[WORLD ONE | OCTOBER INTRO LOG]

[spellbindmods]

Who: The new coven members and old blood
Where: In and around the hub island
When: Day 92
Open/Closed: Open to All

All characters are told briefly what their powers are by Genette -- no extemporaneous details. For instance, if your character has the ability to detect lies, they'll be told as such -- no warning about limitations, repercussions or the like. They'll also be given a variant of this letter so they aren't totally ignorant of the situation -- though of course adapt this letter to the current setting and surroundings of the game.

This setting may be familiar to you -- maybe you caught a glimpse of it when you first visited. Maybe this is your first time experiencing this weird world and the panic is setting in. If you're totally lost, a tall human woman with a long scroll of paper will stop by to give you the run down. She'll also give you a letter, which may give you more questions than answers since the information is a wee out of date. (Maybe someone else can fill in some gaps for you). What is at first painfully obvious is that you're ill-equipped. Any magic or powers you had previously are suddenly replaced with an empty hole in your being. That's not all that's gone, but perhaps that's what's most pressing. Another thing you may notice is that there are others just like you, wandering around and just as confused. If you feel so inclined, you may want to ask around and see if anyone else knows what's up. A ▢ If one of your characters isn't looking to introduce themselves to others, someone's willing to do it for them. Genette is trying to make sure all newbies are accounted for and have a buddy, so she's grabbing them when she finds them and tossing them at the first coven member she sees. "Hi, so-and-so, this is so-and-so! They're new, so show them the ropes -- be friends, okay?" You get the gist. Your character may be paired up with another newbie, a seasoned character or both! Five times, even! Timelines in RPing are weird! B ▢ Let's say that instead of milling about and doing nothing entirely productive, your character has decided to try and venture off to find a way off this huge floating rock. That's nice -- but be warned that the forest is filled with interesting things. For instance, they've happened to find a hollowed out tree that happens to be where a hoard of land crabs are living. They move fast -- run quick! C ▢ Other characters may want to establish shelter before they do anything else -- and that's their right! The problem is that if your character wants to be well-supplied, they're going to have to do things for themselves. There's something of an assembly line set up, but not a lot has been done in way of making things workable. Genette wanted all new coven members to have a little food parcel to take to their hut, but time constraints, you know? If you want any food for now -- or for later -- you may want to cook some of this (poisonous) eel, salt some boar jerky or cut into one of these rabbits. You've also got some berries to eat in the meantime, if you want something simple!

By the time afternoon sets in, everyone should be a little more adjusted -- or, they should at least be a little more aware of the situation. From there, things still need to be done and exploring is always an option! D ▢ For those characters who want to stick around the base camp, there's something worthwhile in discovering the buildings around the area. One such building is the mansion, which contains extra supplies and a renovated kitchen. The kitchen is now functional with electricity and running water, with a few raw ingredients for making whatever your character would like. It's minimal, but also not totally useless. E ▢ If you mill about too long, you'll be put to work. Run into Genette and you'll be sent to pick western part of the island to look for strawberries, wheat and deer (good luck hunting if your character doesn't have the capabilities, but maybe someone else can help?). Run into Genette and she'll offer your character an ax to chop wood with (is this a wise idea? probably not), or a request to go fishing in either a stream or the ocean attached to the island on the eastern side. Or your character can do both if they so choose...? F ▢ With all of these new people milling about, telepathy is on the fritz again. At least, it certainly is for those who are new! Your character may not realize their broadcasting frustrations to the network, or maybe a stupid secret. Their mental filter is certainly broken, but that's at least a great conversation starter. Night finally falls on the exhausting day, and it's time to rest. Thankfully the island is beautiful at night, especially the sky. The night is filled with space worms, relaxing mist and wondrous sights in the stars. G ▢ Adding to the excitement of the beautiful night, Genette has set up something of a...talent show? In an effort to get new coven members acclimated with their magic, she's asked them all to use their magic in some way -- it may take a volunteer, or maybe they can show it off all on their own. In any case, show me what you got. H ▢ Of course, some characters aren't going to be up for this fancy display and will want to go about their own business. There are plenty of places to sit and stew on this island, both private and in plain sight. The stars are spectacularly bright, and the higher up your character gets the less it seems like night time. If they're lucky, they may catch sight of a shooting star, though it's of course much larger than usual. They're directly in space, after all! I ▢ Wildcard! How will your character interact with this new and unusual world?

