Day 53: Lunch

[buryyourdemons]

There was little to be said of the daily business that went on. He allowed himself to be shuffled, mind embedded too deeply in things he shouldn't be dwelling on. The night was over, the shadows had vanished, and there was little more than bad memories to be left in their stead. This was logic, pure and simple, and should have been reassuring but

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[razing_phoenix]

It was no surprise that Natalia had had a hard time hearing about his bad news, but he was glad that they'd at least managed to talk about some other things. He was sure that the healing group that she seemed intent on putting together would go well under her guidance, but he also worried about her pushing herself too hard. Organizing people in this place wasn't always easy, what with the constant disappearances and everything else. Still, Guy believed in her, and he was sure she'd do fine

[bodhiandspirit]

That was refreshing, in a way. It was a relief to find that somewhere in this sea of idiots were a few people with useful information and critical thinking skills. Thanks to Furudo, Rita was able to confirm some aspects of her hypotheses, while hearing other plausible theories for the events of the previous night. In the end, they couldn't go and test their theories, but they at least had some explanation other than superstitious nonsense. They wouldn't get anywhere by taking Landel's tricks at face value

[razing_phoenix]

Of all the people to be approached by, Guy hadn't expected the girl who'd mistaken him for a friend (or an acquaintance, at least) the day before. He glanced up, finishing up the bite of pizza in his mouth as he nodded to her to let her know she could sit. Their conversation yesterday had turned out to be pretty interesting, so he was more than happy to continue it now. It would probably do a decent job of getting his mind off of things

[bodhiandspirit]

Good; it looked like Guy wasn't going to beat around the bush either. If Rita was fortunate, then they would be able to make full use of the shift without wasting any time.

"Heraldry?" Immediately, there was a spark of interest in Rita's eyes. "I've never heard of it." Which meant there was no telling whether or not it would be useful to her or her planet, but Rita had a strong personal interest in the subject regardless of the applications, so she was eager to hear more.

"If you tell me what you know about heraldry, I don't mind telling you about my findings, but just as a warning, they might not be applicable to other planets." She wasn't sure whether Guy would be the type of person to complain if her information wasn't of any use to him, but he certainly wouldn't be able to do so now that she gave him ample warning.

[razing_phoenix]

It was so uncommon for Guy to see the spark of true interest in this sort of thing shining in the eyes of someone else, and he couldn't help smiling to himself at the sight. While he could only imagine what he looked like when he got into this sort of mood, what he saw on Rita's face gave him a pretty clear idea of it. But instead of being annoyed the way his friends always were, her energy only added to his own

[bodhiandspirit]

From the sounds of it, Guy was going to be perfectly reasonable about this. It wasn't that he'd given her any reason to suspect he'd give her trouble, but Rita just wanted to be certain that she wouldn't wind up in any annoying situations because of this.

When he began to explain, Rita produced her notebook, which hadn't left her person since morning, and took notes. She looked at Guy as she wrote, and her writing, predictably, ended up sloppy, but anyone who had seen Rita's notes before would find it wasn't any more illegible than usual.

Any attitude that remained in her expression faded away as she listened with fascination. "That sounds similar to how blastia is used. Do you know anything about how it works?"

She guessed that Guy wouldn't know very much if he'd only learned about it through friends, but it was worth asking. More than likely, however, Rita was going to have to try and find someone from Expel to get an in-depth explanation of the technical aspects.

[razing_phoenix]

Writing everything down would have been a good idea, and Guy had definitely taken some notes on heraldry in the past. Unfortunately, he'd forgotten to bring his journal with him today as he hadn't expected to run into Rita again so soon. Well, for now he'd just have to rely on his memory, which he thought was sharp enough that he'd be all right. He could record everything down at dinner, if Okita didn't mind

[bodhiandspirit]

Symbols... That was interesting. Perhaps the symbols were a sort of magic formula in themselves. Rita knew it wouldn't do to try and associate heraldry with her own magic, however. It was possible that it operated in a way that was entirely different from what she knew.

The other point of interest was that some were born with the ability. Rita's mind drifted to Estelle momentarily, thinking about her abilities, how they were inherited, and then... what she was doing now, if she was safe... However, Rita forced her mind back to the topic at hand before she could begin to dwell on that.

