It goes until the wee hours, until the boat finally makes its lazy return home.
So to do the officers and Ars Magi, one way or another. Everyone survives.
𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙰𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚢
𝙳𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚜
𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚢 𝟸𝟸𝚗𝚍, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝚄𝚗𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠𝚗 𝚃𝚒𝚖𝚎
Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti
Until the next morning, at which point it probably feels like it’d be better to be dead.
The hangover is predictably horrible for those that indulged. Not as bad as having an Armagus forcefully shoved in one's body, but maybe only just a little better.
Priya is the only partygoer that appears unaffected, dropping by Radiant Storm’s dorms with plates full of eggs, aspirin, and big glasses of water.
It starts with pain. A throbbing, thundering pain inside her poor head. It felt so bad that even though she knew she was at no risk of dying, she certainly began to wonder if she shouldn't just pray for the sweet release of death.
In retrospect, drinking had been a
very ill-advised idea, though she can now see how easily one can get sucked in through a combination of peer pressure and party mood.
"Urrrrgggghhhhh..." came the hoarse protest from her lips, more a groan of something crawling from beyond the grave than someone waking up in a bed.
"Wwhhhhhyyyy....."It takes considerable effort and willpower to get up and get on with the day. To survive the hangover, one must outlast it, after all. She's had experience dealing with her mother's hangovers when the battleax had partied too hard, or taken the loss of some of her men particularly hard. She had always wondered how quickly things went from "maybe a drink or two" to "being drowned by Bacchus", and now she had definitive proof. Part of her wonders if her mother would be more disappointed for drinking so young, or if she was disappointed in her for being such a lightweight.
First order of business; a ton of water, some aspirin, and a decent breakfast-
-only to find she was beaten to the punch by Priya. She stares in surprise at the dishes loaded with her salvation, then at the one carrying such valuable gifts. Priya didn't seem the least bit affected.
"Okay, why aren't you hung over?" Penny asks in an accusing tone.
However, the smell of sunny side eggs is too tempting, and she forgoes any further questioning, taking what she needs for herself and her roommate.
"Thanks a mil, Priya, you're a lifesaver," she says before closing the door.
"Hey, Dana, Priya just delivered breakfast and some painkillers, if you need any after last night. I sure do."By the time the lucky(?) Ars Magi make it to the common room they’re in time to hear the afternoon news reports: A heavy front of Nox is sweeping down across the coast, a slowly-building vortex of toxic magic.
Penny manages to recover enough that she can function in public again. Her head is still throbbing, and her throat is still dry even after drinking so much water, and her expression is stuck on a sour, exhausted look, unwilling to deal with the outside world, but she's coherent and capable right now, so that's a win. The headache is still there, but the worst of it has passed, fortunately.
"I think drinking may have been a mistake, girls," she grunts to the others.
"I hope you're in better shape than I am..."Watching the news to take her mind off her current condition, she remembers the bit about the nox storm approaching. This wasn't the least bit comforting; she remembers the old geezers in Siscia talking in hushed whispers about the last time their city got hit by a Nox storm. She heard tidbits of horror stories; people melting from sheer exposure to pure Nox, monsters appearing in the heart of the city, walls and defenses torn apart either by roving Voids or the sheer fury of the storm itself... She shudders to think of what could happen here and can only hope the city was the best prepared it could be.
The next few days are filled with tension. The usual activities are on, but to Penny it becomes clear that everyone's just biding time before the front hits, awaiting the storm of the century. Already, many places are shored up or barricaded. Running tracks are closed, as are outdoor swimming pools. More and more activities were diverted to indoor halls, putting more strain on the facilities as they became more and more crowded, with people forced to wait for turns. The atmosphere is tense and choking, like a heavy weight crushing everyone underneath.
However, Penny's concerns are distracted by more bad news from home. Just as it seemed that Nessa was about to turn a corner and recover from her recent bout of ill health, it suddenly became even worse, plunging the poor girl into a sharp fever and exacerbating the pneumonia that had incapacitated her. Now, her life hung in the balance, held up in the ICU with only prayer and hope to go on.
To say Penny was rattled was a bit of an understatement. Her baby sister was bedridden, maybe even dying, and she could do nothing to comfort her from thousands of miles away. She had sent a message with a postcard to cheer Vanessa up or even just cheer her parents up, but otherwise the Siscian felt impotent. All this power, and she could do nothing to help her sister in her time of need. Worse still, Penny had gone partying on the yacht while her sister suffered; she even wondered if she could even be considered a responsible sister anymore.
Her teammates would find her rather distracted and lost in thought, but she'd wave them off with her mind being preoccupied with "stuff". She would continue with her training when possible nonetheless, the only outlet she had left to focus her stress and doubt.
All the while the city was counting down to the storm...
