Welcome back to School Daze: newly unscruffed edition.
Last thread:
>We started off with you as a symbiotic spirit creature whose job it is to help their host in exchange for sweet, delicious mana.
>You were summoned by an intelligent but dorky earth pony colt named Third Eye.
>You learned that he has a crush on a very pretty unicorn named Velveteen, and that he has a rival in the form of one Shoot Root.
>You went to class and learned that Shoot Root is angling to get your host removed from lunch.
>You convinced him to take the leap and ask her out first.
Class goes on for a while, and you eventually just listen in, a little bit bored, while your host finally manages to calm down and pay attention, though part of you gets the distinct feeling he knows most of this stuff. You’ve got to get this kid a hobby other than reading. The teacher does spare you a few slightly perplexed glanced from time to time, but for the most part she seems content to simply teach her class. This is an academy of particularly power ponies, so maybe spirit summoning isn’t that bizarre of an occurrence even for kids this young.
Finally, the bell rings for their first break of the day. Given what you know about Equestrian schools, you’ll probably be going back to the class for another lesson by another teacher. But for now, you and Third Eye are headed out of the class towards a date with destiny. And hopefully Velveteen. He quickly snakes through the crowd of colts and fillies, and you can feel him sweating pretty hard, and his breathing has picked up. Finally, he’s just a couple of feet away from Velveteen, and then he stops.
“I-I can’t do it,” he tells you internally, starting to slowly back away. “This was a dumb idea. I’ll just go back to my room and unsummon you.”
>>26983127
Let's bluff! Alright, you can do that. I mean, you're never going to ask out Velveteen without my help because if you could then you would have done it already and not summoned me in the first place.
Just know that you're throwing away your only advantage you have over shoot root.
>>26983127
look kid you can ask her at lunch if your not feeling up it, also you have a one up on root so the more you put this off the more likely velveteen go for root
http://desustorage.org/mlp/thread/26861539/#26861539
Forgot this, thread one, up to where it got.
“Hey look,” you say, a little bit more harshly. “Are you really going to throw away your best bet at asking your girl out here? You couldn’t do it without me, and if you go back to your room and unsummon me, you can kiss your best advantage over Shoot Root goodbye.” It’s a bit angrier than your usual talk, but mana is food, and its rather serious. You have to take something back to the queens.
“Y-you’re right,” he says with a huff. “Yeah, I’ll keep you around. Sorry, it’s just like… the thought of her makes me feel all fuzzy and I can’t think, not really well…”
“If you want to put it off, there’s no harm,” you point out. “You said you spend lunch with her anyway. Why not just do it then?” He visibly deflates and nods lazily, his smile twitching back onto his face.
“Yeah,” he says. “That makes a lot more sense. Let’s do thAAT-” His somewhat irregular response is cause by a large colt bumping into him and knocking him off balance. Your eye slide around to get a glance and you take a look at the assailant. Or rather, assailants.
The first is a zebra, the one who knocked against him. He looks to be tall and lanky with a dreaded mane. He snorts as he looks at Eye and talks at him with an accented tone. “Couldn’t friends without attaching them to you?” He asked mockingly. “Is there anything more pathetic? I can only think of a few.”
The second is a shorter pegasus, mane slicked back like he’s some kind of tough guy. Finally is a griffon, which puts him head and shoulders above the others, not to mention that he’s all muscle.
They’ve encircled Eye, and there don’t seem to be any adults around. He’s starting to cower. Do you have anything to say, or do you want to try and fight back? For the latter, you can summon tentacles and give them a quick whipping, or you could begin the process of Abstraction, but that’s a very high level technique and probably not worth it to get into.
>>26983406
who the hell are these jokers? If you know where their lockers are we going to snake through them for information later.
I don't think we need to fight back now. Ask what they want and then we can decide if we should start fighting them since there are no adults around.
are they friends with shoot?
“Who the hell are these jokers?” You ask Third Eye. You take a look at them and they’re just kind of slowly closing in on him. Intimidation tactic? Yeah, like you’re going to let yourself get pushed around by a bunch of six year olds.
