[Text | Castle Push Sign-Ups!]

[heritrix]

( OOC: Backdated to June 7th. Also don't forget the OOC sign-ups! )

The following message can be found in two places: typed on the network and on a piece of paper posted on the bulletin board, written in bright ink so people might see it. The latter is actually up several hours before it hits the network, and only at all thanks to Chara's help, though Rin's optimistic she can handle it from here.]

ATTENTION!

Throughout the rest of the month, we will be making attempts to access further areas of the castle. I’m informed the last this was attempted was two months ago, meaning it’s high time to continue, yes?

Several potential paths have been scouted out, for moving forward. We plan to tackle these as four separate missions, to be carried out before the end of June. This is an ambitious goal, and the task ahead is significant. How successful our efforts will be is dependent on how many volunteers we receive and our teamwork. If you are eager to do something productive in this place, please consider joining us, but also keep in mind the following.

Conditions of Volunteering:

— The castle is full of puzzles. Reasonable thinkers and problem solvers will be appreciated.
— Combat is expected and will be unavoidable. Be prepared and willing to fight.
— Your endurance and athleticism may be tested. Consider how well you can keep up before volunteering.
— Healing, and evidently light-based abilities may be valuable to our mission. Please note if you have any skills in these areas.
— Behavior that puts others at risk or gets in the way of the task at hand will not be humored.
— MUST be able to cooperate with your fellow volunteers! That's regardless of differences, unless it violates the above rule. If you have a different problem with someone, stay behind or work with another team.

If you can agree to the above, the names of the team leaders for each excursion. They'll let you know when and where to meet. If your team leaders do a good job, be sure to commend them for their efforts along with the members of the scouting party, if you know who they are. It's thanks to them we can do this at all.

Team 1: Rin Tohsaka
Team 2: Nami
Team 3: Rob Edwards
Team 4: Zuko

Please contact Rin Tohsaka if you have further questions.

Comments

[miseris_socios]

Sure. They're nothing really special, though. Just stuff to recover health and the mental energy we use to do attacks with our Persona.

[heritrix]

Would they work for the rest of us?

[miseris_socios]

The health ones should. I don't know about the others, since it's a different kind of 'magic'.

[heritrix]

You should save them for next time, then, or keep them for yourself. That's something we'd be better off testing, with enough days to observe it works as intended and without weird reactions.
Since you're with me, I'll tell you we'll be up soon. So we won't have time for that.
But definitely bring the other medicine.

[miseris_socios]

Yeah, that's fine. I'll bring a few for myself so I can use more healing spells, though. Hopefully we won't need to, but 'hopefully' never stopped things from going wrong before.

[heritrix]

It's the natural order of things, but it's not going to hold my team back.

[She'll probably focus on responding to the others now, and checking the bulletin board. Fast forward to later/in-person?]

[miseris_socios]

Of course not.

[And later, Ken's sitting in their usual spot, playing with the strap of his bag and reading through his dictionary. Italian is hard, especially when you're trying to learn it on your own.]

[heritrix]

[Yeah, man. This is why magi use translation spells.]

Having fun there?

[miseris_socios]

[Not everyone can just magic up the entire world okay. Some people don't have Magic Circuits.]

[But he looks up as she speaks, closing the dictionary quickly.]

Oh. Um. ... Sorry. I was just studying. One of my 'brothers' lives in Italy in his world, so...

[heritrix]

I won't dictate what you do with your free time. [Actually she totally would, she just wouldn't see it in that light.] It's sweet.

[miseris_socios]

I... anyway!

[Right. They had something to do, not to just talk about his language skills.]

[heritrix]

[MWAHAHA. One point for her. But he's correct, they have much more important things to do.]

Right. [A little hair flip, but she remains standing for now.] I'll be cutting our lessons short for the time being, until we've completed our portion of the exploration. Use that extra time to gather anything you need, or train skills you think will be useful for it.

[miseris_socios]

That's fine. I'm not totally sure what we're going to find... I'm not the best choice for scouting. If we had Chidori here, she'd be good for it... but she's not, so we'll do what we can. Do you know if anyone in our group has any ability to detect enemies?

