Ack. Stuff happened, some of it medical, and I completely forgot this thread was waiting for a post from me. Apologies.
That's about a third of it. Another third of my routine will be invisible - psychic training with Iggy as a partner. (This comprises mostly mind-reading applications, plus Conceal/Interrupt Thought, a few Awarenesses, and Flesh Armor).
For a little while (in the middle of the invisible routine), I stand facing Iggy and, at seemingly random intervals, a translucent pale green disk about six feet across will appear between us and linger for a few seconds before disappearing.
The remaining third involves me rehearsing various postures, pantomimes, and spoken lines of Spanish. Occasionally the Spanish is sung, and the pantomimes often involve wingnuts, sometimes placed in a circle around me. There is no observable effect. (MJ: this is because the components are being practiced in isolation, or two components practiced together in the absence of the third; as no complete ritual is being performed, there is no release of magic. My understanding is that this should allow practice even of those skills beyond the curve.)
I also read to Iggy a bit, but that's when the sun sets and isn't really considered part of the routine.
Edit: This post apparently started a new page; this edit is a note to Brock that MJ has a relevant post on the previous page, at the bottom.
This post is to correct a software hiccough that made Scott's latest invisible.
Scott, I agree with your assessment of practicing magic skills in pieces like that.
--M. J. Young
I would likely recognize the martial arts katas as such easily, and may even know some of them. I make a study of such things. Those are in part the things I use for my balance practice.
The disc fascinates me to no end. It reminds me of Tenser's floating disc from D and D, though it's green instead and I don't know if it is meant to carry weight for the caster. I'll ask him about it when he doesn't look busy anymore, which may take awhile by the looks of it.
These are not katas you know. Some of them are similar, I imagine.
The disk also differs from Tenser's in that it is oriented vertically, more like a barrier or shield than a load-bearing surface.
When you get around to asking:
"That? That's a force shield. It's probably a little risky to even be trying it here, but it's saved my life too often for me to let myself get rusty. And before you ask, no, I'm not teaching it to you - not before you have a solid background in matter and energy manipulatives. You'll blow up the island.
"Er, no offense. I have a friend who's always after me to teach him everything I know instantly, so I've learned to be brusque and . . . preemptive . . . about the things I'm not willing to pass on."
"That's not me," Iggy injects. "I'm happy to learn when the teacher thinks I'm ready."
--M. J. Young
I grin. "I have taught you well."
(I almost address him as "young grasshopper," but I catch myself just in time. I'd rather not have to explain that.)
(I would have understood that reference easily, young grasshopper. Not that it matters.)
"I don't see myself as trying to suddenly conjure forth barriers of energy from nothing without any background in such things. No worries."
Afterward, I'll remember I didn't do my own practice in a while, and perform some balance enhancing exercises of my own.
(I know you'd get it; I meant Iggy, whom I was addressing. His pop culture education is on an as-needed basis.)
As you move into a position, you are suddenly tossed to the ground as the island itself shakes--and then stops shaking so quickly it's hard to know whether it really happened.
--M. J. Young
"Oh crap. This might be it. Well, it was nice knowing the two of you. Maybe we will meet up again sometime."
actually, I likely would have used the s word, but I think I remember it being mentioned somewhere that kids read these boards.
I grab my backpack and swing it over my right shoulder, grab my staff in my left, then eye the volcano apprehensively for a minute.
Is the steamy cave at the right angle from the mountain that I could go inside, and the lava would flow past it, or over the entrance, or something of the sort, with little or none of it going in? Or, more to the point, does my character, with his limited information, believe it might be so?
Yeah, and count me as one of them. I find vulgarity unnecessary and demeaning, and although I understand why intelligent people would use it in rare instances, I would much prefer the written word to avoid it.
It is certainly possible that the cave might provide shelter of some sort against certain aspects of a volcanic eruption from the mountaintop. Certainly if there were flying boulders or falling hot cinders, they would be blocked from overhead. Flowing lava is harder to predict--obviously the cave entrance is below the stream bed, but lava that flows that direction might pour into the pool and spill outward toward the ocean.
Scott, what do you intend to do in response to the eruption of the volcano?
--M. J. Young
To Brock: "I'm not dead yet."
To Iggy: "C'mon, up. We're sticking together for now."
Scott, what do you intend to do in response to the eruption of the volcano?
Firstly: how much warning might my 1@10 Precognitive Danger Sense P12@1 (W6) provide, if successful? I imagine not much, and I'm not sure this danger is immediate enough to trigger it.
Placing the danger sense aside for the moment -
If I perceive that I have time, I will pack everything and get it on-person. Most things go in the pack; the bedroll and tent strap to the pack (it has an external frame), and the electric spear is carried. Most weapons and a few other bits of useful-on-short-notice equipment go elsewhere on my person, and Iggy rides my shoulder.
