Mirror, Mirror, let me Speak to Sister Dear
Dec 11, 2018 16:17:52 GMT -6
Post by Snick on Dec 11, 2018 16:17:52 GMT -6
Lorccan has been working on this project in FFA Club and in his free time for over a week and still hasn't managed to succeed. Given how much his sister distrusted the staff the last thing Lorccan wanted to do was ask for Professor Woodrick's help. He probably should as this project was far tougher than Lorccan expected it to be. The research he did laid out the steps needed to enchant the pair of hand mirrors, that they should be identical, needed to be soaked in a special normalizing potion, various spells cast on them, mostly charms. After the enchanting was done, just one more simple completion spell and presto chango, he would have two mirrors which allow the people holding them to see and talk to each other.
He stood up and pointed his wand at the two mirrors he had on the workbench. This was the point he always failed so far, the spell was tricky and Lorccan had no idea if he was doing the complex wand wiggles correctly. So far all that happened is the spell fizzled out. "Hic et videre vos!" he shouted, drawing a few eyes from other members of the club. Lorccan gave a last flick of his wand and finished with "duo via speculum fieri".
What happened next was a bit of a mystery... the next thing Lorccan knew he was flat on his back blinking flash spots out of his eyes. The workbench he was working on was half gone, a large hole in the middle where he had the two mirrors and the remaining ends tilted down to the ground, blackened and smoking now. Bits and pieces of melted glass was scattered about the room. The only good thing was the explosion was so localized it only destroyed the one table instead of the entire classroom and Lorccan along with it. He was also glad this was during his own free time instead of regular class or FFA club. Unfortunately blowing up the workshop on his own time wasn't likely to keep him out of trouble.
"Oops..." Lorccan said feebly once he could fully focus again and the ringing in his hears faded. Maybe nobody was around to hear the explosion.
"Dude, what happened?" Rebecca Miller was the first one to poke her head through the door after hearing the explosion. "You okay?"
Moving fully into the room, she crossed to him and offered her hand. She was careful not to step on anything that might hurt her. Rebecca took survey of the room. "You're going to get your ass chewed off," she gawked at the damage.
Lorccan struggled to sit up and shook his head to clear the last of the ringing out of his ears. He looked himself over and didn't see any major damage...except for a piece of partially melted glass stuck in his forearm. He pulled it out with a wince and once the glass was out his arm only bled a little. No different than the other scratches he saw. Nothing serious as far as he was concerned.
"I am alright." Lorccan turned to look up at the older witch. "Just a minor miscast of the spell I was using to enchant some mirrors...or at least I think it was a miscast, thought I had the pronunciation right. Don't see why magic has to require stupid ancient languages to cast." He stands up and brushes the debris off his clothing, now looking the worse for wear.
"Not going to get into trouble, this is the fabrications lab, stuff like this happens all the time." Lorccan revealed, having no idea if the older witch even took Fabrications. She wasn't in the club as far as he could remember. "I will clean up and fix things before I leave anyway...can't do anymore work on what I was working on..stupid explosion destroyed the mirrors, now I have to see about getting another pair and start over again."
"You going to tell Mr. Woodrick about this?" Lorccan shot a look at the witch. "Cause that'll be the only way I would get into trouble. Not unless he suddenly shows up."
"I'm not a snitch," Rebecca wrinkled her nose. "Besides... If it happens all the time, and you won't get in trouble for it, why would it matter if I tell, anyway? If you're gonna lie, you probably shouldn't contradict yourself five seconds later."
It was just an observation and a bit of advice, and it was not meant to be condescending, though her tone was a bit wry. She smiled and took out her wand, holding it up like a conductor's wand. "If we're going to get this cleaned up before Woodrick gets here, we better get started," she called out a few basic cleaning spells and wiggled her wand around, without waiting for him to accept her help.
"Well, not really contradicting myself." Lorccan started looking for his wand as he talked. "Not technically suppose to do this sort of thing without supervision."
When she started to clean up he picked up his wand where he had dropped it after the explosion and picked in to help the girl with the cleaning. Once the damaged workbench was sort of back together again, with a rather big hole in the middle and the mirrors he was working on still just a pile of melted glass he shrugged. "As fixed as its going to get I think. Thanks for the help."
