>>41331284 >Cait... really wasn't sure how to respond to that. On one hand starving was always a bad thing and you really should do what you can to avoid it. On the other there had to be a reason she was so dead set on leaving her old project behind. She said if was a failure... but how so?
Why is it that you don't want to present to em? If you don't mind me asking that is...?
>There was a reason for everything. Why the sky was blue, why Crystals work, why people do things that don't always make sense. All you have to do is take the time to look, listen, and understand.
>Staying quiet for a while after Caitlin's question, Regina waited for a fresh mug to be brought to her by a passing barmaid before allowing for a deep sigh to escape and an even deeper chug from the beer in front of her. To be fair it was a good question and Regina honestly couldn't fault her for asking the question that didn't necessarily make it pleasant for her to talk about a past everyone seemed oh-so-keen to delve into time and time again.
>But whilst she didn't necessarily like digging up the past and showing off her mistakes, Regina knew that any amount of digging around with her name would reveal all of the details of her previous projects so secrecy was a moot point.
If you want I could show you the project once we leave here.
I think if you see it with your own eyes then you'll understand my reluctance to present on the subject.
>>41334839 >Well that's a bit ominous. That said it was also probably the best way Cait would be able to understand why.
Alright Regina, sounds like an idea to me.
>A good idea or no that was yet to be seen, but she did ask for it soooooo... >She's probably going to need another mug of ale for this, good thing she just got another!
Regina Emelyne Bitom !MrCarnage2 6 May 2016 11:00:04 PM No.41335868
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>>41334866 >Though the pair of girls spent a few more hours at the tavern enjoying each-others conversation on less sombre subjects, there eventually came a time for the ladies to leave the bar and move on to other matters. After a short debate on where each person lived, it was agreed that Regina's apartment was marginally closer than Caitlyn's and thus that they should head there next if any further conversation was to happen.
>As the girls walked the lit streets of the underwater marvel they called home, Regina spoke up again in a conversational tone.
I know you to be a well accomplished tek engineer but how much do you know about invocation principals and the theories regarding "concept shifting"?
>>41335868 Not very much to be honest. I know it involves taking one element of magic and changing it into another through some mental process of connecting an association between the two. Like making light from fire. But that's about the extent of what I know.
>There were too many outside factors in that field for her to really understand how it truly worked. Though that question of hers would probably lead into her project. Cait better listen carefully if she wanted to follow along with any of this.
>>41337515 >Still walking with Caitlin, the two women made their way to the academy where Regina's quarters could be found. Going up the very many stairs and lifts that made up the complicated walkways of the research center, Regina continued the discussion she had with her guest on the nature of concept shifting and the various theories surrounding it.
As a whole what you said is right in that the idea of concept shifting requires the linking of one element to another within the priestess' magical disposition of the world. Going from Water to Cold, Fire to Light, Lightning to Power. With every shift comes a surge of new powers equal to the difficulty of the process which, when survived, grants the sorcerer a slew of new abilities.
Now, magic is inherently the art of conjuring matter where none was before. Time and time again it was proven that magic can only add to the world not withdraw from it, thus, with a successfully shifted sorcerer, the additions made to the world become all the more meaningful.
>Stopping in front of her own door indistinguishable from the other similar ones that neighbored it one every side, Regina pulled out a key from her pocket and opened her door with it.
>>41338210 >Was it really making something from nothing though? Cait personally didn't think that was true. Maybe it was her engineer mind but she always saw things working in the world as an equal exchange. If you want something you give something of equal measure in return. Effort for Progress, Work for Money, Understanding for Relationship. But of what she saw of magic... well it seemed to contradict what she thought. Though she always had the inkling that there was a cost to a mage using magic somewhere, it's just no one's seen it yet. >Still she wasn't going to voice her opinion on it just yet. More so when some of the more complex laws of magic escaped her still. Shouldn't form an opinion until you have all the facts.
Thank you.
>With a polite nod the the engineer follows the scholar inside.
Survived huh...?
>She heard that concept shifting had it's hazards as well and failure can usually be... 'messy.' Though she wasn't entirely what that meant having not witnessed such things herself.
>The priestess agreed as she went about clearing a space near the center of the room of the many books and tools that loitered around the woman's sleeping quarters. Whilst moving a particularly heavy looking assortment of brass vials and wickets, Regina resumed her speech.
Concept Shifting is no easy thing and only available to the best sorcerers in the world due to its technical complexity required. And as you said before, Concept Shifting seeks to change one's attunement to magic so that spells of different levels and ideas can be manifested but what if other things could be conceptually shifted?
>Finally finished with the clearing of the wide space, Regina stood in the middle of the space and rolled up the long sleeves of her shirt she had been wearing to reveal a twin pair of thick crystal bracers of a strange colorless hue.
My old research project sought to see if it was possible for a sorcerer to conceptually change their very body in order to manipulate its magical composition and potentially exponentially multiply its capacity for magical evocations. It was an interesting idea and one I found that had been never attempted before so, I tried.
>Reaching down to unlatch the crystals around her forearms, Regina's entire self - that is, more than her body but her clothes and staff as well - burst into thick orange flames that sustained themselves off of nothing. The heat that washed off the woman blacked the ground beneath her and felt as intense as a fully blazing bonfire.
I chose fire because it was the base element I was best attuned with as a novice and one that held particular affection for even as a fully fledged priestess. And the result, as you can see now, is this gross deformation of my self.
