Duality

Isaac, Ian, Isaiah, Issachar, Ivan, India, Igor, Ignacio, Inigo, Imhotep, Ish-ba'al, Immolator, and, last but not weirdest, Google. I just about ran clean through my stocks of Biblical names there; the internet has far more memory capacity at its disposal than I to dedicate to mundane cognomens.

"Or just continue dying on the inside. That works too."

Whoa, I broke the tie for a bit there. This one's seriously close, but Chrysalis doesn't hold up against both Ember and Pear Butter when it comes to my vote.

@dragon4111 @Buck Testa @Passion @reader8363 @Arid_Blitz @Denim&Venom “That was trippy,” the professor mumbled faintly, squinting against the glare of overhead lighting. “Wasn’t how the end went at all.” She began to rise on instinct, but was held down gently by a hand on her chest. “Careful, dear, we don’t want you fainting again,” chided the brisk female voice apparently associated with the hand. As Duality managed to open her eyes more fully, she realised that she was lying prone on a hospital bed with nobody else in the room save the nurse associated with the voice associated with the hand. Which was fortunate, because - “What… where… why are my trousers gone?” she sputtered. The medical orderly gestured reassuringly towards a bandage wrapped around the professor’s mid-thigh. “You fell onto the pen in your pocket when you conked out. Sharp little horror, isn’t it?” Duality glanced at the bedside table to see her familiar tapered-metal Stylus glinting against its plastic surface, the user-specific form taken by the Wand when she’d grasped it for the first time. “None of this ‘Word’ nonsense,” she murmured absently. “A bit tingly as the magic set in, that’s all.” “Beg your pardon?” the matronly nurse queried as she set about restoring the professor’s pants to her possession. “Eh? Oh, nothing,” she responded, jolted from her ponderings. “Just had an odd dream about that thing while I was out. Started out as a pitch-perfect recollection of the day it was gifted to me, but the instant I touched it the entire dream turned into a technicolour monologue.” The healer raised an eyebrow as Duality gratefully accepted her trousers and slipped them back on gingerly. “Sounds magic to me. We get people in here all the time talking about things like that.” The professor considered the idea for a moment, eyeing up the enchanted pen from her awkward position on the disinfectant-scented mattress. “That’s quite probable, actually. It’s very powerful, and while it might not have a mind of its own, it’s certainly strongly imbued with mind magic. My natural abilities are exclusively water-based, but it lets me channel mental energy well enough to weave runes as precisely as the best of them. But then the question is: what in the LHC was it trying to tell me?” The nurse bustled back from the sink where she’d been washing her hands. “Now, then, dear, how much magic have you used today, how much sleep have you been getting recently, and when was the last time you ate and drank?” Duality blinked once in confusion before realising that the industrious orderly had a job to do, and indulging academic rambling wasn’t a major part of it. “Ah, a fair bit, a good amount, breakfast and a few sips during the speeches a couple of hours ago.” The infirmary attendant gave her the longsuffering look of someone professionally familiar with the university faculty’s habit of procrastinating nourishment. “The speeches were six hours ago, dear. You missed lunch and you haven’t drunk all day. It’s no wonder you ended up on the floor.” Duality drank five cups of decidedly metallic water and devoured eight assorted items of fruit before the nurse let her attempt to stand up. She cautiously regained bipedality, with the orderly hovering nearby to ensure she was steady on her feet, then tested her balance with a few quick paces around the room. “I think I’m all right now,” the professor offered sheepishly. “I’ll keep myself better-hydrated in future.” “That’s what they all say,” the healer muttered darkly as Duality retrieved her possessions from the bedside table - not only the Stylus, but also the voluminous herbal she’d left near the duelling hall, which had discreetly made its way to her side sometime while she was unconscious. She noted with some satisfaction that the lining of her trousers had already fully reconstituted its stitching at the point where the magical pen’s sharpened tip had punctured it. “Change the dressing on your hip once a day, and report back here if it gets any worse,” the nurse called after Duality as the professor slipped out the door with her botanical tome tucked under one arm, only noticing the faintest twinge from her wounded leg. The infirmary was exceedingly good at what they did, after all; they had to be good to deal with all the stupid stunts that overconfident students tried to pull off with their magic. “What a day,” Duality mused as she strolled down the still-bustling corridor, her free hand tucked casually in her pocket. “Better stay out of action for the evening, methinks, it wouldn’t do to arrive back here too soon.” Indeed; you’re getting old. “You’re one to talk,” she huffed to herself. “You’re every bit as old as I am.” Au contraire, mademoiselle! I, your dearly beloved inner voice, only developed while you were in your teens. Since I am possessed of the same life expectancy as you, being you, it is only reasonable to deduce that I will thus outlive you by just over a decade. “I wouldn’t count on it,” the professor retorted. “You’re already lapsing into the illogic of senility.” It’s your mind going senile; I am merely trapped within its computational confines. “Then be grateful it’s so capacious,” she smirked. Only because it’s empty. Duality pouted as she realised her mind had gotten the last word once again. “I really need to stop arguing with myself. I always seem to lose.” Abruptly, she became aware of a rapid increase in temperature from the Stylus, lying next to her hand in her pocket. She yanked her fingers out with a yelp as the heat rose to unbearable levels in a matter of seconds, prevented from badly burning her hip only by the protective runes woven into her trousers’ fabric. “What is wrong with you infernal object?!” Duality snarled in a fit of temper at the painful interruption, heedless of onlookers. “First you impale me and now you try and charbroil me? Do you want me to take a hacksaw to you?” She froze in horror as smoke began to rise from her pocket, a faint warmth now perceptible through her clothes in uncomfortable proximity to her injured thigh. “Uh, I didn’t mean that. Please don’t make me rip off my trousers in public.” Caught up in her distress of magic and wardrobe, the professor barely even noticed a agreeable-seeming young woman passing down the corridor in the other direction. She looks a nice lady, Duality’s mind observed unbidden, and then she thought no more of it. As the pleasant passer-by turned the corner, however, the heat emitted by the Stylus dropped sharply in intensity, fading within moments to its normal slight coolness to the touch. Duality quickly pulled it out of her pocket with thumb and forefinger and gave it a withering glare, feeling decidedly less vulnerable now that it was no longer quite so closely bound to her body. “You know what’s happening now, don’t you? You know what I do to misbehaving magic. You’ve seen it before. You,” the professor paused dramatically, “are going,” she sneered, “to the back pocket.” She dropped the enchanted pen into the aforementioned opening with a vengeful flourish. The enchantments on the lining of her back pocket were significantly more advanced than those on the remainder of her clothing, and she used it to confine unstable or fragile magical objects so often that she had to book a specially prepared blast room for laundry day, just in case she’d accidentally left any particularly volatile artefacts inside it. “And what are you lot looking at?” Duality snapped, looking up to notice the half-dozen people who’d stopped in the corridor to watch her yell invectives at her trousers. “Don’t you have better things to do than watch senility like it’s a spectator sport? Scram!” She stalked off in the direction of her office without waiting for the small crowd to disperse. I need some good cold spring water to wash the taste of that hospital rust-juice out of my mouth. Swiss, preferably.

