Comments on: Page 1476…

By: SquallLion

SquallLion — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:32:54 +0000

lovely

By: lake_wrangler

lake_wrangler — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 01:14:44 +0000

I’m afraid I don’t foresee any such goings on in the future. This would be too much of a stopgap measure, for one thing. Also, the human would have to remember Dreamland in order to ask for a chance to see their Dreamland friends again. On the other hand, a Dreamlander could petition for meeting a human, but may not necessarily have their full name, nor where they’re from. Good luck for Dan to try to find them, convince them that the dreams they used to dream were actually real, and that their Dreamland friends want to see them again…

Not only that, but what happens after they meet, should Dan manage to find one such human? Won’t that human want to keep going back, now that he/she has reunited with their Dreamland friend? But they can’t, since the “Transport Bracer” (should they even manage to create it after all) would have to be used for the next Dreamlander/human reunion. Sure, they may be able to take turns for a while, but after enough humans would have reunited with their childhood Dreamland friends, it would be impossible to manage any kind of rotation between them.

It’s a nice thought, but alas, completely impractical. And all because of Scott, the big meanie!

By: TekServer

TekServer — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 15:12:25 +0000

Thanks!

By: Desmond

Desmond — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:47:03 +0000

No language spoken is driven by pure logic. Not while it’s humans who speak languages. So yeah, your mother was completely right, but a’ them there folks here’n'yonder still use ‘can’ instead of ‘may’ when asking for or granting permission. Hence Bezman’s question, I think.

By: Tkrain

Tkrain — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:40:33 +0000

“can” vs. “may”…
“You may not touch her” means you’re not permitted
“You can not touch her” means its’ not possible.

My mother drilled this into my head when I was a kid… I’d ask dumb questions like “can I go to my friend’s house” and she’d say “you’re perfectly capable of getting there on your bike, but you’re still grounded, so you MAY not.”

By: Desmond

Desmond — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 11:18:43 +0000

The basic sense of the verb ‘can’ is ‘have physical/mental ability/capacity’. And it’s more than clear from the context provided that this is what is meant. Should Nicole have asked, ‘Can I touch her?’ and Niviene replied with, ‘No, you can’t!’ — well, that could’ve sounded a wee bit ambiguous.

(Not A Native Speaker, Known To Be Wrong. But were anything material hammered into my head as fiercely as the Dreaded Modal Verbs, it’d come outta my heel and ten feet into the ground.)

By: Bezman

Bezman — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 10:16:08 +0000

Let me check up on my English here:
Could Niviene’s remark not be interpreted as “Hey! Touching is not permitted! Hands off!”?
While the meaning I read into it is: “I’m very sorry that although _I_ may pass freely through the pool, you other’s cannot. My magic is not strong enough for that. So, unfortunately, you are unable to touch each other.”

By: Kheda

Kheda — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 07:51:55 +0000

I’m guessing that you need to learn a fair bit of magic to pass through the realms, as Niviene was taught by Merlin, but she’s not had time to teach the others (or they don’t have the ability)

By: Month

Month — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 06:22:29 +0000

Holy reunion Batman!

On other news: She recalled her as a tigerfish?

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 05:05:25 +0000

Just dear. Such sweet tears going down Nicole’s face. Love it.