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milliways chain gifting thread
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There is now a box on the bar counter.

THE MILLIWAYS CHAIN GIFTING BOX

1. Take out the gift (and possible message) placed in the box.

2. Think about the gift and whether or not you like it, and whether or not it might be useful to you. This step is very important.

3. Place your own gift in the box. Do not put give gifts that have curses, hexes, hidden downsides or tricks.

4. Optionally, write a message. The message will be automatically translated for the recipient.

5. Close the box. The box will disappear and will go to the next recipient. If the gift you placed in the box is inappropriate, the box will not close.

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She isn't going to get a gift because she's the one starting this whole thing. But she knew that.

She places a three-strand braid bracelet in the box, of black fiber. The ends of the braid are sealed by small wooden beads, and there's a larger bead where they connect.

This braided loop is made of my own hair, which I have artificed with the Way of Flowers. It increases strength and endurance slightly while you wear it — wear it on the wrist or ankle. In general, it makes you more energetic. It is unlikely but possible that it might cause you to have trouble sleeping — if so, remove it before you plan to go to sleep. You can adjust the size of the loop by drawing more or less of the rope through the central bead, and then tying a knot to secure it.  

- Marina

She closes the box.

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Time is normally supposed to be paused in your home dimension while you are in the Milliways, but his home dimension and method of entry are both kind of outliers.  He reads the instructions carefully.  There are all sorts of ways he could try to game it, buts he’s learned not to try to game the few actually benevolent phenomena out there.

He thinks it over… Yeah, hopefully someone can use it, and he could use something useful himself.

He opens it up and takes out the gift and message.  He thinks about it carefully.  yeah, he really could use some extra strength and endurance.  It could be very useful to him.

He places two pens in the box.  He copies a message out twice:

This pen can switch the "names" between two inanimate nonliving objects.  Uncap the pen, tap its point on the first object, and within 5 seconds tap it on the second object.  Switching the names causes everyone to by default perceive one object as the other if they think about the object verbally or textually.  I.e. if you have a stone and a pillow and tap one then the other, naive observers dependent on verbal or textual thinking will think the stone is a pillow, even to the point of trying to rest on it, although they will notice it as unusually hard and uncomfortable for a pillow.  Switching names shouldn’t work on living creatures, but it is strongly recommended not to even try.

He isn’t sure if the box can multiply or pay the extra back to someone or whatever, but he can make the pens without too much hassle so it probably doesn’t hurt?  Worse case someone gets a pair.

He closes the box and it disappears.

He gets going, he needs to get back to the library.

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While not letting the narrative linger too long on just why she's in milliways and what else she's doing with the opportunity, this kind of thing screams trickery. She doesn't know what she wants to use it for yet. Some kind of espionage plot. Hiding cursed objects, or obscuring things from monsters? Or just pranks. Hopefully names can be turned back or wear off?

She just takes one of the pens, and leaves in its place a shimmering deep midnight blue cloak. The note is simple.

Invisibility and silence cloak. Covers all of whoever is wearing it, and anything they are carrying. Recharge under moonlight. Might break permanently if it goes too long without recharging. 

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Invisibility cloak? Yatta! She wishes she had something that good. She'll take a pair of scissors and put them in the box.

All in one scissors. Includes a hook knife, hex wrench, rasp, straightedge / ruler (1 x 10^33 plank lengths increment) , protractor, nut cracker, bottle opener, can opener, screwdrivers ( flat and Y), nail puller, hammer, and magnet. Case is magnetic with built in whetstone and paracord belt loop. 


After some thought she takes her other scissors off her belt and throws it in there too. It's not much compared to something literally magical but it's as close to a fair trade as she can make. 

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This bar is confusing but this box and the instructions are less. She will participate.

A new tool! And a quite intriguing one at that. The mentioned increment of the ruler is hard to parse. Paracord is also unfamiliar. But all the understandable parts seem clearly useful. For research, and for practical matters. A very concrete gift, it is.

 

And then their own gift for the box. A book would fit.

Mayhaps a book of Lanterns; to shine light to these wintery times, to illuminate.

So she lays the bright-yellow book, Gospel of Nicodemus, in the box, along with a note, and a stack of older notes:

This book provides an account of the works done by the Shepherd Illuminate, from one of his supposed companions. It may shine light to your path, let you notice something that you could not previously. The translation is my own, as no published ones exist. If you wish to study the book you would do well to scribe one by your own pen, to notice, to recognise. 

Good luck. If you pick up the Work, you will need it. But it can be worthwhile.

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Glint has never been terribly academic (he went to trade school)  

But a text meant to aid in the uncovering of secrets is basically exactly what he needs and he trust that the boxes protections against curses will stop him from ending up like Jasskca

 

One of the artifice projects he's been working on while in the bar 

 

A a pair of metal wings worn using leather straps 

 the wings wings resize to any person  wearing them and allow them to fly at a speed of 40 feet a moment*

Additionally the person wearing them can fire off feathers as projectiles acting as a +1  weapon with a range of 60 feet 

 

He adds a note explaining the itemss use

 

*Approximately 6 seconds

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The governor of Ira Sani is loosely familiar with Christmas, though he didn't know it was Christmas anywhere today. This specific tradition is new to him, but it seems like a good one.

The wings are one of the most impressive works of magic he's ever encountered. He would love to be able to fly under his own power; usually that calls for a completely different kind of magic.

He gets a few plain necklace chains and a scented candle from Bar and sits at a booth for a while to work on a present. At one point when the candle's been burning for a while and the smoke swirls particularly nicely, he plucks a sphere of thin air out of thin air, visible only because of the smoke frozen within. Then a star and a cube made by a mostly similar process. He attaches each of them to one of the chains using plain, smokeless air, so the smoke pendants will seem to hover (when viewed through an atmosphere with the same index of refraction as this one and as long as they're clean).

While you're wearing or touching the necklace with the spherical pendant, no new magic can be cast on you (true of all magic in my world and several others but I've never tried it against a god). It won't break old spells that were in effect when you put it on. Spells cast on things other than you can still affect you (for instance, a spell that heats something you're touching can burn you). While you're wearing or touching the necklace with the cube pendant, you won't become colder than 36 Celsius unless you already were when you put it on. Several types of sedatives that work on humans can't be brought within a foot of the star necklace. None of the necklaces can transfer heat. The magic will break if the chains do, except in the case of the star necklace, where the chain and pendant both have the same enchantment. The cube and star necklaces can usually be used with other magic items, including magic necklaces. (The sphere necklace needs special care, such as being put on after the other magic items.) The cube and sphere pendants don't do anything and I just made them so I could have something to call the necklaces.

He has to actually shut the lid to be sure none of that counts as cursed. Someone could be really inconvenienced by wearing one of these necklaces.

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