Thaumaturgy Restarted: Second time's a charm

[Aliya]

Hello. This is a reset of my previous quest. I concluded that story as written was pretty bad and would be pretty bad, so I decided to restart the whole thing. Also, this time I will be doing it only on one site, cause convenience. Second time's a charm, right?


This story begins on a sunny summer morning, in a town that people would usually describe as sleepy. Not surprising: its morning of a weekend, of course the town is sleepy, what isn't? Truly, only coffee infused workaholics, for whom the job may call even on the days off, and healthy living early birds, who do it for… urgh… just cause, would be a part of that particular club. Unfortunately for our heroine, her father is in the both camps simultaneously. This heroine is you, by the way.
- Don't spend the rest of the day as a shut in who hates society, ya hear me?! - your father shouts jovially, standing near the car of his coworker. Some kind of Audi, you think. Black colored, the probably best color a car can have in a non-muddy environment.
- Yeah, I most definitely won't do the thing I wanted to do for the most of my third year in uni. Absolute guarantee. - you say in response, trying not to yawn and failing, mostly because you aren't actually trying to do that at all. You didn't choose the life of a sleepy undergrad, life of a sleepy undergrad chose you!.. Well, that's a lie. You enjoy your time at university. But you will not budge on on the fact that whoever makes the syllabus for your group is blatantly a robot who isn't aware of the sleep cycles.

Your father just laughs in response, waving you goodbye, as he sits in the car and his co-worker drives off without a word. You wave him goodbye to, before closing the door behind you. Now, the day is fully under your control. You can do literally whatever. So, first thing first, you return to your room on the second floor, to catch some sleep. Unfortunately, your body appears to be in disagreement. No matter how hard you try, you just can't fall asleep! Which is supremely annoying. But you can't do anything about it. So you sigh and get up. Its 8 o'clock and it is time to begin your day.

Your name is Vanessa Fatum and you are a young adult, who has so far survived 20 years in this world. You posses a variety of hobbies and interests. You are someone who can be described as a bit of a nerd, being the type of person who actually enjoys doing math. Or, at the very least, certain type of math. Particularly, you enjoy the matrices related stuff.

Another thing you enjoy is various video games. You especially like the games that play with the meta, the true nature of video games as an escapism from a psychological perspective and a literal program on your computer from a physical point of view. Unfortunately, most of this games tend to be on the more pretentious side, that take themselves way too seriously. The ones that don't are forever stuck in your head and heart.

When it comes to literature, you enjoy various stories of eldritch variety. Most people immediately assume horror when you mention that, but that is not the only thing you enjoy, although a good cosmic horror is something you quite enjoy, you just generally enjoy weird, eldritch, mind screwy shit. The more bizarre thing get, the merrier. As a result, you gained appreciation of various works, such as obscure wikis and webserials to classical shonens and mahou shoujo.

When it comes to music, you really don't have any sort of refined taste, preferring a nice sounding music above any sort of genre differentiation or band loyalty. You don't care if you enjoyed a song in the same genre by the same band, if something causes you a headache, it goes down the drain. As a result, you gained a guilty pleasure in the form of vaporwave genre, that somehow managed to just… click with you, in a way very little else in music sphere did. No one will ever be allowed to ever know about this.

So, what is your plan for today? What day is it even now? You look at the calendar. It's 15th of July. You should be free… Oh shit, you forgot. You were supposed to prepare some things for your most major hobby: the podcast you are part of.

It was an idea proposed by one of your then new friends over the lunch break during the first year of uni. You thought that it would be a hilarious trainwreck, but joined, thinking that no harm can be done by attempting it. Surprisingly, it turned not half-bad. Elena had a strange ability to always maneuver a conversation, no matter how offtopic, right back on track and she could rope anyone she personally knew into the podcast. Originally, there were four in the group: you, Elena, Elena's best frienemy and quite possibly a real live anime rival Fareeha and a quite dude by the name Robert, who pretend to be the straight man. It turned out to be pretty fun, with Elena and Fareeha managing the direction of the discussion, always trying to limit the offtopicness of discussions, and you and Bob payed as the rebels and skeptics, who led the conversation astray for mostly humorous purposes. Over time, you got more people on the podcast. Currently, the usual crew consists of 6 people, but if you count all of your uni friends, friends of friends and shared acquaintances, there are twelve people participating in the podcast on any consistent basis.

Today is the anniversary episode with all twelve people being on the show at once… And you forgot to prepare anything for it. Heck. A good word to describe it. Its a combination of words "hell" and "fuck", after all. Okay, you are overreacting over nothing. Deep breaths. The show will start 10 hours from now, you have plenty of time to prepare. Now, you just need to decide on the topic. What shall it be?

[] You can always talk about science news. You don't really have an insider information, despite your father being a DoD's researcher, but he has taught you well when it came to the skill of differentiating bullshit from truth. So you should be able to bring truly interesting and major scientific news from areas where you possess certain degrees of expertise. Unfortunately, even though most of your friends will probably like it, it will attract only niche audience. {Bonus to science related skills you possess. Might learn something interesting}

[] You can always talk about video games you have played. Unfortunately, you only played one fairly interesting, but also most definitely not fresh, horrorish game with interesting things happening on the meta level, with all other games you have played being just your run of the mill rougelikes time wasters. It is not the most exciting of materials. But, well, maybe you don't really need something exciting, merely things that keep up conversation. Everyone, both audience and your co-hosts, will enjoy this. {Chance of mildly strengthening your bonds with people.}

[] You can always talk about your favourite horror author. Even though he had some rather questionable views, both his fantastical and historical stories still hold up to this day, in your opinion. Given rather mysterious circumstances surrounding his death, this topic will most definitely provide a good topic for discussion.. Most definitely a rather controversial topic, even amongst your friends, but one you have the most competence in. {Bonus to Eldritch Lore skill. Chance of mildly weakening your bonds with certain people.}

[] You could probably talk about music No. Not with a possibility of accidentally spilling your secret love for vaporwave. You can't risk it. But you did listen to some real good albums recently. Everyone loves music. Heck, you might learn something new, since some of your co-hosts are melomaniacs. Perhaps… Perhaps you should risk it, even at the cost of accidentally spilling out your forbidden love. {Bonus to Music Lore and Music Theory skills. Chance of mildly strengthening your bonds with certain people. Chance of mildly weakening your bonds with certain people. Chance of revealing your like of vaporwave.}

[] You can talk about… All of it, really. But, well, you will be less prepared, which might leave a bad impression on some people. Fareeha already thinks that you are not taking this project seriously. {Chance to get all of the bonuses. If you fail, guaranteed weakening of your bonds with certain people.}

[] Perhaps some other topic will have to suffice? You do have 10 hours for research, after all. You really don't have anything else to do, really. {Write-in option. Bonuses depend on the write-in.}

 

[Aliya]

There are several mechanics that are important to this quest. Some of them is Basic HP MP stuff, some is more in depth, like skills, traits and such, and the actual semi-unique part - the spellmaking.

So, let's start with the

Spoiler: Basics

Health represents your body and it's condition. The lower your Health, in shitier condition you are. At 75% of Health, you get -10 deduction to all rolls, at 50% - -20 deduction, and at 25% - -30 deduction. At 0% you proceed to die, unless specified otherwise due to other shenanigans.

Soul represents your soul energy. You can spend Soul to cast spells. Unlike Health, you can go below 0 Soul, but it will cost you. For the positive numbers of Soul represent the "fat" of it - things you can burn away safely. Going negative, however… At -25% you get a deduction of -10 to all your rolls. At -50%, the deduction increases to -20. At 75% - the size of deduction reaches -30. At -100%, you die! Horrifically, since you literally burn out your soul.

Mind represents the state of your mind. While the Soul is all the primordial magical shit that makes up you, Mind is the psyche. It follows the same rules as Health, but when you reach 0 Mind, your body don't die. Your personality does die, though. Well, technically, whoever you are playing as personality dies. There is an obvious difference.

Both Health and Mind can be converted into Soul using certain spells/skills. Use them at your own risk.

Soul is the easiest to recover. A good night of rest and you can restore 100% of it.

