The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
you didn't appreciate
all too impressionable
mental look towards
Turn 15 - Pantheon
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
June 22nd, 2120
You stood at the edge of an observation platform, looking down at ruins scattered across the blackened rust of a vast caldera. The first of humanity's offworld colonies had been founded here, and its name had been so hopeful, almost arrogant its belief that humanity had so much further to rise, and nothing to prevent that ascent. Mytikas had been its name, taken from the highest peak of Mount Olympus on Earth. Fitting, perhaps, for a colony built into the caldera of the tallest mountain in the star system. Twenty-six kilometres above the Martian surface those first colonists had laid their flag, and after the discovery of the Second Secret the settlement had grown explosively.
Scientists had flocked to the place after the first conversion towers had been constructed, a spire that reached from the depths of the linked craters to just above the highest point of the mountain. Another layer had been arrayed around the ring, to work in synchrony with the primary conversion point. The Olympus Colleges had been founded around that spire, and thousands of scientists had laboured to create wonders that you could only barely remember. The great, doomed protectors of humanity. The first survey ships of man, and the link that bound them to Sol. All that, and so much more. Until the Week of Sorrows had reduced it to a mass grave for over two hundred million souls
"How are you holding up?" You asked, trying to be mindful of what the ground far below meant to the person standing beside you. For so many, the Burning had been horrific, but something detached from their reality. But not for Mary. She'd been born and raised in Mytikas, and her entire family had been there when the Week of Sorrows began. How her father had gotten her offplanet, you would never know.
"I'm," she took a breath, squeezing the hand that she'd not let go of since boarding the observation platform. "I'm coping. It hurts to see it again, when I still have a blurry picture of what it used to be. But I wanted to see this." She looked over, as if worried you might disagree, and you squeezed back.
"I know better than to try and stop you doing what you want, Mary." You told her, coaxing the ghost of a smile onto her face. You weren't likely to get more than that, so you didn't try, instead being content to watch in silence as Vega and the rest of the Harmonic Circle finished their preparations. Six pairs of Harmonials were scattered across the world, each one of them in a place where an atmospheric conversion tower had once stood. In the months since Adriana had chosen to pursue this project, new towers of shining metal had risen where only ruins had lain for the last sixty years. The vast spire of Mytikas had been reforged too, and Vega stood at the very top now, with the final three of her Circle. Sixteen Harmonials, each of them unique. Together, half that number had already given you one Miracle.
This was bigger, though. Adriana wasn't trying to restore the cities of Mars with Practice, she was trying to recreate the conditions that had allowed them to exist. At the centre of that were the atmospheric conversion towers, a network of structures that had allowed the first settlements to flourish. Structures that had originally relied on Second Secret technology, which humanity had lost all understanding of after the Week of Sorrows. The Miracle of Skylark had shown that it was possible to fill that gap, but you'd never had the time to pursue such frivolities during the buildup to war. But Adriana? She was a builder. What greater project, and symbol in one, than to give life back to a world.
Not all of it, the humanity of the pre-Sorrows world had never needed to reach that far. But what had once been, that could be again.
"It's starting," Mary's voice cut through your thoughts, pitched low, but insistent. The edge of the observation platform shifted, projecting holograms into the air around those aboard. Six images of smaller towers, with a pair of Potentials atop each. But your eyes were fixed on the seventh, where Vega hovered at the centre of a triangle of three other Harmonials. She would be the centrepiece of the working, and the one who would guide it. Her Aegis was fully extended, Kagiso wrapped around her like a glove, and you could feel the energy radiating off of her even here. You were sensitive to such things, though.
:I can feel that from here,: the words spun across the link between you, and Vega's eyes shifted in the image, staring straight into the pickup. :But then, I'd expect nothing less. Ready to show us what you can do?:
:As I'll ever be.: The answer came swiftly, but there was a confidence behind it. So much more than there'd been two decades ago, before she'd become the Proven Miracle. It had been so good to see that young woman grow, into what you could only call an equal. And now here she was, about to try and bring life back to a world long thought forever beyond humanity's reach. :You have yourself to thank for that, 'Mandy.: Her voice rippled, a flicker of the power around her breaking through into the feeling of it. :I don't think I'd ever have gotten this far without the chance you gave me at Skylark.:
:You'd have found a way.: You insisted, as always. But you kept it short, now wasn't the time for the full debate. You felt a brush of thanks, then the link returned to normal. Mary smiled fully as she looked over at you.
