fandomhighdorms | The Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

There was an army waiting to greet the members of the Magic Reserves today: an army of practice dummies from the salle, standing at perfect attention behind the refreshment table. Crepe paper had been tied around each dummy's waist, with a long streamer left hanging down their sides. More rolls of crepe paper were resting on the refreshment table.

"Hey," Tony said. "We've got a cool activity today, but before we do that, Dinah's going to tell us about her abilities." He smiled at Dinah. "And if anyone wants to volunteer for next week, let us know."

He turned to Karla. "Wanna explain the activity?"

She nodded, before turning towards thr group. "Today, we're going to focus on the possibility that one day, we'll have to rescue prisoners and hostages from an invading enemy force," Karla said, giving everyone a cheerful smile. "While every step of an operation like that is difficult and fraught with danger, one of the most common mistakes people make is that assuming once they've freed their comrades, the hard part is over. Not only is that wrong, but it's the kind of thinking that can get people recaptured or even killed."

It was hard thinking like this in the face of enemies like carnivorous vegetables, but they had to be prepared.

Merlin shot her a slightly nervous smile as he stepped forward to add, "To keep that sort of thing from happening, we'll be running a practice at escaping with the dummies." The lovely, lovely dummies. "Whomever you are rescuing may be able to move on their own should this actually happen, but for this case we will assume the worst and they will be unable to walk for whatever reason. Which should make it--um--interesting to accomplish without being caught again."

"This is how it's going to work," Karla said, picking up the thread again. "Your dummy is your friend. Get him from one side of the Preserve to the other without him 'dying.'" She tugged on one of the crepe streamers attached to a dummy. "This is his 'life.' If this gets ripped off, your dummy is dead. Everyone who participates will also tie a streamer around their waist and the same rules apply. If your streamer is torn, you die and are 'out' for the rest of the round."

"Either singly or in pairs, people are going to try to rescue the dummies. Everyone who is not rescuing the dummy is a bad guy and will do their level best to stop the rescuers from getting back to their base. Rescuers can use whatever magic in their arsenal to keep their ward safe and to fight off attackers. Bad guys, you can't use magic--you've got numbers on your side. Feel free to use physical attacks all you want--but let's all be careful, okay? No clinic visits if we can avoid them."

"If you want to be a rescuer, but aren't comfortable using your power on other people, just let us know. We'll be happy to animate a few of these extra dummies to act as your antagonists. However, in that case, we'd be able to use magic on the bad guys' behalf, since there's no way they'd actually be able to actually fight you."

"If you have any questions before we begin, don't hesitate to ask, okay?"

[OCD up!]

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Tony grabbed the arm of her Soul Self with his left hand and held her in place while he reached for the dummy's 'life' with his right hand.

Edited 2009-11-18 22:13 (UTC)

Raven gasped at the unexpected contact. No one had ever touched her Soul-Self before. It did not hurt, but the strangeness of it -- not to mention the intimacy of someone touching her soul made her start to panic, and the free wing of her Soul-Self fluttered violently. Her physical body stepped back, knocking the dummy over in the process. "Let me go!" she said. "Please!"

Tony let go immediately and forgot about grabbing the crepe streamer. "I'm sorry!"

Raven quickly withdrew her Soul-Self back into her body. "How did you do that?" she said, controlling her panic. She knew Tony was a friend, and there had been no ill intent in what he had done. "You touched my soul!"

Tony's eyes bugged out. "That was your soul?"

Edited 2009-11-19 00:07 (UTC)

Raven nodded. "Yes," she said. "I have trained for years on how to separate my soul from my physical body. And I am able to channel my gifts through it."

Tony eyed his hand. There didn't seem to be any... soul residue or anything. He held out his palm to Raven to show her the burn scar in the shape of a rune. "I got this last summer. It lets me touch energy - hold it like it's solid."

Raven peered at his hand, resisting the instinctive urge to heal such a scar. "My Soul-Self is normally intangible," she said. "I am able to send it through walls if I wish. It can also its energies to deflect an attack, and when I take someone inside I can heal or transport them. But never has anyone been able to grasp it as you did. That is remarkable." The panic was gone, but still the lingering weirdness of someone touching her soul remained. And she really hoped no enemy ever had that ability.

"I have hidden depths," Tony said with a touch of smugness. Then, a little sheepishly. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It did not hurt," Raven assured him. "It was just too...." She tried to find the right word. "Intimate."

Tony blushed. "Sorry," he said again. "Isn't it dangerous to put your soul out like that?"

"My physical body is able to continue to function," Raven said, "so I am not left helpless. Sending my Soul-Self from me is as natural as breathing to me now. I first did so when I was but ten years old."

"Yeah, but what if you got separated?" Tony made a chopping gesture with his hand.

"That almost happened to me a few days ago," Raven admitted. "I had been taught I can only be apart from my body for only a few minutes, but I pushed past that barrier and survived. I know we cannot be separated indefinitely, however, but I no longer know of any limits."

The Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

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