"So, what's your name?" He asked, not recalling meeting her before. "Mine's Lorccan."
"Rebecca Miller," she smiled crookedly, stashing her wand in a pocket. "Yeah, I know who you are. You've got a sister, with a difficult name. I know it doesn't sound the way it looks, and I don't wanna say it wrong, so I won't say it."
It wasn't surprising he didn't know who she was, but it was a little disappointing. "Well, I guess I'll be on my way, then, back to the art room," she pulled a paintbrush from behind her ear and wiggled it kind of like a wand. "Unless you need more help? Do you know how to duplicate things, yet? You could just take one mirror and copy it. Unless a copy won't work for whatever you're doin'."
"Rebecca Miller...good name." Lorccan should have remembered that, one of the more normal names and thus easier to remember but they certainly didn't share any classes she was a couple years older from the look of her. "My sister's name isn't all that hard to pronounce, shi - vawn."
"Yeah I do know how to duplicate things, but i need an intact hand mirror before I can duplicate. You in Fabrications? You ever enchant mirrors before?" Lorccan decided to ask, if she was really good at it, maybe she could help him with the enchanting part. It was that last spell that always screws up. "I have all the steps but the last spell is really tricky...I can't seem to get the right movements or the incantation correct. I have to admit though, the explosion must be some progress, usually the spell just fizzles and nothing happens."
"Thanks..." Rebecca quirked a brow, thinking he was odd for liking her name. It was rather ordinary. Most witches and wizards had ridiculously unique names. Not normal mug monikers like Amanda, Jessica, or Rebecca.
"Ah, Shi-vawn," she repeated. "You're right. Easy. And no, I've never taken shop. I've considered it, but if there's always explosions and such, I'm reconsidering now."
Her eyebrows went up, though the rest of her expression was indifferent. His question was very vague. "Enchant how?" she asked, those dark brows now bunched curiously. "I mean, I'm not bad with charms, so maybe, if it's not something ridiculously advanced. I enchant my own paintings and pictures, anyhow. Mirrors can't be all that different, can they?"
Rebecca wasn't as good at making her art come to life as some others. Then again, she always sort of thought it cheapened most images. The whole point was to capture a very specific moment in time, a split second that evoked emotion. Having a scene play out or having someone talking and moving, instead, ruined it for her. If she wanted to make moving pictures, she would have gotten a video camera instead of an SLR. Other kinds of charms, like having a painting cycle through different tints or modifications, or even show the creation of the piece from the first brushstroke to the last, she liked. All the advanced stuff, she preferred to leave to the adults with years and years of experience in such things.
A suspicious look came to her eyes. "Wait. Why aren't you asking for help from Mr. Whatshisface?" Rebecca crossed her arms. Not that she cared if he was breaking some rule or something, but if it was something she would get in trouble for helping with, she wanted no part of it.
"Explosions don't happen all that often." Lorccan assured her. "Its a pretty fun class and you can typically work at your own pace."
"I am trying to enchant two mirrors so you can communicate with them. So if one person had one mirror and you had the other, you can see and talk to the person with the other mirror. I found out how to do it in this book from the library, its a pretty tough spell, the one that actually created the magic to allow two way communication between the mirrors." Lorccan explained. If he could get help to finish that part then he could get these mirrors done all the faster. "And the spell is trickier than the one used to make pictures move. At least photographs and small pictures like that which use just special potions to develop the photos or special pigments."
"I don't want to involve any staff, they are all part of the conspiracy." Lorccan explain as though it should be obvious. "Mr. Wooddick is fine but I don't want him knowing what I am doing. He probably think its too advanced for me and have me go back to working on self cleaning trash bins or something."
"Conspiracy?" she suppressed a chuckle. "If you say so."
There were plenty of people in her legacy that believed conspiracies, that big brother was watching, that the government was keeping secrets. She didn't believe anything of the sort, especially not about the teachers here. The problem was simple - the school was not guarded well enough. No one let any intruders in, someone just found a loophole and took advantage of it. Why, she didn't know, but it was over now and security was improved and there was no reason fretting about it. However, she learned long ago not to expect any kind of rational thought to pierce the bubble of belief surrounding them and cuts right to the 'let's agree to disagree' part of the discussion.
