A study in the eldritch (Lunaraia;Pervy;MortalitasBorealis)

[Pervy]

Fey was sufficently grumpy. While, ever more so since the cold-fire experiences the cold was not quite the antithesis to her existance, it was pretty close. It wasn't just being bled out, it was being poisoned ontop of it.. But Aya had always shown herself content to use the most brute force approach she could come up with. .. She missed Christine who, eldritchness aside, was far more.. comforting a mistress. She'd understand.. oh well, Fey acknowledged her guilt somewhat, at least insofar as this delayed their travel. Silently but decisively she thus set herself to the task of fiering up the ship, the cold still numbing even her own abilities, but that was kind of a good training.
She twirled a hand and the miniature sun swirled, only interrupting herself to glance outside a nearby window and observe the surrounding water with curious apprehension.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

“W-Wait, you mean the poison’s still…?!” Korrie’s eyes widened in horrified realization, considering the fact that she would’ve tried to throw the corpse overboard herself if Aya hadn’t shown up when she did, even if it’s using a spear and not with her bare hands. Even a drop of tainted blood could’ve… Okay, she’s absolutely leaving this to the professionals. The little zap of pleasure swiftly improved the wyvern girl’s spirits though, shivering in delight before nodding and quickly obeying, retreating downstairs.

The pet wyvern rounded the corner just in time to see Baba Yaga herding the twins away though, and soon found herself joining the duo in the dining room. Korrie chuckled awkwardly at first as the old crone began, though the twins were a lot more quiet, knowing their tutor’s temperament, and the severity of the situation. Sure enough, Baba Yaga’s ensuing threat surprised the two much less than it did Korrie. “You’re preaching to the choir, but we get it.” Shiroi said simply, Kuroi nodding in agreement, and Korrie nodded as well after an awkward beat.

What followed came as a surprise for all three of them though, as the twins looked over at the pet wyvern, who in turn was pointing at herself in confusion. “Huh? Korrie? Why… Uh, okay?” Korrie blubbered, honestly a bit scared of the old crone, and quickly departed for her room once dismissed. The twins were more just curious what the nympho wyvern girl had to do with their training, but they’re sure their tutor had a very good reason for her involvement, and left it at that for now.

As worried as she was about punctuality, there was still time to burn, and Korrie spent it at the pool first to cool off before returning to her computer, frequently checking the clock, curious and anxious. The twins, more used to things with the old crone, were far more relaxed about it, simply setting an alarm clock to alert them. After slaking each other’s lingering arousal, the two were content to laze around with a book or a game until the time came.

All three were where they needed to be several minutes before the assigned hour, already waiting.

 

[Lunaraia]

As soon as Fey set her mind on firing up the core more, a blessed relief from the cold followed. Though the moment she got distracted, it returned with a vengeance to ensure she remained focused. Once she finished, the cold would dissipate completely and instead a surge of pleasure and delightful warmth would pass through her.

Once she exited the engine room, she would find Aya would be waiting for her outside. “This was harsh of me, I know. But I wanted you to realize just how much danger you put Korrie and the twins in by antagonizing those Moonbeasts. They are not as sturdy as you Fey, you can take a hit, even a brutal one and be fine. However, if the twins took what would be a brutal hit for you, it would be lethal for them. And Korrie would fare even worse, since her wings are a major weak spot.”

Aya put a hand on Fey’s shoulder. “That being said, I am impressed that the three of you warded off a pack of Moonbeasts by yourselves, without using your full Dreamer abilities at that. Things will only become harder from here on out, and I can’t always be there to protect you all. Can I count on you to protect the others should something separate Granny and me from you?” Aya seemed on edge, unusually so, but was looking Fey right in the eyes as she spoke.

Before Fey could answer, Aya broke eye contact and stepped back. “Don’t answer immediately, think about it for a bit, as protecting those three can be a handful, speaking from experience. Your punishment is over. And if you wish to help to protect the twins and your fellow pet, join Granny at five in her training room. However, if you do, don’t arrive late, not unless you wish to undergo the lesson as some kind of small defenseless critter.” Aya hurried off towards the stairs leading above deck, her expression grim.

—————————————

Baba Yaga would arrive at the training room precisely on time. And after allowing her gaze wander over everyone in the room, she would wave her hand, causing the room to become far bigger. “Well, dearies, today’s lesson will be rather different.” She let her gaze wander over everyone again. “I heard about what happened from Aya, and I wish to offer my congratulations regarding holding off multiple Moonbeasts by yourselves. However, you only barely warded them off, and the only kills came from Ribtickler and by freezing another in cryo-flames.” Baba Yaga pulled out a pipe from her cloak, lit it with a snap and started pulling from it, releasing a purplish blue smoke from it.

After a few more seconds of silence, she continued. “It is clear to both Aya and myself you have yet to understand the full benefits of being a Dreamer. If you knew how to wield that power, a small group of Moonbeasts would have been a trifle. This is what today’s lesson will be about. By the time you leave this room, all of you will either have passed, or I will turn you into a critter and cage you until the journey is over. For your own protection, of course.” Her voice was completely deadpan, leaving no doubt she was completely serious about her threat. “Now, do you have questions before we begin?” She looked at each of them in turn, with an expression of mild curiosity.

