[open] // a single thrown grenade

[fionnuisce]

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.]

Comments

[bloodyashes]

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.]

[fionnuisce]

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

[bloodyashes]

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.]

[fionnuisce]

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

[bloodyashes]

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.

[fionnuisce]

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

[bloodyashes]

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.]

[fionnuisce]

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

[bloodyashes]

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.]

[fionnuisce]

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?

[bloodyashes]

A few seconds to gather the appropriate fonons from the surrounding area is all.

[Waver's confused look gets a blink.]

Well, what else are you supposed to attack landships? It's possible to take one with infantry, but not terribly effective.