"How is she doing?" You blinked innocently, and the brunette shook her head firmly. "None of that, Mandy. I can tell when you're having a conversation with someone else." You ducked your head in surrender, but did so with a smile of your own.
"She's doing well. It's good to see this all coming together so well for her." Mary squeezed your hand again, all the reply you really needed. "I can feel the beginnings of it from here," you repeated, aloud this time. "It's not more Practice than I've felt before, but there's a concentration to it. Usually Potentials overlap, but they don't come together. But this Circle she's built, I think they might."
A reply was rising swiftly to Mary's lips, but movement on the screen stopped her. Impossible colour flared around Vega's Aegis, reaching out to the other members of the Circle. She was the only Unisonbound among them, and that had been a deliberate choice on her part. The Harmonic Circle was something she'd wanted to create, but it had to be able to operate without her or any of the Two Twenty Three. She would lead them, guide them, and teach them. At the end, the Circle she was creating would learn to stand on its own. But for now? Now she was here.
Power flared again, in every image before you, rippling out across the fabric of reality. And you heard something, echoes across the link between you. Like Insight, they were using words to bring themselves together, like an ancient marching song. The base had actually been a song once, but the details of it had been lost. Only the words remained.
Lead me where my trust is without borders,
Let me walk across the waters
To where our powers speak as one.
The familiar light of Practice bathed each pair of Potentials in light, and you felt the concentration of that energy build upon itself once more. Yet at the top of the Spire, it was different. A burning triangle of light etched itself into the world, surrounded by a ring that ran through its points. At each one, a Potential stood. And at its heart, Vega did far more than shine. The combined Practice of sixteen souls, merged in a way you weren't sure even they could understand.
Take me deeper than my mind could ever wander
And my soul will be made stronger
In the making of this Harmony.
Harmonics: 98 + 24 (Practice) + 10 (Harmonic Circle) = 132 vs DC 50. Margin of success of over 80! Miracle! Unity extension achieved!
Practice poured from the ring of light into the very bones of the world beneath you. Arcs of blinding power raced across it, searching for the rest of the Circle, and finding them quickly. The gentle glow of colour around each pair blazed up like a bonfire as the arcs found them, and your eyes watered for an instant before the displays adjusted to the new light levels. Yet you were far away from simply watching, because that wasn't the only link that those coils of overwhelming brightness had touched. As the Circle came together in perfect unity, it had also reached towards you. It felt like chain lightning given form, but you didn't fear its touch. Why would you?
Another ring of light blazed into existence around the edge of the caldera, where the second set of conversion towers had been built. Reality rippled between the energy of today and matter of the past, flickers of blue-white energy arcing across the space between the wider ring and the four Potentials at its heart.
Now let my heart find the word
And call it out to all the world
My soul will rest in your embrace
For I am yours, and you are mine.
Holding the Link: 87 + 24 (Practice) + 10 (Harmonic Circle) + 10 (Miracle) = 131 vs DC 70. Solid Success
There was a Word coming now. You could feel it. But more than that, you could feel an…offer wasn't the right word. Vega was still your lesser in Words, and this was far past the point of any previous working she'd completed. Her Speaking would return the towers, and even some of the old city that once been, but that was all.
You, however? The most skilled Mender in existence, who'd first discovered the ability to Speak Practice into reality. There was so much more you might be able to do. The opportunity was there, extended across the Heartcircle link that you'd never been aware could even carry something like this. The observation platform didn't have many aboard, and those who were, they were friends. If you did act here, you might be able to not get so…noticed as you were as the focus of Purify.
There wasn't time to consider, even with Sidra's perception acceleration. The moment was approaching too fast. And you had a choice to make.
