૮꒰˵• ﻌ •˵꒱ა ewe can do it~

[noarchitact]

WHO: You, you, & you.
WHERE: the Pasture!
WHEN: Day 91

[ 🐑 baaa. ]

Comments

[audacity]

Are Phantoms related to the blot thing, or something different?

[hardpity]

Phantoms are the end result of an Overblot incident. That is, uh... so basically, when a strong enough mage builds up enough Blot without taking a rest, it sort of starts to build up independent momentum. At the tipping point, it physically manifests as a big monster while the mage goes into a superpowered berserker state. If nobody subdues the mage after that happens, they die, and only the monster is left. It's guided entirely by instinct and emotion, which means they're pretty much exclusively massively aggro.

[audacity]

That sounds horrible.

[ takes a minute to remind himself that aides is immUNE. phew. ]

[hardpity]

When we get a bead on one in the wild, we send a retrieval squad to pick them up, put them in deep freeze, and store them back home at the Isle of Woe, in, um. Our. ... Big jail.

[ MAKES A HAND GESTURE it feels weird to say "we lock them up in tartarus" even if he doesn't actually know ceph's personal traumarus about it. ]

[audacity]

[ NICE DODGE,,, ]

So there's no way to help them go back to normal? The monster's just...the monster?

[hardpity]

There's a window of time where you can subdue the mage and get rid of the monster. After that the mage can recover naturally. But once the Phantom's used the mage up, that's game over.

[audacity]

Geez. And that's different from the other emergency you have back home? The developing one.

[hardpity]

Technically, that's ALSO an overblot incident. The big difference is that Malleus Draconia, who's currently overblotting, is a high-level fae prince, and can pull magical energy from the natural world indefinitely, so while he's not at risk of death, he IS at risk of putting the whole world to sleep forever. Well, we're working on that though. He'll pay the PRICE for the crimes he's committed to me.

[audacity]

[ instant kill bill sirens ]

What did he do to you?

[hardpity]

Because of that guy... because of that guy...! Because of his temper tantrum, my mom had to hack my computer...!!!

[audacity]

[ what ]

What?

[hardpity]

He put the whole school to sleep!! He locked them in "perfect" dreams!! And to access the design schematics she needed so that the tech department could backdoor the magical barrier, she looked on my computer...! She saw everything that was on there!!

[audacity]

[ "was there anything weird on there" no don't ask that.

trying so hard to be supportive, ]

Whoa, that's going way too far. That Mallory guy, not your mom, obviously.

[hardpity]

[ his anime self-insert fanfics were on there ]

A-anyway, that's why Lethe had to take a group into my brain too... when I got here there was still residual magic stuck in my head so I couldn't remember my little brother at all.

[audacity]

You couldn't remember Pegasus?

[hardpity]

Yeah. Well, I could remember a version of him that never died, that Malleus made up for the dream. But I couldn't remember him properly.

[audacity]

That sucks. No wonder you hate that guy.

That and the, um, computer thing.

[hardpity]

I'm gonna be the worst lego he ever stepped on.

[audacity]

I'm willing to swing by and help give him a thrashing, after everything.

[hardpity]

[ hehe. ]

You'd probably end up at the external mission control with my parents, I'm not sure there's a way INTO the dream if you weren't there at the start. But they'd like you, so that's not the WORST outcome.

[audacity]

You'd be surprised how many dreams I've found myself in.

...you think they'd like me?

[hardpity]

My mom? Right away. Immediately. My dad would take a little longer but if I like you so would he.

[audacity]

[ //// ]

My mom would love you. My stepdad, Paul, who you saw in that memory? Would also think you're super cool.

Oh man, and Mrs. O'Leary would really be stoked to meet you. Are you a dog person?

[hardpity]

I love dogs! I love all cute animals.

[audacity]

Well, Mrs. O'Leary is the friendliest hellhound you'll ever meet.