Overshadowed[Young Wizards/Worm]
- Thread starter CaesriusPolybius
- Start date
[X]One
Maybe starting from a different perspective or with an exposition-ary montage?
Maybe starting from a different perspective or with an exposition-ary montage?
[x] one
[X]One
(0.5) The Gates are at it Again... (Start of Take II)
CaesriusPolybius
Worldgate Mechanic
- Location
- United States. Ish.
Over their time as worldgate technicians, the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team had learned that, no matter what one tried, the 'gates would still do as they wanted from time to time, and one just had to work around it.
The majority of the Grand Central Terminal gates (and the few intercontinual gates housed in Penn Station) had been acting strangely of late. Thankfully, it was seemingly restricted to the Manhattan gates, so anything on a larger than interstellar scale could be redirected to one of the few other intercontinual gates on Earth while the Manhattan teams ran a series of diagnostics and quick fixes on each gate in sequence(So far, they hadn't gotten anything truly informative yet; just something about a propagating barrier).
Thus, when (on the sixth consecutive hour of work) the monitoring spell linked to the Grand Central worldgates whispered in his ear of a requested incoming transit to one of the yet-unchecked gates and requested resolution, Urruah (the 'emergency handler' for the hour) grumbled, yet made haste towards the aforementioned gate.
When he got there, he saw the hyperstrings associated with the restriction spell pulled taut, and ran a quick diagnostic, to check if it was safe for use. Though the other gate gave only the bare minimum required to ascertain if it was safe to receive from, it was enough to permit the transit(though the spatial coordinates were unfamiliar, and the data provided for 'time' was a bit odd - the format was correct, as (due to the ease with which one could work wizardries with it) most Sol III wizards used the ehhif Julian Date system - but it was [Vote: JULIAN DATE], which was a significantly different one from the one that was Whispered to him, 2455730.47435- at a glance, he'd say the date the other gate was providing was about half a local year behind. A switch to the absurdly long Multiplanar Absolute Time gave the same result as he got with a local query, though).
Urruah ran a secondary check on the gate, and got the same results back with the MAT matching. With a flick of his tail and an inclination of his head, he pulled on the 'strings that would temporarily release the restriction spell with an extended claw.
And through the 'gate stepped Carl Romeo, one of the local Advisories.
He should've gotten redirected to one of the European gates that was cleared for intercontinual use.
Urruah wasn't quite aware of what was going on, but he had a feeling that someone would have a headache at the end of it.
CHARACTER SELECT:
[ ] Rhiow: Feline worldgate mechanic for the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team, Rhiow is a ffeih(Approx.-Neutered) with a decent amount of practice behind her. She is older, and thus less powerful, but her experience means that her wizardries will be more elegant. Being feline, she can become invisible at will. She also has more experience manipulating the 'strings' of the universe. She is on her fifth life of nine.
[ ] Arhu: Feline worldgate mechanic for the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team, Arhu is a tom with a mild Oracular talent. Being feline, he can become invisible at will, and is young, making him stronger. However, felines are, in general, less powerful than humans in any case. He is on his first life of nine.
[ ] Christopher 'Kit' Kellen Rodriguez: Wizard with a technology specialty, you can hear the voice of anything more advanced than a drinking straw easily. You can hear other things as well, but that is more difficult. You are talented with translocation spells, being able to do so silently with little air displacement, and are part of a regular wargame group with other wizards, granting you increased tactical acuity and speed of spell application.
[ ] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
What Julian Date did the other gate return?
[ ] 2455543.474356 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455568.474356 (01/06/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455582.474356 (01/20/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455610.474356 (02/17/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455656.474356 (04/04/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455690.474356 (05/08/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
AN:
Welp. I'd have just fixed what I needed to and moved on with the same entry point and chosen character(since other changes, background and otherwise, aren't really going to start until you enter the Wormverse), except that one of the things that I regretted was not having the cats at least be a choice for viewpoint, and another was the lack of non-vital entry points into the Wormverse. You were going to get an oracular fever dream, but that didn't come out all that well, so instead you get wizardbabble. Next update will be up to the first bit on Bet.
EDIT: Shuffled date choices to bottom of post, inserted [Vote: JULIAN DATE] where the choices used to be.
EDIT II: Fixed the Julian Dates- GC December 12. 2010 is no longer JD February 17th, 2010
EDIT III: Fixed timing to agree with Games Wizards Play.