What do you do?
[] Join your voice to the Circle and Speak a Word of Restoration
[] Let the moment pass, for only through doing can Vega truly learn.
You stood at the edge of an observation platform, looking down at ruins scattered across the blackened rust of a vast caldera. The first of humanity's offworld colonies had been founded here, and its name had been so hopeful, almost arrogant its belief that humanity had so much further to rise, and nothing to prevent that ascent. Mytikas had been its name, taken from the highest peak of Mount Olympus on Earth. Fitting, perhaps, for a colony built into the caldera of the tallest mountain in the star system. Twenty-six kilometres above the Martian surface those first colonists had laid their flag, and after the discovery of the Second Secret the settlement had grown explosively.
Scientists had flocked to the place after the first conversion towers had been constructed, a spire that reached from the depths of the linked craters to just above the highest point of the mountain. Another layer had been arrayed around the ring, to work in synchrony with the primary conversion point. The Olympus Colleges had been founded around that spire, and thousands of scientists had laboured to create wonders that you could only barely remember. The great, doomed protectors of humanity. The first survey ships of man, and the link that bound them to Sol. All that, and so much more. Until the Week of Sorrows had reduced it to a mass grave for over two hundred million souls
"How are you holding up?" You asked, trying to be mindful of what the ground far below meant to the person standing beside you. For so many, the Burning had been horrific, but something detached from their reality. But not for Mary. She'd been born and raised in Mytikas, and her entire family had been there when the Week of Sorrows began. How her father had gotten her offplanet, you would never know.
"I'm," she took a breath, squeezing the hand that she'd not let go of since boarding the observation platform. "I'm coping. It hurts to see it again, when I still have a blurry picture of what it used to be. But I wanted to see this." She looked over, as if worried you might disagree, and you squeezed back.
"I know better than to try and stop you doing what you want, Mary." You told her, coaxing the ghost of a smile onto her face. You weren't likely to get more than that, so you didn't try, instead being content to watch in silence as Vega and the rest of the Harmonic Circle finished their preparations. Six pairs of Harmonials were scattered across the world, each one of them in a place where an atmospheric conversion tower had once stood. In the months since Adriana had chosen to pursue this project, new towers of shining metal had risen where only ruins had lain for the last sixty years. The vast spire of Mytikas had been reforged too, and Vega stood at the very top now, with the final three of her Circle. Sixteen Harmonials, each of them unique. Together, half that number had already given you one Miracle.
This was bigger, though. Adriana wasn't trying to restore the cities of Mars with Practice, she was trying to recreate the conditions that had allowed them to exist. At the centre of that were the atmospheric conversion towers, a network of structures that had allowed the first settlements to flourish. Structures that had originally relied on Second Secret technology, which humanity had lost all understanding of after the Week of Sorrows. The Miracle of Skylark had shown that it was possible to fill that gap, but you'd never had the time to pursue such frivolities during the buildup to war. But Adriana? She was a builder. What greater project, and symbol in one, than to give life back to a world.
Not all of it, the humanity of the pre-Sorrows world had never needed to reach that far. But what had once been, that could be again.
"It's starting," Mary's voice cut through your thoughts, pitched low, but insistent. The edge of the observation platform shifted, projecting holograms into the air around those aboard. Six images of smaller towers, with a pair of Potentials atop each. But your eyes were fixed on the seventh, where Vega hovered at the centre of a triangle of three other Harmonials. She would be the centrepiece of the working, and the one who would guide it. Her Aegis was fully extended, Kagiso wrapped around her like a glove, and you could feel the energy radiating off of her even here. You were sensitive to such things, though.
:I can feel that from here,: the words spun across the link between you, and Vega's eyes shifted in the image, staring straight into the pickup. :But then, I'd expect nothing less. Ready to show us what you can do?:
:As I'll ever be.: The answer came swiftly, but there was a confidence behind it. So much more than there'd been two decades ago, before she'd become the Proven Miracle. It had been so good to see that young woman grow, into what you could only call an equal. And now here she was, about to try and bring life back to a world long thought forever beyond humanity's reach. :You have yourself to thank for that, 'Mandy.: Her voice rippled, a flicker of the power around her breaking through into the feeling of it. :I don't think I'd ever have gotten this far without the chance you gave me at Skylark.:
:You'd have found a way.: You insisted, as always. But you kept it short, now wasn't the time for the full debate. You felt a brush of thanks, then the link returned to normal. Mary smiled fully as she looked over at you.
