ellipsanet | Video - UN: For-the-Damaged-Coda

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Video - UN: For-the-Damaged-Coda

[The video starts outside the Welcome Center. Though it's from a more first person view, somehow. Hands are adjusting some kind of strange golden device with golden liquid in one container and black in the other. Fingers adjust a few buttons and turn a knob or two before the camera swaps perspectives.

Now it's away from the strange gun's owner. A young man with an eyepatch on. He looks to the camera, his expression rather blank.]

Good. The sync is working. I figured I would wait to do this introductory type post. Scanning the network, it seems traditional. My name is Morty.

Gotta admit. This is the second time I've been pulled against my will into a variant dimension and my portal gun can't get through whatever is holding us here. Can't be a sub-ether barrier. Mine would get through it. Heard they have portal gun technology at the Research Center. Might be worth a look. Anyone have any information on that they're willing to share? It would be helpful.

Besides that, guess trading information on inter-dimensional travel would be fine. Not like it's a big secret or anything. That's about it.

[With a tap to his eyepatch, the video feed ends.]

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Oh, yeah! The portal guns lead to connected pocket dimensions, I think they're called? You can register one to your own, some people have, like, farms in there or go visit or train in theirs. It's not gonna take you home, though. But it's fun here!

[Portal guns that only lead to connected pocket dimensions. They can be registered but don't go beyond this world. Sounds a lot like the curve. Morty doesn't show it but he feels irritated by the idea.]

I'll check it out, thanks. Fun huh? What kind of fun?

Hm... lots of things! Like there's some tourist attractions in every district, it's fun to go to places like Mega Waterland or the Ice Castle or the Underground Mall. Oh! But do you like fighting monsters? Or gathering supplies? Because quests are fun too! You'll find all kinds of stuff out there! There's this one way out in the Abandoned Mansion right now where you do a test of courage in a haunted house. It's kinda scary, but maybe it'll be fun?

Quick question. There aren't any quests that require us to go up an ass, are there? Or turn ourselves into a pickle?

No? I've never heard of any. I guess people could turn into pickles if they wanted to, but it doesn't sound useful, huh? Now I gotta think of how that would work...

Alright. Guess I could do some quests to pass the time. I'm used to gathering things and fighting monsters. Not sure I actually enjoy any of it but eh. It's familiar.

Honestly, turning yourself into a pickle is just a coping mechanism to not dealing with your own problems. Why actually face what flaws you have when you can just be a pickle?

I... don't really understand that. Wouldn't you have more problems then, like getting eaten?

You see the flaws in the logic. Good for you.

What is your favorite kind of quest?

Hm... lots of them! I know some are pretty hard, but I'm a lot stronger than I was. Oh, sometimes there are some that just get posted to the questboard as promotional things, like go to this store or do this activity, that's fun. But then there are some where you get to go out into, like, the forest or something and explore! That's always exciting, you get to find all kinds of things!

Sounds like it's just whatever needs to get done or some new thing to drum up business and interest. Pretty normal there.

Guess the only thing I have to get used to are these new seasonal powers we get. What season are you?

Summer! What about you? I think every season has exciting powers, but I'm happy with mine.

I'm Summer too. Since you said you've gotten stronger here. Would you show me how you learned to control these new powers?

Sure! I train a lot at the guild, usually with my big sister. There's other places, too, like people spar at the Grand Colosseum sometimes. Have you learned how to make fire yet?

Not yet. How did you first learn to do that?

I tried at the guild when they taught us a few things to start. Figuring out how to draw out the fire was easy, you just focus on your emotions and stuff. I was really excited and wanted to keep trying, and eventually that paid off!

...But then I wasn't good at controlling it at first. [She scratches her head.] I kinda started a fire and Red Son-san had to teach me how to control it so that didn't happen again. I said it was kinda complicated to remember everything, and then he was all, "Of course it's complicated! You're bending one of the most overtly destructive elements to your will."

[Her Red Son impression is... lacking, but she's got the cadence for the most part.]

But an important thing was focus? I guess that's why people meditate. So they can learn to control it all the time, not just when they have a big emotion.

Control huh?

[Whoever this Red Son is, sounds like they understand fire. Maybe he'll look them up. For now, he holds up his hand. Control. Oh he knows about control. A spark of flame appears in his hand and soon it erupts slightly into a small flame. No bigger than a cigarette lighter but it's there. Flicking back and forth.]

Hm. Thank you for your help. You want to meet up sometime and you can show me what other powers Summer has? I read the list but seeing them in person would be helpful.

Oh, sure! I haven't mastered everything yet, but I can show you most things! It's pretty exciting when you get the hang of it. Oh, where should I go?

I'm still at the Welcome Apartments. We can meet there. Or the teleporting crystal nearby. If that works for you.

Sure, coming!

[Rinku makes it over to the teleport node and shifts to her small bird form, flying from there to the starter apartment block. Once he's in sight, she flies over and shifts back to human in front of him.]

Hi ♪ You wanted to see Summer powers, right?

[Morty is sitting in front of the apartment building, using his portal gun to open small portals not far from each other. Just open, close. Open again. Then Rinku lands and he puts his gun away.]

Hello. Yes. Was that one of them? [He asks and reaches up to tap his eyepatch. Just to record and scan for later.]