The majority of the Grand Central Terminal gates (and the few intercontinual gates housed in Penn Station) had been acting strangely of late. Thankfully, it was seemingly restricted to the Manhattan gates, so anything on a larger than interstellar scale could be redirected to one of the few other intercontinual gates on Earth while the Manhattan teams ran a series of diagnostics and quick fixes on each gate in sequence(So far, they hadn't gotten anything truly informative yet; just something about a propagating barrier).
Thus, when (on the sixth consecutive hour of work) the monitoring spell linked to the Grand Central worldgates whispered in his ear of a requested incoming transit to one of the yet-unchecked gates and requested resolution, Urruah (the 'emergency handler' for the hour) grumbled, yet made haste towards the aforementioned gate.
When he got there, he saw the hyperstrings associated with the restriction spell pulled taut, and ran a quick diagnostic, to check if it was safe for use. Though the other gate gave only the bare minimum required to ascertain if it was safe to receive from, it was enough to permit the transit(though the spatial coordinates were unfamiliar, and the data provided for 'time' was a bit odd - the format was correct, as (due to the ease with which one could work wizardries with it) most Sol III wizards used the ehhif Julian Date system - but it was [Vote: JULIAN DATE], which was a significantly different one from the one that was Whispered to him, 2455730.47435- at a glance, he'd say the date the other gate was providing was about half a local year behind. A switch to the absurdly long Multiplanar Absolute Time gave the same result as he got with a local query, though).
Urruah ran a secondary check on the gate, and got the same results back with the MAT matching. With a flick of his tail and an inclination of his head, he pulled on the 'strings that would temporarily release the restriction spell with an extended claw.
And through the 'gate stepped Carl Romeo, one of the local Advisories.
He should've gotten redirected to one of the European gates that was cleared for intercontinual use.
Urruah wasn't quite aware of what was going on, but he had a feeling that someone would have a headache at the end of it.
CHARACTER SELECT:
[ ] Rhiow: Feline worldgate mechanic for the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team, Rhiow is a ffeih(Approx.-Neutered) with a decent amount of practice behind her. She is older, and thus less powerful, but her experience means that her wizardries will be more elegant. Being feline, she can become invisible at will. She also has more experience manipulating the 'strings' of the universe. She is on her fifth life of nine.
[ ] Arhu: Feline worldgate mechanic for the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team, Arhu is a tom with a mild Oracular talent. Being feline, he can become invisible at will, and is young, making him stronger. However, felines are, in general, less powerful than humans in any case. He is on his first life of nine.
[ ] Christopher 'Kit' Kellen Rodriguez: Wizard with a technology specialty, you can hear the voice of anything more advanced than a drinking straw easily. You can hear other things as well, but that is more difficult. You are talented with translocation spells, being able to do so silently with little air displacement, and are part of a regular wargame group with other wizards, granting you increased tactical acuity and speed of spell application.
[ ] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
What Julian Date did the other gate return?
[ ] 2455543.474356 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455568.474356 (01/06/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455582.474356 (01/20/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455610.474356 (02/17/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455656.474356 (04/04/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[ ] 2455690.474356 (05/08/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
AN:
Welp. I'd have just fixed what I needed to and moved on with the same entry point and chosen character(since other changes, background and otherwise, aren't really going to start until you enter the Wormverse), except that one of the things that I regretted was not having the cats at least be a choice for viewpoint, and another was the lack of non-vital entry points into the Wormverse. You were going to get an oracular fever dream, but that didn't come out all that well, so instead you get wizardbabble. Next update will be up to the first bit on Bet.
EDIT: Shuffled date choices to bottom of post, inserted [Vote: JULIAN DATE] where the choices used to be.
EDIT II: Fixed the Julian Dates- GC December 12. 2010 is no longer JD February 17th, 2010
EDIT III: Fixed timing to agree with Games Wizards Play.
Last edited:
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
[X] Arhu
EDIT: Julian date added.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
EDIT: Julian date added.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
Last edited:
CaesriusPolybius
Worldgate Mechanic
- Location
- United States. Ish.
Threadmarks fixed, relevant general info and character info redacted. Also edited the post to put the Julian Date vote in a more noticeable spot.
