lostcarnival | [open] december will be magic again

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[open] december will be magic again

Who: everyone!
When: the evening of D15
Where: A small meeting hall on the moon, close to the portal to the carnival
What: a whole bunch of show-offs meet up to show off their magic, people interested in magic come to learn about said magic, and other people show up to see if something inevitably gets set on fire. (aka mage club)
Warnings: none so far, will edit if needed.

The meeting hall is a large open space, with hardwood floors and a rustic decor. A few chairs and tables are scattered around, though there aren't enough for the amount of people who'll hopefully show up. Some food has been set out: mostly finger foods (tiny sandwiches, fruit, veggies & dip) though there are some savory options and plenty of home-baked cookies, courtesy of Rin. Drink wise, there's water, hot chocolate, hot tea, and a few bottles of wine because tipsy magic sounds like an awesome idea and this is what happens when the alcoholic makes the dinner menu. Aside from the food table and the few tables, there's not much of anything in the room: plenty of open space for showing off or getting out of the way of someone who wants to show off.

One of the doors of the meeting hall leads to the outside. There's a wider, 'backyard' sort of area with plenty of room for people to cast magic as large and impressive as they want. A fire pit stands outside also for warming your hands and other fire-based magic. Please don't set the building on fire.

This is all very informal. If pressed for details, Strange would have told anyone to just come whenever, stay as long as you like, and so on and so forth. The emphasis is on learning about each other's magic, displaying one's skills and talents, and helping anyone who wished to learn magic decide on a path for them to take.

Showing off is just a given.

( ooc: This is an open mingle log! Feel free to make your own top-levels & tag around! )

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"Bored? Not at all." Rita shakes her head. But since he's called her out on her stalking, she goes ahead and takes a few steps closer so they can talk properly.

"Sure, your magic isn't the most exciting, but simple spells have some merits. For one, they're easier to pick apart and compare to similar spells." In other words, it wasn't just the flame itself she was looking at, but the magic in it.

Lambert snorts.

"Not much to pick apart here. Witcher magic's as simple as it gets." He dismisses the flame with a last twist of his fingers. With Rita's third eye, there really isn't much to see but energy dissipating into the air.

"Sorcerers were the ones who invented it in the first place," he finishes, hooking his thumbs idly into his pockets. "They needed to dumb it down, or we'd never be able to use it."

"What, so you're calling yourself dumb?" That almost sucks the fun out of getting to say it herself.

Folding her arms, Rita leans against a nearby wall. "I still haven't met any sorcerers from your world, so unfortunately, your dumbed down techniques are my only window into seeing what their magic is like." With the events of the ball, that isn't entirely true anymore, but Rita doesn't know otherwise.

"Too busy learning how to kill things. Doesn't leave much room for anything else." Lambert grins, apparently unashamed of being "dumb" in this regard. He retrieves his mug to take a swig of his drink before he continues.

"I know how to use it, but if you want theory, you're better off trying to find a book. We learn enough to cast signs and break curses ... but that's all."

"You haven't forgotten about my vision, have you? I don't necessarily need a verbal explanation in order to work out a magic theory." Rita shows him a smirk that oozes with smugness. "I've picked up a new technique to help with that, in fact. Now I can analyze all kinds of spells and magic objects the same way I do with blastia."

"I haven't, but I didn't know you could do that," Lambert answers, amusement in his voice and in his expression as he studies Rita. She's too confident by far -- as all mages seem to be -- but the conversation with 9S, so fresh in his mind, makes him think that isn't necessarily a bad thing, in this case.

"All right, let's see what you've got. Step back," he adds, and that's all the warning she'll get before he makes a gesture she's never seen before, sharp and aimed downward. Hourglass-like sigils spring up in a circle around him, glowing with a faint purple light ... but to Rita's eyes, perhaps, it looks different. The air inside the circle seems warped somehow, as though it's being perceived through a heat haze or smoke, blurring the edges of the witcher's form.

