[Open] May, be (maybe not)

[nor_iron_bars]

Who: Jail, her class, and you.
What: Catchall shenanigans.
When: Early May.
Where: Her class, the IT department, and the campus courtyard.
Warnings: Mention of past violence, irresponsible fibercraft techniques, flocks of birds, and Jailbreak.



I. Classroom

[The interior decor of the Alchemy and Artifice classroom tends to shift a lot according to Jail's lessons- more or less workbenches, more or less tools available to work with, more or less fireproofing...]

[Today, there's a large space cleared off to one side, surrounded by a boarder of repeating runes. Attentive students will likely recognize a large variety of the protective and warding runes that Jail's taught them to contain and avoid damage from effects like fire, extreme cold, or any other number of potential dangers. Right now, though, those runes are just surrounding a web of... string?]

[There's another massive web of threads behind Jail, tacked up on the wall behind her desk. But this one has square panels of cloth positioned on it at various intervals, each one with a single rune clearly embroidered on it in thread.]

Couple fun facts about runes: [She casually taps the cloth square behind her as she talks, not bothering to look as it gives off some small sparks of electricity.]

One, two runes bound together- [She reaches back and pulls a thread attached to a different cloth square, unpinning it and repinning it so that the two are connected. This time, when she taps the first rune, a visible wave of electricity crawls from one end of the string to the other, like a Jacobs' ladder.] -are stronger than one alone.

Two, different combinations of runes- [She pulls up another thread, connecting a third rune to the mix. The next tap produces no electricity. Instead, what appears to be a laser beam of pale green light flares up to strike the ceiling. The spot where it hit is faintly scorched.] -can make totally different results than the individual parts.

Three, like half the time if you just toss different runes together the result turns out to be a laser. [Jail just shrugs.] We have absolutely no fucking clue why, it just does that a lot. But hey, if you figure it out there could be some serious grant money in it for you, so keep an eye out- it's worth a shot, right?

Four- [The next square she attaches to the array of runes seems oddly different in style compared to the stitching on the others, as though comparing two different people's handwriting. This time, the tap of her finger produces an even larger laser in vivid blue. It hits the exact same spot, and leaves behind a very thin coating of frost.] -you can get multiple people to channel their power into different parts of a rune array, so you can get more bang for your buck than just your own magic can provide.

And five... [She waves a hand, indicating the entire array behind her.] ...if you're gonna try to mix-and-match runes, it's way easier to swap out something woven into cloth than shit you've carved into wood or metal. Which is why you're gonna learn a little stitch-witching this week.

Some people think thread magic is a soft option. [She looks flatly at the assembled students, and points to a small perfectly circular scar on her left shoulder, seemingly unusually serious.] These are people who've never been shanked by a knitting needle. [As she turns around to survey the board again, it's possible to see a matching scar on the other side of her shoulder, as though whatever caused the injury had gone completely through it.] Don't fuck with a stitch-witch, kids. Especially not on discount yarn day.

[Abruptly, she's back to her usual good cheer as she points at the warded area to the side of the room.]

You guys are gonna get to take the runes I stitched up there and use 'em as practice to test a bunch of different combos, see which ones play nice together- or which ones don't, in a fun way. [By her expression, it's very clear that "fun" means "explosive".]

Your assignment this week is gonna be to stitch one rune of your choosing on a cloth. You all hand those in, and I stitch 'em all together into one big blanket of serious magic mojo. With everyone chipping in a little bit of power, the results are gonna be... interesting.

Once everything's tied together, we'll take it somewhere warded and fire it up to see what happens. We won't know what it's gonna do until I put it all together- the array could do damn near anything, depending on what kinda runes you guys pick and how I arrange 'em. Buuuuuuut... [She winks.] You ask me?

My money's still on lasers.

[...Have fun with your arts and crafts time, guys.]


II. Computer room

[Whoever asked Jail to help out at the Academy's IT office when they hired her either didn't think it through, or had a very strange sense of humor. Admittedly, she is very well-suited to dealing with the challenges that can arise from combining magic and technology- the computer systems have never run better. But, well...]

