Magic Reserve - The Preserve, Wednesday Afternoon

[wantstodirect]

"Hey, everyone," Tony said, once people had gathered. "We're going to talk about shielding today. Or defenses, in general, since everyone's magic is a little different. First, Karla's going to talk a bit about shields. Karla?"

Tony stepped aside and let Karla tag in speak and answer any questions.

Once she was done, Tony addressed the group again. "Who else feels comfortable enough with defensive magic to help others? Raise your hand, please?" Wow, he felt like a teacher or something. Way weird. Assuming there were hands up, he continued. "Okay, everyone else? These are the guys you go to for help."

"One last thing for today - let's talk strategy. Karla suggested that we find a few places on the island that are easy to defend and practice shielding those spots. Where do you guys think those places are? And what else can we do to make those spots ready for an invasion - like, maybe have food and first aid stuff staged there?"

[OCD is charging up... live!]

Comments

Arrive/Mingle

[wantstodirect]

With doughnuts and coffee provided.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana was back, mostly for the entertainment. Samuel was there for the food.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

It was obvious Eleanor would have to start bringing tea. How could people drink this other foul liquid? Ugh.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan wrinkled his nose a bit at the coffee -- he'd have to see about getting some tea on the menu for the future -- but he did grab a doughnut, munching on it happily.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[glacial_queen]

Coffee. Karla loved coffee. Of course, today, Karla kinda loved everything.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir was here, glancing around anxiously. Whether it was because he wanted to see his girlfriend or because he had some sort of sixth sense to tell him Someone Was Annoyed With Him, it was hard to say.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

Abigail Irene was also there, quite pleased that there weren't any scaly distractions.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was there. Even if she wasn't just curious, she had two toad-transformers to Talk to.

Plus it was n awesome day! Warm and sunny and spring! She just wanted to hug everyone.

Re: Arrive/Mingle

[finding-x-dream.livejournal.com]

Agnes was there, of course, and her hair was AMAZING.

She picked up an eclair and sucked on the end of it thoughtfully.

Karla

[wantstodirect]

Once she tags in, you're welcome to ask questions or make comments.

Re: Karla

[glacial_queen]

"Kiss kiss," Karla said, smiling at everyone assembled for the Reserves. You know, there were actually a few people here she wouldn't mind assuming she meant that literally... "So Tony asked me to talk to you all a bit about shields. Now, the details of how you all shield is going to be different, but the theory behind shielding is the same for everyone. I'm going to talk a bit about my Jewel, when I do, you just think about your own power source, okay?" Pulling her Sapphire out from her collar would take too much work; unbuttoning her shirt until her Jewel could be seen seemed like a much better option. By the time she had finished her opening paragraph, the top half of her shirt was open--but there was her Jewel, glimmering in the light!

"Like physical shields, magical shields are meant to come between you and enemy blows. Unlike physical shields, magical shields are a part of you, so there's a cost to having them, and they can generally be repaired on the fly, so there's another benefit. Shields can be any size or shape, from personal--" Karla was suddenly surrounded by a dome of Sapphire light, "--to public." She frowned in concentration, and her shield now covered everyone in the Reserves. "Of course, the bigger and more complex your shield, the higher the cost in energy drain. It's a balance; you don't want to make your shield to small, but you also don't want your shield collapsing on you at the wrong moments. Also, since shields can take damage, you're going to be spending energy fixing it. Watch." She put a Rose-strength shield around a nearby tree, and then began blasting the shield with bolts of Sapphire power. It wasn't long before the shield began showing cracks and other signs of stress. "The greater the difference in power between your shield and their attacks, the faster your shield will need fixing. Or slower, depending on the direction of the power imbalance. Fortunately, you can learn to fix your shields quickly, but that will take away from anything else you're trying to do."

