Very nice depth to the mana system; the story's been picking up lately but the magic itself was interesting enough before (though tastes may vary)! I've been thinking on possible applications of some of the powers. For the current vote:
[X][Interlude] Shadow Stalker
Might be good to keep track of what exactly she's about to do, and what precise deal she's getting. However, the winning Armsmaster vote is a good perspective also.
Our identity is essentially known to the Protectorate at this point; not sure how much point there is in remaining independent. There could be some serious promise in an Armsmaster+Dragon collaboration, as well.
Stillnite: This glittering stone can only be sensed by one sense at a time. If you hear it, you cannot see it. If you see it, you cannot feel it. It responds to noises with similar, but incoherent noises of its own.
A crude Life Magic, this mana heals a target using their own energy, instead of that of the mana. Capable of causing minor burns or additional wounds as it heals.
Timeshift Crystal: When struck, this material selectively emulates the past of things around it within a radius. Buildings become cliffs, deserts become oceans, valleys become rivers, and so on.
This mana emits hazardous and chaotic sparks. On contact, the target is reversed in age biologically, and when the effect ends, the target is advanced to extreme age biologically. When the magic fades, the target returns to normal.
Ripfield: This mana creates chain reactions that generate seperating actions via the seperation of anything in the vicinity. These seperations may be non-literal.
Very Unlikely: See if living things within Gray Bubbles can be charged at an early point within the loop to get unlimited healing for those outside
Should investigate life forms that can be most efficiently charged. Might see if superorganisms/very large creatures can be charged individually, in order to gain a wide area of effect. Preliminary thought: very long strings of algae.
Perfect occluder: no one within the effect can see anything (unless they move into light path? Even then, seems like the image would be distorted to incomprehensibility).
Potential blinding flash upon reaching the edge of the effect.
(In normal physics, there would probably be weird as hell effects.)
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Send Research to [Broadcast] hopefully he can help you contact others?
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[X][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data for some reason. (Ask if they can help get more mana out of the conversion from buffer energy.)
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
-[X][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[X][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data for some reason. (Ask if they can help get more mana out of the conversion from buffer energy.)
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Send Research to [Broadcast] hopefully he can help you contact others?
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
-[X][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[X][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data for some reason. (Ask if they can help get more mana out of the conversion from buffer energy.)
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] Ten Points of Research may be expended to permanently eke out a buffer of energy for the host. (Taylor may temporarily obtain Magical Power Rank B for one scene, once per month.
-[X][Research] Research may be gifted to accessible shards. This Mana, while dangerous, is supremely versatile.
--[X][Research] Gift [Efficiency] Research Data for some reason. (Ask if they can help get more mana out of the conversion from buffer energy.)
[X][Research] Queen Administrator may expend some of the data they have in reserve to gain an advantage.
-[X][Research] One point of Research may be expended to grant additional power for the host (Taylor will receive Magical Power Rank C for one month.)
Armsmaster had been working on a particularly delicate piece of machinery when the call came.
Under normal circumstances, of course, he would have answered on the first ring, but this was not normal circumstances, in this case, what he was working on was important to the point of distraction.
Moving the Nitinol wire into the correct place, he used a modified flame-fusion torch to blow molten aluminum oxide over it, creating a crystalline coating over the memory-metal.
The ringing in the background served as an annoying distraction, prompting him to briefly shut off the microphones in his helmet, giving him blessed silence while he completed the last steps in producing his thermal scanner. One of his most important inventions to date, it would allow him to interpret thermal activity in the air, giving him an incredibly efficient source of sensory data.
Sound, heat, vision, and even some structural blueprints could be obtained by simply reading the thermal radiation that air emitted. It wouldn't be long before he had all of the technology he needed to attempt one of his pet-projects, a portable lie-detector.
Previously, his scanners were little better than a polygraph, in terms of detecting falsehood. He could only really detect discomfort in a subject, and would himself have to interpret what that discomfort and stress meant.
In short, he was unable to get any meaningful use out of that invention.
An alert popped up on his visor. His assistance was wanted for an interview at the local PRT building, along with Gallant.
He put the finishing touches on his project and attached it to his armor before moving out, quickly slipping on the parts of his armor that were normally too cumbersome for lab work and using eye-movements to quickly run through the initialization of the scanner.
Reading over the text-report as he made his way out of The Rig, he was a bit disturbed by the photograph provided. Two, or perhaps simply one parahuman, total unknowns, wearing unusual armored pieces.
Dragon sent him a short message as he swung his legs over onto his motorbike, asking if he would like any help from her.
"No thank you. I believe I can handle it," Armsmaster responded, a bit of his nervousness fading at this.
He reviewed the information he could on the way to the PRT building. An unknown Parahuman (possibly two, but unlikely), walks straight into the lobby without a care in the world, claiming to be the victim of a parahuman crime.
If it were anyone else, or at least someone who had called in ahead, they likely would have been sent straight to Director Piggot. She had a way of pushing buttons that bordered on supernatural, when it came to capes. In the name of safety, however, it would be one of the local sergeants conducting the interview. Lowered chance of recruitment, but as a field agent, he would be more fit to avoid harm in the event that the interview broke down into fighting.
Officially, if pressed, Armsmaster and Gallant were there to aid in the interview. Armsmaster's ability to rapidly trawl the internet and databases, and Gallant's emotion-sensing would help with proving if the individuals in question were indeed assaulted or otherwise harmed, but more importantly, the two of them were members of the protectorate with ranged options and sealed suits.
One simply could not operate in Brockton Bay without being prepared for any even slightly unusual parahuman encounter breaking down into violence of the worst kind.
He slowed down in front of the PRT building. Normally, some of the Wards would be there, but only one of them would be participating in this particular interview, and the rest were requested to stay away just in case.
He engaged his parking break in front of the headquarters, walking quickly towards the office that was designated for meeting the two individuals.
As he did, his sensors picked up low and high-frequency noises in the air that set his hairs on end. Gallant was already there.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" he asks as Armsmaster enters the room.
He simply shakes his head in response. "No. We are here to aid," he pauses for a moment. "Deputy Sergeant Johnathan McMiller," he finishes, having looked up the individual assigned to conduct this interview.
After a few moments, the man in question enters as well, settling down into his chair and gathering several appropriate documents for what was to come.
Armsmaster noted, but said nothing about the pistol he had on his person.
The noises his new scanner was picking up intensified as the Parahuman in question, Sage, walked into the room.
He stood still, mostly ignoring Sage's words as they began explaining the nature of what happened to them. He briefly gave a thought to Shadow Stalker, the violent vigilante who had been vexing her local area for the past several months, but even that thought faded in the face of what his scanners were trying to piece together.
