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(After a trip to Lilith's apartment and a quick refreshing nap) (Because what else would two rational consenting adults do in a bed?)
(Tl;Dr, Lilith reveals her technically monstrous nature and exercises her skill in illusions and other things after making an impulsive promise.)
She's bundled up in the blanket, and nudges Annabel awake.
"Hey. You ready for the big moment?"
"It was in self-defense and defense of others, anyway. And the other time, well. Spirits.
"...I did mention needing to also do name-change paperwork?"
Annnd the stripe is blue again.
"If you're transgender, we see that a lot and we can definitely help with whatever you need on that front. Though your raiment changes are starting to make me curious if there's something else going on."
"That is definitely a thing, though not necessarily the only thing.
"As for if something else is going on..." She grins... "I'm sure I'd have said by now if there wasn't - though right now, it shall remain A Mystery that I'm not getting into unless you figure it out yourself; I haven't the time for yet more advocacy on my plate starting out, with how I'm already planning on a rather visibly queer image and committed to being aggressive about it."
"...annnd we are going to need the emancipation forms too, aren't we. Fuck's sake, I'll still be this old when I hit college and yet these people don't trust me to sign paperwork without my mother, as good as she is at it, looking over my shoulder? I don't have that kind of time and I don't have that kind of personality, to want that for the next - one point five years."
"Okay, my first guess is something to do with your magic, maybe you can switch elements or passive abilities? Though you're still new new, less than a day, by my guess. Hmm! I'll think about it. Emancipation is relatively uncommon, usually we can take care of things without having to take that step and a lot of people's parents tend to take it as, er, not a great sign, but it's certainly something I can look into for you as well. We won't be able to manage it here and now. Out of curiosity, what college were you planning on?"
"I wouldn't know how much of this would be accomplishable under my own recognizance otherwise, is why I mentioned that.
"But I don't think my mother would be particularly put out if I had to pursue that for reasons, if I framed it right.
"It's just...I'm going to be fighting for my life and the lives of others, I'm damn well competent enough to sign a mortal contract if the spirits think I'll hold up bargains with them. They don't trust us much.
"Also I'm kind of...I trust my mother to not try and fuck with me about things on account of being a spirit guardian - incidentally, motion to just start using that instead of spirit bearer, we don't carry around actual spirits, we just kind of also are spirit-y in some ways, from what I've gathered - but, that she has the option to fuck with me like that, itself fucks with me. I'm tired of being sheltered and protected - even from my own fuckups, really, I just...ugh, I'm going to need to see a therapist about this, probably, let's add that to the list -" She actually has a pad of paper with 'SPIRIT-BEARER GUARDIAN IMMEDIATE CONCERNS' on it, with items like 'local commitments vs. prior college plans', 'SA: IFF, network', 'establish patrol route?', 'befriend local spirits', 'Magic: explore, develop', and, now, 'Find a therapist', scrawled in a hand that prioritizes speed over neatness as she barely pauses her rant - "and, of having to perform normalcy for a bunch of close-minded nitwits while somewhere in the world people are dying and I have the power to help. I'm going to have to deal with that at least long enough to get out of high school, though. The benefits of my diploma coming through on college applications are too high, unfortunately.
"But yes, this is something that would need review.
"I'm waiting to hear back from my applications, but I'm quite sure I've got the state colleges of Maryland on lock, and I've been looking around in the northerly states on this coast, especially, due to weather preferences. Didn't stop me from applying all over the map, and having decent confidence that most of them that aren't Ivies, or, like, MIT, would take me, but, y'know. Having weather you like is a plus. ...I suppose I have to consider re-evaluating...hm, no, still like winter more. Fuck the heat and fuck the humidity, even if I'm now comfortable enough in my own skin that I don't have to wear jeans in hundred-degree weather I still mostly prefer coverage."
"I think I get it. If I'm going to fight monsters, why am I being hassled about being in class and opening bank accounts and why can't I vote. I don't think you'll have much luck changing the terminology," she chuckles. "...We can lean on your high school for a graduation now, almost certainly. Or absence exemptions until the end of the year or something. Just flagging something I'm noticing, I think you mention lots of things at once and I might be dropping some. What's your concern about identification-friend-or-foe? A patrol route isn't mandatory, it depends on what you want to accomplish with it I'd think. And most spirit bearers are not necessarily in contact with most spirits. I think, speaking purely as a person who helps magical girls with their problems a lot of the time, that... Thinking you're not doing enough leads to guilt. Guilt is the path to the dark side. Guilt leads to anxiety. Anxiety leads to stress. Stress leads to burnout. And a burnt-out spirit guardian, magical girl, whatever, is of no use to anyone."
