- Location
- Europe
Amy: Also, do you know how any more updates it might take to find out if we don't take this opportunity?
Angie: Wait wut?
I hope they get there and everyone they talk to goes "Why didn't you just use the bus service?".
Amy: Also, do you know how any more updates it might take to find out if we don't take this opportunity?
Angie: Wait wut?
I hope they get there and everyone they talk to goes "Why didn't you just use the bus service?".
Sooo first off I really liked the chapter. With that said I did notice something I feel could be improved upon. Your world lacks descriptions. We only learn a few things about the mcs surroundings towards the very end of the update. Is the sky blue? What does the foliage look like on a high gravity world. The path is paved.. okay paved with what? This is the mc's second day on this world. Remember how you can spot tourists? They gawk at everything, because everything is new to them.
I am only a clumsy writer, so I hope you understand what I am trying to say.
I am only a clumsy writer, so I hope you understand what I am trying to say.
90°
ensou
Magical G̶i̶r̶l̶ Servant Mordred-chan
- Location
- NEW YORK CITY!??
- Pronouns
- She/Her
You're not sure what you expect to find.
But that's also half the fun.
The classrooms —which have the entire outer wall as glass, at least the ones facing outside— that you go past are all dark and empty, locked up even. The first thing you find that's open and has people looks almost like a study room or something, but also a lounge?
Still. People. Progress!
The door's open, and you roll into the room, five of the six people looking up at you.
"Hi," you greet.
"Hello?" one of them returns, one of the guys. All the others go back to their work as soon as he stands up from the table he was behind on the other side of the room to walk towards you. "Are you lost?"
"Nope!"
"Um." He's clearly a little thrown off by you, but you suppose that's a fair reaction. It's probably not everyday they have wheelchair-restricted thirteen year-olds coming to see them. "Is there something I can help you with, then?"
You nod. "Yep!" He gives you a look that says 'Okay, what?' "Soooo basically I need to find out what my Talent is. See, I didn't even know I was like, last week, so I had zero time to prepare and figure things out, right? Which is also why I'm in this, you know," you say, patting the arm of your wheelchair. "But anyways! I still have to pick my classes, but since I don't know what my Talent I can't really do that very well. So I was like 'the university has to have teachers, and the teachers do research and stuff, so they might be able to help me out.' Which is why I'm here."
"And… you expect the professors that are here to have free time and just help you?" he asks incredulously, and… if you're being honest, a little condescendingly.
"Not really, but I figured that even a small chance was worth trying and either way I'd get to see a bunch of cool places, right?"
He takes a breath. "Look. This isn't exactly a place for kids to just run around in, and the high school probably already has some way of dealing with this, and even if it doesn't I'm sure you can wait until classes sta—"
"Jeez, lighten up on the kid Ryan. She was just asking for help, you don't have to be a dick about it." One of the other boys had gotten up from his seat at one of the tables and walked over to you. 'Ryan' practically glares at him. "Why don't you get back to whatever you were doing. I'll take care of this."
He looks like he's about to say something, but then he just closes his mouth, after a moment, he opens it again. "Alright, fine."
The new boy crouches down in front of your wheelchair so that he's at eye-level, showing you hazel eyes a few shades darker than your own. "So you're looking for some help figuring out your Talent, huh?" You nod. "Exciting stuff. Well, I can't promise anything but I can at least take you to see if any of the professors would be up for it."
You grin. "Thanks!"
The boy looks over his shoulder to the couch at the back corner of the room and the person that's sitting there: a girl with flame-colored hair. …Literally flame colored, you can see it glowing and shifting shades like embers as you watch. That's one heck of a mod. "Hey Nat, you want to come along? Might end up seeing something interesting, and we could probably use a Null."
The girl looks over at you from whatever she's doing, revealing irises that match her hair. She shrugs and stands up. "Eh, sure, why not. Not like I've got anything better to do."
The boy in front of you stands up, moving around your chair, and you turn so that you can follow him out the door, Nat right behind you.
"So you two are at the high school huh?" the boy asks, leading your small group. "Oh, I'm Peter, by the way," he says suddenly, turning to look at you. "I'd ask if certain teachers were still there or not, but you guys wouldn't have even met them yet."
"I'm Natalie Sokolov," the girl on your left says. "What's your name?"
