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Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (116/?) WiP 1
🕑 Added 2025-02-08 21:25:42 +0000 UTCHey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 116 I hope you guys enjoy! :D The revised version for Chapter 115 will be released tomorrow before the full release of Chapter 116! :D
Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30, Thacea and Emma’s Room. Local Time: 0110 Hours.
Thacea
There was a rule — unspoken yet clearly defined — between those of royal blood and those belonging to a more common disposition.
That rule, hedged upon the principles of expectant decorum, was so universal that it purveyed every waking moment of my sensibilities.
So much so that despite understanding that circumstances now were anything but expectant, I felt somewhat taken aback after having left the earthrealmer to her own devices.
I had instructed her to retire for the night.
And yet, even after a full bath, did I arrive to find her nowhere close to achieving that instruction.
Instead, she was missing, with a trail of unknown manaless trinkets leading the way to the balcony which she currently stood upon, her head firmly craned upwards towards the very impetus which spawned this night’s outing — the ‘starless’ skies.
I approached slowly, somewhat displeased by the lack of the earthrealmer’s adherence to my reasonable request, yet also concerned for the sheer and almost-unnatural posture which she currently assumed.
A posture which never once flinched as far as I’d taken notice.
“Emma?” I asked politely, refraining from taking upon my social role, one which otherwise came naturally to me in practically any other situation.
But not here.
Not with this earthrealmer who managed to have slowly chipped away at that expectant role from that very first night.
Yet despite the… laxness that came with our interactions.
This was an instance in which I had to take charge.
If not for decorum’s sakes, then for the sake of Emma’s own well being.
“Had I not instructed you to retire for the night?” I quickly followed up, backing up my words not only with concern, but with a more authoritative slant, if only to reinforce the urgency of the situation.
=====
Emma
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
I had my doubts.
No.
I had more than doubts following Ilunor’s explanations of the Nexus’ own peculiar cosmology.
Yet I never thought to myself that I would be experiencing an ‘Ilunor moment’ — a moment of sheer fundamental systemic incongruency as I stared out at an object, a thing that should not have been there.
Atop my head was a souped-up version of a battlefield recon-optic suite, one first designed for use in both the Forward Expeditionary ranger forces, and the pathfinders within T-SEC.
Except this one was rated for far, far more than typical tactical activities.
This was rated for minor astronomical tomfoolery.
And that tomfoolery was what I had intended to gun for the moment Ilunor’s explanations graced my ears.
Because as soon as Thacea had excused herself for her hour-long spa session did I immediately clamor for that module attachment, fixing it onto my helmet’s module hook, before barreling towards the balcony to stare up into that ominously dark and starless sky.
I’d expected to see a moon.
As in spite of Ilunor’s assertions, his explanations… never really landed.
Instead, they merely lodged themselves as a point to disprove, a fact that I now chastised myself for, especially given how I had promised myself to be more open-minded to the possibilities of impossibilities within an entirely different dimension; an entirely different reality.
An impossibility… that had now well and truly come to fruition.
As what I saw was something that even the primary-school astronomy student would find odd.
Because instead of the typical rendered surface one would expect from a zoomed-in view at the moon — a view that even the most amateur of home astronomers would be familiar with — filled with the tell-tale landmarks of another world, I instead saw… a round circular body.
One, which neither I nor the EVI could extract any surface details from, other than the off-white dim light being exuded from it.
It was less an object deep within space, as much as it was just… a hole.
One which even pulsated, its perfectly round shape twitching ever so slightly, even going so far as to narrow and widen, dilating like some oversized eye.
These latter observations, as subtle as it may be, and perhaps even impossible to notice with the naked eye… completely destroyed me.
As I watched, minute after minute, my eyes no longer focused on its surface but on the occasional movements it did throughout the span of the hour I’d spent watching it.
Part of me was in sheer awe at this, wanting to find ways to now support Ilunor’s assertions over its nature.
Yet another part of me couldn’t help but to feel a growing sense of dread over it, attempting to rationalize it in a way that made sense with my own understanding of what it should have been. Rationalizing it, in an attempt to make it more congruent with what I’d expected.
Both of these conflicting thoughts however, along with the cosmic horror slowly gnawing at me in the back of my mind, was suddenly and thankfully interrupted by the princess.
I felt myself coming back down to earth.
But instead of finding the typical concerned expression on Thacea’s face, my cameras instead relayed to me an expression that fit more in line with stoic frustration.
“Had I not instructed you to retire for the night?” She spoke with an audible level of irritation.
One that I could only blame myself for, as I turned around to face her, her expressions changing if ever so slightly as her eyes moved to notice the massive 8-lensed monstrosity of a device sitting ‘precariously’ atop of my forehead.
This definitely wasn’t going to help the arachnid-like claims Ilunor had thrown around following the revelation of my ARMS.
=====
Thacea
I blinked.
Rapidly.
As the indignant part of me came to a screeching halt at the sight of the… arachnous lenses Emma had chosen to adorn her helmet with.
I couldn’t help but to shudder, this unexpected addition adding an entirely new layer of otherworldly unsightliness onto an already ominous being.
