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 Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 11:21 am
Niter understood why Jet wanted to know what his magic was. When they'd gone to a Cat and found out his sphere of influence, it wasn't like "the interstice" said much about what he could do. Even something like fire, or ice, or lightning wasn't descriptive enough of how those attacks worked, so he got that every new senshi necessitated some target practice.
The problem wasn't the exercise. If Jet could take the magic, then that was a perfectly controlled way to figure out what he could do.
The problem was that Niter didn't want to disappoint everyone when they found out his magic was useless. He didn't now what kind of magic he could have, but he had a sinking feeling that, whatever it was, it wasn't going to get him anywhere. What if it was like… Punishment for intentionally gimping his characters in iterative Dark Souls games? What if the universe thought that, since he was good at games, he'd be good at fighting too? That sounded terrible. And it would probably disappoint Jet.
But so would lateness, so he dragged himself down to the training rooms with a few minutes to spare. It took asking an idle Captain for directions, so Niter was recovering from emotionally shitting himself (and was, thus, still a little sweaty) by the time he reached the door. He knocked, because he thought he felt someone in there.
Maybe it was Jet, or maybe it was a different General waiting to train their new subordinate. Niter wove a braid around his knuckles as he waited.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2022 10:21 am
"You can come in," Jet called to the door when he heard the knock. He'd already removed his cape and his jacket, so all that was left was the black shirt he wore underneath, still tucked into his pants. His sleeves had been rolled up and he was busy pushing some of the training equipment into a more organized line against the corner of the room. They would have been useful for weapon training, but for magic? He wanted to make sure nothing caught on fire or froze or exploded.
"Everything okay?" he asked, noting the way Niter looked nervous. He didn't blame him. It was always a little strange getting used to new things. But he had a sphere Jet had never heard of before, and he wanted to make sure they could both play off of its strengths and minimize its weaknesses.
"We can start whenever you're ready," he offered, not wanting to crowd Niter if he needed some time to prepare himself, or sit down, or anything. Besides, neither of them were much into small talk, so there was no point in filling the silence with pointless droning.
"Go ahead and use your magic on me. Senshi usually have a few times they can use their magic, but it varies. We'll start close up, and then I can go farther away to see how far your range is," he explained, because it was important for Niter to know if he could attack from afar or not.
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Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2022 3:26 pm
Niter edged into the room and shut the door quietly. If he could've become a potted plant, if his magic allowed him to do so, now would've been the time to do it. And anytime thereafter when someone needed him.
"I've never uh. Fought someone before? Is that what this is?" Niter wasn't sure what else to call it. Using magic on someone else, especially when he didn't know what the magic did, sounded like a fight in the making. Maybe he'd have some kind of heal or buff magic, but anything else? That'd be like punching someone in the face, right?
What if Niter called down a meteor or something? Jet seemed nonchalant about it, but — "How do you know it won't kill you, or turn you into a slug, or whatever?"
If Jet was aware of some framework of rules to magic, Niter wasn't privy to that knowledge himself. It'd be easier — better — if he knew. He'd rather not cast instant death on his commanding officer. He was pretty sure the blonde one would murder him twice.Not that Niter would've lived past his own shock and horror.
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Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2022 9:38 am
“That would be actually very useful if you could kill me or turn me into a slug,” Jet said thoughtfully as he adjusted his already rolled up sleeves as though that would help him prepare for… anything, really.
“If it’ll make you feel better, I’ll sign a note saying you had permission to use your magic on me. Just in case,” he said, not quite joking but not entirely serious, either. His expression remained neutral because it was important that they find out what Niter’s magic did.
“I’ve fought Senshi who have trained to kill, so I think I can handle your magic. Most is an illusion of some kind, or causes an emotional response. Obviously I don’t know how Senshi magic works, but try to… feel it…? Somewhere inside you. You don’t have to fight if you really don’t want to, but you should know what your magic does so you can use it to defend yourself. That cat we got your pen from said your magic sphere was interstice. I had to look it up because I wasn’t sure, but it has to do with spaces in-between things, I believe. So… you might turn me into a slug… or make me think I’m one,” he said thoughtfully, wondering what to expect, but also prepared for it. He had no idea what in-between spaces could do as magic.
“Don’t worry,” he promised, and braced himself for whatever it was Niter’s magic did.
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Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2022 3:06 pm
Jet as a slug, though… Niter envisioned Jet as a space-slug, the length of a forearm, lovingly cradled in Aqua's arms. Then he decided his magic probably wouldn't make him relive the secret ending on Bloodborne.
But then Jet said it might, and he was right back to that ending. Oh, but what if he turned into a winter lantern… Niter didn't think he could survive that encounter, even if it lasted seconds. Frenzy was just, like that.
