(Bi)Monthly Don't-Create-A-Servant Contest

[DelRey]

Color and its relations to magecraft (and thus culture)!

kinda disagree on the culture part. if they are from Lore, that means there is barely anything culturally to use here, else it falls into archeology's hands....unless you create a situation in which the negative traction is actually related to the beef between the two departments, it being an uproar due the debatibility where it belongs

damn the prompt is open

[Random]

Well, that's not strictly true. It's possible to be studying something that you're not formally a member of the department for. Guys part of Lore do need to draw their Magecraft from somewhere legit.

[You]

There are no clocks in the depths of the Carllion Observatory, the flow of time is measured through the pulse of the planet and the ever-waning mystery of the modern era. Today, earthquakes rumbling through the Spirit Tomb act as the ticking of a second hand.

“Confirmation that Magisfair has fallen. The Calamity is already encroaching the

Od Vena

The Great Magic Circuit

.”

Although some might call Magisfair, one of the only composite workshops in the modern era, the Clock Tower’s greatest achievement, it was still man-made. The Great Magic Circuit on the other hand, was more like the Inner Sea of the Planet — the very ecology went against the natural laws of nature. Surely, surely. . .

- Macarius of Carthage, once apprentice of the Old Man of Jewels, has been designated as the Second Representative of Mystery -

With that announcement, the Giver of all Sealing Designations brushes away the fearful murmuring, the scattered chatter, and for an illusory moment, even the earthquakes.

Eventually more weapon than man, the Scripture was ironically created due to a Dead Apostle Ancestor’s ploy, and the first Black Keys fashioned from his Stigmata.

A pebble that had been tripped over, causing the moon to begin falling out of the sky.

If one pebble caused such a ripple — what happens if we were to lay down six?

There are four hours left to find four more representatives.

The Third: A collection of essays —

“This is counter-productive.” A retort from the crowd of Seekers. The others turn towards the particular

Seeker

■■■■■■

. “If we’re searching for Representatives of Mystery, these guidelines that we’re given are too strict. How can we be certain these are truly mysteries worth recording, not just data points that happen to fit the the ambiguous criteria?”

There are only four hours left before everyone in this Observatory will perish. Each Seeker knows this, has accepted this; however, four hours is a long time for a dying species —

“We’re technicians for the Lux Carta, we observe the light, interpret it, and recommend magi who should be Designated for Sealing.” The

Seeker

■■■■ ■■■■■■

who had presented the

sheet

Pinakes

of Macarius of Carthage adds. “We deal in the singular, we’ve always dealt with individuals. Even now, both the Representatives that have been chosen have been individuals, so why all . . . this?”

— and not every Seeker has decided how to use their four hours.

“The Lux Carta is an observational device; it doesn’t have a mind of its own.” A

Seeker

cute girl

speaks up. “The mind that directs it, the Archivist, can only dream the present. We’re not technicians who are recording that

present

dream

anymore, we’re. . . what did Carillon say we were again?”

“Bounding spheres, it a mathematical concept that attempts to find the smallest radius that fits a finite set of information.” A

Seeker

woman who couldn’t stand deadlines

offered.

The smallest, most efficient volume that can separate the outside from the inside.

“Efficiency isn't the point.” The cute girl rebuffs the sterile, scientific explanation. “We’ve spent our entire careers observing and categorizing the contents of this

Observatory

canon

that its become difficult to synthesize without an objective reference. How can a sphere be judged if everyone’s approach to drawing that sphere is different?”

A machine can create an algorithm that draws the most efficient circle around a set number of points, but it doesn’t know the meaning behind those

points

stars

and more importantly, it cannot ask what-if other

points

stars

should be part of the

sphere

constellation

.

“Who cares about how we consolidate the data when it’s still a rigid sphere!” The first

Seeker

speaker

stands their ground. “We're given certain factors that must exist within it. That doesn’t make sense. Why do these six Representatives of Mystery need to have such specific factors? A single, clear direction should be all that’s necessary for us to pick someone worthy of the title.”

