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npc contact.1
As the game progresses, different npc faculty and students will become available for threading. To request a thread, please comment below with the name of the npc and the ic date in the subject header. Threads may be cut short due to mod availability, so please have a reason in mind for the interaction.
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I dunno, but if it's something I can find at home or at a store, I'll go and buy it and be right back! I'll take my bike! I'll ask Fujioka-senpai too about whose blood it is!
[ It's Hikaru who pipes up, fists balled as they scramble to their feet, full of determination to make up for everything. The materials are going to take some time to pull together, but they figure Clamor and Lucifer are going to need some time anyways to get everything else set up. Which, in that case, they shove their hand in their pocket and pull out a box of chalk and presents it to Lucifer, both arms outstretched. ]
Use this! I got it from Arisu-senpai!
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Also they sell such roots at apothecaries, so:]
Most of those sorts of magical herbs that are less-common are sold in herb shops or metaphysical stores. If there isn't one of those nearby, don't worry about it. As useful as it is, we could also use other herbs.
[Lucifer puts together a list using the notebook he usually keeps on his person. It's... quite the list. Listen I'm not going to link my entire google doc on the topic of herbs used as spell components because it's 46 pages long but Lucifer cherry-picks common herbs from a list that He has in his head and writes them all down under certain categories like so:
Banishment:
Binding:
Hex-breaking:
They'll also need a piece of paper, and finding who originally had the blood on the herbs would assist with the binding-breaking portion of this, but if not, this should be fine. In addition to what's above, he writes down sage, basil, and bay leaves at the bottom of the list so that they can get a non-bloody stock of it. Because, really, people also use those in the kitchen and this place already has blood water, we don't need blood herbs too.
He trades Hikaru for the chalk, and absolutely fluffs their hair up before handing over the list in the most fatherlike moment of his entire existence. Listen, this kid makes him proud, okay. He has a lot of pride in them.]
Sadly, I can't reimburse you for your help, [because his entire household funds is demon currency and he has none of it here anyway] but we'll work out a deal when you return. You don't need to get everything on the list, just one thing from each category.
Clamor, [haha you guys thought I was done] A trap is a great idea. Assuming we can find out whose blood got onto the original herbs, we might be able to drag them in for assistance. Protective wards aren't my specialty. Can I comfortably leave that to you?
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It's you! You're the one that followed me to study club last month! Oh, I never got around to apologizing—I'm so sorry, we spent an hour on that hamburger thing and it was just some prank that Senku was pulling. I should've noticed something sooner... is this what you've been up to since then?
[he failed to properly tutor Hikaru and now they've turned to a life of crime... if only he'd known his memes, this all could've been avoided (??????)
... anyway, uhhh Lucifer sure did ask him something didn't he? right. Clamor clears his throat, regaining a bit of composure.]
I can handle the wards. It'll take some time to draw out a circle big enough for everyone to fit inside, but it should be able to maintain itself for awhile once it's activated. We can do a couple test runs on a smaller circle, too, but spells like these are pretty easy even for beginners. We shouldn't need anything complicated for small monsters like these. [so it'll be fine as long as all the imps dont do something weird like fuse into one giant Boss Imp, anyway.......]
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a breath to breathe
and they snatch Lucifer's list and flee out the door.
...
The rest of the group will at least help prepare what they need, pushing desks out of the way so they can use the floor space right here in the classroom, some of them going to the home ec room to see if they can find any unused cloves or thyme, another to the courtyard to compare each blade of grass against one another, and yet another to the nurse's office in case chamomile tea is all they can find for chamomile. ]
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[This is NOT THE TIME. (But he claps Clamor on the shoulder anyway because this is just so funny.)
Sorry to the kids outside measuring grass, there's a good reason that he's making them do this! He'd do it himself if he could leave the school. That aside... it's time to grab chalk and make a mess of this nice classroom.
Lucifer works on drawing a very ornate banishing circle. Unfortunately, when you're a demon, you get used to these things, so he has one memorized not for the purposes of this exactly but because he's been banished before. People really do summon Lucifer Himself and then think that's a bad idea and try to put him back.
