fandomhigh | Defending Yourself Against Magic

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defense against magic

Defending Yourself Against Magic | Tuesday, 4th period

The Danger Shop this week was simulating a glade in a forest, bright sunlight streaming down on a perfectly smooth stone porch. "Welcome to the place with the good weather," Bob greeted the students. Not that cold or rain or snow bothered him at all, except in principle. "I've left out the bugs and mud." You're welcome, students.

"We've been talking about how best to confront someone throwing magic around," he continued. "We'll come back to it, I'm sure, but honestly the best way to win is not to fight." No, he didn't get that from an 80s movie, shut up. He shrugged. "If you fight, there's always a chance you could lose.

"Of course, the first step to avoiding a fight is seeing it coming. The first step to dealing with any sort of magic is knowing it's there." He stopped himself and looked thoughtful for a moment. "First step to anything, really, I suppose." He waved that off. "Now, some of you will probably find it easier than others. You'll probably find different types of magic easier or harder to detect. We're going to do two things today."

He nodded to Elsa and gestured behind him. "One in each, please."

Elsa nodded in turn, and then made her way over to place two small stone spheres into two large pentacles. The stones had runes carved into them, and she gave them a curious look, much the same way she'd been giving them since she'd picked them up from the Portalocity office, before making her way back to her seat.

"The pentacle - a five-pointed star in a circle - is one of the more common and basic modes of containment for magical energies. They keep outside things outside and inside things inside. In this case, one of those spheres is filled with magical energy, courtesy of a friend of mine. The other is no more than what it appears to be. I want you each to spend a bit of time in each of the circles, until you can reliably tell which is which."

He shrugged again. "Some of you may know immediately. Some of you may not ever figure it out. But it's important to know if you can, and to know what it feels like. So try." He crossed his arms and looked at them sternly. "This is not a group activity. You're to come and tell me which is which, rather than spoil it for anyone else or figure it out together. I hope we're clear on that."

After glowering a moment longer, he turned and paced a bit, continuing. "When you're not doing that, you'll be out here, finding magic by observation. There are a number of enchanted stones hidden around this clearing." He wrote in the air: air, fire, water, earth, spirit. "The most basic elements of existence. There are enough out there for everyone to find one of each." He smirked. "But these are courtesy of this room; there's no actual magic in them. You'll all be on equal footing here. Observe. Think about what each element is and how it would affect its surroundings. Then find the stones."

He clapped his hands and grinned around at them. "Well, shall we get started?"

[OOC: guest appearance by the lovely and talented

iceolatedqueen!]

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Like a magic detective!

Does your teacher like the sound of his own voice? Hey, it's about all he's got going for himself.

Cross into each pentacle/circle - look at the spheres, feel them, meditate with them, whatever you like. They're exactly alike except for the magic; the magic is neutral and non-harmful, just a power reserve.

One of each! Feel free to mod their locations and find them yourself, post searching and I'll ping with hints, or poke me in OOC if you've got something specific in mind.

Generally, the stones are slightly larger than pebbles and won't visually stand out. Their effects will be subtle and very localized - you'll have to really pay attention and search to find them.

Air: will stir the leaves/grass/etc. around it in a tiny breeze.
Fire: will be warm. may glow a little.
Water: will make the leaves/grass/etc. a little damper (dew, not a deluge) and the air more humid.
Earth: will make the ground around it denser.
Spirit: will make things around it grow a little better.

oh, please? he loves to ~~snark~~ talk!

Once she pings in! No jokes about carrying the teacher's balls.

Why am I still fucking UP?? Good night!

Nathan Byrn

Not fighting sounded like a good thing to Nathan so he was going to try and really retain this lesson.

Vider Bearskin

Elsa of Arendelle

It really was good to know if she had the capacity to sense this sort of thing or not, Elsa figured, nodding along to the lecture. If Bob liked the sound of his voice, that suited her well enough. The more he spoke, the more she stood to learn, after all.

If anyone were to make that joke with her, Elsa would probably curl up and die, really. She was here if anyone needed anything, barring that.

Elsa wasn't completely convinced that she could do this. Her own powers often caught her off-guard; what chance did she have of sensing some sort of outside power? But she was willing to give it a chance all the same, stepping into one of the pentacles and closing her eyes, trying to feel... something? Before stepping into the other one and attempting to sense the same.

Maybe it would work the same way the dowsing rods had worked, back when there were ghosts? Maybe if she worked at this for long enough, she'd feel something besides a little silly.