 

[Pervy]

"A'ight, Engine's fiering." She informed, stepping up and 'dusting' herself off, with a slightly annoyed yet expression. Although she seemed willing to listen at least. Especially to the bits about tickle-able weakspots that had been hidden from her successfully.. until now, anyway.
"I know. I guess." This was propably as far an admission of guilt as anyone was going to get out of her.

"But on the other hand. What's the point in living forever if you can't do what you want. Like dealing with these nasty thingies." She then grinned ever so slightly, watching Aya and lifting a hand, indicating she didn't need long to consider... "Gorsh.. you must be somewhat really concerned to ask ME of all people to protect the others. Listen I'm not an idiot I realize I'm more .. outgoing than the others usually. Got to burn through problems, you know?"
A chuckle. "It's just natural I try to protect them. Obviously. I'm not sure why you have to ask."
She gave a hint of a shrug. "I decide things quickly, in the heat of the moment, heh.. but I stick to my gut feeling, usually works out. Sidenote, I'd make for an adorable critter."

Fey was, perhaps suprising to some, not struggling with being on time, her impatience would not permit that to begin with, rather, she was early if anything.

"'Sup Gals, I was bored and decided to see if this training was anything for me as well!"
She grinned over, hiding the whole.. having to protect others thing. A slightly unusual move for herself, but it did make it easier to not let anything go to her head.

"Huh, Aya said something about dreampowers, but I've yet to be able to conjure bananas.." Fey mused, half to herself, before lifting a hand when the time for questions come around. "Can we pick what kind of critter?" She grinned over with her usual lack of terror at unusual prospects on offer.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

3 sets of eyes turned to look at the fourth entrant with surprise. “You too? Hm, guess it makes more sense if it’s all four of us.” Shiroi mused, not thinking much further on the matter. The old crone would arrive soon enough, and then they’ll get their answers anyway. As expected, their tutor arrived precisely on the dot, her two regular students acting natural as usual, while Korrie was clearly trying to calm her nerves, the timid wyvern girl doing worse under pressure. The spatial anomaly helped distract her at least, acts of magic still able to impress.

Knowing the severity of what had transpired earlier, neither of the three were in the mood for unnecessary remarks, simply listening to Baba Yaga’s briefing. The topic of the lesson was certainly intriguing though, harkening back to what Aya had told them near the start of their journey. Once again the threat of being turned into a small critter kept the nervous Korrie’s mouth shut, though she was evidently the only one still shaken by the admittedly very real threat, as the twins had just gotten used to them by now, and Fey, was Fey.

After looking at the phoenix with either a deadpan or amused expression, and waiting for their tutor to humor the question or not, Kuroi cleared her throat. “As I recall, the power of a Dreamer is akin to reality-bending based on self-perception, right? If you believe you are something, your form changes to fit;” The neko glanced over at Korrie, a perfect example of that with the changes she had made to resemble an enthralled love-slave straight out of a hentai doujin, “and if you believe you can do something, you can, assuming you believe hard enough. But I assume it’s not as simple as that? Otherwise the assumption alone that we as dreamers can ‘do anything’ would already make us gods, and Aya could’ve just told us that and we’d already have the panacea. So before we begin, just to make sure no one accidentally goes overboard, I want to know what the hard limits might be, and any consequences of pushing them. Having certainty in what we can and can’t do should help secure our belief, and thus our control, wouldn’t it?” The ravenette asked, cutting straight to the point. If it’ll give her the power to be less of a burden, she wants to know as much about it as she could.

 

[Lunaraia]

Baba Yaga eyed Fey without a word as she asked about what critter to become. Then just shook her head. “Нет, you do not get to pick the critter, I would turn you into a little red robin, I think.” She then turned towards Kuroi as she spoke. “Да, that is correct, to an extent. Belief is important, however, knowing it will happen is the most important part. Once your belief is strong enough, it stops being belief, and it becomes real. But you are right, there are limitations.” She paused and grabbed Fey by the shoulder.

“Take fire girl here, for example. She can do a lot of things with her fire because to her fire is easy to understand. That’s the limitation. Understanding, knowing it will happen, isn’t enough. You need a proper understanding of the thing you are trying to do. If you don't know anything about horses, you can't turn something into a horse, or make one out of thin air.” She paused again and grabbed Korrie.

“Dragon Girl here has a great understanding of her own desires, even if it is on a subconscious level. If she didn’t, she could not enact such changes to her own form. Now an example of what can and cannot be done. Aya does not understand how the panacea works nor its ingredients, so she cannot manifest it. Neither does Baba, so don’t ask. She could, however, manifest almost a hundred different aphrodisiacs or even just make you all fall under the effects of such with but a thought because her succubus nature allow her to understand lust on an instinctual level, just like Fey understand fire."

She then waved into the room. "“Fire girl, a simple lesson for you, since you have hard time focusing.” She pointed into the room and a bullseye appeared out of thin air. “Make a sphere of fire, use dreamer power to make it bouncy, toss it at target, catch it again, all without the sphere dissipating or exploding. The rest of you, use the understanding that your friend is fire and heatproof to make yourself fire and heatproof, using her as an example. Baba pushed Fey a few steps away from everyone else. “Begin when ready.”