Health is harder. It requires what it would logically require: medical attention of various calibers for big losses, pretty much nothing beyond a day or two of recovery for minor things. Try not to lose it.

Mind is the hardest to recover, requiring taking very long time to restore in significant amounts. To be fair, it is also the hardest to lose. But do not tempt fate - it always has incomprehensible stuff to throw at you.

Losing a lot of Mind and/or Health can cause wounds. Wounds are permanent debuffs that will stay there until dealt with.

The other basic thing that is important is the relationship tab. It's somewhat vague in it's descriptions, but it gives you a quick rundown of how Vanessa feels about various people and how she thinks various people feel about her.

There is also equipment. It provides various effects depending on the equipment.

All rolls outside of combat performed by 1d100 against the roll of 50. Various modifiers make it harder or easier depending on what you want to do.

Now that we're done with the basic, let's look at our

Spoiler: Skills and Abilities

Skills are, well, skills. They provide modifications for rolls and, in some cases, without possessing certain skills, its outright impossible to do something. They are structured this way:

1)0/10: you don't know jack, -30 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

2)1/10: you have knowledge equivalent to reading a few pop-sci books, -20 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

3)2/10: you have studied this skill in a semi-serious matter, but haven't finished your education yet, -10 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

3)3/10: you possess knowledge of the basics of the skill, no modifier;

4)4/10: you know the equivalent of high school level of this skill, +5 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

5)5/10: you know the equivalent of undergrad student level of this skill, +10 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

6)6/10: you know the equivalent of postgraduate student level of this skill, +15 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

7)7/10: you are an average professional in this skill, +20 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

8)8/10: you are a famous and accomplished professional in this skill, +25 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

9)9/10: you are worldwide famous for this skill, +30 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

10)10/10: you are quite possibly the best when it comes to this skill, very few can match your level, +35 modifier to rolls related to this skill;

There are some exceptions, but those will be explained when you encounter them.

In order to advance the skill, you need to spend Story Points. You can get story points by studying the relevant skill (in that case, you immediately spend them on the relevant skill), as a reward for doing something in the story or as a result of various creative contribution like omakes and fan-art. To get 1st level of skill, you need to get 100 SP. To get 2nd level of skill, you need 200 SP. You get the idea.

Abilities are things inherent to your being. Not everyone possess abilities beyond that of normal human of this world. They usually happen due to some meddling with biology or soul. Sometimes they are hereditary. Sometimes they are not.

Abilities use the same scaling as skills, but are twice as hard to level. But they are usually applied to a large number of important things, so I would recommend not sleeping on them. Sometimes certain skills and abilities can evolve into new ones. Especially abilities. Look out for that.

Now that this is done with, let's look at something more interesting. Let's look at

Spoiler: Classes, Aspects and Spellcrafting

Classes and Aspects are a part of your being. Your inclinations and nature. Also, they are what you make spells with. Aspect define effect and classes the expression.

There are 12 Classes and 12 Aspects.

Classes:

Manipulator - manipulates their aspect or manipulates through their aspect.

Changer - changes their aspect or changes through their aspect.

Foreseer - foresees their aspect or foresees through their aspect.

Knower - knows their aspect or knows through their aspect.

Destroyer - destroys their aspect or destroys through their aspect.

Saboteur - sabotages their aspect or sabotages through their aspect.

Creator - creates their aspect or creates through their aspect.

Healer - heals their aspect or heals through their aspect.

Cultivator - cultivates their aspect or cultivates through their aspect.

Refiner - refines their aspect or refines through their aspect.

Stealer - steals their aspect or steals through their aspect.

Relocater - relocates their aspect or relocates through their aspect.

Aspects:

Time - aspect of time and destruction. In spells, Time represent literal time effects, but also destruction and erosion in their purest form. In order to gain Time AP, you need to act decisively, think quick, and succeed against all odds.

Space - aspect of space and creation. In spells, Space represents literal space effects, but also creation and renewal in their purest form. In order to gain Space AP, you need to plan wait, plan patiently, until a perfect moment to act occurs.

Light - aspect of fortune and knowledge. In spells, Light represents literal elementary particles, but also good fortune and relevant knowledge in their purest forum. In order to gain Light AP, you need to seek new knowledge and loot, relying on both your smarts, your luck and your cheats to succeed.

Void - aspect of lack and secrets. In spells, Void represents literal low energy physics, but also lack and background lore. In order to gain Time AP, you need to stay secretive, working in the background, on something seemingly niche and unimportant, only for it to turn out to be the most important thing.

This four aspects are fundamental. That will be important.

Blood - aspect of bonds and unity. In spells, Blood represents literal liquids, but also bonds and responsibilities. In order to gain Blood AP, you need to act as a unifying force among your friends, leading by the way of good advice and plans.

Breath - aspect of freedom and leadership. In spells, Breath represents literal gases, but also freedom and leadership. In order to gain Breath AP, you need to lead your friends by example, always being a good friend to them no matter what.

Rage - aspect of fury and truth. In spells, Rage represents literal negative emotions, but also truth and groundedness. In order to gain Rage AP, you need to be a skeptic, who is grounded in reality and points out real world problems and limitations first, not willing to lie under any circumstances. Can also be used to control solids.

Hope - aspect of justice and dreams. In spells, Hope represents literal positive emotions, but also hopes, dreams and justice. In order to gain Hope AP, you need to the dreamer, willing to protect what's right and uphold justice. Can also be used to control fire and plasma.

Life - aspect of altruism and progress. In spells, Life represents literal biological processes and organisms, but also optimism and healing. In order to gain Life AP, you need to act selflessly towards other, willing to help hem even when they don't want your help.

Doom - aspect of empathy and fatalism. In spells, Doom represents literal death, but also fatalism and wisdom. In order to gain Doom AP, you need to be an wise fatalist, who knows the woes of those with special fate and is always willing to lend a shoulder to cry on.

Heart - aspect of soul and self. In spells, Heart represents literal soul, but also self and emotions. In order to gain Heart AP, you need to recognize importance of emotions and intuition, willing to go with your gut, your sense of self over rational thinking.

Mind - aspect of thoughts and decisions. In spells, Mind represent literal brain functions, but also decision making and rational thinking. In order to gain Mind AP, you need to be careful planner, who values rationality and clarity of thinking over their sense of self and emotions.

You gain AP by performing exceptional actions that follow the archetype of an Aspect. Spell making (and also enchanting), all comes down to this:

AP: determines the effect of spell and strength.

Class: determines the expression of the spell.

Description: self explanatory.

Example.

AP: Light 10.

Class: Creator.

Description: Creates a point of light comparable to flashlight for 10 minutes. Non-focused.

In order to compete a spell, you need to roll against 50 on 1d100. Having more than 3 Aspects will give you a -10 modifier for each additional one. Having more than 40 overall AP will give you -20 modifier, with penalty increasing with each 40. Overly complicated effects might require skill tests, where if you don't have sufficient level of skill, you can't make a spell at all.

The cost of the spell is decided by this formula: SC=AP-(Your roll-50)/10, result is rounded.

 

[Aliya]

Spoiler: Vanessa's stats

Health: 100/100.
Soul: 100/100.
Mind: 108/110.
Class: Knower.
Aspect: Rage.
Time AP: 20.
Space AP: 10.
Light AP: 23.
Void AP: 15.
Mind AP: 20.
Heart AP: 10.
Rage AP (bonus +5 to AP generation): 40.
Hope AP (debuff -5 to AP generation): 5.
Life AP: 10.
Doom AP: 20.
Blood AP: 15.
Breath AP: 15.

Spoiler: Vanessa's skills and abilities

Skills:
Special Relativity: 5/6. 300/600.
General Relativity: 5/10. 300/600.
Quantum Mechanics: 5/10. 300/600.
Mathematics: 5/10. 315/600.
Thaumaturgic theory: 5/10. 335/600.
Programming: 5/10. 315/600.
Biology: 4/10. 200/500.
Psychology: 4/10. 400/500.
History: 4/10. 150/500.
Eldritch Lore: 3/10. 200/400.
Literature Lore: 2/10. 0/300.
Music Theory: 1/10. 50/200.
Music Lore: 1/10. 0/200.
Abilities:
Fitness: 3/10. 105/800.
Empathy: 4/10. 50/1000.
Thaumaturgy: 5/10. 300/1200.
Knower of Rage{LOCKED}: 3/10. 0/800.