[It raises the question of how much you want to let her mess around with your laptop. For all you know, it might come away with a few extra features. The way she's leaning back as she answers the phone- her feet propped up on the desk, chair tilted so far on its' back legs it's amazing it hasn't toppled over yet- doesn't exactly inspire confidence.]

Daybreak IT department- you fuck it, we fix it.

[Also, they can't get her to stop answering the phone like that.]

...Aw, they hung up. [We can't possibly imagine why.]

[She looks up from the phone, casually dropping it back into the receiver.]

Oh, hey. What're you in for?


III. Courtyard

[Jail has always had a bit of a fondness for birds- they're such clever creatures, and so willing to be bribed.]

[It's #relatable.]

[She's always made a point to be polite to corvids, in particular, knowing enough about their long memories to understand the trouble with pissing them off- and that goes double for the crows in any magical environment, who might be shapeshifters or worse. She's honestly a lot more respectful to them than she is to most humans.]

[Normally, her nomadic lifestyle means her politeness is a passing gesture, at most, but she's been at Daybreak long enough for the local flocks to catch on to her willingness to give them snacks and shiny objects. By now, she's managed to achieve a surprisingly amiable rapport with the smarter nearby birds, and will frequently spend a lunch break sitting outside, tossing them food and getting to know them.]

[...For someone who doesn't have this context, though, seeing Jail reclining casually on a bench in the quadrangle while completely surrounded by birds might be a little. Weird.]

[Crows, jays, starlings, magpies, sparrows, even the occasional raven... there's a massive mismatched flock perched all over the bench, occupying every inch of bare space that Jail herself isn't sitting on, as well as the ground around it on all sides. She's absorbed in an odd, possibility one-sided "conversation" with them that seems to consist mostly of thoughtful murmurs and the occasional bit of tossed granola, but if she hears someone approaching she'll look up, tilting her head curiously.]

[A frankly worrying amount of the birds look up at the same time, seeming to almost mimic her gesture. The effect is a little disturbing...]

[(She absolutely trained them to do this on purpose.)]

Comments

I. Classroom/Assignment; OTA

[yokeye]

1. For Jail

[Once again, Jail has proven Alchemy and Artifice is the best class ever. Toki takes meticulous notes on everything. When she's finished, he has a few questions.]

Professor Jailbreak! A question! Well, maybe more than one! Say if you wanted to make some sort of wearable thing that shoots lasers; let's go with a sweater! Or a sweater for your cat! Yes! Okay, you knitted a cute little sweater for your cat and wanted it to shoot lasers, how would you fireproof the cat!? Can you use the fire protection rune on the cat and it would be unharmed by lasers!? I do have two questions! Because, I also want to know if you're sewing a rune onto fabric, is it best to choose fabrics that have a lot going on!? Like patterns and colors and things to distract from anyone noticing a rune on it!?


2. Open - Testing Runes

Okay! I'm pretty sure a combination of these two will have sufficient power~! What do you think?

[Toki points to two runes in his notebook. He's copied every rune displayed on the cloths; whether or not they're copied down correctly is unknown. He's drawn lines from one to the other a few times, set up some combinations and predictions on what he thinks they'll do. His ultimate goal here is to make the most powerful laser from them. If Rex won't build him a helicopter-car with lasers, he will do it himself. Eventually. This is step one.]


3. Open - Sewing?

[This assignment seemed easy in theory, but Toki has spent the last ten minutes trying to thread the tiny sewing needle. He misses the hole every time. Using a brighter color thread doesn't help; it looks like it's going in, but it doesn't. This time, he's so close, but hits the side of the eye of needle, and the thread becomes a little frayed and unraveled. Maybe there's a trick to it, somehow. He gets the attention of the closest person and holds up the needle and thread.]

How do you do this!? It's impossible!

