game Issue #01 - Welcome to Claremont Academy

[Jubilant Thunder]

Gabriella Marlowe

 

"Right? This place is so COOL! Come on let's go pick out a room." She waves to Sarah and starts heading for the stairs. "Wait, nail down the furniture? Are you like a tele...tele...you can move things with your mind?" Still conversing Gabby starts poking around in the rooms, looking for one with an east-facing window.

[Streetrat]

 Sarah - Artifice

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Sarah was several steps up the stairs before Gabby's question stopped her dead in her tracks. "No, I am not telekinetic, I am naturally attuned to Magic, but...My control with raw magic is tenuous.  It is because of this I use a Wand and rituals. They help me control the energies." She started.  "When I sleep, sometimes when I have a nightmare, or if I go to bed with too much emotional stress...things happen. Only twice have I woke up to my bedroom floating. The most extreme instance was when I went to bed in my home dimension and woke up here." With my mom behind with no knowledge what happened to me.

 

Sarah took a breath and wiped the thought from her mind using the meditation techniques that Seven had taught her.  In a matter of well practiced seconds she had brought herself back into alignment.

 

To make sure that she did not fall back into dark thoughts Sarah began back up the stairs to find their room.  "Do you have a preference for windows or directions your side faces?"

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[Jubilant Thunder]

Gabriella Marlowe

 

"Oh, okay. My glasses kinda do that too." She lightly taps the frames before poking her head into another room. "Ooh! This one faces west, we'll be able to see the sunset." Stepping in she drops her bag down, looking between the two sides of the room. They seemed identical, so there probably wasn't much point in...wait, what?! "Did you say home dimension?" Gabby stops to turn and look askance at Sarah.

[Streetrat]

 Sarah - Artifice

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Sarah stops in her tracks.  "Uh...yeah," she began.  "When I say that I was not from around here I was just glossing over how far.  Technically by Geological distance, I don't believe that it was that far away, but by chances of going home for the holidays...are quite out of my reach." she says walking over and tracing her hand over her steamer trunk. "My magic has always been a chaotic mess, though when it went out of control it usually ended up in rapid plant growth, or all of the dishes in the house floating. But the last time I saw my mom we had gotten into a fight and I stormed off to my room. My last words to her before I fell asleep and woke up in another...this world were that I hate her and wished that I had never been born." Sarah sat down on a bed, not even chosen which one would be which, though it seemed that she chose the one that would let Gabby get a better view of the sunset.

 

"My mom doesn't know I am safe, she doesn't know that I have had help get some control, she only knows that I went into my room, slammed my door and then was gone." This was far from the first time that Sarah had started to circle this black hole.  Feeling where this was taking her she took a moment and took a deep breath and started running through the meditation techniques that Seven had taught her. Quickly she regained control of herself, her emotions and her magic.

 

When she felt relatively composed she continued. "For the last few months I have been with a mentor who has helped me gain control. But that had left me alone in a house full of adults with obligations and no social life to speak of." Then Sarah motioned to the room around her "So here I am. In a place where I can continue and expand my studies, as well also add a social aspect to it. And you so gallantly volunteered to not only be my best friend...but my only friend." But hopefully not the last.

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[Jubilant Thunder]

Gabriella Marlowe

 

Gabby doesn't even notice the room as Sarah tells her story, listening with fascination that quickly turns to despair. "Omigosh that's so awful!" Wiping her eye she sits down next to the other girl and puts an arm around her, squeezing with a bit more strength than was probably comfortable. She had gotten into fights with her mom...right? Of course she had, but never anything like that. "She must be so worried about you. But there's lot of smart people here, and superheroes deal with this kind of stuff all the time right? I'm sure they'll be able to figure it out."

 

Gabby smiles encouragingly even though she seems to be closer to tears than Sarah at the moment. "And I'm not your only friend, you've got...well not Megan, she seems like a bit of a b...but there's Hubris, she's a little weird but seems nice. And then Janice, she's a little...okay so we're ALL a little weird but nice." Laughing she takes off her glasses for a moment to swipe the back of her hand across her eyes. "But I'll definitely be your best friend." The phrase sounded weird to say out loud. "I've never really had a best friend before."

[Streetrat]

 Sarah - Artifice

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Sarah wiped away a tear that she had not realized was there, then looked down at her shirt and realized that it was not the only one, just the one that she had caught. She was caught off guard from the strength of the squeeze, but at the same time, it helped her feel safe, safe enough to do something on impulse and reach out and hug Gabby back.

 

She was not sure how long the hug was, it could have been a moment it could have been five hours, she was not really counting time. "Then we will be forging together on the best friend thing. But I think that I have found a good friend to share that adventure with." A weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Some of it was the pressure of the first day in a new environment, knowing that Gabby was looking over her and offering her shoulder gave her borrowed strength to carry on was a huge relief. "My control of magic is better now...better'ish." she said trying to change the subject.

