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Morty knows he shouldn't be screwing around with multidimensional shit. It's dangerous, it's impractical, it's blah blah blah. But it's a potential key to unlimited energy, how does nobody see that? He's built a dimensional siphon (it kind of looks like a cardboard box with a funnel and a TI-84 taped to it, but it damn well works), keyed in the dimensional coordinates to a random plane, and by God he's going to use it.
He flips the switch and waits for the energy bar to fill up.
It does! It fills up very rapidly. Then it explodes, along with the box. There's rather more smoke than there should be, and once the smoke clears someone is standing there.
"Oh dear," Morty says faintly.
Flicker at Whateley
"When a minor spell goes wrong, its energies will often condense into one or more autonomous constructs called 'hobgoblins'. They are no real danger, especially as they are easily dispatched with the level of force delivered by a swung dictionary, but they are mischievous and highly inconvenient, and usually have sharp teeth and powerful jaws. Some will also have adverse effects on nearby electronics, and all are driven by a desire for chaos. There are circumstances, especially in battle, where hobgoblins can be useful. My office is not one of them."
The instructions are something like a schema for a mental sculpture. She is meant to sort of press her magic into this shape, and twist this corner like so, and et cetera. It would be almost gibberish if she hadn't been introduced to magic already, but now it seems... not quite intuitive, but sensible. As advertised, it is not complex.
The instructions are something like a schema for a mental sculpture. She is meant to sort of press her magic into this shape, and twist this corner like so, and et cetera. It would be almost gibberish if she hadn't been introduced to magic already, but now it seems... not quite intuitive, but sensible. As advertised, it is not complex.
point_b
"Okay. I will try to avoid manufacturing a hobgoblin here."
Bella... reads the instructions twice, contemplates them in order in a sort of dry run, and then goes through it with live magic. It feels so cool she is doing magic eeeeeeee.
Bella... reads the instructions twice, contemplates them in order in a sort of dry run, and then goes through it with live magic. It feels so cool she is doing magic eeeeeeee.
And there is a slightly flickery ball of silver light in front of her.
Circe smiles approvingly. "Well done. Your form could be tighter, but that is a very respectable first working. Your homework for next week will be to read appendix 1-B of that tome, 'Basic modifications', and learn two modifications of that spell. If you feel confident, you may try to come up with one of your own based on the examples given. You may wish to do all of this, especially testing your own modification, under supervision of one of your magic-using friends. Excellent work today."
Circe smiles approvingly. "Well done. Your form could be tighter, but that is a very respectable first working. Your homework for next week will be to read appendix 1-B of that tome, 'Basic modifications', and learn two modifications of that spell. If you feel confident, you may try to come up with one of your own based on the examples given. You may wish to do all of this, especially testing your own modification, under supervision of one of your magic-using friends. Excellent work today."
point_b
"Am I borrowing this one or should I get my own copy?" inquires Bella, writing down the assignment.
"Feel free to borrow mine; I have three copies. Just be aware you will be returning it in a few months, and keep it in good condition. Unless you learn a good parchment-cleaning spell, in which case you can do what you like with it until you have to give it back."
point_b
"And should I be scheduling my homework with a particular view to the possibility of running out of enough Essence to cast the spell, or can I do it in a lump if that's more convenient for me or my magic spotter?"
"You should absolutely keep your reserves in mind and work in short bursts. In fact, that should be standard practice until you have been using magic for several years. Next week I will teach you how to monitor your own reserves. Until then, you may use this." She reaches into a desk drawer, pulls out a wrist monitor, and tosses it over. "When you put it on it will prick your wrist for a drop of blood to prime itself; from then on, it will display a reading of how much Essence you have in your reserve. It was the final project of a gadgeteer in the Mystic Arts program proper, a few years ago. Very handy for beginning students."
"Right now you stand at 12-and-some of the device's units. The spell pulls one. It was the designer's baseline spell, conveniently enough. Self-monitoring is more intuitive than numerical, so it's best not to get too attached to the system."
point_b
"Okay. And my recharge rate probably varies with how well I do at the managing my thoughts thing and how much I meditate and all that?"
"Indeed. Hence the need to space out your castings. Also, I should note that the pull of a mangled spell is two to three times higher, so, again, care should be taken."
"It will hurt, varying by how much you would have overshot with the spell, and you will need to meditate heavily for somewhere between a few hours and a few days before you regain any Essence at all. After that your rate of regeneration will be as usual."
point_b
"Okay, so not career-ending but very much best avoided. Anything I should be asking but haven't thought of?"
point_b
And Bella pops away to get lunch, because she was a little hurried at breakfast what with the lesson at dawn. She puts on the bracelet. She keeps an eye out for Ariel, but she can check her room later if she's not in the cafeteria.
in-like-a-lion
Ariel is, in fact, in the cafeteria! She is sitting upside-down on the ceiling of the first level, attacking a prodigious amount of red meat and a single apple. Her tray is, for some reason, cooperating with her casual defiance of gravity.
She notices Bella, grins excitedly, and swoops down to greet her after swallowing her current bite of meatstuff.
She notices Bella, grins excitedly, and swoops down to greet her after swallowing her current bite of meatstuff.
in-like-a-lion
"Great! They've got lamb in the hungry carnivore line today, I friggin' love lamb. Today was your lesson with Circe, right? How was that, did she make you carry water up a mountain or something?"
point_b
"No. Is that traditional? She answered my questions about alternate dimensions and then walked me through a light spell. Which I'm supposed to practice supervised, so I thought I'd ask you."
in-like-a-lion
"Ooh, I'm trustworthy! I can totally supervise your casting. If you're good it'll be fun, if you need practice I get to smush hobs. Mountain water-carrying isn't traditional, I think it's a reference to some old martial arts movie or something. That Mr. Miyagi kind of thing."
point_b
"Fortunately I don't have to start martial arts until this mini-term is over. When do we register for the one after this, anyway? Also: classes tomorrow, whee! Can we compare schedules to figure out when you should lie in wait for hobgoblins?"
in-like-a-lion
"Registration starts Saturday. And martial arts is fun! And hell yeah let's compare schedules!" She pulls hers up on her phone and passes it over. She's taking Team Tactics II in the combat sims from 8-9 AM every day; Special Topics: Familiars, from 9-10 AM; Special Topics in Martial Arts (Weapons) from 10-11; something called "Mystic Algebra" from 11-12; and the chaos magic lecture (with numerous stars and hearts scrawled around Harry's name) from 5-6 PM.
"I'm kind of booked for mornings, but there's so much cool shit, you know?"
"I'm kind of booked for mornings, but there's so much cool shit, you know?"