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[axiomystic]

Musalodi (Salo) Player Information Player Name Jake Contact vikarmic | Vikarmic#8518 AKA Masego at Sidereal most recently, a long list of dubious wizard boys prior, and an even longer list of monsters. Character Basics Character Name Musalodi Series/Canon Scarlet Odyssey AU/PG/Canon Point Just before the end of Primeval Fire Cottage Moss House Canon Details Before the final battle Character Details Age Roughly 20 Hair/Eyes Dark/faceted rainbow Height/Weight Tall/Thin Notable Traits Always wears a pair of spectacles that are actually magitech artifacts. Eyes are obviously artificial, with faceted rainbow pupils, and don't work particularly well. Prominent tooth gap. Intricate fractal metal tattoos up both arms that sometimes glow or spark red. Probably wearing a shirt and loincloth if given the option. 15 Second Summary Salo grew up an outsider in his village, due to "unmanly" behavior such as a fascination with magic and machines, a distaste for violence and a habit of asking inconvenient questions. Born in a magically-powerful backwater, Salo soon discovers that the world and its magic are far vaster and more dangerous than he ever could have dreamed. After an escalating series of shenanigans including his own death and resurrection, he plays a central role in saving his world and correcting wrongs that have lingered since long before mankind settled his world -- and some that predate their presence in the very galaxy. Abilities & Permissions Abilities Salo is a powerful Red mystic, wielding the six crafts of Storm, Fire, Blood, Earth, Mirror and Void. He's got a vast library of spells to draw on and he's a fair hand, at this point, at working up his own. He can also instinctively perceive and analyze magical energy, even energies that aren't part of Red magic, though if he's not familiar with the paradigm he'll have a harder time. So far he's regained his Void craft (spacetime manipulation). Salo was resurrected as an atmech, or magitech android. While he's mostly close to human standard, he's extremely resilient, heals quickly and cleanly from even the most severe injuries and can instinctively perceive network signals and interface with electronics. He's likely to be able to hack computers and other machine with his brain, particularly if they're magitech, and probably even if they don't have a network interface. Permissions No insect-related stuff or bathroom stuff, please and thank you. Talk to me about cannibalism beforehand. Other than that, keep in touch, especially if things get violent; Salo strongly prefers not to hurt people but he's more than capable, if needed. Sensing Salo's senses extend into network signals and radio waves; he can probably overhear phone conversations and Internet traffic. He's got excellent magic perceptions so he can see/sense any of that that's going on too. Anyone with a sense for machines or magic can tell fairly easily that he's a soul attached to a construct body, although one that mimics human functionality in almost all respects. There's a crystal in his brain that's his actual seat of consciousness, and there are enchanted metals all through his body. His spectacles are finely enchanted (they actually bypass his eyes and project images directly into his optic nerves). The very skilled observer may pick up that his ruby pendant is also a potent artifact of some kind. Memory Registry Positive Significant • Seventh birthday with his mother • First time in orbit • Casting his first spell • Reuniting with Ilapara • Reuniting with Tuk • Regaining his Axiom Positive Trivial • Stealing a library of spellcraft • Niko dreams • Sparring with constructs • Messing around in Ziyo's mind construct • Settling in on the Ataraxis • Saving other atmechs from the Professor's experiments • Talking arcane theory with Nimana • Hanging out with Monti Neutral Significant • Waking up as an atmech in a ruined city • Facing the redhawk for the first time • The Book of Lies • Facing the lake: "I want to try anyway" • The final trial, rejecting the gods • Saving the king from underworld spirits • Leaving on his pilgrimage • Communing with the Lightning Bird • "But you don't have to be." (Confronting the Maidservant) • Agreeing to help the King Neutral Trivial • Days of frustration trying to master enchantment • Tour of the Academy • Giving Tuk his blessing • Fixing the mill, again • Meeting Ilapara • Nursing a wounded monitor lizard back to health • Meeting Tuk, buying out a slave auction • Meeting the Imperial siblings in a library Negative Significant • His mother's first cruelty • His mother's final cruelty • The attack on the kraal • Monti's funeral • The riots • His first death Negative Trivial • Brothers being assholes • Discovering what happened to the slaves he freed • Everyone disowning him • The Professor's "experiments" • Running from scavengers Skills • Atmech characteristics • Void basics • Mirror basics • Storm basics • Earth basics • Fire basics • Blood basics • Library access • Higher Red • Ziyo • Ancestral talent • Archery • Survival

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Stealing a library of spellcraft

[axiomystic]

Salo is inside the glass-paneled atrium of a gorgeously opulent building; the light floods in through the roof to illuminate beautiful statues, and the floor tiles are worked with precious metals, including actual moongold. He and two friends, a man and a woman, approach a finely-crafted ebony desk, at which sits a robed mystic who cheerfully welcomes them to the Pattern Archives.