Comments

[equivalence]

[Edward shakes his head slightly.] Thought about it I guess? Concentrated on putting it somewhere. Visualizing is the wrong word, but it's something like that.

[An agitated sigh and he runs a gloved hand through his bangs, pushing them back.] I can't help thinking about it like alchemy. You have to understand what you're doing and then focus the energy of the alchemic reaction to make the transmutation work.

It can't be that different. [His lips purse.] But it's not cooperating. Yet.

[He will figure this out though.]

[spaceforged]

You'll get it. [He glances about the area. Edward had focused on putting energy in one space. Could it be shifted? He feels for the edges of the field. There has to be an edge.]

You said you focused on placing it. Could you move it with the same ideas?
[Shiro lifts his hands from the invisible force in front of him.] Or by that logic, return the energy to yourself.

[equivalence]

I'll get it.

[Edward agrees, more determined than cocky at least. It is an odd feeling to be so much a fish out of water with the whole thing. But he's a bright guy. He'll figure it out one way or another.\

I dunno. Maybe. [Shiro will find the edge. It's not more than a few feet across, several feet high. And it feels mostly flat. Maybe in the future maybe he can get creative with size and shape but for now he's lucky he got it formed. And then unlucky.]

I think I can take it down if that's what you mean. I can find of feel that it's there. A little. [A frown, concentration, and all at once with no fanfare the invisible barrier is just gone.]

[spaceforged]

[He reaches out to the space in front of him and his passes through where the wall had been. There's nothing there. A smile spreads across his face.]

Great job. It felt like it had an edge. So if you can't pinpoint it next time, that could be a spot to start.

[Shiro steps into the space the field had been and waves his hand through the space to his left. Nothing.]

Do you feel it anymore?

[equivalence]

[Edward can't help but perk up a little bit at the praise. ...deep down he's still a kid who wants to do a good job. Not that he'll ever admit that or anything. He listens to what Shiro has to say.]

Right. Knowing where the edges are would be helpful.

[A shake of his head at the next question.] No, I can tell it's not there.

[spaceforged]

...so, the wall might be pulling energy from you as long as it's up.

[Every power has had a limitation. Knowing where those limits are now could help Edward and he has the time for it.]

If you put it up again, I can check the edge. You couldn't affect the field at all when you touched it?

[equivalence]

The energy has to come from somewhere. There's no way for energy to be generated out of nothing.

[SCIENCE says so. Edward frowns, considering. He guesses he could see how long he could hold the barrier, see if it really did drain his energy.

But okay, Shiro.]

All right. [Well. Hmm.] Not by touching it. I think I can change the shape of it even after it's up though. That's just unmaking and remaking. [And that he gets because it's a lot like alchemy.]

Here goes... [A moment of concentration and he puts up a barrier right aside of Shiro] To your left.

and then I got sick again, sorry about that

[spaceforged]

Let's just see how big the shield is for now.

[He turns and reaches with his metal hand first. If he can find the shield, he can guess how far from the center the edges are.]

It makes sense you can alter it by thought. That's how most of these abilities we get seem to work.

no worries at all!

[equivalence]

Yeah, okay.

[Edward reaches out to run his fingers over the barrier too, down and along it until he reaches an edge on one side. Well. Here it is. Hmm. He could probably get better at how long or short it is, right? Maybe even the shape of it.]

In alchemy, a big part of being able to complete a transmutation is being able to analyze and understand, to know what you're deconstructing and constructing. So that part's not so different.

[spaceforged]

[Shiro's fingers reach the other side of the shield. The edge feels the same as last time. But how thick is it? He doesn't know how it would affect Edward if he put too much pressure on it.

His touch is light.]

So this will be similar to what you're used to? I wonder if that's intention on the Qri's part. There's a few of us like that.

[equivalence]

Uh... only theoretically similar. Alchemy is a lot broader. And its principles are pretty universal in many ways. They're the same at their base as physics and chemistry.

[SCIENCE. But now, he is curious.]

What can you do? Er, what power did this Qri stick you with?

[spaceforged]

[Shiro smiles sheepishly as he draws his hands away from the force shield. This part is always hard to explain to people.]

I can shapeshift into the weapon I was piloting. ...probably easier to show than to explain. If you want to see take four steps back. I need a bit of room.

