My view on fairies

Malahite wrote:

Thing is, eventually they likely will drive away a good deal of species. Unlike a good bunch of other 'Predators', they take to literature and recording of history. This doesn't sound like much, until one realizes that this means that they will be a 'Predator' species that likely will begin to develop technologically as well. And if so, nothing will be scarier than if they can begin to steal and reverse engineer others tech and will have the production capabilities to mass-produce it.

Absolutely true, given the absence of some external balancing factor (like the Guardians). It will eventually happen, it is just a matter of how long it takes for enough fairies to clue in and develop the desire/motivation to take over the world. Previously, I scoffed at the notion of fairy literature and history; To be honest, given the whimsical attitudes that run rampant among their species, it doesn't seem likely that fairy literature and history would amount to much.

At least on a first glance, it doesn't seem as though it would be as important to them as human literature and history is to humans. We don't really know much (as far as I am aware) about how fairies record literature and history, but it is likely to be very, very eclectic simply due to the widely varying personalities. A legend about a great fairy hero might have just occurred yesterday, in a battle against an insect 8 inches tall. That whimsical nature means that it's hard to make any predictions regarding fairies, and hard to take them seriously... which is where the real danger comes in.

Because not all fairies are flighty, erratic little things with short attention spans. Some of them are serious warriors, and some of them are scholarly. All of them are sentient, which is always a huge thing. Most of them are very curious, even if they don't always have the drive or interest to do hard work. Taking that into account, that real danger lies in the fact that fairies make it very easy for someone to not take them seriously.

But say you start skimming through 100 pieces of fairy literature, and 99 of them are accounts of miscellaneous nonsense ("Today, I saw a red flower! It smelled really, really good! And then it tried to eat me! =D"), and the hundredth consists of detailed diagrams and information on human anatomy... and handwritten annotations saying, "You know, you need to get really small, but if you go inside their ear and punch that little membrane in there, this happens..."

Heck, it doesn't even have to go that far. As you said, they don't really need to develop their own technology and science, if they can manage to understand ours. "Hey, I snuck into the Miratan base. Humans are silly, but they have some interesting ideas and toys. Check out this blueprint for a... 'Plasma Cannon'? It's not really all that complicated, is it? Let's build one and try it out!" It is not only possible, but highly likely that somewhere out there is a fairy scholar who has been sneaking into human settlements and "borrowing" books, for no reasons other than: He can, and he wants to.

Malahite wrote:

Their hedonistic lifestyle is likely what keeps us safe, as you said. That goes away, shit hits the fan and people of all species better hope their mages are up to the challenge.

Well, their hedonistic lifestyle, and their mindset. I think it is probably impossible for a human to follow fairy reasoning well enough to be able to predict their behavior; the way their minds is probably just too alien to us. For instance, "Destroy all humans!" might be something the average fairy would never consider; not out of compassion or any sort of morality, but because they really like the taste of humans. And if the humans are all gone, then... well, they won't have any more to eat.

I am not saying that this is the truth, but it is entirely possible. A handful of fairies could wipe a non-magical, technologically advanced human settlement (Miratans, Delurans) of the face of Felarya. Fairies have the capability. Why haven't they? The two likeliest reasons are that something else is stopping them (possibly one or more Guardians), or they have the capability but lack the desire to do so.

If the second reason is the case, and they get over that lack of motivation... then, it's just as you said. EVERYBODY better be ready, regardless of their species.

Once again some very interesting thoughts here !!

Wow now you got me thinking in depths to fairy magic. I am not sure how to pull it yet but I think it would be very worth making an entry about that in the wiki

Malahite wrote:

Thing is, eventually they likely will drive away a good deal of species. Unlike a good bunch of other 'Predators', they take to literature and recording of history. This doesn't sound like much, until one realizes that this means that they will be a 'Predator' species that likely will begin to develop technologically as well. And if so, nothing will be scarier than if they can begin to steal and reverse engineer others tech and will have the production capabilities to mass-produce it.

Their hedonistic lifestyle is likely what keeps us safe, as you said. That goes away, shit hits the fan and people of all species better hope their mages are up to the challenge.

>_> Ut-oh...

I've got a character who was a fairy that (for reasons still mysterious) grew up in Dridder society... Her mindset is warlike and ruthless, and she began organizing other fairies under her...