“Someone or something, whether we continue or stop, the Timelock will be established and we will die. If we’re all going to die anyway let's do away with this hair-brained scheme, and elect our own Representatives of Mystery!” A second Seeker piques.

“There's no point of seeking our own Representatives of Mystery if we’re all going to die. The outcome’s the same. Seeking these Representatives of Mystery or doing nothing, they’re both wastes of energy. That thing is coming for us. We have no chance against a celestial body. There’s no meaning; there is no point.” And a third.

“That’s wrong; there is a point, a single point.” Someone in the back of the Observatory calls out. “Even if there’s nothing left tomorrow, and nothing will ever be able to change that, I, not the Archivist, can decide what the final punctuation mark in our story will be. With that final point as a guiding star, I'll bind the darkest night itself.”

“A bounding sphere may be a mathematical construct, but they’re also used as a test used to optimize artificial intelligence and graphics engines.” The woman who couldn’t stand deadlines says.

“We’re a test? A test for what —”

It's obvious to all the Seekers left in this observatory.

You were once a technician for the Lux Carta, an observer, a recorder. You are now a bounding sphere: the radius, line width, and even the number of

points

stars

contained within is discretionary because for a dying species, there is ever only one test -

How far have we come?

☉☉座座座座

“Have you made your peace, Seekers?” The Giver of Sealing Designations dully asks.

The Third: A collection of essays written by a mysterious Department of Lore-student regarding the importance of color in Optical Magecraft had gained traction among Clocktower persons—negatively.

No, they haven't because these guidelines don’t make any sense.

The Department of Lore headed by the Director of the Clock Tower themselves is the only department in the Clock Tower that doesn’t deal with human history. It is instead filled with slaves who must devote their lives decoding extra-terrestrial threats, adding quarantining artifact in their horde.

Too daunting.

Its said that sight was the first magecraft as it provides the greatest amount of information among the senses. As a reaction, humans not only began using ocular concepts to pseudo-deify natural phenomena such as volcanos and storms, but to fear how one could manipulate the reception of visual information i.e. the evil eye present in many cultures.

Magecraft that touches on optics is not solely ocular. Optical illusions, both magical and mundane, are a common tool used to hide workshops, crystal balls are commonly used for far-seeing spells, and magic mirrors are a dime a dozen in any culture. One can take optical to refer to the manipulation of visual information (Low level Mystic Eyes), the emission of information though visual means (Extromissionism), or obtaining non-visual information visually (Rainbow Body Phenomenon).

Part of this visual information is color. In the sciences, the range of light that is reproduced as color almost 400 nm, an infinitesimally tiny slice of the upper and lower bounds of Planck’s energy equation. Yet, we have taken the finite visible spectrum and applied it to an infinite amount of concepts. For example, the most widely known use of color in the Clock Tower is the Color Note that is given to prospective students. This is a formality that invites them to a ritual that will determine the color of their soul and conclude with their official registration to the institute.

Its self evident that color is a large factor in not only magecraft and the cultures magecraft is derived from but also the culture surrounding magecraft.

Then its too random.

If color is so intrinsically tied to our human nature, why would a researcher of the extra-terrestrial publish an ill-received series of essay on the topic?

When you bind all the

points

stars

in a sphere, how is this an appropriate Representative of Mystery?

Time to lay down the third pebble.

Time to plant the third seed.

[Serra]

That which is unknown to commoners and magi, alien to myth and legend and scientific discovery. Beyond humanity. That which is scarcely spoken of even among most magi. Out of disinterest, often, and even more so, out of fear. Angels and demons which are neither in any faith. The exoanthropic principles.

Once he was finally admitted to the Clock Tower, his talent and his fascination with all of the above led him to be allowed into the Department of Lore as a student. And only the very same fascination, in a state largely yet unguided and unprepared, could lead him to dream of 'the Colour'.

