daybreakacademy | [open post for October]

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[open post for October]

A: (October 10-30, evenings, Hall of Pythia, open)
[Beginning with the evening of the 10th, Desidera's semi-frequent visits to the library see a shift in the sorts of things she reads about. While the subject of runecraft remains one of her newer interests, she's starting to read less about different kinds of magic (but not dropping the subject entirely) and more of anything she can find regarding Daemons in general; history, common traits among them, basically the works. She's rather engrossed in it, too, and hardly notices anything or anyone else while she's there.

That's not to say she isn't open to being approached; she is, she's just...not paying much attention to anything else.]

B: (October 12-29, Tues/Thurs/Sat mornings only, Mithril Cage, open)
[By now, she's become a regular sight at the Mithril Cage on some mornings, though she's also now settled on an actual schedule in regard to what days she is there to make it a bit less likely that she would be interfering with anyone else. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, when possible, she is there and starting between 7 and 7:30, spending at least half an hour, sometimes longer, but not so long as to be late for anything else; with this being something that Valvatorez had gotten her to start doing, it didn't take much to ensure that her earliest classes would be just a little bit later in the morning to accommodate.

Her training sessions this month are mostly more of the same as before, in that she practices what she already knows and tries to improve on it in what ways she can while making sure to keep it under control. Now, though, instead of stopping after any particular magic manages to get away from her, she stops herself the moment she feels it slipping, not wanting a repeat of the near-miss that had occurred last month. For the first few of these sessions, however, she doesn't seem quite as into it as normal, using the actual training dummies and other targets instead of any shadow-construct imitations, and deliberately avoiding the use of any shadows, for that matter.

She ultimately decides there's no point to restricting herself in that way as it somehow doesn't feel right to her, so closer to the end of the month she inches away from her regular magic and more toward focusing on the shadows themselves, making the last sessions of the month a much quieter ordeal as there are far fewer lightning bolts or exploding fireballs. The very last session of the month, on the morning of the 29th, is almost exclusively experimenting with the shadows.]

C: (October 13-20, overnight and also the morning of the 18th I guess, Aube 2 Commons, open to Aube residents in general)
[Over one particular week in the middle of the month, she's been finding it a bit harder to sleep. Difficulty sleeping isn't anything particularly new to her, but it isn't normally this bad. Rather than simply lying in her bed or doing anything that could wake Gunvolt, Desidera occasionally leaves the room in the middle of the night to sit out in the common room on Aube's second floor until she feels ready to try to sleep again, with a book and a pair of earbuds in (actual headphones are a bit Awkward for her), reading while listening to some music.

The book is one of a handful borrowed from the library, but it's one that had been picked out simply as something to read, not anything she had selected for any more-specific reason like a majority of the others were.

The CD is one of Gunvolt's; one of Monarch's albums. He probably wouldn't mind her borrowing it, she's assumed, and she'll put it and the portable CD player back where they were when she returns to their room later. J-pop isn't something she listens to especially often, but she's not very picky when it comes to music, having only one real rule when it comes to things she won't listen to.

On the night of the 17th going into the 18th, she ends up falling asleep on the couch and is still there the next morning.]

D: (wildcard)
[Want to just wing it? When not in class, her usual haunts during free time are the library, the cage, and the cafeteria, but she can also be found at Aube or in some other places too. Just be aware that she's unavailable on the 7th as a whole or on the morning of the 10th.

If you want to work out anything specific, I'm on Plurk as Espilan, Discord as Espilan#0497, or you can PM Desi's journal.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ah, hello Desidera. It's good to see you're keeping your skills sharp.

[Weiss needs to get some practice in too. She's gotten the hang of summoning, but she still needs to stress test it...]

Say, would you object to some more... proactive practice targets?

[Among the lessons she had learned last month, when she'd nearly accidentally struck Desco with one of her fireballs, were to keep everything she was using away from where other people could come in, and to also keep herself aware of that general area to avoid being caught by surprise and reflexively doing something in response.

So, she's not terribly surprised to see Weiss coming in. She stops what she's doing for the moment.]

Oh, hello, Weiss. This is just a little something that Professor Valvatorez wanted me to start doing back when I first came here, to work toward making sure that I can keep myself under control while seeing how far I can safely push myself. [Knowing that Weiss would understand, given what they each had admitted to the other before, she has no issue with openly saying this here.]

Stationary targets do only go so far, though, so no, I wouldn't object.

Good, I need to get some practice in too.

[Weiss holds out Myrtenaster, eyes closed in concentration. A glyph forms in front of her, and slowly rises. A pure white armored figure with a giant sword forms where the glyph passes until it's fully formed. It then stands and holds out it's sword in a fencer's salute.]

Behold, the ultimate ability of the Schnee Flame: Summoning.