Greetings and welcome, o acolyte of the equine! Surely with you among our ranks the world stands no chance against our grim march of iron and death and hugs. Not that it would've stood a chance even with you directly opposing us, but that's no ill reflection upon your strategic value; the Legion are relentless and the Legion are eternal. Key among your warfare-worthy traits are your awe-inspiring wordcrafting powers (the closest any mortal can ever come to creating universes at will), love of the Lovecraft wordcrafter's words (his books have been nothing short of inspirational for our interior designers), and alleged allegiance to a l l t h e h o r s e s (and also bestzeeb). I am more than willing to assist in your training, if friendships alliances you indeed desire (failing to desire them is heresy; you've come to the right place). Enjoy your bleak future being ground into tear-streaked dust to further the cause of Harmony! Protip: Corpses are quite a versatile resource around here, so do try to be more useful to us alive.

Ohhh, I was under the impression that she'd been infiltrating the university for some time before she walked in to calm Dru. Apologies, quite mistook the situation there.

Could I get that in terms of Person A and Person B? I understand that people cannot recognise her and forget about her when seeing her in person, but that does not explain how the university's security staff can apparently witness and remember footage featuring the Nice Lady doing dodgy things while somehow failing to notify anyone that there's a potential mind manipulator on campus and that some form of countermeasure needs to be deployed. If they see that people instantly fall under her sway on camera, they're not going to try and engage her directly, they're going to put people with strengths in mental resistance on alert and follow things up. To summarise, if people can see her on camera without forgetting about her the entire university would know her exact capabilities, appearance, and past activities by now, even if they can't actually confront her in person.

