Sifr

Iris Ascendis

I straight up can't have a round for the forseeable future. I'm so sorry everyone, design week is murdering me and it turns out it'll be 3 weeks. AND my keyboard is fucked.

EDIT: To add to that, if you need to write Hildegunde out of the plot because 3 weeks is a longass time, I understand entirely. My program is exceedingly strict (you can fail an assignment you got a 69% on if they decide you weren't hitting bench marks quick enough despite your final mark) and I am struggling hard. I really hate to do this but I gotta do what I gotta do.

Iris Ascendis

@Nanaya Literally take as long as you need.

As a heads up on my end, Design Week, the heaviest part of college for me, starts Tuesday, so I might need to be skipped. We shall see.

Iris Ascendis

Post up. Apologies if anything is incoherent, it's late, but I wanted to get something up while the brain juices were still going

Iris Ascendis

@ERode@Nanaya

Rio successful in intercepting. Archer down. It's hardly of importance to Hildegunde - not with the sight of her bullet before her. This was the first time Hildegunde has actually witnessed the bullet. While her rifle seems to have expended a bullet when it fired, it visually does not match the rest loaded in her rifle - it's a blueish silver thing, and were it not in motion, Hildegunde would've been able to see it as strangely ornate.

"Your Ethos? I'm impressed."

You should be. For the wrong reasons.

"It appears it'll keep going like this, until either it breaks through, I let it through, or I deflect it. But in the time it'd take to remove it, it could be just the second needed to find an opening in my perception. Attempting to deflect could, maybe, be worse than letting it dig through my essence."

It won't be deflected. Not permanently, anyways - she's sure it'd find a way back. Hildegunde is almost certain of this much, now that the bullet refuses to cease its forward momentum, even with the seemingly impossible barrier before her. Of course, why wouldn't it? That seems to be an immutable law of her ethos - the bullets always find their mark, some way or another. This one just might take its time.

Still, she wonders, what would happen if he did try to move it. Would it burrow through his hand the way it currently attempts to burrow through the PB?

Then, something changes.

Even over the piercing noise of metal on metal, it couldn't be drowned out. Hildegunde needed not to turn around to recognize the sound of breaking wood - the forest was, after all, her home. Needs not pay attention to the shadow increasing before her for more than a split second. She immediately makes a dash for it without so much as a glance behind her. She feels the ground rumble on its impact, a few feet away from her. Hildegunde keeps her senses sharp for any other incoming threats.

Otis knocks. A question is posed. Hildegunde looks at the bullet. Alto. Left eye.

It does not budge. Seems like once a target is decided, there is no swaying it. There's more Hildegunde has learned about her ethos today - even if it's knowledge that doesn't surprise her.

Otis, buddy, they are not buddies and they both know it.

I hate to break it to you, but as of right now, I can only guarantee your safety and everyone else's with one eye, she admits, being deliberately vague. Otis can probably piece together why though with fair ease. He seems a smart man to Hildegunde.

If you want two, in the worse case scenario, someone will die. Until I think my own life is in danger, I don't think this is worth that risk. So I'm either going to need different instructions, or you're going to have to settle for one.

Moreover, she did not like the idea of possibly blinding - permanently blinding - her professor. One eye, though?

He could manage.

Another thought occurs to her. She never had a reason, to try and further channel her ethos before. Bullets were too fast and generally too effective to bother attempting it. But now she wonders, if there's a way to infuse the bullets with further power. Never before has Hildegunde had to strain for her ethos, so sparingly used as it is, that she is at a loss for how to push it. Could she move the bullet with the same sort of

Maybe coming to this school wasn't a mistake. She's not sure where else she'd be thinking like this.

It must be like a muscle, Hildegunde reckons. It stretches and pulls and eventually fatigues. Hildegunde focuses on the bullet, which whizzes through the air, which she breathes, and mentally pushes, in a manner not unlike how she'd go about primal magic. Would such an application do anything - could it move with any more force? Or was the bullet truly fixed?

Iris Ascendis

"two bullets" y eah, about that, Otis...