"Um, Amy Bailey," you tell her, and she looks at Angharad on your right.
"Angharad Evans," Angie tells her.
She must have caught you eyeing her hair, because she grins. "You like it? I made it myself." What. "Took like six months of dev time, but it was totally worth it."
"You made that?" you say, and if your voice came out higher than you intended you'll never admit it.
"Mmhm. I'm a bio-nanotech engineering major," Natalie says. "And I got soooo much credit for this. A whole semester of self-study."
"And I'm actually a student in this building," Peter says, leading you around a corner into another hallway. "Talent sciences major."
"Yeah well whatever, I hang out here enough I might as well be," she counters.
He just shakes his head, starting to look at all the doors on the left. "Hm. Not here, not here, not good, not his specialty, not here, ah! Maybe Brians?"
Peter knocks on the door.
The man who opens it is young-ish, and clearly recognizes your guide. "Peter! Hey! What's up?"
"Amy here was trying to see if there was anyone who'd be willing to do a Sparking for a new Talent. Maybe even get some really interesting data out of it?" He looks at you, as if asking permission.
You shrug. "Sure?"
The professor looks interested and then visibly frustrated. "Jeez. Ugh. I wish I could. If I didn't have to get this stuff to Marko by twelve I'd go with you in a heartbeat. Um." He looks down, thinking. "Maybe Susan? Check with her. If she's here she'll probably jump on it."
Peter nods. "Alright, thanks. We'll let you get back to work, then," he says, stepping back and turning to go. "See you, Professor Brians!"
"Have a good day!" the man says as you walk away, the door shutting when you're about a meter away.
And then it opens again. "And tell Susan to forward me the raws!"
"Will do!" Peter calls back, and this time when the door closes it doesn't open again.
He leads you further down the hall, past about sixteen doors until you're in front of one covered in vinyl stickers. He knocks on the door.
"It's open!" a voice calls out.
Peter opens the door, showing an office similar to the one you just saw, and he steps inside. "Hi Dr. Liang, Dr. Brians told us you might be interested in helping us with a Sparking for a first-time use?"
You roll up to the doorway in time to see a woman blink and then jump up. "Yes! Sure! I've got nothing pressing right now."
…You hadn't thought the other professor was being literal, but apparently he was.
"Everything here can wait an hour or so. Nothing's time-sensitive," she says, moving out of your view and coming back into view with a medium-sized canvas bag that she pulls onto her shoulder.
Peter steps out of the room, and you move back to get out of the way as the professor comes out as well, the door closing behind her.
"This is everyone?" she asks, looking around. "And who's the one we're working with?"
You raise your hand.
"Good! Nice to meet you…"
"Amy," you provide, and she nods.
"Amy. And Miss Sokolov will be our Null?" she asks, and the flame-haired girl nods in confirmation. Dr. Liang looks at Angie. "And you are…?"
"Angharad."
"She's with me," you say and that seems to be enough to satisfy her.
"Alright, let's go," the professor says, starting to move down the hall in the direction you were heading, the group trailing behind her.
"Oh, and Dr. Brians said to ask you to forward him the raws," Peter told her.
She snorted. "Of course he did. I'll send it to him," she says, pushing the call button for the elevator you arrive at, the doors opening immediately.
Everybody else gets in, and then you. The trip takes you down, but only one floor.
The doors open and you pile out, the group following Dr. Liang.
"Um. What is a 'Sparking'?" you ask, thinking about the unfamiliar term you'd heard twice now.
Peter turns to look at you. "So you can probably feel something about your Talent right now, right? Now that you know it's there?" You nod. "But you don't have a great feeling for it, mostly because it's never been stimulated. 'Sparking' is a way of making that easier instead of having to go through tons of meditation and stuff first. You take someone's energy and place a small bit of it inside another person, stimulating their Talent. Because the energy's foreign, you're immediately aware of the difference, and your Talent reacts to it, drawing your attention very strongly and momentarily letting you grasp deeper parts of it. Once you know where it is, it's just a matter of practice and work."
The professor leads you around and down hallways, to the point where you're certain you're not actually under any building anymore. You turn into a hallway that has heavy doors on both sides, and she stops.
"…Let's use the fancy room. No reason not to," she says to nobody. The doorknob blinks green as it recognizes her biometrics, and she opens it smoothly.