Idiots.Naturally, there's room for the protective wards too, which are the arguably more important right about now.Anyway, idle conversation while drawing:]
I think after this, I'm going to have to teach these kids about blood magic.
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Luckily, he doesn't have to think about any of this for the next x minutes since there's work to be done and everyone knows that ignoring your issues is the best way to deal with them. Clamor is going to awkwardly pretend none of that just happened and go straight into copying one of the more basic wards in his spellbook onto a few sheets of paper—that's right, everyone is learning this damn circle today, this is gonna be your homework. Whoever stays behind to move desks around can get a head start in practising this thing but he's making extra copies so they don't all have to share one piece of paper.
Since it'd be easier to explain how activating all these spells is going to work after everyone else gets back, he'll spend the interim setting up a couple emergency binding spells near Lucifer's banishing circle. The last one to go up will be the large-scale protective ward...]
... I guess I'd feel better if they knew what they were doing, since they'll probably try to do it anyway. [still kinda wary of anyone who claims to be part of a Cult, but seeing how they're just kids and obedient ones at that... well, there are certain things that it should be fine to teach them. And he trusts Lucifer's judgment.
mostly.] Maybe stay away from summoning things for awhile.
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The cultists that stayed behind diligently practice their circles once things are set up enough that they'd just get in the way if they helped, keeping quiet and listening in on Lucifer's and Clamor's conversation.
Hikaru won't be back for another two hours, maybe, but they'll have a cloth bag stuffed full of fresh cloves, thyme, nutmeg, a little sachet of chamomile tea, and honeysuckle with leaves and branches still attached that they definitely raided a garden for, they're so sorry, it was an emergency, they'll pay it back. ]
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Hikaru is baby and Lucifer thanks them for a job well done with regards to getting supplies. Sorry to whoever lost part of their plant but this is literally a matter of life and death.]
We're going to be doing these spells in the order of breaking the bind, banishing, and hex-breaking. The latter is more of another level of protection than anything. I don't know what virulent magics are lurking in the area, but it's better to attempt to get rid of something that isn't there rather than risk letting a problem sit.
When I say "we", I mean that most of this is going to have to be done by you guys. If I could do all of this myself, I would have done it. ["You guys" not referring to Clamor.] In the case of magic, it's better that the original casters end the spells and therefore break the curses, rather than having someone else do it. [BUT LUCIFER WOULD LIKE TO POINT OUT THAT IF HE HAD HIS POWERS BACK THIS WOULD BE TRIVIAL! Blah blah Pride Demon blah blah look how cool he is.] If any of you have a lighter or a match and a bowl we can burn things safely in, that would be appreciated. Other than that...
[Clamor, you're up! Lucifer gestures to him, because they're not going to do this without those protective wards being charged first.]
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It is is still kind of annoying that neither he nor Lucifer can do the magic part themselves, but Clamor isn't going to let that negativity show. Better to stay positive!!]
New magic can be intimidating, but if you all could summon these imps by yourselves, I have no doubt that you'll be able to handle the un-summoning just fine! We'll do a couple practise runs on the smaller circles, then we'll tackle the big ones, alright?
[They're simple wards, so all it really takes is a bit of focus and willpower from the caster to get them to charge up. The smaller practise circles can even be used as talismans! Really shitty talismans, since its not a spell that downscales well, but they can tape the paper to their chest and it'll probably deflect an incoming spell once before breaking. More importantly they can fuck up on those ones and it'll be nbd just make sure you got it before they get to the Real Deal.
The binding spells are just a simple, though he's not walking them through how to draw them because that's the last thing we need right now, a cult with the power to bind people to a spot. It only lasts a minute or two tops but still. He'll also remember to warn everyone not to step in them once they're active, because there's a bunch of people here and "binding spells that don't affect allies" would take way too long to teach right now, these traps are mostly here to catch any imps that might slip out of the banishing area or try to escape.
anyway ALL OF THAT IS HAPPENING hope you guys weren't planning on doing anything else after school today because this is a mandatory magic lesson
There is still one matter left to deal with, though... getting the imps to show up where they want them to. Did Hikaru find out whose blood was on the herbs?]