 

[Aliya]

Spoiler: Vanessa's Relationships

Terrence Fatum: Unconditional Familial Love. Destroyer of Doom
Elena Novgorodskaya: Friend. Creator of Blood
Fareeha Aamer: Friend. Destroyer of Breath
Robert Thompson: Friendly Acquaintance. Saboteur of Light
Jeanne Bisset: Aggressively Friendly(towards everyone). Manipulator of Heart
Akylbek Aliuly: Friendly Acquaintance. Refiner of Mind
Mila Mayer: Friendly Acquaintance. Changer of Life
Bozhidar Balik: Unknown. Healer of Void
Camila Lopez: Mutual Understanding. Foreseer of Doom
Robin Jones: Friendly Acquaintance. Relocator of Space
Aesop Alexiou: Mutual Respect. Stealer of Time
Kibou Haru: Mild Annoyance(mutual). Cultivator of Hope

 

[Aliya]

[X] You can always talk about science news. You don't really have an insider information, despite your father being a DoD's researcher, but he has taught you well when it came to the skill of differentiating bullsit from truth. So you should be able to bring truly interesting and major scientific news from areas where you possess certain degrees of expertise. Unfortunately, even though most of your friends will probably like it, it will attract only niche audience. {Bonus to science related skills you possess. Might learn something interesting}

You settle on science news. A bit of a niche choice, but, well, a podcast consisting of a bunch undergrads talking about a bunch of bullshit is quite possibly the definition of "niche" content. So this should be more than fine.

You jump back into your now done bed and pick up your laptop from underneath it. It was gifted to you by your dad on the last birthday you had. It's fairly high spec, or at least you think so? You aren't necessary a big computer nerd. You know programming - a necessity for a modern thaumaturgist and scientist - but the hardware stuff never really grabbed you as a thing that is important to learn. Plus, if you turn out to be wrong, you always have more hardware aware friends you can ask for advice. The true benefit of friendship - ability to nag at people and have them help you with no compensation. Truly, the most powerful force in the Universe.

So you proceed to open up your laptop and see the good old theater stage from that old horror game with a jester mask poorly edited in greeting you. You ignore all of the enticing things on your desktop and dive straight into the hive of scum and villainy that is the internet. You look through your favourite sites, opening all that have to do with science news. Which is a surprising amount, actually. Which means that you get some great choices to cover in the podcast. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

{You have 10 hours today before the podcast to do stuff. While you can invest all into studying for podcast, it is not recommended to skip on food or some other stuff. Spend your time wisely. }

[]There are some interesting news in the programming area of studies, specifically the whole neural networks business. Surprisingly, these news are more on the math side. Or, well, that would be surprising for anyone who isn't aware of the nature of the field. You are, though, so you do know that neural networks are just statistics applied to problem solving.
The news themselves consist of articles about improvements in AI and AI related fields. Some of them are fairly in-depth and complex, so it might take quite a while for you to grasp even the basics, but you feel like it might be worth it.
{Roll with Mathematics and Programming against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend 2 hours and gain +10 SP in both skills. Otherwise, spends 2 hours and gain +5 SP in both skills.}

[] On the physics side, there were some cool news too. For one, a few days ago there came out a fairly controversial paper claiming that it can help unify the Standard Model, Modern Thaumaturgy Theory and General Relativity, and, unlike String Theory and other such works, it appears rather falsifiable, although it would probably a decade or two to do it. While most people on the article maintain a fairly neutral position, some have already taken sides on it. Which isn't surprising. People's pet theories are on the line and they are willing to defend them. Since these comments on the article were left by scientists, they are significantly more civil than a good majority of posts on the net, but quite a lot of them come down to the conference that is happening 3 weeks from now.
Other cool news relate to various experiments in the various fundamental fields, such as General Relativity, Modern Thaumaturgy Theory and Quantum Physics. All of them pretty cool, but also complex and hard enough to understand that, for example, a single busy undergrad student couldn't describe them for his own story in a few hundred words. It might take a while to research this all, but knowledge is probably worth it.
{You can take this action several times. For each action taken, roll with General and Special Relativity, Quantum Physics or Thaumaturgic theory against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend an hour and gain +10 SP in skill with which you rolled. Otherwise, spend an hour and gain +5 SP in the skill with which you rolled. Specify with which skill you are rolling in the vote}

[] While you aren't someone with advanced knowledge of biology, you still can give some basic rundown of the news and hope that your friends who study biology pick up. There are some advances in various gene engineering techniques. While none of them are safe or effective enough to be allowed to be used on humans to add permanent changes, even with the help of thaumaturgy, some researchers argue that creating artificial specialized lifeforms can now actually be done in a safe and humane way. You are aware of history of chimeras, filled with tragedies, tragicomedies of errors and outright slasher horror movie plots. Usually best case scenario was that chimera wasn't viable and died in agony. Or it turned out to be brain dead. When it didn't, shit happened. Sometimes that shit happened in a way that was enjoyable in schadenfreude kind of way, but common trait was death. Lot's of death. Quite honestly, only thing that went worse was creation of artificial sentient beings. And quite often not because anything went wrong, but because everything went horrifically right. Intentionally so, in the "crimes against humanity, nature, quite a few eldritch beings and probably all sapient life in the universe" category of intentionally horrific. Like one your professor said, intelligent people would call zombie a monster, but wise people would call a person who raised it one too.
{Roll with Biology and Thaumaturgic theory against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend 2 hours and gain +10 SP in both skills. Otherwise, spends 2 hours and gain +5 SP in both skills.}

[] While you don't possess quite the same level of respect for psychology as for physics or mathematics, but it is a still a very valid area of research that you are sorta interested in as a hobby + requirement of getting a teacher permit your uni had set for a mysterious and incomprehensible reason. There a few interesting studies i the effect of various work environments on people, a really long term study on the effects on mental health of equally long term "soul starvation", where you constantly spend just enough soul energy that any additional spending are dangerous, but staying on that level is supposedly safe. Results are interesting, if quite hard to completely grasp from short skimming. But it is definitely not something you want to do for any prolonged periods of time.
{Roll with Psychology and Thaumaturgic theory against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend 2 hours and gain +10 SP in both skills. Otherwise, spend 2 hours and gain +5 SP in the both skills.}

[] There is a science conference happening fairly soon in Salem! You know that your father is going there, but he and his coworkers won't be presenting there anything. You know that quite a lot of bigwigs will be there. The surprising thing is that despite knowing the general things a about the conference, you aren't actually sure about any specifics. Well, perhaps it is not surprising, but still quite irritating. You should rectify this as soon as you can.
{Spend 1 hour and gain knowledge of the science conference happening in three weeks.}

[] Your father warned you against going full house dwelling troll and you know that his advice is actually good. So you turn off your laptop for an hour and just do some exercises, go for a jog, actually cook yourself something healthy and eat it like a normal person, instead wolfing down some unhealthy fast food bullshit. This will not help your research, but it will sure help with your health!
{Spend 1 hour and gain +5 SP to Fitness.}
_________________________________

Spoiler: Author's Note

Sorry it took so long! It should have been finished by Sunday, but some things has kept me busy

 

[Aliya]

Once you start thinking about various things to research, you think that, perhaps it would be the best if you tied them all to one unifying theme. And, well, what would be a better unifying theme than the theme of a big science conference happening soon? So you start researching that first, before making any other commitments.

Research has lead you to some interesting results. First thing first, it appears that that the theme of the conference is various applications of thaumaturgic effects to detection methods in various science fields. Which is a very wide theme and, despite that, some people are gaming the system to fit their works in despite them being at best tangentially related. Which is usually outrageous, but the things that participants are going to bring are just fascinating enough for people to look through it with their fingers.