Inside is a large, square, white-painted room with a hard grey floor that seems to be lit by the walls themselves. On the far side of the room is another heavy door, and a wide window that shows a booth of some sort.
The professor doesn't hesitate in striding across the room and opening that door. "Everybody who is not Miss Amy, in the booth, please."
Angharad, Peter, and Natalie follow her instructions, Dr. Liang following and then reappearing a few seconds later with a weird metal ring and a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. She holds the clipboard out to you.
"Waiver. For recording the session. You acknowledge and consent that whatever is recorded here may be used in research with a large data pool without identification, and that if your data is used as specific evidence, you must provide further consent for such use and be acknowledged in any reports if you so wish. It's mostly just to make sure that you can't sue us and say that you were unaware of being recorded."
You take the clipboard and give the form a signed identity packet generated from your internal ID, handing it back.
She holds up the ring. "This goes on your head to give us a better sense of what's going on in your brain and the rest of your body when whatever happens, happens. It's rare that it gets damaged, but don't worry, it's replaceable."
She hands the ring over and you study it for a moment before placing it on your head. It tightens as soon as it's in the middle of your forehead, secure.
"Good," she says, looking satisfied, and heads back to the door to the booth.
Dr. Liang's voice sounds through the room, and you can see her speaking in the booth. "Alright Miss Amy, are you ready? What is your current understanding of your Talent?"
"Um. I think I can sort of… move?" you say. "I don't really know. It's weird."
"That's better than nothing. The rooms here are designed to interfere with standard teleportation to outside locations, so don't worry about accidentally leaving if that's your Talent."
You nod.
"Natalie, as our Null, will ensure that anything unusual that appears to be out of control will be stopped as soon as possible. She is able to cancel other Talents, or at least the active portions of them, and has quite a bit of experience acting in such a capacity for events like this.
"Peter, as our telepath, will be giving you a small amount of his energy, which will momentarily increase your awareness of your Talent, and make using it easier. Please try the smallest action you feel is possible, or limit yourself as much as you feel you can," she says, and looks over at Peter. "We'll begin in three… two… one."
You take a deep breath.
You're ready for this.
At first, nothing happens. And then you can feel something reaching out to you, in a way you can't easily describe. It's only there for a second, but suddenly it feels like there's a burning ember in you that catches, igniting a roaring fire that grows rapidly and threatens to engulf you.
Oh. That's why they call it Sparking.
Your focus is drawn inwards, like a moth to a flame, and you can't help but be sucked into what feels like an inferno but also an endlessly deep sea.
For a moment, you have a sense of around you and quiet whispers that aren't, but then it's drowned out, your focus stolen by the thing below you, and the other thing so far away, and you know that you can change their hold. But most importantly, you have a better sense of the movement.
However, you can also remember that the professor wanted the smallest action.
So that's what you do.
You don't move.
You turn.
…It's black.
Not black like the color, but the complete absence of any light.
There's nothing. You can't see anything. Actually now that you think about it, you can't hear anything, either. Or smell anything. Or taste anything. Or touch anything.
Or-or feel anything.
There's nothing. (nothing except not-sounds around you)
There's nothing a-and… how long has it been?
You can't tell.
A few seconds? Or… minutes?
There's nothing but quiet and utter emptiness and… and… it's crushing you, like the weight of everything came down and is squishing you until you have no room.
It's dark.
Too dark. Too quiet. Too nothing.
(nothing but the ever-present symphony and the things beneath and beyond)
It's nothing and you can't deal with this can't handle how can you this is wrong.
It's so wrong it'snothing how whatdoyou whatareyouevenwhysitsosilentsoquietsosoquiet
itscrushingsosmalltoosmallyoucanthowlonghowlongwhywhereareyou
itsnothingwhysonothingyoucantanymoreyoucantcantcantcantcant!
You turn.
You're gasping, heaving, your lungs moving just to move again. Everything's shaking, and you only vaguely recognize that it's you, not the world.
You're done. No more.
Without thought, your hand reaches up to drag the metal sensor ring off your head, the object clattering to the floor.
Somebody's speaking at you. You turn to look at them.
Oh. It's firegirl. Hi firegirl.
You're just going to sit here for a moment.
Yeah.
