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Post by Stein on Dec 23, 2013 23:11:59 GMT -5
The twins nodded at Erebus’s response, they wanted to know what he was thinking, but it would have been invasive read his mind; though they did wonder if he ever thought of pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows. They figured they wouldn’t find anything that adorable in his mind if he wasn’t with Eirika.
They grinned as they said “We have a question. If we write a letter to a friend of ours in the Oblivion would you deliver it for us? Postage to send it there is far too expensive so we haven’t contacted him in a while.” It wasn’t clear whether they were joking or not. “Oh, and how are Eirika and Veronica doing? We’re looking forwards to discussing some ancient literature and playing strategy games with her; Along with encouraging Veronica to wear something besides black, she’s scaring all the small children on campus.”
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Post by Johnathan on Dec 26, 2013 2:16:11 GMT -5
"Yes, for beings not of the void, navigating the infinite darkness without becoming lost and consumed can be near impossible. However, when directed by my will your letter should find it's recipient without issue." Nodding to himself, Erebus continued. "Hand it to me at your leisure and I will see that it reaches him." At the mention of his sister, Erebus paused in his meditation, opening his eyes. With a tired sigh, he shook his head.
"I worry for Eirika. I often consider sealing her affinity all together so that she may know peace for once in her life, but to do so would be the same as carving out a piece of her mind and expecting her to be the same person." Erebus held out his right hand. Turning his palm to the sky, the air above it distorted. With a faint shimmer, images of tragedy, death and destruction sprang to life. It cycled through representations of various students and teachers at the academy. It showed plagues of the wildlife and the forest wilting. "Being forced to see the ends of all things is a painful experience. In one so young, the effect on the mind and body can be profound. Unfortunately it has been present for most of her life and has deeply impacted her consciousness. To simply remove it would change her at a fundamental level." A bitter look crossed his face. Closing his hand, the images vanished, dissolving in the calm morning breeze. "I do not believe she would survive the experience."
Snorting at their comment on Veronica, he closed his eyes again. "Good luck with that fruitless endeavor. You would have a better change at dressing the rest of the academy in black than changing her bleak tastes."
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Post by Stein on Dec 27, 2013 18:29:28 GMT -5
“We will hand you our letters when we have packaged them properly, I’m sure it will take you less effort to transport it then it would take us. Thank you.” The twins both shifted positions before speaking again, they were now sitting crisscross still facing Erebus.
“I’m sure anything we could suggest you have already tried so please stop us if we are repeating ideas. Have you considered funneling her exposure to her own affinity; So that instead of seeing say, 3 tragedies a day she only witnesses 1 a day, or 1 a week. Or, if she focuses on a single death repeatedly does it help? Like watching the same movie repeatedly, would it desensitize her at all? I know for us, hearing people’s thoughts and listening to their inner-voices was traumatizing at first; we became desensitized to it after hearing the same patterns over several centuries.”
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Post by Johnathan on Jan 17, 2014 3:32:14 GMT -5
"That is precisely how my seals function now. They serve as a valve, beginning in a closed state and able to slowly be opened further and further to facilitate acclimation." Sighing, Erebus shook his head to himself. "Though perhaps I have not fully expressed the severity of the issue." Turning to face the twins, Erebus extended a finger out towards them. "One of Master Eleazar's most famous advances in magic is the theory that at the core of every entity is an origin construct, a form of arcane blueprint that dictates the very essence of that entity."
Erebus snapped his fingers on the hand pointed towards the twins. A faint glow rose from them, spanning from their hearts across the chain between them. It gradually grew brighter until a complex arcane, geometric shape of sorts formed in front of them. It drew out an impossible shape, a tangled, yet organized cluster of gleaming lines that seamed to start from nowhere, and dark recesses where these lines vanished into. The shape appeared to be in constant flux, always changing, yet remaining the same as it rotated through a dimension well beyond the third. There were two distinct 'cores' to it, that were connected to one another by lines of gold, shrouds of crimson and caverns of black.
"It is into this very construct that we look to ascertain our elemental affinities. It is in these constructs that every aspect of our beings take root, growing and changing. It is these that bind us to the world, that allow us to be seen as an 'existence' in that we truly do exist.
"Knowing this, and knowing what ones affinity is, certain concepts can be understood. The origin construct of every void user has a core of absolute nothingness." The twin's origin construct faded and was replaced by an image of a simple house. "Imagine if you were to build a house, and the foundation of that house was hollow. At any time, a section of that foundation could collapse under the weight of the house, placing greater stress on the houses's support structure. After enough of the foundation has given way, or when time has had its way with the increased stress on the structure's frame, it will invariably collapse." The image mirrored Erebus' words, crumbling away bit by bit until finally it all fell away.
"The first course of action one can try to take is to repair the structure." The corporeal house rebuilt itself before their eyes. "For this we have restoration magic. However, restoration can only do as the name implies. It 'restores' something to an earlier state. If an entity is flawed from it's very creation, restoration can not save it. That leaves the second course of action, the one that I have taken." Pieces of the phantom house began to crumble away again, only this time the parts that weakened were not only repaired, but supplemented by additional beams of wood and columns of stone. "By reinforcing a structure and being cautious with it's use, one can prolong it's lifespan and delay it's collapse. However, even with this there are limits. No matter how much you reinforce a structure, if the ground beneath it is hollow, it will one day fall."
"The crux of the matter is this. Void affinities do not facilitate continued existence. Rather, they facilitate the eventual end of an existence. If Eirika does not grow stronger, she will soon collapse beneath the weight of her own existence and cease to be."
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Post by Stein on Jan 18, 2014 19:59:29 GMT -5
“We are happy to keep her company if she ever needs it, or wants it. We’ve died enough times that we no longer fear it, there are very few images of our death she could show us that would scar us. The twins pulled a notecard from their pocket. Their faces and eyes took on a more serious note. “We feel you’re following the best course of action for the given situation, but if she does not grow stronger you may consider simply cutting her off” They finished as one of them slipped the notecard into the illusion house between the house and the void “It may alter her. But it comes down to only a few options: Either she can grow stronger, she dies as ‘herself’ unaltered mentally, or you carve the void from her and she continues living in either the same or a slightly altered state-of-self. They looked Erebus in the eye and said “Does she know of these options and have an opinion? Or are you protecting her from them?”
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