The Justins talk Warding

Characters in this scene: Justin Landis Jr, Justin (Inkstainer)

Setting Location: Sanctuary

Landis963 — 03/29/2021

"Yeah. Me too. I think I can write her a letter, though. Maybe Miz Christine will know! Oh, which reminds me!" He's still tired-looking about the eyes, but he's gotten interested again. "You're Inkstainer, right? From the pinball video? Miz Christine mentioned you had a defensive trick or two that'd be good for a novice like me to learn."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/29/2021

Ink smiles. "Yes! You can call me- actually, just call me Ink. My name is Justin too, which could get confusing." He thinks for a moment. "There are a few different tricks I could teach you, but it depends on what you and your father do. It would be a waste to teach you something you already know. How much do you know about seals? The type you have on paper and throw down to get an effect?"

Landis963 — 03/29/2021

"Dad has this trick where he can write down a diagram on something, then apply physical force to it and have it bleed out to a larger more active form, but I think his pen helps him cheat. He's also helped me with some City Mage stuff, and there's a diagram I know that can transport a single target to an adjacent Realm - I think by default it's the realm with all the place spirits in it, but I've been looking up ways to plug in different chevron combos, so to speak. I kind of bounced off Astrology, though - Dad's potent, but his stuff is sprawling and it took him ages to get things up and running."

March 30, 2021

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

Ink looks surprised. "His pen? Is his implement a pen?" He holds up the red pen in his hand and shakes his head. "Well, in that case, my and his Practice may be closer than I thought. He may already know most of what I could teach. For defense I focus mainly on written work, prepared ahead of time. Let me see -" He reaches into his jacket with his free hand and pulls out a small, carefully bound book, then opens it to a page in the middle. It's perforated, with a complex diagram drawn on the linen paper. "This is a seal which, when thrown onto the ground, protects the person who throws it against the next physical attack. If you look here," he points at the drawings around the diagram, which follow the overall shapes contained within, "this one is specialized to work against bladed weapons. But the principles are the same for any attack. I could teach you how to put together your own, if you'd like."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"I think so? It's the one he uses to draft building plans. I kind of skimmed that Implement book because it seems like a lot to nail down about you all at once.

I'd love to hear how you'd explain seals, though. What changes when you specialize it against different things? Punches, or elemental damage, for example?"

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

"For me, a large part of it is the *ink* I use to draw the seal. My pen is a fountain pen, so I can write with most things turned liquid, given enough effort. But in general, it's also about the shapes. See how these here," he points at a certain ring of concentric arcs, looking similar to the petals of a very pointy flower, "evoke sharpness? If it were to protect against punches and blunt impacts overall, I might make them rounder, flatter, with heavier lines, and then mirror it in the drawings outside. Elemental, if it's a broad-strokes protection, I might - one moment -" He puts away the small book, then grabs a napkin. "I might circle it in a ring like this." He takes off his right glove, revealing heavily ink-stained fingers and knuckles beneath, and uncaps his pen to draw a complex but repeating pattern of elemental symbols; droplets, fire, clouds of multiple types, and more, all melding into each other. For a moment it's clear that he's lost himself in the work.

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

He's just drinking it all in, eyes flicking between the three versions of the ward.

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He finishes a full half-circle on the napkin, the ink from his pen bleeding out to saturate the thin paper. The lines themselves are still clear. "In general, there are, of course, the details - what kind of border do you use? How many parallel circles? But those are the same for every version." He taps the mirrored regions with the back of his pen. "And you can just use it as is, too. There's no *need* for customization like this. Alone, if drawn with ink that brings power, or supported with a power source, it should stand up to a punch. Specializing just increases the effectiveness against that one source of damage. I will admit that I've mostly used versions against blades and punches, and that in the best case scenario you would never need any of them." "I'm sorry - I should have asked at the beginning. Is there anything that *you* are particularly worried about protecting yourself from, or during?"

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"Well, I don't want another Worm to happen to me. That was the tech-based Other that got me into this... magic stuff in the first place. More immediately... I guess stuff to deal with bullies? Something to make them pull their punches would be good."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

Inkstainer grins. "Oh, yes, I know how that goes. I didn't get to use Practice against mine, but..." he grabs another napkin and starts to outline before pausing. "Do be careful about using Practice against them." He continues drawing, this time not diagrams, but an individual sigil. It's complex, artistic, but not uncopyable. He stops himself from drawing the last line, then pushes the napkin across the table. "If you power this - with ink that has power, or another source, and *especially* if you can get bottled lethargy - this should give off a weak feeling of making one's goals not worth pursuing. And if you carve it into a piece of jade and wear it as a necklace, it could turn away anyone coming at you with hostile intent overall. That is, I don't know if it would work against anything other than a very weak individual without quite a bit of power."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"I can add it to the collection." He pulls out 4 other necklaces, each a simple cord with a charm attached - a dull black stone, a circle of wood carved to look like woven twigs, an ammonite fossil made of opal, and a slightly bent and discolored tag with a feather silhouette punched through it.

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

Inkstainer blinks. "That's... quite the collection, yes. Is this going to be redundant?"

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"I don't think so." He commandeers a nearby table, spreading them out. "These three here -" the black stone, the wood circle, and the feather tag "along with the blue crystal I've got on, are roughly associated with the classical elements. They slowly get power from spiritual seepage from a hallow in my Throat. The damage to the air one is from my previous attempt at making a capital-Collection out of them, and I think I misread how that's supposed to work exactly. *This* one -" the ammonite "was a gift from that man who... tried to disembowel the Grand guy..." He's distracted himself with the memories of Oliver covered in blood.

