[Fred] Chapter 8.1: Whips of Whipping!?

[Linwelin]

Previous post from Chapter 8

"He gave me permission." Lu Zhihao said, her face cracking into a smile as a whip suddenly appeared in her open hand. It took you a brief moment to realize that her whip was actually part of the clothes she had wrapped around her body. "He gave me permission!" She repeated in an almost daze-like trance as a bit of drool slid down the corner of her mouth.

"CONSENT!" She began to strike, each one more frantic than the last. Her eyes too looked more and more crazed for each strike of her whip.

Fred's eyes widen at the response to his consent. He quickly looks over to Lai Fen for consolation before turning back to Lu Zhihao just in time to watch the frenzied whipping woman head his way. I think I made a mistake...? This was all he could manage to think before his mind was completely focused on the flurry before him. A deluge of lashes fell upon him before he had time to speak even a word of caution to the woman, as he didn't know whether his power could even hold out against much damage.

I don't know the stats behind the whip and the barrier, so I can't estimate/imagine anything further realistically.

[Throndir]

Get me a list of things you want to figure out from your new ability, along with any experiments you might try, and we can resolve it all in one go.

[Linwelin]

HP of barrier on first cast
HP gained from strengthening the barrier
Radius/Range I can expand/cast the barrier
Activation time
Mana cost of each action

Experiments:
Does it block liquid?
Can it filter poor air? (Resist contact poison and the like)
Can it be manipulated to focus at a single region for increased defense on a certain part? (For use if falling down, making it directional, etc)
Heat/cold resistance?

[Throndir]

Spirit Tree Camp
Day 9 - Morning to Noon

Li Zhuhao was at least persistent. More and more, she was determined to break through the barrier. And it didn't take long until one of her whiplashes broke it altogether. Quickly putting the barrier back up, and pulling up both your Status, along with the status of the barrier, you were able to figure out the specific details from your newfound ability.

In your vision, whenever you had a barrier up and cast, a note of the barrier was placed at the bottom right of your field of view. Focusing on that, brought up the specific details of that specific barrier instance.

Barrier
Target: Self
Range: 5 ft.
Hitpoints: 10
[Increase Hitpoints]
[Increase Range]
[Decrease Hitpoints]
[Decrease Range]
[Remove]

HP of barrier on first cast
10

HP gained from strengthening the barrier
+10 HP per 2 MP spent.

Radius/Range I can expand/cast the barrier+5 ft length/width per 2 MP spent.

Activation time
Standard action

Mana cost of each action
2 MP per cast

Experiments:
Does it block liquid?
Yes, however, liquid was able to go out, but not in.

Can it filter poor air? (Resist contact poison and the like)
Yes, however, air was able to go out, but not in. One of your experiments with air resulted in a headache and lack of oxygen until it was dismissed.

Can it be manipulated to focus at a single region for increased defense on a certain part?
When you began to think about manipulating the shape of the barrier aside from the default dome it took, you received a notification of 'Ability not yet unlocked'.

(For use if falling down)
?

(Making it directional)
When you thought about making something be directional of whether it could go in, but not out, or vice versa, you received a notification of 'Ability not yet unlocked'.

Heat/cold resistance?
Yes, it maintained the temperature upon creation.

Once your experiments were over, there were more fields available in the default status view of the ability. By the end of it, you were presented with more information than before.

Barrier
Target: Self
Range: 5 ft.
Hitpoints: 10
Shape Configuration: Dome
Can Enter: Nothing
Can Exit: Everything
[Increase Hitpoints]
[Increase Range]
[Decrease Hitpoints]
[Decrease Range]
[Remove]

[Linwelin]

Oh? Fred thought to himself as he refreshed the barrier once more, Maybe I can...

To clarify, the falling damage note has two parts. One, could it absorb falling damage from a decent distance, and two, could be used to slow a fall, by causing drag. #1 was answered, not 2. Does it feel like the barrier can catch air enough from either side?

More experiments:
Try to extend its range by multiple increments at a time (ex: "Barrier, 20 feet!" or something)
- If so, can I will the range I desire without saying it?

