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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
point_b
Bella takes it anyway. And puts them down in front of her next class, since Ariel doesn't have one now. "Do you want me to drop you in your dorm, or...?"
point_b
"Sure. Thanks for lunch." They already have linked arms; Bella squeezes her hand, then goes in to her history class.
point_b
Bella attends history. She has a few hours free to meditate (and take notes on her rate to add to her graph) and do the reading she acquires in history class, and then it is time for the chaos magic thing!
in-like-a-lion
It is indeed!
Harry does not appear to have arrived. Ariel has, though! She has a seat near the front of the lecture hall, the neighbor to which she has defended against all comers (to wit, one nebbishy frosh who didn't notice her bookbag there). She waves Bella over expansively.
Harry does not appear to have arrived. Ariel has, though! She has a seat near the front of the lecture hall, the neighbor to which she has defended against all comers (to wit, one nebbishy frosh who didn't notice her bookbag there). She waves Bella over expansively.
in-like-a-lion
"Hi! This is gonna be great, I'm super excited. Harry knows his shit. He was, like, a practicing superhero for a really long time. He's great."
the-possibility-of-change
Harry rushes in a few minutes late, carrying stacks of poorly organized paper.
"Hell's bells, people actually came," he mutters. "Hi. Jeez. Um. Let me... get set up, over here."
There's some tittering from the peanut gallery.
point_b
Bella doesn't laugh at him, although she does blink (did he not look at his enrollment?) and turn to a fresh page in a notebook.
the-possibility-of-change
He arranges his things, then turns to the class. (He leans on the desk, possibly in an attempt to look less like a high school student giving a presentation. This fails.)
"Okay. So. This is, as you probably know, the Special Topics seminar on chaos magic, sometimes called 'natural' magic. I, personally, just call it chaos magic, because it's more accurate and I don't like candy-coating that kind of thing. Now, chaos as a concept has a bad reputation, especially for those in the hermetic tradition, and so the school tends to have some nasty preconceptions tied to it. I'm here in part to dispel some of those ideas. Can anyone tell me what they think chaos magic is?"
"Okay. So. This is, as you probably know, the Special Topics seminar on chaos magic, sometimes called 'natural' magic. I, personally, just call it chaos magic, because it's more accurate and I don't like candy-coating that kind of thing. Now, chaos as a concept has a bad reputation, especially for those in the hermetic tradition, and so the school tends to have some nasty preconceptions tied to it. I'm here in part to dispel some of those ideas. Can anyone tell me what they think chaos magic is?"
point_b
If there was preliminary reading to do for this class nobody told Bella. And she's very short on relevant cultural context to draw from. She doesn't raise her hand.
in-like-a-lion
Ariel does, though!
"I think it's evil magic made of fire and lightning that can only destroy," she chirps piously. "That's why Magus is always fighting chaos mages, because they're all evil!"
"I think it's evil magic made of fire and lightning that can only destroy," she chirps piously. "That's why Magus is always fighting chaos mages, because they're all evil!"
the-possibility-of-change
Harry pinches the bridge of his nose. "Would someone like to give an actual answer?"
A Gothy-looking teenager offers, "Don't chaos mages mess up ley lines and stuff?"
"Yes, that does happen. Uncontrolled chaos mages can wreak havoc on the magical energies around them. With training, though, that can go away. Anyone else?"
No one appears to feel the need to contribute.
"Okay. Great."
A Gothy-looking teenager offers, "Don't chaos mages mess up ley lines and stuff?"
"Yes, that does happen. Uncontrolled chaos mages can wreak havoc on the magical energies around them. With training, though, that can go away. Anyone else?"
No one appears to feel the need to contribute.
"Okay. Great."
point_b
Bella takes notes, although this is mostly of the form look up ley lines, look up cultural baggage on chaos magic.
the-possibility-of-change
Harry turns on a projector, which dutifully spits out a grainy Powerpoint. With a click, the first slide (Chaos Magic!) dissolves into squares and coalesces into the next (What Is That?).
"Chaos magic is, in the most basic terms, a kind of magic that happens purely reflexively. Most mages have to form a mental construct, imbue it with Essence, send it out into the world. Even a high-level WIZ-class mutant still has to form that construct, even if it only takes her a second. A chaos mage has no such restriction; if he wants something, then his magic wants to cooperate."
He clicks through to the next slide, which spins onto the screen. This one reads "Danger!", and bears a charming legend of an unhappy stick figure throwing bolts of lightning at everyone around him. "Obviously, this can be dangerous. Letting your magic do whatever it wants is a recipe for disaster, and so an untrained natural chaos mage is a walking bomb. About sixty percent of WIZ-class mutants with a chaos magic affinity burn out violently in their first year of manifesting, and most take at least one other person with them. And the latter half of that is usually what people remember, which tends to lead to the popular image of the cackling madman waiting to explode."
A girl raises her hand. Harry sighs. "And, of course, the famous supervillains who use chaos magic and give the rest of us a bad name, thank you for the reminder."
"No, um, I just wanted to use the restroom?"
Harry pauses. "Oh. Go ahead, then."
"Chaos magic is, in the most basic terms, a kind of magic that happens purely reflexively. Most mages have to form a mental construct, imbue it with Essence, send it out into the world. Even a high-level WIZ-class mutant still has to form that construct, even if it only takes her a second. A chaos mage has no such restriction; if he wants something, then his magic wants to cooperate."
He clicks through to the next slide, which spins onto the screen. This one reads "Danger!", and bears a charming legend of an unhappy stick figure throwing bolts of lightning at everyone around him. "Obviously, this can be dangerous. Letting your magic do whatever it wants is a recipe for disaster, and so an untrained natural chaos mage is a walking bomb. About sixty percent of WIZ-class mutants with a chaos magic affinity burn out violently in their first year of manifesting, and most take at least one other person with them. And the latter half of that is usually what people remember, which tends to lead to the popular image of the cackling madman waiting to explode."
A girl raises her hand. Harry sighs. "And, of course, the famous supervillains who use chaos magic and give the rest of us a bad name, thank you for the reminder."
"No, um, I just wanted to use the restroom?"
Harry pauses. "Oh. Go ahead, then."
point_b
"Mmhm - I confess that I literally never want anything near me to be struck by lightning outside of extremely narrow circumstances. I would normally consider that an extremely undesirable outcome. Am I unusual or is something else provoking the chaos magic to do things besides what its holder wants?"
the-possibility-of-change
Harry snorts. "Um. Yeah, no, it's not- that's not the typical use case scenario, 'wow do I ever want lightning to hit this person'. Usually what'd happen is something like a lover's quarrel type thing, you get really angry, you're a teenager, your heart rate goes up, and the magic responds to the emotions rather than the actual intent. Not much different than the usual power-assisted manslaughter, just a bit more common, because it's tied straight into how you feel. That make sense?"
point_b
"Sort of. It makes the magic sound worryingly intelligent, if it 'knows' that violence is a standard response to anger and that lightning is a form of violence, as opposed to responding to increased heart rate by doing the dishes - how smart is it?"
the-possibility-of-change
"Not all that smart? Magic in general knows from associations, that's kind of a whole thing. So, smart in that way, not so much self-aware. It does things that'd make sense to the person using it, generally. And hurting people we're angry with is a pretty strong instinct for us humans, unfortunately."
the-possibility-of-change
Harry continues the lesson. Strengths and weaknesses (unpredictability versus inefficiency, respectively), a rundown of historical wielders (apparently including both Bloody Mary and Mary, Queen of Scots- Harry takes a moment to confirm for the class that they were not the same person), and a course outline are all provided.
Eventually, class is over.
Eventually, class is over.