It wasn't 'a dream' as in 'an ideal to be pursued'. It was 'a dream' as in 'an implausible passing fantasy', on which he expanded largely to save himself from an academic setback worse than not submitting any essay at all.

He looked at what that dream had brought him. He looked at what it had clearly turned into: an excuse to add insult to injury and reinforce someone else's evil. Had that banal thought exercise been worth it?

"What does it matter..."


...Not like he could've seen this coming in the first place. There was no reason to think something like this could've happened. No reason at all.

Ah, luckily, that one sentence had been barely audible. No, had he even said it out loud?

________________________

⫷ Reverie of the Unfortunate Colour ⫸
Ptolemaios Nidari




Parameters
STR: C+
END: C
AGI: C
MAN: B+
LCK: C-

Element
Earth, Water

Circuit Quantity	B+
Circuit Quality	B
Circuit Composition	Standard

Affiliation	Student at the Clock Tower Department of Lore (currently questionable)	Sorcery Trait	Circles of Camouflage
Image colour	Transparent	Alignment	Chaotic Neutral
Mental trigger	A jellyfish stinging his internal organs	Origin	Transparency and Opacity

________________________

MagecraftMedusa of the Invisible Spheres


The stars—planets—fixed into concentric circles imperceivable to the naked eye, as if tracks made out of glass, orderly spinning around the Earth. An outdated view of the reality of things from a perspective differing that of a magus, but a powerful Thaumaturgical Foundation. However, the discrepancies between it and the progress of human knowledge have also made it an unstable one. In the case of the Nidari, it's traditionally supplemented by association with animals capable of achieving camouflage. Those species who can do so through transparency, such as jellyfish, are particularly compatible. They are elevated to cosmic symbols, earning the possibility to focus one's magecraft better through the depiction—mental or otherwise—of their image.

To give examples of its applications, this form of magecraft is capable of the following, in any combination and to differing extents:

Sensing clearly in its entirety anything that would appear transparent to others. A simple charm that is usually renewed every morning, like routine anti-hypnosis charms.

Decreasing the transparency of something transparent or translucent.

Increasing the transparency of something opaque. This is significantly harder, and, of course, doesn't hide from senses other than sight.

Stopping in its tracks something which achieved its transparency or translucence without the need for any prior Alteration through magecraft.

Spinning something which achieved its transparency or translucence without the need for any prior Alteration through magecraft. It may spin in place, or in any orbit until it completes that orbit: the orbit can only be altered in the moment in which one orbit is completed and another is about to begin.

Creating mostly transparent constructs out of any material which achieved its transparency or translucence without the need for any prior Alteration through magecraft. Usually, they are created with shapes resembling those of jellyfish.

________________________

The ColourThe Colour

Colour. Colour as a wavelength of light that can be reflected or absorbed by what it touches. Would it be entirely impossible for a colour, or something resembling a colour in nature to the extent that we could call 'Colour' by association, to reflect or absorb what it touches instead of the opposite?

Image colour. A print that contributes to making each magus's magecraft distinct from that of others. A piece of data that by itself has appeared to have scarce utility in the search for the Root across the ages. Would it be entirely impossible, given the existence of 'the Colour', to alter one's image colour to make it match 'the Colour'?

'The Colour', if it isn't entirely impossible for it to exist, would be unknown to commoners and magi, alien to myth and legend and scientific discovery. Most importantly, 'the Colour' would leave no trace of itself, only of its effect on what it touches. Then, wouldn't altering one's image colour to match something so unknown and unknowable be a helpful step on the path to the Root? And such an alteration, by its own nature—Would it not grant the capability of exerting the properties of 'the Colour' on the world, by the nature of 'the Colour' itself?

Furthermore, such a 'Colour' would logically be intrinsically tied to the Imaginary Number Space, and—

...

Such was, broadly speaking, the main reverie around which Ptolemaios Nidari's essay had been built. It had been met with an insufficient mark and a degree of mockery from his peers—less ridicule than expected, truth to be told: the strictness of the deadline imposed by a certain professor on that assignment likely had something to do with that.