Namely, the air around Sage was emitting a variety of subvocal, low-frequency and high-frequency noises, too quiet to pick up with the human ear, but barely within range of Armsmaster's sensor suite.
He glanced over to Gallant, to see if they were making any of the hand-signs that indicated a problem of some sort, but none were produced.
The noises appeared to be the consequence of some form of energy field that Sage was producing, either actively or naturally, one that used pressure waves as a medium to exist in. It reminded him uncomfortably of the Simurgh, though he knew logically that the sound they produced was both far more overt, and also wasn't a true "sound" at all, not appearing on recordings of the monster.
Finally, the matter of proof rolls around. The sergeant asks if it would be possible for Sage to prove that their energy can pollute a target, and that they can sense it later. It seemed like a logical progression, in his mind. Sage or their technology produce an energy field that piggybacks off of sound waves, too inaudible to be heard, but enough to be detected later.
That said, Armsmaster had little intention of giving away his endorsement if the cape was willing to submit to further testing.
When they decided on the simplest test, he and the sergeant agreed. A simple shell-game, more of a formality in the face of Armsmaster's scanners, but it would provide more data-points.
When they emitted the raw energy into the air and took control of it, the noises that were produced as a side effect rapidly intensified, and he began to hear human-like whispering, in no particular language, but without a doubt coherent. When they infused it into the paperclip, his sensors went berserk once again, the energy had shifted on-contact with the metal. Several of his lesser-grade sensors detected photons emerging from the metal now that it was infused with the energy, but his more advanced ones were able to determine that the "photons" were merely another expression of the energy that Sage wielded.
Armsmaster grew frustrated at this. He was starting to see the potential in a power like this, whether or not Sage was a tinker, it clearly had potential beyond simple detection. His scanners detected stresses on the mild-steel of the paperclip, like it was pulling in on itself as a result of exposure to the "Sage Energy".
Production of an energy that intimately relied on the manipulation and emulation of wavelengths... If they were a tinker... The idea was agonizing.
Gallant gave him an odd look as he stiffened, watching Sage correctly pick out where the paperclip was several times in a row.
Armsmaster correctly deduced that, between Sage wishing to become a Rogue, their semi-organic equipment, and their wavelength-associated power, he would not be able to say anything without it coming off as unnecessarily hostile.
He understood the allure of attempting to become a rogue. He himself had thought about it, every so often. The idea of cutting ties with the Protectorate and their restrictions to do work on his own appealed greatly, but the inefficiency of it was galling. Many would claim that Tinkers needed resources, but Armsmaster felt differently. It wasn't merely Tinkers that benefitted from resources. He knew for a fact that having access to a team, and access to funding from that team, was the single most efficient way to operate for any cape.
Even individuals like Alexandria had allies to cover for her weaknesses. For god's sake, not even the Endbringers operated completely independently, according to some theories.
Knowing just how little an independent could do compared to what they could do with the weight of an organization behind them, and the associated increase in efficiency led Armsmaster to have an especially hard time dealing with them.
Sage left after getting a bunch of paperwork related to the MIRIS initiative and other Rogue-related pieces of documentation.
Only once they had left did he turn to Gallant "Well? What did you make of them," he asked brusquely,
Gallant shrugged. "They were telling the truth as far as I could tell. I guess this means we'll need to put out a warrant for Shadow Stalker, right?" he pointed out, knowing full well who the only crossbow-using hockey-mask wearing dark-mist cape in the bay was.
Armsmaster nodded. "First we deal with the other three. Shadow Stalker will go to ground once the warrant goes out, so we need as much information as we can get before then," he explains.
Either way, Sage's vocal-carrier wave would at the very least give Armsmaster new ideas for scanners. It may prove difficult to manufacture an energy field that could act as a wave-interaction between molecules, but the potential uses...
Well, there was a reason Armsmaster once spent much of his time researching what little he could of Hero's work, when he was still alive.
Dragon was waiting to call him after he returned to his lab, and he felt grateful for the contact. Sage had brought up a bunch of uncomfortable thoughts during his time overseeing the interview, and he needed the decompression.
"Before anything else, I feel I should ask, what did you make of Sage? I don't have any information other than what is available to me," Dragon asks.
He sighed. "They annoyed me, but not due to any actions on their part. At first glance, lacking further information, they appear to be an individual with a frustrating amount of potential to whittle it away on Rogue work. Their armor shows clear signs of biological growth, which is concerning, but I detected no life signs on either it, or on the helmet used by their associate."
"I'm unsure how much wetwork went into producing it, but I believe, if they are a tinker, their technology clearly has a waveform bent to its theming. I noticed mathematical patterns in their armor tied closely to fluid-like ripple effects, their scanning ability relies on energy encoded into sound and pressure waves, and when applying the energy to metal, it appeared to take on photon-like properties, triggering radioactive false-alarms in a few systems."
Dragon hums at this. "I see. And what about her personality?"
Armsmaster gives her a look that says 'That's not exactly my specialty', but attempts something regardless.
"I do not know. I doubt she is willing to affiliate with the PRT or Protectorate. She requested documents that would normally be handled automatically in the event of affiliation. Her associate seemed to provide little input, though she consistently showed signs of looking at them. My predictive software wasn't able to discern more than that during the meeting," he explains as if it were a personal failing.
Dragon's holographic avatar simply smiles. "Well, if it makes you feel any better, I have a free schedule for the next three hours. I would be willing to look over the code for your software, if you like. You have been commenting it, yes?" she says with a smirk. Neither of them needed comments to understand code of any sort, not really, but Dragon made a point of pestering him about it regardless.
"Perhaps if you shared your algorithm for automatically commenting code, I would be more willing to do so," he points out with a raised eyebrow.
She waggles her finger. "No shortcuts. You need to build good habits now, rather than later. You never know when you might work with someone who isn't able to trudge through blocks of uncommented code like we can,"
He sighs, but in good humor. "Alright. Let's get to work."
When I woke up the next day, I felt the mana from my power grow in strength. By now, it was the weekend, and it had just crossed over into March. I felt the urge to scribble down what I had learned once again, like clockwork.
Hopping out of bed, I snatched up my notebook and began to write down my theories.
I knew now that Mana took on a variety of different forms, in addition to its effects. It could act like a wave, it could act like a ray, it could act like a liquid, but those particular behaviors only took place once it became attuned to what is traditionally a "wave" magic.
If it instead attuned to something like cloth or metal, it became a "True Mana". A form of magic that had no physical location, but was instead bound to an object's very traits.
