From:	Lars Ericson lericson@****.edu
Subject:	magic in public?
Date:	Wed, 25 Aug 1999 09:04:14 -0500

lomion wrote:

> Oh and another thing : how many mages does Lone Star have patrolling the
> streets, i thought most of their magickers where for R&D and FRT since they are
> valuable resources...correct me if im wrong someone.

Given that magic is potentially very dangerous and a complete unknown
factor for street cops (in terms of detecting and analyzing), if a
street cop saw a person cast a spell in public they would immediately
call for astral back up. It doesn't take much effort for an astral mage
to zip over to a part of the city, scan the suspect, and determine what
magicks they have active/sustained. I would expect all Lone Star
response mages to be skilled in navigating through the metroplex in
astral space.

Some might argue that magicians are so rare that a Lone Star cop
wouldn't have the resources to call for back up. I disagree. If there
are truely 1% potentially awakened people around then Lone Star probably
has at least a dozen for astral back up all the time. Of course, the
street cop would have to witness the spellcasting, so most public or
semi-public (i.e. in a story or restaraunt) is not going to be
witnessed.

--
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Lars Ericson: Professional Vagabond
Smalley Research Group, Rice University
E-Mail: lericson@****.edu
WWW: http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~lericson/

Life is like a Wankel Engine. In between the emptiness of boredom and
despair, and the compression of stress in one's life, there's that one
spark of enjoyment that keeps you going.