She pulled the remaining three a few steps back “Making yourselves immune to heat and fire will be difficult, but you are all more able to focus than her, so I am skimming the baby steps with you, I am certain you can do it. I recommend trying your best, as you will all have to catch Fey’s bouncy ball before we leave, fire immunity or no. Don’t worry about the danger, Baba will turn you into salamanders should you fail, then keep you until you turn back on your own, or until the next class, where we will repeat the process.” She smiled at them in a way that had a grandmotherly kindness to it, yet was also eerily sinister at the same time.

 

[Pervy]

Fey listened on with a -trying-not-to-be-bored expression, especially at the mention of not going overboard. More control yourself before you burn down half the down nonsense presumably. Although beyond that Kuroi made a lot of sense, she guessed. Wait, why was she being turned into an average-quality diner? She must have missed something. Was it ok to ask about the diner? She didn't want to grow old in a burger-station work environment, not even as manager!

Fey did nod along to the old crone. Yep, that made sense, at least no one was talking about controlling fire. That one was like drying water or solidifying air. She gave a thumbs up out of principle. thumbs up were propably not forbidden. Where they? What if this one stole her thumbs. Did witches do that?
"Wait whu? No I was paying more attention than usual. Please don't make me sort patties!" She pleaded, when someone presumably caught her not paying attention.

Fey shrugged, creating a fireball with almost a flick-of-the-wrist like gesture. That one was easy enough, of course, she slightly tilted her head at the target, pondering for a moment. "Use Dreamer power to make it bouncy? Humnnn..."
She tilted her head. Now she was on board with bouncy flames, but this did seem a littel complicated.

Fey shrugged, chucked the sphere and had.. expectable results, propably. It impacted the ground, flew up in a high, bouncy arch and then sizzled as a small fireball engulf the target. "Oh hey this is fun. Just like Basketball!"
She enthused. "I like the bouncy ball game!"
She affirmed towards the others, quite happy to indulge with the ball-play. Although. Yes. Maintaining anything for longer durations faded away with her happy-go-lucky distraction after the first bounce.

"Well, didn't quite bounce back from the target, but I'll just try again" An enthusiastic smile as she created a larger 'bouncy fireball' "Double Strength! I wonder if I can add sound effects.."
A slight head-tilt and a bit of wobbling of an only -more- fiery looking sphere.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

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…

 

[Pervy]

"Hmnnnn let's seeee.." Feyline mused, twirling her hands with a recreation of a few more sparkling flames. "Didn't quite work. Let's try again! Oh, I know, I'll just try three small ones in quick succession!"
She enthused, giving a small thumbs up to knight-mode Shiroi. "Looking cool over ther Kuroi... and Uuuh lookin pretty feathery-wyvern!"
She cheered for her sister pet. The dragonling should keep this look. Also, she wondered if this was a bad time to bring up that she'd not started out being fire proof.. just resistant to it and regenerative with it. Also, perhaps a bad idea to question her own convictions? ... right, back to fire-balling. Literal fireballing.

Feys ... balls were decidedly unstable, but at least she managed to narrow down the energy output this time, twirling her hands and.. well, it was certainly a shortcut, a mental one at that, rather than pumping a lot of work into one fireball she decided to throw a little small one.. and another, and another. She did have to content with three others, after all, so she had to put in her fireball game!

"A-whop-duup da ba da!"
She made sure to add her own sound effects as the little balls of fire began their wooshing about. They'd propably not burn all that much if improperly guarded against.. but there was a bit of a singing to be expected, no doubt. The firebird grinned and, unfazed unless one seemed to be in serious jeopardy, rolled her hands up into a shifting, ball-like shape next. "Who dares hug a bigger one.. getting the hang of this. I think!"
She declared, smashing a more vibrant fiery ball with a little more speed up against the crystal for a dramatic bounce.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

The firebird deciding to tone down the firepower instead of boosting it came as a morale boost for the rest of the dreamers who’d have to catch the fireballs. As it seemed the balls had been stablized, the three prepared for their part of the test, bracing themselves and trying their best to remain confident in their own safety.

Shiroi caught the first, the crystal more than sturdy enough to hold the fiery orb without melting. Combined with the icy water coating within, the white-haired girl didn’t even feel a thing, tossing the ball between her two hands like it was a toy. “Alright, that wasn’t bad at all.” She smiled in satisfaction.

Plagued by her own self-inflicted cold, Kuroi was completely welcoming of the fireball, catching the source of warmth and holding it gently, even hugging it to her bosom. Ah, so warm, so toasty… The neko’s tail waved contentedly as the frost on her hair and fur melted away, like resting by a fireplace on a cold winter’s day. The idea that the fireball was dangerous didn’t even cross her mind in that moment… though she gradually started to notice the comforting warmth growing past the ‘cozy’ threshold…

While the ravenette remained in comfort for now, Korrie received her own fireball, catching it in her now talon-like claws cautiously. Though her understanding of what it meant to be a phoenix may be off the mark, she treated it with the certainty of fact, and perhaps in a dream that was close enough. She could feel its heat, unlike the overly protected Shiroi, but it was stable and controlled, unlike Kuroi who finally realized her frosty imagination got melted away and hurriedly threw the ball back to Fey. The phoenix-wyvern felt like the fire resonated with her somehow, that by becoming a firebird, she had come to understand the element more. Focusing on it while taking her hands off, she allowed the fireball to hover where it was, starting to spin in place. There wasn’t a lot more she could do with it without destablizing it, but it was still fun and made her feel impressive.