It was what had been happening to my body over time, whenever I infused myself with magic, it didn't bloat my body up with liquid, but instead took on a "True Form" that merely enhanced it. I imagine that, if I pulled the mana out of my body, however, it might revert to a wave or a liquid, once it came in contact with the open air.
Next, I learned that some magic can carry information. Mana that I had infused into a pigeon not only attuned to the flesh of the bird, but when I removed the mana, it retained some of its "shape" as well. When I used that mana to synthesize stones, the bird's thoughts and some of the patterns on its feathers had actually been embossed into the resulting rocks.
That lead to my other, more incredible and dangerous discovery. I could awaken the magic in other living things. As far as I can tell, It requires the target to have a "Soul". Bugs and plants had never responded to me taking control of them with raw mana, but the bird had some capacity to resist, which seemed to jumpstart mana production inside it.
I turned from my writing to the bird in question, who had been moved to a large and luxuriant birdcage that I had made from wood. The pigeon certainly wasn't my biggest fan yet, but plenty of birdseed and attention had slowly gotten the ensouled bird more comfortable with my presence, which was a good thing, considering I had no intention of letting it go.
My dad had done a lot more research than me, but even I knew that if a semi-magical bird escaped into the wild and somehow passed that on to its offspring, and I ended up being blamed for it...
It wouldn't be good.
I idly stuck a finger in the cage to try and pet the pigeon, but it made an odd growling sound, pecking at me sassily.
"You're going to be a nuisance, aren't you?" I say rhetorically, drawing back my finger and rubbing my forehead with exasperation. I considered killing her, (And it was a 'her', I found out after a few quick internet searches at the library,) but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I didn't know if there were any metaphysical ramifications of killing something that had a soul, but I couldn't bring myself to kill the bird when it fixed those soulful beady black eyes on me.
I'd just have to keep her here until I could figure out what to do about this.
Returning to my theories and information recording, I thought about other obvious things I had figured out. True Mana could only be summoned on my person. I couldn't summon it into anything other than wave-magic elements, unless it was something I was wearing, or something I was holding.
I tried it in dad's old car, but it didn't really work. I guess if I want to test the true mana of a vehicle, there might be some conditions that need to be met.
Thanks to the pigeon testing, I had also discovered my ability to synthesize and transmute what could only be called "Golems". I still had the rock-bird and water-bird stored in a box in the basement, but I hadn't done anything else with them yet.
On some level, I was both stressed and grateful about this. On the one hand, making thinking creatures under my control is a really scary prospect, but on the other hand, it seems I'm not limited to making living things in order to do that. If I wanted, I could ditch the biological stuff entirely, outside of getting animals for templates.
All I would need to do is attune mana to an animal, and then carefully use it to transmute other substances. As far as anyone would know, I would just be a weird tinker or something.
I felt the urge to keep writing distract me from that, but I was starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel of things I had learned.
[][Research] Is that all you know?
-[][Research] Yes
-[][Research] No (Write In)
The urge faded, and I decided that it was time to spend some time with dad. We ended up watching a comedy on TV, but it ended up being mostly background noise while we talked.
"So, have you given any thought to a name?" he asks.
"Huh?" I responded with a bit of confusion.
"For your new pet," he elaborates, giving me a faint smile.
I cough a bit. I hadn't put much thought into the pigeon, other than that I would need to keep it contained.
[][Name] What should you name the pigeon?
-[][Name] Pest
-[][Name] Nuesance
-[][Name] Bird
-[][Name] Write-in
Dad seemed to think the name I picked was funny, judging by the little puff of silent laughter that escaped him at that.
I flushed with a bit of embarrassment.
"By the way, dad, I think I'm almost ready to start making some money. I just need to start harvesting it, and then I need to figure out all the legal trouble, and I can start selling spices."
He smiles, but it's tempered by something I can't quite put my finger on. "I'm glad to hear it, Taylor."
I think for a bit. "Have you heard anything about the investigation?" I ask.
He shakes his head. "No. I haven't been told anything yet. Not by the police or the PRT."
I felt uncomfortable at this. Surely they've already taken care of it, right?
First week of May Plans:
[][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Daily Activities] Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
-[][Daily Activities] Spend time with dad.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
[][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[][Cape Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Cape Activities] You'll spend your time investigating.
--[][Cape Activities] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. You now know the names of the gangsters who did it.
---[][Cape Activities] Track down the ones in prison.
---[][Cape Activities] Track down the ones that escaped.
-[][Cape Activities] Set up your Legal Second-Identity (Write-In Plan)
-[][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
--[][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to produce more than a crude golem via Synthesis. Focus on Synthesis Crafting.
-[][Cape Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] Create some form of Saffron Harvesting system
--[][Project] Use Golem Birds to harvest it. (Write-in Plan)
--[][Project] Try something else (Write-in Plan)
-[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)
[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Write-In)
[][Mana] Test a Phonem's effect (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Study a target for Phomens (Write-In)
[][Mana] Test a Transmutation (Choose an Elemental Ray and a Non-Silicate Target)
[][Mana] Something Else (Write-In)
8 Research Refunded. 11 Research Spent
Stats
Research: 20
A good start.
Overall Health: 12
You're a very small and squishy human who is less small and squishy than she once was.
Overall Magical Power: 6
Your magical ability is good enough to outstrip some practitioners, but not many.
Abilities
Magical Soul: F
Rating: Trump ???
Your soul emits magic. The stronger your soul, the more powerful your magic.
Magical Body: FF
Rating: ???
Your body contains some magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.
Magical Power: C
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will. Once per month, you may boost your Magical Power ranking to B for one scene.
Boosted for One Month.
Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.
Eidetic Memory: A
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. You will also never forget any word or noise you test on mana, or the effects it has.
Can we use our abilities to help clean up the Boat Graveyard? I mean, we should be able to get rid of stuff fairly well, right?
Also, maybe we could look into selling materials? Like, we can produce some pretty weird stuff, tinkers might want to get their fingers on some of it...and that would be something that wouldn't infringe on normal businesses, since no one else would be able to provide a supply of it.
edit:
Also:
[X][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[X][Daily Activities] Do NOT Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
[X][Research] Is that all you know?
-[X][Research] No (Phenoms from natural sounds and human-perceived onomatopoeias typically exhibit thematically appropriate effects, e.g. Bang, Zap, Snip. Attunement chains always display the same type and roughly the same effect as the last attuned element, except in the case of transmutations.)
[X][Name] What should you name the pigeon?
-[X][Name] Write-in: Thoth
A bird-headed god of magic. Sure, it's a pigeon now, but we can totally make it a worthy familiar. Besides, it's probably going to stay with us for the rest of the quest.