That sounds like a good idea.
A/N: Do not worry about not having made the right choices. You've done nothing wrong, this isn't a punishment, it's simply the result of Amy being completely unprepared for what her Talent involves. There's no permanent lasting damage or SAN penalty or anything like that. She's just overwhelmed.
Anyways. This was… really difficult to try and portray, so I'd appreciate feedback, beyond the inevitable speculation on the Talent that I know there's going to be, lmao.
But that's also half the fun.
The classrooms —which have the entire outer wall as glass, at least the ones facing outside— that you go past are all dark and empty, locked up even. The first thing you find that's open and has people looks almost like a study room or something, but also a lounge?
Still. People. Progress!
The door's open, and you roll into the room, five of the six people looking up at you.
"Hi," you greet.
"Hello?" one of them returns, one of the guys. All the others go back to their work as soon as he stands up from the table he was behind on the other side of the room to walk towards you. "Are you lost?"
"Nope!"
"Um." He's clearly a little thrown off by you, but you suppose that's a fair reaction. It's probably not everyday they have wheelchair-restricted thirteen year-olds coming to see them. "Is there something I can help you with, then?"
You nod. "Yep!" He gives you a look that says 'Okay, what?' "Soooo basically I need to find out what my Talent is. See, I didn't even know I was like, last week, so I had zero time to prepare and figure things out, right? Which is also why I'm in this, you know," you say, patting the arm of your wheelchair. "But anyways! I still have to pick my classes, but since I don't know what my Talent I can't really do that very well. So I was like 'the university has to have teachers, and the teachers do research and stuff, so they might be able to help me out.' Which is why I'm here."
"And… you expect the professors that are here to have free time and just help you?" he asks incredulously, and… if you're being honest, a little condescendingly.
"Not really, but I figured that even a small chance was worth trying and either way I'd get to see a bunch of cool places, right?"
He takes a breath. "Look. This isn't exactly a place for kids to just run around in, and the high school probably already has some way of dealing with this, and even if it doesn't I'm sure you can wait until classes sta—"
"Jeez, lighten up on the kid Ryan. She was just asking for help, you don't have to be a dick about it." One of the other boys had gotten up from his seat at one of the tables and walked over to you. 'Ryan' practically glares at him. "Why don't you get back to whatever you were doing. I'll take care of this."
He looks like he's about to say something, but then he just closes his mouth, after a moment, he opens it again. "Alright, fine."
The new boy crouches down in front of your wheelchair so that he's at eye-level, showing you hazel eyes a few shades darker than your own. "So you're looking for some help figuring out your Talent, huh?" You nod. "Exciting stuff. Well, I can't promise anything but I can at least take you to see if any of the professors would be up for it."
You grin. "Thanks!"
The boy looks over his shoulder to the couch at the back corner of the room and the person that's sitting there: a girl with flame-colored hair. …Literally flame colored, you can see it glowing and shifting shades like embers as you watch. That's one heck of a mod. "Hey Nat, you want to come along? Might end up seeing something interesting, and we could probably use a Null."
The girl looks over at you from whatever she's doing, revealing irises that match her hair. She shrugs and stands up. "Eh, sure, why not. Not like I've got anything better to do."
The boy in front of you stands up, moving around your chair, and you turn so that you can follow him out the door, Nat right behind you.
"So you two are at the high school huh?" the boy asks, leading your small group. "Oh, I'm Peter, by the way," he says suddenly, turning to look at you. "I'd ask if certain teachers were still there or not, but you guys wouldn't have even met them yet."
"I'm Natalie Sokolov," the girl on your left says. "What's your name?"
"Um, Amy Bailey," you tell her, and she looks at Angharad on your right.
"Angharad Evans," Angie tells her.
She must have caught you eyeing her hair, because she grins. "You like it? I made it myself." What. "Took like six months of dev time, but it was totally worth it."
"You made that?" you say, and if your voice came out higher than you intended you'll never admit it.
"Mmhm. I'm a bio-nanotech engineering major," Natalie says. "And I got soooo much credit for this. A whole semester of self-study."
"And I'm actually a student in this building," Peter says, leading you around a corner into another hallway. "Talent sciences major."
"Yeah well whatever, I hang out here enough I might as well be," she counters.
