2020-12-02: Visiting the Hydra - Rote Testing and History Discussion
| Visiting the Hydra - Rote Testing and History Discussion | |
|---|---|
| Vic visits Hardy; she shows him a new Rote she's developing and he tells her more about his personal history | |
| IC Date | December 2nd, 2020 |
| IC Time | Late Afternoon |
| Players | Hardy/Hydra and Vic Rasmussen |
| Location | The Hydra's Lair |
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Hardy would be waiting at the pool as he knew Vic would come by, having hurried back home to make sure he was there and sent her the message that he was ready. Smiling broadly as it had been a while since he had seen her.
Arriving shortly after she indicated she would following the message, Vic greets Hardy with a happy, "Hey there Aitch," and an added, "I didn't know I needed to bring swim wear."
Hardy tilts his head "Well you don't could have some if you want, but we always had a pool and hot tub as long as we lived here... well hot tub is newer but only by like a week.." grinning broadly "We like water.. and its nice to be in" motioning at the big pool with the far to high drop in water, probably to accommodate him when he was a bit larger. Smiling broadly to her "So social visit? Or anything we can do do help?"
"Social," Vic replies with a grin and adds, "Its been a while after all. I did also want to show something off but... I don't even know if it'll work with you so in a since its a request for help too?"
Hardy chuckles "We do not mind social or helping, either are equally good and we can certainly do both" smiling warmly to her "We hope you have been well, we have been good but abit bored but it is something that happens. Wandered the woods some, been sparring some. Lamenting friends we made leaving.. normal things" grinning to her "So how can we help?"
"I've created a Rote I'd like to try out with you," Vic says. She looks thoughtful and asks, "Do you have anything that you don't care what color it is that I can try the rote out on?"
Hardy seems to ponder "Ehm... well anything but our clothing, we don't have any more spray, though we are sure it could be provided again.. having clothing that shift with us is very useful... ehm..." moving over and getting a towel that was neatly folded in a pile of them near the pool "Would this do? And Rote what is that? A spell?"
Vic nods. "Yes. But not all spells are rotes. Its one that has been practiced enough to make it able to be used more easily," she explains and looks at the green towel. With a chuckle she says, "Sure, that'll work," about the towel and asks, "Shall I just perform the rote for you?"
Hardy smiles "Your intention was to try it out for us, was it not? Then do so" nodding with a big grin "Also We do enjoy magic, it is always fun to watch, always so different every time"
Out comes the smartphone upon which the music player is triggered: the Overture from The Magic Flute begins. She then begins to chant softly under her breath, saying the word for color in more than a dozen languages over and over again while tapping the towel once, twice, thrice. Then she says the word "Change" and the towel almost instantly looses its pigment, turning white in a rapid but observable bleed from the point on its surface she had tapped, moving outward until the entire towel turns the purest white. She waits amoment and touches it again only to curse at herself ("dammit, must I /always/ do it as a ritual?!") as it remains purest white.
Hardy tilts his head "So... the spell is color and removing it?" watching the towel curiously and seeing her curse "Or is it not supposed to do that?"
Vic sighs. "No. That's a preparatory status... but... I didn't do it well enough," she explains and then asks, "Let me try it again?" adding, "I'll use the same towel so we're not bleaching another item."
Hardy nods "We have plenty of towels, use that one or another one... it does not matter" smiling warmly to her and watches in fascination.
Vic grins and says, "Well, if this works right the target won't be white when the effect ends, this one just didn't last long enough," so she grabs another towel and sets it down on top of the first one.
Vic restarts the music and begins the same chant: Cantonese, English, Italian, Japanese, Klingonese, Mandarin, Mongolian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Tibetan. Color means color in all of them, even if pronounced differently. Occasionally the word heart or the word star is said instead, never more than once per language and not in every one of them. As last time she taps this new towel once, twice, thrice. Then, as the music comes to an end, she says the word "Change" in Tagalog and the towel almost instantly looses its pigment, turning snow white just like the last one had so that the two look like a matched pair. After a few moments of silence she puts her hand on the middle of the towel and pink begins to bleed out from her touch. As she lifts her hand a heart-shaped void is seen and, as the color continues to bleed out across the towel, identical voids appear in a semi-random pattern across it.
Grinning, Vic says, "That is the effect!" as she steps back and lets him see her 'handiwork'.