Salo takes a guess at the man's caste and greets him by it, explaining that he wants to purchase access to the archives. Since he has a bank vault in the city, the Akili scholar explains, this will be easy -- he just has to cast his Seal against a series of complex patterns on a nearby wall, and the fee will be automatically deducted from his account. He'll then have ten days in which he can come and go as he pleases and study any spell prototype in the Archives for as long as he wants. The restructions (referred to as "the not-so-good news" by the bubbly scholar) is that no prototype can leave the archives, and producing copies of them is forbidden; violating these rules will result in a permanent ban from the Archives and charges being pressed, and his entry fee will not be returned. Given that he is in fact here to steal from the Archives, Salo has to repress some nervousness, but agrees that the rules are clear enough. The amount on the sheet of paper the scholar hands him is too big to make sense to him, so he hands it over to his friends, who inform him that it's a fucking lot of money. Fortunately, he has access to more than enough to pay it without blinking, for some reason. He casts his Seal against the wall, a spinning cube of diamond surmounted by a red star which tells all who see it that it belongs to a mystic born of a great house of leopards.

The wall's enchantments activate, and Salo has a distinct feeling of being watched, which makes one of his companions feel uneasy. The other, the man, is delighted by Salo's Seal; apparently mystics don't get them where he comes from. Salo explains that they just kind of happen, although the form of the Seal is somewhat determined by the mystic's Axiom and how they see themselves. His other companion adds that someone called the Black Sun had a literal, horrific black sun as his Seal, and Salo shivers; if he had that kind of seal, he'd never cast it.

At that moment, the patterns on the wall glow red, and the scholar smiles, informing Salo that the transaction is complete. Unfortunately, only he can enter the archives; the fee doesn't cover his companions, who promise to entertain themselves in the city while he studies. Salo declares his magic items -- just his staff, although he's lying and has Ziyo around his neck -- and the scholar explains that he should cast his Seal on the doors to open them. The wards on them will detect any prohibited enchantments, so if that happens, he'll have to leave the item at the door and collect it when he leaves.

Salo's heart is beating fast, but he casts his Seal at the doors. There's a long moment when he thinks that Ziyo might not actually be able to evade the wards, but at last the doors grind open, admitting him to the Pattern Archives.

The Archives are massive and just as opulent as the atrium, with winged statues that hover above their plinths, a pool of water filled with ornamental lilies, and gem-encrusted murals everywhere. Salo is stunned by their scale and just wanders for a while, taking in the thousands upon thousands of shelves, each filled with metal plates containing spell prototypes. There are other people in the Archives as well, some obviously students, others clearly foreigners like him. He decides to start with the Void Archives, walking around the enormous chamber to get a feel for the organization scheme, and looking at a few spells: white-tagged simple spells like static barriers, yellow-tagged medium spells like one that dampens sound, orange-tagged spells such as one to telekinetically manipulate fluids, a red-tagged spell that conjures complex shapes of force, and black-tagged spells, the most difficult of all, like one that can shape the Void into pockets where time moves at different speeds, or one that stores items in the metadimension, or one that entangles the caster's mind with a beast's for shapeshifting. There are so, so many spells, and ten days seems an infintesimal amount of time with which to study them -- barely enough time to learn one spell, let alone even a fraction of those within this single archive.

Salo remembers, then, that he's not here for himself; he came here to do a job, and he should get started.
He finds the first spell on his list, an orange-tagged spell which produces thin force fields ideal for making surgical incisions and keeping them open while a physician works. He spends some time admiring the elegant prose, then awakens Ziyo with a thought, splitting his mind to dive into the metaform's mental construct. There, he orders Ziyo to capture an image of the spell plate, which it does in a heartbeat; the plate appears in the construct, looking and feeling completely real and tagged with orange light. He'd been expecting to have to copy spellbooks by hand, trying to look unsuspicious, and take at least five minutes per spell; instead, it's done in less than a second.

An idea comes to Salo then, and he starts testing Ziyo's capabilities. Can Ziyo scan a spell he specifies that he can't see? Yes, it can. Can it grab three at a time? Yes, it can, still effectively instantly. Can it do ten? There's a second or two of lag this time, but yes, it can.

Can it scan the entire Pattern Archives? It will take fifty-three minutes, but yes, it can.

It's a gamble that could have terrible penalties for failure, but Salo reminds himself that he's no stranger to that kind of risk. He orders Ziyo to begin.

(Notes:

* Anyone who's been in Sunny's construct will recognize the shape of the rooms of the Archives; the buildings sealed by corruption in there match them exactly.

* Based on the descriptions, it seems like Ziyo conservatively takes about 200ms to scan a spell. If that's the case, then the Archives contain -- and Ziyo has stored -- roughly 16,000 distinct spells, and if Ziyo's speed increases during the full scan, which it very well might, that number could be significantly higher.)