Lord El-Melloi II [AU] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fionnuisce) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-12-26 08:46 pm
fionnuisce) wrote in towerofanimus2013-12-26 08:46 pm
Entry tags:
[open] // watch me stumble over and over
Characters: Waver and open
Date: December 25th, 26th, and 27th
Location: mailroom, laboratory, dorm floors
Format: starting in brackets
Summary: The wonderful thing about Nasuverse magic is nothing. Nothing is wonderful.
Warnings: None yet.
[floor 78; 12/25]
[It had been a disappointing holiday, to make a hilariously extreme understatement. Waver had hoped to at least make an attempt at exchanging gifts with the few people he actually liked, but then things went all pear-shaped. A Christmas invasion of plague doctors seemed a strange thing to accept as quickly as one would accept poor weather, but that was just how this place operated.]
[Today, his minor concern was sorting out a few sheets of neatly and carefully folded notebook paper, placing a few letters written in the infirmary in their designated place. A more major worry was the strange sensation of pins and needles that occasionally spread through his body like a shiver. Assuming it was the start of a cold brought on by the miserable weather, the lecturer settled for making careful note of it as well as the oddly sore feeling in his shoulder. Slept at a wrong angle, maybe?]
[The idea that either could have been a symptom of something more pressing hadn't yet occurred to him. Whether that was due to exhaustion or just being outright done with the Tower's nonsense for this month was hard to tell.]
[floor 27; 12/26]
[Some people probably thought their work was done with this latest breakthrough regarding collar fluid. 'Some people' were not Waver. Now that things had settled down somewhat, he again returned to the laboratory to carefully look over his notes, spending hours reading over them like he expected to find something previously missed.]
[Those hours passed with Waver persistently disregarding the growing ache in the back of his shoulder. Yesterday's odd pins and needles sensation was for the moment something he could ignore, but whatever was wrong with Waver's shoulder grew steadily worse as he tried to concentrate on working.]
[Eventually, the thoroughly irritated magus stood from his chair and looked around--maybe he could go find some ice to put on it. Whatever injury he'd sustained, it was starting to feel as though it was burning-]
Fucking hell, don't tell me.
[The problem with being a magus (one of many problems, Waver would often argue) was that the ability to use magic was something unnatural on a biological level. To begin with, Magic Circuits were something like a nervous system in operation, but at the same time they were something a normal human body would essentially reject. Activating them caused even the best magi some level of pain.]
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, this isn't good-
[But far more problematic was the issue of a Magic Crest. They acted as another form of Circuits, engraved into the body of a magical family's heir when that heir was still young. Waver's own was of no considerable size or strength, but his current state of genuine fear came from a number of problems that now presented themselves.]
[A Magic Crest was meant to be passed down little by little, while the heir was still young. The older one was when it was implanted, the more likely their body would be to fight and attempt to reject it.]
[Waver recalled three things: one, that he was currently twenty-five years older than he'd been when he inherited his mother's crest. Two, if this was indeed what was happening now, he severely doubted whatever process the new collar fluid was taking would be able to replicate the process correctly. Three: When it came right down to it, he had very little tolerance for pain.]
[There may or may not have been a half-restrained scream emanating from the laboratory about five minutes later, followed by the dull sound of someone falling back against a wall to stay standing.]
[dorm room 03-10; 12/27]
[Waver was not in good shape. The worst of the pain in his crest and circuits had begun to subside, but 'a little less than absolute torture' wasn't much improvement. He was honestly feeling better about the situation, however. He'd doubted for a moment this experiment would have favorable results, but if this was happening now then they'd made real progress.]
[Lying facedown on his bed with a pillow clamped over his head as if trying to shut out all of existence didn't look like 'optimism', but appearances could certainly be deceiving.]
Date: December 25th, 26th, and 27th
Location: mailroom, laboratory, dorm floors
Format: starting in brackets
Summary: The wonderful thing about Nasuverse magic is nothing. Nothing is wonderful.
Warnings: None yet.
[floor 78; 12/25]
[It had been a disappointing holiday, to make a hilariously extreme understatement. Waver had hoped to at least make an attempt at exchanging gifts with the few people he actually liked, but then things went all pear-shaped. A Christmas invasion of plague doctors seemed a strange thing to accept as quickly as one would accept poor weather, but that was just how this place operated.]
[Today, his minor concern was sorting out a few sheets of neatly and carefully folded notebook paper, placing a few letters written in the infirmary in their designated place. A more major worry was the strange sensation of pins and needles that occasionally spread through his body like a shiver. Assuming it was the start of a cold brought on by the miserable weather, the lecturer settled for making careful note of it as well as the oddly sore feeling in his shoulder. Slept at a wrong angle, maybe?]