"How is she doing?" You blinked innocently, and the brunette shook her head firmly. "None of that, Mandy. I can tell when you're having a conversation with someone else." You ducked your head in surrender, but did so with a smile of your own.
"She's doing well. It's good to see this all coming together so well for her." Mary squeezed your hand again, all the reply you really needed. "I can feel the beginnings of it from here," you repeated, aloud this time. "It's not more Practice than I've felt before, but there's a concentration to it. Usually Potentials overlap, but they don't come together. But this Circle she's built, I think they might."
A reply was rising swiftly to Mary's lips, but movement on the screen stopped her. Impossible colour flared around Vega's Aegis, reaching out to the other members of the Circle. She was the only Unisonbound among them, and that had been a deliberate choice on her part. The Harmonic Circle was something she'd wanted to create, but it had to be able to operate without her or any of the Two Twenty Three. She would lead them, guide them, and teach them. At the end, the Circle she was creating would learn to stand on its own. But for now? Now she was here.
Power flared again, in every image before you, rippling out across the fabric of reality. And you heard something, echoes across the link between you. Like Insight, they were using words to bring themselves together, like an ancient marching song. The base had actually been a song once, but the details of it had been lost. Only the words remained.
Lead me where my trust is without borders,
Let me walk across the waters
To where our powers speak as one.
The familiar light of Practice bathed each pair of Potentials in light, and you felt the concentration of that energy build upon itself once more. Yet at the top of the Spire, it was different. A burning triangle of light etched itself into the world, surrounded by a ring that ran through its points. At each one, a Potential stood. And at its heart, Vega did far more than shine. The combined Practice of sixteen souls, merged in a way you weren't sure even they could understand.
Take me deeper than my mind could ever wander
And my soul will be made stronger
In the making of this Harmony.
Harmonics: 98 + 24 (Practice) + 10 (Harmonic Circle) = 132 vs DC 50. Margin of success of over 80! Miracle! Unity extension achieved!
Practice poured from the ring of light into the very bones of the world beneath you. Arcs of blinding power raced across it, searching for the rest of the Circle, and finding them quickly. The gentle glow of colour around each pair blazed up like a bonfire as the arcs found them, and your eyes watered for an instant before the displays adjusted to the new light levels. Yet you were far away from simply watching, because that wasn't the only link that those coils of overwhelming brightness had touched. As the Circle came together in perfect unity, it had also reached towards you. It felt like chain lightning given form, but you didn't fear its touch. Why would you?
Another ring of light blazed into existence around the edge of the caldera, where the second set of conversion towers had been built. Reality rippled between the energy of today and matter of the past, flickers of blue-white energy arcing across the space between the wider ring and the four Potentials at its heart.
Now let my heart find the word
And call it out to all the world
My soul will rest in your embrace
For I am yours, and you are mine.
Holding the Link: 87 + 24 (Practice) + 10 (Harmonic Circle) + 10 (Miracle) = 131 vs DC 70. Solid Success
There was a Word coming now. You could feel it. But more than that, you could feel an…offer wasn't the right word. Vega was still your lesser in Words, and this was far past the point of any previous working she'd completed. Her Speaking would return the towers, and even some of the old city that once been, but that was all.
You, however? The most skilled Mender in existence, who'd first discovered the ability to Speak Practice into reality. There was so much more you might be able to do. The opportunity was there, extended across the Heartcircle link that you'd never been aware could even carry something like this. The observation platform didn't have many aboard, and those who were, they were friends. If you did act here, you might be able to not get so…noticed as you were as the focus of Purify.
There wasn't time to consider, even with Sidra's perception acceleration. The moment was approaching too fast. And you had a choice to make.
