Ask Luna #177

From: Kevin

Hey Luna kind of an odd question but since Alex’s magic is for lack of a better word visual based do you notice anything different about him in general compared to other people when talking to him? By that I mean does he appear to use his magic constantly like he’s distracted or is it only when he’s doing things like path walking and other complicated magic?

It’s only when he’s doing something complicated. I know that he uses his divination constantly, but you wouldn’t be able to tell just from looking at him. It’s only when he’s focusing on something that he gets this abstracted look and seems to not be paying attention to what’s going on right now. I get the feeling he used to have more trouble juggling precognition with everything else he did, but over the years he got very good at doing a sort of ‘parallel processing’ thing where he keeps his divination running at a low level in the background.

From: Celia

Hi Luna! Do you still have time for some questions? 🙂

When Alex met Will Travis at the casino, he mentioned that Will’s “accent and body language were close to British, but slightly off” and that he had a “faint American accent.” What is the difference between American and British body language?

Thanks so much! Hope you and Vari are doing well.

I don’t know what Alex meant, but I’ve met a bunch of American exchange students and tourists and you do start to notice some differences. There are lots of little ones, but just to pick one out of a hat – smiling. Americans have this way of pulling their lips back when they smile to show their teeth, like they’re posing for a dentistry ad or something. British people don’t do that at all.

From: Sam

Hey Luna!

What’s something you’re proud of, that you never have a good excuse to talk about?

The fact that I got into the Light apprentice programme and then graduated as a journeyman mage. Pretty much every other girl and boy in the programme not only came in with more magical talent and things that they could do, but they’d also had years of training and experience and the opportunity to learn stuff. I was starting out so far behind them it wasn’t even funny.

I couldn’t really talk about it to the other apprentices because it’d be like painting a target on my back – the whole point was that I needed to get good enough that no-one could tell I didn’t fit in. And now that I’ve graduated, everyone just sees me as a mage, so they just kind of assume that I was obviously going to get journeyman status anyway. So there are really only a little handful of people I can ever talk about it to.

From: Celia

Hey, Luna, Any chance you could happen to mention to Alex that maybe Landis wouldn’t be THAT put out if something fatal were to happen to Undaaris? Pretty sure no one would actually miss him. 😉

I would really love to know what it is about our current situation that could possibly make anyone think “hey, you know what Luna and Alex need? More enemies!”

From: Stewart

Dear Luna,

I recently discovered this column and have greatly enjoyed your responses to everything. In a few columns you mention you are more of a dog person and I was wondering if you had considered getting a dog since your curse is more under control. My dog has always been a great help when I’m feeling down and I think you could do with all the help you need currently.

Do you have a favourite type of dog?

If you were to get a dog any ideas on what you would call he or she?

Do you know what type of animals the others in your group like? Alex strikes me as a cat person.

What type of pet do you think Richard would go for? (Sorry sorry I couldn’t resist)

If Richard were to get a pet what do you think his motivations behind naming them would be? (And I’m done, I will get my coat).

I do like dogs, and I do like the idea of having one, but . . . I just can’t face the idea. If anything happened to it, I’d feel like it was my fault. And it probably would be. I mean, let’s be honest here, can you POSSIBLY think of a worse owner for a pet?

Now I’m getting depressed.

Anyway. I like the medium-sized dogs, like spaniels and Spitzes. The big ones are too oversized for the places I live, and the little ones look too silly. Alex probably does like cats, but I think Hermes is occupying the ‘pet’ position.

As for Richard . . . *sigh*. I’ll explain this one more time. I am not friends with Richard. I do not hang out with Richard. What I know about Richard is about as much as you do, possibly less. And if I WAS in a position to find out anything about Richard, I very definitely wouldn’t use the opportunity to find out about his interests in pets.