Last edited:
[X] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
[X] 2455568.18269 (01/06/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455568.18269 (01/06/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
- Location
- United States
[X] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
Assembler
Rocking the life
[X] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
[X] 2455656.18269 (04/04/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455656.18269 (04/04/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
So how do you think the Entities are going to react when they learn about Timeheart? Because you have to figure that learning that there's already a universe where entropy doesn't exist and everyone's invited is going to make them absolutely livid that no one told them already. Probably the Lone Power's fault, their decision to parasitize the creativity of other species sounds a lot like the Choice that he offers nascent civilizations.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
So how do you think the Entities are going to react when they learn about Timeheart? Because you have to figure that learning that there's already a universe where entropy doesn't exist and everyone's invited is going to make them absolutely livid that no one told them already. Probably the Lone Power's fault, their decision to parasitize the creativity of other species sounds a lot like the Choice that he offers nascent civilizations.
- Location
- Italy
[X] Christopher 'Kit' Kellen Rodriguez: Wizard with a technology specialty, you can hear the voice of anything more advanced than a drinking straw easily. You can hear other things as well, but that is more difficult. You are talented with translocation spells, being able to do so silently with little air displacement, and are part of a regular wargame group with other wizards, granting you increased tactical acuity and speed of spell application.
[X] 2455656.18269 (04/04/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455656.18269 (04/04/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] Juanita 'Nita' Louise Callahan: Wizard with a tetchy oracular specialty, you will sometimes receive prophetic dreams; in the tradition of such, they are as vague as they possibly can be while still giving you their intended message. You once thought your specialty was plants, but that slowly lessened, though you still have some talent working with them. You have experience in working with Kernels, and a spell matrix(in the form of a charm bracelet) that can hold pre-prepared wizardries, though each one is taxing on you to maintain. You also have the peridexis of Wizardry living in your head(you call it Bobo). It can create wizardries for you, but you prefer to build them yourself. Also, you can turn into a whale.
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455245.18269 (12/12/2010, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] Rhiow: Feline worldgate mechanic for the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team, Rhiow is a ffeih(Approx.-Neutered) with a decent amount of practice behind her. She is older, and thus less powerful, but her experience means that her wizardries will be more elegant. Being feline, she can become invisible at will. She also has more experience manipulating the 'strings' of the universe. She is on her fifth life of nine.
[X] 2455568.18269 (01/06/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
[X] 2455568.18269 (01/06/2011, by the ehhif Gregorian calendar)
CaesriusPolybius
Worldgate Mechanic
- Location
- United States. Ish.
Er-hem. Whoops.
Wasn't ready to be posted yet; should be up within sixty minutes.
Wasn't ready to be posted yet; should be up within sixty minutes.
(1) The Transition
CaesriusPolybius
Worldgate Mechanic
- Location
- United States. Ish.
You look down at the paper in front of you, and sigh.
As a Wizard, a lot of your life revolves around wording; whether you're writing a Wizardry, convincing reality to bend just so, or writing an essay for a class, it's something that you get a lot of chances to practice.
And yet, now that you've sat down to write a letter to your Aunt Anne, you can't think of anything to write.
As you tap the paper with your pen, you hear a stray thought in your mind- a thought from Bobo, specifically. Also known as the Peridexic Effect, the spirit of Wizardry(you call it Bobo) had showed up during the Pullulus Crisis to grant those Wizards who still had their Art a power boost; after the Crisis, it had mostly faded, but for some odd reason it had stuck around in your mind. You're not complaining, though; it's rather helpful to have around- it can interface with the Manual, provide needed words in the Speech if you don't know them, check your spells to make sure they'll work properly, and can even cast pre-built spells in a very short amount of time(though you're loath to take advantage of that except in the most dire of situations; practice makes perfect, after all).
You have a new message. It's marked urgent.
Apparently, it could also connect to the Manual's notification service.
Right then, you reply, I'll check on it.
You grasp at the air in front of you for a bit, searching for the tag that you could open your personal claudication with. Upon finding it, you pull downwards, reach in, pull out your Manual, and set the book down on the table beside the paper.
You flip it open to the messenger pages with your left hand, absently doodling on the paper with your right.
You flip to the Précis, and skim over it- and blink in confusion. How, exactly, does overshadowing occur by proxy? Moreover, why is the phrase being applied to a universe, and how does such a thing lapse? Usually speaking, overshadowing applied to people, and were permanent; the idea of an entire universe being overshadowed was terrifying, but the idea of such a thing lapsing was…
Honestly, the whole thing is somewhat confusing. But, it looks like you'll only be needed for eight hours, and for nothing too complex; you see no problem in joining in.