What do you do?
[] Join your voice to the Circle and Speak a Word of Restoration
[] Let the moment pass, for only through doing can Vega truly learn.
There will be a one hour moratorium on this vote.
Last edited:
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
So, you know that moment on the last page, where I mentioned a lack of excitement? Apparently Vega disapproved. Heavily. And now the board…well. I'm not going to steal a line and say it's been flipped, but it's coming damn close. If it isn't clear, what Vega is trying to do with the Harmonic Circle is restore the atmospheric conversion towers. Because of the stupidly good rolls she got, the Circle got a damn near perfect linkup that was then able to bootstrap into the Heartcircle link between Vega and Amanda. Before anyone asks, no it didn't connect any further, even to other members of the Heartcircle. Why? Who knows!
It's called my sanity, and it's screaming at me enough right now.
The key thing to consider here is that your choice has multiple variables that it will affect. Vega's development, both as a character and a Speaker, for all that she's offering you this. The depth and to a point the scale of the greater Working. The way in which humanity looks at Practice. Even the dynamics of the Harmonic Circle have opportunity to flux. No, I am not going into what depth and scale mean here, at least not to exact terms. You can ask questions, I encourage you to do so actually, but don't expect exact answers. Vega doesn't know, Mandy doesn't know. It's that simple. All they can do is guess, and those guesses could be wrong.
Anyway, short moratorium here because I'd like to see some discussion on the matter, as it isn't hyperbole to say that this is one of the more important decisions of the entire year. It synergises with almost all of your other decisions to a hefty degree, and has the potential to have a pronounced effect on your options next turn too.
Thanks to @Jeboboid for betaing this. And yes, I know, I said last vote was the last one. If you want someone to blame, blame Vega. Or don't. Whatever works
Because he's actually in his 30s, which places him at around half Amanda's (temporal) age. The larger point is the impressionability, to be honest, but then I never said that her view was rational. She is human, after all.
It's called my sanity, and it's screaming at me enough right now.
The key thing to consider here is that your choice has multiple variables that it will affect. Vega's development, both as a character and a Speaker, for all that she's offering you this. The depth and to a point the scale of the greater Working. The way in which humanity looks at Practice. Even the dynamics of the Harmonic Circle have opportunity to flux. No, I am not going into what depth and scale mean here, at least not to exact terms. You can ask questions, I encourage you to do so actually, but don't expect exact answers. Vega doesn't know, Mandy doesn't know. It's that simple. All they can do is guess, and those guesses could be wrong.
Anyway, short moratorium here because I'd like to see some discussion on the matter, as it isn't hyperbole to say that this is one of the more important decisions of the entire year. It synergises with almost all of your other decisions to a hefty degree, and has the potential to have a pronounced effect on your options next turn too.
Thanks to @Jeboboid for betaing this. And yes, I know, I said last vote was the last one. If you want someone to blame, blame Vega. Or don't. Whatever works
Because he's actually in his 30s, which places him at around half Amanda's (temporal) age. The larger point is the impressionability, to be honest, but then I never said that her view was rational. She is human, after all.
The Sandman
So Zetta Slowpoke
- Location
- Wherever I am, which isn't where I'm not
I'm leaning towards doing it, under the principle that Amanda has never been one to stay silent when the results might be lessened from what they'd've been had she spoken up. Willing to entertain arguments for the other choice, though.
I'm guessing that Speaking will give a stronger effect for this Miracle, but not Speaking will improve the consistency with which the Circle of Harmony can pull Miracles out of their ass.
And dear lord those rolls
And dear lord those rolls
touched
[X] Join your voice to the Circle and Speak a Word of Restoration
Honestly, I just do not think we should let this opportunity pass.
It is somewhat unique, and while leaving them to learn would have had something for itself...
Sometimes I have the imporession that Practice wants to be used, a bit like living Force suggests a course of action.
And since it was created by the Dragons and the sacrifice of humanity for the better future of their children...
I am inclined to trust such suggestions.
Honestly, I just do not think we should let this opportunity pass.