Can I change targets/focus?
- If so, can I climb onto my own barrier, or catch myself in the air/float inside it?

Can I change the shape?
- If so, what are the limits? Can it become a weapon? Or just a Pyramid/Cube/Dodecahedron/whatever 3D shape that's symmetrical?

This is only checked when Zhihao stops attacking fervently: Can I change the exit/enter status?
- If so, is it only a binary yes/no, or can I specify targets/conditions? How vague of conditions if so?

He then gave Zhihao a glance in surprise, "Aren't you getting tired yet?"

[Throndir]

Spirit Tree Camp
Day 9 - Morning to Noon

Absorbing Damage from Freefall
You climbed up the spirit tree, and jumped off. You found out that it absorbed the fall and cushioned it. Though the barrier lost hitpoints in the process.

Does it cause air drag
From what you can tell there was no difference in speed from when you feel with or without the barrier.

Invocation
You found out that you had to actually say 'Barrier' in order to create the barrier. A menu would appear as well which gave you the ability to tweak things on it. You were able to will more mana into it to increase its hitpoints or initial range from the first cast. Changing the aspects of the barrier was possible through the menu, though would take some precious seconds especially in the middle of combat.

Trying to think it without saying the keyword resulted in a notification: 'Silent invocation not yet unlocked'.

Changing Targets
You were able to cast it on Lu Zhihao. You also found out you could cast it on the ground, air, or on empty areas. They were able to be used as platforms, though balancing was awkward due to being a perfect sphere.

Shape
When you began to think about manipulating the shape of the barrier aside from the default dome it took, you received a notification of 'Ability not yet unlocked'.

Entry and Exit Filters
When you began to think about changing the 'Anything' to something more specific, or the 'Nothing' to be something more specific, you received a notification of 'Ability not yet unlocked'.

The two of you had been at it for at least an hour. Lu Zhihao's face was flushed red as you can visibly see her breathe due to the cooler temperatures down in the caverns. More of the various straps on her body had loosened through the morning as well, so you could easily see her exposed skin. Sweat glistened and covered her body as she gripped the whip in her hands tight enough that it would surely left red marks on it after.

You yourself had been fairly drained of mana due to all the experiments.

"That barrier!" Lu Zhihao said in a complainng tone. "I want to hit your flesh!" The sadist said only to redouble her efforts.

Any other experiments are good, you can also use the time for anything you can argue is for training from what's happening.

[Linwelin]

"Well, that wasn't part of the deal. Unless you can get past this ability. Why do you want to hit me, anyways? What did I do to you that makes you want to harm me? You said- BARRIER- pain was pleasure, but since I don't agree, I didn't think you'd try to force that on me." Fred begins questioning Zhihao's intent, slipping in a command for his ability in the middle of conversation so he doesn't get hurt.

Final test for Barrier:

Can I reduce the size of the barrier around an individual to cause damage/crush? Would likely try it on a rock or something so no one gets hurt.

With all these odd uses of Barrier, I wonder if Destroy is more useful than I thought. I should try some things out. Fred thinks to himself.

Destroy tests:

Can I destroy my own barrier? (And thus destroy others' shield spells)

Can I destroy a magic spell, using my power as a counterspell?

Now that Fred understands intent better, he's going to try destroying a rock with the intent of breaking it down.

Fred is going to spend time casting Destroy on non-human entities to see if something works. (Rocks, mushrooms, random inanimate objects, etc.)

Fred specifically avoids directing destroy at Zhihao. He's learned his lesson, and made a promise before starting this testing. Clothes stay intact.

[Throndir]

Spirit Tree Camp
Day 9 - Morning to Noon

Color change for Lu Zhihao to better match eyes.

"Ugh..." Lu Zhihao finally said as she slowed her relentless strikes. She was already getting tired too. She looked at you with almost pleading eyes but then approached you with the handle of her whip.

"Fine!" Lu Zhihao said trying to hand you her weapon. "Hit me instead!"

Shrinking Barrier
You are able to shrink the size of a barrier, however, as you continue to shrink it on a large rock, you find out that the rock did not get destroyed. Pushing the rock in this state had the barrier move along with the rock, as the rock was the original target.

