Playing softball, and playing hardball
The Woolfs had a resounding victory over the SCUM yesterday! Well, ok, it wasn't all that resounding. It was a 1-0 victory. By forfeit. In a game we probably would have lost due to the SCUM's unhittable post-human demon goddess pitcher. But, hey, a win is a win, so I'll take it. Barring any unexpected losses to teams we're supposed to beat, we should win the league championship this season.
Let's see, did anything else happen? Certainly nothing as interesting or important as beating the SCUM, but there was the little incident where we were all ATTACKED BY A GIANT SOFTBALL DEMON! Evidently one or two of the SCUM players (Clarice and Julie, I think -- ha, I should have known!) decided Dot was too much for them to handle fairly, so they summoned a demon. Bad idea. Not only because they probably would have won the game courtesy of their own ringer, but because, you know, the demon tried to freaking kill everyone. Luckily Jane realized it was vulnerable to attacks with wooden bats, so we were able to hurt it at least a little. Unluckily we had mostly aluminum bats on hand, so only a few people could actually join in the fight.
Dot was great as usual. She was the first one to actually hurt it. She knocked a bunch of its constituent balls away, and then she literally ripped two of its "bases" (which formed its hands and feet -- yeah it was weird) apart. I tried to set it on fire with a spell at one point, which was not my brightest move ever. Instead of a giant, crazed, rampaging, murderous demon, we were suddenly faced with a giant, crazed, rampaging, murderous FLAMING demon. Oops. Eventually it did dawn on me that this would be an ideal time to try out that new spell I've been working on. The good news is that it worked! I was able to focus my power into a fist of air that slammed into the demon and finished it off. It was reduced to a pile of softballs. Not bad!
Now, the bad news. Or at least the pause-to-reflect news. Up until yesterday, the main limitation on my magic had always been knowledge. Any spell I could learn, I could do -- which is one reason I've been so obsessed with trying to obtain more magic books. But this time, even though the spell itself was relatively straightforward, I very, very nearly failed to cast it correctly. There was so much raw power flowing through me that I didn't think I had the strength to contain it. It was pure luck -- pointedly dramatic luck -- that I was able to keep my wits about me and avert disaster. I just keep thinking to myself, what if I hadn't been so lucky? My mystical Fist could have flailed out of control and smashed into a bunch of innocent bystanders. I mean, suppose I had struck the dugout where the SCUM were cowering. It's not like I'm best friends with them or anything, but I certainly don't want to kill them (or anyone else, for that matter) and I so easily could have become a mass murderer.
So, now I basically don't know what to do. I know this spell, and it's not like I can unlearn it. But I also know deep down that it's more than I can handle, and that I don't dare try to cast it again. Well, maybe as a last resort, like if I'm about to be eaten by a vampire or something. And maybe someday I'll have the mojo needed to focus energy like that. But until then, even though I should be overjoyed about beating the SCUM and casting a kick-ass spell that saved the day, I'm actually feeling strangely powerless and defeated. I wonder if people realize how close I came to killing everyone?
Let's see, did anything else happen? Certainly nothing as interesting or important as beating the SCUM, but there was the little incident where we were all ATTACKED BY A GIANT SOFTBALL DEMON! Evidently one or two of the SCUM players (Clarice and Julie, I think -- ha, I should have known!) decided Dot was too much for them to handle fairly, so they summoned a demon. Bad idea. Not only because they probably would have won the game courtesy of their own ringer, but because, you know, the demon tried to freaking kill everyone. Luckily Jane realized it was vulnerable to attacks with wooden bats, so we were able to hurt it at least a little. Unluckily we had mostly aluminum bats on hand, so only a few people could actually join in the fight.
Dot was great as usual. She was the first one to actually hurt it. She knocked a bunch of its constituent balls away, and then she literally ripped two of its "bases" (which formed its hands and feet -- yeah it was weird) apart. I tried to set it on fire with a spell at one point, which was not my brightest move ever. Instead of a giant, crazed, rampaging, murderous demon, we were suddenly faced with a giant, crazed, rampaging, murderous FLAMING demon. Oops. Eventually it did dawn on me that this would be an ideal time to try out that new spell I've been working on. The good news is that it worked! I was able to focus my power into a fist of air that slammed into the demon and finished it off. It was reduced to a pile of softballs. Not bad!
Now, the bad news. Or at least the pause-to-reflect news. Up until yesterday, the main limitation on my magic had always been knowledge. Any spell I could learn, I could do -- which is one reason I've been so obsessed with trying to obtain more magic books. But this time, even though the spell itself was relatively straightforward, I very, very nearly failed to cast it correctly. There was so much raw power flowing through me that I didn't think I had the strength to contain it. It was pure luck -- pointedly dramatic luck -- that I was able to keep my wits about me and avert disaster. I just keep thinking to myself, what if I hadn't been so lucky? My mystical Fist could have flailed out of control and smashed into a bunch of innocent bystanders. I mean, suppose I had struck the dugout where the SCUM were cowering. It's not like I'm best friends with them or anything, but I certainly don't want to kill them (or anyone else, for that matter) and I so easily could have become a mass murderer.
So, now I basically don't know what to do. I know this spell, and it's not like I can unlearn it. But I also know deep down that it's more than I can handle, and that I don't dare try to cast it again. Well, maybe as a last resort, like if I'm about to be eaten by a vampire or something. And maybe someday I'll have the mojo needed to focus energy like that. But until then, even though I should be overjoyed about beating the SCUM and casting a kick-ass spell that saved the day, I'm actually feeling strangely powerless and defeated. I wonder if people realize how close I came to killing everyone?