It is somewhat unique, and while leaving them to learn would have had something for itself...
Sometimes I have the imporession that Practice wants to be used, a bit like living Force suggests a course of action.
And since it was created by the Dragons and the sacrifice of humanity for the better future of their children...
I am inclined to trust such suggestions.
- Location
- Montana
Hmmm, learning by doing is a thing...but doing with the guidance of someone more experienced can teach you even more. Vega has put together a practiced Miracle and exceeded the chosen target by leagues. I say join in with the circle and work with them to make it as wonderful as possible.
- Location
- Somewhere.
How could Amanda not?
[X] Speak.
[X] Speak.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
Mary's
touched
[x] Join your voice to the Circle and Speak a Word of Restoration
Back in the mid-2000s, my grandmother was talking about this young girl in her walking group. My mother asked her how old this "young girl" was; my grandmother replied, "Oh, she was only 70; just a young girl." After all, if your 90th birthday is right around the corner, anyone 20 years younger just seems like a young kid.
Garm352
Bearer of the Stars of Creation
- Location
- The Void Between Stars
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Let the moment pass, for only through doing can Vega truly learn.
Because Vega's character development is important to me, and this is a huge thing for her. I know she's the one offering, but this is my stance.
Because Vega's character development is important to me, and this is a huge thing for her. I know she's the one offering, but this is my stance.
- Location
- Earth Aleph
Not sure if this is a valid strategy, but what hapens if we speak together?
Last edited:
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
If Amanda was a Harmonial, you could do that. Unfortunately, she isn't. If that was an option there wouldn't be a vote, after all. Whilst Vega and Amanda have Spoken together once before, this is bigger and involves more people. People in near perfect synchronisation, but still more than one. And for a non-Harmonial like Amanda, that matters.
Speaking is a deeply personal thing, and one that each Potential to learn it so far has come at from a subtly different direction. There are some common qualities, but at the end of the day it's the process of manifestating their soul's will exerting itself on reality. Exact mechanics...vary.
- Location
- Staring into the void
[X] Let the moment pass, for only through doing can Vega truly learn.
Last edited:
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
In that case:
[x] Let the moment pass, for only through doing can Vega truly learn.
// I think Vega's development will have more mid/long-term impact than a personalized miracle by Amanda. It also expresses trust/encouragement on Amanda's part to not grab the reins.
- Location
- Earth Aleph
[x] Join your voice to the Circle and Speak a Word of Restoration
Better results in the short and long term as far as industry and research is concerned, and while Vega won't develop personally quite as fast she still is extremely involved it isn't as if she wouldn't learn from it. So between the question 'good for one' or 'good for all' I believe to join is rather more in character.
Tbh, if it weren't a miracle it might have been a good learning experience, but as it is now it's just too good an opportunity to pass up.
Better results in the short and long term as far as industry and research is concerned, and while Vega won't develop personally quite as fast she still is extremely involved it isn't as if she wouldn't learn from it. So between the question 'good for one' or 'good for all' I believe to join is rather more in character.
Tbh, if it weren't a miracle it might have been a good learning experience, but as it is now it's just too good an opportunity to pass up.
Last edited:
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
[X] Join your voice to the Circle and Speak a Word of Restoration
I really, truly wish that I could let Vega do this by herself... But the sheer possibility of what may result from Amanda joining in is just... I mean, this is basically the icon of humanity's achievements and potential from before the Week of Sorrow, and all the wonders they created we may restore...
If the prize within reach was lesser, I'd all be for Vega to do it herself. If she was even slightly more skilled, again, I'd be entirely happy for Vega to do it herself. If only this had happened in one or two more years time...
I really, truly wish that I could let Vega do this by herself... But the sheer possibility of what may result from Amanda joining in is just... I mean, this is basically the icon of humanity's achievements and potential from before the Week of Sorrow, and all the wonders they created we may restore...
If the prize within reach was lesser, I'd all be for Vega to do it herself. If she was even slightly more skilled, again, I'd be entirely happy for Vega to do it herself. If only this had happened in one or two more years time...