He just shakes his head, starting to look at all the doors on the left. "Hm. Not here, not here, not good, not his specialty, not here, ah! Maybe Brians?"
Peter knocks on the door.
The man who opens it is young-ish, and clearly recognizes your guide. "Peter! Hey! What's up?"
"Amy here was trying to see if there was anyone who'd be willing to do a Sparking for a new Talent. Maybe even get some really interesting data out of it?" He looks at you, as if asking permission.
You shrug. "Sure?"
The professor looks interested and then visibly frustrated. "Jeez. Ugh. I wish I could. If I didn't have to get this stuff to Marko by twelve I'd go with you in a heartbeat. Um." He looks down, thinking. "Maybe Susan? Check with her. If she's here she'll probably jump on it."
Peter nods. "Alright, thanks. We'll let you get back to work, then," he says, stepping back and turning to go. "See you, Professor Brians!"
"Have a good day!" the man says as you walk away, the door shutting when you're about a meter away.
And then it opens again. "And tell Susan to forward me the raws!"
"Will do!" Peter calls back, and this time when the door closes it doesn't open again.
He leads you further down the hall, past about sixteen doors until you're in front of one covered in vinyl stickers. He knocks on the door.
"It's open!" a voice calls out.
Peter opens the door, showing an office similar to the one you just saw, and he steps inside. "Hi Dr. Liang, Dr. Brians told us you might be interested in helping us with a Sparking for a first-time use?"
You roll up to the doorway in time to see a woman blink and then jump up. "Yes! Sure! I've got nothing pressing right now."
…You hadn't thought the other professor was being literal, but apparently he was.
"Everything here can wait an hour or so. Nothing's time-sensitive," she says, moving out of your view and coming back into view with a medium-sized canvas bag that she pulls onto her shoulder.
Peter steps out of the room, and you move back to get out of the way as the professor comes out as well, the door closing behind her.
"This is everyone?" she asks, looking around. "And who's the one we're working with?"
You raise your hand.
"Good! Nice to meet you…"
"Amy," you provide, and she nods.
"Amy. And Miss Sokolov will be our Null?" she asks, and the flame-haired girl nods in confirmation. Dr. Liang looks at Angie. "And you are…?"
"Angharad."
"She's with me," you say and that seems to be enough to satisfy her.
"Alright, let's go," the professor says, starting to move down the hall in the direction you were heading, the group trailing behind her.
"Oh, and Dr. Brians said to ask you to forward him the raws," Peter told her.
She snorted. "Of course he did. I'll send it to him," she says, pushing the call button for the elevator you arrive at, the doors opening immediately.
Everybody else gets in, and then you. The trip takes you down, but only one floor.
The doors open and you pile out, the group following Dr. Liang.
"Um. What is a 'Sparking'?" you ask, thinking about the unfamiliar term you'd heard twice now.
Peter turns to look at you. "So you can probably feel something about your Talent right now, right? Now that you know it's there?" You nod. "But you don't have a great feeling for it, mostly because it's never been stimulated. 'Sparking' is a way of making that easier instead of having to go through tons of meditation and stuff first. You take someone's energy and place a small bit of it inside another person, stimulating their Talent. Because the energy's foreign, you're immediately aware of the difference, and your Talent reacts to it, drawing your attention very strongly and momentarily letting you grasp deeper parts of it. Once you know where it is, it's just a matter of practice and work."
The professor leads you around and down hallways, to the point where you're certain you're not actually under any building anymore. You turn into a hallway that has heavy doors on both sides, and she stops.
"…Let's use the fancy room. No reason not to," she says to nobody. The doorknob blinks green as it recognizes her biometrics, and she opens it smoothly.
Inside is a large, square, white-painted room with a hard grey floor that seems to be lit by the walls themselves. On the far side of the room is another heavy door, and a wide window that shows a booth of some sort.
The professor doesn't hesitate in striding across the room and opening that door. "Everybody who is not Miss Amy, in the booth, please."
Angharad, Peter, and Natalie follow her instructions, Dr. Liang following and then reappearing a few seconds later with a weird metal ring and a clipboard with a piece of paper on it. She holds the clipboard out to you.