Iris Ascendis

@Nanaya For the record, I have imagined it as the bullet teleporting to its target as it does in Hildegunde's old storybooks. Whether it reacts to a PB in an unnatural way or if it'd bypass it (or any other form of shenanigans) is up to you. So long as the mark eventually hits Professor Alto - even if it's after class and the PB goes down or something evil like that.

Iris Ascendis

The initial shock almost makes Hildegunde break her PB. Her instincts, of course, tell her to run. But she steels herself. Inhales. Allows the arrow to harmlessly bounces off of herself. That moment of self-restraint was probably the only thing keeping her from doing something truly stupid afterwards, when Otis commanded the two boys to back her up.

It's funny. How deeply petty emotions can sway you towards the path of destruction.

I don't need his help!

Hildegunde almost shouts it out loud. Almost wastes her precious first bullet out of a sense of hurt pride. The archer isn't a issue - not a grievous one, anyways. The one hurtling towards her, on the other hand...she hoped Rio could handle. At the first sign that he couldn't, she'd switch her focus from the archer towards it. While by no means skilled in hand-to-hand combat, she'd still do her best.

Chunji's questions remind her of one of her own. After the injuries Davil sustained, the disregard towards student safety...she feels less anxiety considering the option.

She narrows her eyes and takes aim at the archer. Inhales, disregards the conflict between Iraleth and Ciara.

The laws of her ethos say that each bullet must meet its mark - whether determined by Hildegunde, or some other force. Against a PB...what would happen? It's hard for Hildegunde to tell exactly what happens when she shoots with her ethos - the bullet doesn't seem to follow a logical path, and Hildegunde has no way of knowing if the bullet simply travels on a non-linear path and somehow retains its speed - (how else would it have killed him?), or if the bullet teleports from the muzzle to its mark - as it were often illustrated in her stories, glowing arcane circles marking the gun and its target. No such tell-tale signs followed her own usage.

Would the bullet simply bypass the barrier without breaking it, like a semi-permeable membrane? Would it stay in a state of statis against it, never falling, until the barrier dropped, and the bullet could finally meet its mark? Would it break it, but slow in the process? So many possibilities.

Worse case scenario, would it bounce off harmlessly, as would the arrow that rushed towards her?

Alto? You sure you wanna test us? Hildegunde almost shouts it aloud. Why is she here, if not to learn?

Instead, she lifts her gun, muzzle aimed at the mannequin still. The first shot or two is truly aimed at the mannequin. The third, however, is said after the whisper of a certain magic word. Hildegunde doesn't turn to aim.

She doesn't have to.

Alto. knee.

"Freikugeln."

Iris Ascendis

@Nanaya If this massive headache spares me I'll have a post up tonight. If not I'll try for tomorrow.

Iris Ascendis

Is there anything special about the arrow flying towards Hildegunde beyond it being faster than the others? EG; would it be able to bypass a PB?

I'd also love to hear about Kiimos Trelie :3c

Iris Ascendis

@ERode@Nanaya

"Damn shame. I skipped breakfast today, you know." She cracks a smile, one lacking malice. If she wasn't joking before, she is, at the very least, joking now.

The smile only fades once she registers Chloe's glare. That was...also unexpected. She locks eyes and blinks twice - once quickly, as if in shock, and then once more, slowly, as if calming a territorial cat. Her gaze then darts her gaze back towards Professor Alto. She full on grimaces now, but dares say nothing. If this would be her new normal, so be it. She would adapt and she would learn - that was the whole reason she was here, after all. If she were able to surpass her brother in marksmanship, she can - no, must - surpass him as a healer.

But that didn't mean she had to pretend to like it. She would give a small nod and a grumble, still grimacing. Her expression doesn't soften much when she turns to Davil.

"Worry less 'bout waste and more about improvement, Davil. If your classmates thought this a waste, they wouldn't have hel-"

She cuts off abruptly. Her eyes widen, ears picking up something else among the chatter.

Arrows.

Her hands were on her rifle before Otis even spoke. The sound of gunfire - her rifle had not been silenced - her only response to the Strigidae, her aim focused on the bows rather than the mannequins. It was a slim target, but she's had to aim for worse.