If I perceive that I do NOT have time to pack, I will simply gather it all into one pile and sit on it.
If I have packed, I will go to a place:
- near or on the shore,
- with overhead cover,
- of higher elevation than the ground/shore around it
I will already know the location on the island which best fits these criteria, having sought it out on my second day here. That location is not guaranteed to fit them well, of course, nor to be nearby. The idea is to distance myself from the epicenter and avoid direct lava flow while retaining some protection from ash sifting down from overhead. (I am aware that these precautions will not amount to much if the eruption is serious.)
I will not separate from my equipment voluntarily; IF at any point the destruction of my equipment occurs or becomes inevitable, I would prefer that my body share that fate (saving both for the next world). I would also prefer not to verse out separately from Iggy.
If it appears that I will be sandwiched between lava and the sea, I have an emergency escape plan (unlikely to work).
My defense against falling rocks is three-fold:
1) Danger Sense,
2) 2@2 Stationary Force Shield P10@1 6' instant activation 1 minute W6,
3) 1@5 Missile Evasion B7@4 RS=SM use limits attacks W5
My psi Resist Heat does not distinguish between internal and external, so it's curved out. If my 2@6 Flesh Armor P5@1 RS=SM (W2) works against falling rocks, I'll use that, too - if I see falling rocks.
_
For everything else, I'm responding case-by-case. I have not seriously prepared for this event beyond scouting out the location mentioned above. I do not attempt to coordinate my actions with Brock's, although if he attempts to interact with me I respond (if doing so does not risk my equipment).
Psi BRA: 2@2 (Persuasion)
Bod BRA: 2@1 (Willpower)
TV: 1@6
DV: 1@8
Hmm. I'll head to the cave and take my chances, because I don't know anywhere else to go on this island. Should not take me very long at all to get my stuff together, since it's all still packed.
cursing is rare with me, but situations like this would evoke a word or two, I imagine. I haven't been in one, so it's my best guess
I certainly understand the likelihood of cursing under stress. I'm quite comfortable with typing something like, "and a word escapes my lips which I would not say under ordinary circumstances", or as I wrote for one of the characters in the novel, "the word he wanted to say brought the memory of the taste of soap to his mouth."
Scott:
- I'm assuming that "W#" indicates the world in which you think you would have learned each skill initially. If it has some other meaning which might be more helpful, please clarify.
Precognitive danger sense is never much more than Spiderman's Spidey Sense, something that gives you a few seconds of warning. It's enough to dodge incoming rocks, but it won't tell you that the mountain is going to blow in thirty seconds versus three minutes, only if it's going to blow so soon you've got to jump for cover.
As far as a place like you describe, I might imagine that somewhere along the north shore probably a few miles from here there is a sheer or nearly sheer cliff face dropping into rocky water, with a narrow ledge half way down--which I think is not really terribly suitable for what you want, but is closest to the three required parameters. Otherwise, the rock outcropping on which you are camped sticks out almost like a pier, dropping off on two sides and the water end, and you could get in the shallow western surf at its base, standing on sand with maybe a forty foot high sheer smooth rock wall to your east maybe thirty or forty yards wide. That's the nearest thing I know on this island to what you describe, and it has the advantages that it is very close and might help explain why you're camped here.
Scott packs his things while Brock makes his way to the entrance of the cave. The water pouring in from above is still cool, and the air in the cave still sauna-like as you wade through the warm water of the pool. The ground shakes again.
You climb in about ten yards, but realize that it will be slippery and difficult to keep your footing with the shaking, so here you brace yourself, settling down against the wall.
Abruptly the world shakes again, and you think you've lost your bracing--but you realize it is not you that has moved, but the wall behind you. The tunnel in which you are sheltered collapses atop you, crushing and smothering you in seconds. You black out.
You awaken as Brock, Bleary-eyed or Starry-eyed.
--M. J. Young
Yeah, W# is my way of keeping track of the order of skill acquisition. Sometimes, if important details went unrecorded, knowing the world of origin will help me make a ruling.
Er, so, do we keep going, or allow Alternate Scott to vanish into the mists of NPCdom until the 'verse needs his services once more?
My feeling is that what happens to your character here is not that important. If Van-Eric reappears (vanished due to computer access problems) we'll want to play out your interaction with him, but otherwise this thread is pretty much in limbo. If it weren't for Van-Eric I'd tell you to go ahead and write your own demise however you like, but for the moment let's leave it for the possibility that the other newbie verser will want to finish his stay here.
Thanks much for your help. You were good.
--M. J. Young
Thank you! I tried.
What to do now, what to do . . . wait, didn't I have game thread here somewhere? And, like, three or four players I was running on the side?
Hm. In any case, agreement: limbo for the current thread.