Interesting side note, and this may or may not be a good idea, but I'm thinking of having the fairies' magical power tied to their state of mind. So the less flighty and more serious they are, the more grounded they are in reality and the weaker their magic becomes.

Sort of a balance to the "getting serious about becoming the alpha pred." angle.

NOTE: I also like pretty much everything that the Quantum Mechanic is saying as well.

Karbo wrote:

Once again some very interesting thoughts here !!

Wow now you got me thinking in depths to fairy magic. I am not sure how to pull it yet but I think it would be very worth making an entry about that in the wiki

Do you have any thoughts on the question I asked about pregnancy and "fullness", Karbo? To briefly recap, I was wondering whether or not more space becomes available within a fairy's body if she changes size. If she is 3 inches tall and eats until her stomach is full, and then "grows" to 60 feet tall, which of the following happens:

1) Does there suddenly become more available space within her stomach (due to the food remaining the same size while her stomach became bigger)?

2) She remains full, because there is no sudden increase in the difference between the amount of space occupied in her stomach, and the amount of space available in her stomach (until she digests her food, at least). Proportionally, there is never an increase or decrease in the difference of size between humans/nekos/whatever inside her stomach, and her stomach itself (not due to "changing" sizes, at least).

It doesn't seem as though the answer would be "1", because of the numerous problems it creates (if the contents of her stomach remain the same size, and the fairy "shrinks" to a size smaller than the contents of her stomach, she would be torn apart. Also, fairies would never get full unless they wanted to (or hit their maximum size limit), simply because they could just increase their size to make more room in their stomach for another meal). There would be similar problems with pregnancy in that situation- If a fairy got too small, the child inside of her would be larger than her, and tear her apart. If she got too large, the child would be proportionally the size of a blood cell within her body.

"2" seems to be the better option, but I'd really like to know your thoughts on the matter.

Feign wrote:

I've got a character who was a fairy that (for reasons still mysterious) grew up in Dridder society... Her mindset is warlike and ruthless, and she began organizing other fairies under her...

That would make for a very interesting situation. Although, it could lead to some interesting clashes of perspective, as well. It might be difficult for said character to relate to the average Fairy (even some of the serious ones), since she is a fairy that thinks like a Dridder, as opposed to a Fairy that thinks like a Fairy.

Fairy General: "All right troops, here is the plan! Division One will fly directly at the enemy, in tight formation. Stay large, to draw their attention. Division Two will follow behind them, maintaining a small size, using them for cover and protecting Division One with defensive magic. When I give the signal, Division One will go small and scatter, flying directly past the enemy so that they can regroup behind them. At the same time, Division Two will go big and engage the enemy from the front. When I give the second signal, Divison One will go big and engage the enemy from the rear, and we'll crush them between us! Any questions?"

"Why do I have to be in Division One? I want to be in Division Two!"
"I want to be in Division Three!"
"I don't care what Division I'm in, you guys do whatever. I'm going to find the best swordsman on the field, and fight him. That's all I care about."
"I think your plan would be more effective if we split into four divisions instead of two, and engaged them from all sides."
"No way, it would be way more effective if we all went in small, caused a distraction in the middle of the night, and annihilated the main force while they sent a scouting party out to investigate."
"Don't be ridiculous, this is what we should do..."

Fairy General: *facepalm*

Feign wrote:

Interesting side note, and this may or may not be a good idea, but I'm thinking of having the fairies' magical power tied to their state of mind. So the less flighty and more serious they are, the more grounded they are in reality and the weaker their magic becomes.

Sort of a balance to the "getting serious about becoming the alpha pred." angle.

That is an interesting idea, although it poses some interesting issues. It also raises some interesting questions about the nature of fairies themselves, which we all seem to have different notions about. Assuming that your idea is true, the most powerful fairies would be the ones least likely to make effective use of the power they have. Ie, they do everything at a whim, and don't really bother to make plans or think beyond the immediate future.

We don't really know much about Nemyra, other than she's the Queen of the Fairies. That doesn't necessarily make her the most powerful fairy, but I think Karbo has strongly implied that is the case. Operating under your idea, Nemyra would be probably have the shortest attention span on Felarya, and do everything according to her own whims... traits that seem somewhat counterproductive for a balancing force in Felarya. But then again, there is the matter of Notys, so...