Despite the general success of the test, it wasn’t over yet. Seeing what Fey was about to do, Shiroi quickly tossed the smaller fireball away and braced to catch the big one, managing to hold onto the ball without letting it bounce off. “Geez, watch it!” The armored girl complained even as she winded back her arm and threw the ball back. Considering her own defenses were gone and it’d be hard to get back into a frosty mindset while she’s still feeling warm and toasty, Kuroi decided it was best to shy away from the ball game between the two. Korrie allowed the neko to take shelter behind herself, confident that if anything were to go haywire she could protect the kitty.

The catching and throwing would probably continue until their instructor stopped it, or if the ball were to lose stability…

 

[Lunaraia]

Yaga let the ball game continue for a few minutes longer. Then she stepped up and, with a simple snap, had all the flying fireballs converge into her hand and form a single sphere. “Not bad, most of you got a hang of it pretty easily.” She looked over at Kuroi. “A worthwhile attempt, little kitten, but making yourself suffer to withstand something is only a temporary solution.”

She then turned to Shiroi. “A complex solution to a simple problem, I give you bonus points for being able to control the change and not turn yourself into a statue, though.” She gave her a slight nod, then turned towards Korrie.

“Top marks, Dragon child, a simple and obvious solution to a simple problem. Taking inspiration from your fellow pet to do, the most obvious answer. Your friend is immune to fire, so emulate her to gain said immunity.” She nodded appreciatively.

“Little firebird you did great, top marks for mastering your fire control so fast. Here, Aya said to give you this if you did well.” She tossed a familiar red pepper over to Fey. Then turned back to the other three. “You have the very basic down, but as you can see, skilled dreamers don’t need to take such drastic actions.” She tossed the burning sphere of fire up and down in her hand as if it was a balloon.

“Remember, the limit of your powers as dreamers is your understanding and your imagination. Now, can any of you understand why I said why little dragon child’s answer was the simplest and most efficient?” She looked at all four of them with a wry grin on her face as she waited for their answers. Then turned towards Fey. "There is another pepper in it for you if you get the correct answer." This would hopefully serve as ample incentive to keep Fey focused.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

“Agreed. Better to base my imagination on something more stable than feelings.” Kuroi nodded with a sheepish smile, glad that she at least passed the test, even if her solution proved the least effective of the three. Her sister gave her shoulder a reassuring pat as she emerged from hiding behind the wyvern-turned-phoenix.

“Eh, it was a worthy experiment, right?” Shiroi consoled the neko, letting her armor crack and crumble away into dust that vanished into nothingness. Her own blueprint for the crystal being based on knight armor ensured that the joints were accounted for, preventing aforementioned embarrassment. Still, their tutor’s appraisal was entirely accurate, the armor left her cumbersome, and was an inflexible solution to the rapidly changing situation of a real battlefield. Effective, but imperfect, especially compared to the star student of the day.

Korrie beamed and puffed up her chest with pride, happy to have received the praise of even a stern teacher such as Baba. “Thank you! Korrie just took your advice, really, but Korrie’s glad she did it well!” She said with a happy smile, resisting the urge to flash a smug grin at the twins while still in their teacher’s presence. That’s what they get for being stubborn and having to do things their own way all the time! Though she had to admit, it was more fun having tested various theories instead of all of them just following instructions. It did help a lot she got the best results though.

The wyvern(?) girl’s ego was swiftly brought down back to a healthier level as she and the twins finally noticed that the hag was manipulating the fire with ease and without need for any visible alterations. They had simply accepted the notion she could do anything, and had instinctively just gone along with it without understanding the greater implication. Kuroi pondered that point, whether another dreamer’s perception of your abilities might have some effect on their potency, even if not nearly as effective as one’s own perception.

A question was proposed, and the three thought about it, believing they had a good hunch already, more trying to find the right words. Kuroi was the first to speak up. “Is it because her solution is based on controlling the concept of fire rather than mitigating its effects? It’s easily clear why using emotions as a basis doesn’t last, and armor using mundane materials only scales to so much heat, unless Shiroi was to have enough knowledge of something both truly fire-proof, and lightweight enough to move in. By emulating a phoenix, Korrie could ignore all of that by just controlling the fire directly. It’s like… how in some martial arts, rather than try to block a blow, you move to use your opponent’s own force against them. I’m sure Korrie could have handled a lot more fire than either of us, assuming she doesn’t get instinctively frightened by too large a blaze.” The catgirl flashed Korrie a playful but congratulatory smile, who smiled back a little sheepishly.

“Don’t think I got a better answer than that.” Shiroi shrugged, and Korrie shook her head as well.

 

[Lunaraia]

Yaga nodded “An excellent observation, indeed controlling the concept is by far the easier way to go about it. This way you can do a lot, even alter your very perception of the world around you or discover new abilities you never had before, permanently. It is all about belief and perspective.” Yaga grabbed the fire sphere she was tossing and, in front of their very eyes, it turned from fire into water, then froze.

“Imagination can compensate for lack of understanding to where impossible things become doable. As you can see, you could even alter your species this way. She gave Korrie another nod. “Now that you have the basics down. The next trick is a bit more complicated. Create something new for yourself. A new item, a weapon, or a power. And not jut a temporary thing, but something permanent, something that would stick around outside this realm.”

