Fanfic: Magicrack (Magic AU) - Chapter 6a
Saturday, March 22nd, 2014 04:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mindcrackloveLast time on Magicrack: Team Canada shenanigans after the kidnapping of Pause and Bdubs. This time on Magicrack: PLOT. PLOT EVERYWHERE.
*_*_*
Chapter 6a - Voices and Memories
Guude has found heaven, and it’s the drowsy feeling of curling up on a sun-warmed bench as night begins to fall. He brings his arms in a little more, scrunches down into his jacket as the cold air tries to sneak in. He’ll have to head back soon, but for now he’ll just enjoy the sight of stars slowly emerging from the black.
He loves this park. Can’t really explain why, it’s a small thing, barely enough space for two small fields, a few trees, and a tiny bathroom, but he’s been coming here since he started college in this city. The first time he’d just been exploring. The second time he’d wanted a breath of air that wasn’t full of car exhaust and sat on this very bench. (He likes to think of it as his bench, nowadays.) The third time he’d looked up from his homework and into the nose of a fluffy, brown dog. Who promptly licked Guude’s face and, with judicious use of puppydog eyes, conned him into a long game of fetch.
Then… Guude is fairly sure he started coming more often to play with his new-found friend. Boo is a weird dog, unerringly intelligent, prone to vanishing at a whim (though never without a parting bark), and sometimes more human than Guude wants to think about. Despite the oddities, they get on well and Guude likes the days when he can take a break from math to play. He can only assume Boo likes them too, because the dog keeps coming back. Also, Generik says so, but he’s rapidly learning to take everything Generik says with the mindset that he might be in a trolling mood.
The night is drawing quickly, so he sighs, resigned to leaving his warm bubble of radiating wood and body heat in a minute or two. The soft rustle of approaching footsteps doesn’t register until lanky limbs bend into a crouch and a pair of curious brown eyes lock with his own.
“Whoa!” he shouts, or tries to shout as his sleepy vocal cords turn the sound into an embarrassingly high pitched shriek. Guude scrambles upright, muscles stiff from sitting for so long. “Bdubs! Hey, guy!”
Bdubs grins cheerfully, straightening and offering Guude a conciliatory hand, “Hey Guude! What’re you doing here so late?”
“I could ask the same of you, you know. I like watching the sunset from here,” Guude says. He grabs Bdubs’ hand with a bit more force than necessary and, in return, Bdubs hauls him off the bench almost fast enough to send him tumbling into the grass.
They exchange cheeky smirks, then Bdubs replies, “I was just heading home after a walk. Genny’ll get worried if I’m not back soon, wanna walk ‘n’ talk?”
“Sure,” Guude stuffs his hands in his pockets, setting off towards the street at an ambling pace. “I know the feeling. Jsano can be as much a mother hen as Beef, though he’s on graveyard shift tonight and won’t be there to yell at me.” Unfortunately that won’t make a difference to Jsano’s wards. I’ll probably get scolded for staying out after dark again when he gets back.
“Do you think they realize we’re not children?” Bdubs grumbles.
“I think they take great pleasure in pretending we are. You know, we should start a club. People Who Have Too Many Mothers. Pause can join us. We meet up at my place on Tuesday evenings when Jsano’s gone and complain about our third parents.”
“Reenact memorable rants.”
“Share our stories over juice because Jsano can sniff out alcohol from a hundred paces.”
“Make Mother’s Day cards for them?”
“And, if we’re feeling extra dangerous, stay up until midnight,” Guude finishes with an exaggerated woooo.
Bdubs breaks into giggles that he’s been straining to keep in. “What rebellious children we are!"
Guude mock-sighs, placing a hand on the side of his face and closing his eyes in contrition, “But we love our dear extra mothers to death, so of course we call them and tell them to not worry.” He grins as Bdubs redoubles his laughter, Guude loves when he can make Bdubs laugh.
“So,” he says, once Bdubs recovers, “speaking of Generik, how’s Boo?”
“Oh, he’s, uh, well.”
Guude raises an eyebrow at Bdubs’ stuttering.
“He’s fine.” Bdubs says, with authority. He nods, as if confirming it himself.
“Oookay.”
“No, no, he’s fine! Great, even! He’s really happy that he gets to play with you more,” Bdubs says.
Guude thinks he can see a shy smile on Bdubs’ face, even though the nearest streetlight barely illuminates the two of them. He wonders what that’s all about. It’s good to hear that Boo is doing well, though.
“If fact, I could go get him right now, if you want?” Gaze flicking briefly over Guude’s shoulder, Bdubs says this with a distracted air.
Blinking at the sudden offer, Guude says “oh, no, you don’t have to.” He cranes his neck to look for whatever Bdubs is seeing, but the he can’t spy anything unusual in the darkness and by the time he turns back Bdubs is focused squarely on him, like nothing ever caught his eyes. “Boo is probably asleep by now, anyway.”
“No he isn’t! See ya later! I’ll get Boo.” And Bdubs is off like a shot, Guude left gaping at his back. That was… quick.