"Waiver. For recording the session. You acknowledge and consent that whatever is recorded here may be used in research with a large data pool without identification, and that if your data is used as specific evidence, you must provide further consent for such use and be acknowledged in any reports if you so wish. It's mostly just to make sure that you can't sue us and say that you were unaware of being recorded."
You take the clipboard and give the form a signed identity packet generated from your internal ID, handing it back.
She holds up the ring. "This goes on your head to give us a better sense of what's going on in your brain and the rest of your body when whatever happens, happens. It's rare that it gets damaged, but don't worry, it's replaceable."
She hands the ring over and you study it for a moment before placing it on your head. It tightens as soon as it's in the middle of your forehead, secure.
"Good," she says, looking satisfied, and heads back to the door to the booth.
Dr. Liang's voice sounds through the room, and you can see her speaking in the booth. "Alright Miss Amy, are you ready? What is your current understanding of your Talent?"
"Um. I think I can sort of… move?" you say. "I don't really know. It's weird."
"That's better than nothing. The rooms here are designed to interfere with standard teleportation to outside locations, so don't worry about accidentally leaving if that's your Talent."
You nod.
"Natalie, as our Null, will ensure that anything unusual that appears to be out of control will be stopped as soon as possible. She is able to cancel other Talents, or at least the active portions of them, and has quite a bit of experience acting in such a capacity for events like this.
"Peter, as our telepath, will be giving you a small amount of his energy, which will momentarily increase your awareness of your Talent, and make using it easier. Please try the smallest action you feel is possible, or limit yourself as much as you feel you can," she says, and looks over at Peter. "We'll begin in three… two… one."
You take a deep breath.
You're ready for this.
At first, nothing happens. And then you can feel something reaching out to you, in a way you can't easily describe. It's only there for a second, but suddenly it feels like there's a burning ember in you that catches, igniting a roaring fire that grows rapidly and threatens to engulf you.
Oh. That's why they call it Sparking.
Your focus is drawn inwards, like a moth to a flame, and you can't help but be sucked into what feels like an inferno but also an endlessly deep sea.
For a moment, you have a sense of around you and quiet whispers that aren't, but then it's drowned out, your focus stolen by the thing below you, and the other thing so far away, and you know that you can change their hold. But most importantly, you have a better sense of the movement.
However, you can also remember that the professor wanted the smallest action.
So that's what you do.
You don't move.
You turn.
…It's black.
Not black like the color, but the complete absence of any light.
There's nothing. You can't see anything. Actually now that you think about it, you can't hear anything, either. Or smell anything. Or taste anything. Or touch anything.
Or-or feel anything.
There's nothing. (nothing except not-sounds around you)
There's nothing a-and… how long has it been?
You can't tell.
A few seconds? Or… minutes?
There's nothing but quiet and utter emptiness and… and… it's crushing you, like the weight of everything came down and is squishing you until you have no room.
It's dark.
Too dark. Too quiet. Too nothing.
(nothing but the ever-present symphony and the things beneath and beyond)
It's nothing and you can't deal with this can't handle how can you this is wrong.
It's so wrong it'snothing how whatdoyou whatareyouevenwhysitsosilentsoquietsosoquiet
itscrushingsosmalltoosmallyoucanthowlonghowlongwhywhereareyou
itsnothingwhysonothingyoucantanymoreyoucantcantcantcantcant!
You turn.
You're gasping, heaving, your lungs moving just to move again. Everything's shaking, and you only vaguely recognize that it's you, not the world.
You're done. No more.
Without thought, your hand reaches up to drag the metal sensor ring off your head, the object clattering to the floor.
Somebody's speaking at you. You turn to look at them.
Oh. It's firegirl. Hi firegirl.
You're just going to sit here for a moment.
Yeah.
That sounds like a good idea.
A/N: Do not worry about not having made the right choices. You've done nothing wrong, this isn't a punishment, it's simply the result of Amy being completely unprepared for what her Talent involves. There's no permanent lasting damage or SAN penalty or anything like that. She's just overwhelmed.
Anyways. This was… really difficult to try and portray, so I'd appreciate feedback, beyond the inevitable speculation on the Talent that I know there's going to be, lmao.
Last edited:
- Location
- PA
OOoooooh kay...
So by the sounds of it our Talent does not take kindly to Sparking.
Probably for the best- I can't help but imagine some unlucky unprepared Teacher just sparking us right in class and then 'THE HORROR!' for everyone and class gets cancelled due to suspected SAN damage.