The most fascinating is, of course, mister's Stein's Great Unification theory. The reason it was permitted at this particular conference is because he will be talking about various ways it can be falsified with modern state-of-art detection methods that he, apparently, also helped with. Huh. Despite you not ever hearing of this dude, it appears that he was involved in various important works, although never in the leading role. Hmm, perhaps that is also why they allowed him a stage? "Scratch my back and I scratch yours" type of dealio? Sounds like it.

There will be a famous AI researcher (Neural networks researcher, your inner programmer corrects) making an announcement there. No one quite knows what exactly she will be unveiling, but people suspect that it is something related to data analysis. Which is expected. Data analysis is important part of work, since all of the data in the world is irrelevant if you have no way to analyze it.

There are some biological/medicinal announcements planned too, but you can't quite make judgments what the will be about yet. Your knowledge of biology tops out at high school. Still, any advancement in medicine are welcome.

There are some announcements in "purely" thaumaturgical theory. MagiLab are preparing something "big", according to their site. They are famous for their thaumaturgy based experimental technology, so when they are saying that something is "big", it's probably gonna be gigantic. You are actually a bit excited for this too. While you are usually against hype culture that permeates modern society, down in your bones you feel that this people are very serious about what they are bringing.

Th conference itself will be happening in the city of Salem, a center of thaumaturgical research for a long time. Centuries, though not a whole lot of them. Still, the location of the conference is completely and utterly unsurprising to you. If anything, it would probably surprise if they decided to hold it somewhere else.
You stretch your arms, legs and spine. You have got quite a lot of information about the conference, but most of it is fairly boring organizational and scheduling stuff that isn't something you can really talk about. So, you probably still need something actually juicy to talk about. And that juicy sh...Eh, stuff will be…

{You have 9 hours today before the podcast to do stuff. While you can invest all into studying for podcast, it is not recommended to skip on food or some other stuff. Spend your time wisely. }

[]There are some interesting news in the programming area of studies, specifically the whole neural networks business. Surprisingly, these news are more on the math side. Or, well, that would be surprising for anyone who isn't aware of the nature of the field. You are, though, so you do know that neural networks are just statistics applied to problem solving.
The news themselves consist of articles about improvements in AI and AI related fields. Some of them are fairly in-depth and complex, so it might take quite a while for you to grasp even the basics, but you feel like it might be worth it. Actually... Some of these articles are made by the same researcher who will be making an announcement at the Salem's conference. An additional incentive to check it out, you guess.
{Roll with Mathematics and Programming against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend 2 hours and gain +10 SP in both skills. Otherwise, spends 2 hours and gain +5 SP in both skills.}
[] On the physics side, there were some cool news too. For one, a few days ago there came out a fairly controversial paper claiming that it can help unify the Standard Model, Modern Thaumaturgy Theory and General Relativity, and, unlike String Theory and other such works, it appears rather falsifiable, although it would probably a decade or two to do it. While most people on the article maintain a fairly neutral position, some have already taken sides on it. Which isn't surprising. People's pet theories are on the line and they are willing to defend them. Since these comments on the article were left by scientists, they are significantly more civil than a good majority of posts on the net, but quite a lot of them come down to the conference that is happening 3 weeks from now.
Other cool news relate to various experiments in the various fundamental fields, such as General Relativity, Modern Thaumaturgy Theory and Quantum Physics. All of them pretty cool, but also complex and hard enough to understand that, for example, a single busy undergrad student couldn't describe them for his own story in a few hundred words. It might take a while to research this all, but knowledge is probably worth it.
{You can take this action several times. For each action taken, roll with General and Special Relativity, Quantum Physics or Thaumaturgic theory against a complex problem. If you succeed, gain spend an hour and gain +10 SP in skill with which you rolled. Otherwise, spend an hour and gain +5 SP in the skill with which you rolled. Specify with which skill you are rolling in the vote}
[] While you aren't someone with advanced knowledge of biology, you still can give some basic rundown of the news and hope that your friends who study biology pick up. There are some advances in various gene engineering techniques. While none of them are safe or effective enough to be allowed to be used on humans to add permanent changes, even with the help of thaumaturgy, some researchers argue that creating artificial specialized lifeforms can now actually be done in a safe and humane way. You are aware of history of chimeras, filled with tragedies, tragicomedies of errors and outright slasher horror movie plots. Usually best case scenario was that chimera wasn't viable and died in agony. Or it turned out to be brain dead. When it didn't, shit happened. Sometimes that shit happened in a way that was enjoyable in schadenfreude kind of way, but common trait was death. Lot's of death. Quite honestly, only thing that went worse was creation of artificial sentient beings. And quite often not because anything went wrong, but because everything went horrifically right. Intentionally so, in the "crimes against humanity, nature, quite a few eldritch beings and probably all sapient life in the universe" category of intentionally horrific. Like one your professor said, intelligent people would call zombie a monster, but wise people would call a person who raised it one too.
{Roll with Biology and Thaumaturgic theory against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend 2 hours and gain +10 SP in both skills. Otherwise, spends 2 hours and gain +5 SP in both skills.}
[] While you don't possess quite the same level of respect for psychology as for physics or mathematics, but it is a still a very valid area of research that you are sorta interested in as a hobby + requirement of getting a teacher permit your uni set for a mysterious and incomprehensible reason. There a few interesting studies i the effect of various work environments on people, a really long term study on the effects on mental health of equally long term "soul starvation", where you constantly spend just enough soul energy that any additional spending are dangerous, but staying on that level is supposedly safe. Results are interesting, if quite hard to completely grasp from short skimming. But it is definitely not something you want to do for any prolonged periods of time.
{Roll with Psychology and Thaumaturgic theory against a complex problem. If you succeed, spend 2 hours and gain +10 SP in both skills. Otherwise, spend 2 hours gain +5 SP in both skills.}
[] There is a science conference happening fairly soon in Salem! You know that your father is going there, but he and his coworkers won't be presenting there anything. You know that quite a lot of bigwigs will be there. The surprising thing is that despite knowing the general things a about the conference, you aren't actually sure about any specifics. Well, perhaps it is not surprising, but still quite irritating. You should rectify this as soon as you can.
{Spend 1 hour and gain knowledge of the science conference happening in three weeks.} You already did this.
[] Your father warned you against going full house dwelling troll and you know that his advice is actually goo. So you turn off your laptop for an hour and just do some exercises, go for a jog, actually cook yourself something healthy and eat it like a normal person, instead wolfing down some unhealthy fast food bullshit. This will not help your research, but it will sure help with your health!
{Spend 1 hour and gain +5 SP to Fitness.}
_______________________________________

Spoiler: Author's Note

Sorry it took so long! Unfortunately, I can't promise any schedule for the future or faster update time: exams are coming soon.

 

[Aliya]

You have settled one what news you are gonna cover. Advances in thaumaturgic theory are always exciting and everyone knows that throwing some neural nets into anything always improves audience reaction. Probably cause "neural networks" and "deep learning" are significantly cooler names than "statistics" and "linear algebra". So you get down to it.

{Rolling 1d100+10(Thaumaturgic theory)-30(Complex problem)=1d100-20=19-20=-1.
You gained +5 SP to Thaumaturgic Theory skill! Thaumaturgic Theory: 305/600.
Rolling 1d100+10(Thaumaturgic theory)-30(Complex problem)=1d100-20=73-20=53.
You gained +10 SP to Thaumaturgic Theory skill! Thaumaturgic Theory: 315/600.
Rolling 1d100+10(Thaumaturgic theory)-30(Complex problem)=1d100-20=91-20=71.
You gained +10 SP to Thaumaturgic Theory skill! Thaumaturgic Theory: 325/600.
Rolling 1d100+10(Thaumaturgic theory)-30(Complex problem)=1d100-20=83-20=63.
You gained +10 SP to Thaumaturgic Theory skill! Thaumaturgic Theory: 335/600.}

First hour is fairly frustrating. You don't consider yourself is a genius or anything, shit, you haven't even graduated yet, but this text is fucking incomprehensible. Even with help of various text books and internet sources, you barely make any progress in the first hour. But after you make first major understanding, thing start going easier. Essentially, this work soft proves the existence of the Noosphere. While there was always idea about influence of soul fields of people and various creatures impacting the spell creation process. But the whole "collective subconsciousness" and "noosphere" concepts were always on the iphier sides. And, to be fair, the experiments didn't really confirm them necessarily, but they sure did rocket them from a fringe position into something reputable. Interestingly enough, you have also seen one of the Magilab researchers comment under the article in a very "hey, ain't this interesting, wink-wink, nudge-nudge" way. Could it, perhaps, be somehow connected to whatever they are bringing to the conference? In that case, it probably is something really exciting.

