[Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Archives of Occultus Magica's beginnings, ten years prior to the current story.
Luca
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Luca »

For that split second that Mr. Miller and Riley's phantasm had intersected, the teacher had felt a wave of nausea wash over him. Something was already occupying his body, and the introduction of another foreign body was a shock to his systems for a moment. He recoiled and dropped the burning log in shock, clutching his head and groaning. It was as though a migraine had come over him.

However, the sensation had passed quickly, and he looked at the log he'd dropped and repositioned it into the middle of the circle and asked, "Campfire?" to nobody in particular, shrugging to those assembled and grimacing.
CadetNewb
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by CadetNewb »

The sound of feet hurriedly running down stairs stomped over them all.

*****

The American boy soon reached the basement of the recreated house, one of the less injured Yeti trailing behind with a pair of large red gas tanks. He promptly pulled a short string, lighting up the underground room with a harsh florescent bulb - several generators were good to go, and as the Yeti filled up the starter generator's tanks, Duncan pulled over a folding chair and got to work.

*****

"Let's see, how to answer all of these..." Duncan's voice pondered. "You guys won't be leaving that fishtank for the next three days because I'll be joining you right after I start up the time dilation, turning one hour into three hellish, grueling days," he promptly answered, leaving them all a few precious moments to comprehend what was said. "Oh, and don't punt anyone else out of the training area. With that hole in my old spellwork, there's no telling if it will collapse and strand whoever's still inside if you don't all get out at the same time. And the contents might just spill, filling the house all at once, crushing us all." The final words, quickly added, made the frosty air within the training area all the more icy cold.

"Yeah, this shouldn't come as a surprise - I mean, you guys think a single session is going to do much? I mean, look at Riley - she used way, way too much power on something so incredibly flashy yet only effective. No more, no less. I mean, geeze, try some powered arms or something, would you?" he half explained, half griped to the group and a little girl in particular. Just then, the sound of a cord being pulled, followed by a small engine puttering to life stood at the forefront of their rather one way conversation. "But yeah, at the least I can teach you so that it doesn't eat up so much mana or whatever while you're all stuck in this house with me. Same with Percy - soanyone up for camping?" he asked suddenly. "I got some really good, nice and cozy tents and stuff I've recently bought and been dying to test - I mean - take for a spin out in the Alps or something!" Massive turbines roared to life, drowning them all out for the briefest of moments.

A door slamming quickly cut off the sound of the dynamos that came from up above. But it was one thing after another. "They're just little Pigmy Yeti," Coco spoke up, answering Sakura and further adding to what Adrienne had started. "You know, small ones? They're around my size, a little bigger maybe. They're practically harmless, but we found out cinnamon makes them all angry. They like the candy, but it makes them all angry if its super spi - SMORES! You're gunna make me smores!" the little girl suddenly proclaimed, pointing a finger at Miller. "I'm holding you to that!" she gleamed.

At that, an airplane buzzed overhead, as several parachutes dropped out the back.

"Amurika! Whoo!" Duncan called out, the red white and blue striped parachute collapsing in a heap behind him as the crates touched down. "So we intercepted this illegal aircraft flying over our airspace on December 25th with our Patriot Missiles - one bogie down, and a whole bunch of free stuff later, here I am!" he grinned at them all from behind his aviator shades.
Kalshion
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kalshion »

Sakura hadn't been expecting Duncan to join them, so when she heard the sound of something landing on the ground some distance away she turned to see the boy right there, it promptly gave her a bit of a fright, but the biggest one came just moments later. Sakura blinked several times in rapid succession as she heard Adrienne speak to her, and it wasn't in a condescending tone like she was used to hearing from her father, but it was a nice enough tone that it - litereally - freaked her out. "Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep!" she let out a loud yelp and jumped backwards, releasing the string of bow in the process and letting loose a fire arrow that went straight for Duncan's rear end for the second time today.
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Gwathdraug
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Gwathdraug »

As Duncan fell from the sky by parachute Riley found she couldn't even watch the American boy through his whole descent. The Stage Magician's stomach heaved and burped up bile that stung the throat as the young girl forced herself to choke it back down.

Worst yet was how any clear glimpse she got of the older spell caster washed her vision red and flooded her mind with pure and unparsible senselessness. Accusations and rage and sorrow flew freely about Riley's mind and fought and pushed back everything else that made her mind hers.

Running the back of her arm against a forehead suddenly awash with sweat despite the surrounding temperature Riley let out a slight sniffle and a desperate gulp as she fought through the torrent of emotions assaulting her senses.

Stumbling over towards Percy the young girl half fell as she reached her partner, her left arm going out to stop her fall – and looping fully around the miniature Aurus's shoulders in what would normally be quite the one-armed, 'chums forever' hug. Riley's cloak squirmed about her body as the girl herself sagged, the misty cloth shifting to her one side and quickly wrapping the arm that rested against Aurus's sharp armoured and flaming form in an attempt to protect the young girl.