Yaga held up the sphere for everyone to see, and it slowly swirled and condensed and turned from a sphere of ice into a small white shawl. “This should be more effective to guard you against fire than your last attempt, child.” She handed it to Kuroi, who could feel a chill from it. Then she turned towards the others.

“Creating something permanent is a question of both imagination and power, while creating something obviously supernatural would require an understanding of said item as well. I have in my time brewed enough potions that ward off a fire, that creating an item to do the same is a simple matter. However, since healing isn’t my forte, that’s off the table. However, don’t be afraid to experiment. Failure has no consequence. Same with you, Fire Girl. When you are done playing with fire, see if you can create something new for yourself. You certainly have the imagination for it. Yaga walked over to a corner in the room and sat down with her eyes half-closed, observing what the quartet of girls would do now.

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

Though the girls already expected the old witch to casually work wonders, it was still fascinating to watch as she converted the fire into another element entirely, no incantations or preparations required. The word ‘permanent’ did catch their ears as well. Thus was their next exercise introduced, one that would prove itself even more useful than the last. “Something that’ll last even in the waking world?” Korrie repeated, wide-eyed. It was hard to believe that was a possibility, but if it’s the old crone saying it, then it must be true.

Producing an example, Kuroi carefully received the icy shawl, feeling it in wonderment. It felt soft and cool, like the cold side of a pillow that would never warm. To turn concepts into a physical embodiment… She imagined her sister’s crystal armor had been a good start, and could have been made into a permanent item if it was better conceptualized accordingly. The neko allowed her sister and the phoenixes to touch the icy shawl, before draping it over her shoulders and commencing her assignment, pondering what to create.

It would be easy to make a permanent mundane item now that they have a grasp on their capacity as dreamers, Kuroi surmised, and that was why she ought to start with something special too. But what should she make? She already had a pen with infinite ink. A notepad with infinite paper then? It would definately be useful. Thinking deeper about it though, what was her power’s greatest flaw? Time. It was time-consuming to physically draw her objects or write words, especially complex properties that require a whole damn sentence to describe. If she could just manifest the images and words with her mind…

With a little focus, the neko created a simple sticky notepad, one very familiar to her as what she used prior to having her sister around to manifest drawing boards for her. Closing her eyes then, Kuroi tried to imagine the ability to create infinite paper, for new pages to just manifest somewhere within the stack whenever she tore off a page. It was something difficult to actually verify, considering she’d have to rip off a lot of pages to check if the pad was replenishing itself… More important though was its other intended ability, to simply generate patterns on itself by reading her imagination. Once again, Kuroi closed her eyes and focused, remembering the feeling of writing that she was more than familiar with, imagining herself drawing on the pad without actually doing it.

As lines began to form on the paper, Shiroi too was considering what she should create. Seeking inspiration, it didn’t take her long to trace back to the tournament, particularly the first battle that almost ended in complete disaster. Though she took pride in her magical strength, it had become eminently clear that any skillful or particularly durable opponent in this world could withstand it with ease. Her first thought was to branch out and try a different type of magic, but considering the requirement of knowledge, that was not something she could just conjure up on a whim. Still, there was a simpler method of ‘branching out’. Having high magic attack is great, but one should have a back up against enemies with high magic defense. A physical weapon, one that she could carry with ease…

With a direction to follow, the albino considered her options. Holding out one hand, a long crystal haft began to form in its grasp, extending long towards the ground. Its upper end did not result in a mere spear tip however, but a sharp curved blade of diamond. A few more decorative flairs, and Shiroi had in her hand a beautiful glaive of gems and crystals. Giving it a few experimental swings, the girl found it satisfactory, and set to work on the ‘carry with ease’ part of the design. At first she thought to simply split it into three parts that could be assembled and disassembled, but the details of such a mechanism proved harder to imagine, and besides, assembly took time, and she’d still have to carry the full weight. Inspiration soon struck her however, and as she closed her eyes, the weapon began to glow and shrink, until it became a small crystal ring, which she inspected before returning it to its true form, then back to the ring again.

Korrie meanwhile was also trying to come up with something, intent on continuing to impress their tutor. Her mind returned to the battle they just had above deck, the battle where she was almost completely useless, and wished to make something that would let her do more in the future. Looking at the twins’ creations though, she couldn’t help but be stuck in a rut. There was no simple tool that could facilitate her fire-breathing ability like an auto-drawing notepad could for the rune mage; though she knew she could summon great strength now thanks to her draconic training, she also knew deep down she wasn’t a warrior, someone that could just charge into the thick of battle and keep her wits about her, and so a melee weapon wasn’t a good idea. Something that the old witch said kept her attention though.

Not only could an enchanted item be made self-sustaining, but possibly even a new power… This was, as she imagined, a complicated affair, as one would need in-depth knowledge of said power in the first place, in which case they could just do it normally. What one can do however is tweak powers that they already possess…

Swiftly transforming back to her usual wyvern self for the experiment, Korrie easily created a mobile bullseye target in the distance thanks to the ship’s own creation power, the wooden board flying in a small zone in an erratic manner. Korrie breathed in and spit a fireball at the target, and as she expected, she missed by no small margin. Her aim has always sucked, some part of her just being unable to do the mental calculations of movement prediction while also physically aiming her shot where she wanted it to go. Having confirmed to herself that she still sucked though, the wyvern girl then tried something different. She breathed in again, firing conjuring within her mouth, and rather than just spit it out, Korrie focused her attention on the fire. Though she was no longer a phoenix, she tried to remember the feeling she had as one, when she manipulated that fire and moved it as she pleased.