Oooor maybe something else is what's going on. Hrrm.
So by the sounds of it our Talent does not take kindly to Sparking.
Probably for the best- I can't help but imagine some unlucky unprepared Teacher just sparking us right in class and then 'THE HORROR!' for everyone and class gets cancelled due to suspected SAN damage.
Oooor maybe something else is what's going on. Hrrm.
I have no idea what's happening but it sure is interesting.
Mother Nyx
Mother of Elpis
- Location
- The Kei Klub
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I love how easy make conversations flow and feel real. Guy who comes off pretentious when he isn't trying to be? Real. Guy who obviously has nothing to do and would rather be anywhere else? Real. Awkward social gap between teenagers and college students? Real.
I want to say that the whole talent scene is well portrayed but I do not fee I can honestly say that until I know what the talent is.
I feel like she has some sort of shadow teleportation deal going on, and that she didn't 'move' and just stayed in the shadow is why she had the issue.
I want to say that the whole talent scene is well portrayed but I do not fee I can honestly say that until I know what the talent is.
I feel like she has some sort of shadow teleportation deal going on, and that she didn't 'move' and just stayed in the shadow is why she had the issue.
Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Hah, professors.
That's about what I figured would happen.Hmm. Higher dimensions? Pocket dimension? Not a pocket dimension, we can see gravity:
That'd be Haeld and Haeld's Star. Nice. This is definitely some kind of interstellar-travel power. Gravity and turning means super-Vista?
Poor Amy. Ooops.
At least she has Angie there to help her out? ._. Probably better than the "normal way", honestly, since I'd bet it's unlikely we'd know anyone in the class where they do this the normal way.
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0th Law
The Promethean Rose
- Location
- 5 Minutes into the Future
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Time for Min-Maxing:
- Pseudo-Teleportation
- Time Travel
- Multi-Dimensional Refraction Effect (a la Sasaki Kojiro)
- Planeswalking
Pff you beat me to it while I was still gathering quotes. But I agree.
This is only Vista if you take it to mean the relationship/interaction between gravitational influence, distance, and space curvature, I guess.
That would "explain" the lack of primary-senses understanding/input.
@ensou, I can't help but compare this to Ryouko writ larger, since you set that hook yourself with the very similar vague handwavey power descriptions. (I'm naturally going to assume that and everything here was a bit of a troll, too.)
Also, 「Nothing」, indeed. XD
Edit: how much psuedo-Real Physics (Only add Magical Girl* Ex-Nihilo Energy) can we assume go into this particular breed of spess magic, anyway? It helps to know vaguely what kind of framework we're working in.
(* the male characters so far have felt pretty token/ZOMG-it's-a-magical-boy, not that I'm really complaining, it just makes the joke)
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- Location
- Germany
Overall very nice update.
Amy needs a hug after that because being suddenly being cut of from most of you sense is/can be pretty bad so no surprise that she had an panic attack there.
Now what could her power be ...
If she can make changes to what is most likely the planet / star she might have more gravity / dark matter control ...*
For her overall her overall power she seems to be high up on the scale ...
*the stuff she could do if she has macro scale gravity control or something that has a big effect on gravity ...
Amy needs a hug after that because being suddenly being cut of from most of you sense is/can be pretty bad so no surprise that she had an panic attack there.
Now what could her power be ...
If she can make changes to what is most likely the planet / star she might have more gravity / dark matter control ...*
For her overall her overall power she seems to be high up on the scale ...
*the stuff she could do if she has macro scale gravity control or something that has a big effect on gravity ...
0th Law
The Promethean Rose
- Location
- 5 Minutes into the Future
- Pronouns
- They/Them
So... We decrease the gravity on the entire planet so we don't need a wheelchair? I'm down for that.
- Location
- United States
...Maybe it's removal from reality or something? Like being temporarily outside of the existing world. That would explain the nothingness, I think.
Or maybe something like a weird astral projection thing where the soul is removed from the body, but since all the sensory organs are gone, there's just nothing
Or maybe something like a weird astral projection thing where the soul is removed from the body, but since all the sensory organs are gone, there's just nothing
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Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Maybe it's not actually a different space? The sensory deprivation is weird, she should get something from another space, even if it's vacuum or full of luminiferous aether or something. It could be one of those things where the power stops time and provides a "mental image" of places to travel, which Amy can then choose from?