You close the book with your left hand, and stop doodling with your right. You glance over at the paper.
And you drop the pen in surprise.
Though at first glance, it looks like pretty much any other absentmindedly-doodled-on paper(though admittedly, covering a bit too much of the page and with too many sharp angles), your eyes are instantly drawn to several designs, and you notice… something… in them.
A beast, colossal in comparison to its surroundings. Lightning flashes… no, it's more generic. Energy flows around it, shifting and twisting, to fire and movement.
Another one, only slightly smaller. Drawn with elegant curves, yet angular at the same time. Clouds and water swirl about, smashing and crushing.
A third, a thing of feathers. The air shifts, the water ripples, and a… A song? A song swims through it; a most beautiful, horrible song that draws in everything that hears-
[JUANITA CALLAHAN]
You jolt as your [NAME] crosses through your mind, practically shouted by the Peridexis. You shake your head and glance down at the piece of paper again, carefully ignoring the song as it dances about the page; looking at it from a different angle, it's much less elegant than it first appeared, choppy and fragmented.
No matter how much you focus, however, you can't properly see the patterns again. You think you notice around eighteen more angularly curved sections, and one of them, somehow, make you think of both howling and hope, but when you try to focus, the patterns slide out of view. You also notice an oddity; a stylized letter 'C' stuck here and there across the page.
Then something clicks, and becomes obvious behind it all. Something… no. A pair of somethings, tightly coiled around each other, less of a pair than a separated whole; the other parts of the image flowing both from and into the larger image. That part, once seen obscures the rest, and something is made glaringly obvious.
It's unfinished.
You sigh, and send a message, confirming that you would be there. You sit down again, and try to focus-but-not-focus on the paper, and place your pen on the line.
Four days later, you appear near gate 1I9, feeling a bit disgruntled. No matter how much you tried, you couldn't finish the page. As you appear, you notice the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team near the gate, as well as several other people you know; Carl Romeo and Tom Swayle(Senior Wizards for the Long Island area), Ronan(an Irish Wizard who used to be a host for one of the Powers that Be), Filif([/font]ermanhathrhumneits'elhessaiffnth)(a Demisev Wizard who visited a while back on an exchange program), and Kit(your partner). You also see three people there who you don't recognize, but Bobo identifies them before you can check your Manual- Mariah Jackson and Edward Abbot, a pair from Albany, and Jack Cartman, from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Before you can greet Kit, though, Carl begins to address everyone.
"All of you, welcome. Two weeks ago, I was returning from business at the Crossings. Normally, this nothing special; 'gate from there to Grand Central, head home. However, due to a glitch in the gate, I ended up on a different earth. I did not realize this, however, until I was already out of the station, where I saw a flying man crash into another person.
"It was at this point that I actually checked where I was. Upon doing this, I discovered several fascinating and unnerving things. One- The world had no wizards. At all. Two- Despite this, it was similar enough that, even knowing it was different, I still saw no real differences after the flying person. Besides that, the Worldgate I entered the universe through was in the same exact place that it was supposed to be in in our universe, despite the aforementioned lack of wizards. And three- the map function of my Manual initially couldn't decide whether to auto-assign the planet as Aresh-hav, though in the end it refrained from doing so."
Though you're not really surprised that the Manual tried to assign the planet the designator 'lost' (any place with a universe-wide overshadowing, even a lapsed one, was unlikely to be a particularly nice place), you're still somewhat unnerved by it.
"In any case, we called you here to analyze this new world- Well, we called some of you here to do so. Ronan, Kit, Nita, and Filif, you're all here because of your service during the Pullulus Crisis; you have experience working in a fully Aresh-hav situation, and you should be able to return after initial data-gathering and comparison to the situation on Rashah. You are here mainly to examine the situation and ascertain how hazardous it will likely be.
"Rhiow, Arhu, and Urruah, you're here both to watch over and maintain the worldgate from both sides, and because you also resolved a similar situation not too long ago.
"Edward, Jack, and Mariah, you shall be sticking around, and shall be examining the situation to a more in-depth degree."
"For several reasons," Tom continued, "the connection can only be made for a five-minute period every twenty minutes. Furthermore, due to a general lack of stability, it is likely to be unsafe for more than three people to transit through at a time. As such, you will be going through in three sets of three. Ronan, Filifermanhathrhumneits'elhessaiffnth, you will be going first, with Rhiow. The second connection will be Nita, Kit, and Arhu."