If you do decide to go with that idea, you might want to consider this: If the nature of Fairies themselves is tied into "unreality", and Nemrya is the ultimate expression of this concept, and Fairies are opposed to and by insects (on Felarya, at least)... does this imply that the nature of insectoid beings (Hive insects in particular) is tied to "reality"?

That as opposed to Fairies, the more grounded in reality an insectoid creature is, the more powerful it becomes? That could have interesting repercussions for Dridder society (yes, I know spiders are not insects, but they can be consider "insectoid" by virtue of common traits), Miaxi, Tonorions, and the relationship between Nemrya and Quaz (who, as it has been stated, sometimes creates problems for other Guardians).

Very interesting to consider the possibilities.

Feign wrote:

NOTE: I also like pretty much everything that the Quantum Mechanic is saying as well.

Aw, shucks. Let me know what you think of that last bit I just posted, in regards to your idea. It'll be interesting to know how it affects your concept.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

"Why do I have to be in Division One? I want to be in Division Two!"
"I want to be in Division Three!"
"I don't care what Division I'm in, you guys do whatever. I'm going to find the best swordsman on the field, and fight him. That's all I care about."
"I think your plan would be more effective if we split into four divisions instead of two, and engaged them from all sides."
"No way, it would be way more effective if we all went in small, caused a distraction in the middle of the night, and annihilated the main force while they sent a scouting party out to investigate."
"Don't be ridiculous, this is what we should do..."

Fairy General: *facepalm*

>_< I just burst out laughing in the computer lab at that one... But yeah, trying to teach the fairies the use of firearms, and concequently firearm safety is proving to be a dangerous proposition, giving the local healer a bit of a workout.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

We don't really know much about Nemyra, other than she's the Queen of the Fairies. That doesn't necessarily make her the most powerful fairy, but I think Karbo has strongly implied that is the case. Operating under your idea, Nemyra would be probably have the shortest attention span on Felarya, and do everything according to her own whims... traits that seem somewhat counterproductive for a balancing force in Felarya. But then again, there is the matter of Notys, so...

My guess is that she sorta "rounds the dial" where she registered so far into the "random" portion of the scale that it broke and she's perfectly sane.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

If you do decide to go with that idea, you might want to consider this: If the nature of Fairies themselves is tied into "unreality", and Nemrya is the ultimate expression of this concept, and Fairies are opposed to and by insects (on Felarya, at least)... does this imply that the nature of insectoid beings (Hive insects in particular) is tied to "reality"?

I wouldn't say "reality" so much as "banality" - The lack of individual thought or creativity. It sort of makes sense that such a property would make them resistant to fey magic.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

That as opposed to Fairies, the more grounded in reality an insectoid creature is, the more powerful it becomes?

More like the less individually intelligent and creative it is, the higher its magic resistance.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

That could have interesting repercussions for Dridder society (yes, I know spiders are not insects, but they can be consider "insectoid" by virtue of common traits), Miaxi, Tonorions, and the relationship between Nemrya and Quaz (who, as it has been stated, sometimes creates problems for other Guardians).

Well, I would say that insectile features do not an insect make where magic is involved. Since dridders, miaxi and other semi-insectoid types have a good amount of creativity and can often use magic themselves, they're still suceptable to fey magic just like anything else.

Though some insects like tonorions may have physical anti-magic bolstering that may translate to armor made of chitinous plates harvested from them. Basicly, especially resistant insects can be slain and used to make anti-magic armor... Though you'd have to be pretty badass to begin with to slay them. And anti-magic armor would be pretty useless in hunting more insects.

Just maybe some thoughts.

[quote="TheQuantumMechanic"]

Karbo wrote:

Do you have any thoughts on the question I asked about pregnancy and "fullness", Karbo? To briefly recap, I was wondering whether or not more space becomes available within a fairy's body if she changes size. If she is 3 inches tall and eats until her stomach is full, and then "grows" to 60 feet tall, which of the following happens:

1) Does there suddenly become more available space within her stomach (due to the food remaining the same size while her stomach became bigger)?

