Not Quite The Fire Magic She Intended - Pseudo OTA (See warnings)

[nobodys_puppet]

Who: Xion and whomever.
What: Attempting to practice fire magic with... interesting results.
Where: A clear area a little way off of campus
When: midmorning
Warnings: Possible violence, angst and angst mentions. (Also as a warning, I'm doing Nano, so replies will be potentially super slow.)



Xion had promised she wouldn't stop using her magic, though she intended to keep an eye on Roxas to make sure he wasn't suffering because she was practicing. The best way to do this, of course, was to practice when he didn't know she was going to, so if he was feeling drained he wouldn't know to hide it. Yes she still worried, but she wasn't locking herself away because of it she was being... cautious. At least that was how she planned to explain it if she got caught watching him too closely. It wasn't bad to want to be sure, right?

So she had slipped off on her own to practice. She had her hood down, which still made her a little nervous, but no one was around so that should be okay. Right? She was trying to get her fire spells working, aiming at a target she had set up, made of a broken art easel she had found in a trash heap. Not that she quite knew what it was supposed to be, but it more or less stood and should burn, so it should be fine.

Except that the spell wasn't working. She kept aiming her Keyblade at it. Kept saying the spell name at it, and... nothing. She slashed her blade down in frustration after an hour of this. "I don't get it!" she complained to herself. "My other spell worked! I could do Thundaga just fine...." Of course...

Because of course....

Lightning flashed as she said the name of that spell, splitting the sky, splitting the target and setting the pieces, and a nearby bush... on fire.

Eyes wide she aimed her Keyblade at the flaming mess. She should have been prepared for success, but she hadn't really expected it. And this wasn't quite success, but... it was still fire. "Blizzaga!" she cried, trying to freeze the flames. Trying... and failing...

Maybe she should have been practicing more after all?

Comments

[burningbrighter]

Meanwhile, Sunset was really not enjoying herself. The campus felt a little colder and emptier with all the friends who'd left them recently,. She tried to forget it all with a brisk walk around the campus.

There was just one problem: it was freezing out here. She pulled her cloak a little tighter around herself with a huff. She was just about to turn back when she felt the lick of heat from nearby, then spotted the somewhat familiar face.

The fire was nice and warm...but oh. They should probably control that.

"Whoa, hey!" she called, ducking around to the other side of the bush. "What happened?"

[nobodys_puppet]

Xion's hand raised quickly to grab her hood, but she forced the hand back down empty. She would see Xion's face and not a blank... right? Axel and Roxas had been right... right? She had a face of her own now? She was an actual person?

Even if she was, how did she answer that question without getting in trouble. Maybe they wouldn't turn her into a dusk here, but usually when she set something on fire it died and the fire went with it. This fire... was spreading. She had been in a burning building once. She knew that spreading fire when it wasn't controlled could be bad. But she wasn't Axel. She didn't know how to control it.

And she didn't know how to answer. Her shoulders hunched around her shoulders and she stood paralyzed by indecision, not knowing what to say or do....

[burningbrighter]

Sunset shook her head. "Okay. Fires happen. We just have to stop it before it takes over the field."

She pulled her wand out of her wand pocket, looking curiously at the giant key. That was...a big wand. "Maybe if we both cast water spells?"

She tried that, resulting in some crackling and steam. More water was needed, probably.

[nobodys_puppet]

She hesitated, then lifted her Keyblade again to aim at the fire. "I tried, but the only ice spell I know failed...." she said her voice almost whisper soft. She wasn't sure if she'd be heard.

[burningbrighter]

"Did you try water? That might work too!"

Sunset adds her own water spells, but all she succeeds in doing is making more steam. It's not quite enough.

[nobodys_puppet]

"I do not know any water spells," she said. Or else she would have. "Demyx was the best at those, like Axel is the best at fire." If Axel were here he could put this out like it was nothing. But he wasn't, and she really was trying to learn to do things for them instead of needing her friends to do everything for her.