"Edward, Jack, and Mariah, you will be going last, when the other gate is secured. Urruah will be on this side, making sure the connection stays stable."
They nod at this.
"The next connection should be able to be made shortly, so if you could prepare for transit?
Ronan nods, and Filif… sort of jingles, and the first three prepare for transit. The 'gate opens, and they hop through the gate. It collapses.
"Next three?"
You move to the gating area, and get ready to enter the gate. As it opens, you feel a slight sense of unease, but you dismiss the feeling and start to jump, to avoid the sharp edges.
As you, Kit, and Arhu jump through the gate, you hear Urruah yowl, "Oh fwau, something's off. Stop! Don't j-"
You appear in a somewhat dark, cold, and snowy alleyway. The gate closes behind you, and you hear Arhu hiss in surprise.
"Where'd it go? It can't do that!"
"Do what?" you ask.
"The gate just disappeared! As soon as it closed, it just vanished. Well," He adds, "not quite vanish. The moorings are still there…?"
As his voice trails off, an added note of confusion and curiosity present, you hear shouting, strange, metallic noises, and gunfire outside of the alley. You glance over at Kit, who nods back, and you let Arhu know that you're going to go see what's going on. He replies with a "Okay, I'm going to stay here and try to figure out what the Worldgate is doing. Well, what it did, anyways...", and you and Kit head carefully towards the sound, chanting quick invisibility spells.
… well, that was the plan, anyways. You both walk about half a foot before being distinctly reminded that you're wearing summer clothing in an area with snow. You both chant quick personal temperature-control spells, followed by quick invisibility spells, and head towards the noise.
What you see is most certainly not what you expected(though admittedly, you're not quite sure what you expected; you just know you don't see it).
The first thing you notice is someone in blue armor - make that blue motorized armor, if the way it's shifting is any indication - swinging a similarly blue, high-tech looking halberd at a humanoid wolf made of writhing metal blades. Similarly, you notice someone in white-and-gold armor and a helmet that, at the very least, was heavily inspired by that of the Spartans thrusting a spear crackling with lightning at one of the people wielding guns.
And there are quite a few people wielding guns- pretty much all of them bald with tattoos on their heads, wearing similar nondescript outfits- hold on. Was that a swastika?!
You glance over at Kit, bewildered, and see a similar look of confusion on his face as he looks at the scene unfolding.
So you have armed seemingly-gang-members and a wolf made of blades fighting someone in Power Armor and a Spartan soldier with a spear made of lightning.
What are you even supposed to do in this type of situation?
[ ](Write-In)
As a Wizard, a lot of your life revolves around wording; whether you're writing a Wizardry, convincing reality to bend just so, or writing an essay for a class, it's something that you get a lot of chances to practice.
And yet, now that you've sat down to write a letter to your Aunt Anne, you can't think of anything to write.
As you tap the paper with your pen, you hear a stray thought in your mind- a thought from Bobo, specifically. Also known as the Peridexic Effect, the spirit of Wizardry(you call it Bobo) had showed up during the Pullulus Crisis to grant those Wizards who still had their Art a power boost; after the Crisis, it had mostly faded, but for some odd reason it had stuck around in your mind. You're not complaining, though; it's rather helpful to have around- it can interface with the Manual, provide needed words in the Speech if you don't know them, check your spells to make sure they'll work properly, and can even cast pre-built spells in a very short amount of time(though you're loath to take advantage of that except in the most dire of situations; practice makes perfect, after all).
You have a new message. It's marked urgent.
Apparently, it could also connect to the Manual's notification service.
Right then, you reply, I'll check on it.
You grasp at the air in front of you for a bit, searching for the tag that you could open your personal claudication with. Upon finding it, you pull downwards, reach in, pull out your Manual, and set the book down on the table beside the paper.
You flip it open to the messenger pages with your left hand, absently doodling on the paper with your right.
You flip to the Précis, and skim over it- and blink in confusion. How, exactly, does overshadowing occur by proxy? Moreover, why is the phrase being applied to a universe, and how does such a thing lapse? Usually speaking, overshadowing applied to people, and were permanent; the idea of an entire universe being overshadowed was terrifying, but the idea of such a thing lapsing was…
Honestly, the whole thing is somewhat confusing. But, it looks like you'll only be needed for eight hours, and for nothing too complex; you see no problem in joining in.