- Location
- United States
Um, I didn't really mean going to another space or anything. I thought it was something weird like removing oneself from the existing world, such that the universe and all its inherent concepts like "space" and "light" just aren't there. Though that wouldn't really explain the "symphony" thing, unless Amy was transcending the material plane to a higher plane of existence or something.
Also, if a power provides a mental image to make use easier, I want to know who's giving talents GUIs.
- Location
- United States of America
My very first thought about what her power is was that she turned her 'quantum orientation' 90 degrees. I saw an episode of SG-1 where the alien of the week had their 'quantum orientation' at a different angle than the rest of reality, and so they couldn't be seen or dealt with via normal matter or energy.
However, the facets of her power regarding the things "below" and "beyond" and the idea that she can change their hold on her makes me think of gravitational manipulation.
So... I don't know. I guess we will see what the Doc says regarding the raws and what the recording tells us about our power.
However, the facets of her power regarding the things "below" and "beyond" and the idea that she can change their hold on her makes me think of gravitational manipulation.
So... I don't know. I guess we will see what the Doc says regarding the raws and what the recording tells us about our power.
I predict the recording is going to show exactly fuck-all other than our brief absence, unless it itself uses spooky higher-dimensional sensors, because all we did was to twiddle our wibblys and thus remove all our interactions with normal material reality for a moment, and the teleportation inhibitors did nothing to stop it, so everyone will be confused/scared.
Next time we need to carry a helmet camera, so it can record 18 hours of static.
Next time we need to carry a helmet camera, so it can record 18 hours of static.
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Twei
I have a face!
- Location
- the land where they write things
- Pronouns
- They/Them
also, I'd comment on Amy's power, but like, I know way too many spoilers and don't want to unconsciously base my thoughts off of them
Spooky sensory deprivation is indeed spooky, tho.Instead, I'll say that the characters are neat. The guys are neat. Peter's interest in what we want shows through pretty well even before it's revealed that he's literally studying Talents, and I like the detail that he crouches down to be eye level with us.
Natalie sounds pretty cool, with doing her own biotech. Her Talent's interesting- is her Nulling capability her primary power or something she's developed? How exactly does it work, anywho? If someone generates a material, can she destroy it? (Are there people who generate materials?) Can she force a shapeshifter into their base form, or can she only stop them from shifting? Basically, can she actually undo things Talents do, or can she only prevent further doing of said things? ("Good at canceling active portions of Talents" might imply the latter, to be fair.)
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Takareer
Words and feathers
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
Aaaaahhh this is the best chapter! We did networking with profs and university students, that will doubtless come in handy. We've discovered that we have an affinity for Xen-style teleportation/dimensional transit, which is inherently awesome (I was afraid we'd get a lame normal power). Tasty tasty chapter.
As long as it doesn't involve her punching something, I'm good.
- Location
- Ural, Russia, Earth
Good news, your Talent is definitely not weak! It's driving you crazy quite powerfully.
Bad news, a Talent to drive yourself crazy can be considered just a little dumb?
Gravity or space manipulation, probably.
Mentions of not-sounds and things beneath and beyond made me think about Eldritch beings and String Theory (they are the same for me).
ensou
Magical G̶i̶r̶l̶ Servant Mordred-chan
- Location
- NEW YORK CITY!??
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I've done a lot of research for this story, let's put it that way.
As a hint, my favorite scifi authors are stuff like McCafferey and Greg Egan.
Oh jesus, I only pretended to read Orthogonal for a couple chapters after having a Scanners moment after finding the Riemannian physics manual for it. I am now intimidated.
Intimidated and intrigued as all hell. Blast it woman, I can only be so impatient.
(As an aside, Greg Egan doesn't do signings, doesn't go to conventions, and there are no photographs of him online. Until proven otherwise, I maintain that he's actually a Culture Mind with a hobby.)
Intimidated and intrigued as all hell. Blast it woman, I can only be so impatient.
(As an aside, Greg Egan doesn't do signings, doesn't go to conventions, and there are no photographs of him online. Until proven otherwise, I maintain that he's actually a Culture Mind with a hobby.)
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