[burningbrighter]

"Okay, okay...we can do this. How about we seal it off with a bubble?"

With that, she twirls her wand and tries to conjure a nice, big bubble. "Help me---it needs to be thick!"

[nobodys_puppet]

"Help you how?" she asked, aiming her Keyblade at the fire, but beyond that, she wasn't sure what to do.

[burningbrighter]

"Cast the charm together. You use the ice spell, I'll use the bubble to keep the fire from escaping. On three. Ready?"

She hums a little and flexes her fingers, wand in position. Maybe a one-two will do it. On three, she lets it fly and crosses her fingers.

[tiredcharmer]

Breathe in. Breathe out. In. Out. And-

Tyzias brings Caledfwlch and Dragon's Spine down on an invisible opponent with a single labored movement. Teal sweat beads on her brow, every muscle burning with the exertion. Why did she think training with these stupid weights was a good idea again? It's not like the harness does anything but inconvenience her anyways. And if Tyzias does ever need to bust out the (literal) mad hacks, she wouldn't bother with maintaining the illusion and keeping the harness on.

But... it's good strength training, even if it's a total pain. (Plus using it for its intended purpose makes Tyzias feel warm and fuzzy inside. Like the Asmodeus isn't universes away, that she can still joke about how useless it is with Corrin and Red and the rest. Looks like the humanoid disease called friendship has gone out of remission. Symptoms include metaphorical pain in the pumpbiscuit and extreme melancholy.)

As Tyzias winds up for the next step in her form, the sound of frustrated screaming and fire crackling in the distance catches her attention. Tyzias briefly entertains the idea of entertaining the idea of just minding her own damn business for once, then groans, sighs, puts her swords away, and sprints towards the noise.

The moment Tyzias is on the scene, her wand is out and she's mumbling half of an equation while signing the other half with her spare hand. Precisely twice as fast as normal, a red arrow that only Tyzias can see springs from her wand and towards the fire. Vector I. A relatively simple Modification spell that changes the direction and speed of a single object or force. If another living being applies even a little bit of will towards resisting the spell, it falls apart, but it'll do for gathering up the fire in a long ribbon of blazing heat and bringing it away from anything flammable.

Hopefully. Tyzias is still new at this, and the exertion from the run has her sweating buckets and panting heavily.

[nobodys_puppet]

Xion was startled at the appearance of someone new. She wanted to pull her hood up, wanted to hide. She didn't know whoever this was. But...

But they were aiming a wand at the fire. Maybe they were trying to help? She aimed her Keyblade at the flames again. "Blizzaga," she said softly, and again failed. "Blizzaga," she tried a again, just a little louder, and still nothing. Why was she so useless at this?

does xion still have the face thing here, you know what i'm talking about

[tiredcharmer]

Attention entirely focused on the fire, Tyzias directs her spell through the shrubbery again and again and again, picking up more of the flames each time. Something as relatively insubstantial as fire is hard to grab with Vector, but it's the only tool Tyzias has at her disposal for something like this. Gah, why was she so useless here? Can't even stop a stupid, lousy fire in one fell swoop, if it was any more serious people could've gotten hurt because she isn't good enough and-

At last, all of the blaze clings onto the invisible ribbon of mathemagical force. Coughing, Tyzias yanks it towards her, twists it into a small, intensely hot ball, and collapses to her knees in a wheezing fit.

Her face is visible and hers. She still isn't sure that is the case, though.

[nobodys_puppet]

They were apparently a matched pair at feeling useless. Seeing the other drop, Xion spun to aim her Keyblade at Tyzias. "Curaga!" Three guesses what spell also utterly fails.

[tiredcharmer]

"Nonononono. I'm fine, I'm good. Really," Tyzias hacks, hands shaking. Turns out that combining intense spellwork with physical exhaustion isn't a good idea. Who knew? Tyzias tries to get to her feet, staggers, falls back down, and grits her teeth. She might need a little help with this one.