"It sounds like I'd need to talk to someone from Expel to get the technical details. Do you mind telling me the names of those friends you mentioned?" At this point, Rita was just asking for convenience. Even if Guy didn't tell her who to seek out, she'd go out and find them anyway. If this was a type of magic that outsiders to Expel could possibly learn, then Rita wanted to know everything she could about it.

[razing_phoenix]

Glad to see that Rita had come to the conclusion that she would be better off talking to someone who was more informed about the subject, Guy nodded and smiled. He knew that he wasn't an expert, though he did feel bad that he was making more work for the girl. On the other hand, she seemed like the sort of person who would want as much information as she could get, and she had asked of her own volition

[bodhiandspirit]

Leon and Claude. The names were added to her notebook, along with brief notes next to them. She'd try to get in contact with them after lunch. Hopefully, Guy's definition of 'expert' wouldn't fall too far below Rita's standards of what an expert should be.

It looked like it was Rita's turn to divulge information now, which she didn't mind too much. She'd already gotten what she wanted from the conversation, and besides, she rather liked talking about her research.

"Our main source of energy at the moment is aer, which can be loosely defined as the essence of magic." Very loosely, but Rita recognized that a full explanation would be too time-consuming and could distract Guy from the big picture. Best to keep it concise. "It occurs naturally throughout the world. We were able to manipulate aer using blastia - stone-like objects imbued with aer - by applying formulas to them. Those formulas dictate the function of the blastia

[razing_phoenix]

It didn't take much effort to get Rita to launch into an explanation, and so Guy watched the girl carefully and listened as he continued to eat his food. He hoped that she didn't see it as impolite that he was eating while she was taking, but he was pretty sure it would be clear how interested he was just by the look in his eyes

[bodhiandspirit]

"That's a bit difficult to explain without showing, but... essentially, we're able to bring up a user interface when working with blastia, which allows us to input or edit the formulas attached to the blastia. The formulas themselves aren't much different from the sorts of formulas used in mathematics or physics," Rita explained. She wasn't sure what to compare the interface to, if it could really be compared to anything. It really was something that needed to be seen to be fully understood

[razing_phoenix]

User interface? Even though Guy did what he could to bring up a mental image of something like that, he really had no clue what it was. It sounded like the sort of terminology that Claude would have tossed out, but Rita wasn't someone he was comfortable enough with to ask for clarification. She seemed to be the sort of person who could get annoyed easily, whereas he wasn't the sort of person who liked to push other's buttons. Instead, Guy focused on what he could follow -- the formulas were scientific in nature, then. Once again, it was a shame Jade wasn't around; he would have eaten this up

[bodhiandspirit]

Rita nodded to confirm that Guy had the right idea, and when complimented, a smug grin crossed her face. "I suppose so. Other people could stand to apply themselves more, though." Youths and adults included. While the fact that Rita had risen above many older and more experienced mages said a lot about her ability, it also suggested that some of them just needed to work harder

[razing_phoenix]

While Guy wasn't quite sure what Rita meant by that first comment, it seemed to imply that she expected more from other people. She seemed confident in her abilities and her intelligence, but -- well, it probably didn't matter. That statement could probably hold true for anywhere, though

[bodhiandspirit]

It wasn't often that Rita met someone with a genuine interest in her studies, and it was even rarer to meet someone who also happened to be a good listener. Rita was happy to take advantage of her captive audience and explain her greatest discovery of all.

"Mana," she answered, her grin widening. "It's a substance that isn't quite aer or matter, but it can be used as a safe substitute for aer. I recently developed a formula to convert aer to mana... though it had another unexpected effect." From the way her smile didn't fade, it may have been safe to assume that unexpected didn't necessarily mean bad"One of the materials used, apatheia, is produced by a particular aer-based species... upon their deaths. In addition to aer, apatheia seems to also contain some remnant of their consciousness. When the mana conversion formula is applied to this substance, it becomes a spirit... an intelligent mana-based being." In a way, it could be said that her formula raised the dead. More accurately, it helped a species reach its next level of