Changing the target to the area rather than the rock had slightly different effects. There was no uncounted for resistance while the barrier was still inside the rock when you pushed it. Even after the barrier started to appear from pushing the rock far enough, there was no immediate pushback at all. It was only after the rock was completely free from the small barrier that it began being repelled.

Use Destroy on Barrier
Ability not yet unlocked.

Destroy a magic spell as a counterspell
Ability not yet unlocked.

Destroy rock
Attempting to use the power on the rock, caused the rock to explode. However, a strange thing occurred then too. Once the rock exploded, all that was left looked to be a spherical shape of the rock's inner parts. It was as if it had shed the outer covering of the rock. It was much like a large rock marble.

Destroy Mushroom
Ability not yet unlocked.

Destroy shirt
Much like the rock, the rest of the shirt exploded. The shirt visible shrunk as if torn from the edges. The surface of the shirt was frayed as well as if someone had went through with a fine fraying tool to rough up the surface. Strangely, the inside of the shirt was still normal.

Destroy water pool surrounding the Spirit Tree
Ability not yet unlocked

Destroy water
A blast of evaporated water exploded from the cup. The cups contents were reduced, but there was still plenty there.

[Linwelin]

Fred blinks in surprise, somewhat stunned at being handed Zhihao's whip. "Uh, what? Why? No?" All he could stutter out was random confused words. "I really don't understand you, Zhihao...does hitting always have to be involved?"



"...Whoa..." All Fred could do was mutter in surprise. Why did it break apart into a smooth sphere...wait, 'Destroy' seems to remove the out, impure parts of the target. Or anything covering the core of the target. That'd fit for why clothing was removed...interesting, I'm starting to understand the trick of this power.

Fred begins running his hand along the smooth surface of the rock as he continues to analyze the results. "Wait, then does it do this to all minerals?" Fred says aloud, eyes widening with curiosity. He spins around, examining the walls until he finds an easy-to-remove chuck of blue crystal. Using his spear, he works a chunk out of the earth, picks it up, and focuses his intent to destroy the crystal.

Fred tries to 'Destroy' the blue crystal.

[Throndir]

Spirit Tree Camp
Day 9 - Morning to Noon

Color change for Lu Zhihao to better match eyes.

"Yes, yes, YES!" Lu Zhihao replied almost immediately.

"You NEED to hit me. Fred, I can't take it anymore. Please HIT ME!" She announced loudly, her eyes momentarily closed tightly to express just how much she wanted it.

You gathered a couple of crystals. There were some that were glowing, and some that were not glowing. Through your greater mana sensitivity, you knew the glowing ones to have mana.

Destroy glowing crystals
Ability not yet unlocked.

Destroy non-glowing crystal
Much like the rock, you created a smooth crystal orb. This one was very much more so like a marble.

[Linwelin]

Fred looks at Zhihao with concern. "You're going to need to explain why it's so important to do something that's the exact opposite of normal. At least, what I think is normal. I still don't understand what is and isn't normal for you humans." Fred says in obvious confusion. "I don't want to hit you. Why is hitting so important?"



"Ok, so anything infused with Mana I can't destroy yet. But I can somewhat refine mundane minerals into spheres like this. Which is interesting. And probably not too useful." Fred muses to himself.

Fred then begins playing with his powers a bit, cradling the multiple rock and crystal marbles he'd created in a barrier, rolling them around as though they were in a bowl while he thought. While watching them, his eyes suddenly lit up. Moving spheres...! Of course, I haven't even tried that yet! Focusing a bit, Fred attempted to move the barrier holding the marbles through the air gradually, seeing whether or not the barriers that are created are static. If this works, I have one more way of protecting myself.

Attempting to move a barrier that's in air, while it holds the marbles.

[Throndir]

Spirit Tree Camp
Day 9 - Morning to Noon

"Well, since you won't let me hit you!" She pouted. "Then do it for me. Please!" She begged as she bit her lip.

Moving the force field
You willed the force field to move, however a message of 'Ability not yet unlocked' appeared.