Ready.

Yeah! [nod nod] You wanna go to the guild house to practise? I can show you tons of powers, and there's a Teleport Crystal in every guild house so it'll be fast to get to.

Sounds like a plan to me. I can get the coordinates for the guild house that way.

[And see how these Teleport Crystals actually work. Good for learning later if he can maybe incorporate one into his portal gun.]

Lead the way. I'll follow.

[Rinku draws out her Travel Crystal and holds out her other hand for him to take. Once he has, she calls out:]

Summer Guild!

[And they're in the guild house, a stone building filled with fans and cooling devices to keep the heat down. There's a refreshment station, a staircase to the side, computer equipment, and holographic info boards.]

Welcome to the guild house! The training area's upstairs.

[Evil Morty follows. He takes her hand and boom, they teleport. So it's voice activated. He looks around, tapping his eye patch to scan around the guild house, taking in the fans and cooling devices, the computer equipment, and the holographic info board. All interesting enough but he's seen it all before. He looks back to Rinku.]

It's interesting. It's comfortable in here. Lead the way to the training area.

[He'll walk toward the stairs with her and up toward the floor with the training area.]

Who ended up training you on Summer abilities, may I ask?

A few people, but for the past year and some, it's been Evangeline-neechan. She's really good. Her training's really hard, though, she said that's the kind of thing she'd get at home.

[Rinku leads him into an unoccupied section of the training area and starts going through the training weapons.]

Think you could introduce me to your sister sometime?

[Morty looks at the collection of training weapons and goes for a sword first. He gives it a few test swings.]

Not a bad selection, I guess. Could be better.

Sure, of course!

[Rinku takes a training sword herself and stands near him.]

People use all kinds of weapons, so they gotta be prepared. Plus one of our powers is making weapons out of fire! But if you're just combat training, the wooden training weapons are useful.

[Morty nods and spins the sword in his hand.]

Makes sense. Want to give everyone access to training. So. Let's get started.

Sure! You made a flame before, can you do it again? See if you can get one this big.

[She creates a flame in front of her, then grows it to the size of her head.]

Alright.

[Morty holds out his hand. He starts with a small flame. Fire is just the release of energy. The movement of molecules and breaking of their bonds. He focuses on that idea. Building the fire up bigger and bigger. The size of a baseball. Then bigger. Nearing the size of Rinku's. Then it stops as he turns the fireball around a few more times. Then it grows bigger until it matches Rinku's. Then it fizzles out.]

Hmm. Hard to keep it going. [He rubs his head, feeling the fatique.]

That's okay! It gets a lot easier as you go.

[Rinku smiles and thinks.]

Can you try thinking about something you're really passionate about? That always helps me keep it going longer.

Something I'm passionate about.

[Morty thinks for a moment. What is he even passionate about? Well there is one thing. He thinks back to his past. When he finally took charge of his own life. Another fireball forms and it spins. It spreads out and forms small little fireballs that form a spiral. They spin and spin and spin. Then they break apart and fly off, fading away.]

That was a lot easier. Passion. Passion works well.

[Rinku makes a happy noise, clapping and bouncing on her heels.]

Wow, you're doing great already! I couldn't do that much for ages! Every season has some emotions that make them stronger. Passion's the one that works best for me. Some people do better with anger, but I don't really have a lot I'm mad about.

Maybe that's why it worked so well. [Morty looks at his hand, turning it over to check if he burned himself.]

My passion is tied to my anger.

That makes sense! So if you're using two of your season's emotions at once, then you're way stronger! I'll have to keep that in mind. You can move fire that already exists, too. Like if you light a match or something and then just move the flame onto the candle or whatever you want to use it on.

[Morty thinks for a moment. He holds up his hand and one of his fingers opens, revealing metal inside. A small torch flame springs out. Using his other hand, he pulls the flame of the torch away from his mechanical finger and turns it into a spinning disk. Then puts it back and his finger deactivates the flame and closes around it again.]

Interesting. Very interesting.

Yeah! Oh, your hand has a lighter in it? Huh, that's useful too! You must never need to buy matches.

Pretty much. I have augmentations throughout my body. Nothing big.

[Says the teen who can shoot plasma blasts out of the palms of his hands.]

You're really good at this seasonal magic. Are you usually a quick study like this?

Only for some things. It actually took me a long time to learn seasonal magic at first. But once I really got into it, it started to come easier! As for other stuff... sometimes it's really easy and I learn things like that, just because I feel it and I can't really explain it. Other times, it takes forever and I can't understand one bit. I didn't do well in school or anything.

[She rubs the back of her head.]

Being good at school isn't really a measure of intelligence. It's a measurement of recall memory and memorization. Creativity and knowledge comes from study and experience. School doesn't have a strict claim on those things.

Sounds to me like you excel in an environment that engages your understanding and interests.

That's a lot of words, but I guess that's true. And everyone has stuff they're good at and not, right? And that they understand and don't!

Most people, yes. I understand everything. But I'm not most people.

Really, everything? Everything everything? Do you have super learning powers?

Not powers but I am a genius, yes. Everything everything.

That's so cool! No wonder you're catching onto these powers so fast! I bet you're gonna do great here.

We'll see, one way or another.

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Video - UN: For-the-Damaged-Coda

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