{You gained +5 SP to Fitness ability! Fitness: 105/800.}

In between two study session, you take some time to exercise a bit and make cook some food. Nothing too complex, you were never someone who appreciates fine cuisine, but it doesn't mean that you are gonna devolve into an average internet dweller who subsists on doritos and soda. Stretches, sit ups and pull ups keep your mind occupied while your food is cooking. When you finish the whole "pretend to be a functional person" bit, you return to your natural habitat.

{Rolling 1d100+10(Programming)+10 (Mathematics)-30(Complex problem)=1d100-10=63-10=53.
You gained +10 SP to Programming and Mathematics skills! Programming: 310/500 and Mathematics: 310/100.
Rolling 1d100+10(Programming)+10(Mathematics)-30(Complex problem)=1d100-10=14-10=4.
You gained +5 SP to Programming and Mathematics skills! Programming: 315/500 and Mathematics: 315/100.}

You get down to business on dissecting all of these programming nonsense. It is not a fast process. While some uneducated people might call thaumaturgy magic, but it really is nothing compared to programming. Especially when that programming is tightly weaved with a fairly hard and complex math. But you did manage to get some insights. A lot of them were about the structure of the nets themselves and learning methods, while also talking about general AI things. One of the interesting parts was a prediction that and actual general AI will either be a combination of several networks or some sort of hivemind of eusocial insect like swarm bot AI things. You don't possess enough knowledge to ascertain the truthness of the statement, but it struck you as, at least, not completely crazy, even sensible in a way. While parts of the brain can take on different roles, there is certain level of specialisation there.

You stretch out your spine and yawn. You did it. You sacrificed a day of your only life in order to read some nerd news on a nerdy, unpopular podcast consisting of undergrads bitching at everything. Truly, a master of wise life decisions you are. But now is time for more intense preparations involving some hardware. You pull out your mic, your headphones and relocate form the bed to a table and chair and turn on your chatting program called "Chaos". Which was a fitting name, all things considering.

- You are two minutes late for preshow, Vanessa. - ah, your dear friend Fareeha. Always to the point about anything involving dates and plans. Never missed a deadline in her life. And utterly refuses to accepts others doing it.
- Ehh, it's ok Fary, as long as everyone's mic is good, everything should be fine. - Elena, on the other hand, is always more focused on the connection building aspect of this whole thing. More of a glass half full type of person.
- Perhaps a few mishaps aren't sufficient to fuck even minor things up, Elena. But inability to be punctual in even something so minor reflects badly on a person. Only by being collected in all of your daily activities can someone reach preparedness required to function well in the modern society. - Fareeha answers her, in a tone reminding you a bit of your dad, actually, when he is in the mood for giving you a "valuable life lesson". Most definitely not the first time it happened. You know that personality traits aren't really inheritable, but you are always tempted to ask your dad whether he visited Asia during his life.
- I know that drama is always a good way to boost popularity, but, perhaps, we can save that for later? Y'all need to chill for 20 minutes or so. - Robert cuts in before Elena can answer back. He is always a pain in the ass, but you know he means well. Even if that sometimes leads to unintentional self sabotage. Fareeha only dignifies him with annoyed huff in response.
- Testing, testing, one two three. Is my mic ok? Also, shut up Robert. - you say into the mic. Ahh, the social interaction. The basis of human civilization.
You need to lower the volume a little bit, but other than that you are good. - responds Elena. You proceed to do just that. Man, it is good to have zero problems
- Okay, I think I managed to fix my mic. - suddenly, a slightly robotic voice rings out. Must be Akylbek. He always has some tech problems, although he has been getting better at it. An he usually appears to the "preshow" before even Fareeha, so it hasn't been a significant problem.
- You most definitely didn't. - Fareeha answers in a slightly annoyed tone.
- Fuck. Okay, give me a minute. - he disconnects for a good minute. It is fairly awkward. You like the guy, but... He is a magnet for awkward shit. Some self inflicted, some - just bad luck.
- Is it better now? - he returns, now with now with no unintentional voice effects.
- Sounds good to me. - you answer, while typing in the text chat of the room.It appears that Fareeha and Robert are arguing about whether you are supposed to it fish and chips with fork and knife or just with your bare hands. Robert is on the hands side calling other "a bunch of snobs", while Fareeha is firmly on the fork and knife, calling Robert "an uncultured slob". You, of course, side with...

[]Robert. Really, who eats fish and chips with forks and stuff. Only some kind of elitist would.
[]Fareeha. Really, who eats food without utensils? Only some kind of savage.
[]You make your own side. Chopsticks. Chopsticks are where it's at. All of the advantages, none of the disadvantages.
[]LIke Elena, you decide to leave them at it. Mostly because you don't really have opinion on this.

{This decision is not important. But I do want to know your opinion.}

While you are having that bullshit discourse, more people connect to the chat room. The annoying japanese botanist dude Kibou Haru is, unfortunately, one of the first. Ugh. One person who you hoped would be too busy to show up, what with his plant fetish and believe that they are sentient and can give you minor boons in your life as long as you treat them well. Your only salvation is that he finds you equally annoying. What is his deal anyway?

Another person who joined early is an a very friendly Bri… Scottish girl with passion for cats and fishing by the name of Jeanne Bisset. While you don't mind her per se, sometimes she is very pushy. And aggressive. And she might actually be hitting on you? You aren't sure, but you are quite often the target of her particular brand of aggressive friendliness, so... You don't necessarily dislike her attention, but it is very exhausting and not something you want to persevere through when you are tired and sleepy.

Then one of your acquaintance with mildly unpronounceable name connects. Aesop Alexiou is someone who you actually like fairly well, but you have to admit that he is a dirty cheater who cheats, constantly and in every way. But he is also someone who respects people who can notice his cheating and catch him off guard, so you have developed an level of mutual respect that only really achievable between an gentleman thief and his police officer rival.

After him arrives the "official" musician of music provider for the podcast, Robin Jones. You like Robin. He is just… Normal dude in ways very few people actually are. Everyone else in your social group is a bit of a weirdo. Hack, even you are a huge weirdo. While he isn't someone who you necessarily bland, he is quirky in a way that is fairly unobtrusive to communication or anything else, really. Also, his remixes are pretty decent.

Next quite possibly the most depressing of your acquaintances connects to the room. Not depressed - Camilla, according to your knowledge, isn't depressed. No, she is just very depressing to talk to. It is that she is very, well, pessimistic in a very downer and mildly defeatist fashion that can drive even a normally upbeat person sad. But she is very much not an asshole, unlike some of your other friends. She is quite possibly one of the most empathetic and understanding person in your whole group. Just… Very pessimistic outlook on life. Given what you know of her life, you think you understand why. In a way, you even agree with her. And while you don't interact with each other all that often, when you do you… Get each other, you guess.

Then Myla joins the room. You like Myla, even if you have started a personal crusade against her extremely terrible taste in movies. And literature. And everything else, really. So far, you have failed. But you are filled with determination to continue regardless. After all, you are her friend. It is the least you can do, to attempt to save her from the life of being someone with bad taste in everything.

The last person to join in is another your friend whose name is on the weirder side to your English speaking tongue - Bozhidar Balik. You aren't sure where you stand with him. You just… Don't really interact with each other. All you really know about him is that he is studying medicine, is mildly obsessed with it and is from Poland. Which is not a lot for someone with whom you stayed in the same social circle for three or so years.

