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

/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.

[filialdeception]

That's an interesting choice of words, really. He wondered if she was just being modest; someone being able to summon a being able to do another's being couldn't be the worst. So he bowed his head a little, saying, "Pardon this one's words, but it sounds as if summoning someone to this place, successfully, when I haven't been able to perform capabilities I could back home, is indicative enough of your skill.

After all, I presume when summoning another being you'd have to ensure you have them under your control to follow orders as well, correct?"

[tempingforatlas]

"What? No! All you need to do is to be nice to them and treat them like a person."

Meet humanity's sweetest, last, and dumbest Master, Meng Yao.

[filialdeception]

...That was also not what he was expecting, but. Sure, he could roll with this.

After all, it did tell him what kind of person she was off the bat. "I see. And even before you came here it's worked well for you, I assume? Also, do you mind me asking how you learned to summon other beings in the first place?"

[tempingforatlas]

"Well, I've only personally made the circle a few times. Establishing the connection to base at leylines, that sort of thing. Most of this was learn by seeing." Ritsuka shrugs. Honestly, it's a wonder that she didn't fry her entire nervous system summoning Gawain, really.

"And yeah, it's always worked. Turns out when you actually talk to Servants like the people they are, they tend to appreciate it."

[filialdeception]

"...are you telling me you winged it, essentially?"

This is what he interpreted as "learned by seeing", because wow. Now he's certain she was being humble. Honestly.

But at the rest, he didn't have much issue with. Though there was lingering doubt that talking to every summoned being would make them loyal to you. He's not going to say that, however. He simply said, "That's understandable. Anyone would want to be treated with respect. Do you mind me asking what you've summoned Servants for in the past, however? I am certain for the reason why you did it this time, but I am just a little...curious, is all."

[tempingforatlas]

No, no, she has an accurate estimation of her own abilities and the kind of luck that makes it seem like she actually accomplished something, Meng Yao. You have no idea how incompetent of a mage Ritsuka really is.

"Saving the world, primarily. It's kinda hard when you're basically an ordinary human being; basically the only magic I'm actually good at is being a conduit for the Heroic Spirit Summoning System."

Back up to that bit about saving the world, Ritsuka.

[filialdeception]

...He absolutely does not, in the slightest.

But predictably, he did get hung up on the 'saving the world' bit. "Hold on a moment, can you please elucidate on that comment you made about 'saving the world'?"

[tempingforatlas]

Well, the first time the world ended, [FIRST TIME???] every moment in human history across time and space exploded into flames except for these small, very specific time periods, and I had to go to those times with the help of Servants and fix the distortions there to prevent the total incineration of history.

[filialdeception]

"That sounds like it should be impossible," The cultivator said, in a tone that's relatively frank. But, here they all were, drawn from different areas. So it's possible that such things that Ritsuka described was something that could become reality. Though, it's not something he wanted to entertain.

He's hesitant about asking more regarding this for that very reason. So, he'll go back to the topic of Servants; maybe he'll make his way back to all of this. Therefore, Meng Yao continued, "...Based on what you said earlier, however, I assume that "Heroic Spirit" would be the same as "Servant" in this case? And are these beings you summon able to perform extraordinary feats?"

[tempingforatlas]

"That's the point, it should be impossible. And it's because that it was impossible that the world went up in flames." Ritsuka knows she makes practically no sense to anybody else whenever she talks about this stuff, and honestly she's accepted that as her fate.

"Kiiinda? Servants are copies of Heroic Spirits, and Heroic Spirits are people and, er, occasionally gods, it's complicated, who make enough of a mark on history to be remembered way in the future and get added to this place called the Throne of Heroes because of it."