You close the book with your left hand, and stop doodling with your right. You glance over at the paper.
And you drop the pen in surprise.
Though at first glance, it looks like pretty much any other absentmindedly-doodled-on paper(though admittedly, covering a bit too much of the page and with too many sharp angles), your eyes are instantly drawn to several designs, and you notice… something… in them.
A beast, colossal in comparison to its surroundings. Lightning flashes… no, it's more generic. Energy flows around it, shifting and twisting, to fire and movement.
Another one, only slightly smaller. Drawn with elegant curves, yet angular at the same time. Clouds and water swirl about, smashing and crushing.
A third, a thing of feathers. The air shifts, the water ripples, and a… A song? A song swims through it; a most beautiful, horrible song that draws in everything that hears-
[JUANITA CALLAHAN]
You jolt as your [NAME] crosses through your mind, practically shouted by the Peridexis. You shake your head and glance down at the piece of paper again, carefully ignoring the song as it dances about the page; looking at it from a different angle, it's much less elegant than it first appeared, choppy and fragmented.
No matter how much you focus, however, you can't properly see the patterns again. You think you notice around eighteen more angularly curved sections, and one of them, somehow, make you think of both howling and hope, but when you try to focus, the patterns slide out of view. You also notice an oddity; a stylized letter 'C' stuck here and there across the page.
Then something clicks, and becomes obvious behind it all. Something… no. A pair of somethings, tightly coiled around each other, less of a pair than a separated whole; the other parts of the image flowing both from and into the larger image. That part, once seen obscures the rest, and something is made glaringly obvious.
It's unfinished.
You sigh, and send a message, confirming that you would be there. You sit down again, and try to focus-but-not-focus on the paper, and place your pen on the line.
Four days later, you appear near gate 1I9, feeling a bit disgruntled. No matter how much you tried, you couldn't finish the page. As you appear, you notice the Manhattan Primary Worldgate Management Team near the gate, as well as several other people you know; Carl Romeo and Tom Swayle(Senior Wizards for the Long Island area), Ronan(an Irish Wizard who used to be a host for one of the Powers that Be), Filif([/font]ermanhathrhumneits'elhessaiffnth)(a Demisev Wizard who visited a while back on an exchange program), and Kit(your partner). You also see three people there who you don't recognize, but Bobo identifies them before you can check your Manual- Mariah Jackson and Edward Abbot, a pair from Albany, and Jack Cartman, from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Before you can greet Kit, though, Carl begins to address everyone.
"All of you, welcome. Two weeks ago, I was returning from business at the Crossings. Normally, this nothing special; 'gate from there to Grand Central, head home. However, due to a glitch in the gate, I ended up on a different earth. I did not realize this, however, until I was already out of the station, where I saw a flying man crash into another person.
"It was at this point that I actually checked where I was. Upon doing this, I discovered several fascinating and unnerving things. One- The world had no wizards. At all. Two- Despite this, it was similar enough that, even knowing it was different, I still saw no real differences after the flying person. Besides that, the Worldgate I entered the universe through was in the same exact place that it was supposed to be in in our universe, despite the aforementioned lack of wizards. And three- the map function of my Manual initially couldn't decide whether to auto-assign the planet as Aresh-hav, though in the end it refrained from doing so."
Though you're not really surprised that the Manual tried to assign the planet the designator 'lost' (any place with a universe-wide overshadowing, even a lapsed one, was unlikely to be a particularly nice place), you're still somewhat unnerved by it.
"In any case, we called you here to analyze this new world- Well, we called some of you here to do so. Ronan, Kit, Nita, and Filif, you're all here because of your service during the Pullulus Crisis; you have experience working in a fully Aresh-hav situation, and you should be able to return after initial data-gathering and comparison to the situation on Rashah. You are here mainly to examine the situation and ascertain how hazardous it will likely be.
"Rhiow, Arhu, and Urruah, you're here both to watch over and maintain the worldgate from both sides, and because you also resolved a similar situation not too long ago.
"Edward, Jack, and Mariah, you shall be sticking around, and shall be examining the situation to a more in-depth degree."
"For several reasons," Tom continued, "the connection can only be made for a five-minute period every twenty minutes. Furthermore, due to a general lack of stability, it is likely to be unsafe for more than three people to transit through at a time. As such, you will be going through in three sets of three. Ronan, Filifermanhathrhumneits'elhessaiffnth, you will be going first, with Rhiow. The second connection will be Nita, Kit, and Arhu."