Hardy tilts his head "Now that is pretty" grinning broadly "Can we touch it?" looking to it then over to her watching the effect "Does that not call the nettle forth?"
"It might, but the universe does not always mind the changes we wrought to its fabric. This time it did not but if I were to perform it without certain trappings in front of sleepers, it could indeed," Vic explains.
"Wait a couple of minutes first, I want to see what happens when it reverts back to white and you touch it," she says.
Hardy would watch it turn white curiously and touching it and watching the star pattern and blueness of it curiouly "Interesting, we have seen this on the internet... usually though there is a balloon or.. something.." looking to her curiously "Are you having a baby? Or someone you know?" the large man smiles broadly not seeming to be worried either or, but he knew enough about the meme that was gender reveal to think this had something to do with it. "Would this work in our natural form?"
Vic laughs at the first question and shakes her head before saying, "No, I plan for it as a gag gift. Applied to a kubotan in a box. I'll cancel the effect after it has transmuted to the correct color for the recipient at the White Elephant party that a member of my Tradition is organizing." Then, acknowledging the more serious question, she says, "I wasn't sure it would work in /this/ form, but you're human enough for the magic I guess in this form. Your natural form? Absolutely not. It detects the gender of humans," and asks, "Prefer this color or the other? Stars or hearts?"
Hardy chuckles "We never been much for pink, we like hearts and stars they represent different things that we like" smiling broadly to her "Interesting, what is a White Elephant party?" tilting his head as he studies her curiously.
Vic, nodding as she does, releases the magic effect while Hardy is still touching the entirely blue but for randomly placed white, five pointed star shapes. "I've released the effect, the change is permanent. Unless something changes it again in the future of course," she says before explaining, "Its a party where gifts are collected and then selected. After the first is selected the next person can elect to steal a previous gift that hasn't been stolen three times before or claim a new one. Once all gifts are claimed they are owned. Once a gift is stolen three times it is owned. Thus... I have no clue who will get my gift so the magic helps personalize it."
Hardy chuckles "It seems like a complicated game for giving gifts" shaking his head "Guess it is entertained by those who like to play tactically and win the best price in their eyes?" grinning broadly
Vic nods. "Basically, yeah," she says with a grin. "Thorn, a member of my Tradition who is relatively new to the city is organizing it," she explains.
Hardy smiles "We met Thorn" nodding with a broad grin "She is very nice, and did not think us crazy for how we speak, was even respectful with it." nodding again to himself "Bobbi said she was good, and we felt the same. Even pondered perhaps showing her. We promised to teach her ancient Egyptian"
Vic, having never hidden her interest in languages, visually perks at hearing her friend knows a language she's never heard spoken. "You would know ancient languages," she says almost in awe of the fact and then asks, "Can I hear how it sounds?" because naturally she'll not understand it before she's taught it.
Hardy says, "What do you wish us to say?" in Ancient Egyptian.
Hardy smiles broadly to her as he speaks it probably not what people think it sounds like but definitely how it was spoken at the time he was there. He had not used it in a long while but that never stopped him, he annoyed a few modern Egyptians... and even some British who considered themselves archeologists with it.
Vic's expression changes from fascinated to confused and she says, "What was that?" in a way that is completely clear she is not speaking to Hardy after which she nods as if listening and then nods again and then slowly speaks saying "Thank you," in Ancient Egyptian.
Vic asks, "Did I pronounce that correctly?" partially adressing Hardy still.
Hardy blinks "Yes that was correct" tilting his head "You speak it as well" seeming rather confused as he watches her but still smiling broadly as he seems happily surprised by it.
Vic shakes her head. "No. I've never heard that language before," she says and frowns. "I..." she pauses and looks like she is listening to a voice in her head before continuing. "My avatar knows it. He translated and told me how to thank you... for both of us."
Hardy says, "It has been long since we have spoken it, it must have been after the eleventh dynasty... it was a while ago" in Ancient Egyptian.
Hardy grinning broadly. "We are not certain what an avatar is... but if it speaks the old tongue of Egypt it must be as old as our-self."