The Star Wars reference draws a chuckle out of her. "Ah, that item was 'whether I needed to make plans for somehow overthrowing a massive corrupt bureaucracy or some weird conspiracy shit', in the finest tradition of YA novels, or if you were just more mundanely kind of bad; at this point I doubt it. And, yes, obviously, burnout bad. Burnout double extra bad on account of ghosting, and I like living, thank you very much. But there are still people dying.
"It's...something I can't not know, you know? Even if I'm still...Working within my limits. And I don't intend to push them to the breaking point, you know? Unfortunately, the problem's kept this long, it'll have to keep longer unless I pull a miracle out of my ass. Which...who knows what I'll be capable of six months from now, but I can't imagine no-one's tried to make solutions for aging yet?
"And, yeah, my, well, very rambly train of thought is why I prefer written or typed communication that can be referred back to, especially when it comes to planning. Actually, here, let me..."
Pageflip.
SA CONCERNS:
She proceeds to - take a picture with her shitty phone camera because it's better than nothing - and tear the page out for Riley.
"Here, you keep this; I'd like a copy back for my records, especially the parts where I'm still having to make judgement calls, but if you're going to be acting on these things, you need to know them. The only thing that could immediately blow up in our faces, of these, is the 'what happens if my school is transphobic to my face' one, but, yeah, these are the sorts of things I hope y'all'll help me with. And given that one of those items is 'meet a diverse variety of magic-- ahem. spirit guardians, they aren't all girls, brain - anyway, given that I want to get tips and tricks from as many specialties as I can...
"I think, in the interests of making best use of my time in the city, we should leave any of the non-critical paperwork, and go to the library and the training grounds. Do you agree?"
"Sounds like a plan. I'll make a copy while you practice, probably. And they aren't all girls, no. Just most for some reason."
Riley inspects the completed paperwork. "Okay, so that'll be enough to get you a spirit association ID as long as we stop for a photo at some point! And I'll kick start the license too. I do want to mention, though... I'd like to encourage you to take things slow if you can possibly tolerate it. There are statistics if you want them, but - rule of thumb is that if you make it a year of fighting monsters regularly, you'll probably make it long term. Depending on the terms of your agreement with Culpeper Cut - unless I'm misunderstanding there? - Not to be too depressing, but, I don't want to underplay the danger. It can be... Sickening, to see young, brilliant people take on burdens like that. We'll do our best to equip you with allies, tools, and training, of course."
"Oh, yes, I have not suddenly become astronomically more capable, of that I am aware. That said, I expect to be more capable in that way rather soon, modulo training speed. And, no, I did not make an agreement with Culpeper Cut in that sense; it thought that seeing the Spirit Association be incredibly bemused at why it empowered me would be funny."
And isn't that a masterclass in lying by telling the truth.
"I just...prepared to commit to helping, and regardless of whether it was necessary to actually make that commitment, in the interest of being the sort of person who can continue to make commitments like that, I want to follow through on going 'round the area and kicking monster ass." ...Well, for the definitely nonsapient ones.
"I see. Okay. Arranging some sort of active patrol is definitely something we can do, though because you're relatively rare and we have spirits, animal control, police and emergency services, and everyone else to report sightings more often you're called to a place monsters are found than stumbling across them 'in the wild'. Let's head towards the practice areas now? I'm not actually contractually obliged to show them off, but I like to."
"Yes, I was imagining arranging something with the local spirits to clear out local monsters on a regular basis, somewhat, rather than necessarily just wandering around and hoping.
"And I would indeed like to see the training facilities you have."
...She is now in armor.
And it's not green-and-white, it's red-and-orange, freshly-accented with gold edging. (Though, interestingly enough, there's still that stripe in evidence.)
They head down the hallway again, to a main corridor lined with a few glass windows. A large gymnasium and workout area is visible through there, with a few people using it - though nobody in obvious raiment. Faint booming music filters out.
"So, there's the mundane gym, it's an employee perk as well as a member one. Hmm, I'm starting to suspect some sort of shapeshifting is in fact your starter spell! Still no good guesses on the color, I don't think it's tracking your mood. The magical section is... Really heavy duty, everything's very durable in there. Just up ahead."
"I will do you the courtesy of confirming that yes, there is something like a shapeshifting spell in my repertoire, and it is perhaps worth considering it to be the 'first' spell I had, as well. But you're missing the question you should ask to figure out the real trick, and I feel like hinting at it for you - so consider the question, 'how does she have multiple distinct raiments?'"
...Huh, the stripe's split, in a sort of red-blue 'sine wave' effect that's really just the result of projecting a diagonal line across her breastplate.
