In League with Dragons (OPEN)

[tempingforatlas]

Who: Gudako and you!
When: 3/28
Warnings: Spooky magic.

One morning, a few days before Spring "break" ends, a note is taped to the front of the class 2-A classroom.

Magic ritual in progress. Please be careful!
-Ritsuka

While on the face of it this may seem ridiculous, peering in through the windows sees all of the desks inside the classroom shoved into the corners while Ritsuka kneels on the floor, having laid the chalkboard on the floor to sketch some kind of elaborate magic circle on it.

Ritsuka frequently pauses, looks at her work, narrows her eyes, erases, resketches, repeats this process, and-

Flops back on her back and lets out a loud groan, just... laying there. Staring up at the ceiling blankly.

It doesn't look like she's going to move for a while.

Maybe someone should go and check up on her.

Comments

[closewithnewintown]

[for a long while, there's just the barest hint of pink at the bottom of the window. but, when there aren't any sparkly explosions, which is what she assumes magic must include, Stephanie fully peers into the window, notes her laying there, and decides it's safe enough to enter the classroom.]

... Did it work? [maybe it's a laziness spell and thus did work.]

[tempingforatlas]

Mmrgh. Haven't tried it yet.

Turns out trying to remember how an incredibly complex and intricate magic circle is drawn from memory is hard no matter how many hundreds of times you've seen it.

[She usually had Mash's shield to work off of whenever she summoned anyways. This... is a whole new territory for her.]

I know I need to take the plunge and just do it eventually, but I have no idea what'll happen if I mess it up. Kind of a scary prospect.

[closewithnewintown]

Well, what will happen if you don't mess it up? [focusing on the bright side should help!]

[tempingforatlas]

Well, if I somehow manage to pull this off without Mash's shield or the FATE system... we should be able to get a pretty powerful ally, maybe someone who can figure out how to bust through the Bounded Field around the school.

[Hopefully. Maybe.

...she should probably disclose the actual chances of that happening, huh.]

There's around a one-in-seven chance of us actually getting a Servant who can do that, but hey, it's worth a shot.

[closewithnewintown]

[her eyes just glaze over at the third word she just straight-up does not recognize. just nodding along like she absolutely knows all of these words.]

... So, you're trying to get a butler to get us out of here?

[mermaidcursed]

[ For all of Nene's experience with the supernatural, actual spells and rituals have been surprisingly few and far between. But with how quiet everything is, maybe it's over? After a moment, Nene goes to grab a water bottle and quietly opens the door. Nothing exploded upon entry, so... it's probably fine. She closes it behind her to be polite and walks over to Ritsuka, placing the water bottle beside her head. ]

Are you okay?

[tempingforatlas]

Yeah. Just regretting that I don't have an eidetic memory.

[Where is your smug prick coke addict when you need him?]

This would be so much easier if I 100% knew what the summoning circle was like from memory.

[mermaidcursed]

A... summoning circle? Then, what are you trying to summon?

[ Admittedly, Nene herself has thought of trying to see if she could call Hanako-kun out, but she wasn't sure if it would work. "Couldn't hurt to try" didn't count in this case, since all failure would bring her is fear and heartache. Shh though. ]

[tempingforatlas]

A Heroic Spirit! [That seems to animate Ritsuka a little bit, at least. Hauling herself to her feet, she begins explaining... to the best of her ability. It's really weird high-level stuff that even she doesn't fully understand but she'll do her best.]

You know how a bunch of historical figures and legends and even concepts that embody that sort of thing all take up the same area in your brain? Imagine that place as an actual space, somewhere out there in a weird metaphysical plane.

That's the Throne of Heroes.

Whenever something makes enough of an impression on history to be remembered like that, they get put onto the Throne of Heroes, and certain kinds of magic can summon them. Normally, it's... pretty much impossible to summon a full Heroic Spirit Servant, but if there's some weird, extraordinary circumstance like this one, it's more likely.

Does that make sense so far?