[heritrix]

Most of the scouting's already done. We won't have a lot of time for it on the fly, either. When— [Ah, she catches herself.] When I was with the group that went out yesterday, our poking around stirred up some feathers. I suspect the Queen's Shadows are going to be monitoring that area for a little longer yet. You can hear them coming pretty loud and clear, so in this case I don't think we'll have to worry about detecting them. They're not subtle.

[miseris_socios]

True. If anyone needs some fast shielding I can put something up, but it only works on one attack for one person per use. If we have someone who's not much of a fighter it might be worth it to put it on them so they get a chance to get away before they're taken out.

[heritrix]

[Funnily enough, to go back to detecting enemies, it turns out Littlepip can. Rin will be calling Ken's attention to it in a future thread, because that's just irony. But here she just crosses her arms and huffs.]

If they can't fight they shouldn't be coming at all, and I'll dismiss them first chance I get. That puts everyone at risk, not just them.

[But that's not the point here, so she won't dwell on it. She looks at Ken with one eye.] There are other places that shielding may come in handy, however. Anyone solving the puzzles in the room may need that extra line of defense.

[miseris_socios]

That's what I meant - if they're not focusing on fighting, since we need people who can both fight and solve puzzles. But I get what you mean, and I agree.

[He's just not much of a puzzle-solver himself. Those kinds of games make his head hurt.]

[heritrix]

Can you set it up in advance, then, or is it a matter of timing?

[He specified it as fast shielding, so.]

[miseris_socios]

[Oh, the issues of being a turn-based system...]

It'll last maybe... thirty seconds at the most if they're not hit. And if someone attacks multiple times quickly, like some kind of flurry of blows, it'll only take the first hit.

[heritrix]

Got it. The closer they are to you then, the better.

[Hum hum.] But that's better than nothing. I can cast Bounded Fields that would be more durable, but they'll only work on an area, not a person, and they can only protect you so long as you stay behind them.

[She has a few other actual shields she could use, but she'd need a gem to do so. By dividing the five jewels Ozuma gave her into smaller pieces (something she probably demonstrate to him as an example of manipulating matter with magecraft), she's been able to reduce the time it'd take to make each one powerful, but even then she's only made about three. She'd rather not waste them this early — on shields or otherwise.]

[miseris_socios]

Yeah. At home I was usually a backup healer, general physical damage, or brought in if something had a weakness to Light or Electric skills. Here, it's really only my Light skills since they don't seem to be particularly weak to electricity.

I don't have a problem taking over the healer role, though. I can bring my first aid kit just in case. With the items I got I can take care of most things that aren't like... poison or something, and if someone gets knocked out I can get them back up again, too.

[heritrix]

Good to know. I have a few healing spells [-Which, since healing magecraft is what they've been focusing on, he probably already knows. Basic stuff like healing bruises or balms infused with magic to encourage skin regrowth-], but nothing powerful without the use of a gem. I'd rather stick to first aid.

[She then turns her nose up in the air.] Not that I've given permission for any of you to get hurt, but the better prepared we are for the possibility, the more confident I'll be.

[Injuries are likely, after all. The "natural order" of things, as they discussed on the network just before.]

[miseris_socios]

I'm not planning on getting hurt, but, you know. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best.

[Ugh...]

Do you know anything else about the other people who have signed up for your team?

1/2

[heritrix]

[Haha...] So far, you're the only one that's signed up under me directly.

[SHE'S NOT VERY POPULAR. What a weird experience. If this were Homurahara (and not, you know, a shadow war), she'd have legions flocking to work with her. But this is to be expected. Her popularity back home was a carefully crafted image, with a personality fitting to match it. She's had neither the time in this place to build that kind of credit up, nor has she behaved in the right manner for it. So it's only natural.]

[heritrix]

But there's a few days yet, and I expect more volunteers. Two of the other teams are filling up quickly, so by default a few of those will go to us. There's someone named Littlepip, too, who said I could put her in whatever team.

[Rin really doesn't know what to make of her, actually. She's still kind of unsure about that whole conversation. But that's all the more reason to invite her along, where she can keep an eye on them. Moving along, Rin raises a finger.]

Putting aside that, there's a guy I'll drag with us even if he tries signing up with someone else. I've seen a little of what he can do, and I think he'll be reliable.