However, that essay would bring Tole far more trouble than that.

The following week, the professor had left, with a note saying that she would journey in an attempt to change her image colour to 'the Colour' brought up in that essay.

Among the projects that magus had lined up and those with which she was critically involved, there were several far more vital ones than the pursuit of a seemingly groundless whim. The abruptness of her departure, the lack of any warning to any person with the sole exception of that note... All of it was baffling. Worryingly so.

Soon, the hypothesis of a kidnapping or an assassination had been brought up, and Tole had been detained due to having authored that essay. Though he appeared to know nothing as to the professor's whereabouts, clearly, someone must've used his essay as a flimsy smokescreen for the crime. No, but wasn't it too obviously unlikely for the words in the professor's last letter to be true? Was the criminal merely trying to mock those who couldn't get to the bottom of the disappearance?

...

He wished for his freedom to come soon. Even if it had meant being strung along and needing to face a magus powerful enough to kill his professor without leaving a trace, he would've taken the chance. As long as this captivity could cease...

He wished for his freedom to come soon.

________________________

Creator's NotesCreator's Notes

His nickname is Tole and he has been imprisoned for awful essay crimes. Ptolemaios because I figure there's got to be a ton of magi who implement some degree of astromancy into their family's magecraft named after him. Like, in my mind the Ptolemys at the Clock Tower come in over a dozen different spellings and most of them move in packs of five without even meaning to. Nidari out of universe from Cnidaria, given the jellyfish motif. Speaking of which, I think I already showed this in the appropriate section, but haven't brought up the comparison explicitly: his form of magecraft has more association with the stage in jellyfish's life cycle known as 'medusa' than with Medusa as in the mythological being / Servant. So, yeah, here's one of the 'normal' Lore students, who have yet to become able to join Brishisan's elite, but are being trained to do so... Well, Tole's training is currently on hold, but still :D What else... Hopefully this formatting isn't too bad, I haven't really tried it before. Oh, and the idea was for the sheet to have both a transparency angle, dealing with his usual magecraft, and a 'new colour' angle, dealing with his awful essay and intersecting with the domain of the Department of Lore. I was thinking about possibly going more into depth on Tole's pre-Clock Tower past, too, but I figured it wasn't too important given the focus of the current prompt, and wanted to break the tension for this month's contest. So, hey, I hope this was a fun enough read and that it'll spur others into making more entries, too.

[PA270]

Ptolemaios Nidari: What a fascinating first entry this is! The Magecraft concept is really strong, and the subject of 'the Colour' is deeply fascinating. It's simple, it's clear, and it's incredibly effective at invoking the kind of alien atmosphere that feels right at home when talking about the Department of Lore! Awesome stuff!

[Serra]

Ptolemaios Nidari: What a fascinating first entry this is! The Magecraft concept is really strong, and the subject of 'the Colour' is deeply fascinating. It's simple, it's clear, and it's incredibly effective at invoking the kind of alien atmosphere that feels right at home when talking about the Department of Lore! Awesome stuff!

Thank you!! I'm glad you enjoyed it so much! It was fun to write, too!

[RoydGolden]

Probably won't be participating, but I wonder if something could be done with the concept of Mary's Room for this prompt.

[PA270]

So does anyone feel like they're on track to get it in before the deadline, or should there be an extension?

[pinetree]

I should be able to finish it before the deadline if everything goes right.

[Random]

It's taken me this long to get a fragment of an idea and I don't even know if it'll survive more research. I probably won't make it this round.

[You]

Since there has only been one entry, I'll be extending the submission deadline to September 29th, 11:00 PM PST.

[Random]

Ah, precious time. Maybe I will get the opportunity to butcher Chaos Magic after all.

[Kamera]

Just stay like that for a little while, honey.
Right, now let me see your smile… allow me to see that colourful smile…
Mhmm. Beautiful~

Now, where were we…? Ah, that’s right.
Come on, the night’s still young. Take your time.
Together… let’s make this one special night, shall we?
A memory that we can look back upon for eternity.