"Normally, I prefer a dome for my shield--it protects me from attacks on all sides, including sneak attacks from behind or above which get a x4 multiplier. However, that dome is fairly large, and so goes through energy faster. If you know there is only one enemy, you may wish for a uni-directional shield, or a shield that is mobile, so you can move it where ever you need covern, but, as a warning, you have to be both damn good and really agile to make that work. For those of you who can do such things, it's helpful to create shields ahead of time, and then place them in some kind of possession. I have several shields in various pieces of jewelry that simply need to be activated. On the one hand, these have a limited amount of energy to them, and will collapse as soon as that is spent; on the other hand, they're great for when you're tapped for magic, or trying to protect someone who has no magic for themselves."

She continued on, talking about different kinds of shields: shields that bowed to absorb and deflect the force of impact, reflective shields which were good for energy attacks, spinning shields, sticky shields that incorporated the energy of the attack into itself, slippery shields that attacks just slid off of, and several others. She did her best to demonstrate each kind, so by the end of her talk, she was breathing heavily, and covered with a light sheen of sweat. Still, she looked much more open and inviting than she usually did. "If you have other questions, feel free to ask," she said.

Hands up?

[wantstodirect]

If you can help others with shielding or defensive magic, raise your hand and tag in here. Anyone who's got questions, tag them away.

Re: Hands up?

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

Eleanor raised her hand, "I can do sheilds and other defensive things." She'd have to do a bit of research on the latter though.

Re: Hands up?

[bigdamndestiny.livejournal.com]

"I can do a bit of shielding," Merlin said. Because he was in charge of the club, he had to talk about this. Even if it was hesitantly

Re: Hands up?

[not_in_the_book]

Ronan raised his hand. "I'm pretty good at a variety of shields," he said. "I don't know that I could teach anyone specifically, but I can set them on things like rooms, too, and I'd be more than happy to discuss the principles with other people and see if they can be adapted to their magic. And a friend taught me a neat trick with altering a shield's structure to create a sort of lens, for magnifying. Like a telescope."

Re: Hands up?

[glacial_queen]

Karla was tempted to not raise her hand. If people couldn't tell she knew what she was talking about with shields, then clearly just a simple arm raise wasn't going to clue them in. Still, in the end, she raised her hand anyway. She mostly just wanted to talk to people.

Funny how that cause her shirt to slip down her arm, exposing a shoulder and a great deal of upper chest. Funnier how she didn't seem to care.

Re: Hands up?

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

Liir held up a hand. It was one of the things he'd worked on with Karal and Altra.

Re: Hands up?

[brandyforapples.livejournal.com]

"I've done work with shields, in a variety of manners and for different purposes."

Re: Hands up?

[oops-mbad.livejournal.com]

Diana didn't raise her hand, she just sat there with an expression on her face that made it very clear that she could do anything she wanted to and she knew it.

Discussion

[wantstodirect]

Strategy! Got any ideas, suggestions, observations and/or questions?

Re: Discussion

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

"If there are enough of us, we may want to consider forming teams. Pairing up based on strengths and weaknesses so there is less chance of holes being in the defenses."

Re: Discussion

[glacial_queen]

"We should think about pairing people with better defensive capabilities with members from the Support and Fighting Reserves," Karla said. "This way our fighters and Healers have people to help shield them or communicate with others. After all, I think our biggest concern is keeping people safe, yes? Also, figuring out how to coordinate with the noncombatants, so they know where to go or how to contact us in an emergency."

Re: Discussion

[new-to-liirness.livejournal.com]

"We shouldn't discount hard-to-reach places," he said, "since I can take people on the broom with me."

After the Meeting

[wantstodirect]

Mingle, leave, grab what's left of the doughnuts and coffee.

Re: After the Meeting

[heartflames.livejournal.com]

Eleanor decided to stick around for a bit, being as how it was a wonderful day. Everything was just so .... great. She might even be sneaking another doughnut. Mmmmm, soooo good!

OOC

[wantstodirect]

Suggestions for future meeting topics are welcome!