Then the names of the spells Xion used click, and Tyzias startles. Another Vaikunthan? No, no. Can't be. Right? Plenty of other worlds use that spell structure. Adjusting her glasses (more out of habit than anything else, they don't even have lenses in them), Tyzias takes another look at Xion and blurts out the first thing that comes to mind. "Your problem is that you're using -aga suffixes. It's hard to cast those reliably until you," cough, cough, wheeze, "until you've got a lot of practice with -a suffixes, and before that you need even more practice with the base spells."

wow way to make a great first impression by trollsplaining how spells work to a little girl nevermind that somebody as new as you're pretending to be shouldn't have any idea of how this works great going tyzias

[nobodys_puppet]

"That is... what good looks like?" she asked, frowning a bit. She might not know much, but she was pretty sure that was not what someone who was good looked like. Or... had she thought it was an attack spell and she meant good as in... being a good person? Did that mean she thought Xion was one too? Well now she was confused.

And them the lesson about spells. Yeah, Xion was more than a little lost. "You mean Cura?" she asked, so confused. She did lower her Keyblade, though.

[tiredcharmer]

"Yeah, uh. I've had worse falls." Grimacing, Tyzias rolls her shoulders. Something clicks, and sighing, she fluidly gets to her feet and wipes the dirt off of her jeans. Is she really wearing socks with sandals? Yep, she. She definitely is. Another click, and Tyzias returns to her normal hunched posture.

"I'm not an expert, but. Yes?" There. 'I'm not an expert.' Now Tyzias's cover is 100% bulletproof. "Like, hm. Shit, where's my-" Tyzias rifles around... somewhere... and retrieves her already dogeared copy of The Fundamental Principles of Wizarding. "There. Okay, so... most theories hold that you have to gradually acclimate your body to magic. Right? Right. You can't go firing off Ultimas and Flares off willy-nilly when you first start. So- wait."

Tyzias begins walking off into the woods, gesturing for Xion to follow. The ball of fire floats after her. "C'mon. We can walk and talk, I need to find something to put this out. Anyways, where was I? Yeah, okay. So if you try something too powerful at first, your body and soul just isn't prepared to channel all of that energy at once. With me so far?"

And a warning for getting into spoiler territory that I suspect from your question you already know.

[nobodys_puppet]

With you so far? Only physically. Xion was walking after the odd person, but was in no other way following. "I used to use these spells all the time before.." she cut herself off there. And no she was not going to explain before what.

[noasark]

In breaking news, Noa's pocket portal to water experience with Webby just keeps coming up with better and better results! The boy puts the fire out rather easily with the sudden gush of water, and raises a brow back at Xion as he approaches.

"Not that I overheard too much, but I take it that's magic from 'home'?"

[nobodys_puppet]

She spun, startled when the fire was put out and stopped when she spotted him, her hood down.

"One of the spells worked. Has been working." And she told Axel and Roxas she'd ty using magic again. Her Keyblade vanished as she spoke, with a bright flash of light.

[noasark]

"Only one?" Hmn. The boy crosses his arms. "...That seems a little odd. How many spells are there?"

[nobodys_puppet]

"In my whole world? I have never counted." Sounded like something Zexion might know, however.

[noasark]

Ah,

"...So...a lot then, I expect." Huh. Well, that settles it then. "...That sounds odd then- if there's so many magic spells, it doesn't make sense that you could repeatedly get one specific one out properly, without getting reaction from the others..."

[nobodys_puppet]

Well she herself only ever knew a handful and their variants, but that wasn't what he asked and it wouldn't occur to her to explain. But she nodded. "Since one worked, I was trying the others..." And failing. A lot.

[noasark]

What Noa doesn't know can't hurt him! Or help. Hm.

"Hmmm...when did you first get the one to work?"

[nobodys_puppet]

"A while ago," she said, thinking. "Before Roxas showed up. When Axel and I were exploring that weird building... "