[mermaidcursed]

[ Oh thank god she's already used to supernatural stuff. ]

That- that's incredible! [ Maybe someday it'll see the Kamome Seven Mysteries! ...Well. Maybe it's better if they don't, actually, because they're all kind of rude, proud people. ] So you were trying to summon one to save us...?

[taketori]

It's very apparent that this is something absurd. Granted, everything about being in this school was absurd, but really? A 'magic ritual'? What chuunibyou put this here? Shirogane's surprised to actually see someone moving around in there and prepares to go about his day.

But, well. It's probably worth making sure that whatever happens, it's not anything dangerous.

But then, she's just flat on her back. Doing nothing.

Very casually, Shirogane slides the door open and tentatively steps in.

"Did... that work?" He really can't be too sure.

[tempingforatlas]

"Gah. Haven't tried yet. It's a..." Ritsuka vaguely gesticulates from her position lying flat on her back on the floor, looking like someone trying to explain ancient aliens, "very complicated ritual. I don't want to screw it up."

Especially not somewhere like this, where "screwing it up" might lead to incredibly dire consequences. This is what she gets for leaving the summoning to the Da Vincis and Mash all the time, really.

[taketori]

Oh, it was just stress. Stress from... trying to do some kind of ritual. Okay.

Shirogane politely smiles, inwardly wondering what the hell this girl's really trying to accomplish as he moves further into the classroom. He's careful not to move too close to the summoning circle, less in case something might happen but more that he doesn't want to mess up her work.

"Maybe... maybe this isn't the right place to try this out. You could always give this another shot when the doors are unlocked."

Naturally, if someone's trying to do magic, they do it outside right?

[tempingforatlas]

"Mmmm. Shouldn't matter where. I'm only doing it in here because the chalkboard makes it a lot easier to sketch the circle steadily," Ritsuka says. Well, that makes sense at least.

"You're kinda right, though. You can usually find leylines outside, which make this sort of thing a lot easier... but I don't have the equipment for it; usually the people in the command room were the ones to find them and let me tap into them."

Beat.

"Although in pitch you can go all, uh. Benjamin Franklin-style. But that's ill advised and I only had to do it once."

And there goes that making sense part.

Ritsuka, Shirogane is a normal person. You need to take it slow.

[taketori]

"Franklin... command room? What?"

Ritsuka went from 0 to 100 fairly quickly... okay wait. Benjamin Franklin, maybe a more hands on approach? But having to do that, er...

"I'd say what you're doing now is ill-advised... er, whatever it is that you're doing."

[miscasted]

[ Well, that note is certainly one way to catch someone's attention. At first, Satoko thinks it's a joke, but when she peers into the classroom and watches Ritsuka busy at work... she realizes that Ritsuka is quite serious.

But- really, magic? Not to mention, the kind of magic that has rituals and magic circles? There's no way magic like that is real, right? ...Just as Satoko's worrying about the mental health of poor Ritsuka, she realizes that her thoughts are a little hypocritical - after all, this whole situation screams supernatural. The way that everyone's memories have been messed with is surely the work of something Satoko can't even begin to imagine... still, that could be the work of some kind of- technology, or something, right?

...That explanation seems almost as far-fetched as the supernatural one. But to be honest, Satoko doesn't know what to think. Eventually, after watching Ritsuka for a while, Satoko decides to enter the room, opening the door slowly and a little nervously. ]

Umm... are you quite alright?

[tempingforatlas]

I'm fine! [Ritsuka gives a thumbs-up from her position on the floor. Truly, the most reassuring of gestures.]

I'm just worried that this is going to blow up in my face so I need to get it perfect.

The problem is that I don't 100% remember what the summoning circle is like, so that's a bit, you know, difficult.

[If only Ritsuka had a Caster with her. Which is what successfully performing this ritual might solve, ironically enough.]

[filialdeception]

That was... quite a sight. Meng Yao couldn't ignore something even if he wasn't from class 2-A due to the curiosity that had assailed him upon noticing the note. It was hardly any surprise, then, that the cultivator found his way through and took a look at what was going on.

