Four Paths to Power [Action, Open]

[gunbladegrrl]

[A: Lunchtime!]

[Maria always carries that giant duffel bag around with her in lieu of a backpack, and lunchtime is the best time to see why. At a cafeteria table, she's pulled some of the contents out to sit beside her, and... apparently is trying to read three books as well as eat, all at the same time, while another pair of books and several magazines lie stacked on the table.]

[B: Extra-curriculars!]

[The only real hobby Maria has developed in Garden is Triple Triad, and to all appearances... she might not even enjoy it? Anyone who's played her knows she takes it deadly serious, playing to win. Right now she's sorting through her cards, ordering them by some arcane system only she knows, with all the intensity of a climactic battle.]

[C: The Training Center!]

[One things about Garden's weapon classes: they didn't promote type synergy in the slightest. That is, you could learn to punch, and learn to club someone, but you wouldn't learn how to combine the two into a blended fighting style.]

[This made academic sense; after all, generally SeeDs worked in teams, in which a person using a gun wouldn't need to pull a sword, since they have other fighters to engage in the melee. Still, thanks in no small part to her personal combat idol, she had a distinct interest in seeing if the two styles can be blended.]

[So the evening finds her facing down grats with her gunblades in their mounts and a rifle holster awkwardly affixed to said mount where she can draw it over the shoulder in turn. Watch her for a moment, and you'll see her engage a grat, move to swap the rifle with one of her gunblades and back in the course of the combat, then assess when the battle is over -- adjusting the angle and hang of the holster for a quicker draw.]

[It isn't going very well, but honestly, she hadn't expected it to.]

[D: Dorms!]

[Not long before bed, there's what practically sounds like an avalanche from inside Maria's room, followed by cursing.]

Comments

[gunbladegrrl]

Magic is... really common where you're from, isn't it? Of any sorts?

[She's just a little hesitant. Maria has vowed not to judge her friends and their worlds, but it does seem very scary.]

[shiest_sunbeam]

Very much so, in fact, many of the races are inherently magical, like myself as an example. Both orcs and elves are very much magical, although in different respects. The elves that make the kin of my papa are more attuned to light magics and arcane magics, while the people of my mama are more attuned to the spirits and nature magics.

[gunbladegrrl]

Doesn't it get bad, though? With so many people able to use magic, doesn't that put a lot of people in danger when they actually DO use it?

[shiest_sunbeam]

Hm, not really. I mean, the rampant abuse of it did put us in a lot of danger in the past, but it's stabilized now and it's now a part of everyday life.

It's really useful to be honest.

[gunbladegrrl]

How did it stabilize? I mean...

[She gestures around.]

Look at what all happened just from one Sorceress. Well, two or three, technically, but Ultimecia was always behind it, and her power was what compressed time. How did it ever stabilize on your world with MORE people being able to do things like this?

[shiest_sunbeam]

[Ronnae shrugged.]

I don't know much about what happened here other than what we were originally told, the otherworlders I mean.

But back home, things got stable when the people who used magic learned to control it better, and the Dragon Aspect of Magic put things a bit more stable as far as the magical ley lines of our world...

[And he got driven mad by certain events...]

[gunbladegrrl]

So there was an actual dragon telling people not to take over the world or wreck time?

[She can see how that might help, at least how she's pictured it.]