Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (67/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 67 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

We returned to what was for all intents and purposes, the closest thing to a portal to earth, reentering the blackout tent in tentative silence.

The entire space was quieter, more relaxed, as the burden of balancing belief from disbelief was removed from my shoulders, replaced now with only a giddy desire to show what was already accepted as fact by the sole patron of this cinematic experience.

The princess’ eyes glistened and widened as the whirr of the projector arms reached its peak, hitting its operating speeds at about the same time its movements became an indistinct blurr. A white and featureless void quickly enveloped the pitch-black confines of the blackout tent, and with it came the return of a world that was just as fantastical to those in this realm of fantasy, as their realm of swords and sorcery was to us.

Chunk by chunk, the space was carefully filled in. The white void being replaced by the exact frame of view that we’d ended on not a few moments earlier - the rooftop park.

The surround sound audio courtesy of Kolby Digital followed soon after, prompting the princess’ feathers to ruffle, if only for a fraction of a second.

“Sorry.” I started off sheepishly.

“No, no. It’s quite alright.” Thacea responded promptly.

“I’m assuming there’s probably some… sensory confusion going on right? Judging by what Thalmin stated earlier, your sight-seers seem to have the ability to replicate a truly fully immersive experience, meaning smell and physical sensation probably accompany sights and sounds.”

“That is correct, Emma.” The avinor nodded.

“Which means only having some elements of the world rather than all of it, is probably going to cause a bit of sensory confusion. Such as in the case of say, the howling of the wind without the actual physical sensation of said wind.”  I half-pondered, more or less letting my thoughts take control of the conversation if only for a moment, as Thacea confirmed my suspicions with another tactful nod.

“Yes, however, the physical senses are but one aspect of the… disorientation stemming from a conflict of the senses. There is also the lack of a replicable mana-stream to consider. Which colors your sight-seer in an almost lifeless haze.” The princess expressed with a blunt honesty that was both surprising and refreshing in equal measures.

“Heh, well, there’s not much I can do about that I suppose. But thankfully, it seems like the other two took it quite well, despite the ‘shortcomings’ of the projector, and what’s probably going to be seen by most as the reddest of red flags when it comes to the believability of the whole thing.”

“The fact that the pair have had a full week of constant and unrepentant exposure to your manaless artifices may have aided in the suspension of disbelief.” Thacea reasoned. “Moreover, the delivery of information in a reductive and generalized manner, targeting the core controversies of a world of manaless predispositions, more than likely worked out for the better.”

“The manaless thing was something we needed to clear up right off the bat, so that was my intent yeah.” I shrugged. “But reasoning aside, let’s skip the business and work analytics to get to the heart of why we’re here.” I announced excitedly, gesturing to the skies above us, and the thin gray line that hovered above our heads ominously.

With a wordless nod of approval from Thacea, I snapped my fingers once more, the EVI helpfully adding in the sounds of a snap to compensate for the auditory encumbrance of the glove.

The world soon began to shift shortly after.

But instead of immediately swapping over to night, the EVI chose to gradually shift the time of day hour by hour, as the sun above us gradually began its journey across the skies, hopefully mitigating any sensory whiplash the sudden shift to night would’ve otherwise caused. This allowed the both of us to relax as the white noise that was the city’s constant hustle and bustle faded into the distance, superimposed instead by the wind chimes of the rooftop park.

“EVI, some music? Start playlist: hifi beats to relax to, please.”

“Acknowledged.”

Soon enough, the windchimes themselves were gradually replaced by the soft and cheery tunes of woodwinds and acoustic guitars playing a cover of some 29th century pop song. The music started up in sync to the arrival of a faceless band, the integrated omnidirectional audio system not simply playing the music over top of us like some cheap 25th century holo, but actually taking into account the perceived ‘source’ of the music, and directing the audio accordingly.

The faceless group, dressed in an assortment of eclectic clothes typical of your public patronage sponsored musical indie group, serenaded the arrival of the orange and red sunset over the harbor, as the ‘lightshow’ that was the city’s transition from day to night truly began, with district after district lighting up in a brilliant display of artificial colors from fluorescent-white, to daytona-oranges, and everything in between; beating back the night with the power of electricity.

Thacea’s eyes, whilst fixated on the skies above, occasionally looked over towards the recent additions to the scene, namely the band, and the rapidly brightening city. But just before night properly fell, her eyes shifted towards one of the park benches, as she gestured towards it with a polite, amicable smile. “I don’t suppose we can watch the sun setting from there, Emma?”

I blinked rapidly, cocking my head in confusion. “Unfortunately, the limitations of the projection means that everything you see isn’t actually physically intractable-” I paused, interrupted by another surge of mana radiation that was dutifully reported to me courtesy of the newly-implemented mana radiation notification hub.

Thacea walked wordlessly soon after towards the bench just to the right of us, and sat down.

Her body… actually making contact with the hologram.

It took me a few seconds to actually figure out what was happening.

But it didn’t take me long to realize the clever use of magic here.

And the strange marriage of technologically derived scenery and magically-derived physicality that came together to add just that extra level of immersiveness that wouldn’t have been possible before.

“This is exceedingly clever, Thacea.” I acknowledged with a smile, prompting the Princess to simply crane her head towards me, nodding and gesturing at the empty space next to her on the park bench. “You know, I was almost going to suggest that we sit on the floor before you pulled this stunt.”

“That would have been completely unacceptable, Emma.” Thacea responded, her tone bordering somewhere between being offended and openly chastising me for even suggesting that. But just as quickly as those words were uttered, so too did the followup come, lacking any of that royal indignancy that’d come before. “Of course, you would not have known that to be unacceptable given our cultural differences, so I do apologize for any insinuation of a lack of tact on your part.”

“None taken, Princess. I admit, it would’ve been of extremely poor taste for me to have even offered that to a noble, let alone a princess no less.” I responded with a cheeky smile. “So I do beg for your forgiveness, your grace.” I offered out teasingly.

Thacea’s features visibly shifted at that, her feathers ruffling, and her gaze immediately averting from me as if she’d been immediately flustered by that little jab. If she had cheeks to blush with, I was more than certain she’d have transitioned from bird of prey to cockatiel right about now, what with their signature bright-orange and red cheeks. “I assure you, Emma, there is no need for such requests for amnesty, I truly did not wish to imply-”

“No no, you’re fine Thacea. I meant all of that in jest.” I interrupted with an awkward chuckle, raising both of my hands up for added effect as I attempted to defuse the very situation I’d incited.