3

[suddenlybees]

[ Arts and crafts are sort of a hit or miss, but somehow, constructing a treehouse is much easier than threading a stupidly thick string into an impossible tiny needle eye. Kano almost gets it when Toki speaks up and Kano has to pull his hands away before either Toki or himself accidentally stabs somebody in the eye. ]

Whew, it's tough, huh?! I think I know a good way to get around this... but you gotta promise to be careful, okay?!!

[yokeye]

Okay! I promise~! What do we do!?

[He defers to Kano's wisdom once again. There does have to be a better way.]

[suddenlybees]

Alright, alright, hold the end of the thread and needle as close as you can~

[ Hands in his pockets... get ready for this. ]

1.

[nor_iron_bars]

[It's okay, Toki- by now she's learned what 'one question' means in your case.]

First, you gotta narrow down exactly what you're aiming for here. You wanna make a sweater that lets the person wearing it shoot lasers? Or is it just a sweater that makes lasers happen sometimes. 'Cause the main issue is gonna be to keep it from firing off accidentally- ideally, the laser'd be shooting outward anyway, so it'd never be pointed at the cat in the first place. ...Unless you put it on inside-out. Don't do that.

[Learn from her mistakes, children.]

"Fire" ain't necessarily gonna be the concern here, anyway. [She points up, directing his attention to the spot on the ceiling where the small icy patches the blue laser left behind are slowly melting away.] Sure, it might be fire, but it might not. A lotta things come in laser beam format, you gotta figure out what effects you're working with.

[She shrugs.]

As for patterns, you're gonna want to be careful that it doesn't accidentally break up the lines of the rune. Otherwise, it's pretty much down to personal taste.

[yokeye]

I never thought about runes that would allow the person wearing it to shoot lasers! I was just thinking "lasers happen" sweater! But the first one is definitely better! And there'd be no accidental firing if the sweater was put on inside-out in that case! It's win-win!

[Toki looks up at the ice, and yes, that did come out as a laser beam, didn't it?]

So~... Could you make like tepid lasers that didn't actually have any destructive power and were more for show like special effects!?

[The pattern answer throws him off, though.]

Okay! How could it like break up the rune if the rune is stitched on by thread or whatever and it's that specific thread that forms the lines!? Wouldn't the pattern only break it up if it were made from the exact same thing and also somehow attached directly to one of the lines of the rune!? It's not based on like colors or something, is it!?

[nor_iron_bars]

Oh yeah, that'd be pretty easy. You'd just need to put something up to filter out any other influences, so that the laser was purely the visible light and not any heat or electrical sparks or shit like that. Add a couple more runes to make sure the light was set at 'not gonna blind you' levels, and you're good to go.

Just don't use it if somebody's got a hangover, it's not gonna be fun with the headache.

[LEARN. FROM HER. MISTAKES. Also don't drink like Jail does, it's a bad idea.]

Color ain't usually a factor- there's some specific kinds of runic arrays that use it, but we're not gonna be going into detail 'bout those in this class, it's all obscure specialist stuff that you aren't gonna use unless you decide to make that kinda magic a main focus.

[She does do more advanced classes, but Alchemy and Artifice is just meant to be the basics of how to make a magic item, give them a solid grounding to work with.]

The trouble's if it's embroidery or some shit, 'stead of a printed pattern. You get something else sewn into the fabric, or two different pieces of fabric sewn together, that's gonna mess with the rune a little if it crosses any of the important lines.

ii

[suddenlybees]

[ Kano doesn't have much of a reason to call IT, seeing as he doesn't own a laptop and still taps away on an old Nokia brick phone, but it's that little brick phone that he pulls out of his pocket and tosses up and down in the air as he walks into the room. ]

Professor! Hi hi~!! Hypothetically, what if I had a favor to ask of you? To do something that may hypothetically not be allowed, but I'm interested in discussing the options~ Hypothetically!

[nor_iron_bars]

[You have her attention, young man.]

Hypothetically, that'd depend on if this favor was entertaining. [After 'pay her', the best way to get Jail to do anything is 'it might be funny'.]

[suddenlybees]

Hmm~ Depends on your patience! It may not be directly or immediately entertaining, but the future payoffs can be substantial!!