“P-p-Percy,” Riley stared at the kneeling boy, her face pale, hair limp, and eyes confused – wild. Almost as if she realized subconsciously how she looked the girl squeezed her eyes tightly shut. “I don-don't thi... think I'm alright after... all.”

Sometime while Riley had been speaking to Percy, with no fanfare or stage flare typical to her acts of magic, the dagger that had been used by the greater phantasm had formed itself to fit snugly in the hand the girl had slung over mini-Aurus's far shoulder. The white weapon shimmered and reflected the light of the tiny war god's armour – except for the spots in which the blade was already stained with swirls of old blood.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kokuten »

"Riley?" spoke Percy, concern lacing over the tongue of his tone, before crawling forward and grabbing one of the girl's arms. Again, the protective brother in Percival rose at seeing his adoptive sister so woozy and without her normal, artistic flare. Aurus traded glances between the two, and seemed to appear threatening to burn her off, but the boy quickly shoved Aurus away with his ice hand. He switched those hands, holding her up with his icy fingers, and feeling her forehead with his own hand. Duncan had been largely ignored for the most part, having continually argued with the black knight to keep him from chopping up the american.

"It's all right," reassured the boy, still measuring a temperature, "I'll draw Modeka out, once I figure out how to get Aurus to give my arm back. Just sit down for a second."
Luca
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Luca »

The teacher sighed as he walked past Duncan, unperturbed by his arrival, and made for the crates. Exploring the contents, it was all camping gear: Tents, warm clothing, sleeping bags, matches, axes, survival knives and the like. He also found, unsurprisingly, the ingredients with which to make Smores: Crackers, marshmallows, chocolate bars - everything was there, but all he needed was a fire. He donned a winter overcoat, put an axe over his shoulder and pulled the hood over his head before heading back.

He looked at the log he'd left on the ground, and broke it in half with the axe with an effortless swing, then placed the logs parallel to each other, and started rubbing them together to make a hearth of coals and ashes. He then dropped the logs in the middle and got to work on the Smores. He might not have been able to shoot lightning and fire from his finger or have access to a sword, but the least he could do was get some mundane things going - like a camp fire and comfort food. They might've been wizards and mages, but they were still children.

Break off a square, chocolate on top, toast the marshmallow lightly... He had the marshmallow over the fire on a stick, before placing it on top of the chocolate, Other square on top and there we go. He would repeat this process wordlessly, staring into the flames of his campfire as his hand-made confectionery was starting to accrue. He watched the kids and wondered if he'd ever be able to catch up to them.

One he'd made a cracker for each of the kids and two for Adrienne if she wanted, he'd stand up and head towards a nearby tree with his axe, and start giving it a few whacks, with intent to fell it. Swing, whack. Swing, whack. Subconsciously, he was correcting his stance to get the most power out of the swings with minimal strain to himself, even though he had never cut a tree down in his life.
CadetNewb
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by CadetNewb »

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Time. It seemed to slow as Coco leaped into the air at her brother to take the shot herself - the arrow itself continued to hurtle forward, not caring for her selflessness, flexing back and forward along its spine like a fish swimming in water straight to bait. The little girl continued on her course through the air, arms thrown forward and the two on a collision course. In this faint moment frozen in time, they could all see that despite being nearly immortal that this little girl was terrified, with eyes scrunched tight and body rigid as they neared each other, closer and closer as every microsecond ticked by. The scene, for anyone watching, would be burned into their memories forever.

An impressive explosion of fire and lightning went off, passing right over Coco as she fell short, right into the snow - the blast carried right over her and gave everyone a bright, brilliant show. It was like Duncan had drank lava and ate lightning, only to sh*t thunder and fart flames. A messy, messy ordeal that gave explosive diarrhea a new standard to live up to. In the end, he simply stood there, the portion where his rear pants pocket having simply vanished, revealing a black ash coated tush underneath. He stood there, in the center of the group, chest still thrust forward proudly with that ever arrogant grin on his face.

And then Coco's hand reached up from her snowy grave, a big, red patch of cloth lifting off of her sleeve to cover the gap.

"Somebody's lack of archery safety aside, someone figured out there's smores and more to eat in there!" Duncan continued to Grin at them all without missing a beat, pointing over his shoulder at Miller. Coco's hand then moved to tug at his sleeve, catching his attention - a finger pointed in a new direction. A faint flicker of a different emotion briefly went by on the American boy's face as he looked at Riley, only to be shooed away with an annoyed sigh. "Another one with power incontinence? Geeze, one bad case after another," he said, reaching into the pockets of his jeans to pull out one of the most manly guns ever made. Taking a step at her, the boy worked the leaver, slipping in a marked blue shotgun shell.

