Mar 18 20:30:55 108 PA - Neat Trick! They just disappear
From Chronicles
The rain has temporarily abated, but the dropping sun is still shrouded behind a thick blanket of clouds. Darkness chases on the Eastern horizon, with the earth under foot anywhere between shifting, slippery mud and squelching rain-soaked roots. Johnson is rain-slicked under his usual tree, a dark shape nestled against the rough bark of the pine. The details are impossible to make out, but his silhouette is distinct. The dark mage awaits.
Valeriya arrives shortly after Johnson, finding it so much easier to just follow him out to his spot then try to find her own way there. Her prowling is acceptable, most people would not notice. Though she wouldnt really care if Johnson did. She does it for practice and sport and makes not issue of the practice as she arrives and slips off her helmet.
Johnson either doesn't feel the need to say anything or has no idea Valeriya's there for a good while. It's hard to say, being that it's him. The wind catches the tree tops, hissing as branches run across one another, and there's a patter as a brief sheet of rain falls across the ground, ominously, without the sky immediately opening with more. Presently the armored one speaks. "I make move very small to be unseen. Still move little. Teach new trick now, then done?"
Valeriya nods slightly, her expression blank as she accepts that and considers the days lesson. Turrning away she moves towards a fallen log and starts digging through the mud. "Yes. But today will probably take more than one day and even then it will take some time to master. I havent mastered it myself." She admits as she starts placing stones in line on the log.
Johnson follows along, watching without helping as Valeriya digs in the mud. He kneels as she moves along, inspecting the line of stones as if deciphering a riddle, and wonders, "Is useful for dinosaur hunt? Like move stun dart, or explosive, or supplies? Maybe send bait ahead?"
"If your successful this spell is invaluable. You can send anything in your possession that ways less than fifty pounds anywhere within five miles. Success isnt gauranteed though. At my level of understanding I can make this spell work nine times out of ten. Decent if what i'm sending is of little value and i have time to make a second attempt. But I would not send something of value with the spell. I estimate I'm about halfway to mastering the spell given the three years I've known it. When I sarted failure was one in five." Valeriya explains clearly as she sets up ten stones on the log.
Johnson narrows his eyes. "Anything?" He glances back towards town, wondering, "Even small ch -- animals? Cats and dogs?" He steps towards Valeriya, clearly intruiged. "What happen one in ten? Is just gone?" He peers down at the rocks. "Total destruction of object?"
"Nothing living." Valeriya clairifies with a shake of her head as she moves to the other side of the clearing. "If you fail it goes anywhere within your range. My range is about 25 miles, started with five. So failing for me would mean a lot of searching. Unless I stamp a homing device on it first." She notes as she pulls out a roll of common aluminum foild and rolls it out on the ground.
Johnson pauses then, shoulders drooping. "Oh," his speaker relays in monotone, and he turns back to the rocks. "Not send object into nether. Not send small person. Less fun." He picks up one of the ten rocks, uttering something softly under his breath. When he lobs it skyward, the little thing flies as if thrown by a major league pitcher. A juiced one. Off in the trees there's quite a crack. "Mas as well be teleport. But how work?"
Valeriya shakes her head slightly. "Gotta have the right mindset for this spell. One good use is what if these rocks were grenades. And if that foil I lay down was the inside of an apc." She explains before reaching out a touching one of the stones. "Sending.. by.. my.. will.." She recits with clear concentration that she holds for another thirty seconds.
And the stone disappears and reappears one the fouild with a slight crinkle.
Johnson's head snaps from one place to the other as the spell works. He stares at the aluminum foil, frozen in place, and utters through the translator. "That look very strange. Do again." His head swings back at the log, and then to the foil, saying, "Like air fold. Rock not move."
Valeriya nods slightly. "It doesnt, though neighter does the air fold. Rather it is the dimensional membrane that this spell manipulates." Valeriya explains before moving to the next stone and casting again.
And the stone reappears, but this time ten fee above the foil to fall to it with a louder crumple. "Range is fully three dimensional. So if you fail it could be sent into low orbit, or high orbit if you are more skilled."
"Wait," Johnson replies, raising a hand. "Is necessary failure for orbit?" He peers at Valeriya. "Is possible I put up satalites?" He begins laughing then, the translator simply relaying a flat, emotionless, 'Ha ha. Ha ha.' "Is possible I put heat-resistant object low unstable orbit? Make fall like meteor?" He reaches for one of those rocks, grabbing at it eagerly, chanting with hopes high.
"You have to be familiar with the location you are sending it too. Which usually means having been there before." Valeriya answers stepping back to let Johnsons have a crack at the spell. "I've never really tried to place anything in orbit before. So how well that would work is beyond my experience."
"Use telescope?" Johnson suggests, focusing his considerable mystic attention on that stone. Perhaps his speaking broke the spell, but strange things are happening to the space surrounding that bit of rock. They're just not connecting with much of anything!
Valeriya says, "You're attentuion must be undivided for the duration of the sending. Takes me about thirty seconds to send but I would suggest taking your time for now, several minutes of visualizing where the rock is to go in relation to where it is now. Then weave the spell to fold this realities fabric about it and unfold it again."
Johnson focuses hard, the little rock visibly warping and twisting in his hand. It twists in the air, and his head turns, peering up at the bit of aluminum foil, until suddenly that rock disappears. There's utter silence in the woods. No crinkle of foil. No thud against earth and tree. Nothing.
"The first time is always like that. When I learned this spell that was anacceptable begining, a start. Getting it to unfold where desired came after practice." Valeriya explains for some reassurance. "So I think we will leave it at that today, you can practice folding, and we will come back for the unfolding."
Johnson hmpfs, snatching up another rock. It begins twisting and dancing in his hand, apparently motionless as space warps around it. "Just watch," his speaker emits. "In week I have no possessions left in home. Little bits and pieces all over town." The second rock vanishes. Never to be seen again.
Valeriya giggles shaking her head slightly. "Then I suggest you practice on other peoples possessions." She replies with a firm smirk as she collects her helmet and readys for the return to Kingsdale.
When she last sees him, Johnson has perched himself on that log. Staring at an object held in his hand, hunched over in the growing dark. None of it seems to bother him any. Off to her left, a rock crashes through the trees. Either he's aiming at her, or it was a coincidence. Probably the latter!