𝙽𝚘𝚟𝚊 𝙻𝚞𝚡 𝙰𝚌𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚢
𝙶𝚛𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝙷𝚊𝚕𝚕
𝙰𝚞𝚐𝚞𝚜𝚝 𝟾𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟷𝟽 𝙰𝚅
𝟺:𝟶𝟶 𝙿𝙼
Dana Noel, Penny Grenoble, Nicole Cognoscenti
The tempest hits at exactly 1600 hours.
Radiant Storm has not gone far from home. They’re posted up in Nova Lux’s Grand Hall, the same place where the fancy ball has been held prior. Now, however, it is not nearly as festive. Temporary workstations have been set up for the teams of officers gathered inside, each squad of cadets led by a senior overseeing their work. Large monitors display satellite images of the city, blurry infra-red diagrams that track the storm as it descends on Palmyra.
Rain is hammering down against the massive, curtained windows. Leaves and debris from the sprawling gardens outside gust by, and the massive trees outside jitter and sway dangerously in the howling wind.
Unlike usual, Radiant Storm doesn’t see many familiar faces among the hall. Penny spots cadet Grey busily at work on the radio, but she’s too busy to acknowledge the Ars Magi. Most of the officers are, which leave the magical girls to sit, wait, and catch what snippets of conversation they can.
What they can glean is that the senior Ars Magi are hard at work at the city walls, keeping out the worst of the Void that come with the storm. They, however, have the less exciting job of playing reserves. Which means a lot of waiting around, and not much way to kill the time between themselves.
The night drags on. Rain hammers down harder, and the cracks of thunder can be heard. Through the dark fog outside are the occasional flashes of lightning. They do little to illuminate the world beyond the window.
It doesn't feel like waiting out a storm, Penny realizes. It feels like a siege. Waiting for whatever might happen and responding to it, trying to wait out the tragedy and respond to emergencies. It just feels like they're just waiting for something to happen, and yet hoping nothing does happen. The frustration of waiting for something yet hoping it never occurs, a conundrum for the ages, and one Penny feels all too keenly. Even Ars Magi for all their power pale before the fury of a Nox storm.
"Anyone got a deck of cards?" she jokes, trying to relieve the tension.
Then something happens.
In the distance there is a worrying crash–something not quite the crack of thunder, but somehow similar. Suddenly the team of officers are moving and shouting, taking clipped directions from the woman in charge. Her hand is pressed against her ear, and she barks several quick orders to the cadets gathered nearby.
"Divert all the squads to the Vault." The woman barks. "Send everyone!"
When she turns to address Radiant Storm her tone is urgent: "Nova Lux is under attack." She informs them. "All of you, head toward the medical wing immediately."
The location is intimately familiar to each of the Ars Magi. In addition to the patch-up jobs after their training operations, the medical wing was one of the first places a Nova Lux student got acquainted with. The barrage of tests, physical exams, and eventual surgery all took place there. Of Nova Lux's organs, this is one of the most vital.
"The enemy...are Ars Magi."
At the sound of the explosion, Penny starts. It takes her a bit to recognize the sound not as thunder, but as a deliberate act of demolition, an attack. At first it seems ridiculous; this was the very heart of the Imperium’s military training and testing complexes, so heavily defended and fortified specifically to protect against such acts. An attack here seemed absurd; who could manage to get people in so deep?
Unfortunately for Penny, she realizes that the notion of an attack was not only plausible, but the only logical answer. The sabotage of the initial test and the confrontation with the C-rank Void, the events aboard the Laurus, and what Dana and Nichole saw there. Penny had not found anything on rogue Ars Magi, and yet could not doubt Dana’s testimony; ever since they had fought together on the Laurus, she had no reason to believe the cheerful Norban to be anything but honest.
Also, an attack during a Nox storm was a stroke of mad genius. At any other time, Nova Lux would be too hard a target to breach, too hard a nut to crack. It had its walls, its defenses, and fortifications, but the student body would be the biggest and strongest deterrent to an attack. But during a Nox Storm, with everyone trying to stay safe and literal hurricane winds playing havoc? With a lot of luck and a bit of skill, you could easily make it through to the weaker parts, and cripple the academy as a whole by striking at its heart. Sure, it
might recover…eventually…maybe, but in the meantime the damage would hamper Imperium operations across the globe. There would be no telling what sort of damage could be done in the meantime.
And now the orders confirmed it; they were going to go up against enemy Ars Magi. Voids, drones, and robots had been one thing, but now it was a different level of threat. Assorted powers combined with human cunning, not exactly a fun combination to face. For a moment, Penny’s mind flashes back to her final test with Yagami Tsukino, and the tricky labyrinth she had been made to traverse. She could only wonder; what if Tsukino was actively
trying to kill her? Because she has a feeling it would be similar to what she’s about to find out.
Quickly transforming to Ars Magi mode, she skates to the destination, making sure not to get too far ahead of the others; isolation was death, and there’s no telling what to expect.
“So, Nichole, what’s the plan?” Penny asks the red-haired girl.
“I know we’re going in blind right now, but just wondering if you had anything in mind…”
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