[ It's Kano she's speaking to. Anything he does will either be disastrous or funny or both. ]

[nor_iron_bars]

[She spreads her hands, smiling benevolently. It's a little worrying.]

Fire away, kid. I'm all ears.

I

[hattersgonnahat]

[To Puella, cloth was already the easiest to work with. ...Though she still was not the best at most stitching. She can't think of a good explanation why the runes would create a laser either - but if she had to guess, it probably had something to do with giving them too much to do at once, or conflicting instructions. Runes were like electrical circuits, if strained too far they can literally blow a fuse... Or just not turn on at all if you don't hook them up properly.]

[Already, most of the guesswork was taken out since Puella didn't have to come up with her own runes to use. So it was just a matter of figuring out which ones seemed compatible. General rule of thumb: Better avoid runes that alter the same exact thing. Those can get messy. Of course, she did not fully understand what every one of Jail's runes did either. Rather than dabbling in ones she didn't know, Puella decided to play it a little more safe with something basic. It'll probably get her a better grade having one that might do something other than blow up. Maybe.]

[Puella attached two of the cloth patches together, and with some hesitation, applied some magic to it. She flinched away when the runes began to fizzle and crack, then suddenly turned into a tiny blue sparkler. ...Well, it wasn't a laser at least. Or a big explosion.]

[nor_iron_bars]

[Jail's keeping an eye on Puella, vaguely recalling that one of the younger students was going to be sitting in on her class, but isn't really paying much closer attention to her than she is to the older students. She seems like she knows what she's doing, it's probably fine.]

[As she passes by her workspace, she glances casually at the sparking runes.]

Huh, not bad- pretty stable output, at least. [Catching sight of Puella's somewhat confused-looking expression, she adds:] Even if I'm guessing that's not exactly what you were aiming for.

[hattersgonnahat]

S-sort of... [Wasn't quite prepared for it to pop that much right at the start. That would be something to keep in mind for next time. Unless she could figure out some way to make it even more stable than that.]

The..the color's right. But I was hoping for more of a pattern shape.

[nor_iron_bars]

[A thoughtful nod.]

Yeah, that makes sense. Any specific kinda shape you had in mind?

III

[infestedcouncilpresident]

[Kohaku stared at the birds for a moment before deciding which of the many questions she had to ask first.]

...Do you get bird shit on your clothes a lot?

[nor_iron_bars]

Less often than you'd think. [She shrugs, causing a nearby bird to shuffle awkwardly further down the bench.] Probably still more often than most people do, though.

1

[strings_theory]

[Look, don't question the whys or hows of Jolyne being here. She heard about explosions and decided this was a good idea. Even if she's staring at the string and only half-way listening. For the moment.]

... So if you're putting a bit of your own magic into this kinda thing, how does that work for people that have stuff like familiars or whatever? And that magic is kinda more physical than anything else?

[There's a brief pause as she's chewing on her inner cheek, does she talk about this or not? Whatever, not like her palm is still burned from where she set her strings on fire the other day.]

Also, what the fuck would happen if you wove runes and shit into your body? I know it sounds fuckin' stupid, but if you have the ability to do that sort of thing, would it have the same sort of effects as yarn and string and whatever does? Or would it be different since it's your body, technically?

[nor_iron_bars]

Eeeeeh... [Jail makes a noncommittal gesture with one hand.] Should still work fine, but there's always rare cases, so it'd depend on exactly what kinda magic we're talking about, here.

[She at least doesn't seem disturbed or annoyed by the question.]

It oughtta work, in theory- there's rune magic specialists out there who get tattoos of runes and rune arrays, and they function just fine long as they stay intact, so the principle's the same. My guess is the main problem'd be the same as the tattoos- living bodies are gonna stretch and change more than inanimate objects are, most of the time, so you'd need to be careful 'bout touching it up to make sure it stayed in the right shape.

[strings_theory]

So it's just kind of a "wait and see" sorta thing? Seems dangerous. [Not that she sounds remotely put out by that fact, of course she wouldn't.