Guude really should be getting back, though. Jsano might be overly cautious, but he had a right to be only a year ago.
It started in high school, senior year. He’d been walking home one peaceful night and had spotted a man coming down the other side of the street. There hadn’t been a car in sight, unusual even for a small town like Guude’s. Like any properly paranoid high schooler, he’d kept his head down and one eye on the strange man. Good thing, too. They’d barely passed each other when Guude had seen his shadow stop, one arm stretched out.
He’d dropped to the ground, narrowly missing the barrage of needles whispering through the space his head had just occupied. He’d pressed back against the store behind him—mysteriously as empty as the street—hands pressed against his mouth to stifle a cry of shock. The man had readied his hand again, aimed at the center of Guude’s chest, and Guude barely remembered himself in time to shout GO AWAY, sending fear/run/leavemealone. The man had clasped his hands over his ears, too late remembering the spines just emerging from his fingers.
And he’d… Guude’s hands had suddenly covered his mouth again for an entirely different reason. The man had keened in pain, eyes just widening from realization, and keeled over, blood leaking from the side of his head. He’d run, then, stumbling upright and leaving the man, slivers of wood pierced through one side of his head to the other, trying, trying to not think about how it had been his Voice, his words.
He’d finally thrown up, collapsed on the floor of his bathroom and drawing in huge gasps of air with his forehead pressed against the toilet bowl. He hadn’t slept that night. Or the next. His Voice had gone nuts, randomly pushing compulsion into his conversations. It had even turned on himself, his panicked mutterings only serving to work himself up further as ohgod/yourfault/youkilledhim/youalmostdied rebounded between his head and his Voice. Eventually Beef had needed to send him to sleep until he was calm enough to at least act normal. His friends had asked what was wrong, but Guude never told them.
And then it happened again. Luckily, Guude managed to escape without… but it kept happening. The stress built up. He knew Beef could sense it, could feel soothing presses on his mind whenever they were in the same room, but other than increasingly concerned glances, his fellow senior had been kind enough not to press.
Guude had thought moving to college in a new place would fix things, one of the reasons he’d been so insistent on leaving his town in the first place. His friends had gladly followed him, only too happy to finally see Guude excited and hopeful about something.
When it continued to chase him, Guude had nearly given up. Jsano was a saving grace. After a mutual exchange of information, he’d immediately worked to cover their room with wards. White magic, he’d said, is perfect against people who want to kill. And then, out of nowhere, the attacks stopped. Guude still didn’t know what had changed. Even with the wards he’d still been targeted when outside them.
Whatever the reason, it had been a huge weight off his shoulders. Even Baj, notorious for his blasé reaction to things, had nearly hugged him when he’d heard Guude laugh freely for the first time in a year. (As it was, he’d just clapped him on the shoulder, but Guude had seen the aborted movement he’d made with his other arm.)
Jsano, ever the cautious med student, continued to keep his wards maintained. He still rekeyed them every month and had Guude carry an alarm at all times. He couldn’t really fault him for it, Guude had a couple of close calls and could understand Jsano’s fear.
A soft yip draws him out of his thoughts. “So Bdubs actually went to get you?” Guude sighs, “I told him he didn’t need to. He didn’t wake you up, did he? I’m not going to have Generik wake me up tomorrow, yelling about me stealing his dog?”
Boo turns his nose up with a huff, barking about something or other. He shakes his great, furry head, looking Guude in the eyes.
“You really do seem human, sometimes.”
Guude swears Boo looks sheepish at that, but then the dog just starts barking loudly, as if to distract him. He’s been hanging out with Bdubs too much, because that’s such a Bdubs thing and he really shouldn’t be projecting Bdubs onto his dog of all things.
They’re walking past a diner when Guude notices how empty everything is.
No people. Not a one.
That’s his first clue. Guude fingers the slip of paper in his jacket pocket. The reassuring presence of Jsano’s sigil calms him, but his gaze darts around, searching for something out of place.
His second clue is Boo’s low, rumbling growl. Beside him, Boo’s head is ducked, ears back, radiating tenseness in the line of his back. Guude sees him scanning their surroundings just like Guude is.
Guude’s third clue is less of a clue and more of an outright statement. He is shoved to the side as Boo leaps into him. There is a moment where everything is still, almost frozen in time as he spies the fireball just coming into contact with Boo’s side, and then everything jerks back into motion. Boo is slammed into the wall, his howl cut short as he slumps, and Guude crashes to the ground, rolling from the force of the pounce. He catches sight of a figure on the opposing roof, the light of another blast forming in his hands, and Guude shouts LEAVE, turning his shock and fright into diamond-edged intent. The shape reels back, but Guude has no eyes for that, only for the man lying unconscious on the sidewalk where Boo was, only a second ago.
*_*_*
Well that was fun! If it helps at all, during the long break I was doing a little work for a later part of this project. MC and Pyro have a little story to tell, and I wanted to make it fun for them. Don't know if I'll ever finish it, but I got the first page done, so we'll see.