However, he couldn't say he was expecting what he saw, and so he came respectively close, asking with the right amount of concern, "Excuse me? Did something happen?"

She seemed rather out of it, after all.

changing it up for this thread now that ritsuka's met gawain

[tempingforatlas]

"The problem is something isn't happening." Ritsuka sighs, not moving from her position on the floor. She should've known Gawain was a fluke, but she thought that maybe if she tried again- alas. "I managed to summon one of my Servants—well, a version of one of my Servants—from back home with this ritual, but I just can't figure out what actually made it work. I went through all the steps I did last time exactly but there's just... nothing!"

/o/

[filialdeception]

He'll listen to her frustration, and really their situation was difficult as it was...so he wasn't surprised to find that someone else's ability was limited as well. Which was a pity. They could use more bodies to fight in their situation, assuming that what she could summon was able to do it.

That being said, he was unfamiliar with the concept of summoning 'Servants' the way that she put it. "I see. Have you thought that maybe whomever is responsible for our captivity as noticing you having summoned a Servant and found a way to disable that capability?"

[tempingforatlas]

"Eh, I doubt it." Ritsuka waves her hand vaguely from her position on the floor. "I'm honestly just about the worst mage on the planet where I'm from, so really managing to get anybody here at all, 'specially someone as powerful as Gawain, was a huge fluke."

Waver once told her that Ritsuka's quantity and quality of magic circuits were on the same level as his when he was a human. Before she could get too excited, he then told her that wasn't a compliment.

[sunstead]

A note like that would be pretty mundane back at Seven Tower, but here... not so much. It'd be irresponsible of him not to investigate. He should at least make sure whatever ritual they're attempting isn't something overly dangerous or risky.

After peering in the window to make sure nothing is already on fire, he cautiously opens the door to make his presence known. It looks like she hasn't finished the circle yet, which is... good? Maybe? He can at least relax a little, knowing that nothing has been activated yet.

"Your linework isn't bad... hmm, but I don't know this script at all. Did you memorize all of this?"

He's... a little skeptical, admittedly, but he'll give credit where it's due.

[tempingforatlas]

"Less 'memorize' and more 'I've seen it done and done it myself so many times by now that it's probably literally burned into the back of my eyelids.'"

So, Ritsuka memorized it.

"The thing is, I have gotten it working once here and managed to summon a Servant, and I'm wondering if it's worth testing my luck again considering that Gawain was probably a fluke." Ritsuka sighs, still flat on her back. She'd gotten by with just one ally before, and Gawain was an insanely strong Servant by himself, so she should probably be satisfied and move on...

...but something about that feeling she got when she completed the ritual last time is still bothering her. Maybe if Ritsuka manages to fire it off again, she'll figure out what was wrong.

[sunstead]

"You got it to work?" Alright, addendum—that's a lot of credit where it's due. It's a hell of a lot more than he's managed to accomplish by himself so far, anyway. And a summoning spell at that, those take actual skill to put together. Colour him genuinely surprised!

On the other hand, she doesn't seem like she's fully confident in whatever the results were... he glances down at the circle again, adjusting his eyepiece.

"If it worked the first time, I'd say it's worth a shot... ah, but where are my manners?" He smiles, turning back to his fellow mage. "You must be Ritsuka. My name is Clamor, a scholar of Seven Tower. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

If he looks a little too proud for introducing himself, it's mostly because he's had to settle for everyone else doing the introductions for him for... definitely, way too long.

[tempingforatlas]

"If you met a big slab of blond, chauvinist beefcake on the way here, he's living proof. He's a Saber-class Servant, Gawain."

(The moment Ritsuka finds out that it was sheer coincidence Gawain showed up when he did she is going to die of embarrassment.)

Ritsuka gets to her feet, smiling and extending her hand. "That's right! Ritsuka Fujimaru, Cause-ranked mage of the Clock Tower. Nice to meet you too."