"I can try to help, but I'm not sure I'll have any more luck than you've had," Rebecca says after his explanation. "What about other adults? Your parents? Do you have older siblings?"
He stood up and pointed his wand at the two mirrors he had on the workbench. This was the point he always failed so far, the spell was tricky and Lorccan had no idea if he was doing the complex wand wiggles correctly. So far all that happened is the spell fizzled out. "Hic et videre vos!" he shouted, drawing a few eyes from other members of the club. Lorccan gave a last flick of his wand and finished with "duo via speculum fieri".
What happened next was a bit of a mystery... the next thing Lorccan knew he was flat on his back blinking flash spots out of his eyes. The workbench he was working on was half gone, a large hole in the middle where he had the two mirrors and the remaining ends tilted down to the ground, blackened and smoking now. Bits and pieces of melted glass was scattered about the room. The only good thing was the explosion was so localized it only destroyed the one table instead of the entire classroom and Lorccan along with it. He was also glad this was during his own free time instead of regular class or FFA club. Unfortunately blowing up the workshop on his own time wasn't likely to keep him out of trouble.
"Oops..." Lorccan said feebly once he could fully focus again and the ringing in his hears faded. Maybe nobody was around to hear the explosion.
"Dude, what happened?" Rebecca Miller was the first one to poke her head through the door after hearing the explosion. "You okay?"
Moving fully into the room, she crossed to him and offered her hand. She was careful not to step on anything that might hurt her. Rebecca took survey of the room. "You're going to get your ass chewed off," she gawked at the damage.
Lorccan struggled to sit up and shook his head to clear the last of the ringing out of his ears. He looked himself over and didn't see any major damage...except for a piece of partially melted glass stuck in his forearm. He pulled it out with a wince and once the glass was out his arm only bled a little. No different than the other scratches he saw. Nothing serious as far as he was concerned.
"I am alright." Lorccan turned to look up at the older witch. "Just a minor miscast of the spell I was using to enchant some mirrors...or at least I think it was a miscast, thought I had the pronunciation right. Don't see why magic has to require stupid ancient languages to cast." He stands up and brushes the debris off his clothing, now looking the worse for wear.
"Not going to get into trouble, this is the fabrications lab, stuff like this happens all the time." Lorccan revealed, having no idea if the older witch even took Fabrications. She wasn't in the club as far as he could remember. "I will clean up and fix things before I leave anyway...can't do anymore work on what I was working on..stupid explosion destroyed the mirrors, now I have to see about getting another pair and start over again."
"You going to tell Mr. Woodrick about this?" Lorccan shot a look at the witch. "Cause that'll be the only way I would get into trouble. Not unless he suddenly shows up."
"I'm not a snitch," Rebecca wrinkled her nose. "Besides... If it happens all the time, and you won't get in trouble for it, why would it matter if I tell, anyway? If you're gonna lie, you probably shouldn't contradict yourself five seconds later."
It was just an observation and a bit of advice, and it was not meant to be condescending, though her tone was a bit wry. She smiled and took out her wand, holding it up like a conductor's wand. "If we're going to get this cleaned up before Woodrick gets here, we better get started," she called out a few basic cleaning spells and wiggled her wand around, without waiting for him to accept her help.
"Well, not really contradicting myself." Lorccan started looking for his wand as he talked. "Not technically suppose to do this sort of thing without supervision."
When she started to clean up he picked up his wand where he had dropped it after the explosion and picked in to help the girl with the cleaning. Once the damaged workbench was sort of back together again, with a rather big hole in the middle and the mirrors he was working on still just a pile of melted glass he shrugged. "As fixed as its going to get I think. Thanks for the help."
"So, what's your name?" He asked, not recalling meeting her before. "Mine's Lorccan."
"Rebecca Miller," she smiled crookedly, stashing her wand in a pocket. "Yeah, I know who you are. You've got a sister, with a difficult name. I know it doesn't sound the way it looks, and I don't wanna say it wrong, so I won't say it."
