WEEK 1

[bathymetric]

Well, you've now met the brains of the operation, as well as the shockingly nice-looking young lady in charge of day-to-day business. Now all that's left is to get used to your accommodations - there's 24 other people in similar shoes to yours to meet in this building, you know! And who knows how much longer you might have them...

The daily routine in the facility quickly becomes obvious - the only way to tell time moment to moment is to check the strange device The Professor gave you, but at the same time every day the lights in and out of the facility go up, and at the same time every night they go down. Otherwise, it's almost maddening sometimes, how little happens in here. At least you have a few rooms with enough to hopefully keep you occupied. Who knows what secrets they might hold? And there's always that vending machine, if you can find something that fits in the coin slot...





MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY
FRIDAY | SATURDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Peace Week! Enjoy it while it lasts. Remember, office hours for The Professor's Assistant are over here if you're interested, while regains can be deposited over here! ]

Comments

[emberserker]

Everything he's said implies technology over magic. You said your specialty was tampering with machines; are you aware of machines being able to affect magic in turn?

[mouflon]

Not in that exact way, but I've seen enough that the idea doesn't sound remotely out of the question to me. I know about a machine advanced enough to replicate magic, after all.

[emberserker]

What? You could just make that?

[mouflon]

It's kind of a black box mystery, actually. No one knows who made it, or how. I doubt the Professor has anything on that level, but still, the technology involved would have to be super advanced either way, right?

[emberserker]

Certainly. We don't have anything remotely similar where I'm from, or there wouldn't be any purpose for holding GRANBELM.

[mouflon]

Sorry, you'll have to explain the concept to me. Something to do with all your magic being sealed up?

[emberserker]

[Anna rubs her forehead and takes in a breath.]

All right. Say the point of divergence is about 1,000 years in the past. Magic was common in societies throughout the world. However, because its power was so destructive when used for war, a group of elite sages sealed it into a different dimension, with only the barest trickles remaining. That seal is Magiaconatus. With it in place, the old mage bloodlines can only use the barest of magic, channeling it with the use of stones, and no mage can be born outside of the established family lines because they can't make connections that weren't already there.

Have you got that so far?

[mouflon]

[ Rin rests her jaw against her knuckles as she listens. Honestly, there are enough similarities to the world she knows for her to follow the explanation without trouble, but she isn't going to interrupt Anna's explanation to point them out. ]

Alright, makes sense.

[emberserker]

[Anna nods in approval and takes a deep breath.]

The world has lost almost all of its magic, but a small amount still remains. With that established, we can move on. Magiaconatus is still accessible, and built into it is a failsafe: a ritual we call GRANBELM. Every generation, mages from each family gather in one place to compete. Battles are held each full moon in a side dimension where Magiaconatus itself resides -- an illusion world it projects that reflects something in a participant's mind. We fight with constructs called ARMANOX that we create from our will.

GRANBELM lasts until only one participant remains; the others are eliminated by shattering the magic stones they're using, and even if your family's got a store of others, you have only one chance, so you can't re-enter. Of course, that's the most common way. If someone dies in action, they're also eliminated, but because they died in Magiaconatus, they'll be erased from history. It's a fate most would like to avoid.

That aside, it's been 1,000 years and there's never been a winner. But somebody will win and become the Princeps Mage, and I intend it to be me. The current GRANBELM is down to five mages after a little over a year, after all.

[mouflon]

[ Okay, this is all just familiar enough that it feels kind of weird. But it's the last part of Anna's explanation that really makes her wonder. ]

How hasn't there been a winner in that long? I mean, if you guys just keep going until there's only one person left, shouldn't it take care of itself?

[emberserker]

[Anna folds her arms and shakes her head.]

Magiaconatus was created by mages. Therefore, it's shaped by their will. What people have started to say over the years is that Magiaconatus has its own will, that it must approve the winner. It seems as good an explanation as any. Some people are destined to succeed, after all.

[mouflon]

Yeah, and not one winner in a thousand years has been worthy? Sounds to me like the seal is more permanent than you want to believe. Maybe you should give up on it and try to get with the times instead.

[emberserker]

[Anna snarls at that, but it doesn't seem like she's looking at Rin.]

You're being ridiculous. If it were permanent, why would any be leaking out in the first place, no matter how little? Not to mention that new one showing up -- ugh, never mind. It isn't as if it's anyone's business here.

[mouflon]

I'm just giving you my opinion as someone in a similar situation. [ Not that her delivery sounds particularly empathetic. ] Magi used to be a lot more powerful in my world, too. But the potency of magic dwindled as the world changed, and now the level of mana the earth produces has dropped so much it may as well not even be there. Clinging to old world customs is basically a death sentence, while those of us who got over ourselves and adapted are doing fine.

[emberserker]

You say that, and yet you talk about technology putting it back together. Why do you think the option is there if no one can truly ever win?

[mouflon]

You're jumping to conclusions. The Moon Cell is able to replicate magic — inside the fake realities it creates. What you're saying is that humans should run away to a fake world instead of facing reality.

[ The way she speaks those last words makes it clear she has nothing but disdain for the very suggestion. ]

[emberserker]

Of course not, that's ridiculous. What would you do instead, if you're so modern?

[mouflon]

Remember when I said one of my specialties is using magecraft to manipulate technology? The idea of working that closely to modern technology would be anathema to old world magi. It's a field that was only discovered within the last few decades.

Actually, speaking of that. You mentioned magic stones, didn't you? Tell me about them.

[emberserker]

We use them to channel our spells. The large ones you'd normally just hold, but the little ones are more common. Usually, those would be in an accessory we have on our person, like an earring or ring or hairclip -- or something.

[Anna shakes her head at "hairclip" as if she's trying to get something out of her head. She doesn't seem to have any accessory with a stone on her like she's describing.]

Inside the illusory world during GRANBELM, they're mirrored as the core of the mage's ARMANOX. Break the core, shatter the stone, since the two are connected.

[mouflon]

I asked because my other specialty as a magus is jewelcraft. Channeling mana directly through a stone is one thing you can do with it, yeah, but in the long term, it's a lot more efficient to use gems as a storage device. If you only have a few drops of magical energy at a time, putting them inside something else let's you save up until you have a full glass.

[emberserker]

I see. So you're essentially creating new magic stones with your own power.

[mouflon]

I guess you could look at it that way? But what I'm asking is if you couldn't come up with a way to do the same thing. Trap little bits of magical energy until you have a lot of it you can spend all at once.

[emberserker]

We used to be able to do something like that, but it's a lost art. Magic stones are only inherited now. No idea where that new girl got hers, but I'm sure it was from whatever family she came from. But finding a way to add power to what we've got would be useful to manage.

[mouflon]

When you say it's a lost art, do you mean the old method is no longer possible, or just that no one knows for sure how to do it anymore? If it's the latter, recovering that information seems like it should be Priority #1 to me. Actually, if it's the former, figuring out a new method should be Priority #1 anyway.

[ This is what she means about people getting too caught up on restoring the past to find a way forward!! ]

[emberserker]

With so little magic leaking out into the world, creating new magic stones hasn't been feasible. The way you describe it, though, I suppose it could. We can do so much more inside the illusory world, so perhaps it'd be possible there, but I'm not going to sit around in there waiting for someone to attack me because I'm busy doing something else. I have one goal in there.