STM 1st Special about The Rasskazchick Eng version
XyzwaitSTM – “Special on the Storyteller”
I am the The Storyteller – or “Rasskazchick” if you prefer name from original version, don’t confuse me with the author, whose name I as a character don’t know, or with the co‑writer. Well, I suppose I should tell you who I even am… but for now it’s easier to explain something else: what happened in the chapter that has no title – and no, “two‑and‑a‑half-th” is not a title, it’s a number.
What I can say is that in that chapter no rule worked – not even the most important narrative rule: if something is mentioned twice, it matters; if something is stated by the NARRATIVE itself – not by me, but by the NARRATIVE – then it’s true. But as I said earlier… those rules are broken there, they simply don’t work. I don’t fully understand how it works myself, but… wait… it doesn’t work!
I’m writing this at home – not in the “readers‑of‑lore” world, but also not in the story‑world. I’m just writing, stopping by a café for some khieptoniestaki on the way, or somewhere around here. I sometimes ask myself idle questions, like: is the world real? Am I real? Everyone asks that, but I don’t think there’s any point in that question, because in the end the answer will just lead to the same chain of actions as any other outcome – and no, I’m not talking about determinism, I’m not that deep, I mean something else: it doesn’t matter whether you’re real or not, that’s all! What did you expect – philosophy or action? Fine, I’ll give you a slice of my daily life…
In the morning I read books about the “readers‑of‑lore” world – if I can find any, because they’re not easy to get; I have only five of them, and they’re probably fiction anyway, even if they were created inside that world. Then I go to write STM, and after that I usually go talk to acquaintances or go to “work” – that’s how it’s described in the readers‑of‑lore world. And can you imagine MY ABSOLUTE FUCKING SHOCK when I ended up in the Zadannovye Komnaty – in my own narrative?! And yes, it was planned by the author, BUT WHAT THE FUCK, MAN, HE’S A… Okay, enough ranting… I should probably tell the lore, since I won’t get any feedback from readers anyway – I’m just a character after all…
About magic:
There are several elements – Illusion as an idea, Energy as energy, and Space‑Time as form. That’s why there are basic spells like “Wall of Gaslight”, “Mobility of Gaslight”, “Mana Living”, “Post‑Mana Living”, “Extractability” – and let me briefly explain them.
First, mana is measured in UE – yes, literally Conventional Units, and that’s the gold standard, though not a rule – for example, northerners measure mana in Gulps, literally the volume of a fat man’s throat. And you might not understand my surprise, but I’ll tell you: I used to be a character in this text myself, and I got out via an occult ritual – I won’t explain what ritual, because that could have consequences.
Wall of Gaslight is the spell you know – you’ve even seen the formula without context, but before that, I’ll put double line breaks for readability:
“Suddenly a mini‑horde of goblins charges at them, but Elian manages to cast the ‘Wall of Gaslight’ spell, convincing the goblins that there’s a wall in front of them and they can’t reach Elian, Brock and Serla. He casts a wall of glass – not very dense, about 2150 kg/m³, volume about 2 cubic metres, goblins count 3, spell power 1.5 because goblins are stupid, so the wall cost 2×1.5×(3²)×(2150‑1)÷50, plus a penalty of +2^(1/2) – that’s about 1161 units, which, since Elian doesn’t have a huge mana pool, was a lot for him, so casting took a penalty time of 57.19 seconds.”
That fragment! Now for the context – here’s the formula: (VF(P²)p)/50
Where:
· V = volume perceived by an average person,
· P = number of people,
· F = spell power,
· p = |p₁ – p₂|, where p₁ is the average density of the material where the gaslight immobility is placed, and p₂ is the average density of the gaslight wall material – absolute value because whichever is larger gets subtracted from the other.
And P is squared because people interact; but if they didn’t interact, it would be VFPp/50 – without the square. If only part of them interact, you’ll have to figure out the formula yourself…
So yes, it’s not just meaningless nonsense. As for the penalty time – that was from before I became the Storyteller of this world, when I was still part of it.
Still, earlier I wrote about the Zadannovye Komnaty (or Beck-romas) – a place created by incompetent space‑mages, a place that “forgot” physics – like the Backrooms, or rather… a Still Life of the Backrooms itself – a Still Life of narrative and metaphysics and everything! Its very creation is incorrect, yet it exists and at the same time doesn’t, because it’s a Still Life of existence.
And of course I forgot about the other spells – I’ll mention two important ones for the second volume, and explain the rest in the second Special:
“Mana Living” :
It costs 2E, where E is the energy you want to get from mana in kJ – literally, that’s all it does. For example, heating water by 1°C using 8 mana. It’s the only spell that doesn’t incur a penalty, because it’s the simplest of all spells.
There’s also a derivative spell – “Post‑Mana Living” – basically the same, but it converts heat back into mana. However, before the formula, I need to add a note about TNPE: [SPOILERS FOR SECOND CHAPTER, DELETED]
As for the formula of Post‑Mana Living:
M = k · ΔT · V · (integral of conductivity over time)
Where:
· M = amount of mana gained (in conventional units);
· k = conversion coefficient (depends on material, temperature, and magical environment – usually between 0.1 and 0.9);
· ΔT = temperature difference between hot and cold objects (in Kelvin or Celsius – the difference is the same);
· V = volume of the magical channel through which heat flows (in litres or cubic metres);
· The integral of conductivity is the sum of conductivity values σ(t) over the entire working time (from start t₀ to end t₁). Conductivity σ(t) depends on vacuum stability, calibration accuracy, and other factors.