Here's a simple one: One fairy-tale hero gets a wish. He wishes for the masquerade. The exact terms of the wish (always important) determine the forms of leakage in the masquerade.
For example, if he wishes, "I wish magic would never have anything to do with ordinary people again," a masquerade comes into effect, but you aren't covered by it if you aren't "ordinary." After a while, the truly ordinary people who never see any magic begin to feel there's something uncanny about people with six fingers or mis-matched eyes or who are seventh sons of seventh sons, or whatnot -- beyond the surface peculiarity -- because one sees some of the low-SFX side-effects of the things that happen to them, and sometimes they tell very strange stories (often while crying into their beer).
Or perhaps the wish isn't enforced by mere power of magic but by the superintendence of some magical being(s), so the leakage changes with whatever the current wish-enforcers consider "ordinary." ("There's nothing weird about having red hair!" "_I've_ never seen it before.")
Or the wish could be "I wish magic would never bother people who have no magic." Again, construal is everything. "Never bother" might mean that magical beings can't make the first move. But if you go looking for a soothsayer, witch, wizard, or leprechaun, on your own head be it.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-01-12 12:17 am (UTC)For example, if he wishes, "I wish magic would never have anything to do with ordinary people again," a masquerade comes into effect, but you aren't covered by it if you aren't "ordinary." After a while, the truly ordinary people who never see any magic begin to feel there's something uncanny about people with six fingers or mis-matched eyes or who are seventh sons of seventh sons, or whatnot -- beyond the surface peculiarity -- because one sees some of the low-SFX side-effects of the things that happen to them, and sometimes they tell very strange stories (often while crying into their beer).
Or perhaps the wish isn't enforced by mere power of magic but by the superintendence of some magical being(s), so the leakage changes with whatever the current wish-enforcers consider "ordinary." ("There's nothing weird about having red hair!" "_I've_ never seen it before.")
Or the wish could be "I wish magic would never bother people who have no magic." Again, construal is everything. "Never bother" might mean that magical beings can't make the first move. But if you go looking for a soothsayer, witch, wizard, or leprechaun, on your own head be it.
Earl Wajenberg