A being whose people seemed to be alarmingly adept at constructing more and more highly specific, esoteric artifices to enhance whatever form it was that lay beneath the layers of protective steel.
However, this sense of otherness soon faded upon the voice of its user breaking through these layers of artificiality.
“Oh, erm, sorry Thacea. I… got a bit carried away there, what with Ilunor’s claims and stuff.” She began, as she yet again raised her arm up behind her helmet, going through the motions of a commoner’s awkward banter, completely disrupting any and all of the foreboding the armor and its new addition had just exuded. “I couldn't help myself from investigating it immediately. So I decided to grab some equipment just to give the moon a cursory look. And erm… yeah, it’s definitely not what I was expecting.”
This… casualness, and the inexplicable friendliness that always seemed to come through the earthrealmer’s voice, had almost completely disarmed the annoyance welling within me.
In fact, the overt familiarness through which Emma carried herself, which was at first off-putting, was now somewhat agreeable.
Comments
Aero Cookie
Wonder if she could make a window in her mana safe tent because it would be harder to believe in a projection rather to seeing it with your own eyes
Michael Halpern
the Nexus has spent so long without conflict, the title alone has been enough
Xylophone Smith
that's more like an excuse though
Ragnar Pendon
day ### of me hoping SS Knightbird sets sail already
Michael Halpern
i suspect Emma is going to show Thacea soon, just need a 2d projector set up or a tablet really not a full holo set up and show her doffing the armor
Michael Halpern
that's just plain old corruption
Michael Olson
I was pondering how Illunor's paranoia might lead him to the truth with regards to Emma's shadow person lie. But Thacea's pretty smart, it would also be hilarious if she drew the wrong conclusion. " It doesn't make sense for showing a human image to be a limitation. The arm. The visual apparatus. The cooperative nature. Clearly Emma's people are bugs/arachnids and embarrassed about it. Going so far as to craft more normal shaped armor for her to avoid stigma."
Xylophone Smith
though the nexus isn't getting much power the black robe is suppose to be planar level but maltory wasn't I wonder what else in the nexus could be lowering in quality
Michael Halpern
the "openings" that let them get daylight and observe the Primavale are functionally camera obscura. pinhole cameras. the moon pulsing is likely power flowing through it in a sinewave.
Michael Halpern
EVI should postulate the "mega structure" solution to the "WTF is the Nexus" problem. if Emma doesn't. the scary part is what happened to the builders
Google Google
The more I read this the more I realize.. I wish there were more stories like this where technology and magic actually competes. And my favorite part is the perspective of the person who always uses magic seeing technology that's my favorite part. Like I said I wish you were more stories like this.
Michael Halpern
genetic engineering is limited
Michael Halpern
no its not, it's probably a mana light.
Google Google
One day she'll reveal her species. that's what I'm excited about:)
Xylophone Smith
obi wan: its a space station
Xylophone Smith
the light from the moon it pulsing like that to likely hide the light from the stars behind it or it's no moon its a space station regardless emma is gonna have to send some probes up there
TheEagerReader
It is the future. With that many people around and genetic engineering there would be individuals are the size of Astartes
Willow Arkan
So I am wondering is the primavale the only thing keeping whatever pure energy/superheated plasma/ fundamental particle soup from just straight up frying the Nexus lands into well more off the above.
Willow Arkan
or Emma is tall and Rann is damn right amazonian. Making her literally larger then life would be pretty funny.
Willow Arkan
But is it even just a hole?
Willow Arkan
Yup, cause I am here wondering if that eldritch feeling isn't about the whole hole business, but the potentiality that it's something more well eldritch
Rod
Honestly I'd be running to the library to see what information they had on their "sky" at this point
Michael Halpern
you can't move the knees or elbows in the armor, but you absolutely can move the wrists and ankles, and that's what it likely does, her hands located mostly in the wrists and her feet mostly in the ankles,
Michael Halpern
not beholden to her royal status nor bothered by "taint"
Michael Halpern
That's no moon
Hughes Andrew
There’s a scene where her aunt jingles keys over her head and she has to jump to reach them. Aunty Rann can be the tall super woman, Emma is a goober.
Michael Halpern
its a lamp.
Ultimatecalibur
I think Thacae actually likes having someone who is not beholden to her royal status.
TheEagerReader
No. . . You can have your head canon but we need more TALL! Women. It was what I hated most about Metroid Other M, it turned Samus from a statuesque bombshell to a shortie.
Hughes Andrew
My headcannon is that she’s 4’11”. Early on in the series she was ment to be a small woman in big armor, but after art started getting made people realized she couldn’t fit in the suit with out it looking weird so the height was changed. But she’ll always be little to me.
Google Google
Me too!!
TheEagerReader
How tall is Emma? Last chapter she said she is just a bit smaller than the armor. That would imply she is easily over 6 ft.
architectural engineer
love the spin was not expecting this! I really need a deep dive on the astronomical maps of their perspective universes. I would love to see a map drawn in the perspective of a human and then also one from the perspective of someone like illunor