2) She remains full, because there is no sudden increase in the difference between the amount of space occupied in her stomach, and the amount of space available in her stomach (until she digests her food, at least). Proportionally, there is never an increase or decrease in the difference of size between humans/nekos/whatever inside her stomach, and her stomach itself (not due to "changing" sizes, at least).

It doesn't seem as though the answer would be "1", because of the numerous problems it creates (if the contents of her stomach remain the same size, and the fairy "shrinks" to a size smaller than the contents of her stomach, she would be torn apart. Also, fairies would never get full unless they wanted to (or hit their maximum size limit), simply because they could just increase their size to make more room in their stomach for another meal). There would be similar problems with pregnancy in that situation- If a fairy got too small, the child inside of her would be larger than her, and tear her apart. If she got too large, the child would be proportionally the size of a blood cell within her body.

"2" seems to be the better option, but I'd really like to know your thoughts on the matter.

Yes that would definitely be 2 ^^

I was thinking about their shrinking ability, why humans are affected and not the giant predators.
As TheMechanicQuantum said, fairy don't see the concept of size as we see. So it can be true for the meaning of the words big and small for them, we find something is big or small by comparing to our size our how we see our surrounding. Someone says I'm big. because everyone look small next to him.Let's take the case of a fairy meeting a human, what will happen.
The human will say hello! Little creature.
The fairy will answer No, I'm not little he's you the little creature
The human will say no it's you the small one, look I'm bigger than you. until he see the fairy becomes gigantic and grab him who will add with a big smile You see it's you the small one not me
From the human view the fairy becomes big, but for the fairy view it's the human who is small. She can shrink a human because next to she considers has her real size the human who is small.
So why she can't shrink the others giant predators it's because they are as big as her or bigger. But it's not the case of Nemyra who sees the world of Felarya as a dollhouse

I think it's more because the average Faerie cannot shrink the average Predator due to size issues.

Like, for instance, being at least an order of magnitude taller than the average max.

Mmkay, I just go through reading the wiki entry on the subject.

Now, this will probably seem petty to a lot of people, but I can't help but be a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit offended that someone else is being credited for my idea...

GREGOLE wrote:

Mmkay, I just go through reading the wiki entry on the subject.

Now, this will probably seem petty to a lot of people, but I can't help but be a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit offended that someone else is being credited for my idea...

I was just about to ask who, when I went and read the wiki myself. Since I turned out to be that someone...

I dislike quoting myself, but I'm going to go back to my first post in this thread.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

Personally, I subscribe to the dimensional magic theory, like Gregole and Cypress. It just makes the most sense, and is internally consistent with what we've seen and been told so far.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

As Gregole said, they simply have the ability to change their size in relation to everything else. I'll call this ability "Dimensional Scaling" for now.

All I did was agree with and elaborate upon an idea someone else presented. I'd really appreciate it if someone fixed the wiki, and gave credit where it was due.

Edit: To clarify, I don't mind being credited for the magic page, or my post being quoted on the fairy magic section. But credit for the "characterization of fairy magic" should go to Gregole, honestly. More or less everything I've said on the matter was just agreeing with his post; I just used a lot of words to do it. And for the record, I don't think it's petty at all, Gregole.

Ack my fault sorry. I gave credits to you Gregole ^^;

GREGOLE wrote:

Well, first of all, we have to address how they do it. Here's my personal theory.

An eighty foot high human can't exist. Period. Prettymuch every bodily function imaginable would collapse and/or fail.

My theory is that fairies play on the dimensional instability of Felarya. They literally alter the laws of physics around their own body in a skintight aura that dictates that anything within that aura behaves exactly as it does at a normal human size, but is huge in relation to its surroundings.

In other words, they increase their size relative to their surroundings, but tap into some sort of dimensional frequency that dictates that they're still human sized, even if they no longer are.

It's VERY difficult to put into words, but... I dunno, am I getting this through properly?

Hmmmmmm. So what happens when they come to, say, Earth, or cross a dimensional tunnel into another place where there is no dimensional instability?

Raveolution wrote:

Hmmmmmm. So what happens when they come to, say, Earth, or cross a dimensional tunnel into another place where there is no dimensional instability?

