Nameless [ZnT/?] Quest.

[EnderofWorlds]

I was thinking more of the "rule of steel" kind of pride, that is, self control, dignity, not losing control over one's temper, etc. Not the whole "HOW DARE YOU VAGUELY INSULT ME!". Rule of Steel, Will of Steel, Soul of Steel. I don't even mind her thinking herself unworthy of anything since she's a failure, but the kind of pride that would make her hold herself to the highest standards, even if she doesn't hold anyone else to, or anyone else holds her to them.

Click to shrink...

And I'm bored shitless of Rule of Steel; when I said we abandon our pride, I meant all of it.

 

[Torgamous]

[X] Maybe you do already have a familiar, and it's just invisible! Yes, that must be it! Start waving your arms around and throwing dust everywhere to locate it. You can't have just failed you didn't just fail YOU DIDN'T FAIL!

 

[Felius]

[X] You failed. As much as you want to deny it, you failed. Go to your room, become introspective for a while, think of what makes a noble, if it is an inherent right or if it's the duties of the noble, the duty to protect the commoners and to serve their ruler. Come to the conclusion that is the duty that makes the noble, not the magic. You are not deserving of the privileges, for you can't accomplish the duties as a proper mage should, but you will try. By the founder, you will try. The next day get back out resolved to face your expulsion gracefully, and prepare yourself to go back to your family lands, so you can face the judgement and punishment of your mother. If she allows you to live, ask to be allowed to be trained in the ways of combat, as a foot soldier if needed be, because, if nothing else, you can still fight, you can still protect. Maybe your failures can prove at least some use there, but the duty of the noble is to protect, and so you shall, for duty is heavier than a mountain...

 

[GoC]

[X] Maybe you do already have a familiar, and it's just invisible! Yes, that must be it! Start waving your arms around and throwing dust everywhere to locate it. You can't have just failed you didn't just fail YOU DIDN'T FAIL!

 

[macdjord]

[X] They... they pity you? They dare pity you? You are a Valliere! A noble! HOW DARE THEY MOCK YOU?!? You, who can make explosions any battlemage would envy? Who can throw around square-level blasts and not even feel the willpower cost? To hell with them!
- [X] "I will not be pitied! I will not be dismissed! I am Louise Francoise le Blanc de la Valliere AND I MAKE EXPLOSIONS!"
- [X] Summon. Summon with all your might, your rage, your will. Show them all who they are dealing with! Summon something... impressive.

Rant shamelessly modified from this.

 

[useless101]

[X] Blow open the wall and escape. Where? You don't know; just....away. Away from the jeers, the failures, the pressure of the Rule of Steel. All of it.

This school is actually a terrible place for whatever type of mage Louise is.

Every attempt to teach her their style of magic not only can't have a positive effect, but also discourages her. None of them have thought to try to help her use the one thing she can do in a constructive fashion, only focused on the things she cannot do.

Getting out and blowing things up until she gets a handle on it is probably the best thing she could do.

 

[Biigoh]

Fizzle and no reaction... I think she DID summon something.

Hmmm.... this could be tricky. Something unseen or undetect....

Koishi?!?!

 

[Larekko12]

Fizzle and no reaction... I think she DID summon something.

Hmmm.... this could be tricky. Something unseen or undetect....

Koishi?!?!

Click to shrink...

Yeah

[x]Wait. The Summoning only fails when you already have summoned something... Maybe it's an animal that practices mystics stealth? Professor could help me look just this one time.

 

[Lilithium]

Hm.

...[X] Pride...something your whole life has been based on it seems. Pride as a noble, as a Valliere, as a mage. And look what pride has done for you...Nothing. Even now, your pride is worthless. Just a...silly little idea to help people sleep at night, to make people feel better about themselves regardless of what the truth says. Pride is worthless.

 

[Chibi-Reaper]

=>> Clutching at Straws.

No... the ritual is only supposed to fail like that if you've already summoned something, right? That has to be it.

.... Colbert is long gone by this point, as are all the other students before him. No help from that quarter just now. But you're grateful that nobody is present as you make a fool of yourself picking up dust from the ground and throwing it about, swinging your arms to try to hit an invisible... something. You aren't familiar with any sort of magical being which is, or can render itself, invisible. And you've read a number of bestiaries in preparation for this.

Eventually, seated on the ground and staring up at the reddening clouds as the sun sets, you're forced to admit that, even if it was invisible, you wouldn't have found it. Putting yourself in the position of such a thing....

.... Yes, it would have left almost immediately after figuring out where it was, if it waited that long to simply slip out.

Maybe if you'd thought of this right after the summoning, you could have caught....

... or maybe you'd just have made a spectacle of yourself in front of witnesses instead of alone.

Damn it.

But maybe if you can just argue the possibility well enough, then...?

---

[ ] ??

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Give in and cry....
- - [X] The rule of steel doesn't say you can't cry... especially when no one is watching.

