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Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (110/?) WiP 1
🕑 Added 2024-12-07 22:14:57 +0000 UTCHey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 110 I hope you guys enjoy! :D
The world around me faded into the background.
Noises became muffled.
Conversations sounded distant.
Explosions barely broke through the mental barrier that was forming between all senses save for sight.
As my eyes remained transfixed not at the brilliant fireworks displays nor the zipping of upper-yearsmen on fantastical beasts, but instead… on the backdrop they all seemingly ignored.
The starless skies.
My body suddenly felt hazy, as my mind raced to find a way out of what was clearly a dream.
I needed to wake up.
No.
“I need to think.” I forced out, breaking through the growing mental fugue and the dissociation threatening to tear me from the fabric of the present.
“Think Emma, think.” I continued, my eyes frantically darting back and forth, attempting to dissect the impossible sight before me, whilst a thousand divergent thoughts started taking up almost all of my available headspace.
“Dyson sphere? Dead universe? Boötes Void-type situation? Black domain? Home star proximity? A Nightfall scenario? Near-Big Rip? Simulation—” I quickly stopped myself, course correcting with a single breath.
“No, no. Too crazy, too far. This is reality. This has to be some sort of…” I took another breath, turning towards the EVI, right as Thacea’s stern gaze and an urgent tug forced me out of my reverie. However, not a single one of the hundreds of prying eyes from the crowds managed to make a dent on my newfound infatuation, as my body slowly entered autopilot once more; my mind easily slipping back into eccentric populations of an equally eccentric world.
“Okay, okay… training. Differential analysis and inference. Analyze. Categorize, then hypothesize. Stop with the scatter-brained, stop with the panic.” I chastised myself, forcing myself to take long steady breaths, each of which managed to calm me down somewhat until I was faced with the sky once more.
“Alright, no stars. Correction, it’s not that there are no stars. It’s just that there’s no stars visible or detectable.” I forced myself onto a more grounded mindset, channeling Dr. Mekis and the rest of the science team as I attempted to temper the manic imagination-inclined side of myself. “All observable data is fallible. All observable data is prone to observer-bias and extraneous environmental factors. Alright. Okay. Let's start differential analysis.”
The EVI immediately responded by creating a translucent floating mind-map on my HUD, with two distinct root nodes sitting idly and standing by.
“Two broad categories. One — there are no stars visible due to observer limitations. Either due to some unknown atmospheric phenomenon, anomalous light interaction, the stars themselves being too far away, or the typical Nexian magical shenanigans. Fringe explanations could include something physically blocking our line of sight… like a dyson sphere or shellworld. Astrophysics explanations that’d make Dr. Mekis cry could include the fact that we might just be further along in time. Maybe the Nexus’ universe is so far into its expansion and life cycle that everything that is observable from this vantage point has slipped past the cosmological horizon?”
The first root node was promptly filled, with my hypotheses branching off from it in a tree-structure diagram, various branches and child-nodes forming to represent my ideas.
“Two — there are no stars visible simply because there are none.” I declared with a shaky voice, the EVI responding by filling in that second root node. However, instead of continuing like I did the first category, I hesitated, as the implications behind such a conclusion were… astronomical. “This could be due to… heck… I don’t know… a dead universe? Maybe we’re in an extremely mature universe that’s reached the degeneration era? Or maybe… we’re in a literal pocket dimension that exists without stars?” I pondered what I said for a moment, before denying it outright. “No, that’s absolutely insane.”
Branches and child-nodes formed after each and every statement, though it was that last one that now remained blinking, the EVI double-checking if I even wanted it there.
I felt that child-node staring back at me with incredulity, as if Dr. Mekis himself and the rest of the science team were there on the other side of the virtual workspace ready to counter my hypothesis.
“We’ll get back to that one, but first, I just realized that a third category might be in order.” I ordered, prompting the EVI to generate a third root-node.
“Third — malicious intent. This could all just be a big game of deception on behalf of the Nexus. We can’t put it past them after all. They already did one major reality-defying reveal, what’s to say there’s no layers to this?”
A nanosecond later, and the third tree diagram was branched out. This was followed by a beep, as the EVI circled back to that outlandish hypothesis.
“Query. Kill process: unfinished child-node?”
I thought about it for a minute. However, just before I could respond, we eventually found ourselves arriving at the entrance to the banquet hall. To which Thacea quickly regarded me with a worried expression.
“Emma, are you feeling well?”
“Yes—”
“Are you sure—”
“No, don’t kill child.” I replied.
Though this reply was made before I could properly hit mute.
Leading to a rather awkward scene where Thacea, Thalmin, Ilunor, and everyone else gathered near the entrance to the stadium’s banquet hall, all stared at me with varying levels of concern.
“Oh erm, I meant to say, wow, this whole thing was child’s play, haha!” I attempted to ‘fix’ the situation.
However this only ended up with even more perplexed looks and outright worried stares.
“Well crap…” I sighed inwardly with a ‘click’ of the mute button.
=====
The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. New Gymnasium. Banquet Hall. Local Time: 1920 Hours.
Emma
With some quick thinking on behalf of Ilunor and an attempt to defuse the situation as a ‘newrealmer’s eccentric approach to the theatre of life’, we made our way inside the banquet hall, where the professors seemed to be busy talking amidst themselves atop of an elevated stage.
The whole room was arranged into four distinct quadrants, with four equally-long banquet tables occupying the middle of each of these sections.
