View Flat HTML
View Metadata
Search Post
Morty knows he shouldn't be screwing around with multidimensional shit. It's dangerous, it's impractical, it's blah blah blah. But it's a potential key to unlimited energy, how does nobody see that? He's built a dimensional siphon (it kind of looks like a cardboard box with a funnel and a TI-84 taped to it, but it damn well works), keyed in the dimensional coordinates to a random plane, and by God he's going to use it.
He flips the switch and waits for the energy bar to fill up.
It does! It fills up very rapidly. Then it explodes, along with the box. There's rather more smoke than there should be, and once the smoke clears someone is standing there.
"Oh dear," Morty says faintly.
Flicker at Whateley
+ Show First Post
in-like-a
Circe guides her through a basic box-breathing meditation exercise. (Ariel participates as well, because "you can never have too much magic, right?")
in-like-a
While they breathe, Circe speaks quietly and melodiously about the flow of energy through each cell of their bodies. It kind of sounds like hippie bullshit, but on the other hand, magic demonstrably exists, so she might get the benefit of the doubt on that.
point_b
Benefit of the doubt is present. It's not precisely like any previous hippie bullshit Bella has been exposed to in the particulars, anyway.
in-like-a
Half an hour or so in, Circe murmurs to Bella, "Try to lose yourself in the meditation. Too much conscious thought keeps the exercise from working as well as it should."
point_b
Oh. Okay. Nodnod.
Bella isn't entirely sure how to do this, but doing less conscious thought sounds like a promising start. Breathing. Breathing. Breathing...
Bella isn't entirely sure how to do this, but doing less conscious thought sounds like a promising start. Breathing. Breathing. Breathing...
in-like-a
An amount of time later, Circe says something about bringing awareness back to the body. "Wiggle your fingers and toes, and feel your pulse come back to normal levels. Open your eyes once you feel ready. Excellent job on your first day, Bella. For your homework, in addition to your cognitive work I want you to do some research in the library and put together a list of ten simple spells you will want to learn first, some basic spells that don't take too much Essence. Then, put together a list of at least ten spells you feel should be absolutely necessary to your eventual education.”
"Any homework for me, Teach?"
"Your homework is to get out of my office."
in-like-a
"Before dawn. At the moment, that means 7:00; it will grow earlier and earlier, obviously. Some days I will require you to be here an hour early. Also, I will want to see you on certain dates even if they are not Sundays, but I will provide advance warning in those cases."
point_b
"Do you have any recommendations for other classes I should take, as long as I am conveniently free of the obligation to turn up to school back home?"
in-like-a
"You've arrived at a convenient time; the Winter Term is about to begin. Winter Term is a few weeks of 'specialty' courses. You won't need to decide yet whether you want to keep a balanced schedule; you can just take whatever seems interesting. I definitely recommend the Special Topics in Magic course. Each year we explore a different type of magic in depth. This year's is chaos magic, which I can't teach you, since it's inherent, but it's a fascinating class nevertheless. And the instructor is a friend of mine, though he doesn't seem to believe me on that point. Other than that, there's a list, and you should feel free to take whatever catches your eye."
Ariel cackles. "Oh man, Harry's gonna be teaching about chaos magic? This is going to be amazing, you have to take this class."
Ariel cackles. "Oh man, Harry's gonna be teaching about chaos magic? This is going to be amazing, you have to take this class."
point_b
"Well, I'm sold." Bella hops to her feet and stretches. "All right, Ariel, let's get out of her hair. Where do I get a catalog and sign up for things?"
in-like-a
"You'll want to talk to Carson about that. And about, like, enrolling for real instead of just conditionally-if-we-can't-send-you-back. I'm pretty sure Circe's tutelage carries a scholarship with it, actually."
"It does. A fairly substantial one."
"So, there's that too. Anyway, yeah, Carson."
"It does. A fairly substantial one."
"So, there's that too. Anyway, yeah, Carson."
point_b
"Lovely. Thank you for your time, Circe, see you Sunday." Bella has already noted where Carson normally loiters. Pop.
in-like-a
"Be generally polite and stuff? I dunno, you're bargaining from a position of strength. We've easily got the room, and Circe wants you. Asking is basically a formality. Don't spit in her face and you're probably good."
point_b
"Right then." In Bella goes, heading in the direction of Carson's office.
Ms. Hartford continues to sit behind her desk and continues to glare at her computer. "Circe called and said you'd be coming in to register. Congratulations. Mrs. Carson is ready with paperwork in her office."
There is paperwork! There is paperwork for enrollment, there is paperwork for the Circe scholarship, etcetera etcetera.
"We're probably going to list your parents as 'unavailable to offer consent'. Since our only source for their opinions right now is you, it's roughly the same either way, it just looks a little bit less... weird. We try to keep the weird to a minimum, since it's in such steady supply anyway."
"We're probably going to list your parents as 'unavailable to offer consent'. Since our only source for their opinions right now is you, it's roughly the same either way, it just looks a little bit less... weird. We try to keep the weird to a minimum, since it's in such steady supply anyway."
point_b
"That works for me. I might need copies of some of this so I can have my sister draft a petition to excuse me from regular school when it starts back up - it's currently looking like they're not going to pick it up until fall, which gives me a while, but Gemini schooling requirements are strict under most circumstances."
"Certainly. But if you're planning to send those over, we might as well send a representative to explain things in person. It seems as though that might smooth things over a bit, and the energy barrier is roughly the same."
point_b
"I don't mean I'll send them the physical paperwork - that would bring up a lot of questions I don't particularly want them asking. I'm planning to tell them that I've gotten a generous scholarship for superpowered teenagers in a distant locale and that I have the commute handled. It will just probably sound more convincing if I have selected facts about the school to relay to Alli when she writes the letter."
"Ah. Reasonable. We'll be happy to help you with that."