towerofanimus | [open] // a single thrown grenade

Characters: Waver and open
Date: Backdated to January 16th
Location: dorm floors, laboratory, infirmary, lounge
Format: starting in brackets
Summary: Nyx Avatar aftermath.
Warnings: Just Waver's terrible language, scarring, and mentions of death.

[dorm floors]

[Fuck this. Fuck all of it. That was the bottom line of Waver's current thoughts. He hadn't slept so much as a second the previous night; instead it had been spent taking care of his injuries and cleaning the blood off the golden spear he held even now, as he walked through the dormitory floors. Just over four and a half feet long, Waver carried the weapon at his side, parallel with his arm and blade pointed downwards to avoid hitting anything with it.]

[It could have been the lack of sleep that caused the unusual look on his face--but that was unlikely. Exhaustion alone wouldn't cause the utterly indifferent expression, and it wasn't known to cause the completely dead and blank look in his eyes. He'd gone beyond even dismissal and sarcasm now, skating headlong into halting and suppressing all emotional processes. They just weren't worth it, and he didn't need them. There was no time or energy to waste on such things, not when there still remained so much work to do in order to stand a chance of getting out of here. As soon as he'd returned that weapon to its owner, Waver intended to head straight for the laboratory.]

[This place and the work that needed to be done didn't require Waver Velvet--it required a proper magus, cold and analytical. Devoted to work and nothing more. If he was so wrapped up in his own pathetic problems, no one would survive or escape this place. Simple.]

[floor twenty-seven; laboratory]

[As focused as Waver usually was on whatever he was doing, today he was several times more so. Every hour or so he switched between studying his own research on the collar fluid to the regained notes written by Kayneth regarding Volumen Hydragyrum. Working as much as physically possible seemed a viable option, especially when placed next to the choice of doing nothing. Though the pace at which he seemed to be working suggested something about him was not entirely well, the same impassive stare remained on his face throughout.]

[Working, it seemed, was his main coping mechanism and reassurance. If not his only ones.]

[floor two; infirmary]

[By late afternoon, it occurred to Waver that he'd recieved his share of injuries in the previous day's fight. Self-preservation dictated he tear himself away from his work at that point and make his way to the infirmary. Most of what he'd suffered amounted to bruises and scratches, but even that could be problematic without being properly checked up on and cared for.]

[He discarded his dark green suit jacket and black shirt, tossing both to the silver maid that stood behind him--scars from jagged stab wounds were visible on his shoulder, while a slightly more recent and neater one was clear on his right forearm. Regarding the utter mess he was with blank indifference, Waver glanced over the bruises and scratches from yesterday before starting to bandage up the latter. If he ended up getting some kind of infection, he might have ended up more annoyed than he already was.]

[floor four; lounge]

[Deciding to wander aimlessly and stretch his legs for a bit before returning to the lab, Waver found himself standing in the lounge staring out the window. By now the lecturer looked distracted more than he did blank and cold--it could have been that something outside caught his interest, but more likely was that he was utterly lost in thought as to what to do or where to go with his research from there.]

[Nothing else mattered anymore, did it? As long as Waver could work out a way for everyone to live through this place, his own loosening grip on sanity would be a small price to pay. So screw it all--he'd ignore everyone and everything, and devote himself only to research and working to escape. Everything else could take second priority.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Fascinating.

[Though he didn't sound very interested, Waver tapped his fingers on the table in thought.]

Until now I had expected that the fault of our replicated forms. But now that you say that, I wonder if power cancellation is some attribute of the tower, or of those animals themselves.

Edited 2014-01-22 03:17 (UTC)

[It's interested enough when you're used to Jade.]

Or that even with the modified fluid, there's still some sort of limit in place. Something at any rate.

[The Seventh Fonon is there, or feels like it is, but it won't respond the way it feels like it should, the way it even did under the glamour.]

Multiple layers of suppressants, maybe. I'll keep a closer watch on the other teams' reports and see if I can pick out anything suspicious.

If there's anything else I notice, I'll let you know.

[Grump grumble.]

Every part of you is here my ass...

You're taking it well, at least.

[Waver might have been a raving lunatic if he found out his magecraft didn't work, after all the trouble he'd gone through with his Magic Crest.]

It's not a final verdict. My artes are still weaker than they should be, and my hyperresonance isn't functional.

[Asch hasn't realized yet that hyperresonance isn't coming back.]

Give it a little time, then. I think mine's mostly recovered, but with nothing but glamour-based material to work with who the hell knows.

Well, you're not holed up in your dorm anymore.

[Yeah, he noticed.]

Yes, the ability to walk without nearly fainting from agonizing pain is a clear advantage.

[:|]

An improvement, certainly.

[Forevergrumps. He wouldn't trade Waver, though, he doesn't need any more agony in his life.]

As I told Jade, it's hardly any fault of mine that magic is utter bullshit in my world.

[There's a brief moment where Asch blinks in something resembling surprise, but, then again, it's Jade. He can't imagine there's anyone else who'd be able to keep up with the subject. Jade Curtiss just gets his claws in everything.]

I'd offer to teach you ours, but I doubt it'd work here if you can't already sense fonons.

He explained the concept and general mechanics to me, but I'm afraid it's beyond what my world's magic is capable of. Quite a shame, really.

I have a book, if you'd like to borrow it.

[Maybe studying something would make Waver relax a little, too.]

...Do you?

[If slightly raising an eyebrow was indicative of an improved mood, then it might have been safe to assume that was a good topic to approach.]

It's low level fonology, more of an academic approach than I had.

[Military life problems. His skill with fonic artes compared to what they can be used for by experts is about the same as his skill with hyperresonance compared to Lorelei's - good for blowing things up and not much else.

Jade probably knew all the information in it by the age of six.]

Considering I'm a teacher, I'm likely obligated to think the academic approach would be the most efficient way to study it.

For someone like you who can only approach it from the theoretical, I'm inclined to agree. I would probably have preferred to learn that way myself.

[Sadly it wasn't to be.]

That's unfortunate. Theoretical approaches to this kind of thing often are the simplest methods.

Not always. The way I was taught was through feeling the fonons and manipulating them - trying to teach the theory in that method would be something like trying to teach someone theory in how to untangle their hair.

The practical approach isn't always applicable where I'm from, unfortunately. Oftentimes it simply doesn't come quite so naturally.

It's not the best method in most research cases, but it serves military purposes well enough.

[Which, if the uniform hadn't been a giveaway - now you know, Waver.]

Yeah, about that. How the hell does the military even work when everyone's presumably shooting magic everywhere?

The average person isn't skilled enough to control more than one or two small artes at best, and the less skilled you are, the longer they take to cast. Wars on Auldrant are primarily fought with traditionally armed infantry and large-scale fonic cannons that have to be prepared ahead of time.

[Now, see, this is his specialty.]

Really--but you don't need any sort of preparation time for basic artes? Magic circles, materials, that kind of thing?

[asch this shit is weird.]

...Excuse me, cannons?

(no subject)

bloodyashes - 2014-01-23 01:47 (UTC) - Expand