 

[Pipeman]

Do we know the theory of any spell that let's you locate or see though the eyes of your familiar?
Unlikely to work, especially since we haven't bound anything but I can't think of anything else and it seems IC to keep grasping at straws.

 

[Torgamous]

[X] Well, that's bargaining and denial taken care of. Depression looks to be the next on the agenda.

 

[Ardion Prosili]

Nameless? My plot is tingling....

[x] Lets get it over with. WE SAD NOW

 

[Jiven]

[X] Well, that's bargaining and denial taken care of. Depression looks to be the next on the agenda.

 

[Carrnage]

[X] What if the ritual selectedma familiar but didnt summon it to you?

 

[Phyllosofer]

It's technically not our familiar till we actually do the whole branding thing, so it doesn't have any compulsion to serve nor will any spells involving familiars work with it.

 

[Larekko12]

[x]Any familiar spells that work without the branding if not Depression hits.

 

[minuseven]

Chibi.... So many quests.....

[X] Get the crying done now. You'll need all of your composure for tomorrow...

 

[Phyllosofer]

I think this is his sixth or seventh ongoing quest.

[x] Get on with the Depression so we can move on to Acceptance

 

[Lilithium]

Then we brand our self right back.

This is the person/creature/thing that answered the call of our magic, what may-as-well be our soul. It 'belongs' to us just as much as we belong to it.

 

[Chibi-Reaper]

=>> Stages of grief?

You aren't crying. You're angry. These are the tears of a furious rage, and...

Nobody here.

Okay, you might be sniffling a little bit. This is terrible. There are two categories of people in the world. Nobles, who can use magic, and Commoners, who cannot.

Having magic, and being unable to use it, means that you don't fit in either category. At bare minimum, the least that you could manage to do and maintain the family honor is to summon anything and then quietly withdraw from the academy to focus on other things, so that people can just politely ignore your... inability.

Anything. It didn't have to be a dragon, or a unicorn, or a manticore. You'd have just as eagerly taken a rabbit, or a kitten, or a slimy and disgusting frog like that Montmorency's, or...

Anything would have been better than nothing.

Your mind is still whirling, grasping at straws.

Maybe the summoning ritual marked the animal you were supposed to call, instead of bringing it?

No, that doesn't make any sense at all.

The summoning, and the binding... those are two different spells entirely. They are paired in the ritual, one to call forth the ideal familiar for you, and another to bind it as your familiar.

Even botched, the one spell can't perform the functions of the other, especially at any appreciable distance.

.... But maybe it just didn't bring it all the way, stopped somewhere off, because it had started much further than any other summoning or... or something?

Grasping at straws again. Absurd. And besides, it wouldn't matter, because how would you find it if it was dropped off midway?

It would be a foolish and mad venture. As well just go and pick up some peasant's hound, or stray alley-cat....

.... N-no, you can't do that. .... Right? That... it's a sacred ritual, even if that spell worked where this one didn't, it, it would be blasphemous, not just a lie but it could be called heresy to profane the ritual in such a way.

The last sliver of the sun falls below the horizon, though traces of its light still fill the sky.

---

[ ] ??

 

[Felius]

[X] Remain motionless where you are, depressed and trying to fully accept what happened.

 

[Vindictus]

[X] Only one thing left. Honorable suicide. Explode your head.

 

[Lilithium]

• [X]Try binding yourself. Maybe the only familiar ideal for you is yourself?

Yes I am a horrible person.

 

[useless101]

[X] Time for some cathartic therapy.
-[X] Leave by the front gate.
--[X] Cast spells at trees until you feel better, or run out of trees.

If they need us they can just follow the explosions.

Rather not play break the haughty. Grow, earn it, and shed false pride as you gain something worthwhile seems a better bet.

 

[Biigoh]

[X] Remain motionless where you are, depressed and trying to fully accept what happened.
- - [X] Look at the lights of the academy, the sounds of [successful] students heard as they talked in their rooms and did things.
- - [X] Lie down on the grass and look up at the twin moons...

 

[Ardion Prosili]

[x ] Wind up in the Bloods War
-[x ] Find the dead no-longer-Nameless One to make the quest's title fit

i just had to

 

[EnderofWorlds]

[X] Pride...something your whole life has been based on it seems. Pride as a noble, as a Valliere, as a mage. And look what pride has done for you...

Nothing. Even now, your pride is worthless. Just a...silly little idea to help people sleep at night, to make people feel better about themselves regardless of what the truth says.

Pride is worthless.

So you will throw it away.
[X] Blow open the wall and escape. Where? You don't know; just....away. Away from the jeers, the failures, the pressure of the Rule of Steel. All of it.

 

[minuseven]

[X] Start thinking... on your options. You're an in-between, someone who doesn't belong neither here nor there. But there must exist options for you.
-[X] You've heard a bit of how Hen-ugh, Princess Henrietta had a squad of commoner-knights in her service. That is a noble's job, traditionally and practically, protecting royalty. Perhaps it's an honourable venue worth pursuing? It would certainly be following in your parents footsteps...