[She watches with interest as the summoning takes place, but the instant she sees that the armor's holding a weapon, she's fairly certain that this won't simply be a moving target.

It might be a good idea to be completely sure of that before proceeding.]

Just to be certain, do you wish for this to be a sparring session? Or do you simply want to see how well it would be able to evade the things I do?

Well, if you don't wish to spar I'm willing to just get practice moving it around. However, I would rather test it's combat capabilities. Of course, I'll have to do more testing after I'm comfortable with this one, my Flame extends to all enemies I've defeated.

I'll likely be expected to make sparring a regular part of these sessions eventually as it is, but it might be best to work your way up, if this particular creature[...?] is new to you.

We can try going straight into it, though, if you really want.

Oh, this is far from the first time I've practiced this. I can move it easily enough, but I need to see how well I can fight with it. It helps that part of it seems to be instinctive.

Ah— Sorry, I was unaware. It should be alright, then.

So, what sort of rules should we have in place for this match? I would imagine that 'no inescapable situations' is one that I should be following here, at the very least.

Hmm... Well, I should limit my summon to the flat of the blade, and once it's disarmed it's defeated. Not that it can't fight without it's sword, but the last time it did it gave me this.

[Weiss gestures to her scar with her free hand.]

So my goal is to disarm it, then, rather than defeat it outright. [A test of control. That's exactly why she's here.] If it goes down without losing hold of its weapon first, I'll consider that a loss on my part.

[She hadn't particularly noticed it before, but now that it's pointed out, she winces just a little bit when she sees the scar; it's right over Weiss's eye. That had to have been unpleasant, but as it looks like she still has use of that eye, Desi assumes that the injury that left it wasn't too serious or had been dealt with right away.]

If you want to add that condition it's fine by me.

[Yeah, she notices that wince.]

And don't worry about the scar, it's only there because I refused to have it healed. Honestly, it's a mark of pride for me.

Control is the main reason I'm doing this, so adding a condition that requires me to not go too far makes enough sense, I think.

Are there any other conditions you think should be added, or should we begin?

None off the top of my head, but let me do just one thing first.

[The glyph beneath Weiss spins, and the Knight begins to shrink. It goes from three times the size of the average person to about a foot taller than Weiss.]

Alright.

[Desi watches the Knight shrink down, and...that would be a good idea, wouldn't it? A smaller target, and presumably more mobile because of it, would be a tougher one to deal with—more ideal for this, as far as she's concerned.]

So, on three, then?

Agreed. One!

[The Knight takes a battle stance, sword raised.]

Two!

Three!

[As soon as it begins, Desidera is throwing a fireball up into the air behind herself in an almost-casual over-the-shoulder motion. This might initially seem a rather strange action, but that fireball detonates the moment it's far enough away that she wouldn't be burning herself with it, and the reason why she did it becomes clear in the moment that follows.

Fireballs and explosions, as well as the lightning bolts she also uses, they all give off light, which in turn creates shadows. With that explosion, Desi quickly reaches to the floor with her left arm, and her shadow reaches up and out of said floor to take that arm, being swiftly pulled up before changing its shape to take the form of a weapon itself, a glaive-guisarme.

In some of her sessions early in September, she had experimented with the idea of shadow weapons, but at that time had lacked any real knowledge on wielding them. She's since taken some steps to correct that, and sees an opportunity to properly test herself.

With the initial distance between them, she has enough time to get herself ready for whatever the Knight's first move may be, though that does assume that Weiss is acting just as immediately and not waiting for her to go on the offensive. If the knight was approaching her in those moments, she has her shadow weapon in hand just in time to parry whatever attack is incoming.]

[The Knight certainly hasn't been idle. It charges towards Desidera and preforms a diagonal slash from the ground up.]

[The approach is perhaps a little quicker than Desi was expecting, but there's still enough time to react. She thrusts her weapon down toward the floor and then swings it upward herself, intending for the hooked part of the blade to catch the sword not to stop it—which is impossible with the angle she's using anyway—but to redirect it in an attempt to throw the Knight off-balance.]

[The Knight does stumble, but quickly turns it into a backflip in a very Weiss-like move. It lands in a crouch before standing and swinging again, this time aiming to knock Desi's blade away or even destroy the construct.]

[Or that second attack could seemingly do both, striking the shaft with enough force to knock it from Desi's hands and to the floor, where it shatters like glass upon landing and reforms on the floor under her, taking the shape it had been before she drew it as a weapon.

However, shattering isn't the normal way any of her shadow constructs return to being normal shadows; usually they visibly melt back into the floor. To anyone aware of that much, it would be a sign that that particular shadow is still under her control, but Weiss is probably not one of those people, not yet.

Quickly moving back to gain some distance, she casts a simple fire wall to deter another direct approach, with the apparent intent of giving herself time for something a little more substantial.]