You should read the wiki about fairies magic it gives a better explanation about their size shifting ability

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

Because not all fairies are flighty, erratic little things with short attention spans. Some of them are serious warriors, and some of them are scholarly. All of them are sentient, which is always a huge thing. Most of them are very curious, even if they don't always have the drive or interest to do hard work. Taking that into account, that real danger lies in the fact that fairies make it very easy for someone to not take them seriously.

Crimson Maidens. Hands down they're the most likely to evolve in this direction.

Quote :

If the second reason is the case, and they get over that lack of motivation... then, it's just as you said. EVERYBODY better be ready, regardless of their species.

I tend to believe that corporeal fairies would still stand to risk death battling a force like the Miratans. If the fairies can develop technology, then the Negavians could step in with a mage army, or even develop mobile battlefield mini-Psi'sol crystals.

Other species will notice the fairy evolution and strive to keep up. Miratans would seek mages.

And it's a good thing there are no telepaths on Felarya...

Raveolution wrote:

Hmmmmmm. So what happens when they come to, say, Earth, or cross a dimensional tunnel into another place where there is no dimensional instability?

Well, I assumed that it would make their magic much more difficult, if not completely unusable. In other words, they would be very uncomfortable.

ok people not to be cruel but fairies can't rule nor become the dominant species of felarya for two reason's, one the planet itself is a demision that of infinite size, the second being more obvious is you are not taking the godlike felaryan guardians who wipe out pretty much any army in the blink of an eye

zelda31 wrote:

ok people not to be cruel but fairies can't rule nor become the dominant species of felarya for two reason's, one the planet itself is a demision that of infinite size, the second being more obvious is you are not taking the godlike felaryan guardians who wipe out pretty much any army in the blink of an eye

If you actually read the thread, you'll see that both of those options were taken into account. We're talking hypothetically, here.

well in truth it wasn't completely out hints towards it but nothing like I said

zelda31 wrote:

well in truth it wasn't completely out hints towards it but nothing like I said

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

Fairies have the capability. Why haven't they? The two likeliest reasons are that something else is stopping them (possibly one or more Guardians), or they have the capability but lack the desire to do so.

As far as the "They can't be the dominant species on Felarya because Felarya is infinite in size", all I can say is that you misunderstand the concept. If Fairies are the most powerful species known on Felarya, and no other species steps up to knock them off that pedestal, then Fairies are the "Alpha Species" (the term that was actually used). If Fairies are so powerful that the Guardians have to squash them (them meaning all or the majority of Fairies on Felarya), then Fairies are definitely the Alpha Species. Fairies will continue to be the Alpha Species until another race claims that status, even if there are currently non-aggressive/peaceful races more powerful than Fairies that choose not to get involved as long as the Fairies leave them alone.

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

zelda31 wrote:

well in truth it wasn't completely out hints towards it but nothing like I said

TheQuantumMechanic wrote:

Fairies have the capability. Why haven't they? The two likeliest reasons are that something else is stopping them (possibly one or more Guardians), or they have the capability but lack the desire to do so.

As far as the "They can't be the dominant species on Felarya because Felarya is infinite in size", all I can say is that you misunderstand the concept. If Fairies are the most powerful species known on Felarya, and no other species steps up to knock them off that pedestal, then Fairies are the "Alpha Species" (the term that was actually used). If Fairies are so powerful that the Guardians have to squash them (them meaning all or the majority of Fairies on Felarya), then Fairies are definitely the Alpha Species. Fairies will continue to be the Alpha Species until another race claims that status, even if there are currently non-aggressive/peaceful races more powerful than Fairies that choose not to get involved as long as the Fairies leave them alone.

But if some other species knocks them off their pedestal, doesn't that cause the Guardians to retaliate?

It strikes me that the pecking order might be fairly arbitrarily set by the Guardians in that environment.

Raveolution wrote:

But if some other species knocks them off their pedestal, doesn't that cause the Guardians to retaliate?

Why would they do that? On Felarya, cultures rise and fall all the time; as long as Fairies aren't in danger of getting completely wiped off of the face of Felarya, I really doubt the Guardians would care. Or care enough to retaliate against the race that took the Fairies down a notch, anyways. In fact, it very may well be the Guardians laying the smackdown on the Fairies in the first place.