[X][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[X][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Acquire other pure elements and test mana on them. Go shopping on the Boardwalk for things like an old mercury thermometer, a magnesium firestarter and a helium balloon. A rock shop might have small samples of pure elements like sulfur, arsenic and bismuth.)
-[X][Daily Activities] Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
-[X][Cape Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
I would like to let Taylor gain some more experience with Brain magic before proposing some experiments with it.
[X][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write-In)
-[X][Mana] Study a target for Phomens (Diamond, Graphite)
-[X][Mana] Healing magic v0.2: (Clone) + (Energy Sphere) > Mild Steel > Salt > Tungsten > Crystal Quartz > Graphite > Graphite; Thaum > Diamond > Diamond; Thaum > Diamond > Diamond > Diamond; Thaum > Graphite > Kidney; Thaum > Salt > Copper > Graphite; Thaum > Salt > Copper > Graphite > Graphite; Thaum > Egg > Graphite > Bread
Respectively, these tests are attempts for: injury focused regeneration*, better regeneration spell?, better symbiosis spell?, poison removal, time-reversal on injuries, edible mild healing booster
-[X][Mana] What are those question marks in Time? and Absorb?: Thaum > Copper > Copper > Graphite; Thaum > Copper > Copper > Copper > Graphite; Thaum > Salt > Copper > Copper; Thaum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Tungsten; Thaum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Tungsten;
-[X][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Knife, Glasses)
-[X][Mana] Antigravity and Gravity magic: Thaum > Salt > (Gravity); (Ripfield) > (Gravity); (Curse) > (Gravity); Thaum > Aluminum > (Gravity);
-[X][Mana] Misc. tests: Thaum > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc; Thaum > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc; Thaum > Platinum > Blood > Zinc; Thaum > Air > Platinum; Thaum > (Catalyst) + (Enzyme) > Salt, attempt to use this to separate out a pure element (e.g. carbon and iron from steel);
*clone to perfectly copy local cells, energy sphere to provide energy, mild steel to attract healing mana where it's needed, tungsten and salt to recycle excess healing mana and separate it from fully healed areas (to prevent cancerous effects from excess healing), quartz to increase precision and graphitex2 for regeneration.
Going to edit in mana tests in a bit, does anyone have any good ideas for what to include about the research? Have we made any conclusions about how material order impacts Attunement chains? Might be a low-hanging fruit if not. Also we should add something about phenoms. Perhaps that natural sounds are typically thematical appropriate phenoms?
Edit: Looks like our only personal theory so far was that magic in complex elements is thematic, so I added a brief detail about attunement chains.
[X][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[X][Daily Activities] Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
[X][Mana] Using Arcane Mana, string together a spell with the phonems, Daka, Goun and Bang, to form launching large hands.
[X][Name] What should you name the pigeon?
-[X][Name] Write-in (Pepper)
-[X][Name] Write-in: Thoth
[X][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[X][Daily Activities] Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to produce more than a crude golem via Synthesis. Focus on Synthesis )
[X][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[X][Project] Create some form of Saffron Harvesting system
--[X][Project] Use Golem Birds to harvest it. (After refining our ability to craft golems, we will begin creating golem birds, preferably good at climbing or capable of flight, and attempt to integrate some plant magic into them, or, perhaps transmute plants INTO golems. Either way, the golems should have plant based softish edges and be capable of gentle grips to not damage the saffron. Once picked, they should deliver it to a drying area, before moving it to a basket. If we so choose we could also have the birds handle packaging the saffron as well.)
[X][Mana] Something Else (Instead of directly attuning, isolate a shard of Lumic Condensite, and bathe it in light made by various mana types, such as Cobold Gleam, Serene Light, Warm Glow, Lunar Sunglow , Light of the Vampire, And other magical lights that strike us as intresting.)
[X][Mana] Test a Transmutation (Stone Free on Plants/Wood)
[X][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Bird > Lumic Condensite)
[X][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Wheat)
[X][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Sage (the plant not the Rouge))
[X][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Lumic Condensite)
[X][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Wardstone)
[X][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Glowstone)
Pepper is a nice name, we drew them in with pepper magic, and they are a bit sassy and feisty.
Thoth will work well though, especially if they develop further or we augment them.
One thing is for sure, I don't want us to abandon or shy away from bio tinkering, we already have a ton of good mana types that have prompted *IDEAS* from me, but using golems in conjunction with plants, or golems with plant joints and parts (Or plants with golem parts) would be great.
Also. Light. We have cool solid light stuff and we should really work with that more. I would like to experiment with Bioelectricy more, and have some really good ideas for that, but since we should probbly work on golems right now, ill delay that a round or two.
[X][Name] What should you name the pigeon?
-[X][Name] Write-in: Psyche
Lit. Soul
[X][Research] Is that all you know?
-[X][Research] No (Synthesis seem to be more of a sub branch of transmutation that produces "grist" to transmute, with the only difference from raw silicon mana being an applied enchantment since the core material is the same for all synthesis types. Also, willpower can modify how and even if mana interacts with certain materials very easily, such as rapidly attuning without applying the magical effect, applying effects without attuning and even bypassing materials to get at things contained within.)
[X][Mana] Quartz>Salt
[X][Mana] Quartz>Platinum
[X][Mana] Quartz>Graphite
[X][Mana] Test rose gold to see if we can control the petal size and specifically when in the past it shows.
[X][Mana] True Quartz
[X][Mana] True Air
[X][Mana] True Diamond
[X][Mana] True Water
i realyse that if we want to clear out the boar graveyard the salt separation combined with zinc flaw would be a good way to target the welding zone they are alway more fragile than the material so
[x][mana]salt >zinc
[x][mana]zinc>salt
i realyse that if we want to clear out the boar graveyard the salt separation combined with zinc flaw would be a good way to target the welding zone they are alway more fragile than the material so
[x][mana]salt >zinc
[x][mana]zinc>salt
We've figured out that mana tries to accomplish the effect of the final attunements, via the previous attunement, which is itself accomplished via the one before that and so on. So the question is if you want to separate things based on flaws or flaw things based on separation.
We've figured out that mana tries to accomplish the effect of the final attunements, via the previous attunement, which is itself accomplished via the one before that and so on. So the question is if you want to separate things based on flaws or flaw things based on separation.
Yeah probably. I messed up my test so I'm gonna add some more. We're not totally clear on how hybrid manas interact so we might want to work more on that.