"No worries guys, I got this," he explained, now smiling reassuringly.

He pulled the trigger.
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Kokuten
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kokuten »

Percival went reaching for Aurus to try and get him somewhere near-by so the boy could work at figuring out how to undo a summoning like this. The boy went to extended lengths to try and ignore Duncan and whatever he was caught up in. Aurus, however, was still being a pain, not wanting to cooperate entirely, but not staying too far from his reach. Percival didn't know why the Fire God wanted to be so difficult, but he tried not to let it phase him. He just wanted Riley to be okay. Things had been crazy enough as it were, and the last thing he needed was inflammation in his big brother tendons.
"Another one with power incontinence? Geeze, one bad case after another,"
Power incontinence? That was the same term Duncan had used for me. Percival looked around to find who else was having trouble, only to feel a pit sink in his stomach as he was looking at Riley. That pit began to turn hot as Duncan began to load a shell into the gun's chamber. That Caxton Danger Sense was crawling all over Percival's spine, and worse yet, it made him sick. There was no doubt in his stomach, there was another one of those lava pukes rising again. He felt ready for it though, and this time, as his cheeks puffed, and his nostrils exhausted smoke lightly, he directed it at Duncan.

Just as Duncan pulled the trigger, Percival tugged the smaller girl closer to him and spat out a gout of fire and slag into Duncan's general direction, matching a spray similar to a shotgun.
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Kai
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Kai »

Whem Percy drew some of his Mana to Miyuki, the exhaustion that she had felt from creating and maintaining the Ice arm seemed to go away, leaving Miyuki with enough strength to stand up, and dust the powdery snow off her uniform. She then realized that she had unconsciously switched from the Babylon Maiden outfit back to her school uniform, probably a side effect of her power usage, and was no longer melting snow where she stood. She muttered a weak "Thanks..." To Percy, but after that Duncan started talking.

As much as she could, Miyuki did her best to ignore everything Duncan said, but still found herself angry at him by the time he arrived on the scene with the boxes. When that new girl -Sakura, was it?- fired an arrow at him, Miyuki found herself not even caring. Somebody did care, however, and Coco managed to make a big scene, despite the fact that she didn't move fast enough to prefent the magical arrow from hitting Duncan. However, that stupid Duncan prevented the Japanese girl from getting any satisfaction- the arrow barely did anything to him and he just continued on, unperturbed.

The infuriation would not stop, as Duncan continued speaking in his oh-so-condescending manner, Miyuki just wanted to punch him. Percy's help with Mana had been enough to get Miyuki back on her feet, but it hadn't been enough for her to be able to do anything while still maintaining Percy's arm, which she intended to do, as Percy was less of a Jerk than Duncan, by miles and miles. When Duncan pulled out the shotgun, though, Miyuki froze, not knowing what to do with it. What did he have that for? Why was it pointed at Riley? And then he pulled the trigger.

************

When the boxes of equipment dropped, Adrienne followed Miller as he went to start pulling supplies out, and she began also to pull some of the supplies out, getting things ready for camping for a few days, while the children did their training. "Good day, Mister Miller." the french teacher greeted the Englishman, in English, with a bit of a curtsy and a friendly smile. "Fancy meeting you here, but I suppose it's better than leaving you in the dark."
Luca
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Re: [Episode 3, Part 2] Marshmallows and Campfires

Post by Luca »

"I suppose, but I'm floundering out of my depth here," The teacher replied to his contemporary before giving the tree a last strike with his axe, and giving it a firm kick to knock it down. It only then dawned on him that he had never cut down a tree in his life, and made it look simple. To everyone else, he was in control of it the whole time. His guess was that he was going to cut it into firewood when he needed it, and get the kids to dry it out with their magic. He dropped some wet logs from further up the tree down near the campfire, ready to be dried out when they had to. "While the kids are playing Mr. Wizard, we're the ones doing something useful."

He sighed before assisting Adrienne with getting the tents set up. Fiddly things, with poles and pitons, instruction manuals and an image of how the tent should look, and how it ended up looking: Assembled and solid, but threatening to be caved in by snow. There was the tent itself, and then an insulating layer over it to protect from the wind and snow as an extra layer of assurance. The Scotsman also spent time moving the boxes of equipment closer to where the fireplace and tents were.

While it was an odd setup with the inclusion of wizards, it was still somewhere to rest your head, "Just like Summer camp, but with more snow, and wizards, and yetis..." Miller frowned and shrugged at Adrienne. He then looked about to ensure that he was out of earshot of the kids. He sat down on one of the boxes and rested his chin on the handle of his axe, having become comfortable with the grip of it, "Actually, this is nothing like Summer camp. On a scale of one to lots, do you reckon Duncan's going to hurl a curveball at us during the night?"
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