6026/Roll a D20

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Roll a D20
Date of Scene: 23 April 2021
Location: Breakstone Lake
Synopsis: No description
Cast of Characters: Illyana Rasputina, Julio Richter




Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Setting down a ward over the school requires at least some degree of preparation for the average participant in a ritualised attempt to synchronize powers. Illyana isn't quite up to roaming around as the DADA expert and a gaggle of students in tow. Best to settle in with her XO on such matters.

The impish little die daemons scurry around, their enchantment such she has four of them attuned to a totally harmless basket on the ground. To reinforce they are solemnly up to no good, the basket contains a loaf of bread and a few croissants dipped in chocolate. Picnicking on a spring evening is totally unsuspicious in every way, isn't it?

"You came prepared, didn't you?" The lake is at her back, a safe place for this sort of questionable adventure.

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio, dressed casually in his vest and jeans, crouches and scoops up a familiar-looking D8 imp. He tosses it upward and then catches it in his palm, almost like he's preparing a roll, but more like he's bouncing a baby. He grins at it, but then looks up when Illyana poses her question.

"What does prepared mean, in this context?" he asks guardedly, standing back up with the D8 palmed. "I've read some of the books you gave me, even though a lot of parts didn't make a lot of sense. I've felt around below the school so much that I almost know it by heart -- where the power sources are, which ways they flow."

In an aside, he also offers, "I also know all the best caves, if we need a spot to work." He raises one eyebrow, sure that's not what she's asking after. "Was I supposed to bring a chicken to sacrifice?"

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Eager little legs quiver when given the lift up into the air, than the petite die can possibly achieve on its own without something to clamber up. Spring comes slowly to the forest at their back, adding splotches of colour to the dusky brown landscape against which the blonde stands. "Prepared to attempt to synergize our energy. We need the practice," she explains. "Raising defenses means everyone being in sync. I would like to at least see how we balance out everything."

The dancing little D8 settles down after being bobbed about, shining and happy. "Not everything in those grimoires is written to a way that would be familiar, nyet. They have a western tradition at least. The specifics would be a common language. But trying to rouse a focus is another practice altogether."

She arches an eyebrow at his reference for caves, and nods to Julio. "Best do. I do not want anyone to come out and think this is a good time to kick a ball at you."

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio grins at that last comment. "Let them try," he answers, his accented voice adopting a boastful cant. With a fluid gesture, he calls a spark of green power up from the Earth beside him, then lets it flower into a round X-ward traced in light. "I am warded against the temptations of fùtbol. This is serious business." He is serious about it -- genuinely -- beneath his lighthearted mood, but the prospect of something in the mystical realm that is straightforward, within his understanding and power, is lifting his spirits somewhat.

But he nods, letting his smile set into a look of determination. "Mentally prepared, yes. That I am." There's perhaps a bit of unearned confidence there -- he hasn't been in his steadiest frame of mind lately -- but his willpower has crystallized around this project, too. Guarding the school is a need he understands, something he already does in other ways. This is just an extension of that work.

Then she asks him for a cave, and he looks like a puppy who has seen you get the frisbee out of the closet. No one ever asks him for caves. "Ooh. You want one with natural light? Groundwater? Flowing or stagnant?" He stops himself before he goes full real estate agent, but it's an effort of will. Instead of talking more, he raises a shuddering aura around himself and then delves, the Earth shaking and shifting to create an uneven ramp downward and away from the lake. "There's a little air pocket down here above the lakewater that's pretty nice," he suggests.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Inured to futbol? Skepticism filters across Illyana's sharp expression, tightening the light of her lips into something just on the cusp of a smirk. "I doubt Berto agrees with that." What their brightest Sunspot might say will have to wait for another night. The basket is scooped up to avoid any accusations of Red Riding Hood poisoning innocent students traipsing upon a tasty treat and promptly choking on it by accident.

The earth beneath their feet must run faster than not with hot promise of growth and explosive energies unleashed in seeds, roots, and bushes. What pale green light registers darker to the Russian sorceress brings a smile to her lips; this manifestation of his abilities is not without cause for her to celebrate a little for him. Even if she might be loathe to say, the fact she smiles at all constitutes a hell of a footnote. Good week?

Maybe a deeper change. It could go with each of their paths. "Stagnant water in caves I have seen enough of in my lifetime to last me a thousand years. A cenote would be fine. Choose a place that you are comfortable in." The rest is left up to him.

Only fair. His creation, his transportation. Maybe Julio's infectious enthusiasm breaches a wall, or she has to find some balance to follow him as the ground swallows them both in its fashion. By the time the dust settles, she treads after him, her boots ideal for some traction.

Julio Richter has posed:
Julio cheerily leads the way down, remembering to call up some motes of magic to swirl around him and cast light for his friend. He doesn't really need it -- not underground -- and she might not either, but it seems the hospitable thing to do. The ramp digs itself ahead of them, winding and not too steep. He veers close to the air pocket he mentioned earlier, but then thinks better of it: the last time he pierced into one of those, it flooded as the air pressure gave way.