So is it like an infection, so to speak? Once you've come under her effect some aspect of her magic stays in your head actively fading out all memories of her even if formed well before or long after you met her? Or is it that coming into her presence erases all memories of her, even past indirect memories of footage etc.? Put it this way: If Person A sees some written or video or audio information regarding her, then comes into her presence an arbitrarily long time later, would they forget about having seen the written or video or audio information after they exit her presence, or would they just forget about meeting her? If Person B comes into her presence at some point in time arbitrarily long ago, then sees some written or video or audio information regarding her after they exit her presence, would they forget about the written or video or audio information they've seen after they exit the presence of the information, or would they remember it just as clearly as Person A did before Person A entered her presence? The university has cameras, as mentioned, and if the cameras have tangible footage on record of some unidentified mage lady randomly dancing through campus on a semi-regular basis surely some security suspicions would be piqued even if they can't match her to the footage while in her presence.

But do security feeds affect people the same way as she does? If it's possible for you to write something down about her before she vanishes from your mind, thereby gaining tangible/memorable knowledge of her, is it possible for security feeds to give you tangible/memorable knowledge of her too? Or are video and audio feeds too closely linked to her to be exempt from her effect? If someone tells you over the phone about her while they're under her effect, do you forget what they told you about her? In short, how many cognitive or mechanical disjoints are necessary to escape her memory-fade powers?

Wait, security cameras still pick up on her, right? The University does have general surveillance around campus to pick up on student incidents and things like that, so she can't go all-out on the musical numbers (unless those viewing the camera feeds are affected the same way).

I hope you realise how sumptuously meta this character is. Definitely approved.

I'd be perfectly fine with a random NPC staff member arbitrarily procuring a high-powered magic suppressor for the nurse as rapidly as needs be; you could gloss over it with just a nurse-centred narrative and the staff member handing it to her. If that seems a bit stilted and you're uncertain on whether to introduce a new character, I could have a random NPC nurse run into Duality's room a few minutes after she awakens to blurt a request for her access card to obtain said suppressor before rushing it to Dru.

Don't know nothin' much about Pokemon, but the water type was nigh-on made for me. I hereby select Vaporeon to ascend to avatar status.

Greetings and welcome, o acolyte of the pony! All shall fall before our unified might. Truly, you are a valuable asset to our organisation, even in your infancy. Especially due to your simply spiffy statistical moniker and your equally appreciation-piquing artistic ability. I am more than willing to assist in your training, if friendships strategic alliances you indeed desire. Enjoy your time spent as our diabolical minion! Protip: Memes are prized on the dark market. Use your riches wisely.

I saw your edit, and while you've done a good job putting more explanation for how the one-way portal works, could you also put in a bit more detailed description of Shadow casting the spell itself? Maybe another sentence or two at minimum, just to flesh it out. Done and dusted. Sorry for the wait, I put a lot of work into it.

