Possession of the Cloak

[terri_testing]

“His passion … was the work he had taken over from Illyan….

No. The work Haroche had taken away from Illyan.

Oh.

… I’m blind, blind, blind! Motive! What’s an elephant got to do around here, to advance and be recognized?” Miles Vorkosigan in Memory, by Lois McMaster Bujold

Comments

Re: Room's Requirements

[annoni_no]

"But--what we do know doesn't rule out someone making hirself a system administrator. Giving it the instruction, "Give my instructions priority over everyone else's, even after I leave the room." As long as no one else had gotten in first with a competing instruction..."

Again, why should we assume such sweeping powers? We may not have anything to rule out such carte blanche authority, but we have nothing supporting it either. Isn't it just as likely that the room can be blocked to others even when the initial 'architect' is away for only a limited time? Personally, my theory is that Draco spend a good portion of his initial time in the room not just trying to fix the cabinet, but experimenting with the limits of the room itself. To keep out anyone but those invited, he'd have a potion brewing the corner - one that took days, if not weeks or months to complete. Then he could give the room specific instructions to retain his surroundings exactly as he had left them, allowing no one else into the room but him (especially not that B*rk Potter and his cronies)until the potion was complete. Wash, rinse, repeat until the cabinet was fixed. This gives him complete authority over one manifestation of the room, but it's not so open-ended and all encompassing that he rules it for all eternity. If he hadn't returned before the potion was complete and had instead just left it there, I suspect the room would have just tucked the full cauldron away in general storage after whatever safety margin of time Draco had given himself had passed without his arrival.

If a mere student, even a prefect, *did* try to impose an eternal command on the room to keep something hidden, or particular people out, or what have you, then I think the Room would try to fulfill that order for as long as possible, maybe even for years (or until that student's graduation), but eventually it would revert back to its basic storage function. The only people I'd be comfortable claiming had such completely authority over the room would be the Headmaster and duly authorized teachers in the school (and then I suspect there would be limits as to what the room was capable of doing).

The Room's enough of a game breaker as it is without assigning it even more power.