07.13o A Private Conference

The goings on of courts
Wyvern
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Wyvern »

It takes a bit of time and effort to make contact*, but in time Aibne can start to sense the connection and intrude on the Trump call.

Mental combat takes place in a realm of metaphors and dreamlike ambiguity; one combatant might visualize the conflict as a murder of crows besieging a castle, even as their opponent sees an idealized fencing match, mental avatar against mental avatar.

In this case, however, the metaphor in use by both combatants is the same: a furious battle of claws and fangs and fire, two dragons facing off against each other on a volcanic wasteland... because the attacker and the defender are both Alys.**

The defending Alys has gone all-out on simply enduring the attack, her mental form featuring heavy armor and wings that resemble tower shields more than they do anything that would enable flight. The attacking Alys, by contrast, has gone hydra - a dozen heads full of slashing teeth trying to find a weakness in Alys' defenses... and one head holding back, Alys' trump card*** in its mouth, focusing more on maintaining the connection than participating in the battle.

Of course... that's how Alys sees the conflict. What metaphor Aibne chooses to perceive is largely up to him.

_____
* Establishing psychic contact via touch is doable at Amber level psyche or above. But it's not fast, especially if you've never done it before.
** While this is probably quite confusing in IC terms, the actual explanation is relatively straightforward (for certain twisty definitions of straightforward): Someone is using advanced shapeshifting to mentally copy Alys, and then attack her through her trump card as herself. Of course, that does leave the question of who is doing this, as well as why, but I expect that both of those topics will come up IC later and thus don't need to be addressed in this footnote.
*** This also establishes one further important detail: The defending Alys is the real Alys†, because otherwise her trump card wouldn't connect.
† Or at least the Alys that Dworkin drew a Trump card of.
Draylen
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Draylen »

The first thing Aibne was aware of was wood, and the smell of smoke, and the heat of flame, as he connected into Alys' mind. The ground was smooth, but grained, a lovely solid wood flooring, not made of planks. Not made of planks? Lights blinded him from all directions, but he shook his head and covered them, shaking himself to peer around the environment he stood upon.

The ground underneath his feet was solid wood - oak, by his guess, and thick. It stretched out on two sides as far as he could see, but was perhaps only a mile in width. The plane was not barren wood, though, for many and varied great vessels were scattered amongst the full extant of the great expanse, bowls of metals, stones, and woods in a variety that boggled the bear's mind, and massive trenchers that the base alone would feed a truly immense army for many a span of years. Heaped high upon all fronts were such delicacies as the bear had only heard whispers, and great flagons containing oceans of ale or mead were scattered around for consumption.

But that was not the greatest of the environment, for alongside the widths of the table two immense entities of fire, perfectly symmetrical, worked hungrily to devour each and every morsel. The only difference was a great tablet of ivory, in which had been delicately carved a perfect match of Alys' trump card, a tableau of unmatchable splendor.

The bear blinked, stupefied, as he watched the contest of giants going forth, and trembled at the immense size.
Wyvern
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Wyvern »

[+] OOC notes for our possibly-confused readers
If you're not familiar with it, the scene as Aibne sees it is a reprise of the eating contest between Loki and Wildfire; a summary of the story can be found on Wikipedia under the heading "Loki, Útgarða-Loki, and Logi".

As for the 'giant size' of the contestants... Aibne actually has a stronger psyche than either combatant; that he sees the conflict this way speaks to his inexperience and lack of confidence rather than to any actual lack of ability.

Also, I'm going to continue writing my posts with 'how Alys sees things', and let Draylen provide what that looks like through Aibne's eyes.
The armored Alys spares Aibne a single glance, noting his presence and then ignoring him in favor of not giving Hydra-Alys any extra opportunities to score hits.

The hydra, on the other hand, has heads to spare; she has the advantage, and the contest is going to endurance at this point, so not pressing the attack quite as hard as she could isn't really an issue. One head, therefore, turns from the attack to focus on the Bear.
"Well, hello there handsome. I was wondering when you were going to come join the fun..."

Hydra-Alys' tail snakes out towards Aibne... and doesn't quite get there, as the real Alys shifts to all-out offense, armor discarded and wings shifting to something resembling mantis-claw scythe blades, pouncing forwards and striking at the hydra head holding her trump card. "You. WILL. Stay away from him!"

...Unfortunately, it only takes Hydra-Alys a moment to recover from the unexpected assault; she lost a few heads defending the trump connection, but she's actually scoring solid hits now, and the exchange rate seems to be very much in the hydra's favor...
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Draylen »

The bear blinked and stared as one giant reached down, toward him. It sounded like Alys, but Alys would definitely never say anything like that. Especially not to someone like him. He shook his head, looking up just in time to see the massive hand of fire reaching out to grasp at him.

