmm. Are there other things that you would particularly want to be fated, or not to be fated?"

"I like the idea you mentioned about people always finding a way to get better. I wouldn't want anyone to be fated to never get better or to stay the same forever. And in general I think good fates are better but good is complicated. And none of this changes what I said about specific fates being worse than vaguer ones."

"Right. So only vague predetermination toward 'good' things, specifically people being able to heal, grow, and change," he summarizes.

"Do you have any thoughts about whether there should be entities associated with performing or learning about magic? Gods, fairies, and so on? And if so, what should they be like?"

"I want to meet all sorts of new kinds of people and not-quite people creatures. I don't want there to be things that are a lot more powerful than the existing people can be though."

He nods seriously.

"What do you think the experience of using magic should be like?"

"I'd like it to be engaging and immersive. So not just in your head. And also a mix. Some magic should be possible to do with nothing but your body and time while other magic should require elaborate preparations and setups. I don't really want it to be about acquiring rare materials but it's okay if rare materials can work as a shortcut."

"How do you feel about magic taking some finite resource that builds up in people over time?" he asks. "That one also comes up fairly often."

"I don't think it counts as finite if it's that straightforwardly renewable. As for what I think of the idea, I'm okay with it as long as it's reasonably plentiful. I want to be able to do a lot of magic and I don't want people to have a reason to I threaten each other to be able to do more."

Hammond notes this, flipping to a new sheet.

"Alright — I think we've gone over all the really important ones. It sounds like you're generally in favor of having a lot of diverse experiences with magic, with a bias toward things turning out okay," he summarizes 

"There are a bunch of more specific supplemental questions I can ask if you'd like, but first I should ask whether there are any areas of magic that we haven't talked about that are important to you, or specific ideas you have that you haven't gotten to share yet?"

"It's maybe a small thing but it would be great if doing magic involved pretty lights. Both as an indication that you're doing magic and maybe also as a side effect when magic is happening."

"Oh!"

He scans through the papers for a moment.

"I completely skipped the aesthetics questions! I'm sorry. Pretty lights, noted. Are there other aesthetic considerations that you'd like to see? Like atmospheric weather, a distinct feeling associated with magic, or anything like that?"

"I'm a big fan of the idea that magic can give you sensations that don't really match up to any of your normal senses. A distinct feeling could be a nice part of that. Of course saying that means it's hard for me to describe in particular."

Hammond chuckles.

"That would make it difficult. Are you imagining feeling the sensation when something magical is nearby, when someone is using magic, when you are using magic, or something else?"

"All of those sound good. Ooh, maybe different people or different kinds of magic feel different so you can learn to use the sense to recognize people and kinds of magic."

He nods, and double-checks his papers.

"Okay, that really is all the questions I have for you. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Oh, I have lots. I'm assuming that you've been using world to refer to our whole spatially connected region and not this planet but am I right about that? And if that is right do you know if there's aliens out there in this world? Also do you know what's involved in making new magic systems? Do you know how long it's likely to be before this world gets magic or if it'll be announced somehow?" She paused for breath and visually restrains herself from peppering him with more questions.

"Heh. Yes, by 'world' I mean 'spatially connected region'. I'm afraid it's against policy to tell you about whether aliens exist until you find out for yourself. I know the broad outlines of what's involved in making magic systems, but the precise details go far over my head."

"Broadly, my bosses take all the survey feedback and turn it into a single consensus description, and then give that to the Will of Magic, who is not really a purposive entity, but is more like that then it is like other things that you or I have a reference frame for. The description guides how the Will of Magic chooses to 'fold' or 'crystalize' into the new shape of magic in your world. I should have your feedback back to the bosses by the end of the day, and they'll have a consensus put together in another two days or so. At that point, it's all up to the Will of Magic. Sometimes the process only takes a few days, and in rare cases it can take months. On average, you should expect magic to arrive in a week or two," he explains.

"Okay. I have lots more questions like the one about aliens but I guess you probably can't answer those either. So my other big question is about magic, you said you're magical. Does that mean that magic can move between worlds with people?"

He nods.

"An excellent insight. The answer is a little complicated, but the truest version is probably 'it depends'. Magic is fundamentally a different set of rules about how things can work; if a world's rules don't have enough 'flexibility' in them, then you can't really port magic into it. I couldn't have visited you a week ago, for example. But your world is preparing to gain magic of its own, which makes the rules a little looser," he explains.

"Once your universe does gain magic, it's not impossible that the rules would become too rigid again, or impose additional requirements on visitors, but that's pretty unlikely. Most magic systems that develop accommodate magical visitors just fine. But there's also the nature of the visitor's origin world to consider — some magic systems work by manipulating natural forces present in their world. If my world worked like that, I wouldn't be able to do any magic here, even if I were able to visit, because those forces wouldn't exist."

"I'm lucky enough that my world's magic, although there is a component tied to the world itself, mostly works by granting inherent powers to people. My magic abilities aren't really a separate thing that can be removed from me, they're just things that I can do. It makes people from my world a popular choice for jobs like this that involve going to other worlds, actually."

"Oh, then that's something else I want. I want our magic to work even if we go to other places. And I'd like our magic not to prevent people from visiting."

He dutifully writes this down.

"There's a lot of ways worlds can work — there will almost certainly always be some that are incompatible with your magic in one direction or the other no matter what magic here ends up like — but I'm sure the Will of Magic will do its best."

"I can't think of anything else then. Thanks for coming and asking me."

"You're most welcome!"

He hops down from his chair and makes his way to the door.

"I'll go get these back to the office. Have a good afternoon!"

And then he waddles down the driveway and then the road with surprising speed, vanishing into the distance in moments.