"Right. Trying to feel it." He wasn't sure what he was supposed to feel. He looked at Jet, then at his hands, then scratched the back of his head, then started to tangle his fingers in his hair as he normally did, until he realized the length of it made that prohibitively difficult. So he abandoned the idea of toying with his braids.
Niter half-expected to will some kind of slug magic into existence. Instead, all he felt was nervous. And he had a song stuck in his head.
'"Sorry." Other senshi probably had this down like it was barely a thought, and he was standing around struggling with it. I keep trying to feel some word, or gesture, or something? But all I can think of is this dumb song."
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Posted: Mon May 02, 2022 1:03 pm
Jet nodded a little in understanding. It wasn’t always easy, which was why they were working on things now rather than just letting Niter out into the world without any idea of how to use his magic.
“Maybe you need something else to motivate you?” he wondered, and took the necessary steps over to the side of the room where he could pick up a practice pole. It wasn’t quite like his blades, but the length was there.
He had no intention of actually hurting Niter. He was more than capable of pulling his punches, so to speak, but Niter didn’t have to know that.
“How about it? Use your fists if you have to. Or maybe sing your dumb song? What is it?”
Jet didn’t attack yet and was going to see if this song Niter was thinking of would be enough to pull whatever his attack was from his subconscious. If that didn’t work, he would just hit him with the stick. And if that didn’t work, maybe he would borrow a youma or two.
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Posted: Thu May 12, 2022 4:10 pm
Niter stared at Jet, distressed and astonished and entirely convinced that he would be knocked around by that pole until he spat out some magic. Jet said to use his fists — sure, Niter had plenty of practice with that in video games. He could get fairly competent at fighting games, and even make caster builds in Dark Souls and bloodtinge builds in Bloodborne. He might even stomp Jet in a virtual arena.
But punching him with Niter's actual fists? He had not a damn clue how to do it, less of a clue than trying his magic, and he heard people broke their hands if they didn't punch correctly.
Breaking his hands meant the end of his streaming schedule for a long damn time.
"I can try." Once he had some distance on that pole, Niter whistled what he had remembered.guine Interstitial Aria ;;
Range: 10' of self
Duration: 30 seconds
Use Count: 2
Miss Chance: Target moves out of distance before the tune ends, or the object is dismissed
Effect: Nycticorax hums a short tune. An interstellar cloak enfolds the target if it is within 10' of Niter. A nonliving magical target is banished to the interstice, a sort of in-between space, like if reality had a separate layer beneath it. The interstice is more of a shadow realm and not an actual location. The target is unhurt, unseen, and untouchable. When the time expires, the target will return to reality within a 10' radius of Niter.
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Posted: Sat May 28, 2022 5:54 pm
Jet didn’t want to hurt Niter, but getting a couple bruises now was better than getting killed by a Senshi or Knight. He’d seen it happen, otherwise he wouldn’t be so worried about it. He didn’t want someone as quiet and unobstructive as Niter getting himself killed.
But then Niter started humming, and they were enveloped by some magical cloak. Good. Jet immediately started counting in his head, listening to the sound of Niter’s song and taking careful steps in time with the music, but never moving farther away from Niter as he did so.
Jet lifted his hand to see if he could touch whatever was surrounding them, and tried feeling for anything hurting him.
He had the pole still lowered by the time the magic faded, and he nodded approvingly.
“Around twenty-five to thirty seconds I think. Is it connected to that song? It didn’t hurt, but your magic will grow with you. Could you see what I could? If I didn’t know it was magic, I probably would have been afraid to move. Didn’t want to fall into some void. I want you to try it again and I’m going to see how far it can reach. You’ll probably want to make sure you can use it without physically making noise,” he suggested, because that seemed like trouble waiting to happen. “Ready when you are.” Strickenized Jet has played almost no video games. Niter could absolutely beat him in a virtual arena. orz
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Posted: Sun May 29, 2022 6:43 am
He saw something, but Niter wasn't sure what he was seeing. Looked like space dipped down to greet Jet, almost, but kind of a different space? Like if space had no color. Or maybe — it felt like something he'd see if he could noclip into something and found empty space instead of whatever kind of solid it was.
"I saw something?" Niter crossed his arms in thought. "Like if life had some behind-the-scenes props or stuff. Did it do anything?" Because if it did, Niter didn't see it.
And Jet was upping the ante. Do it again, but farther away and without any noise. Could Niter like… pantomime the song? Or think it? Was that a thing? Or did he have to whistle every time? If he did, he could see getting reticent to use it because it sounded dumb, or embarrassed him. And that sounded not great for survival.
"Okay, I'll try." Niter looked behind himself as he backed up a few paces. He wasn't sure if magic had a usual range, and Jet wasn't giving any suggestions about that, so he guessed it was all new territory with every senshi.