>>41339185 >Wow, Regina's place looked about as clean as hers was when she wasn't expecting company. >As the woman went on and explained her former project Cait started to understand the implications of what she had been doing... but seeing the results still shocked her to her core as she looked on in awe.
By the Stone...
>There Regina was, her friend, more or less a living fire ball now. Her whole body and even her clothes had been converted to flames. Even as the heat washed over the engineer Regina continued to speak as if none of this had ever happened. A mixture of amazement and horror rush through Cait's mind. Their was a beauty in Regina's current state, even if she herself thought it was a deformity, the flickering flames that were now her body were living art and Cait couldn't help but continue to stare at it her, this enchanting flame she had become. >But... while the fact that she was able to pull this off from a scientific standpoint was wondrous, the fear of what this was doing to Regina's body was also just as prominent as the amazement. Regina herself had said this was uncharted territory and that filled Cait with dread as to what unseen toll the other woman was paying with each passing moment. >Regina was right, showing her this really did help her to understand why she never wanted this to see the light of day.
Are... are you ok?
>The long moment of stunned silence was finally broken with a simple question about her friend's well being. Even in this revelation and all the swirling questions around it, Cait had prioritized the one at the centre of it all.
>>41340991 >With an aloof fiery gaze, Emelyne surveyed her friend's reaction and found it to be appropriately mild and motivated with the right amount of cautious curiosity.
I am corporeally stable and psychologically untouched by the process though the base constituents of my body have been radically altered to that of fire. However, given that it would be impossible to live a normal life in my current condition, I have had to find alternative ways to recenter myself.
>Pointing down to the blackened ground at her feet, Emelynne showed one of the thick crystal bracers she had been wearing under her long sleeved chemise.
Through these bracers I am able to channel the image and constitution of a human body which I wear on a daily basis. Though this type of crystal is known as "Glass" and normally unfit for all but construction materials, after a time of experimentation it was found that it was the most well adapted for my needs.
>With a sigh, the fire priestess spun around slowly in front of the engineer, showing her the full extent of the flames.
But as you can see everything points to the process being permanent and, worst still, unless I am wearing those glass bracers (my anchor if you will) then I am unable to channel magic correctly.
>Corporeally stable and psychologically untouched indeed. Sure she may have not seen Regina's initial reaction to her current state. If it was negative however, there wasn't a shred of evidence of it now in her almost casual behaviour to being a living flame.
So Glass does have unique properties but to think it was something like this...
>Crystals and the technology surrounding them was back into her area of knowledge. Just as Regina said, Glass wasn't much use outside of construction or decoration as it was something of a 'by-product' of Crystal mining but learning that Regina had discovered something in it that others hadn't got her won wheels spinning. Clearly it could alter the woman's form back it's original state, but only while she was in contact with the Glass itself. Was it acting as a suppressor of some kind? No... She was able able to use magic with them on but not in her... Burning state? Yeah, let's just call it that for now. Just how were those bracers working? >Curiosity as a Crystaltech user aside...
Starting to see why you don't want to show this project to anyone.
>And to know that this could very well be a permanent her friend was in made it all the harder to swallow.
Can't imagine folk wouldn't want to poke at you and see what makes you tick now if they got to see this...
This post was edited by its author on 15 May 2016 3:08:19 PM.
>>41342570 >Reaching down with fingers made of fire, the priestess grabbed the heavy crystal bracers and fit them around her forearms, the dull grey material lighting up briefly as the woman's fiery form was consumed and her physical body reasserted itself over the ghostly form of fire. Slowly the flames ebbed away, starting first with her flesh and moving outwards to the clothes she wore.
More importantly I wouldn't want to see brash researchers endanger their lives for something that could not give them what they're searching for. Rather than an easier way to amplify one's ability, all I've discovered is one more way for sorcerers to mutilate themselves in the search for power.
>And that was what lay at the crux of the matter at hand. First and foremost was the idea that safety for one's self and society should outweigh the potential advances one made through any research conducted. Yet, some less scrupulous men and women would gladly dive headfirst into such a venture if ever they saw the potential for an idea of theirs to flourish and gain traction.
>>41343858 >Yeah that was another problem as well. Cait shuddered to think just how many idiots would jump at the chance to do work like this without considering any of the risks involved. The damage it'd do to their lives or the hazards to those around them if they weren't as careful as Regina is.
Yeah... Can't imagine too many people will think before they act when there's profit to be gained.
>Even herself, as guilty as it made her feel, wanted to jump back to the subject of Glass and how Regina had gotten to display such properties as they were now. And she liked to think, outside of her fiery temper, that she had a pretty level head. Someone out of their gourd or desperate for funding... That was a recipe for disaster.
>But now she understood exactly why Regina never wanted this to see the light of day and how the situation she was thrust into seemed to be an cruel struggle between one's morals, the need to live, and the desires of others.
If... if there's anything I can do to help you with this, just say the word. And naturally, I won't say anything about this to anyone.
>Not just because she considered priestess her friend, but now that she also understood the dangers of this getting out.
>>41347083 >Soundlessly Emelyne's form reasserted itself to that of a completely human form devoid of any of the flames that had made her up entirely mere moments ago. What had been a living torch was now nothing but a young woman again with only the scorch marks on the ground to show that anything otherworldly had ever happened.
Well if you could give me a place to stay after the college kicks me out then I would appreciate it a whole lot.
>With a defeated sigh, the struggling researcher made her way across the small room and sat down on the crowded bed covered in books and writing implements.
If you want to stay the night then there's an inflatable mattress under the desk. I wouldn't mind the company and the streets around the college are quite dark this early in the morning.