[The idea that either could have been a symptom of something more pressing hadn't yet occurred to him. Whether that was due to exhaustion or just being outright done with the Tower's nonsense for this month was hard to tell.]
[floor 27; 12/26]
[Some people probably thought their work was done with this latest breakthrough regarding collar fluid. 'Some people' were not Waver. Now that things had settled down somewhat, he again returned to the laboratory to carefully look over his notes, spending hours reading over them like he expected to find something previously missed.]
[Those hours passed with Waver persistently disregarding the growing ache in the back of his shoulder. Yesterday's odd pins and needles sensation was for the moment something he could ignore, but whatever was wrong with Waver's shoulder grew steadily worse as he tried to concentrate on working.]
[Eventually, the thoroughly irritated magus stood from his chair and looked around--maybe he could go find some ice to put on it. Whatever injury he'd sustained, it was starting to feel as though it was burning-]
Fucking hell, don't tell me.
[The problem with being a magus (one of many problems, Waver would often argue) was that the ability to use magic was something unnatural on a biological level. To begin with, Magic Circuits were something like a nervous system in operation, but at the same time they were something a normal human body would essentially reject. Activating them caused even the best magi some level of pain.]
Shit. Shit, shit, shit, this isn't good-
[But far more problematic was the issue of a Magic Crest. They acted as another form of Circuits, engraved into the body of a magical family's heir when that heir was still young. Waver's own was of no considerable size or strength, but his current state of genuine fear came from a number of problems that now presented themselves.]
[A Magic Crest was meant to be passed down little by little, while the heir was still young. The older one was when it was implanted, the more likely their body would be to fight and attempt to reject it.]
[Waver recalled three things: one, that he was currently twenty-five years older than he'd been when he inherited his mother's crest. Two, if this was indeed what was happening now, he severely doubted whatever process the new collar fluid was taking would be able to replicate the process correctly. Three: When it came right down to it, he had very little tolerance for pain.]
[There may or may not have been a half-restrained scream emanating from the laboratory about five minutes later, followed by the dull sound of someone falling back against a wall to stay standing.]
[dorm room 03-10; 12/27]
[Waver was not in good shape. The worst of the pain in his crest and circuits had begun to subside, but 'a little less than absolute torture' wasn't much improvement. He was honestly feeling better about the situation, however. He'd doubted for a moment this experiment would have favorable results, but if this was happening now then they'd made real progress.]
[Lying facedown on his bed with a pillow clamped over his head as if trying to shut out all of existence didn't look like 'optimism', but appearances could certainly be deceiving.]
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[That is the question, isn't it.]
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[During their conversation, they hadn't discussed each other's local magic system; the focus had been on matters of the Tower. This news gets Waver a pair of politely raised eyebrows.]
It seems a rather inconvenient system if this is functioning as intended. May I ask how it works? I do recall what you said about how a full week would have to pass before any of your powers start to return, and that even then they would return slowly. If even a small amount of your true powers returning puts you in this state...
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I assume you're familiar with the basic structure of a human nervous system, at least?
going to bed for tonight, have one last tag
I am.
[...because he's dissected quite a few corpses in his day, but that's neither here nor there.]
just as well 'cause this is gonna be long
However, and here's where it starts getting irritating, on a biological level Magic Circuits aren't something a human body recognizes as being natural. No mater how skilled one is, activating them raises body temperature and causes some level of discomfort.
[Pausing for a moment in his explanation, Waver tied his hair back into the usual ponytail, securing it with what appeared to be a small metal clasp.]
Now I've explained that largely so this next part has some context. Mage society is based primarily upon a system of lords, aristocrats, that sort of archaic nonsense. And in such a society, naturally bloodlines and lineage are important to some. [He rolled his eyes in irritation, quite displeased he even needed to say that.]
The mark of any magical family's heir and in fact any family's most vital possession is called a Magic Crest. What that amounts to is basically a stabilized Magic Circuit of its own, in which is stored the spells learned by the previous heads of the family. Think of it as something of an internal spellbook, I guess.
When an heir is particularly young, whichever parent has the family's crest passes it down to them piece by piece, gradually. That part is extremely important. Since Circuits themselves are already not recognizes as 'natural' by a human body, a Magic Crest is even more so. The transferring of one is basically engraving magical knowledge into a human body, and rather like an organ transplant there's a very real risk of outright rejection. The older one is, the more likely it is to hurt like you wouldn't fucking believe. And passing it down a little at a time gives the recipient's body time to adjust.
Bringing things back to your inquiries, the problem here lies mainly in two places. One, this new collar fluid apparently doesn't know shit about 'gradually'. Two, I'm twenty-nine. So just slapping a Magic Crest back on me feels rather like someone taped dynamite to my shoulder and set it off. If you think I'm in miserable shape now, I was far worse off yesterday.