... I don't even want to suggest this, but these are desperate times. [inexperienced casters at work, short on supplies, people dying, etc.] If the imps were exposed to blood in the last attempt, it's likely they'll react to that same person's blood a second time. It doesn't have to be a large amount. If we can get that person's cooperation, we might even be able to deal with all of them at once.
[and if not, well... he looks to Lucifer, who seems to know more about both the imps and blood magic, so maybe he'll have a better backup plan if that one falls through.]
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Hikaru excuses themselves for a moment while everybody's learning the circles, saying they'll grab lighters and a large mixing bowl to burn things in, and in the meantime, grab a sample of Akira's blood.
They're quick to slip in and out, knowing exactly where everything is, and is back before long. ]
Here— [ They make to hand a little microcentrifuge tube with a single drop of blood inside to Clamor because he's the one who asked, but chickens out at the last moment and dumps everything in front of Lucifer, they're together, it's the same thing. ]
This is Fujioka-senpai's. Can you test to see if it works?
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That's how Lucifer explains it anyway. For obvious reasons of not sending everyone to the void and also not getting like, hepatitis or anything, Lucifer keeps the tube sealed and instead just sets it in the middle of the circle.]
If this blood doesn't do it, the imps are usually attracted to fighting, which means I can very easily stir something up and get them to flock in here. More of them kept congregating wherever I wound up fighting to defend other students, after all.
[Probably, ha...ha... we'll fuck around and we'll find out, surely.
Naturally, he explains the other things that must be done when the imps are trapped ahead of time. That means mixing the herbs properly and getting ready to burn them. In particular, Lucifer goes ahead and draws the original summoning circle on a piece of paper from his notebook, rolls it up, and wraps it in the honeysuckle stem. Once the imps are in the circle, he says, to break the bind to the person whose blood was spilt, they'll have to burn the bundle he presents Hikaru (the one he clearly trusts the most to handle things). It doesn't matter how fast it burns, so long as intent is put behind it. Magic is all about intent, after all. And also please burn that in the bowl for the safety of hands and fingers and avoiding a fire in general, thank you.
The step after that is to spread the cloves and thyme around the circle and chant some freaky Latin phrases which Lucifer has helpfully written down. It's like a cheatsheet of "how to unfuck something you've fucked up big time" but only for minor inconveniences like imps. Sadly, they cannot unsummon Kokichi with this one. In practice, his portion of the spell is simple, but it should be aided by the magical energy going into the protective wards. And, again, intent. And also the salt in the chalk.
Hex-breaking is for after the little shits are gone and no longer a plague upon this realm.
So, if/when everyone's clear on what they're doing, Lucifer positions himself sort of away from everything else in case he has to go hunt down some imps. Are the imps going to come to this vial of blood? Does Lucifer have to go stir up trouble... he can do this all night. These kids can't, but he can.]
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i think we've all tl;dr'd about made-up magic bullshit enough for now tho so this is a tag wherein Clamor is present and that's about all i expect from him, how's that blood ritual going, are we gonna need to start a riot or what]
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The kids all do what they're told, and Hikaru purposely positions themselves next to Clamor so they can be next to him but also not look at him the entire time bc that's the perks of being next to somebody in a circle.
Anyways, the imps don't swarm to the blood but they're obviously interested in it, like sharks in the ocean peering into the classroom to see what sort of snack is inside. The snack for today seems to be a bunch of baby cultists and Clamor. ]
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yaaay unfucking the bullshit that Lucifer started by being all "ooh cultists don't know shit about fuck let me teach them" like a fool, he's learnt his lesson. Every cultist gets headpats for being good little cooperative beans. Clamor gets a shoulder pat because he's older and doesn't need a headpat. Teamwork makes the dream work blah blah blah.]