 

"I no longer try to cast magic straight. I use rituals and focuses." she reaches out and her Jacket and it leaps off the chair and flies over to her, slipping over her arms in a practiced manner. "Jacket here offers me protection, flight and keeps me warm or cool all year round." She then ran her hand through her air showing off a few hair clips. "These let me see in the dark and magnify my sight and act like a universal translator and," she then dug around in Jacket and pulled out a ritual, it a large shell and shaped similar to a cartridge to a grenade launcher.  The outside was translucent and swirled with a red and white...something.  "This is a prepared ritual, healing to be specific." Sarah said as she handed over the ritual to Gabby as she reached into her pocket to draw out her wand.

 

Carefully she grasped it by the barrel and not the handle, just to make sure that it did not look like she was being aggressive about it.  Sarah's 'Wand' was a single shot 30mm hand cannon. She was inspired by a single shot elephant gun, but did not feel comfortable drawing a rifle, so it became a hand cannon..."The ritual goes into the wand like a...bullet...and using a bit of will and my sigil inscribed on the hammer I complete the ritual causing it to trigger and go off. The whole shell is consumed as part of the ritual leaving no waste," she said offering her 'wand' over to Gabby.                                     

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Edited November 30, 2022 by Streetrat (see edit history)

[Jubilant Thunder]

Gabriella Marlowe

 

"Better is good, hopefully no flying beds." Gabby laughs as the tension of the moment starts to dissipate. "You made all this stuff? That's so cool! So does the jacket let you fly or does it fly and just sort of carry you with it? And how do those-whoa!" Her eyes widen as Sarah produces her 'wand'. She gingerly accepts it, pointing it at the wall and sighting down the barrel. "So you've got a big ass gun and a cool leather jacket. You just need a motorcycle and you've got the whole 'loose cannon ex-cop' thing down." Posing dramatically with the gun she does her best 'movie announcer' voice. "Solving crimes that no one else can with the help of investigative reporter Gabriella Marlowe. 'Black Magic Woman', this fall on NBC."

[Streetrat]

     Sarah - Artifice

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     Sarah gave a good old fashioned belly laugh, a genuine well needed laugh. A laugh that allowed for all of the negative emotions, even those that threatened her mind on the outside of her meditative mind to be swept away. Sarah got up and placed her back to Gabby's. "Thursdays at 9pm, 8 Central!" 

 

After a moment, long enough to cut to a commercial break, Sarah breaks away and sits back down on her bed, a great weight lifted from her shoulders.  "Though I am not sure how Jacket would act if I got a motorcycle. He can get jealous. I have woven the spirit of a Baku into the weave, he does a great job protecting me and so far we have managed to clock 120 miles per hour. I am not sure that I could control a motorcycle at that speed. Really, Jacket carries me along, but he cradles me while we fly so there is no...pulling or hanging involved." She let Jacket take her into the air, just a foot off the ground, the feeling of being weightless always marveled her, though it was still new to her in the last month, so she hoped that it would not wear off soon.

 

"What about you? Aside from making those around you feel better, what are your powers?"

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[Jubilant Thunder]

Gabriella Marlowe

 

Gabby cracks up as Sarah joins her pose, sitting back down in a fit of giggling. They had both needed that after things had gotten so serious for a minute there. "Jealous?" She eyes the coat as she returns Sarah's wand to her. "120? Wow yeah, you don't need a motorcycle with that. Sorry if I hurt your feelings." That last was directed specifically at the jacket, though she felt a little silly talking to clothing.

 

"I can fly too, at least a little." How fast could she go? She'd never trusted herself to have enough control to go all out, and didn't have a way to test her speed anyway. "I'm super strong and basically impossible to hurt. The AEGIS guys that came to my house scanned me with a device and said it would probably take a rocket launcher to even bruise me. And I can see and hear reaaaaaally well." She taps the side of her glasses. "These have some kind of rare earth metal in them that helps dampen everything, otherwise I get major sensory overload. Killer headaches. They said it shouldn't take long for me to get enough control to be able to do that by myself though."

[Streetrat]

     Sarah - Artifice

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"Dampen...but not inhibit...oh my god...have I been too loud?" Sarah said with rising tones until she realized what she was doing and began to lower her volume down. "Do I really need to even raise my voice to call out to you?" Sarah thought about the constant barrage of sensory information, Sarah was alright with the lights on low, real low with her hair pins, and she would need to find a good set of earphones...it could work but may still be too loud.

 

"How much do your glasses dampen?  I am sorry, I am just suddenly flooded with questions, I want to be a good roommate and friend I want you to be comfortable in your own room. Do we need to look into soundproofing so you only have to listen to my breathing at night? I don't think I snore." While Sarah continued with her flow of thought Jacket pulled up from around Sarah & offered Gabby a bit of the coattail in what could be considered a friendly handshake gesture to assure that no hard feelings, and perhaps a genuine sign of respect that someone other than Sarah treated it as more than an object.

---

[Jubilant Thunder]

Gabriella Marlowe

 

"What? No, you're fine!" Gabby looks mortified for a moment; she certainly hadn't meant to make Sarah feel guilty. "As long as I have them on my senses are pretty much normal human level. Plus I don't really sleep that much anymore so you don't have to worry about keeping me up."

 

She takes the offered coattail gingerly in a brief handshake. "That is going to take some getting used to, but it is really cool." Breaking into a goofy smile she starts softly humming the tune to 'Be Our Guest'.