"As much as I am legitimately tempted to just dive right in to the gym, since I'm here, I believe you mentioned the librarians, earlier? Or - excuse me, sometimes I worry I'd lose my own head if it wasn't screwed on. That's the meeting. But if the librarians have a library... Scientam est potestas, as they say, and I intend to become very powerful." She laughs, quietly, at the joke.
"There is a library, a pretty narrowly focused one. Your appointment with Spiritwatcher Maeve - not her real name, she's, uh, a tad dramatic and spiritwatcher is just a fancy word for analyst - isn't for an hour but you can talk to an actual librarian about training, or read or whatever you want."
"If it's the name she's chosen, it's her real name," she gently rebukes. "Though I imagine you meant to say that about the job title she's filed under in your taxes. Regardless, I suspect that an hour's head start on reading everything I can get my hands on is probably not worth the marginal losses of maximizing magic exercise during the critical period, so..."
The stripe settles back to red, and in to the gym she goes, spear in hand.
There are several basic spells they haven't so much as cast, yet, after all, and that must immediately be rectified.
The magic section is that way, please do not do magic here, Riley slightly frantically herds her over. There's a sign - no raiment in this area.
The magic section is just as big and much less populated and does, indeed, look much, much sturdier. Concrete walls and hardwood floors. Lots of open space in the main area, with several closed off areas with signs like 'bullet room' or 'sand pit' or 'fire practice room' or 'pool' or 'sparring rooms' or 'heavy duty sparring rooms - reservation required'
There's someone with a moderately fancy raiment including a stereotypical Pointy Witch Hat and a carnival mask, split between blues and light purples, doing something with three kickballs and - strings and panels of purple light? in a corner. Juggling, or something in that area.
Hmm. Interesting.
There are several things that immediately come to mind, as far as practice goes.
Ophelia and Luna wish to focus on amplifying their control and precision.
Sylvia is, as is her wont, advocating defense practice.
Clara, Diana, and Ophelia all think that speed is a very useful thing to have.
Diana and Ophelia are heavily invested in power.
Luna wants to push the 'limits' of their magic, to see if Diana's pyrokinesis can be inverted to cryokinesis, to see if Ophelia can absorb darkness to make light, to see if Clara can create a vacuum.
Diana and Sylvia both are also advocating for adjusting all their raiments to have some sort of armor, and Luna, given a challenge, starts ticking away at solving it as best she can.
In the end, it is Ophelia who starts casting shadows on the wall, a sinuous grace - and a change in color scheme - belying the billowing darkness that emanates from her hands in bursts, her motions alternating between the quick, the accurate, and the forceful. Luna also gets her chance to see if Ophelia can pull natural shadows away...and while Ophelia can't make darkness arbitrarily bright, she most certainly can shift, compact, and yeet shadows that already exist, with an effort that leaves her mental muscles twanging.
Hmm.
Sylvia next, then; they haven't even tried on her raiment yet. What's this about a bullet room?
Riley leaves her shortly into her practice, to go process the paperwork. She'll be back soon!
The darkness billows somewhat, yes, clouding the air like squid ink. It sticks closely to surfaces, seeming to wither away like condensation in a bare moment if unsupported in the air. It crawls along the walls and floors, pooling there and responding sluggishly to her intent. Her conjured shadows can shift 'natural' shadows somewhat, bending and twisting them in defiance of light's gaze... At least a little bit, making her shadow on the floor dance while her body is holding still with enough focused willpower.
The bullet room looks like a series of batting cages, enclosed rooms with thick wire screens, a painted circle on the ground and small tubes arranged all around. There's a sign - "Select difficulty level and walk to circle. Each session lasts 3 minutes." The available difficulties are numbered one through eight.
A girl with a wide, poofy pink skirt, twintails, arm-guards, and a few other embellishments, and some sort of wand instead of a spear is twirling and spinning as she dodges small red projectiles in one of the cages. They're... Pretty fast, about like a baseball pitch, though the balls themselves are smaller. They come every couple of seconds, and she winces as one hits her in the stomach, but continues dodging.
...Hmm. It is Sylvia and Luna who take the lead, just observing a level-one session from outside the circle, before pulling on Sylvia's metallic, armored raiment, accented with Luna's contemplative blue.
It is Ophelia, however, who has the instincts, and the sensory capabilities, to dance between the metaphorical raindrops, her hands guiding the-body-Annabel through dodging and deflecting the oncoming storm with grace - or, at least, trying to do so.
At level one, the balls only come from a relatively narrow section in 'front', once every three to five seconds. It's still a challenge to dodge them all when you're actually in the circle. Seeing the ball, predicting its path, and moving out of the way as three different steps is simply too slow, and it'll take practice to smooth it out. The impacts that do hit unarmored or bare skin sting for a bare moment before regenerating away, and adding to a very slight, almost unnoticeable strain in the back of her head.
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