Because he had zero conducting experience and wouldn't know how to gesture out a song anyway, he thought the tune. Then he waited, hoping he could see something happen to Jet.guine bonus points if his pants vanish
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 4:56 pm
Jet shook his head, but paused and looked down at himself to make sure everything was intact before shaking his head once more.
“Not physically that I can tell, but I bet it would freak some Senshi or Knights out.” He certainly hoped it would.
Once Niter started using his magic again, that same strange cloak of space between spaces seemed to fold over on him. Now that he knew what to expect he tried experimenting a little more. He used his hand to reach out and try to touch anything, and took several steps backwards until--
“Oh,” he said in surprise and turned around to see that Niter was still closer than the space he seemed to have moved. “That’s some pretty good trap magic, I think. I don’t know if anyone would think of what to do inside it. Maybe they think it would hurt them, or if they’re in a dangerous location already, not knowing if they end up moving somewhere that they’d get hurt.” Like off a cliff…
“I guess this is as far as your magic would reach, so make sure anyone you use it on is closer. Not ideal, but once you get some experience, we’ll see about getting you more power,” he explained. “Good job with not using any noise though. Creepy as ******** when you do hum…” he admitted with a small grimace of a grin. Strickenized W-would his magic do that? o__o
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Posted: Sun Jun 19, 2022 7:24 am
Niter chewed his lip. Leave it to him to get the garbage magic that he had to hardcore min-max just to stay competitive with the other Negaverse Basics.
So it's trap magic, but not trap magic that actually trapped anyone. He guessed that made sense from a real-life standpoint — magic was all smoke and mirrors, and his magic didn't do much of anything. If he actually had to fight people, then he needed to learn how to do karate or something… Maybe he could pick up some tai chi from his mom.
So that was a bust.
"Hopefully I don't, like, have to take voice lessons…" He cringed at the thought. Good singers got attention, and not only did he not want that kind of attention, but he also didn't want to find out that, if he hummed out of tune, his magic would tell him to get bent. Were there strict requirements for that kind of thing? He guessed he'd find out eventually…
"So, I didn't do anything, but I'm really tired?" What was that about? "Like I could lay on the ground and take a nap right now."
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Posted: Mon Jul 18, 2022 9:04 am
“I can help out with that if you’d like,” Jet said of Niter’s comment about voice lessons before he really thought about it. Was it weird that he knew how to sing? Or that he’d taken lessons himself? Not for years and years, but he still remembered the basics and he thought he wasn’t half bad at it. Perhaps one of his only very few talents.
He shuffled his feet and shook his head before Niter got overwhelmed by the offer, although Jet didn’t do or say anything that might indicate he wanted to rescind it.
“You’ll need some time for your magic to build back up. Uh… that’s how it works in video games, doesn’t it? You use up too much and you have to wait to… reload? I haven’t played many. Not a lot of time to sit down,” he admitted, but he didn’t look too upset about it. He didn’t know enough about video games to be disappointed that he was missing out.
“I can take you back up to the city whenever you’re ready. You should definitely rest for a while.”
Jet was pleased though. He was glad that he knew what Niter’s magic did, and he was glad Niter knew. He didn’t want him learning his magic for the first time while trying to fight off a Senshi or Knight.
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Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2022 8:20 am
Niter's eyes widened. "I'mgoodthanks," he wheezed. The thought of even practicing for voice lessons had him wanting to crawl into a hole — and practicing in front of a superior? Nope, not this senshi. "But, it's cool that you know how to do that. Are you part of a band, or an instructor or something?" He didn't know much about Jet outside of the uniform.
Though he could say the same about pretty much anyone in the Negaverse. He hadn't spent much time trying to get to know anyone, nor had he really made himself sociable.
"Yeah, that's… Yeah." Better not overcomplicate it, he figured. Some games worked that way, and that was good enough — it gave him more of an idea of what to expect, anyways. And it was tiring; he felt like he could lie down and take a nap right there, though he wasn't so exhausted that he had to do it. Niter still felt like he could get around, but he didn't want to get into any more fights, practice or not.
So Niter nodded to the offer, as much as he didn't want to admit it. "I should probably lay down, yeah." He considered asking if they could chat along the way, but it was early for that yet.
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Posted: Sat Jul 23, 2022 10:00 am
Jet’s lip twitched into something of an amused smile when Niter quickly refused his offer. “I learned music -- piano and voice mostly -- from my parents. They passed away when I was a kid though, so I’m probably rusty.”
He wasn’t. He frequently played and sang while at home, but since Niter seemed so flustered about it, he didn’t want to make him feel pressured.
“Make sure you don’t push yourself too hard,” he said as he nodded and led the way to the door. The irony was probably that Jet always pushed himself hard, but that didn’t mean he expected anyone else to. “We’ll help you figure things out as we go.”
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