Rita steps back to give him space, but when the spell is conjured, she takes another one back, sensing the distortion in the air contained in the spell’s area.

“Let’s take a look, then,” she says decisively, then waves a hand to bring up a glowing interface in the air between herself and the spell, complete with a keyboard and display. The display reveals an arrangement of shapes and runes. Prominent among them is one that Lambert would recognize as that same hourglass-like sign.

Well now, isn't that fancy? Lambert can't read a lick of those runes, though he recognizes the symbol.

"It's called Yrden," he says, stepping out of the circle -- which remains intact -- so he can step around and see what Rita does next. He's curious how much her new spell will actually be able to unravel from observation alone, so he won't say anything more than that, folding his arms and watching her work.

"Hmm," is all Rita says at first, her attention apparently consumed with the information on the display.

"This distortion... I see. It'll slow down anything caught inside it." This is her first time seeing Lambert's magic in clear detail like this. It is relatively simple, but there's an elegance in that simplicity. And...

"That's not all, is it? What is this...?" It's not clear if she's asking Lambert or asking the magic, but she continues tapping away at the keyboard, staring at the screen, seemingly expecting an answer to come from somewhere soon.

So it does work, which is why Lambert isn't going to do more other than stand there with a slow grin spreading across his features.

"That's right. You've got half of it." It's a useful test of Rita's ability: if she can't figure out something like this, the most complex of Lambert's limited spells (not counting turning into a goddamn dragon, anyway) that she's unfamiliar with, then she's not going to be much use out there, when it counts.

"Trap, bind, form..." she murmurs as the analysis continues. It's like deciphering a foreign language, in a way. Even if she can tell what the words mean, the structure is unfamiliar, and she lacks the full context. "Form...? How would that..."

Rita can see all the pieces. She just has to fit them together in a way that makes sense.

"Something like... giving form to the formless. Binding them into one state, preventing them from shifting to another... making the intangible, tangible." Her train of thought soon reaches a conclusion, but it leaves her wondering: "What would you use that for?"

It's enough of a demonstration to impress Lambert, so he'll fill in the rest of the picture for her from here.

"Specters and wraiths are hard to hit without a body," he explains. "Some vampires turn into mist or smoke. Yrden's a magic trap -- it forces them into something tangible enough to aim at." Even as he speaks, the runes fade away and dissipate, the small burst of power sustaining it running out at last.

"It's a handy sign for whenever you're up against something faster than you. Gives you a fighting chance, anyway."

There's a slight souring in Rita's expression at the mention of specters and wraiths. She still has a very big problem with ghosts existing, or... ghost-like things, or whatever the hell they are.

But... that context clears up what she saw on the display, at least. When the spell fades away, the display goes blank for a moment, then vanishes entirely.

"So that's it... The structure of the spell was pretty interesting to look at, in any case," she reports, lips curling in a slight smile. "Simplistic, yes, but it seems like it wouldn't be too hard to alter or build on it." That's a sign of good utilitarian design, as far as Rita's concerned.

For a mage? Probably not. Anything a sign can do a mage can do better. But Lambert's only a witcher. Still, her obvious pleasure is a good sign, something that makes him perk up though he tries to downplay it.

The slight wag of his tail and the way his ears prick forward makes that hard to hide, though.

"Can you do that?" he asks, much better at tempering the excitement in his voice than in his wayward additional body parts. "Build on it, I mean."

A smirk spreads across Rita's face. "Who do you think I am? Of course I can do it."

Sure, she only got a relatively brief look at the 'formula' that makes up Lambert's spell... but she understood the components well enough to figure out what they do, and it wouldn't take much longer to work out ways to improve upon the magic. It would then be up to Lambert to learn to invoke the new version of the spell... but that ought to be doable for him.

"Making new spells, improving on existing ones... That happens to be one of my specialties."

"Whatever you figure out, don't forget to make it easier for the rest of us. We can't all be magical prodigies."

It's a legitimate concern, if you ask Lambert. People like Rita tend to leave others behind. He frowns, glancing down at his hand as he tries to remember how he was taught magic so long ago...

