[Edgedancer Spoilers] I see you've played knife-y/fork-y before!

[Stark he/him]

Is it just be, or was using the fork one of single most dangerous, and possibly stupid things that could be done?  I mean the stabby-bits of the fork went clear through the table, what could it have done if she slipped?

 

Unless you cannot be injured by your own utensils, as long as they are constructed using the proper bonding-agent.  Which would be all kinds of interesting.

[Kanrei]

I guess table was in front of her so there probably was no danger (assuming she was stabbing out, not toward herself ).
Im no sure what do you mean by slipping with shardblade as it go through everything.

But I must admit that I wondered what would happen if she cut her tongue while eating impaled pancake

[Stark he/him]

@Kanrei That is exactly what I meant.  What if she slipped while eating the pancake?  She could have shardkilled her tongue (minor inconvenience for a Radiant), or actually shardkilled herself if she slipped or got jostled with a Shardfork in her mouth...

 

Which has me wondering, is just that she did not think of the risks before using Wyndle as a fork, or does the Nahel bond and Spren's sentience make it difficult, if not impossible, to injure yourself with your own living Shard-item?

[Kanrei]

@Stark Hmmm after ending of WoR and Kaladin vs Szeth final fight where Syl reacted and changed really fast, I would say that its highly unlikely that alive spren would hurt his Radiant, tbh I dont hink we can definitely say that its impossible.
I see it more that spren would just disappear before hurting his Radiant then some mechanic of Nahel bond itself.

BTW I had similar thoughts when I read about for example Adolin resting his shardblade on his shoulder (ok he had armor if I remember correctly but without helm), what if fall and cut his neck?

[Stark he/him]

@Kanrei Also a good point, though I think that may be more of a flat-of-the-blade-vs-cutting-edge-of-the-blade thing.  Most people won't rest the sharp edge of any implement on their own flesh, even if it is just steel or glass, not soul-cutting-magic metal.

But you (usually) put a fork in your mouth stabby bits first, and while most people 99.999% of the time manage to not hit their teeth, tongue or spinal column with the stabby bits of the fork, using a fork that can pass through things with no (or barely any) resistance, as if they were not there, seems like the height of recklessness.

Unless there is a built in safety mechanism that prevents accidental self-injury.  Intentional self-injury is a non-issue I think, as it violates the "Life before Death" part of the first Oath quite thoroughly.  If ever it got to that point, I think both the Spren and bond Holder would have much bigger issues to worry about.

[shadowwisp]

I mean unless the fork hits her brain somehow, she could easily just heal from the damage using Stormlight right? Doesn't seem as dangerous considering that. 

[Stark he/him]

Fair point @shadowwisp, though if I wanted to be really argumentative, I could point out that it is like saying the Alpha-radiation from polonium is only dangerous if you swallow it, so its okay to play with it in your mouth.

 

I know I am exaggerating greatly, and the healing abilities of Radiants are almost broken - Even Nale pointed out how long it take to ensure Lift was truly dead.   

 

I guess I'm mostly looking to see if there is some form of safety mechanism in place to protect clumsy or reckless Radiants from sharding themselves.

[DSC01 he/him]

Or, you know, she ate the pancakes like this (excuse the hasty Paint illustration):

 

Edited November 24, 2016 by DSC01

[Stark he/him]

Well that...  that's... that's just logical.  Odd, but logical.

 

If I really want to push it, held like that the pancakes would slide right of, due to the angling of the stabby-pass-through-all-matter bits.

 

If I want to get truly ridiculous, that puts her nose at risk.

[CalaCrisp88]

Upvote just for your majestic drawing

[Weltall]

Given that Wyndle spent about half the novella begging Lift that if she was going to get her self killed to please do it in ways that wouldn't be uncomfortable for him to witness, he'd probably transform himself if it even looked like Lift was going to cut herself on him.

That said, Shardfork. I had to put the book down when I read that. It's just... a thing of beauty and a paradox at the same time. Just like Lift.

[soulcastJam he/him]

I don't think shard-stuff cuts just because of what it is made of. You are assuming the fork is sharp enough to pierce skin, which is not the case with forks I use. In the way I think a shard-hammer would use blunt force instead of piercing, I don't think a fork would pierce without excess force in stabbing. Which makes me think that shardblades are sharp down to the nanoscale to make it so easy to pass through stuff. 

[VoltCruelerz he/him]

Honestly, the thing that surprised me most was that the fork was truly sharp at all.  Obviously forks do have pointy bits, but magical pointy bits seems excessive.  Was this deliberate on Wyndle's part or must there be some sharp part of a shard-item?

Edited November 29, 2016 by VoltCruelerz

[askthepaperclip he/him]

Does a shard blade only cut with the edge? How does it distinguish? Will a shard hammer not pass through things? 