“They just make fun of me,” Third Eye says quietly back to you. “If I don’t do anything, they leave me alone quicker.”
You sigh audibly. “Alright kid, stand up a bit straight and say to them flippantly ‘what do you want’. Y’know, like you don’t actually care about them.” He looks a bit uncertain. “Trust me here,” you assure him. “You gotta stand up to them.”
There a brief pause, and he slowly stands up a bit straighter and fixes a gaze on one of them. “What do you want,” he says in a flat, but vaguely flippant tone.
The pegasus looks at him with a sneer. “Who says we want anything?” He asks. “Maybe we just wanna beat your ass like the bitch you are.” The three of them start to advance when out of nowhere, you see a small seed strike against the pegasus’ cheek. He only has a second to look around, confused, before it explodes.
Well explodes isn’t the right descriptor per say. You can see it in a bit of gory detail. The seed had been charged with latent earth pony magic and as it struck against his cheek, it took purchase before it started to grow really really quickly, roots snaking over his mouth and face. He panicked and started to fly off, trying to scream but unable to.
Everyone freezes. What do you do?
>>26983406
Search their minds for any information they have, then smack them into submission with tentacles.
>>26983770
what information would they have that would be useful for us
>>26983750
it looks like the time to strike is now since they're distracted.
>>26983793
If they are associated with Shoot, if not, who sent them.
>>26983824
they seem like school bullies that are a dick to everyone but themself
>>26983845
if they are, we can just read into their lives, find all their fears and insecurities. So if they try to beat up Third again, we can just use that info to freak them out and pacify them.
You take this moment to get a quick read on all of the bullies. As per usual, you can’t do a lot more without dedicated concentration than skim surface thoughts, which get you a usual “what the fuck is that” from the two who aren’t being accosted by a plant and an “AAAAAAAGH OH MY GOD GET IT OFF” from the one who isn’t quite so fortunate. Oh well, no use crying over spilt milk. You form off two thin tendrils, like and rope like and give both of them a searing smack across the face. They look back at you in surprise and the zebra looks at you with a bit of horror before he starts to slink away. The griffon, on the other hoof, growls at you, pupils shrinking down as his bloodlust instincts start to kick in.
He lets out a roaring shriek and leaps at Eye. You swing both of your tendrils up to catch him, but he’s fucking strong for a young tyke, and you can’t pull the energy out of the kid’s well fast enough, inexperienced as he is. He’s getting closer and closer when there’s a sudden flash of emerald and you see a swarm of ethereal bees slam into it, buzzing like the devil’s kitchen timer. The griffon screams in pain and rips out of the tendrils, the material from them absorbing back into your body.
The bullies have all made their way, and you take a look around to see Bumble and Shoot standing there. Bumble is grinning cheerily while Shoot is looking off into the distance.
>>26984220
I suppose we should get out of here before anyone shows up.
>>26984220
hey kid go thanks your friends for helping you out
You mentally prod the kid. “Hey, go thank your friends,” you say. “They did just stick up for you.”
“Friends..?” He asks, then looks around and sees the two of them standing there. He brightens up and makes his way over to them, despite being clearly confused at their presence. He must not be used to the friend-having thing.
“Thanks a ton!” He says brightly at them. Bumble smiles and nods.
“Totally,” she said. “Three on one? That’s not fair. Now if it had been you and, like, the griffon, that I would have watched. I would have watched very closely.” She eyes Third Eye with a look he’s a bit young to understand. This girl started early.
“Whatever,” Shoot Root says. “I did it cuz if you got hurt Velveteen would have been sad and I didn’t want that.”
Third Eye just kind of stares at them, obviously happy but not sure how to express it.Pausing
>>26984628
Whoops, trip
>>26984628
Tell him to thank them. Perhaps a platonic hug is in order.