Hehe… I’m not just being sentimental.
It’s true. I will recall our encounter again and again.
I… will never forget you. This I promise you.
In exchange -- I just need you to show me your true colour.

Adelle Widyamaya



“Flowers are the most beautiful right before they rot and decay, don’t you think?”

Alias:	The Monochrome Decadence, The Ultraviolet-Tinted Lens	Magecraft:	Shadow Puppetry, Mystic Camera, Shell Projection
Age:	38 (?)	Origin:	Remembrance
Height/Weight:	168cm/44kg	Element:	Imaginary Numbers
Birthplace:	Jakarta, Indonesia	Circuit Quantity:	A+
Affiliation:	Modern Magecraft Theory Department	Circuit Quality:	C
Sorcery Trait:	Negative Output	Rank:	Fes

Background

A puppeteer mage who played a major role behind the scenes of the idol industry in East Asia. She sought to construct idols as modern-day divinities, hoping to tap into their artificial divinity to actualize her magecraft. A shrewd visionary who presides over a major talent agency she had built from scratch, she had involved herself in almost all aspects of the entertainment industry, including talent scouting, management, camerawork, visual design, fashion, choreography, etc. She can be regarded as among the world’s best in the field of modern illusion magecraft, or digital visual manipulation techniques, as she calls it.

One of the two Widyamaya sisters, who are conceived as a set of “negative” and “positive” - a result of their family’s experimental sorcery trait. Despite being the eldest of the sisters, she is considered as an “inferior product” due to being the “negative image” to her younger sister who was born as the “finished product” of their family’s entire bloodline and the conclusion of their magecraft research. Due to such polarization, the two sisters are fundamentally incompatible with each other, but nonetheless Ms. Adelle considers her little sister as a subject of adoration and treasures her as a frame reference of ideal beauty.

In fact, Ms. Adelle considers her circumstances a blessing. Being liberated from the stricter obligations of a mage, she was able to pursue her career in relative freedom while still occasionally refining her magecraft. She can be seen attending Lord El-Melloi’s modern magecraft classes, but she’s too occupied with her work to actually graduate from the Clock Tower or improve her rank in the Mage’s Association. She is also familiar with many students of the Lore Department, due to her little sister being from there.

Ms. Adelle is entirely devoted to her work, and nowadays she spends most of her time managing the new popular female idol group “ULTRA-√iolet”, who had recently dominated the top chart. She is known as a rather authoritarian manager with unreasonable expectations and draconian rules for her talents. In the first place, the talents that managed to get under her care are those that she herself had personally scouted through a rigorous recruitment process.

There is a rumor circulating in the industry that Ms. Adelle frequently sleeps with her female talents.

Personality

Likes:	“Incandescent women”, expensive cutting-edge cameras, her sister
Dislikes:	The countryside, forgetful people, the Beatles, stalkers
Talents:	Graphic design, remembering subtle details, social media administration
Natural Enemy:	Daybit Semvoid
Alignment:	Chaotic Neutral

A woman who is drawn to all things flashy, fancy and decadent, seeking to overwhelm her senses with nauseating colors in order to overlay her naturally melancholic disposition as a “negative image” to someone else.

To find and surround herself with beauty is her primary motivation as a human being, and to construct something so beautiful that its colors are painted into the soul of the planet is her ultimate goal as a mage.

She is the Ultraviolet-Tinted Lens who is condemned from birth to only be capable of seeing ugliness in beauty, never to be satisfied with the same scenery, and always needing to seek new memories to be etched into her yearning spirit.

Magecraft

Shadow Puppetry - Light String Refract

The trademark magecraft developed by the Widyamaya family based on a well-established tradition originating from the island of Java. The Widyamaya family itself is a minor branch who recently branched off from the main Kejawen tradition (the indigenous Javanese magecraft system) by their adoption of modern western magecraft, and their embracing of modern technology.