This, at least, Elsa figured she could manage. Unlike the last exercise, this one involved observation and common sense, and she was far better at both of those things than she was at magical intuition.

If she took this exercise a little bit at a time, maybe she'd notice something different from the norm around here.

Anders

Anders thought he'd be able to do this, but he wasn't certain -- this magic sounded just different enough from his that he imagined it might be a difficult task. And indeed, he didn't feel anything but silly in the first circle.

But he was relieved when, a moment after crossing into his second circle, he felt the magic fluttering warmly against his skin. Apparently he could do this.

Bob watched her for a moment. "No difference?"

After Anders was finished with both circles, Bob met him with a smile. "You don't look as though you had much problem."

"I'm... not entirely certain what I'm feeling for," Elsa admitted, glancing back at him. "I've never really tried to do anything like this."

"Hm." Bob chewed his lip thoughtfully, then held out a hand. "Here. You see this?" He pointed at the silver cuff around his wrist. "The magic in these should be fairly similar. Put your hand through mine, then slide it on up. See if you can tell a difference between it and me. That should give you a feel for the same sort of magic."

Elsa almost winced back from Bob's hand, old habit, before she found herself staring at the cuff and listening to his words.

"I'll... try, if you're certain it's okay," she replied, nodding and reaching tentatively for his hand.

She couldn't hurt him. She knew that.

She couldn't kill him, even; he was already dead!

Bob grinned. "I'm told it's a rather unsettling feeling, but it won't hurt either of us."

"Well, then I suppose for the sake of knowing..." Elsa's smile was a little more tentative as she passed her hand through his, once again almost immediately pulling it back, though more out of shock than fear.

Really not the most pleasant feeling at all, was it?

Still, she took a breath and steadied herself, making note of the way his hand felt through hers before moving to feel the cuff, instead.

"It's subtle... But there is a difference," she murmured.

Edited 2015-01-27 20:40 (UTC)

Isabelle Lightwood

Isabelle was barely listening.

No, scratch that. She wasn't listening at all. Instead, she was tapping her fingertips quietly against her thigh. She just wanted to go back to New York and continue the search for Jace.

"Good," Bob said. "Very good. That difference is what you're looking for. See if you can find it."

See Bob talk. See Bob notice one of his students wasn't paying attention.

See Bob eyeing her. "Am I boring you, Isabelle?"

After a moment taken to kind of shake the feeling (without actually shaking her hand out, of course, because that seemed rude), Elsa nodded and stepped back into the first of the two circles.

She pulled in a breath, and then she closed her eyes. Walked to the second on. Frowned thoughtfully, and then went back to the other.

"This one," she murmured. "This one feels almost the same."

Isabelle looked up. She wasn't so far inside her own head that she couldn't at least spot her own name being said. And while the stress that had her lacking attention also made her feel like being impolite, she didn't go with it.

"I'm preoccupied with something else," she replied evenly. "Apologies."

... Well, that was polite by her standards.

Soren Bearstar

It was polite enough for Bob, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to address her preoccupation. "If you intend to get any use from this class, I suggest you pay attention. If you can't, you might as well leave and save me the trouble of the competition."

"There, you see?" Bob smiled. "Now remember that feeling, and you'll know if there's magic around. Well, at least magic of this sort or similar."

"I was taught about these things before I could spell 'pentacle'," Isabelle noted, a crispness creeping into her tone. "But I wasn't expecting my distraction to be that much of a distraction for you."

And at that, Elsa smiled a little.

"It's more than I had before," she agreed. "Thank you. I'll try to remember how this sort of magic feels."

"In that case, the rest of the class should be a snap for you," Bob answered, a bit more coldly to match. "You can leave as soon as you've done the assignment."

He was tempted to send her off now, but no, he was supposed to be making sure they could defend themselves, and even annoying children were still his students.

This particular annoying child was going to go home and pull off yet another 16-hour patrol shift to try and find her missing brother.

It really was too bad she didn't feel like pointing that out. So instead, she said, evenly, "Okay."

Well, it wasn't like Bob knew that.

To be fair, if he did, he'd probably harangue her for other reasons, and it would all end badly.

Instead, he just nodded and went back to his lecture.

Carmilla Karnstein

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Defending Yourself Against Magic | Tuesday, 4th period

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Listen to the lecture, ask questions

Exercise 1: Check out the circles

Exercise 2: Find the stones

Talk to Bob!

Talk to the TA!

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