"To cast a sign, we were always thought you need two things," he says, finally, holding up a hand and slowly shaping his fingers into the separate gestures for Yrden, though it doesn't generate another trap. "A gesture, and will. It's meant to be cast one-handed, and quickly." Also, hopefully while your other's holding a sword to stab into whatever you're up against.

"So whatever you change, that's got to stay the same, or it's not going to be something I can use."

As he goes through the requirements, Rita nods in a manner that could almost be seen as dismissive, but really, she's just eager. "Got it. Should be a cinch, for me."

She's confident, but Lambert's concerns aren't unfounded. Leaving others behind is something Rita's been known to do. Still, she knows that a true expert is one who's capable of explaining their ideas to laymen in an understandable way. This is a little more in-depth than a summary of a research topic... but the principle is the same.

"I'll need to see that spell again so I can take some notes and try tweaking it," she tells him.

"All right," Lambert nods, taking a few steps away again. "I'll do it slower, this time."

He's as good as his word, moving through the motions of the spell slowly enough that each gesture is recognizable and distinct instead of being a blur of moving fingers. The spell, though, is cast as swiftly as ever, though Lambert stays in the middle of it this time, raising his brows at Rita as he waits on further instruction.

"I can show you others, if you want to compare them."

Rita's hands are practically a blur as she grabs a pen and notepad from her pockets and quickly makes notes about the casting process. Once the spell is active again, it has her full attention.

"Maybe in a bit," she answers, somewhat dismissively, as she raises a hand to bring up the interface once more. While the first time, she was more focused on observing the spell's composition, this time her fingers tap rapidly against the keyboard while her eyes remain glued to the display.

"First, I'll see if I can make its activation time longer, so I can get a better look..." The shapes in the display change, apparently being edited by whatever she's typing. "--Ooh, this looks promising..." She's talking more to herself than to Lambert. In fact, it seems she may have forgotten he's there.

Lambert has the distinct feeling he's just become very irrelevant to discussion, but that works out well enough, doesn't it? Rita has that look of a mage who doesn't want to be disturbed, and he really doesn't want to interrupt her if she's on to something, but...

"So, should I get myself a drink and come back later?"

"Do what you want," Rita replies flippantly. She tweaks the code a bit more, and some kind of magic energy crackles dangerously within the circle. A grin spreads across Rita's face, and she chuckles giddily to herself as she continues to type on the interface.

'Doing what he want' is, apparently, exactly that, because he knows to stay well clear of a magic with that sort of manic glint in their eye. So Lambert's going to amble off and come back fifteen minutes later with more wine for himself, and a plate of cookies to split with Rita.

"What've you got?"

Now that she's had a chance to explore the spell's composition, Rita's a little more open to conversation now than she was a few minutes ago.

"With a few relatively simple changes, I can expand the offensive uses of this spell. Take a look." She steps away, then conjures a flame in her hand, which takes the form of a bird. It circles around them once before flying straight toward the circle. "Let an enemy wander too close, and... zap!" In that instant, there's a crackle in the air as some kind of purplish electricity shoots out at the bird, disintegrating it on the spot.

Of course, the bird itself was just a construct made for this demonstration, and its flashy demise might have been influenced slightly by Rita's recent work in special effects... but she's made her point, and she looks plenty pleased with it.

Flashy effects or not, the idea behind it is something Lambert can get behind. He glances between the circle and Rita, raising his brows.

"Not bad," he allows, though he'll hold off on looking too impressed for now. Can't have Rita getting too much of an ego, after all; mages are already pretty egotistical as it is. It's a pretty impressive feat working on altering a spell she's never seen before now, but as always, the proof is in the execution.

"How do I actually cast it?"

That is the question, isn't it? Rita taps her chin as she looks over the altered code some more. How to translate this into something so simple, it can be used without knowing the intricacies of this formula...?

"Hmm... You said that using signs requires a gesture and will. What do you normally focus on when using the sign? The key might be in changing the way you think while casting."

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