It wasn't surprising he didn't know who she was, but it was a little disappointing. "Well, I guess I'll be on my way, then, back to the art room," she pulled a paintbrush from behind her ear and wiggled it kind of like a wand. "Unless you need more help? Do you know how to duplicate things, yet? You could just take one mirror and copy it. Unless a copy won't work for whatever you're doin'."
"Rebecca Miller...good name." Lorccan should have remembered that, one of the more normal names and thus easier to remember but they certainly didn't share any classes she was a couple years older from the look of her. "My sister's name isn't all that hard to pronounce, shi - vawn."
"Yeah I do know how to duplicate things, but i need an intact hand mirror before I can duplicate. You in Fabrications? You ever enchant mirrors before?" Lorccan decided to ask, if she was really good at it, maybe she could help him with the enchanting part. It was that last spell that always screws up. "I have all the steps but the last spell is really tricky...I can't seem to get the right movements or the incantation correct. I have to admit though, the explosion must be some progress, usually the spell just fizzles and nothing happens."
"Thanks..." Rebecca quirked a brow, thinking he was odd for liking her name. It was rather ordinary. Most witches and wizards had ridiculously unique names. Not normal mug monikers like Amanda, Jessica, or Rebecca.
"Ah, Shi-vawn," she repeated. "You're right. Easy. And no, I've never taken shop. I've considered it, but if there's always explosions and such, I'm reconsidering now."
Her eyebrows went up, though the rest of her expression was indifferent. His question was very vague. "Enchant how?" she asked, those dark brows now bunched curiously. "I mean, I'm not bad with charms, so maybe, if it's not something ridiculously advanced. I enchant my own paintings and pictures, anyhow. Mirrors can't be all that different, can they?"
Rebecca wasn't as good at making her art come to life as some others. Then again, she always sort of thought it cheapened most images. The whole point was to capture a very specific moment in time, a split second that evoked emotion. Having a scene play out or having someone talking and moving, instead, ruined it for her. If she wanted to make moving pictures, she would have gotten a video camera instead of an SLR. Other kinds of charms, like having a painting cycle through different tints or modifications, or even show the creation of the piece from the first brushstroke to the last, she liked. All the advanced stuff, she preferred to leave to the adults with years and years of experience in such things.
A suspicious look came to her eyes. "Wait. Why aren't you asking for help from Mr. Whatshisface?" Rebecca crossed her arms. Not that she cared if he was breaking some rule or something, but if it was something she would get in trouble for helping with, she wanted no part of it.
"Explosions don't happen all that often." Lorccan assured her. "Its a pretty fun class and you can typically work at your own pace."
"I am trying to enchant two mirrors so you can communicate with them. So if one person had one mirror and you had the other, you can see and talk to the person with the other mirror. I found out how to do it in this book from the library, its a pretty tough spell, the one that actually created the magic to allow two way communication between the mirrors." Lorccan explained. If he could get help to finish that part then he could get these mirrors done all the faster. "And the spell is trickier than the one used to make pictures move. At least photographs and small pictures like that which use just special potions to develop the photos or special pigments."
"I don't want to involve any staff, they are all part of the conspiracy." Lorccan explain as though it should be obvious. "Mr. Wooddick is fine but I don't want him knowing what I am doing. He probably think its too advanced for me and have me go back to working on self cleaning trash bins or something."
"Conspiracy?" she suppressed a chuckle. "If you say so."
There were plenty of people in her legacy that believed conspiracies, that big brother was watching, that the government was keeping secrets. She didn't believe anything of the sort, especially not about the teachers here. The problem was simple - the school was not guarded well enough. No one let any intruders in, someone just found a loophole and took advantage of it. Why, she didn't know, but it was over now and security was improved and there was no reason fretting about it. However, she learned long ago not to expect any kind of rational thought to pierce the bubble of belief surrounding them and cuts right to the 'let's agree to disagree' part of the discussion.
"I can try to help, but I'm not sure I'll have any more luck than you've had," Rebecca says after his explanation. "What about other adults? Your parents? Do you have older siblings?"