The magecraft revolves around the manipulation of puppets familiars whose “shadows” are stored and prepared in special photographic camera films. Through modification made to the films, it is possible to adjust the attributes of the puppets. However, due to its nature, this magecraft cannot be used with modern digital cameras as the catalyst.

Shell Projection - Negative Image Diffuse

An advanced magecraft that Ms. Adelle developed to fully take advantage of her unique sorcery trait which reverses the “color” of all things. It deploys a short ranged bounded field around her within which all light becomes inverted, all objects possessing opposite characteristics, and all magecraft having inverted effects.

On human beings, it also causes their personality to shift considerably, but this requires them to stand close to her.

Mystic Camera - Soul Flash Capture

Ms. Adelle’s main Mystic Code, which she relies on mostly for mundane daily use as well as to sneakily enhance her career performance. It is something that imitates the mechanism and effects of a Mystic Eye.

The camera captures the image of the object, then the image is then processed by the gemstone lenses within the camera to render the desired effect of a Mystic Eye, and finally the resulting photograph is printed back into the world, inflicting the target with the simulated effect.

[PA270]

Adelle Widyamaya: I love her so much it's not even funny. The personality, the background, the abilities, they all comes together in an utterly fantastic way. I can genuinely feel the vibrancy of her personality, and the contrast with the inversion and draining of color her abilities can manifest. And the usage of idol culture as a Magecraft concept, even if it's more of a background detail, is such a fascinating idea that it instantly hooks me in. Fantastic work!

[pinetree]

Liemmia Davidoghter. Alias: The sole style under the heavens (self-appointed). Nationality: Greek Age: 22 Height: 164 cm Talent: Photography Attribute: Light Origin: Recurrence Element: Air Circuit Quantity/Quality: D / D Mental Switch: Mechanical camera shutters. Activation Spell: Πες Crest Core: Centaur synovial fluid. Crest Description: A grid-like pattern climbing her right calf and knee.

The Davidoghter Family.

A young family of mages who never seemed to be able to choose a proper path to follow, with each generation choosing to chase their own artistic volitions rather than following through the path their predecessors laid for them. Though their Greek foundation is unchanged, they started with the manufacturing of Mystic Codes based on concepts such as a Shirt of Flame, moved to necromancy with the study of Greek pottery painting and funerary rituals, abandoned it in favor of trying to reach the ouranian idea of beauty through sculpture… and so on. This constant change in interest also led to a constant change in Departments. They went through most of them without getting into much trouble, a feat that was only possible due to how irrelevant — politically and mystically — they were to the greater powers of the Clock Tower.
The only department they maintained a good relationship with was the Archeology Department, with whom most of their pursuits had aligned. The previous Meluastea head was particularly fond of them and sought to solidify their position in the Department, an effort that the Davidoghters also embraced and that lasted even after Karmaglyph took over.
Of course, that was until Liemmia dealt the most hurtful blow one could to Archeology. She stole an artifact found in a joint expedition and used it as leverage to be accepted to Lore, burning any bridges her family had ever managed to build in the world of magi.

History and Character.

Liemmia’s parents were determined to refocus the family magecraft on the production of Mystic Codes and its Greek foundations, taking advantage of their good relationship with the Meluastea Lords to secure a better position within the Neutral Faction and foster the growth of their family, who had remained inconsequential to the world of magecraft despite carrying quite a bit of history.
Though there was a rebellious streak early on, their daughter quickly adapted to their wants and proudly followed on their footsteps. The perfect heir, a dedicated student with good genes and a charismatic demeanor who was sure to lead them to great things within the Clock Tower.
When she turned 18, they gifted her with a powerful Mystic Code meant to protect against all manner of poisons and simple curses, a necessity in the dangerous world of magi.
Two weeks later, they both died in an unfortunate accident involving the production of Deianiran Dresses and a surprising malfunction on the bounded field surrounding their workshop. Liemmia was the sole survivor, saved by her gift.
A month after that, their hopes were discarded as she ended the production of Mystic Codes and turned her eyes to the artform that truly delighted her: Photography.
She spent the next years travelling through the world on the pretense of participating in the many endeavors of the Archeology Department around the globe, all the while registering the most stunning landscapes one could find.
Still, she could never overcome the frustration magecraft brought her. Photography was too recent a practice to wield any noteworthy praise in the moonlit world, and even her attempts at taking advantage of certain Greek formulas her ancestors had dabbled in had produced nothing truly remarkable. Unsatisfied with her chosen artform excelling only as art, and never as magic, she constantly sought ways to apply it, even investing much of her time in internet magecraft, where the use of images and compositing had some promise.