The one wearing the tableau intervened, however, swatting the flaming hand away and separating it from the wrist. It fell to the table with a heavy thud before vanishing in a spiral of smoke, and the eating contest resumed. The one-handed giant ate furiously, its hand quickly regenerating from the fuel it consumed, and it was obviously starting to get the better hand.

"I... what... I... just... What in Hel's name is going on?" the bard wailed, looking up at the two matched entities of pure fire, devouring steadily. He kept on the run, dodging and moving out of the way of grasping hands and hungry flames, drawing his sword. "I have no idea what's happening here, but it's going to stop now, or I'm going to stop it!"
Wyvern
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Wyvern »

Draylen wrote:"I... what... I... just... What in Hel's name is going on?"
Both versions of Alys respond, in perfect unison, "Mental combat. She is attacking me. I told you this was a thing."
Draylen wrote:"It's going to stop now, or I'm going to stop it!"
Hydra-Alys pulls back a moment at this, several heads giving Aibne speculative looks. "You? Stop us, while we are otherwise occupied? That would not be a fair fight at all. Perhaps the both of us against you? A learning experience for everyone!"

The real Alys will take this opportunity to back off as well, recovering (some) of her balance as she grudgingly admits, "I suppose that is not the worst idea I have heard..." ...She seems a bit dubious, though, and it's clear that unless Aibne agrees to such terms, she'll join any resulting fight on his side. On the other hand, she does also seem to agree that both versions of Alys against Aibne would be at least closer to a fair fight.

There's a lull in the combat as they wait for Aibne's response, but they're still circling each other warily, and the actual fight looks like it could resume at any moment.
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Draylen »

The bear quivered for a moment, standing between the two giants, before flipping his sword around. "That's it. I'm done," he said, growling, before plunging his blade into the wood underneath him. It slid home easily, and with a word he lit the stone blade, a fire in his eyes. "You. Both of you. I can't really tell who's who or not. But I am ending this conflict!"

He knelt beside the burning blade, and the crack of the wood began to grow wider as he concentrated, flame filling the gouge and spreading as it grew. Arcing, turning, radiating outward in all directions as the bear concentrated, spreading it into a great circle of fire being steadily etched onto the wood. But a circle was not all there was - it arced and whorled on the interior, but the bear maintained his focus.

Moment by moment crawled by as the shape began to take form, joining in with each other into something beautiful and complex - and blazingly hot. The heat of the flames didn't touch the bear, though it struck at both combatants furiously, as the Pattern became etched fully onto the battlefield.
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Joshua
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Joshua »

The aggressive Alys will pull away form the conflict, before commenting... "Oh, this should be informative."

Pattern is a large surge of power, a font of realness and strength. Trump, in this case, is like a grounding wire. Allowing said energy to channel directly through it. The feeling is a little like an electric shock, only the tingling afterwards is purely in your head*. And we mean a strong shock, like a defibrillator.

Aibne, you're fine. It's a static electric jolt and the mindscape crumbles. It's... sorta possible you could get a glimpse of the Alys on the other side, but it is a screeching feedback loop. You're just in less pain than everyone else.

Alys, you (and your counterpart) grab a live-wire of joy. It likely not only shorts out the mental combat and the trump call, but your shapeshifting as well**.
_______________
*: Because it happened in a mind-scape. This kind of short CAN cause physical burns.
**: Just a moment. That part of it, at least, is resisted by endurance.
Wyvern
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Wyvern »

Alys is... stoically enduring.* But also not in any state to respond to any further concern from the bear**; it will take her perhaps half a minute before she seems to recover, but Aibne is perceptive enough to notice subtle signs of a lingering headache...

_____
* Edit: For the record, Alys' current nearly-human form is a base form. Her shapeshifting wasn't active, so having it temporarily shorted out is really just kinda adding insult to injury here, not actually doing anything. To summarize: this means that no, she doesn't suddenly revert to lava dragon and set Aibne on fire.
** From offline discussion with Josh: In theory, if she didn't have the potential to walk the pattern, she'd be on fire. (And not the good kind.)
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Draylen »

Aibne shook his head and groaned a little, rubbing at his temples. "Erf. That... was not what I expected," he says, breaking physical contact and leaning against his desk, frowning in thought. "So. Uh. What happened? I mean, I know you got attacked, but still..."
Wyvern
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Re: 07.13o A Private Conference

Post by Wyvern »

Alys, once she recovers enough to do so, will just stare at Aibne. "You do realize," she comments, "that what you did was complete and total overkill, yes?"

Then she blinks and frowns, "...That was not very diplomatic of me. Perhaps I should just answer the question."

There's another several second pause, and a well-concealed wince at some bit of residual headache. "Someone - I do not yet know who - shapeshifted herself into a copy of me and then attacked me through my Trump card. Her claim is that my mental defenses are simply not up to par for an Amberite, and that she wishes to help me improve. And, of course, being a copy of me, it is at least plausible that she is correct about her motivations. The motivations of whoever shapeshifted into her, however..." Alys just shakes her head.
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