I was wondering how she got the pancake on the fork at all...the only thing I can think is that only the tips pass though anything, and the sides of the tines act normally. If that's the case, I guess that answers the question about the flat of a shard blade. Maybe involves intent? 

[StormingTexan he/him]

Funny this is all i could think about too when I read this. What if she slipped... 

[ram433]

you know if Lift is going to keep being a thief, Windle would be an absolutely perfect lockpick. In fact he'd be a universal key.

[Spoolofwhool]

On 11/29/2016 at 7:09 AM, askthepaperclip said:

Does a shard blade only cut with the edge? How does it distinguish? Will a shard hammer not pass through things? 

Dalinar used the lastclap against Szeth and didn't lose his hands, and someone said that Syl turned into a shardhammer against Szeth and it impacted against him, so I'm guessing it is only what is cognitively recognized to be an edge which can cut. 

Edited December 14, 2016 by Spoolofwhool

[Steeldancer he/him]

I don't care about the logistics. I just want to know what other ridiculous things you can make out of a spren! Shard-spoon! Shard-thimble! Shard-knitting needles, shard safety clips, shard goblets, shard music stand, shard flute, shard instrument, shard tie clip, shard paper clip, shard coin, shard-foil, shard hanger (to hang your shard plate on LOL) 

[Stark he/him]

14 hours ago, ram433 said:

you know if Lift is going to keep being a thief, Windle would be an absolutely perfect lockpick. In fact he'd be a universal key.

Didn't Shallan already do this with Pattern?  I could swear I remember her having him open a lock with him humming contentedly about the pattern of the lock.

[Spoolofwhool]

1 hour ago, Stark said:

Didn't Shallan already do this with Pattern?  I could swear I remember her having him open a lock with him humming contentedly about the pattern of the lock.

Yeah, she did. Not the same since what is being suggested is that Wyndle actually turns into a lock pick, while Pattern was in his normal spren form and manipulating things. Makes me wonder though whether other radiantspren can affect the physical realm to such a degree normally, since IIRC, he was directly manipulating tumblers.

[Stark he/him]

59 minutes ago, Spoolofwhool said:

Yeah, she did. Not the same since what is being suggested is that Wyndle actually turns into a lock pick, while Pattern was in his normal spren form and manipulating things. Makes me wonder though whether other radiantspren can affect the physical realm to such a degree normally, since IIRC, he was directly manipulating tumblers.

I would say yes.  Syl was able to carry that poison leaf, albeit with extreme difficulty, when trying to cheer Kaladin up out of his depression.  She also was able to make him stick to things when she was in her regressed state and was acting as a windspren.

 

On the same vein, I'm fairly certain that Kaladin remarked that windspren typically were pranksters, messing with people a bit, when he was noticing how persistent Syl was at the beginning of their bond.

 

I believe we do have a small amount of evidence to indicate certain types of spren can manipulate the physical realm to a limited degree.  I would theorize that as a nahel bond becomes stronger, the degree to which spren can manipulate the physical realm grows as they become more rooted in the physical realm, eventually allowing them to manifest phyiscally in the Physical realm (Shardweapons, shardplate, etc)

 

Which has me thinking that the "dead" spren in shardblades are trapped in the physical realm - the bond was broken when they were too strongly in the physical, trapping them there, cut off from the cognitive realm where their minds are.

Mistborn Reference/Spoiler

Spoiler

In a similar fashion to what Preservation did to Ruin, severing his cognition from his body, leaving atium in the world.  The difference being, Ruin had more agency with his cognitive aspect to affect the world as a full shard from his prison, vs a spren who is a splinter of a shard.  Orders of magnitudes in power difference.

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Stark

[ram433]

On 12/8/2016 at 8:41 AM, Spoolofwhool said:

Yeah, she did. Not the same since what is being suggested is that Wyndle actually turns into a lock pick, while Pattern was in his normal spren form and manipulating things. Makes me wonder though whether other radiantspren can affect the physical realm to such a degree normally, since IIRC, he was directly manipulating tumblers.

Somehow I think Wyndle might huff and puff at picking a lock directly but might agree to becoming a master key as long as it was a FANCY master key. he seems to have a different moral compass than Pattern. 

[bschnebs he/him]

I wonder if Brandon put the Shard Fork in as a treat for us, or if he independently stuck it in there.  I seem to remember posts long ago about a shard fork...maybe it was him in disguise giving us hints.

Edited December 14, 2016 by bschnebs

[StormingTexan he/him]

If I'm not mistaken it was originally a comment on Reddit. I'd also guess yes it's a nod to the fans. 

[Spoolofwhool]

On 12/13/2016 at 10:55 PM, bschnebs said:

I wonder if Brandon put the Shard Fork in as a treat for us, or if he independently stuck it in there.  I seem to remember posts long ago about a shard fork...maybe it was him in disguise giving us hints.

Someone asked Brandon if Lift would ever get a shardfork.