Both the twins and the wyvern girl listened attentively as Baba explained the core component of a Dreamer’s powers to them, the latter blushing slightly as she was pointed out, both proud and embarrassed of being used as an example. “
So knowledge is the limiting factor then… You can’t properly imagine what you don’t understand, and the more detailed your understanding, the more ‘real’ it can become.” Shiroi mused, finding the concept of it surprisingly logical for a realm of mysticism and reality-breaking entities.
“
It’s like having to do research for writing or art, you need to know what you’re talking about to maintain the audience’s suspension of disbelief. Except in this case, the audience is reality itself, I guess?” Kuroi added, her ears twitching.
Either way, theory discussion would only get them so far, and it was time for a practical exercise. Tasked with making themselves fireproof, the three didn’t need much encouragement to step back, knowing the phoenix’s firepower. They would have to partially replicate Fey’s abilities without using any of their own, aside from their potential as Dreamers.
Still, though neither of them voiced as such, the twins shared a glance, understanding the problem. In order to replicate the phoenix’s powers, they would have to
be her, and to do that, they would need to understand her, and the fact was they didn’t understand her very well at all beyond her chaotic personality and being a phoenix. In fact, the two hadn’t gotten along much with either of the full-fledged pets, other than being in proximity. Now, they understood the concept of phoenixes as they are in mythology of course, but would that be enough for them to temporarily become phoenixes and thus fireproof? Or was there another way?
“
We have our advice, but the goal is just to catch the ball of fire without getting hurt, right? Might as well try to be more creative about it.” Shiroi shrugged, and decided to try her hand at other means. Namely, brute-forcing it, as was her usual tactic of just barraging enemies. If her knowledge on a single thing is insufficient, maybe a combination of knowledge on different things will make up for it? With the understanding, and thus complete belief that she has such power, crystals began to form around the pale girl’s hands, growing larger and covering more and more until they were encased in gauntlets of solid diamond twice the size of her fleshy hands deep within. Thinner layers formed around the rest of her body as well, creating a set of protective platemail, complete with a completely superfluous sword at her hip and kiteshield on one arm.
Armored in clear crystal, it would appear she was fast starting to sweat already, but that was only because she then manifested ice cold water to douse herself with inside the armor, the girl shivering and growing even paler rather than gaining a flushed complexion. Then of course was the belief that with these protections, she would be immune to the scorching heat and the incinerating flame, certainly long enough to pass the test.
Kuroi chose a different approach. She remembered the feeling of a lonely winter night on the streets, and channeled that feeling, only even stronger. The ravenette began to shiver, hugging herself, coldness radiating from her body, breath visible as mist, frost even forming on her clothes and the fur on her ears and tail. She remembered the feeling of her own enchantments applying to herself, feeling that magic flow through her, and channeled it, willing it to make her fireproof without having actually written anything on herself. Then, watching Fey practice with the fiery ball, she began to envision its heat as soothing rather than scalding, its form stable and self-contained rather than all-consuming. Fire need not be harmful afterall, it can be as life-giving as it was deadly, and in her current freezing state, under her own power’s protection, knowing that the fire was… will be controlled and thus will behave extraordinarily, she believed she could make it lean towards ‘life-saving’. She could see herself embracing the ball of flame, comforted by its warmth and glow, until it left her cozy and healthy. Yes, that is what will happen…
That left Korrie, who always was one to more closely follow instructions. Taking Baba’s advice, the wyvern girl focused on Fey, and tried to figure out how her fireproof-ness worked. She’d always taken it for granted, it simply made sense that a fire elemental / phoenix would be immune to fire. Maybe if she could become a phoenix, she could become fireproof as well! Nodding to herself, Korrie closed her eyes and tried to imagine her body changing, tracing back to when she made those little aesthetic changes to herself, but even more potent this time. She drew on what she knew of phoenixes, using Fey and an assortment of other media for reference, firm in the belief that as long as she could visualize it well enough, she could make it work well enough.
The wyvern girl’s scales began to soften and elongate, turning into fluffy, vibrant orange feathers. Fiery orange highlights appeared in her hair, and her legs changed form into that of birds. It took about a minute’s time of deep focus on imagination, certainly not yet something she could just do on the fly in combat, but it seems all the media she’s consumed over the years has trained her imagination well. When Korrie opened her eyes again, she looked down upon herself and found a phoenix rather than a wyvern, though one far more harpy-like than Fey’s more humanoid form, a mixture of her regular body with a firebird’s. She expected herself to be more in tune with fire, and she was, gazing in wonder at the little smoldering flames at the tips of her wing feathers. Experimentally, she breathed a small jet of fire as she ordinarily could, and seized control of the flame before it could dissipate, forming it into a floating wisp as she ordinarily couldn’t. She tried to do more with it, though it seems that was where she hit her limits, able to do some small things with it, but mere parlor tricks compared to the real deal. She comprehended normal fire, not fire of extreme heat, nor fires of supernatural qualities, save what she herself was able to produce normally: fire that weakens, and fire that arouses.
As each of the three finished their own rendition of preparations, they examined each other’s handiwork. Shiroi resisted the urge to hug her shivering sister, and raised an eyebrow at the phoenix-harpy, impressed by the transformation, but disdainfully amused by certain retained traits, like the heart eyes and womb tattoo the lewd pet had given herself. Kuroi had to stop herself from snuggling up to the incredibly soft and toasty-looking harpy in her own chilly state, needing to save it for the ball, and tried not to be disappointed that her method seems to have caused the most suffering to herself, though she did want to see this test through in this way. Korrie felt the most smug, seeing the two apprentices having to put themselves through so much extra hassle just to do things ‘their way’. Always so stubborn, though some variety in testing
would be helpful for everyone.
Either way, they just needed Fey to get ready now, and hope that the real phoenix would remember the nature of the exercise as an
exercise, and not end up tossing a miniature sun at her friends during their first practice session after ‘double strength’ing it a few more times…