[X][Mana] Salt>Quartz
[X][Mana] Quartz+Salt
[X][Mana] Quartz>Platinum>Graphite
[X][Mana] Quartz>Graphite>Platinum
[X][Mana] Quartz>Platinum>Graphite
[X][Mana] Quartz>Diamond>Platinum
[X][Mana] Quartz>Platinum>Diamond
[X][Mana] Leave a small bead of sea glass on the roof and wait for it to become saturated.
i wonder if there is a material that reverse the effect of a attunement if it's the case using it with mana could make it so we have real alchemy
also we should see to obtain a physical mendelyev table with a sample of most ellement i know you can buy some on the internet
salt separate so the opposite would be combine if the combinaison is more conceptual you could combine metal and plant to have growing metal etc so alchemy
also i just realyse we have a lot of memory influencing mana could we use them to grant the c53 their memory back? discretly of course because of cauldron
[X][Mana] Something Else (Instead of directly attuning, isolate a shard of Lumic Condensite, and bathe it in light made by various mana types, such as Cobold Gleam, Serene Light, Warm Glow, Lunar Sunglow , Light of the Vampire, And other magical lights that strike us as intresting.)
[X][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[X][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Acquire other pure elements and test mana on them. Go shopping on the Boardwalk for things like an old mercury thermometer, a magnesium firestarter and a helium balloon. A rock shop might have small samples of pure elements like sulfur, arsenic and bismuth.)
-[X][Daily Activities] Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
[X][Research] Is that all you know?
-[X][Research] No (Phenoms from natural sounds and human-perceived onomatopoeias typically exhibit thematically appropriate effects, e.g. Bang, Zap, Snip. Attunement chains always display the same type and roughly the same effect as the last attuned element, except in the case of transmutations.)
[X][Research] Is that all you know?
-[X][Research] No (Synthesis seem to be more of a sub branch of transmutation that produces "grist" to transmute, with the only difference from raw silicon mana being an applied enchantment since the core material is the same for all synthesis types. Also, willpower can modify how and even if mana interacts with certain materials very easily, such as rapidly attuning without applying the magical effect, applying effects without attuning and even bypassing materials to get at things contained within.)
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
-[X][Cape Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to produce more than a crude golem via Synthesis. Focus on Synthesis )
[X][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[X][Project] Create some form of Saffron Harvesting system
--[X][Project] Use Golem Birds to harvest it. (After refining our ability to craft golems, we will begin creating golem birds, preferably good at climbing or capable of flight, and attempt to integrate some plant magic into them, or, perhaps transmute plants INTO golems. Either way, the golems should have plant based softish edges and be capable of gentle grips to not damage the saffron. Once picked, they should deliver it to a drying area, before moving it to a basket. If we so choose we could also have the birds handle packaging the saffron as well.)
[X][Mana] Something Else (Instead of directly attuning, isolate a shard of Lumic Condensite, and bathe it in light made by various mana types, such as Cobold Gleam, Serene Light, Warm Glow, Lunar Sunglow , Light of the Vampire, And other magical lights that strike us as intresting.)
[X][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[X][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Acquire other pure elements and test mana on them. Go shopping on the Boardwalk for things like an old mercury thermometer, a magnesium firestarter and a helium balloon. A rock shop might have small samples of pure elements like sulfur, arsenic and bismuth.)
-[X][Daily Activities] Call the number that weird lady velcro'd to you.
[X][Research] Is that all you know?
-[X][Research] No (Phenoms from natural sounds and human-perceived onomatopoeias typically exhibit thematically appropriate effects, e.g. Bang, Zap, Snip. Attunement chains always display the same type and roughly the same effect as the last attuned element, except in the case of transmutations.)
[X][Research] Is that all you know?
-[X][Research] No (Synthesis seem to be more of a sub branch of transmutation that produces "grist" to transmute, with the only difference from raw silicon mana being an applied enchantment since the core material is the same for all synthesis types. Also, willpower can modify how and even if mana interacts with certain materials very easily, such as rapidly attuning without applying the magical effect, applying effects without attuning and even bypassing materials to get at things contained within.)
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
-[X][Cape Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic
[X][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[X][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[X][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to produce more than a crude golem via Synthesis. Focus on Synthesis )
[X][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[X][Project] Create some form of Saffron Harvesting system
--[X][Project] Use Golem Birds to harvest it. (After refining our ability to craft golems, we will begin creating golem birds, preferably good at climbing or capable of flight, and attempt to integrate some plant magic into them, or, perhaps transmute plants INTO golems. Either way, the golems should have plant based softish edges and be capable of gentle grips to not damage the saffron. Once picked, they should deliver it to a drying area, before moving it to a basket. If we so choose we could also have the birds handle packaging the saffron as well.)
"Alright Thoth, hold still," I mutter, fairly certain that the bird can't actually understand me. Nonetheless, the pigeon holds still while I channel mana into their brain. Unlike my previous attempts, I had little intention of learning a new attunement. This time, I'm trying to refine my control over an existing one.
As the mana turns from waves to liquid, I keep my arms totally rigid as if it were helping me control the magic. If I'm going to be using golems for anything, I need to be sure that they're 'Programmed' correctly, and right now, my control is so poor that I can't even copy a birdbrained pigeon's mind properly with magic.
1d20 vs 1d20 = 9, 11
I slowly pull the mana out of the pigeon's head, trying to weave it "between" the bird's skin and feathers so it doesn't attune more than necessary. I get the distinct feeling that the pigeon is actively fighting me on this, however, as its own energies peck and shove at mine, trying to rush the process.
By the end of it, I end up with a heavily damaged mass of pink gel hovering over my palm. Better than my earlier attempts, but not by much.
It will take a hell of a lot of practice, and a more willing subject, I think, before I'll be getting anything close to mental cloning.
As I held the swirling ball of magic in my hand, I could practically see the things that it carried along with it. Memories of french-fries, bread crumbs, predators, and cigarette butts.
Memories of the annoying human-captor-weirdo, and the intent to peck the heck out of them.
I shake my head with disappointment, attuning the brain magic to a rock, and then infusing that into a hunk of wood that I had been working on, I finish transmuting the "brain" of another wood golem.
When dad discovered my plan to make wooden golems to harvest my saffron fields, he had a pretty genius idea that I'm surprised I didn't think of. You can just buy wooden birds at any cheap craft store.
Transmuting those using bird magic was child's play, and the results were far better than my sticks-and-planks approach to making wood golems. As long as I made sure to cut grooves into the wooden bird sculptures before transmuting them, the joints would break off cleanly, and the results were mostly acceptable. They weren't capable of flight, but by mutating my saffron to grow lower to the ground, they could pick out the little stigmas that made up the spice.