Heck, for that matter, some of the Guardians might not personally care too much if Fairies disappear from the face of Felarya (*cough*Quaz*cough*), but they do have jobs to do to prevent such a thing from happening, so...

Raveolution wrote:

It strikes me that the pecking order might be fairly arbitrarily set by the Guardians in that environment.

I doubt the Guardians exert any influence over the usual "pecking order" in Felarya, except when it comes to keeping it from getting completely overturned. They don't micromanage day to day activities on Felarya, they step in to keep or restore the balance when things get messed up beyond a certain point.

If the Fairies "take over" a significant part of Felarya, Nemyra might be proud of her species, but she would eventually have to intervene and make them going back to toeing the line... otherwise, one of the other Guardians will do it.

At one point, the people of Ur-Sagol must have felt like they were on top of the world, and going to rule Felarya and all its species. They were well on their way to becoming the Alpha Species/Culture.

And where are they now?

they practical dead the whole but a bit in lore read that it wasn't a guardian that wiped them but what was never really made clear but in truth I believe that the elementals are truly the dominant species and not just because there magic seems combat effective but rather they are near impossible to kill

zelda31 wrote:

they practical dead the whole but a bit in lore read that it wasn't a guardian that wiped them but what was never really made clear but in truth I believe that the elementals are truly the dominant species and not just because there magic seems combat effective but rather they are near impossible to kill

They can be easily defeated because you have just to oppose another elements than his own elements and they depend on their surrounding a water elemental is weak in place like the Pyrale mountains, a fire elemental is weak in frost peak or inside a river.

And you forget the fact some creature can eat them it's the case of the pit naga, succubis, angels, other elementals or soul vore based creature.

An elemental can be hard to kill but he his very predictable when you know his element.

Some spell can hurt them, like cold fire and spell affecting the soul can be usefull against them.

They are not different from spirit or ghost

They can not be killed by destroying their body but they are not immortal.

zelda31 wrote:

they practical dead the whole but a bit in lore read that it wasn't a guardian that wiped them but what was never really made clear

From the wiki:

Quote :

The true reason for the city destruction is unclear and probably lost in time as it took place 2000 years ago, according to some scriptures. However it is widely believed that the city became too big and expansionistic for its own good, and caught the attention of a guardian. Which one is unknown, however the destruction was spectacular and fast.

While it's true that the true cause of the city's destruction is unknown, we have several facts to work with.

1) We know for a fact that Guardians (individually) have the level of power to pull something like that off.

2) We also know for a fact that if a culture gets too big for its own good and tries to expand too fast or too far, the Guardians will intervene. They've been known to do it before.

3) We also know that "spectacular and fast" is a pretty good description of how many of the Guardians work when they have to intervene; they take a largely "hands off" approach until a problem reaches the point that they have to do something about it, and then they end it.

4) It's also a fact that there could be any number of other causes for Ur-Sagol's demise, that do not involve Guardians at all. However, taking everything into account, pointing the finger at the Guardians makes for a much more likely explanation than... say, assuming a giant meteor fell out of the sky and crushed the city, or that an archmage in a city known for knowledgeable and powerful mages botched a spell so badly that the city was utterly destroyed without anyone being able to stop it.

In terms of sheer possibility, the Guardians being responsible has a 100% likelihood of occurrence; other answers might come close, but the vast majority of them are so unfeasible that they would require a complete and total fluke or astronomically improbable conditions to take place.

zelda31 wrote:

but in truth I believe that the elementals are truly the dominant species and not just because there magic seems combat effective but rather they are near impossible to kill

I would rather face an elemental than a fairy any day; elementals are fairly easy to deal with, assuming you're prepared. You can try to prepare for a fairy, and still meet with complete and total disaster depending on the individual you face. Having to deal with a unpredictable, magic-using, physical dimension-changing fluff of chaos?

No thanks.

I'll take, "Elemental Circle of Protection vs. Fire/Water/Air/Candycorn" for 500, Alex! Plus, elementals are only "nearly impossible" to destroy if you're trying to hack one apart like the typical meat shield. If you have a lick of sense and an ounce of magical ability, you can hold off an elemental nearly indefinitely, if not destroy its physical body outright... assuming, of course, that it doesn't get the drop (better have a high initiative, buddy!) on you.