Korrie connected with her flames, and then she spit, sending another fireball towards her target. By its normal trajectory, it should be another miss, the girl not even trying to aim her shot. However, the fireball’s trajectory was anything but normal. Traveling in an arc, the ball sped towards the target as if guided by an unseen hand, which was really Korrie’s gaze and mental focus. Even still it missed, however narrowly this time, the board’s movement patterns impossible to predict. So the fireball looped around, and this time struck its mark from the back, blowing it up. Seeing her success, the ecstatic wyvern girl grinned and pumped her fist in the air.

With Kuroi practicing with her new notepad, already producing a few random ink items at a faster rate than before, Shiroi fine-tuning her weapon’s design and Korrie summoning more targets for practice, it seems their side of the exercise has ended in success.

 

[Pervy]

Fey sighed ever so slightly, after observing the marveling and creation of the others. The writing-mage made notepaper, that was amusingly apropriate. Sticky notes. ...wait hold on if she noted 'We need milk' on the fridge, would that empty it of milk? Humnn...

The white-haired sister seemed to settle for a more martial-cutty approach.. owie. Fey had to chuckle inwardly at the fanciness. What was wrong with simple steel? Oh.. that was an interesting weapon, admittedly. Oh and it could resize too. She'd later bring up the question if it could grow larger on command too with Shiroi.

Also, her Wyvern-sister seemed to enjoy aim training. She fought a subtle urge to cheer with relative ease, as still, there was a lack of cool attack names. Dragon fire twister! Triangle Dragon Fangs! Draconic Flare of Retribution! It was really not that hard! Uh.. FIRESEEEKER! .. guessing by the latest attack.
"Wha.. oh,. I kind of spaced out there... listen I appreciate the whole thing and I'm sure this is helpful to the others, but.."
She scratched the back of her head, extending her hands, five little spheres of fire forming within, before reshaping into little birds of fire, each independently swirling around her. "I 'unno, whatever I can't do is propably just for the best, so I don't burn others around me. Ice-fire especially and other fire types are like.. hard to control but this is barely exhausting for me. I just don't really like forcing fire into shapes its not super comfortable in usually."

She gave another shrug, this time to her fellow trainees. "In a way, I guess I understand less than all of them, because I'm just doing, perhaps a bit more creatively what I always do. Imagine you had only one arm. That's how it feels not controlling fire. Oh and seeing fire turn to water is like watching someone break their arm."
She grumbled over to the elder witch.
"This whole control thing has a price to it no doubt, else this place would be uh.. totally full with people going wee and swish and flying about.. Most people don't dream of that easily, lucid or not, they dream of.. fun.. weird stuff, with some control, sure but.. excerting more control must be totally work. Wouldn't that leave us vunerable to stuff?"
She shrugged again

"What I'm getting at is this whole time I've just been doing what I can do in awake-me, with some bonuses perhaps. Same for the others. This is perhaps great for learning more but most folks aren't cut out for uh.. turning fire into shawls. I mean more luck to you all if you wanna do that, I'd rather just be good at one thing." She tipped her chin at that. "Admittedly those frog-folks among other things were suprisingly tough to a healthy amount of being fired, very annoying, but... just means I have to try harder next time. Admittedly not used to things that shrug off being fired in the face. Uh.. good idea though."
She finally snipped two fingers. "I'll make.. friendly Fire!"
She'd finally decided. Far be it from her to tell fire much about what to do but for those emergencies when there were lots of folks around her that she didn't want to burn she'd need fire that could spare her friends any harm, sure, doing such would limit the fires effectiveness at first, but if she could like uh.. remove her limiters or something over time that way, it should help in the long run.

She nodded to herself, lifting up a fireball and, admittedly with some effort, filling it with both ... what she liked to call 'burniness' but also respect for her companions, she finally looked around...
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
She asked, with another, bigger fireball bubbling and sizzling in her hand and an enthusiastic smile.

 

[Lunaraia]

Baba Yaga observed their attempts with complete calm. Even as Fey began crating her huge fireball, she did nothing to stop her. Rather, she seemed impressed. "A wise choice of approach, Little bird. Making your powers harmless to your allies will allow you to fire indiscriminately and prevent the enemy from taking your friends as shields."

She walked over to fey and with a gentle smile produced a pepper. “A little reward for your hard work.” She then walked over to Korrie. “A splendid way to make up for your poor aim. Not to mention it lowers collateral damage, a wise choice. Just be certain that you don’t aim at your allies.” Baba Yaga gave Korrie some pats on the head and a small chocolate bar before she moved on.

She stopped in front of Shiroi and eyed her sword with great interest. “An interesting idea, though quite flashy. If you took that out in the sun, you would blind both friends and foes alike, so I suggest changing its coloration to be less reflective, for everyone’s sake.” Shiroi received a chocolate bar, but no pats, before Baba Yaga moved to Kuroi.

