Hexcassettes Book

Patterns and actions that perform a magical effect on the world.

Delaying Hexes

As part of their nature, Hexes evaluate in their entirety in one instant. To postpone Hexes for later, Nature has devised quite the whimsical solution: a Cassettes that must be crafted and then subsumed. I may have up to six at any time. Each one holds a Hex I requested to delay until that Hex is ready to cast. After casting, the Cassette becomes free to hold other Hexes.

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Cassette

After plating a Music Disc with a hefty amount of Charged Amethyst to enable the abstraction, I can add my glorious creation to my mind's collection using a combination of magic, willpower, and a lot of chewing.

Enqueue (list, number → text)

Queues a Hex to cast after that many twentieths of a second. Inherits the label of the current Cassette if possible or a randomized pattern. Label is returned.

Enqueue (list, number, text →)

A variant that takes an additional text iota. Queues the Hex under the given label.

If there is already a Cassette of the provided label, the provided Hex replaces it and takes its slot.

Otherwise, it schedules the Hex to an empty slot. If there are no available slots, it incurs the Parallel Processing mishap, terminating all of my Cassettes.

If Enqueue can not find a free Cassette, it incurs the Parallel Processing mishap, terminating all of my Cassettes.

The minimal time I can delay a Hex seems to hint that the world I live in has a disturbingly low temporal resolution.. best not to dwell on that.

Ibra oniki ra. QUINIO QUINIO QUINIO QUINIO alef a ra.

The label of a Cassette is a text iota that distinguishes it from other Cassettes. I will need this label if I want to cancel or query information about it.

I can view all my Cassettes by pressing Ponder Cassettes.

Dying also forcibly ends all of my Cassettes.

Dequeue (pattern →)

Terminates the Cassette with the provided label, freeing it instantly and cancelling the Hex within it.

Disqueue

Terminates all Cassettes. Useful for ouroboros-like Hexes that bypass regular dequeuing via two mutually resurrecting Cassettes.

Threading Reflection (→ number)

Pushes the total number of Cassettes that I have available to me in my mind's collection.

Operating Reflection (→ list of text iotas)

Pushes a list of the labels of all my busy Cassettes.

Program Distillation (player, text → boolean)

Pushes whether a given player has a Cassette with a certain label.

Oracle Purification (text → null/number)

Pushes the twentieths of a second until the Cassette with the given label fires. Pushes Null if there is no such Cassette.

State Reflection (→ null/text)

Pushes the current label of the Cassette this Hex is running in or Null if it is not running in a Cassette.

Reflections on Daemons

Consider a list of patterns, a Hex. One may place a duplicate of that Hex within itself, providing it with a blueprint of its own composition. Setting aside the Hex's evaluation for later, it harbors within itself all requisite information to reenact the process. Inducting ad infinitum, an infinite idle casting phenomenon emerges—referred to by those learned in Hexcasting as a "daemon."

Should my inclinations reach higher subtley, I might alter the Hex prior to its enqueuing, thereby encoding within its structure a "state," which may be carried forth through successive iterations to persist information.

I would do well to note, daemons still extract media solely from my inventory and blood.

It's a hex which casts a hex which casts a hex. Nobody's done that before.

This is the online version of the Hexcassettes documentation.

Spells