Even with ten wooden golems working automatically, it was slow, painful work. I had to keep a constant supply of my magic funneling into the giant tree that was managing the farm so the saffron flowers would continually regenerate, and without my direct attention, the golems were incredibly clumsy, taking a long time to slowly learn how to walk and harvest plants.
What I did notice, however, was that the golems were indeed learning. Unlike the Rock Golem, their cores were soft enough to change over time, and unlike the Water Golem, their core was firm enough to control those changes. The end result was that the ten wooden bird golems were like newborn chicks, stumbling around as they tried to figure out the best ways for each of them to walk and work around the root-covered floor.
I doubted they would ever go too far beyond that, especially considering I could sense parts of how their core shifted and changed to process information, there just wasn't enough space in their core for advanced thoughts, but more importantly, the construction of their cores was just too sloppy. The cores were uneven, smeared affairs resulting from my inexperience with transmutation, which led to the cores having to send magic along winding, roundabout paths to move thoughts from one part of the core to another.
However, as my brain magic grows more skilled, my golems will need to spend less time learning, which bypasses the problem of their cores pretty cleanly. If I could completely copy the pigeon's mind, I would only need to transmute a golem core and order it, and it would use the pigeon's vast knowledge to execute its task.
...Then again, I'm not sure how good Thoth is at harvesting saffron in the first place.
I looked over at the basket that was slowly filling up with saffron fibers, and felt a thrilling rush of gratification as the weight of the saffron threads finally ticked the scale that the basket was set on over a pound.
I had looked up previously how much saffron was worth, and it could go for as much as a thousand dollars, just for a pound of it.
I had made that much in just a week of work. It wasn't much from a labor standpoint, but if my math was right, If I were to sell this stuff for market price, I'd be making more in a few hours of work than most people make with a full-time job.
Who would have thought that a team of tireless workers, a magically self-renewing garden, and the mental power of almost five whole Brockton Bay pigeons could have done all of this?
I nod with satisfaction as I look over my kingdom. It'll take a few hours under a sun lamp for the saffron threads to dry out, but once they do, I can move on to the hard part.
Selling it.
As I was laying down in my room to rest after personally boosting my farm for several hours, my mind wandered, eventually settling on one particular topic. The weird card that I got from that one lady at the boardwalk.
I had somehow forgotten about it for weeks, in light of everything else that had been going on, but now, without anything else to worry about... Well, I was curious.
I drank the bottle of water sitting on my bedside table that I left there earlier, before making my way to the phone. Did I really want to call this person? It could be something dangerous.
No. That was just the usual fear talking. It's just a phone call.
I dialed in the number and waited for someone to pick up. It only took two rings before I heard a snide voice on the other end.
"Well howdy, Pawn-Shop Girl. It sure took you long enough," she says, confusing the hell out of me.
"What? Who are you? Are you the person that put that card on me?" I respond.
She shushes me. "Don't worry about that. This is me doing you a favor, since you did me one. If you really want to know, then I'd prefer we meet in person."
I can practically hear the utter indifference as she continues. "But even if you don't, I've still got some advice for you. Don't go to the boardwalk anymore unless you're ready for what comes next. When it comes to this town, 'Rich' is just another word for 'Empire', and the boardwalk is plenty rich enough to have people watching for weird purchases and weirder behavior."
Her next words come out almost jokingly. "A pretty inconvenient policy for someone like you. So thanks. Now they're keeping an eye out for a scrawny long-haired tinker-in-training instead of trying to bother me."
My blood had been boiling from the moment she opened her mouth, but this took it over the edge. I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, the girl on the other end just kept blathering.
"Don't worry. I'm not going to sell you out. You know what I look like, I know what you look like. We're even-steven on that front. I just thought I'd give you a courtesy call. After all, if they caught you while you were busy drooling over thermometers and junior-scientist chemistry sets, then there wouldn't be anyone taking the heat off of me while I'm having my fun," she snickers.
"You said something about a meeting?" I ask, forcing myself to calm down. Whoever this is, they know stuff they couldn't possibly know, and my eyeplant cameras hadn't gone off for anything bigger than a dog since I installed them.
"Yeah. If you want to meet up and get some real deets, that's cool. I don't have any formal-wear, so I hope you don't mind if we keep things casual," she says in a way that seems to imply she doesn't exactly mean a suit and tie when she says 'formal-wear'.
"Maybe the Gary's Corner Cafe on Fifth next Friday at 4:30?" she offers.
[][Meeting] Thanks but no thanks.
[][Meeting] Fine.
[][Meeting] I won't be able to make it. How about this? (Write-in a time and place)
With that, the girl hangs up.
I still can't decide if I should have called that number or not.
In an effort to distract myself from the call I made, I decided to do some tests that I had been sitting on for a while.
1d20 vs 1d20 = 9, 13
First, I tried to control the size of the petals that Rose Gold Mana created. It seemed to work at first, but the larger I tried to make any individual petal, the less effective it was at showing the past.
The largest one I could make was the size of a dinner plate, but only showed events from yesterday. Completely unlike the other, smaller petals, which could seemingly reach back entire weeks. Being made of dust suspended on a sunbeam, they were also fairly fragile, I noted.
1d20 vs 1d20 = 11, 1
Next, I decided to test out a complex mana type I had come up with, blending together various nickel magics and attuning them to Salt to make it try and separate things.
"Denature," I whispered, using the magic to rip apart water into hydrogen and oxygen. The magic wanted to make them re-react to one another, but with shaking hands, I twisted its nature, forcing the magic to separate chemicals without the intent to recombine them.
I quickly banished the magic when I started to smell ozone and see bubbling in the glass.
The experiment was a success, at least somewhat.
The next test was much simpler. I simply took a piece of Lumic Condensite, and applied magically created lights to it. Not the mana, but the light itself.
The results were fairly obvious, all the various forms of magical light turning into solid light when it fell on the shard. Some of the solid lights did have interesting properties, though.
Cobold Gleam, when turned into solid light, became increasingly chaotic. Dropping it made it fly off in a random direction, no matter the circumstances, and everything I saw looking through the glassy material looked distorted like a funhouse mirror. Looking at my face through a piece of it in the mirror was a bit disturbing, as it made it look as though my face were smeared off into a blank mask.
Kinetic Light was also interesting. The green solified light refused to come into contact with iron, but was also latched onto it in a way. When I slid a nail across a thin rail of solid Kinetic Light, it just floated along above the surface of the light, almost frictionless.
Other than that, I noted no particularly unusual reactions. Magical light still acted like magical light, even in solid form.
One of my final tests was the most interesting, however, and it changed my perception of Arcane Magic. I went out of the house that night in costume, picking out a spot where I could fire magic into the bay without hitting anything important.