Magic Profile - Etho
Ninjaaaaaa. Well, that was fairly predictable and boring. So, I have endeavored to make him not boring by making sure he’s not an exact replica of Kakashi. I do like Kakashi, but the world only needs one of him. Also, he doesn’t have the Sharingan because it would be so much less useful in a story like this where they probably won’t be encountering many other ninja. Other than a matter of convenience, this is also because in Magicrack, most of the major ninja clans have pretty much died out. Their bloodlines were so far diluted over time that only once in a great while a child will be born with access to their clan’s bloodline limit (clan-specific ability, passed down through genetics). There are a lot of random people running about with a good amount of chakra (living energy, but it’s ninja magic for all intents and purposes), but no training to use it.
Etho was trained to use it because he’s pretty much the most powerful ninja to be born in a generation, so much that fellow ninja have taken to calling him The Last Shinobi (just fun trivia, that, I dunno if we’re going to be seeing any other ninja). His bloodline limit is the Wire Release (hariganeton), which combines lightning and earth chakra into tightly controlled strings of pure energy.
Among the specific techniques (jutsu) of Wire Release are Wire Release: 64 Threads (the user controls 64 wires of energy), Wire Release: 256 Threads (the user controls 256 wires of energy), Wire Release: Chain Lightning (wires that hit living beings utilize the chakra inside of them to create new wires that arc to additional targets), Wire Release: Wireframe Armor (creates a wireframe suit of armor just above the user’s skin), Wire Release: Wireframe Dragon (user can control a dragon made of wires), Wire Release: Wireframe Clone (creates a clone of the user with wires), Wire Release: Net of Sparks (wires form a net, it’s very painful to be caught in and usually results in unconsciousness), Wire Release: Amplify (ups the amps of the wires; they cost more chakra but are more powerful, Etho’s eyes turn/glow gold when he uses this). There are others, but I’m leaving it open for future additions.
Etho can also use some of the Earth Release and Lightning Release jutsu, although I will be avoiding Chidori and Raikiri like the plague because they are Kakashi’s signature techniques. Like all lightning techniques, Wire Release can be powered up directly by lightning (and electricity in general, we’re in the modern age now). It can also be supercharged when combined with water, as water is a conductor and earth is strong against water (Naruto’s justification for this is that earth absorbs water).
He can also use the usual ninja techniques, like Body Replacement (kawarimi no jutsu) and Transformation (henge). He has a tanto (couldn’t resist at least one reference), and uses shuriken and kunai like Naruto is famous for. One thing to note about his kunai, he tends to attach them to his Wire Release so sometimes they’ll be electrified and manipulatable in that fashion.
Oh, the reason he keeps his left eye covered is a little more mundane in Magicrack, it’s just naturally gold and that tends to creep people out. He loves being in high places, so he's usually walking on handrails and perching on light fixtures when everyone else is just being normal. Beef has tried to train him out of it, but it just doesn't stick.
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Complete list of whose powers are decided at the time of posting: Bdubs, Generik, Guude, Beef, Pause, Nebris, Pakratt, BTC, Pyro, MC, Vechs, Jims, Etho, Kurt, Doc, Mhykol, Jsano, Adlington, Arkas, Zisteau (subject to change), Avidya (subject to change), Dinnerbone (may make a cameo or two), Old Man (may make a cameo or two).
Previous chapters:
Prologue: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/235792.html
Chapter 1: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/307176.html
Chapter 2: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/336119.html
Chapter 3: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/350742.html
Chapter 4a: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/374825.html
Chapter 4b: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/3804
Chapter 5: mindcracklove.dreamwidth.org/496680.html
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 12:39 am (UTC)Don't pop me, please.
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 12:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 12:43 am (UTC)Well, this is awesome...
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 12:58 am (UTC)Thanks, glad you like!
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 02:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 02:10 am (UTC)Guude! Bdubs! *Squees in happiness and squeals in horror* Guude! Bdubs! Ohononono don't let Bdubs die plz. <3 I have taken a shine to this Bdubs. *Nodnodnodnodnod*
Also poor Guude... *HUGS*
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 02:32 am (UTC)*nodnod* Yeah, poor guy. That honestly wasn't how I was expecting that flashback to go, but it all turned out good!
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 05:51 am (UTC)I love this AU!
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 06:23 am (UTC)I'm happy it's still entertaining!
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 06:29 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Friday, November 21st, 2014 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 08:22 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 02:44 pm (UTC)Poor Bdubs... He better not die! Please don't die!
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Date: Sunday, March 23rd, 2014 10:49 pm (UTC)I don't kill people. ^^ Just torture them.
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Date: Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 01:10 am (UTC)*random mixture of happiness and excitement squees for new chapters*
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Date: Tuesday, March 25th, 2014 03:25 am (UTC)Thanks a lot! <3
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Date: Friday, March 28th, 2014 08:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: Friday, March 28th, 2014 05:03 pm (UTC)Thanks! <3 It means a lot that you decided to resend your lurkerhood for this little story.
I don't know anything about your writing, but even if you feel that it's not quite up to your standards, time and practice will help a lot! (I've noticed my writing improve over the months I've been here. Even if you don't post anything, if you ever get the inspiration, just write it!)