“Now little kitten, that’s an amusing idea you have there, however among the entire group, yours is the least useful. Despite having one of the strongest abilities here, you seem restricted in your thinking. Observe.” Baba Yaga took a hold of Kuroi’s right hand and placed her finger on top of it. The next moment the word “see?” had materialized on it, written by Kuroi’s own handwriting.

“And here is another demonstration.” She lifted her hand and the word once more materialized… in thin air. “You do not even need to be up close to it.” She pointed at Shiroi and the same word appeared on her cheek.

With her demonstration over, she snapped her fingers, and all three words vanished. She then handed Kuroi a small chocolate bar as well. "Don’t confine yourselves to linear thinking. Though for Fay, I would say he is by far the one who seems to have grasped that concept already."

“Your problem-solving skills seem rather unique for all of you. Practice with your creations, before you try something else. With enough practice, it will become effortless, second nature. Hop to it.” Baba Yaga stepped aside to watch what would happen next. Her eyes sparkled with anticipation. “Go on. You can do it.”

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

It took some doing, but soon enough everyone had figured something out, even Fey, though the others were understandably nervous when the phoenix started looking for volunteers to test her ‘friendly fire’ on. Understandably one couldn’t really test whether the friendly fire works as intended without taking some risks, but…

For now though, it was evaluation time from their tutor, and both the firebird and wyvern girl’s choices of enhancing their natural abilities were met with approval. Korrie eagerly nuzzled into the petting hand and accepted the chocolate bar, grateful for a snack.

“Huh, that’s true.” Shiroi admitted, giving her glaive a discerning glance before accepting the candy bar, no envy for the missing headpat. The relatively dim room did make her overlook a certain aspect that she chose mostly for flashiness. She considered taking it up on deck to test it against sunlight, but then remembered she could just conjure a similar light source in here, and did just that, an orb of heatless light manifesting up on the ceiling thanks to the ship’s magic. The old crone’s criticism quickly proved true, and Shiroi had to squint her eyes against the sudden dazzle of colors. Yeah that’s gonna be annoying. …Still, the ability to blind enemies was an interesting thought.

Following that passing idea, the white-haired girl focused and watched as the diamond blade changed color to a ruby red, then sapphire, then onyx, darker shades that would be far less disruptive in bright surroundings. Dismissing the light orb above, she instead channeled her own energy into the blade, causing a light to grow inside the crystal. She then shifted it back into clear diamond and boosted the light’s strength, in an attempt to turn the blade into an on-demand dazzler. Even if it doesn’t work, at least she found a way to turn off the blinding reflections.

While Shiroi was pondering and experimenting, Kuroi was getting a lesson in pushing boundaries. As convenient as a self-writing notepad was, the neko was astonished and felt a bit silly that she didn’t consider doing away with paper and pen to begin with. “I’m not sure why I didn’t think of that. Thank you.” The ravenette said with a bashful blush, accepting the chocolate bar. Yes, being able to write at a distance with thought alone was… scarily useful. Summoning a wooden practice dummy, she soon began making the attempt, trying to conjure up words on it from a distance. The word ‘freeze’ soon appeared on the dummy, but… when she tried to activate the script, it barely worked, causing only a small patch of frost.

Bewildered, she tried again, this time forming the words ‘fall over’ on the dummy with even more concentration. Then she activated it, and an invisible force weakly shoved the dummy’s tip, causing it to teeter back and, after some unstable balancing, fall over. The dummy was replaced with a new one, and this time Kuroi walked over and tried it the old-fashioned way, simply writing ‘freeze’ on it with a note. The whole dummy froze solid on activation.

“That’s… strange.” Kuroi mused to herself. Was there something about this she didn’t understand? The girl continued her experimentation, stepping back and making yet another wooden dummy. This time she pointed her finger at the target and mimiced the motions with her hand to write the word at a distance. The text looked a lot better than her rapid motions would have produced normally, which was more on par with the barely legible script on a doctor’s prescription than the elegant handwriting now adorning the dummy. Upon activation, ice immediately covered the dummy, a thinner layer that seemed more fragile than the chunk that enveloped her second dummy, but a leagues better showing than the first attempt. “…Interesting. Am I just more familiar with the motions this way, or has there always been some kind of… ritual element to it?” She mumbled in thought, summoning yet another dummy, determined to keep testing.

Korrie meanwhile could only really take her homing fireballs so far. She could improve the steering perhaps, and could even keep several fireballs around by circling them in the air, but her innate control over flames was a far cry from what a real elemental could do. Her control over the fire’s acceleration was limited for example, taking an impractical amount of time to slow the fireballs to a halt or speed them back up in combat situations, and the longer the fireball is out, the weaker it becomes as it burns itself out. For now, a guided projectile was the extent of her improvements.