- Okay, everyone is here! We still got ten minutes before the podcasts start, so let's do some final tech checks now while we still have the chance. - Elena says. You proceed to check over everything, since doing that is always a good idea.
- Is everyone ready?, - after the wave of acknowledgements, she turns on the stream:
- Hello, internet! It is I, your most magnanimous host Elena Novgorodskaya with my constant co-host Fareeha Aamer, the one who makes sure that this train always stays on the rails! How your day has been, Fary?
- Significantly worse than it probably should have been, which is par for the course. I have actually managed to cram some additional dojo time in my schedule, miraculously. - Fareeha grumbles in a slightly annoyed manner. But it is clear that she isn't being too serious.
- Cool! Martial arts and sports are glue the forge that creates personal health and security. Now, for other people joining us today, my other, slightly less constant, co-hosts Vanessa Fatum and Robert Thompson, who have an important job of making sure that this show never starts taking itself too seriously. How have you two been? - she turns the question to you and Robert.
- Eh, like the usual. Nothing to bad, nothing to good. Just chill. Got to go to the zoo today. - Robert answers first, as per tradition.
- Wait, you went to zoo of all things? Really? - you ask, genuinely curious.
- Yea, it was cool. Liked the snakes and spiders portion, properly spoopy. How about you, Vanessa? How was your day? - Robert asks you in return.
- Tired, cause my dad was going to work early today and I am cursed with inability to go to sleep once woken up. Which led to me making a best impression of a useless NEET I could manage. Truly, my life is hell. - you answer, yawning. God, you are tired.
- Well, don't sleep yet, cause today is a special day. All of our guests from our uni are here today! Say hi everyone! - Elena actually sounds excited, god. You wish you possessed this level of enthusiasm.

The show proceeds from this point. It appears that no one really had an exciting anecdote of their daily life to wax on about, so you get to the topics people wanted to talk about. Fareeha talks about some military stuff, mostly about some new pieces of hardware that have been showcased recently. You aren't really all that interested, but Alexiou, Elena and, surprisingly, Robert actually are, so you are given some time to collect your thoughts.

- But doesn't development of various defensive technologies threaten MAD? I mean, I'd prefer if people were just chill with no new need for MAD, but… - Robert appears to be actually surprisingly interested in the topic of WMDs.
- Sometimes only fear can force people to work together. It is sad that humanity can be so short sighted, but it is an unfortunate nature of our reality. I can understand why government doesn't stop such research, since otherwise their enemies who do research such technologies could strike them first with no repercussions. - Alexiou has always had a fairly cynical outlook on humanity, especially when it came to a more violent expression of it. You can't really judge him about that. You have always felt slight hypocrisy of some people regarding weapons and war. People really should stop beating around the bush and using euphemisms about their desire to kill people for various reasons or pretending it can be just in any way beyond utilitarian one.
- Ehh, you both are overreacting. This thing isn't really scaleable to the WMD scale. It is more of interpersonal and tactical anti-artillery thingy. - Elena answers. She, on the other hand, is fairly optimistic despite living in the country history of which can be summed up as "and then things got worse".
- Yeah, and energy costs are fairly prohibitive. It is better than normal shield spells in that it doesn't require Soul, but I doubt that it will be sufficient for it to replace thaumaturgic defensive enchantments. - Fareeha adds. While also being more on the skeptical side of things, she really leaned into the whole "everything in life happens due to direct and rationally deducible consequences of people's actions", rejecting luck as a major thing. You re not sure you agree.
Soon, your time will come up. What should you focus on?

[]Thaumaturgic theory advances. It sort of leads from the military hardware discussion fairly naturally. You will still talk about programming, but it will be more of a background thing.
{You will get to interact extensively with Jeanne and Kibou. And a bit less with Akylbek and Camila.}
[]Neural network thing. Combination of AI technologies and military is an old nightmare scenario, so you can probably pull of a decent segue. You will still talk about thaumaturgic theory, but it will be more of a background thing.
{You will get to interact extensively with Akylbek and Camila. And a bit less with Jeanne and Kibou.}

__________________________________________

Spoiler: Author's note

Holy shit I actually finished this. Originally preshow was supposed to be a bigger scene, but then I realized the hubris of having 12 characters interacting with each other simultaneously.

 

[Aliya]

You chime in the fish and chips debate:

Spoiler: Chatlog

seethingAnger: hey, ya'll better be prepared to be blown away, cause i am about to blow your minds. have you considered… chopsticks?
mixedmartialArtist: Acceptable way to do it, but… I have never learned to use chopsticks. Not a big fan of east asian cuisine.
afroClandestinenist: actually the worst opinion i've heard here and maybe my entire life; chopsticks are bitch to use and are just as pretentious to use on fish and chips as fork and knife;
vowDeveloper: Not to be that type of person, but… *a bitch.
afroClandestinenist: fucking grammar stalinists; i cant believe this betrayal; surrounded by the most terrible people, unimaginable treachery;

You smirk. You like the whole fake comedic outrage thing when it is either done well, or done terribly poorly. Robert could easily pull of both. Probably why you consider him to be a friend of sorts.

-------------------------------

- Okay, I'm gonna talk about some nerd news. But non military nerd news, cause I ain't no copycat. So, first thing first, let's talk about the hot think itest new trend in programming - linear algebra aka various machine learning and neural networks stuff. - you like to start your sections with mild... Foreshadowing, you guess? for the segment itself. In this case, the linear algebra bit would signal people that if they don't understand math behind NN even on basic level, they should just tune out.

- You mean the article by Alice Cercis, right? - Akylbek chimes in, unsurprisingly. Despite his severe bad luck and ineptitude regarding anything hardware and lab work related, he is probably the best in the group when it came to math and programming stuff.

- Hm. I think I've read her paper, actually. It's the one with a bunch of mostly unfounded claims about AI at the end, right? - Camila follows, voice indicating that she is trying to remember the paper you are talking about.

- Yep, exactly that. I divided the whole thing into the heavy math parts and speculation stuff, so let's start with the former in order to start roughly of the same footing, and transition towards more sci-popy part of the thing later…

So you start talking about some of the more technical details. Both Akylbek and Camila do not necessarily drop personas or whatever - they are not the type of people who can consistently pretend to be a different person for any extended period of time (at the very least, this is your assessment of them) - but they are slightly more focused on the topic of discussion over accidentally creating awkward situations or being really gloomy. Which is really good, since this topic is already approaching an impossible to make entertaining for the podcast, so if they weren't at the top of their game, this would be really boring.

- Okay, now that we all are caught up to the new advancement in linear algebra, cough cough, I mean, Neural Networks and AI technologies in general, we move onto the predictions part. Camila, before the discussion you showed some pessimism regarding Cercis's predictions. Why, may I ask? - ok, now the moderately fun stuff may begin.

- So, my main problem with Cercis's work isn't necessarily the prediction that GAI will eventually be made: of course it will, there is no reason silicon and magic can't replicate carbon and soul. The problem is that she assumes that the current direction of research is the one that will do it. - Camila started talking. - While I do understand that neural networks are very promising, simultaneously, in a lot of ways they are extremely over specialised. While there have been some impressive progress in creating general game playing systems, all of them require fairly insane computational capabilities and lots and lots of data. Which I am not necessarily sure can be applied to the creation of a more general intelligence, since the data requirements will balloon.

- So, I think your criticism is fair, but… I am not sure if we necessarily want to make a true general AI? We want to make a problem solving bots to, well, solve problems human can't. As Deep Blue proved, you don't need either sapience or sentience to solve fairly complex tasks. The only reason why we would build a general intelligence would be to make companions, replacements or descendants of humanity, whatever you want to call it. Most of applications we want to solve with AI don't need such an extreme solution. - says Akylbek.

- True, but that is not necessarily my argument. My problem is that while I do believe that Alice Cercis's inventions are great and useful, but I do not believe that it will lead to a general intelligence. - Camila responded.