>>26984696
he already thank them man, but a hug is one of a few way to show friendship
time for bumps
Leaving page 10.
time to get a bump
>>26986451
have a good night bump
>>26988430
night
Page 10 again.
we should give them something like. a cookie.
raising thread
we should hang out with them later
“Just give them a hug and let’s get going,” you say to him. “We don’t have all day to sit around.”
He nods and leans in to wrap hooves around both of them. Bumble grins cheerily and returns the hug, while Shoot kind of just takes it. The bell rings, signalling the end of the break, and the three of you head back to class.
A scan on Third’s brain reveals something troubling, though. His anxiety is starting to kick into high gear. And you can feel it start to work on his magic.
“Shoot’s really strong,” he says to you. “Like… really really strong. I don’t know.. I don’t think I can do this…”
That’s bizarre. And you don’t like it. You’ve never seen someone getting this worried over someone start to cause magical flux of this level.
>>26995336
Comfort him and tell him he has his own strengths that will be needed later.
>>26995336
Can we analyze the magical flux and get a better idea of exactly what is going on here?
You try and get a glimpse of the magic and note that is seemed to be building towards something. Definitely spirit magic, which makes sense because the kid’s cutie mark is pretty much nothing but that stuff. You tap back into his mind.
“Calm down,” you say to him, slowly and gently. “You’re not all weak, y’know. Smart and shit. That’ll be helpful.”
“But he’s just so big and strong and…” The magic kicks up a notch, a spinning vortex inside of him. You look in terror as it starts to convulse, waves of pressure rippling through the world until finally it condenses itself into a portal.
“Calm down kid,” you warn him. “Something’s going on him.”
“He’s gonna… he’s gonna…” And then something comes through. Big, tall, like something halfway between a rock and a boulder hands and head start first but the entire figure comes through and looks around over at the kid. And then it raises its hand to get ready to strike.
>>26995541
that not good that not good at all. Start running you fool
>>26995541
Oh boy, a chance for him to prove one of his strengths and smarts.Ask if he knows what it is and how we get rid of it.
>>26995541
Run. Run now.
>>26995541
Okay, >>26995591 first while keeping a healthy distance, and then running if he doesn't know.
Third Eye sticks there for a second, mildly shocked at this whole affair. You produce a tendril and give him a quick smack on on the cheek, which causes him to recoil. “Run you idiot!” You shriek at him. “Run!”
With a nodded and a couple of dancing steps he darts off. The thing decides this about the best to time to finally try and crush him, the fist suddenly becoming a blur as it slams into the deck, a tremor rippling through the ground and nearly throwing Third off balance as he tries to run away.
He yelps as he looks back at it and you grab his face with tendrils, aiming his head forward. “Eye on the prize, kid,” you say, chuckling internally at your own joke. “What do you know about that thing?”
“It’s a, uh, forest troll,” he says. “A brute-thingie that takes cues from the environment around it and oh sun I’m going to die,” he says, then takes a deep breath and focuses. “But it takes a long time to think. It can be very fast when it’s decided something but it takes forever to do it.”
You’re probably going to want to start Abstracting. The first step is to focus on a particular concept that you will apply to the situation at hand. You’ll need to think of one to apply. You’ll also need to give Third some help, or he’ll just keep running like hell.
>>26995761
run to the library so he imagines himself as paper. then set him on fire? I'm not sure I'm doing this right.
>>26995809
Think of it more like an elemental attack. The more specific the element in question the more powerful.
>>26995826
so if i were to say create a flame to burn the troll it would be weak, but if i say create a water the freezes any surface that it land on it would be more stronger
>>26995873
Yup. The more abstracted from reality the more energy it takes, mind.
Water is lowest tier. Freezing water is higher tier. Water that freezes the surface of any substance it touches is even higher but takes more mana than the previous tier because it breaks the laws of physics.
http://strawpoll.me/7290668
>>26995945
All of the above.
Alright, the votes are in, and I will be ending School Daze. Sorry for its brevity. I may rework the idea and come back to it later. For now I'm going to try something different.
