INTROS + MONTHLIES

[trainmasters]

Who: newbies + everyone
When: Day 56, late morning
Where: The Aurora and surrounding area

[Yet again this morning, you get an announcement on your Chain:

WELCOME NEW HEROES

Newbies are waking up in their rooms, in pyjamas or in nondescript team-coloured underwear. As usual they get the basic welcome message, as well as a prompt to view the IC guide.

When you're done welcoming them, or while you're at it, you'll notice that while clocks say it's late morning, the sun has still not risen. As it was on the first Star, the sky remains dark and empty and the air somewhat cold. Not cold enough for the frost you see on the windows, though...

From a distance, the frost looks like a typical wintery pattern of ice, beautiful and delicate. But on inspection it's not frost at all -- it's a sugary mold climbing up the sides of the train and, outside the immediate clearing, growing in thick fuzzy patches on the trees and bushes.

Touching or inhaling this mold will cause your skin to start to crystallize painfully into sugar. Physical affection will heal you, but it'll also give you a psychic link to the person you touched. For a few hours you can sense eachothers emotions, and in some cases even share thoughts or memories.

The mold will last for the remainder of the OOC month, but who knows what else tomorrow will bring!]

Comments

[shintaiprotagonist]

I'll keep that in mind. Though I hope that I'll keep my need for help to a minimum.

[peering interestedly at her diagram]

[bowtiedbones]

And remember you can't do bonds solo!

[it looks almost complete except for one large circle that isn't closed, and one smaller circle that isn't closed either. she points at the latter.]

Could you stand in this circle here? Just in case of accidental interference.

[shintaiprotagonist]

Of course.

[steps into it; if Eliza's paying close attention, she might notice his eyes take on a faint crystalline gleam as he instinctively activates his magesight, the better to watch her work]

[bowtiedbones]

[Eliza doesn't notice— but Lori does. there's a sudden sharp tapping noise from the skeleton rapping her beak on the perch, and Eliza gets up to go collect her familiar.

on returning, she adds a line of script around the circle he's standing in]

Be careful with that.

[shintaiprotagonist]

Is there danger in watching?

[bowtiedbones]

It's probably safe, but it's an unfamiliar magic to me. I have to keep track of all energies going in and out of the circle.

[shintaiprotagonist]

I'll be cautious, then.

[bowtiedbones]

This should be enough to keep any accidents happening, anyways.

[closes the chalk circle around him and a ward goes up. nothing changes with plain sight, but with magesight it's something like a 2-way mirror. fragile enough that it can be physically broken, but he's hidden from outside forces and while he can see out, any magics beyond that can't leave the circle either.]

[shintaiprotagonist]

[carefully resists the temptation to metaphysically lean against the ward, keeping his power close and within its bounds]

It would be a poor return on your hospitality if I caused such a thing.

[bowtiedbones]

And potentially dangerous for you, too.

[goes back to the main circle to doublecheck her marking, Lori on her shoulder. unsurprisingly for a skeleton familiar, she is covered in magic, all her bones wrapped up in spells like so many tiny wires.]

[shintaiprotagonist]

[watching this with great interest, and letting her work without comment now that she's in the final prep stage]

[bowtiedbones]

[stoops down to close the circle, activating the array. magic runs from eliza and lori into the pattern, cycling like water in a system. nothing's happening to the bones yet, but they're waiting, enticing.]

It might take a little while. Snakes aren't hard to find, but they have a long way to travel.

[shintaiprotagonist]

From the previous star, unless I misremember?

[that's sure nothing like the necromancy he knows, but it's fascinating regardless]

[bowtiedbones]

That's right. I'm using one of the corrupted skeletons. They're a little harder for the souls to attach to, but they're very robust and I have more corrupt skeletons than I do purified ones on account of how aggressive they were.

[shintaiprotagonist]

Does the corruption linger in the bones and affect the souls, or is it simply a residual effect of the differences in structure?

[bowtiedbones]

In this case it's a structural difference, but the dead from that star have been purified. I don't believe there's any corruption lingering in the bones, but I have had to take measures so that the mismatch doesn't create a vulnerability that can be taken advantage of by new corruption.

[shintaiprotagonist]

I see.

[bowtiedbones]

The original attempts I had every bone papered and scripted, but those weren't necessary as we got more of the star purified and I was able to set locational limits for where to draw souls from. And now that the whole thing is purified, they really only need a modified version of the framework used for incomplete or near-species skeleton composites.

[shintaiprotagonist]

[nods, fascinated]

And these frameworks are standardized, I take it?

[bowtiedbones]

More or less, yeah. Like for your common domestics, cats or horses or whatever, those have textbook frameworks.

[Lori clacks her beak loudly, interrupting. over in the array a shining net of Eliza's magic/soul is tightening around the skeleton, wrapping something into the shape of a snake]

[shintaiprotagonist]

[he straightens, attention caught by that; his magesight technique, the Essence-Dissecting Stare, is comprehensive enough to show him the immaterial and the soul as well as the movement of sorcery, and he's determined not to miss any of this]

[bowtiedbones]

[and there is a soul! at first, perhaps weirdly, the soul is in pieces, small scraps drifting in and out of the closing net until what's left has the shape of single whole soul, all held comfortably together by the now secure net and locked into its bones.

a piece of spellwork flickers and the skeleton lifts its head, two bright sparks glittering to life in its empty eye sockets]

And there we go! Welcome, Amber!

[shintaiprotagonist]

Welcome, indeed.

[bowtiedbones]

[the array go quiet and unpowered, and Eliza scuffs the outer lines of the summoning circle and the ward around Xian before going to pick up her new snakey friend. Amber is still wrapped in spellwork and the net, though nowhere near as tightly bound as Lori is.]

Do you want to hold her? She slithers like a real snake, no scales or muscle required!

[shintaiprotagonist]

I'd be happy to.

[offers her an arm to climb]