Mar 13 15:11:14 108 PA - Being Unseen
From Chronicles
The world is a giant bathtub, heavy rainfall soaking through jackets and mudying up loose earth. Here in the trees, nestled amongst the evergreens, there aren't any dry patches per se, but the roots hold the soil firm under foot and the needles above direct most water down and out. Johnson stands on the edge of the clearing in which he met Valeriya last, sheltered as best he can, under the diffuse grey-green light of early afternoon.
The world is a giant bathtub, heavy rainfall soaking through jackets and mudying up loose earth. Here in the trees, nestled amongst the evergreens, there aren't any dry patches per se, but the roots hold the soil firm under foot and the needles above direct most water down and out. Johnson stands on the edge of the clearing in which he met Valeriya last, sheltered as best he can, under the diffuse grey-green light of early afternoon.
Valeriya doesnt seem to spend quite as much time lost this trip, seemingly homing in directly on the location from a few hundred feet out. She's in armor this time, sheltering her from the deluge. "So this planet does have another season. What a remarkable improvment." She notes with a fair bid of sarcasm as she looks to Johnson. "And this spot was much easier to find when I simply closed my eyes to sense your arcane energy nearby. Handy."
The armored man is staring off into the rain, though he doesn't startle when Valeriya approaches. "Where I from, winter eighty degrees. Summer hundred fifty. Shame South full of would-be Gods." He tilts his head to the right then, and turns to face Valeriya. "Cast spell, speak Dragon." Before reaching to his translator, turning the buttons over.
Valeriya shrugs slightly and utters a dark phrase before giving a smirk to Johnson. "You know it doesnt actually make me speak dragon. It makes whatever i'm speaking understandable to whoever hear's it. Odd you didnt ask to learn this spell." She notes, resting her hands on her hips. "So shall we review the spells from last time or move on?"
"I did," Johnson replies, the translator catching a touch of amusement in his voice. "Just not from you. Your offerings weren't as unique nor as extensive as those of others. I've been getting quite a lot of pressure to simply drop you from the trade so it can move forward." He tilts his head, and presses on, "But, I am convinced your participation in the grander exercise of cooperation far outweighs these troublesome delays. I've practiced our last cantrips. Let's press on."
"Really? Well that is a bit remarkable. Had I known I'd have to say I'd take there side but if you insist on playing fair I wont complain. Though this next spell isnt about playing fair at all." Valeriya replies with a smirk before chanting "Let me walk unseen." And fading from view. "Invisibility simple, but not so simple really, not to cast anyway."
Johnson stares at her. "You're still there." He steps towards the woman and points. "There is your aura," he waggles a finger about her outline, "You're radiating heat. I can taste your spell like an overbearing cologne. Are humans so dependent on reflected light?"
"If only. Would save me the discomfort of looking at most of them. Then again, why limit it to humans?" She quips in return before giving a slight shrug. "Yes its flawed, such is the limits of the simple version of the spell. But its still effective in combat, many combatants cant or wont notice the flaws in combat. Add a means to mask your thermal signature and there is no mundane means of detection."
The armored one dips his chin, and replies, "That is all there is? Let me walk unseen? I appreciate the simplicity of your spells, but I wonder. Is there not a greater history, a spirit to call, something beyond mere words? I wonder why I've not been accidentally casting all manner of spells as I mutter wishes under my breath."
Valeriya says, "Because you do not mutter them with intent, and ability. Words are words, simple or complex. Magic is using words to spin a web and make a spell. How you use them is more important than what they are. I'm sure if I learned my spells from some mages tome in a dusty library they'd sound all refined and fancy. But they would do so for no reason other than making the mage look good. I learn spells by dismantling them. Taking apart the web to understand it and seeing exactly what it needs and what it doesnt. So no excessive blabber.""
"You're different," Johnson notes, stepping away from the tree to get in closer to Valeriya. He reaches up to run his hands through her aura, gloves touching at the ends of the spell. "I don't just ... make magic. I weave it. It needs not all be vocalized, but I can't do it all at once. Show me again."
"So I am regularly reminded." Valeriya concedes before letting the veil lift and returning to view. "Dont focus on the words, you can choose your own. Look to how they effect my aura. How they work with my gesture to build a shield to guide the visible light around my body." She explains before casting the spell again but slower to form the barrier only capable of bending the blow of white light.
Johnson watches intently, staring at the magic being made, head tilted to the right as he peers up at Valeriya's head and neck. He reaches to touch her arm, easing to her side to peer down her back, and then mutters a small curse. Johnson turns and strides away several quick steps, body hunched and turned away from the woman, reaching to his helmet to grab at the faceplate and press it up, then pull out a piece of electronics, the clip-in video displays that obscures his natural vision. The faceplate is dropped then, clicking into place, and Johnson gingerly slips that bit of technology into a belt pouch before turning back to look on Valeriya with his eyes. "Better," he decrees, and he stares at her from inside that mask for several moments longer. Then the chanting begins. "Make me invisible. Make me invisible. Make me invisible." Slowly arcane weaves begin to take form around him, like the layers of an onion being peeled in reverse.
"Keep it flexible, like the sherest cloth." valeriya's voice advises as she watches the chant and weaving. "Else it will shatter should someone manage to hit you."
He'd begun to change color. Orange, then towards yellowish, as Johnson eliminated shades of light. At Valeriya's insistance he's suddenly there again, though his chant doesn't break. His body goes grey then, resembling a shadow though plainly visible in daylight, and with a growl he's visible again. Then, stepping forward, he nearly disappears. He's a very faint shade of violet, which fades as he walks through, uttering the word, "Interesting."
Valeriya nods slightly before reaching out to poke where Johnson's footprints stand in testing. If it holds she'll nod with approval. "Good, but took way too long to build. For all its complexities this isnt a major spell. You need to practice it and get the paths down."
"A state of mind," comes the disembodied voice as Johnson reappears. He holds up his hands as a mime imagining a box, saying, "To build a barrier around which light must travel is folley. Better to imagine myself a fish in a stream, with water flowing all about. A little motion goes a long way." He says the spell again, and ducks forward at the end, 'stepping into' a stream of light and out of the visible spectrum, creating a little pocket of dead space to stand in as he slips about.
"Unless that motion gives away the ruse." Valeriya notes, showing she doenst really accept the work around. "I picture it as a cloak I don. but if that is acceptable to you then that will be good enough." She decides before considering the rain some more. "And perhaps enough for one day in this deluge." "I'll keep at it," Johnson replies. "First, to stop moving, and then, perhaps, to avoid the first step." He waves, not quite a dismissive gesture but neither one solely in parting. "I'll get it. And then soon, our work will be complete."