[The Knight charges through the fire, ignoring it completely. The blade lashes out, intent on sending Desi flying.]

[It's at this moment that not actually releasing the shadow comes into play, as it suddenly bursts from the floor, a nearly pitch-black humanlike figure this time, maneuvering around Desidera with inhuman speed—the fire ensured that it still existed, but also had forced it to remain behind her to maintain the appearance of being normal—and blocking the blade with an arm, holding its position as it remains tethered to the floor.

Desidera herself takes that opportunity to call down a bolt of reddish lightning, aimed directly for the Knight's sword arm.]

[If that behaves even remotely like regular lightning it's highly effective. It strikes the Knight, then spreads through the rest of it's metal body. It's not able to take it for long before exploding into quickly fading white particles. They almost resemble snow.]

Hmm, keeps all strengths of the original, but the weaknesses as well. Note to self: watch out for lightning.

Ah. [That certainly happened. With it no longer needed, the shadowy imitation of Desidera now actually melts away and into the floor, resuming its original life as simply her shadow.]

I hadn't expected for that to be as effective as it was. It hadn't been disarmed either, so as I said, I'll consider that to be my loss.

It was made of metal, so I suppose you just hit one of it's weaknesses. I doubt it would be half as effective on most others. I know it wouldn't work as well on my Leviathan summon.

Mmm, that's something I believe I should keep in mind as well; should we find ourselves both involved in any sort of incident in the future, I now know that I'd best avoid lightning when fighting alongside one of those, to lessen the risk of accidentally destroying it if I were to strike it by mistake. Hopefully there wouldn't be mistakes, but taking precautions can't hurt.

It would be beneficial to know which are more-susceptible to fire as well, for the same reason.

[Desi's not the only one reading up on this subject. V's got some rather intensive research he's been working on too.

... He won't say anything to disturb Desi while she's reading, but quietly settle in at the same table with his own stack of books.]

[Despite that focus on what she's doing, it's hard to ignore when someone else sits at the same table. She glances over briefly to see who's decided to join her, and noticeably relaxes when she identifies him.

He has his reasons for researching Daemons, she's aware of that much now, but as his circumstances differ quite a bit from hers, those reasons are certainly a bit different themselves.

The particular book she's looking through right now is one regarding different types of Daemons, in the hopes of possibly identifying the one that her mother had tried to make a deal with. So far, though, she's found little that she would consider relevant.]

[After taking note of the book she's looking through at the moment, V moves to his own stack and pulls out a different book on the same subject and offers it.]

[A quick glance over and she recognizes the book by its title; it's one that she had considered having a look at on a previous visit, but had ultimately decided against because the subject wasn't something she was prioritizing at the time.

She sets a bookmark into the one she was already looking through, just in case she returns to it later, and sets it aside before taking the other from V.]

Grazie.

[He smiles faintly.]

Happy to help.

[He selects one of the books from his own stack to start thumbing through, pausing when he notices an illustration on one of the pages that depicts a trio of glowing orbs in the sky and frowns.]

[For the moments that follow, Desi is content to start looking through the book she was given, but when she sees V pause out of the corner of her eye, she ends up pausing as well; a stop like that likely meant he found something interesting or concerning.

She's inclined to think it the latter, even before seeing his expression.]

Did you find something?

Mm, I did. Or at least... rediscovered it.

[He lets the book rest on the table, open so that Desi can get a view of the illustration that made him stop, the caption identifying the illustration as an avatar of the daemon Mundus.]

He was the daemon that Sparda sealed away... I should have expected to come across him in one of these books and yet...

[... Something still twists in his gut at the reminder.]

[She hums as she looks over the illustration. Sparda had various mentions in some of the books found here, so it did stand to reason that Mundus would have at least a few as well. Considering some of the things Desi has learned, V's reaction to the image is...well, honestly it's not unexpected.

Not quite sure of how to respond yet, she waits to see if he says anything else.]

... It's not comforting, knowing he's still out there, just behind a seal.

[ha ha ha ha

He picks up the book again before turning the page.]

[She makes a sound of acknowledgement as she takes one more look at the page she is being shown.

Right, it had been a sealing. She remembers that being mentioned in part of what she's read. Seals and wards can be weakened and broken, if there's something on either side powerful enough to do so.

She wonders if Mundus is. But, as it looks like V wants to continue his reading for now, she doesn't ask about the possibility, as doing so would possibly end up derailing him further.

After another moment of looking over toward him, she returns to her own book, turning a few pages, glancing over what is there, and turning a few more. As she's looking for something specific this time, she doesn't linger on anything that doesn't look like it could help her.]

Edited (I can wording ok) 2019-10-10 17:03 (UTC)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[open post for October]

B, Oct 22

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A

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