- Well, I mean, I am not sure I agree? - you say, - Like, I doubt it will produce a human like intelligence, but just a general intelligence seems like a thing that is achievable. Although I think it would be fair to argue that making a techno eldritch being is not the goal we want to aspire to…

- I will disagree with that heavily. IMaybe a bit of a hot take, but creation of techno eldritch being is most definitely worthy goal, cause it, by itself, will tell us a lot about how consciousness, intelligence, sapience and all sorts of stuff works. As long as everyone follows reasonable safety protocols around such projects - and any project can even theoretically spawn a sci-fi themed eldritch being most definitely will be - it will be a great opportunity to improve and refine our knowledge about the mind. - Akylbek is surprisingly optimistic about non-human AI. Probably just him being a huge nerd, like you.

- Well, I foresee that such endeavor will end only in doom for somebody - whether for creators or the created depends on which company or agency attempts this. Especially if the people to do this are tied to any government. I would like to have your confidence in other people, but i have exactly zero faith in them not fucking it up. - Camila continues to be fairly sceptical, although there are also hints of anger there. From what you know of her life, mostly justified.

- Well, I know that you have some well deserved anger at the figures of authority, but I don't think that Akylbek is necessarily overly optimistic, although I will agree that he a significantly more positive opinion on security protocols than you do… - you chime in with your opinion.

The discussion continues from then on for a bit. Other join in after the argument gets loose enough that someone could join and provide a semi-informed opinion without being a good programmer. Or a mathematician. Or a futurologist. Most side with you more neutral opinion on the subject, with Aesop and Fareeha joining Camila's skeptic camp, while Kibou and Jeanne side with Akylbek's more optimistic perspective. You also start to talk about the noosphere's... Well, not necessarily discovery - the study isn't quite that conclusive and, well, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence to back them up - but high possibility of existence, but it appears that this day wants to catch up with you, so you have to exit the podcast due to sleepiness and tiredness. Fortunately, Jeanne also has read the work about the noosphere and so is able to pick up the conversation after you go. You wished you could do some more socializing, but oh well.
After finishing all of the personal hygiene rituals that are ingrained quite possibly on a genetic level with you (the feeling of unclean teeth disgusts you), you head of to sleep. Sweet, sweet temporary oblivion…


You wake up from your slumber. You don't remember the dream exactly, but it must have been pretty decent given that you are smiling currently. That smile disappears once you asses that you are still trapped in this stupid tower. Gah. A jester-mage of your power and status, trapped like this… What a shame, truly. At the very least, you have a truly ridiculous amount of books to read in your… Well, not technically a jail. Stupid dragons and their desire to keep young maidens locked in towers. Shouldn't you have been rescued by now? Whatever. You have patience. And spite. Mostly spite.

You have been reading a particularly fascinating tale of a bard using his songs to, presumably, save the world - you prefer not to spoil yourself on stories, so you are not actually sure if he succeeds, but it doesn't seem like the kind of that would pull a sad ending like that - when someone starts banging on the door of your room. Well. Did someone finally organize a rescue party? Finally. Except, you have a strange feeling about the person who is trying to enter. Like…
[] Void, beckoning with knowledge of secrets.
[] Mind, growing ever higher.
[] Time, seeing all.
[] Rage, ever changing.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Spoiler: Apology

Sorry that it took so long. Had a nasty author's block. Hope that the result is satisfying.

 

[Aliya]

{You gained +5 Void.}

You feel it, or, at the very least, you think you feel it. Behind the door was the Void, the lack of Light, unbreakable darkness from the beginning of time and space, filled with secrets, hidden and long forgotten. Feeling soon subsides, \ as the person behind the door start banging harder and louder, clearly impatient. For a moment you consider, as a friendly jest, to just wait until they figure out that the door is actually open, it just merely turns to the outside, not inside. But that feeling sparked your curiosity. Whoever this visitor is, they clearly someone very, very interesting. So you open the door for them.

The man who steps through the door loos, quite honestly, like a weird middle-aged man. He is wearing white striped blue pajamas with a clown-like cap a top his head, with the puffy thing. You have no idea how it is called, but it is the puffy thing. His hair is predominantly dark brown, although you can also spot some stray grey color there. He closes his dark blue eyes and... You suddenly feel dizzy, as if contents of your head were replaced with vacuum. You try to focus, only for the man to say:
- Your name is Vanessa Fatum, correct? - which, quite honestly, throws you off balance. It was awhile since you have been called that. As of late, everyone simply calls you…

- Then dementia hasn't set in yet and I have not messed up with the destination. Good. I have a fairly important message to deliver to your father that, unfortunately, cannot just bring it to him due to… Interferences. But also, I need to give you this - he starts looking around the room, looking for something. You want to ask him the meaning of all this bullshit, but before you can do that, the man picks up the book you have been reading. He holds it in his hands, turning it around as if appraising a statuette, before throwing it back to you.

- Consider this a tutorial for something that will be fairly important to you in the relatively close future. No, that is not quite right. It is something that is important to you now, but you aren't quite aware of it. Normally you would remain ignorant for much more, but, well, the circumstances force my hand. Them the breaks, I guess. - you catch the book. It appears to have ceased being an adventure book and have become something called: "The fundamental archetypes of soul and how to unlock their secrets: a manual by A. Stein". In doing so, it also turned heavier, much heavier, gaining probably a good few hundred pages. You, again, open your mouth in order to ask "what in the actual fuck do you mean, strange old man". You, once again, are interrupted. You start getting annoyed at this bullshit.

- It will probably take you awhile to finish it and, while i wouldn't recommend on slacking off on it, young lady, it would be best to be read at your own pace. The knowledge within is known to cause existential dread in some and the resulting revelations can be fairly upsetting. Although, of course, that depends on...
- Ok, stop right there. I demand explanations. Who the fuck are you? Why can't I remember your appearance? What the fuck is this? - you wave the book in your hand in front of him, - To whom am I supposed to send a message and why would I do that? Answer before I throw you out of this room down the fucking stairs, weirdo.

Even though you can't quite focus on his face without getting dizzy, you get the feeling that he is raising his eyebrow now in a manner you judge to be condescending. Which is annoying. Then he start to talk in a slow way, indicating that either he is choosing his words very carefully, or is assuming very unflattering things about your intelligence:
- My name is Albert Stein. The reason why you can't remember my appearance is partially cause I don't want you to, partially because I am ████-bound and partially due to interference from some passive information veiling spells, which are annoying to say the least.. The person to whom you are supposed to send the message is called Terrence Fatum. Unless I am horribly misinformed, he is your father in the waking world. You need to deliver him my message because of the so called Stabilization event, which can become quite troublesome if not handled with care. I personally believe that it is already too late to prevent the event from happening, even if we could ever stop it, but, well, what can you do? As for the book in your hands… Didn't I already say that it is a tutorial? Cause that is all it is.
- That didn't explain anything! If anything, I am more fucking confused! The fuck is a Stabilization event? - you are getting really frustrated at all this bullshit. And your headache just gets worse, you already have problems remembering some things he said, this fuckery really doesn't help.

- Stabilization event is ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ rebalancing itself into a more stable, lower energy state. That will probably cause ███ ████████ to █████████ with ███████ ██████, █████ ████ probably lead to quite a lot of chaos if left uncontrolled. It might also cause the formation of ███████ ████████ out of ██████'s ██████ due to ███████ █████ █████████ █████ ██████ by the neosphere. ████ ██████ being a █████████ of ████ makes him a very important piece of the puzzle. Knower of Rage such as you can also be very, very useful. Wait... You didn't hear the important parts, did you? - as the stranger speaks, your headache reaches a new entire plane of pain you were unfamiliar with due to your somewhat sheltered life. You start massaging your temples. It doesn't help much.
- Well, either way… I suspect that this dream will end soon, so I guess I might as well just leave this here, - he pulls out a letter seemingly out of thin air and puts it on your bed, - It is up to you to whether to deliver it or not. And I can understand if you don't want to do that, given how shady I am, both literally and metaphorically. But I and quite a few people would prefer for you not to do that.

You aren't really focusing on what he is talking about, mostly due to your headache, which is so bad you gain sufficient lucidity realize that this is, in fact, a dream, and that you are not a jester-mage, but a thaumaturgist who goes by the name of Vanessa Fatum. You can try to push through it and try ask more of this antimemetic fucker, but you are afraid that you might just damage your mind if you were to do that. Or you can simply end the dream and let the secrets be secrets. What shall you do?