That was, until she stumbled upon a piece of broken marble a fellow magus had found amid the excavation site. A truly unique artifact that carried the quality of something beyond our reality. A piece of a

devil’s

slug’s

attempt at reaching our world and spreading its own bizarre aesthetic.
Yeah, this is what she had been waiting for.

Compositing Magecraft.

Liemmia’s personal spells are focused on changing the perceptions of others by means that are superficially similar to classic photo compositing techniques or internet culture use of images — such as creepypasta, chainmail and hoaxes — but actually have their roots in either the research of her predecessors or the corrupting influence of the exoanthropic artifact she took.

Slugtrail Chainmail A very weak mental interference spell that spreads through the visual medium. Anyone looking at the affected picture will feel compelled to follow certain instructions. The effects are incredibly minor and truly have little influence on the conscious mind of the target, no more than a Jeff the Killer photo or Momo Challenge hoax would, but it turned out to be surprisingly effective against the tech-illiterate Clock Tower mages who “felt compelled to follow the instructions since they did not realize commonfolk spread fake curses around for fun.”

Mystic Eyes of Rear Projection Originally called Mystic Eyes of Beam Emission. Greek emission theory formulae repurposed and enhanced through the use of the aesthetical encroaching of the exoanthropic marble. The belief that visual perception is achieved through the use of beams emitted by one’s eyes is conflated with the fact that one’s eyes actually absorb light, allowing the user to project invisible beams from their eyes that reflect from objects, causing others to see illusions. With the modifications applied by Liemmia, these Mystic Eyes are now tools that allow one to project certain aesthetical patterns that aren’t present in our reality, making more convincing illusions that can induce nausea and other ill-effects.

Memetic Shrimp Mantis shrimp-like familiars. These animals are capable of perceiving an absurd amount of light wavelengths due to the 16 types of photoreceptor cells they possess compared to a human’s 3, in other world, they are able to perceive invisible colors. These familiars shave been modified to possess the Mystic Eyes of Rear Projection, acting as autonomous projectors that, depending on the amount deployed, can spread illusions over large areas. Their unique eyesight also allows them to detect most forms of visual concealment, including advanced magical techniques. As a bonus, these familiars have also inherited the defense mechanisms of the animals they are based on, possessing the capability of attacking with claw strikes that carry enough strength and speed that they superheat the air around them.

Day of Decisive Battle.

The seemingly harmless paper she published has been making the rounds, partly due to the contentious contents, partly due to the web threat of death. With enemies all around the Archeology department and a soon-to-be legion of duped magi wanting to vent their frustration over being tricked, she has more than enough reasons to be worried. Nevertheless, she’s in bliss. As the aesthetical hazard of the exoanthropic artifact is spread, the creature

beyond

within

the marble gains power and influence, allowing her to change the world further, to manipulate its appearance as her eyes will it. There’s no real danger to the world at large, not with the spread contained to the internal channels of the Clock Tower and the amount of people intent on stopping it as soon as possible.
What matter is that her art can evolve further, and so can her magecraft. Who knows how long she'll last amid the treacherous path she has built for herself? Long enough to matter, is all she hopes for.

[Random]

fuck, we have a winner already?

[Kamera]

Pretty sure everyone's technically a winner if there's only 3 submissions.

[Random]

We still have a few hours, I'm working on it!

[Kamera]

When would be the voting deadline?

[Random]

One week from Sep 29 is Oct 6