Comments
Swan
Emma: We harness the power of entire stars, containing them within spheres to harvest their power Ilunor: Is that suppose to be impressive? ....Later Emma: *Shows dyson spheres/close ups of the sun* Ilunor: Huh, your stars are a lot bigger then ours...
Anton
I personally think pocket dimension makes the most sense, despite Emma's dismissal.
Skrzynek
Emma WAS a big fan of fantasy stories, but then the next 10 years of her life happened to involve less and less of that. It's now that she's getting a renaissance of childlike wonder, but I think that she's also thinking about how she's gonna explain it in her weekly reports, the likelihood that solutions outside of known physics are at play if perfectly plausible sci-fi explanations are RIGHT THERE... Etc. It's also not that she doesn't SEE the possibility. She just has a hard time believing it. A mirror to what the gang usually feels when seeing Earth's wonders.
Skrzynek
There may not even be an ORBIT around the Nexus, given the talk we had before about "infinitely expanding farlands (Chapter 97) Oraz witam kolejnego Polaka w fandomie! :D
Skrzynek
You even made it the case in the "postcards" from the gift shop, that the sky was cloudy there. I remember seeing that and going "SUS!", but I didn't know whether it was "no stars" or "multiple moons" or "the sun is really weird" or maybe all of the above.
Slade
I assume the portal connection stuff or the big reveal from the nexus that it exists to her universe, been a bit since I read those early chapters but this seems reasonably like the answer.
Dźwiedź
Wait, if there is no stars is there a moon?
Gabu
The thing is she's supposed to be a fan of fantasy stories. Pocket dimensions are a staple of not just sci-fi but have a VERY long history in fantasy as well. The classic bag-of-holding is a pocket dimension (almost literally). The concept that magic couldn't easily make a pocket dimension (even if the magical expenditure to do so would be massive) seems like a weird thing for her to get hung up on. The fact that so many of us immediately jumped to magical pocket dimension as the most likely/obvious explanation should indicate just how reasonable an assumption that would be for her.
Alex
So is this the aftermath of the deicide by the Emperor?
Skrzynek
I honestly have no fucking clue. This should probably be disclosed tomorrow or in revised. Like, does she mean that the Nexus uses pinnacle transmutation? That they use "species alteration" during nexian reformations? That they literally cannot live without mana?
Skrzynek
I have a feeling that we're some ways away from the talk about computers yet. Perhaps during the NEXT cultural exchange session we could tackle internet and computers, while today's one will be about space travel, colonization and space habitats, as well as asteroid mining. In general, I'd classify EVI as the "mind" of a "golem" that is her armor. Her basically piloting a very very smart golem sounds like something that would be both comprehensible, and probably very much forbidden, at least during certain classes like PE. Sure, it being "manaless" is ridiculous for the Nexus, but I'm sure the Dean would still make a fuss about it all.
Sunshine Lizard
What I mean is what was the first major reality defying reveal
Jcb112
Yup! Information Dissemination Overflow along with Fundamental Systemic Incongruency can go both ways! From Nexians and Adjacent Realmers being shocked by earth tech and science, to Emma herself being caught off guard by magical explanations that defy her preconceptions! :D I wanted to sorta show in this chapter that it goes both ways and Emma can be susceptible to it too! :D Though she does at least attempt to cover her bases to entertain all ideas since she's trained to handle fundamental systemic incongruity! :D
Sunshine Lizard
"They already did one major reality-defying reveal, what’s to say there’s no layers to this?” What did Emma mean by that?
Jcb112
Yup! In several chapters I made it so that the mention of the night skies were usually accompanied by the mention that it's overcast or cloudy! :D
Ferr
Emma: Ilunor, how big are your sun? Ilunor: About a wagon. The old gods draw it across the sky. Emma: And do you know what a star is? Ilunor: A power crystal, about the size of my hand. Emma: This will take some explaining. I think Emma just got hit with information dissemination overflow
Nul Atlas
I was listening to earlier chapters and I am pretty sure it was forshadowed in a off handed comment I think
Skrzynek
I'd guess because Emma is thinking sci-fi solutions instead of magical solutions. Fundamental Systemic Incongruency hits BOTH WAYS after all. Tech can make things that are utterly outlandish to the magic-realmers, while magic can sustain things that for a human seem downright nonsensical.
crown01
I’ll bet EVI’s presence violates if not the letter then the spirit of some school rule about familiars or golems as personal assistants to the students and if EVI’s ever found out then it’s just going to make even more drama between Emma and the Dean. Either that or the creation of something like EVI by way of magic is considered such a feat that no adjacent realm could ever actually achieve it and there’s no need to have rules about them.
Alex Heilgeist
Why is a pocket universe so crazy an idea? The portal itself is already dimensional travel Heck ive been assuming its a pocket dimension just from the name of 'Nexus' that it exists outside traditional realms like Sigil in dnd
DarkValorWolf
Huh, never realised that. That definitely makes this a shock!
Ultimatecalibur
Even during the night the sky is perpetually cloudy.
Jcb112
The skies have always been obscured or cloudy up until the Dean's clearing up of the clouds at the end of the House Choosing Ceremony! :D So despite Emma having had a few operations outside of the Academy up to this point, the skies have always been overcast or cloudy, blocking a clear view of the actual skies beyond! :D
ArdenW
Welp, time to explain about the computer in the helmet that she talks to regularly.
DarkValorWolf
has she not done several night escapades outside already??? how is she surprised about the night's sky? am I missing something?