Instead, he brings the pair of them to an underground river: water flows from a spring, then cascades down into a flowing pool it has carved in the stone floor. The floor is uneven and even spiked in places, but spike match both of their aesthetics. His dancing lights scatter to nestle among the stalactites and cast a dim glow throughout the chamber.

"This is nice, right?" he asks, pleased both by the surroundings and by her unusual cheer. "But you're right, Berto wouldn't like it. So he won't come down and try to get me into a pickup match. Perfect."

He claps his hands once, the sound refracting in the space, and then rubs them together. "So! Where do we start?" he asks.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Bubbling sunshine belongs to a different class of mutant. Julio might harbour more brightness in his soul than Illyana but he still seems aspected somewhere in the midst of a sunbaked night. Cheery in his own element might be very different from the surface, and the teleporter is keenly sharpened to watch his every variation or mood while entombed. For that is, in a sense, what her descent means; no Persephone going into the Underworld behind a blithe Hades here.

Those threads of Limbo's power are never far from her thoughts, lurking behind her eyes in case something brings the lake down atop their heads or the ramparts fall in. One too many mining disasters possibly play out in the back of her mind. The earth is never dry and sweet with a hit of spice, but it holds a freshness below, lingering traces of winter and growth enconsced around them. Down to a river winding through the Westchester basin on its way to the sea instead, and here she might even dare to offer a nudged toe to the shoreline when they approach even closer. Tumbling its way through a hidden bed: ah, here are secrets to be found.

"You have found an excellent anchoring point. We must always move on and adapt," a gesture to the waterway careening where it goes, "but enduring and solid. You can call upon the strength as a foundation to work upon. Have you ever tried layering spells?"

The darkness doesn't bother her; the only quibble that might be had is the blunted range of her sight, though his is probably plain and fine through some peculiar tremorsense. Best look up his stats in the back of the book.

Julio Richter has posed:
The descent into the Earth can be claustrophobic for others, but for Julio it's like slipping into a hot spring. He relaxes into a feeling of strength and assurance down here that will likely be familiar to Illyana; it's distantly related, if on a vastly smaller scale, to her own swaggering puissance in the heart of Limbo. He almost seems more solid than above: more committed, more willing to take up space.

That said, it's at our most confident that we most tempt the fates. Something he should likely try to remember.

Still, his earthworks, at least, are perfectly reliable. He can even magic them so, if necessary, but with his keen sense of the tensions and vibrations within the ground, it's never necessary. The crevice that deposits them into the cave is narrow but very sound.

The cave itself he leaves as pristine as possible; he seems to like it that way. And, in a sense, to modify it too much for their visit would be vandalism of an art project thousands of years in the making.

"Layering?" he echoes, considering the term. "I think maybe, yes? But mostly if I use layers, it's more of a little bit of magic plus a little bit of mutant. I have a spell to make stone things stronger, and sometimes I have used it on a big piece of Earth before, um. Launching it at a monster." He's a little sheepish about this, which sounds frivolous compared to warding their home. But it was useful at the time! "Did you mean more like combining multiple pieces of magic into a bigger one?"

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Common purpose and divergent means. The structure of the space will work, for as it may be confining to some, it embodies the heart of Julio's power. Her own carries an element of relentless change, his the stability required to achieve deep impossibilities. Illyana notes that shift in his mien and bearing, though says nothing of it. Some matters can be centered upon later.

Fate remains a player in the game, but then, so does the Demon Queen of Limbo. Let the die be cast and the pieces moved about at their own risk.

She chooses to kneel upon the stone, folding her legs beneath her. A sinking descent places her facing him, hands resting upon her knees. "Da. Taking a spell and putting another atop it. Thinner that way, but an easier way to build something up to achieve a final end. It may be the best way to approach this. If you establish four pillars to support your ward instead of one thick column perhaps."

Julio Richter has posed:
After mirroring her move, seating himself facing her, Julio considers that in silence for a second. Then, "Four pillars. Like... casting the same spell in four places, then connecting them? Or casting different spells right on top of each other?" The question is, perhaps, a bit simplistic for the esoteric mysteries they're exploring, but Julio is nothing if not a stickler for the foundation. "If it's spread out, does that make it more stable, sort of? Harder to knock over?"

He does have a habit of asking her these fundamental process questions, making sure he understands the principles behind her designs, not just the magical 'recipe' itself. It can be annoying; more than one teacher has found it so. But it's his learning process, and Illyana is learning it as he is learning what she has to teach.

He's still holding the little D8 imp, which he sets down to let it explore. No good having its little limbs tickling and distracting while he's trying to focus. "So, maybe I could use that stone strengthening spell here, and in a few other places around the grounds. Then I cast a ward on top of all those, like they're supports." He pauses, then elaborates, "Maybe that would mean to take the ward down, someone would have to take out all the strong places supporting it? Or it could stretch the ward farther, between those strong places. Am I understanding right?"