When I summoned up a mass of the mysterious Arcane Magic, and uttered phonems at it to try and turn it into grasping hands, nothing happened.
They didn't react differently, but rather, not at all. The single-word phonems that normally triggered an immediate response in Thaumic Mana didn't seem to prompt one from Arcane Mana.
Prepared to dodge whatever twisted result came from it, I decided to repeat one of my earliest tests with wave magic.
"Turn into a fireball?" I said questioningly.
The arcane mana started turning around, swirling a bit as it puffed out bits of smoke. I could tell at a glance that what I said wasn't enough. It didn't have enough... Weight?
It seems that, while Thaumic Mana is clear and obvious, you utter a random tone or snippet, and each one has a specific effect on the magic, Arcane Mana is more like what I imagined spellcasting to be. Heavy with metaphor, and obedient to the tonal arts instead of the tonal sciences.
I tried to think of something that might work, as I banished and reformed a mass of Arcane Magic.
My power offered no input here. It was completely out of left field for whatever had given me magic, but damn it, if this mana type wants meaningful speech, then it came to the right person.
I slapped together a quick rhyme, half-remembered lessons from mom coming to the forefront.
"Twist and twirl, and waves unfurl, this mist of mana begins to curl," I intone carefully, invoking the same stature of someone pretending to be an old wizard or archmagus from one of my old fantasy books.
The Arcane Magic begins to twist in on itself, compressing down into a point, and my pulse quickens once again.
I gesture forwards. "This girl commands, go-man thy station, and strike my foes, with conflagration!"
The arcane magic shrieks forwards, turning into a massive gout of spear-like flames that buries itself in the ocean with an explosion of steam that has me yelping as I leap back in shock.
Looking around for anyone who might have spotted my test, I run as quick as I can to get the hell out of the area before someone shows up to find out what the hell just happened.
Second week of May Plans:
[][Daily Activities] What sort of things will you do during the day?
-[][Daily Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Daily Activities] Spend time with dad.
-[][Daily Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
[][Cape Activities] What will you do as Sage?
-[][Cape Activities] Visit a location (Write-In Where you go and What you do there)
-[][Cape Activities] You'll spend your time investigating.
--[][Cape Activities] Investigate the gang attack on the Barnes family last year. You now know the names of the gangsters who did it.
---[][Cape Activities] Track down the ones in prison.
---[][Cape Activities] Track down the ones that escaped.
-[][Cape Activities] Set up your Legal Second-Identity (Write-In Plan)
-[][Cape Activities] Continue your magical training.
--[][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to perfectly copy even a pigeon's memories. Focus on Brain Magic.
--[][Cape Activities] Right now, your control over your mana isn't good enough to produce more than a crude golem via Synthesis. Focus on Synthesis Crafting.
-[][Cape Activities] Stay at home (Enhances other actions)
[][Project] You'll begin a project of some kind.
-[][Project] Something Else (Write-In)
[][Mana] Mana-Test Materials (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Attempt to string together an Attunement Chain (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Test a piece of equipment's True Attunement (Write-In)
[][Mana] Test a Phonem's effect (Write-In)
-[][Mana] Study a target for Phomens (Write-In)
[][Mana] Test a Transmutation (Choose an Elemental Ray and a Non-Silicate Target)
[][Mana] Something Else (Write-In)
4 Research Refunded due to theorycrafting. 6 Research Gained
Stats
Research: 30
A good start.
Overall Health: 12
You're a very small and squishy human who is less small and squishy than she once was.
Overall Magical Power: 7
You dabble in a variety of magics, and your power is respectable for your age.
Abilities
Magical Soul: F
Rating: Trump ???
Your soul emits magic. The stronger your soul, the more powerful your magic.
Magical Body: FF
Rating: ???
Your body contains some magic, your soul empowering your body without your direct intervention.
Magical Power: C
Rating: Trump ???
You are a parahuman with the power to create this anomalous energy known as "Mana", at will. Once per month, you may boost your Magical Power ranking to B for one scene.
Boosted for One Month.
Composition Detection: S
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to detect the exact composition of materials. So long as you apply mana to them, that is. Fairly Niche.
Eidetic Memory: A
Rating: Thinker ???
You have a parahuman ability to never forget what mana attunements you have learned, their applications, and their nuances. You will also never forget any word or noise you test on mana, or the effects it has.
This mana transforms living tissues into a mesh of biological fibers specialized in using magical energy and a variety of chemicals to control surrounding cells, manipulating them to more efficiently recycle dead flesh into new cells and cellular energy by making the cells more precisely target decaying or dead flesh.
Diamond
Thaum > Diamond > Diamond
Bio
Liquid
This mana transforms organic material into biological creatures or organisms charged with magic. These creatures are specialized in healing, softening, and the destruction of the undead. This mana can also charge objects with an energy that makes other targets more elastic and soft on contact temporarily.
Diamond
Thaum > Diamond > Diamond > Diamond
Bio-form
Liquid
This mana transforms organic material into biological creatures or organisms which strive to create life-magic-enacting agents or organisms.
Kidney
Thaum > Graphite > Kidney
Gu-Harvest
Liquid
This mana draws parasites and other dangerous life forms out of a target.
Graphite
Thaum > Salt > Copper > Graphite
Biological Segregation
Liquid
This mana influences organic materials to make them undo any intermixing or combination they performed.
Graphite
Thaum > Salt > Copper > Graphite > Graphite
Sorting Cells
Liquid
This mana influences an organism, making it try to organize and seperate types of life into distinct groups.
Bread
Thaum > Egg > Graphite > Bread
Puff Puff
Liquid
This mana takes the form of a cream puff that, when eaten, temporarily accelerates cellular division.
Tastes like Cigarettes.
Graphite
Thaum > Copper > Copper > Graphite
Accelerated Growth?
Liquid
This mana accelerates a target's growth.
This mana has the side effect of giving a target "momentum" in their aging. The accelerated growth takes time to slow down once it has begun.
Graphite
Thaum > Copper > Copper > Copper > Graphite
Accelerated Growth??
Liquid
This mana accelerates a target's growth.
This mana has the side effect of giving a target "momentum" in their aging. The accelerated growth takes time to slow down once it has begun.
Copper
Thaum > Salt > Copper > Copper
Rewind
Ray
This mana appears to reverse the flow of time slightly, preferring to reverse time in order to seperate objects.
Tungsten
Thaum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Tungsten
Mana Recycle?
Ray
This mana draws other forms of mana emitted from an object back into themselves.
Tungsten
Thaum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Aluminum > Tungsten
Mana Recycle??
Ray
This mana draws other forms of mana emitted from an object back into themselves.