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He listens intently, drinking in the details of each of the four necklaces on the table - *have I seen anything like these before?* - before his eyes flick back up to the younger Justin's face. "Hey - you don't need to worry about that. He was healed, and we'll figure out how to solve it. Oliver is a good kid and we're taking care of him."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"It's not that! Oliver had appointed himself my bodyguard my previous visit here, same time he gave me that, and I hadn't seen him at all before that point, and now I know that if something had gone wrong he'd have launched himself out of the shadows and torn the offender to shreds *right in front of me!*"

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He's at a loss for words for a moment, trying to figure out if the younger Justin thinks this is a *good* or *bad* thing. "...Yes, he likely would have done his best to protect you, even if that's what it took," he says eventually.

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"I know. And I should be grateful for that protection. And I know I'm lucky to be here. But, I don't know if I feel safe, here, anymore. It's stupid, I know."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He looks down for a moment, then back up at Justin - just a boy half his age, already Awake, already so deep in Practice that he's seen a man almost die in front of him at the hands of someone he may have taken for a friend. "I'm sorry, Justin. I'm sorry you had to see that, and that -" *that my wards weren't good enough to stop it from happening* "-it happened. The truth is that our world... it isn't always safe. That's why we come together like this, at Sanctuary, and in families, and in groups of friends. To protect ourselves. It's why I'm a Warden and not something else." He takes a deep breath. "That man hurt Oliver when he wasn't protected like we are now. And none of us are perfect."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

He sniffs. "I- ahem." He swallows. "I know. Still doesn't make it any easier. Anyway!" He glares at the unabashedly sparkling ammonite. "That's supposed to charge up with received well-wishes - "Good morning", "Have a nice day", "break a leg," et cetera. The energies generated can be used to give me an overshield. I kind of wanted to power it with the other pendants but trying to get them into a proper config caused the whole thing to spring a leak at the air charm. I kind of ended up babbling gibberish uncontrollably."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He winces then leans in, looking at it closely. "Yes, that would be a problem. Do you know how it was made, and how they were connected? I have no Collector expertise, but I might be able to see if there are any holes that a ward or two could gap."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"I don't know how they were made, but I connected them all into a 5-pointed star, with one cord connected to the next and so on, and laid them on top of... hang on." He pulls out his phone, flips to the the photo of the diagram he showed makesperfect on the forum. "This diagram. I was hoping to set up a continuous loop."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

"Where each of the necklaces is a power source, and feed into the others?" He studies the picture. "It isn't quite the same as a ward, I would maybe - hmm -" He looks back at the necklaces, and at the sigil he's drawn out. "Is there significance to the number five, or is that just how many necklaces you have? Because if you added another, a rosary perhaps like the one I suggested, it could be made of a natural material and not another stone - and then you could have a symmetrical six pendants, three stones, three natural pieces, and balance individual charms across from each other, with the center point having three balanced lines crossing it and *that* could be where the power passes through -" He's muttering to himself at this point and has grabbed another napkin, drawing a rough diagram of what looks like a six-petaled flower, with each of the six 'points' being a loop that feeds back into the center. "This might work, or concentrating everything in the center might be dangerous." Leaning back, he looks at his work. "It would be worth testing, though. Would need to be adapted to be able to actually be worn."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"Dad says that primes, or primes multiplied by primes, are usually really good for lots of practice stuff. 3s, 7s, 9s, you know. I had 4 necklaces to start, but Oliver's shell - ohhh *that's* what that's about - made 5, so I thought it'd be a good place to start." He looks over the arrayed necklaces. "Stone, stone, wood, metal," he checks off, touching each charm as he passes over it. "Stone again? And maybe that jade dodge chance boost for a 4th stone?

I think I pulled everything to the center with that previous diagram, though, and that may have been one of the problems with it. I also wanted more of the charms to be displayed in front of me, so once I thought I had things set up I put all the loops so that they connected behind me."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He nods. "That's generally true. Six has a nice balance, though. Four stones, one wood and one metal? It might be better to have two of each, but this could work." Grabbing another napkin, he taps the tip of his pen on it lightly while he thinks. "You could have all of the charms in front of you and then distinguish pairs with different cords - three types, perhaps a chain, a leather band and.. something else, with the clasps not being a clasp but something to distribute the power. A stone bead with metal and wood inlay, perhaps, for the least resistance."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"Ooh! Or I could do some swap-outs - making the "fire" element a metal charm, and making the anti-punch ward out of wood? That way I'd have two metal, two wood, and two stone!"

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

He grins. "Yes! That might work - and then metal chains for the metal, perhaps some finer jute, to not scratch you, for the wood, and... for the stone..." he shrugs. "It can get workshopped. But I think this might work a lot better for you. I can see if I'm able to make the pendant for you - I think I deserve a break from work after tonight, anyway."

Landis963 — 03/30/2021

"I also have shop class! Also I want to see whether leather cording or just the previous cords they were on would work for the stone."

Sage (Inkstainer) — 03/30/2021

"It would be worth trying both, I think. We could set up a safe testing zone and feed it just a bit of power. I actually trained my Sight specifically to watch the flows of power for things like this, so troubleshooting shouldn't be too hard -" At this point, pulling this Justin, and perhaps both Justins, out of the conversation would be a challenge. They stay up *far* too late discussing possibilities and using up napkins.