/exploded by spam
What Waver says next, about mage society being based on bloodlines, and the way he rolls his eyes about it, gets Jade to smile. Jade, having gotten himself adopted, likewise isn't too impressed by bloodlines, though he does at least value family. That Waver values it even less is telling.
Phrasing this transfer of a Magic Circuit as an organ transfer makes sense as well. To Jade's ears, it sounds like engraving a fonic glyph onto someone, a process that can be fatal if done incorrectly or if the one being engraved onto isn't capable of handling it. Add that to the colorful way Waver describes the experience, and the Necromancer thinks he understands quite well.]
Well, you don't seem to have gone blind or died, so that's something in your favor. If I recall correctly, you have to start the process all over again if you die. [dryly] Just think, you have so much to look forward to if you slip up.
/sweeps up
...As an aside, I don't know if I'm surprised or impressed that you seem to have kept up on that.
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[Track record as far as death goes. It's an intriguing thing to thing about. Jade would have already tested it himself, save for the fact that... well, he doesn't want to just kill himself for no reason. The fact that death doesn't matter here is exactly why. ...He knows himself too well.]
Your magic system bears some similarities to how 'magic' works in my world. Thanks to that, it wasn't difficult to follow.
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Is that right? And am I to guess you're your world's equivalent of a magus, then?
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How one gathers those fonons is by opening one's fon slots--which are similar to those Magic Circuits you mentioned, save that they are natural. Everything has at least some, up to and including the planet itself.
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Seven different varieties...let me guess, they correspond to elements? [That sounded logical enough to Waver, at least. Though he wasn't entirely certain he could come up with more than five basic elements used in magecraft.]
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[...He says that with a completely straight face.]
That's correct, although the Seventh Fonon is a special case and doesn't correspond to any particular element, though it has its own unique properties, such as healing. All fonons are otherwise particles of sound and have their own tone. The First Fonon is darkness, the Second is Earth, the Third is wind, then water, fire, and light.
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[so humble, these two.]
Hm...that's a unique approach to it. Magic based on particles of sound... [Trailing off, Waver considered this carefully. The implications alone were fascinating. Magic was already more of a science than anything else, but from what Jade was saying, his own sounded even more so. He almost wanted to ask if spellcasting involved musical instruments, but it sounded too absurd even for this subject matter.] I'm even having trouble comprehending it--how utterly fascinating.
Magi in my world commonly have an affinity with a specific element, sometimes even two or several. Their affinity determines certain abilities or in some cases makes specific magecraft easier to perform. While healing is something of its own subject, I think very few magi are incapable of it.
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And it could. It usually didn't, but it could. Melodists were no longer in vogue either, but they still existed. Exist, really, with Tear in the Tower.]
Oh? It's the opposite where I'm from. The Seventh Fonon is something one must be born with, which is a relatively rare phenomenon, so Healers are always in demand. As far as the other elements are concerned, usually someone has an affinity with one or two fonons; it's unusual to be able to use multiple ones well. I, of course, can use the First through Sixth with no problems.
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Sorry for the wait!
That is quite stupid. Technology is remarkably useful, after all. So, why is it that you don't seem to agree with the opinions of your fellow magi, Waver?
no problem!
[Duh, Jade.]
Honestly. Tradition's all well and good, but there's no need to adhere so strictly to it as to disregard literally everything else. It's all massively irritating.
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Oh, is that so?
[...hey, what is that supposed to--]
I imagine you must be the black sheep of the family, then--so to speak. People who value tradition highly throw such fits when those around them want to move away from them.
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My Magic Crest only goes back for three generations; compare that to the family I work for, whose tenth head took over a few years before all this tower nonsense happened. What that essentially means for me is that I am not ordinarily one whose opinion matters much.
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[...not that Jade looks at all apologetic or sad for Waver, or really anything beyond his own blase deadpan, but for him, this is normal.]
Ahh, I see. That makes much more sense.
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I happened to gain a title and teaching position working for my former professor's family. If not for that, someone with such a pitiful lineage would never be taken seriously. Which is a problem, considering I'm the clever type one might want to listen to.
The whole system's annoyance after impractical annoyance--the whole of the Mage's Association is living squarely in the middle ages with a stubborn refusal to even acknowledge new ideas as anything but nonsense.
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[But Jade clearly is just being a smartass there, given his open amusement. He turns somewhat more serious the next moment.]
I can understand your frustration, though. Rules and laws exist for a reason, but they cannot properly guide society if they aren't updated when and where necessary. I don't envy you your struggle.
[Particularly since I was about to head into one of my own, he reflects, thinking of his intended attempt to repeal the laws against organic fomicry and resume more ethical research. Unfortunately, the world had ended before he could get anywhere with that.]
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