The second part has her humming softly, a grin slowly pulling at her lips. This is giving her some wicked ideas and hopefully this won't backfire spectacularly on her or something like that. Of course, given it's Jolyne, it's very possible it'll go very wrong very quickly.]

What if you stitch it into your skin, like literally into your skin, where the skin grows around it? It wouldn't really be bothered by how the skin changes, especially if what wove it in in the first place is your actual body? Dunno, sounds like something to fuck around with. [Please don't let her actually do this.]

[nor_iron_bars]

Welp, that's science for you.

[No it's not, Jail, you're just a mad scientist and you know that.]i

That's an interesting one. Still sounds like it'd be a problem if it got cut or torn, but it could work, yeah. How's the part what what gets woven in is your body work, exactly?

I

[heromedal]

1- for Jailbreak

From my observations, they're more like- [ Insert a bunch of magi-babble, small amount of techn-babble ] than literal lasers and at first I suspected [ Even more magi-babble ] but it appears that hypothesis cannot be the case because [ Less magi-babble in volume but higher level magi-babble ] but it's still the early days of experimentation. I'd be quite excited to [ It's ludicrous magi-bable except also it's PHD techno-bable now ] but that may ignite the atmosphere so I'll hold off on that.

[ The unspoken 'for now' is probably more evident than he means it to be. He's also clearly doing weird shit by himself, but no one told him he couldn't. ]

2- Open Crafting

[ With his current engagement in making combat suits, this is actually something that Rex has gotten real good at. First, he worked out to sew with his hands, then found more efficient ways. Namely, he's currently sat back, a hand propping up his chin whil the other slowly flexes fingers at his materials. They float about, under his directions weaving more nimbly than his huge gnarly fingers could. Until a laser startles him and his hand jerks, firing a needle across the room. ]

Bwah!

I.

[nor_iron_bars]

[Jail nods, following along fairly easily.]

Yeah, it ain't exactly consistent with- [Scientific techno-babble that touches closely on advanced physics.] -but "laser" is a solid term for most working purposes, and you gotta weigh the benefits of coining a new term for the phenomenon against people actually knowing what the fuck you're talking about, so.

[She at least understands the need to be vaguely intelligible to non-geeks, if only to convince them that you deserve more funding.]

Raises some questions about- [Magi-babble centered on the peculiarities of how high-powered elemental light magic is believed to function under certain unusual conditions.] -but all testing that got me was chased outta the Large Hadron Collider with a shotgun, so no dice.

[A shrug.]

Bright side, I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have enough- [Combination of magi-babble and techno-babble, could essentially be a very advanced research paper if she didn't keep using so many swearwords.] -to ignite the whole atmosphere, you'd probably just get a temporary effect centered on the initial site before the chain reaction burned itself out. Anything in a two, three mile radius is gonna be shit outta luck, though, so you'd still have one fuck of a time finding a location.

[...Someone really needs to remind her she shouldn't encouraging mad science. It might not actually stop her from doing so anyway, but at least she'd be keeping the matter in mind.]

[heromedal]

[ Rex gives the same sort of nodding back, basking in someone not going crosseyed and changing the topic when he gets to talk shop. The basking has almost no expression as usual, but there's that twinkle in his eye that says "they called me mad, well, who's mad now!" ]

Hmm. I happen to know an Outlands location which is nought but ruins as it is and seemed to have an Earth-like atmosphere. [ Get fucked, Samura, no one needs your poignant life lessons more than they need super energy reactions that could end the world. ] Though...

[ Rex leans forward a little, the "I'm not playing God, I'm taking it very seriously" look just a little sharper. ]

Do you think we could get approval to put together a "field trip" to the Large Hadron Collider? I've always wished to visit.

[nor_iron_bars]

[A thoughtful tilt of her head.]

Depends- if they did, it'd be a strictly "look, don't touch" kinda deal, and that's no fun.

But tell you what, if you can put together a solid written argument for why getting the data from it'd help with stopping Nightfall, I'll run it past 'em at the next staff meeting, see what we can get.

[It's worth a shot, right? ]

Think of it as a bonus assignment.