Duality felt a lancing pain as her hip hit the ground, rough hands catching her shoulders - then nothing. Nothing but dreams. She sat alone in her eve-darkened living room, gently fondling one of her cats behind the ears. Deedah had gone to get some groceries, telling her once again that if she needed anything she was there for her. She hadn’t been talking about food. The professor glanced at the wall, where there hung a framed picture of the day the university had opened. She stood next to Gabriel Lazel, twenty years younger, as he cut the ceremonial ribbon to the main building, a broad smile on his face. He’d given her that same smile the last time she’d seen him alive. ‘Tch, it’s just part of getting older.’ She might have believed herself if it had been natural causes. ‘How long does this grief thing normally last, anyway? Gets rather tiresome after a day or two.’ It had been eight. ‘You’ve been to the funeral already; it’s not like you haven’t already cried over him.’ What were a few drops of water to a grieving hydromancer? She rubbed the sleeve of her turtleneck across her reddened eyes, icy tear-tracks splintering off her cheeks. ‘I don’t care,’ she snapped suddenly, voice echoing through the empty house. ‘I’ll mope as long as I Higgs well want to, you hear? Fermion to you and fermion to your leptonic advice.’ The professor shoved herself upright and began pacing the room restlessly, the cat startled away by her outburst. ‘All I want is to get my hands on whoever did it.’ Violence does not soothe grief. ‘I just want to see him one more time.’ You saw him hundreds of times while he was alive. ‘He didn’t even get to finish the Precept Codex.’ Stating the obvious is not constructive. ‘Neither are you! Get out of my head!’ A knock from the door cut off her irascible ranting. She stomped over to it and yanked it open, almost scaring the waiting delivery man witless with the raw intensity of her glare. He recovered just in time for her to snatch the parcel out of his hands and slam the door in his face, leaving him standing on her doorstep with a face as blank as his recipient signature form. Inside, she tore the package open, angrily tossing aside fragments of shredded paper as they gave way to reveal a long hardwood box, polished to a sheen. As she flicked its clasp open, a flood of power surged forth from within it, freezing her hands and her temper alike in their tracks. The bewilderingly familiar magic flowed around and through and into her, all irritation melting away as nostalgia rippled through her thoughts like rain: first one droplet, then another, then the heavy clouds of memory burst open in a downpour of countless evenings spent as nothing but half of a unified mind weaving their thought into reality. ‘Gabriel?’ she whispered. Gently, almost fearfully, she eased the case open to reveal a slender ebony Wand set in velvet, inlaid with flecks of vibrant gemstone and carved along its length with elegant calligraphic runes. Her fingers trailed down the enchanted shaft, taking in every etch-mark and glinting facet of its texture, only to encounter the worn corner of a note tucked underneath its hilt. She slipped it out and read. ‘My dear Duality, ‘If you are reading this, you are now the most qualified person in this dimension or any other to complete the Codex. In theory, you are entirely free to decide whether to finish my life’s work, but hopefully this letter and this gift serves to confer sufficient guilt on you that you cannot help but do so. It’s fully configured, of course; I’ve worked with you more than long enough to have your mental signature committed to memory. ‘I’d like to think that I’d have said all I needed to say to you before I died, but if not - I’ve always had a proclivity for procrastination - if not, let it be known that you made a brilliant academic compeer and were one of my closest friends. ‘It has been a pleasure working with you. ‘Yours, His Excellency Prof. Gabriel Lazel, SotDR, MLS, DSS, FIST’ She sat abruptly, no longer trusting her legs to keep her upright, as fresh tears filled her eyes. Scrubbing her face with a sleeve and composing herself, she set aside the note and reached for Gabriel’s masterwork of a wand, still lying in its case where she’d placed it down to read. She hesitated for a moment, contemplating the ornate rod, then grasped its hilt firmly in a single decisive motion. The Wand seared through her consciousness thoughts consumed in a heartbeat scorching across synapses mind blasted open unknowable fire • all mystery now clarity becomes One OneMindOneThought OneTruthOneWandOneWord in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Duality awoke.

It's on an island somewhere near one of America's coasts. University tradition holds that the island is off the west coast specifically, but this has not been verified to anyone without a valid reason for why it should be verified to them and its location is otherwise kept very private. To this end, the university is protected around the coastline of its estate by complex spatiotemporal anomalies and mental obfuscation spells deliberately layered to prevent uninvited intruders, but suffice it to say that it is highly isolated, all but self-sufficient, and effectively only accessible by large static portals set around the country in various buildings bought, fitted, and staffed just for that purpose (although they often double as offices for a magical consultancy business managed indirectly by the university). Sunshine hours are consistent with central America, and nobody's quite sure how the weather works. On the whole, it follows general American coastal weather (although the coast seems to vary from week to week), but hurricanes have lashed the coasts while the university experienced summery sunshine and entire classrooms have flooded with rain while the coasts had unbroken beach weather - not to mention the now-legendary noon a decade or so ago when the university skies went a cloudless black and hailed frozen tentacle fragments, a lunar eclipse visible overhead that was predicted for midwestern Asia several months from then. Could you add a bit more detail about this 'one-way portal' - how it works, what it looks like, how it's formed, etc. -, as well as a slightly more extensive description of Shadow casting the spell? If it's something powerful enough to seal off the entire auditorium in a way that all the other teachers there couldn't do, it seems fair to say that it would require appreciable effort on Shadow's part to set it in place, preferably put in words.

M O U S T A C H E B R I G A D E