[equivalence]

...oh.

[Yeah that umm.

That sounds like something he needs to see. Edward is not unfamiliar with shape shifting, so at least there's that. He's dealt with Envy, after all.

But he does step back. Maybe about five or six steps, considering.]

All right. I'm watching.

[spaceforged]

[Shiro breathes in slowly. He likes to breathe before he changes. It makes it less like he's holding his breath. He lets go of being human and becomes a machine. Six feet tall, the robotic lion that takes his place takes two steps forward and lowers his head. All the better to let Edward get a better look at him.

His mental voice almost matches his real one, except it sounds a little quieter.]

The Qri reduced the Black Lion in size and power, but the form is exactly the same. I don't know what other limits I have.

[equivalence]

...holy crap.

[Edward might be staring at this point in time, looking at the frankly intimidating machine is standing where Shiro's human form previously had been.]

And this form is... something from your home?

[Ed keeps talking out loud, though he realizes that maybe he should make sure Shiro can hear in this form.]

It's a machine?

[spaceforged]

Yes. It might be possible because the lions are living machines but, unless the Qri says it herself..I don’t know.

[Shiro sits down, figuring it would be slightly less alarming. People worry about the claws and teeth as far as he can tell. With good reason.]

It might become less of an theory and more reality if the rest of my team are like this too.

[equivalence]

Living machines? Huh. Not the first time I've heard that here.

[But okay once Shiro is sitting, Ed is going to take a closer look -- not really scared off, but curious, and eager to get a better look now that Shiro-lion is a bit closer to his level.]

The rest of your team? Any of them here? [Sounds like no, given the "if" Shiro uses.]

[spaceforged]

No. There haven’t been many pilots around either.

[Edward’s curiosity reminds him faintly of Pidge. He leans forward to make it easier to see where his wings attach to his back.His legs can clearly fold up against his body. The thrusters in the wings match the boosters attached to the upper parts of his legs.

Shiro briefly misses when he could smile whenever he wanted to. One draw back of many.]

Probably won’t be the last time you hear about living machines. We night see a world full of them some time during our missions.

[equivalence]

[Really fascinating actually. He's no mechanic, but it's still kind of remarkable. Huh. And he will absolutely look up at those wings. Propulsion? Huh. Interesting.]

This level of technology is way beyond anything I've seen back home. It's impressive.

[Huh.] Is there a time limit that you can hold this form?

[spaceforged]

I can stay like this for twenty minutes. I don’t know what my upper limit is.

The lions were built by a race that no longer has a planet in my home universe. We humans only recently found a way to travel into space and take missions to planets beyond ours.

[Now if only he could fly here. He needs to talk to Dirk about that some time.]

[equivalence]

...humans have traveled to space. Where you're from.

[Hang tight a second because that sounds awesome. Edward takes a moment.]

How? The energy needed to break past atmosphere must be...

[He could do the math, given some data and time but a shake of his head.]

[spaceforged]

[This is territory he knows. It’s been weeks since he could just talk shop.]

On Earth we use liquid fuel rockets to propell a spacecraft past the atomosphere. That part of the ship breaks away at the right height and burns up while the secondary and then third phase components do their work.

[He mentally projects memories of watching ships go up and his own checks before lift off.]

But the rest of the universe is using fuel and techniques to leave the ground that we wouldn’t have thought possible. At least not for quite some time.

[equivalence]

[In some other version of himself, this little blond would be thoroughly obsessed with rockets, but this isn't that. Edward is honestly fascinated by the science of it. Whatever fuel they're using must be pretty impressive, if it can generate enough energy to break atmosphere. Huh.]

Huh. ...so you've met people from other planets?

[That isn't even possible. Is that possible? It should be possible, in theory.]

[spaceforged]

Turns out the universe is thousands of years ahead of us. Even ten thousand years ago they regularly had wars or worked together. My team went to trade at a swap moon to repair part of our ship right before I found myself here.

[It's actually a space mall but he doesn't know that. Not yet anyway.]

Technically, the lions themselves are aliens from another planet.

[equivalence]

Honestly that all sounds pretty crazy. Amazing, but... [It's kind of difficult to wrap his head around, but yeah. Downright amazing.]

Alien, but machinery, huh?

[Interesting. Winry really would be fascinated by so much of this place.]