"Edward, Jack, and Mariah, you will be going last, when the other gate is secured. Urruah will be on this side, making sure the connection stays stable."
They nod at this.
"The next connection should be able to be made shortly, so if you could prepare for transit?
Ronan nods, and Filif… sort of jingles, and the first three prepare for transit. The 'gate opens, and they hop through the gate. It collapses.
"Next three?"
You move to the gating area, and get ready to enter the gate. As it opens, you feel a slight sense of unease, but you dismiss the feeling and start to jump, to avoid the sharp edges.
As you, Kit, and Arhu jump through the gate, you hear Urruah yowl, "Oh fwau, something's off. Stop! Don't j-"
You appear in a somewhat dark, cold, and snowy alleyway. The gate closes behind you, and you hear Arhu hiss in surprise.
"Where'd it go? It can't do that!"
"Do what?" you ask.
"The gate just disappeared! As soon as it closed, it just vanished. Well," He adds, "not quite vanish. The moorings are still there…?"
As his voice trails off, an added note of confusion and curiosity present, you hear shouting, strange, metallic noises, and gunfire outside of the alley. You glance over at Kit, who nods back, and you let Arhu know that you're going to go see what's going on. He replies with a "Okay, I'm going to stay here and try to figure out what the Worldgate is doing. Well, what it did, anyways...", and you and Kit head carefully towards the sound, chanting quick invisibility spells.
… well, that was the plan, anyways. You both walk about half a foot before being distinctly reminded that you're wearing summer clothing in an area with snow. You both chant quick personal temperature-control spells, followed by quick invisibility spells, and head towards the noise.
What you see is most certainly not what you expected(though admittedly, you're not quite sure what you expected; you just know you don't see it).
The first thing you notice is someone in blue armor - make that blue motorized armor, if the way it's shifting is any indication - swinging a similarly blue, high-tech looking halberd at a humanoid wolf made of writhing metal blades. Similarly, you notice someone in white-and-gold armor and a helmet that, at the very least, was heavily inspired by that of the Spartans thrusting a spear crackling with lightning at one of the people wielding guns.
And there are quite a few people wielding guns- pretty much all of them bald with tattoos on their heads, wearing similar nondescript outfits- hold on. Was that a swastika?!
You glance over at Kit, bewildered, and see a similar look of confusion on his face as he looks at the scene unfolding.
So you have armed seemingly-gang-members and a wolf made of blades fighting someone in Power Armor and a Spartan soldier with a spear made of lightning.
What are you even supposed to do in this type of situation?
[ ](Write-In)
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[ ](Write-In)
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
[X](Write-In)
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Assembler
Rocking the life
[X](Write-In)
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
[X](Write-In)
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
[X](Write-In)
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
- Location
- Italy
[X](Write-In)
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
Stay in stealth and observe. We frankly don't know enough about this situation to know if we even could do anything, let alone whether we should. Kit should use his affinity for machinery to analyze the blue guy's armor, give us a sense of what he's capable of. Check out the Spartan's lightning spear and that bladewolf, too, they don't have any obvious technological bits about them but if this world is lacking magic they have to be powered somehow. While he's figuring out their technical capabilities, we'll watch the fighting itself to see if we can figure out anything about the personalities of the people involved (just because one side is Swastika-wearing skinheads doesn't mean the other is the good guys) and be on guard to cast defensive spells if the fighting gets too close to us. Focus on protection and disorientation of enemies, but if need be break out the lethal force.
CaesriusPolybius
Worldgate Mechanic
- Location
- United States. Ish.
Character info posted- It's pretty much the same thing as last time, but still handy to have as a reference.
Or not; I don't rightly know. Still, I have the reserved post, so I might as well use it.
Also, a note: while several things about how I'm handling wizardry changed, the intrinsic link to the Oath did not- should you consciously deny the Oath you swore, your Art will leave you, for "Wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart."
In any case, closing the vote in ~3 hours.
Or not; I don't rightly know. Still, I have the reserved post, so I might as well use it.
Also, a note: while several things about how I'm handling wizardry changed, the intrinsic link to the Oath did not- should you consciously deny the Oath you swore, your Art will leave you, for "Wizardry does not live in the unwilling heart."
In any case, closing the vote in ~3 hours.