Instead, the wyvern girl thought to help out her sister pet, being the more fire-resistant out of the three possible test subjects. “Fey! Here, try Korrie!” She waved. The pet wyvern had taped a wooden board onto her wing, which she was now shielding herself with. “Try the friendly fire on Korrie! If the wood burns but doesn’t hurt Korrie then the friendly fire works! Just make the fire smaller first, maybe…” She proposed. Even if it doesn’t work as hoped, her scales should take the brunt of it, a bit of pain with little injury. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that…

 

[Pervy]

Fey leaned back a little. "I'm still not sure about calling it friendly fire.."
She half mused, watching the Evil Grandma-Baba Yaga, praise, attempting to stash her pepper for later for a moment or two until immediate gratification overcame her into consuming the hot food bit.
"Next, I will make it pose with me!"
She decided, having a little, almost passionate pose-off with a slowly humanoid-shaped flame of her own creation. "Make it bigger? Ok, can do!"
Fey enthused, sending her humanoid fire-figure charging up against the wyvern like a frontline-footballer.. Only to lift a finger and make the firey figurine disperse and reappear into her hand with a small fireball.. "You wont do. Remember, the fire palace with cold-fire and purple-fire and the not as fun collars and stuff... and more importantly the protective stuff you got there?"
Fey reminded. Folks thought her scatter-brained and of short attention span, but she actually had a great memory. For fires. And Korrie was highly fire-resistance, best as she knew...

"Dont'cha worry sis, I's Got another idea. Fey time!"
She wandered over to Kuroi, suprise-leaning an arm over here, a warming fireball in the other hand. "... hiiii <3"
She enthused.
"Have you considered something like rune-magic and stuff? You know, where people think words have power, so you are doing the same thing, kinda? Honestly, I'm pretty jealous, out of everyone here you are propably by far the most powerful, at least as far as raw potential goes, I'm just good with snazzy fires. Oh also, catch!"

Fey grinned, handing the writing-mage a small ball of fire in a casual gesture. To her credit, it didn't even burn. Well.. for a moment or two, after that, there was the stinging heat of a too hot stove one thought turned off and, if Kuroi did not avoid the flame, more damage to come. It wasn't.. instant incineration, but nothing to pleasantly rest for the afternoon either, regrettably, something which Fey seemed to notice with a thoughtful 'Hrmnnn' at the fact..

 

[MortalitasBorealis]

“Hmm, yeah, it’s not very intuitive.” Korrie agreed after pondering the name a little. It was good as a pun, but it still felt weird. The wyvern girl then had bigger things to worry about, blinking in confusion then starting to panic when Fey charged up her fire apparition. “W-Wait wait wait! Korrie said smaller! Smaller!” The frightened wyvern backed away, but the attack never happened. It may have just been a joke, but either way, she was soon reminded of why she wasn’t the best candidate for testing it out. “Huh? Korrie remembers what happened of course, but she doesn’t remember anything about being given extra fire resistance… If you say so though.” She said, a little uncertain, but she had no reason to doubt the phoenix on that.

Still, that meant someone else needed to be a candidate, and Korrie watched with a little worry as Fey approached the raven-haired neko, who was too busy trying to understand this newfound complexity in her magic’s potency to pay attention to much else until the phoenix reached her and put a hand on her. “Huh?” The surprised Kuroi turned to look, only to find a certain pyromaniac with a fireball prepared. “EEK!!” The catgirl was so shocked she literally jumped backwards, tail and ears scared stiff and pointy. That immediately got the attention of her sister of course.

“Hey! What the hell’s going on over there?”

“I’m fine! I-I’m fine.” Kuroi immediately calmed her sister down before she could get angry, though she was still understandably cautious while she has the fiery phoenix’s attention. Whenever Fey was involved it usually involved fire, afterall. Though, right now she was just… complimenting her? “Oh, um, thanks? I- Huh?” Before she could respond, a fireball casually handed over caused her to receive it just by reflex, the confused catgirl holding the flame in her hands. For a moment nothing happened, but then all of a sudden, as if Kuroi’s brain finally registered she was holding a ball of fire, the neko yowled and dropped the ball, trying to shake off the heat from her hands. Shiroi immediately hurried to her side, though thankfully no injuries were incurred, other than the ravenette’s hands looking a little red. A summoned ice bucket for her to douse her hands in solved that problem.

“Be careful with that! You’re lucky you didn’t actually burn her.”

“Korrie doesn’t think that friendly fire worked very well.”

“Friendly fire? Oh, were you trying to make fire that wouldn’t hurt us? I see the logic, but that is a dangerous thing to test… and possibly unreliable. I’m not sure how much our perception of your fire could affect their properties on us, especially in the heat of the moment…” Kuroi remarked while letting her hands rest in the ice water. “Still, maybe we could set up simulacra of us for that training? Like, target dummies that look like us. It’d be safer that way.”

 

[Lunaraia]

Yaga watched the entire thing with an amused smile, but did not intervene, not immediately. She walked between the girls and held up her hand, grabbing their attention. “An admirable effort, but perhaps something a bit more… enticing is in order, da?” She looked between the two, then beside her a pedestal rose from the floor. Yaga snapped her finger and a large block of ice with multiple peppers inside it appeared. “Melt out the peppers, and they are yours, however if you lose focus, they burn to a crisp. Think you can do it, girl?”

Baba smiled at Fay and stepped aside, gesturing towards the pedestal. “It shouldn’t be too hard once you put your mind to it.” She then walked over to Kuroi and grasped her hands. “Let’s see. Minor burns, nothing dangerous. Will recover just fine, if you do nothing stupid.” She patted the back of Kuroi’s hand, and the stinging pain faded.

Aya suddenly entered the room. “You have half an hour to wrap things up, a storm’s coming.” She shot the girls a quick smile, then left. As she did so, Korrie and Fey could hear in their minds. “You will be sleeping in my room tonight. Expect little rest.” While the twins would receive an invitation to join the obvious marathon session.