Lead
Thaum > Salt > Lead > Lead > Lead
Panhandle
Ray
This mana lightens an object until it turns to liquid, transferring its weight from its lightest components to its heaviest until they begin to seperate out.
Lead
(Ripfield) > Lead > Lead > Lead
Knifeplanet
Ray
Mana makes an object draw other objects to itself, preferring ones capable of separating it into pieces.
Lead
(Curse) > Lead > Lead > Lead
Barbell Thief
Ray
This mana makes a target draw weights towards itself and off of other things nearby.
Lead
Thaum > Aluminum > Lead > Lead > Lead
Massless Detonation
Ray
This mana reduces the mass of a target, eventually ripping it apart from low-mass effects.
Zinc
Thaum > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc
Cursed Burden
Ray
This mana curses a target with a curse that increases the stress on them, until flaws begin to form and grow. On contact with another target, the curse transfers.
Zinc
Thaum > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc > Zinc
Cursed One
Ray
This mana curses a target with a curse that increases the stress on them, until flaws begin to form and grow. On contact with another target, the curse's energy is split between them.
Zinc
Thaum > Platinum > Blood > Zinc
Burden of the Lightning Vampire
Ray
This mana afflicts a target with increased conductivity of the blood. So long as the energy is present, they are burdened with a form of vampiric curse, gaining the power of Vital Electricity, in exchange for a weakness to electricity of all kinds. Electrical shocks overcharge their blood, resulting in massive trauma.
Salt
((Catalyst) + (Enzyme)) > Salt
Denature
Ray
This mana speeds up chemical reactions and catalyst formation in a target by pulling apart completed chemicals back into their constituent parts so they can re-react.
Stone
Transmute > (Stone Free) > Wood
Concrete Jungle
Transmute
This mana creates an amalgam of transmuted woods, which grow together into the parts of a wooden bird golem. Despite its wooden appearance, the wood is not alive, but merely animated.
Birdwood: This collection of wooden planks and sticks, when assembled correctly, attempts to take on the behavior of a bird.
Lumic Condensite
Thaum > Bird > Lumic Condensite
Sunbird
Elemental Ray
This mana creates a thick-spiked bird of light when applied to Lumic Condensite. The solidified light attempts to act like a bird.
Zinc
Thaum > Brain > Zinc
Blurt
Ray
This mana makes a target become burdened with thoughts contained in it.
Brain
Thaum > Zinc > Brain
Heavy Thoughts
Liquid
This mana contains the thoughts that weigh on the target's mind.
Tungsten
Thaum > Brain > Tungsten
Rethink
Ray
This mana makes a target rethink the thoughts contained within the mana.
Brain
Thaum > Tungsten > Brain
Forgotten Memories
Liquid
This mana contains the thoughts that the target has forgotten or discarded.
Rose Gold
Thaum > Brain > Rose Gold
Remembered Days
Ray
This mana forms petals of dust which reveal the past of the memories comprising them.
Brain
Thaum > Rose Gold > Brain
Memory Petals
Liquid
This mana takes the form of vivid pink petals that carry strong memories within them.
Brain
Thaum > Copper > Brain
In the Present
Liquid
This mana contains only the thoughts of the current moment from the target it was attuned to.
Copper
Thaum > Brain > Copper
Immortal Moment
Liquid
This mana makes a single moment last until it is remembered for the target.
Blood
Thaum > Brain > Blood
Ancestral Memory
Liquid
This mana bears and affects thoughts hidden within the target's blood.
Brain
Thaum > Blood > Brain
Vivid Fragment
Liquid
This mana bears the target's most vital thoughts.
Salt
Thaum > Quartz > Salt
Clean Cut
Ray
This mana makes existing seperations more precise, bringing them into stark focus.
Platinum
Thaum > Quartz > Platinum
Electron Beam
Ray
This mana creates a precise beam of electricity.
Graphite
Thaum > Quartz > Graphite
Even Out
Ray
This mana rearranges organic material, making it more consistent. Lumps are reduced, muscles are aligned, and cells are rearranged subtly.
Salt
Thaum > Zinc > Salt
Share the Load
Ray
This mana seperates an object's burdens.
Zinc
Thaum > Salt > Zinc
Fault
Ray
This mana targets an object's seams, stressing them until they seperate.
Attunement
Shorthand
Concept
Effects
Other
True > High Carbon Steel
Repulse
[Living Force]
The user gains a limited ability to redistribute force manually. This ability increases, the more High Carbon Steel is equipped.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Glass
Enlighten
[Create Light]
The user's lights are brighter than normal, the more glass is on their person. Equipped glass has a tendency to reflectively flash at the user's will, even when slight adjustments are made.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Wheat
Wheat Mastery
[Further Wheat]
The user gains more from harvests, the more wheat is equipped.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Sage
Sage Mastery
[Further Sage]
The user is more resistant to ailments, the more sage is equipped.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Lumic Condensite
Shining Landscape
[Speleothem of Light]
In caverns that have been exposed to light for long periods of time, Stalagmites and Stalagtites appear around the user made of pure solid light, so long as they are in the area.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Wardstone
Auto-Repair
[Safety of Home]
The user gains the ability to manifest concrete when building or repairing, the more Wardstone is worn.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Glowstone
Auto-Light
[Lights of Home]
The user gains the ability to manifest light-redistributing crystals when building or repairing. These crystals evenly redistribute light that touches them, emitting them all over.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Quartz
Decoil
[Create Precision]
The user's actions become more consistent the more quartz is equipped. (Does not boost accuracy.)
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Air
Thaumic Mana
[Dull Aether]
This is just plain old Thaumic Magic.
Taylor has little intention of pursuing a Set Bonus for this.
True > Diamond
Regeneratle
[Greater Life]
The user becomes more elastic and regenerates health rapidly
Set Bonus undiscovered.
True > Water
Arcane Mana
[Unclear Aether]
This is just plain old Arcane Magic.
Set Bonus undiscovered.
School
Phonem
Name
Effect
Notes
Diamond
Aah
Vitality
Mana begins to produce raw vitality
Diamond
Shing
Diamondize
Mana is covered with a pattern of shimmering diamonds.
Diamond
Shweun
Light to Sharpness
Mana gains sharpness over edges that successfully reflect light towards an observer.
Graphite
Chh
Touch-to-movement
Mana is marked by the first object to touch it. It will follow a pattern traced by the object, starting its movements once the Phonem "Shh" is uttered.
Graphite
Schkschk
Grind
Mana leaves residue on areas that it grinds up against.
Graphite
Kik
Fragile Snap
Mana reacts very little to damage, but becomes more fragile as a result.