Vic appears to have been listening to the translation when Hardy spoke about avatars and so is further delayed as she has to listen to more of that unheard inner voice as it repeats the Hydra's other comments. She nods then and says, "Its a mage thing. You might call it our soul. Everybeing... well, at least every human has an avatar. When it is awakened that human is a mage." She pauses a moment then says, "Some avatars are circumspect. Some are vocal. Some get in your face and interact with others. Mine's... becoming somewhat more vocal today apparently."
Hardy nods with a smile "Ah yes, so it is your source of power, the channel of where you shift reality" nodding to himself with a smile "We do not have space for an avatar, there are enough of us as there is" grinning as he was probably joking about it.
Vic chuckles softly at Hardy's joke and says, "Yeah. Mine introduced himself as Wordsworth and has been a silent partner most of the time since my awakening. Hearing ancient Egyptian got his attention apparently." She then stops talking and holds her head cocked as if listing to someone whispering behind her. She rolls her eyes and says, "I have been asked to tell you that your heads remind him of Apophis. The way he says it makes me feel that this is /not/ a compliment but he is also insisting that it is not an insult."
Hardy tilts his head "It is not a compliment, Apep we are not. We are not an enemy of Ma'at. We might have been a guardian to a gate of the Underworld but we are not the serpent who fights Ra. We will not take it as an insult as you are a friend"
Vic quickly says, "Thank you," acknowledging this last. "I haven't studied enough Egyptian mythology to have known that so I am sorry, but I was asked to tell you that," she explains with a grimace. She spins around, speaking as she does, "If you are that old why do you sound like a modern Brit?!" and then turns back to Hardy, blushing at her own outburst and saying, "Maybe he'll get quiet again for now," as she shakes her head at herself.
Hardy chuckles "It is fine, we know you have no ill will towards us. And your avatar seems to know quiet the bit about ancient mythology. Perhaps he sounds like a modern Brit cause it is easier for you to understand him that way?" tries a theory, not having a clue at all about avatars
"That may be," Vic says with a nod. "I'm not versed enough in the theory of avatars to speculate too far on that but maybe I should investigate this with those who are more learned on the subject."
Hardy nods "Certainly, we have no idea at all about avatars. Our knowledge of mages is actually rather limited" smiling broadly "So he saying he an old Egyptian pretending to be a British archeologist? Who he say he was?"
"He never said that," Vic says, continuing her answer with, "And he's not saying anything now. I don't even know if he knows who we were in the past. Your avatar and you reincarnate, so we're a matched pair."
Hardy nods "Ah well. If he ever wants to chat again we are more then happy to speak again." seems to ponder "We are not chaos... we were chaos.. we were death.. but that was us having lost our purpose, angry with the world that had abandoned us."
"I don't think I know that part of the Hydra story... I'm sure its after your great hoax with Hercules though," she says and asks, "Care to share?"
Hardy nods to her "It was after Heracles and Iolus, most forget him... but a few hundred years after, lake Lerna, our home dried up... the Gate disappeared with the lake, our purpose, was to guard it, to keep mortal from wandering in. We waited hoping it return... then we started to wander the world. To Egypt first.. we heard of Anubis of Ra and their path to the Underworld hoping we would find something.. but we did not.. so we traveled north.. much later of course.. the roman empire had risen.. fighting the Germanic tribes.. we accidentally came upon a skirmish between germanic forces and a detachment from a legion.. got hit by a pilum.. our mood was already sour.. being pierced by a javelin defiantly... set us off. So we killed all of them... no one survived. We continued to wander, our clothing bloody, we found more of the Germanic.. they took us in, offered us food. Showed us kindness. we seen this before.. but the village was attacked.. so.. rather then shift... we.. saw the men grab swords and so did we. We fought and fought... until the Romans fell... we were greeted as a hero.." shaking his head "After that... we fought and wandered and wandered and fought... till we found our way north... to what is now Sweden." smiling and shaking his head "We partaken in a lot of wars, we were at the siege of Paris... raided the monastery... fought against North Umbria. We found love, killed a clan of.. as she had no sons.. wandered Germany through most of the dark ages... fought some minor skirmishes, bit in the thirty year war... hid in the black forest... then world war came.. drafted into the imperial army.. fought in Verdun... escaped after we took an artillery to the chest, crawled out of the shell hole... escaped to northen Africa... second world war came.. British forced us into service... we managed to escape on a ship to America" shaking his head.
OOC: At this point the scene faded to black due to other obligations on the part of Vic Rasmussen's player.