[]Push through the pain and ask the man questions. He clearly knows a lot, and even though him talking is causing you a headache, your curiosity can not allow such an opportunity to go to waste.
-[]Write-in question.
{Gain +3 Light for each question. For each question, roll a d100 with -10 modifier. Each time you roll <50, lose 3 Mind. If you lose more than 10 Mind, end the dream and ???.}

[]Wake up. You doubt that whatever secrets this man has are worth the pain. Sometimes some knowledge just has to remain a mystery.
{Gain +5 Void.}

 

[Aliya]

The man, apparently having finished whatever he fuck he came here for, turns to the door and tries to leave. Before that can occur, however, you stop him:
- Dude. Weirdo. Stop right there. I have a question I want to ask.

- Oh? Well, ask away. I will try to answer it to the best of my abilities. - he turns back to you, sounding slightly surprised at the question. Did he really think you are just going to let him go like that?

- Given that half of the seemingly important information you told me I literally can't remember right now due to some antimeme auto-censor or whatever, who can I talk to learn all that stuff without this shit getting in the way? - information gathering is always important. Knowing is half the battle, after all.

- Hmm. There is a surprising amount of people who know this, but of those who are willing to divulge the knowledge to others when it is not strictly necessary are rare. I believe that your father might be aware of the most of this information, although I do not think that he quite connected the dots yet. At least, I don't think he did. Of course, he is bound both by the various NDA, which forbid him from sharing such secrets, and his unconditional parental love for you, which will drive him towards keeping you safe through ignorance, so that path will require some… Social skills. Another useful source would be your friends. Everyone has secrets, and your associates have more than most. I do not know how you all stumbled onto each other: fate, coincidence or for some other bizarre reason, but it would be unwise to think of them as ignorant, even if they don't have all of the parts of. But, of course, the most important source is, not to be overly cheesy, within you, - he points at the book he has transformed, which is currently appears to be lying on your bed, - There are a few things that would evade a fully developed Knower of Rage. Everyone has potential for greatness within their souls. Very few have a privilege of having a sliver of that potential being realized. Rejects the lies that will try to blind you and reach out for truth, no matter how much it hurts. Do not waste your chance.

{Roll: 1d100 - 10 = -6. You lost 3 Mind. You gained +3 Light.}

You would have normally said thank you to the stranger for fucking finally answering you, but, unfortunately, the wave of pain washes over you. Not quite enough to wake you up by itself, but, given that stranger has already turned around to leave and you have no more questions to ask, you see very little reason to continue dreaming if all it nets is more headaches. So you wake up.

You raise your head of your pillow with a groan. Your head hurts like a bitch. And while the pain is slowly fading, it surely isn't slow enough for your taste. Urgh. Headaches suck. 0/10, would not recommend. Huh. As you get up from your bed, you notice that your smartphone appeared to have been in your hand while you were sleeping. Strange. You certainly remember leaving it at the table, plugged into the charger. Hmm. It says that it has finished downloading a two text files onto itself. That is weird. Once you see the names of the files, however, it suddenly makes much more sense.

"MessageToTerenceFatumFromA█████" and "TheTutorial". You have no idea how the fuck shit that happened in your dream led to this, but you know. You will temporarily roll with it until you stop doing that. A sort of Schrodinger patience, where the state of being done with this bullshit and the state of being okay with the events currently unfolding are in superposition until the situation develops further.

While all of this is fascinating, you are not going to tolerate the feel of unwashed teeth any longer. So you proceed to go with every day self maintenance rituals in order to wash away the feeling of… Wait. You literally just washed it away. Did you just pun on accident? Gooood dammit! Urghh. Accidental puns are the worst, only beaten in awfulness by the fully intentional puns.

Finishing that, you decide to transfer the files onto your laptop since you have severe doubt that anyone would do that weird dream walking gimmick in order to make you install a bitcoin miner or whatever. And if they did, well, you fucking did it. Instead of patenting whatever allows you to travel through dreams in a semi-casual matter, you used to infect a single laptop. Congratulations, you fucking morons.

But it does not turn out that way, just as you expected. Once you open the second file in your laptop's pdf file reader and quickly scroll through the first few pages, you realize that it is… A textbook. An actual legit textbook. Well, a "legit" textbook of sorts, legitness of its contents is to be determined. And there is a lot of content. Like, a good few hundred pages long. You decide that before you are going to actually dive into the files, however, you are going to have a breakfast. So you descended from your room to the kitchen.

"Vanessa! Busy at work, don't go cave troll on me while I am there and not at home to make you actually spend your time productively, alright? Breakfast is on the table. Have a good day!" Oh, dad. Both sweet and eye roll worthy. OK, maybe not eye roll worthy. You cannot eye roll someone who made you a bitching omelette. That is just bad manners.

While eating, you begin contemplating your situation. While the strange man from your dream warned you that not sending a message to your father will be bad, you are not entirely sure you should trust him. Like, quite honestly, why should you? Even if the tutorial he gave you is legit and will help you with whatever the fuck, that doesn't prove anything necessarily. For all you know, it is just a trap for your dad. He is a semi-famous researcher, a government worker and sustains himself on a diet of NDAs. Pulling all the dream stuff would be too much to trick you, a fairly normal and relatively "small", so to speak, person, into downloading a virus or something; it was a significantly less of a ridiculous effort in order to influence a fairly important scientist in some way. He will not come back home for at least… 7 hours more, probably (you have never quite realized until now that he works some insane hours during the "crunches"). You have some time to do stuff before coming to a decision.

[] Consult with your friends. You need a second opinion on all of this shit and, well, the stranger said that you friends have some secrets and are more aware of the situation than they appear to be. Having a second opinion never hurts.
-[]But who, exactly, will you call?
{Spend ½*X hours, where X is the number of friends you called. Depending on a friend, might also gain some other bonus or suffer a malus. Might change you social status with the selected friend.}

[] Just actually read the message the dude intends to reach your dad. He sure didn't say anything about you not reading. Knowing the contents of the letter probably will help you judge whether or not it something you want your dad to see.
{Spend ¼ of an hour. ???}

[] Leave this decision to your dad after revealing everything to him. He is the one to whom the message is addressed - he is the one who should judge it. This is clearly above your pay grade, especially given you are not being paid. And, plus, it is a bit cynical thing to say, but no matter what decision you come to, your father will definitely decide his plan of actions regarding this whole scene with very little care for your input. Not because he doesn't care about you, but because it is obviously something big. Big enough that he stops being Terrence Fatum, a loving father of Vanessa Fatum, and becomes Terrence Fatum, government worker.
{Gain +2 Rage (not including the bonus) and +2 Doom. Automatically surrender the decision to your father. No hours spent. Automatically cancels out all other actions regarding the decision.}

[] Read the tutorial thingy the stranger provided. You are not entirely sure whether it will help you come to a conclusion, but he gave you it for a presumably a good reason, so you should probably at least spend an hour on it.
{Spend 4 hours. Learn how to unlock Knower of Rage abilities.}

[] Study. It will not help with the decision, but, quite honestly, you are not gonna spend all 7 hours agonising over it. You can do something productive in the meantime.
{Pick a skill. Spend X hours. Roll X times with the corresponding skill. For each roll >=50, gain 10 SP in that skill. Otherwise, gain 5 SP in that skill.}

[] Train. Being a cave troll might be comfy, but sure as hell ain't healthy. Time to do some exercises.
{Pick an ability. Spend X hours. Roll X times with the corresponding ability X Times. For each roll >=50, gain 10 AP in that ability. Otherwise, gain 5 AP in that ability.}

[] Goof off. Just relax, my dude, homie, bread slice, etc. You have plenty off time to come to a decision! No need to worsen your headache or even upgrading to a full blown migraine over this bullshit.
{Spend 2*X hours. Restore X Mind.}

[] Make a spell. You consider spellmaking and enchanting to be fairly relaxing and productive activities, so perhaps you should do just that.
{Spend ¼*X hours. Create X spells.}