[Fiction] Ask Aura Anything

[Mistrunner]

Seeing as this seems to be the new trend, I thought I'd jump for the chance to test out Aura's character. She's up for anything, depending on her mood.

 

A few quick notes to start off:

• Aura is called an alchemist, meaning she works with magics and cool stuff like that (or used to before she joined up with the rebels)
• She currently leads a handful of people in the rebellion. She is terrible at it, unfortunately.
• Aura has bipolar disorder
• She's the grumpy/confused person in my avatar.

So... ask Aura absolutely anything! (Alliteration is acceptable.)

[Kobold King he/him]

Way before working with those wholesome warriors, what wonders would you whip up?

 

(What kinds of magical feats are you capable of, Aura? )

[Arraenae]

What rebellion are you leading? And against who? And why?

[Seonid he/him]

How does your bipolar disorder affect your ability to work with magic, Aura?

[Mistrunner]

Way before working with those wholesome warriors, what wonders would you whip up?

 

(What kinds of magical feats are you capable of, Aura? )

And Aura responds:

 

"I work with powders. I get shipments of crystals, I crush them, and I mix them. Different colors do different things- take blue. You use pressure to activate it [Mistrunner's translation: throw it on the ground, but make sure you throw it hard or nothing will happen and potentially dangerous magical stuff will seep into the groundwater] and it'll paralyze living things within a 2-3-foot radius. You can dilute them using gray powder- it's essentially useless and therefore reduces the effects of the powder you mix it into. You can also mix powders, though that takes precautions. Mixtures can be very unstable, and when experimenting one should always use small amounts. [Mistrunner's note: She once set fire to her house by being reckless with large amounts of powder. And there's a reason her hair is white instead of brown.] I've been doing some experiments lately with flammability of the powders, both as a whole and within subgroups. Once you get to about 310 degrees of heat they melt much like sugar, but if flames are applied directly to the powders they don't light on fire but scorch. I've been running some tests on how that affects..."

 

Author's Note: This interview has been cut for length. Suffice it to say that she is very into powders and experiments with them a lot. It's her life. She will talk about it forever if you let her.

 

What rebellion are you leading? And against who? And why?

Aura's response:

 

"I don't lead the rebels, Journey does. Or Tomorrow. Or whatever code name she's using at the moment. I'm just in charge of this group. I want to say it's a smaller group, but I have no idea. Against the king, who is assassinating some of his own nobles and is attempting to control the kingdom because of some sort of power complex."

 

Author's note: She's feeling a bit grumpy now, so she's a bit snappy. She's got a lot of stuff going on with her life, and isn't handling it all too well, unfortunately. However, it looks like she's on the edge of a breakthrough in her powder research, so she'll probably be cheered up soon.

[DreamEternal]

Aura, you seem to know much about alchemy. Could you explain some of the core laws it follows and generic rules that can be applied to all, or almost all, powders and mistures of them?

[Edgedancer he/him]

So, what kind of policies is this king fellow pushing that him gaining (more?) control over the kingdom would be such a bad thing?

[Mistrunner]

How does your bipolar disorder affect your ability to work with magic, Aura?

Aura's response (mainly referencing her experiments):

"It's... hard. Or terrifyingly easy.

Sometimes I feel like I can do anything. So I do. Or I try. Sleep, food, they stop mattering. All I need is a cup of tea and a supply of powder, and I can do wonderful things. But then... Sometimes, things crash down, and I can't do anything. I can't finish my projects. I can't- I can't feel anything. Nothing matters and everything loses meaning. Those days are, they're bad.

It's all a roll of the dice. I'm either left on top of the world or underneath it."

I'll get to the other questions soon!

[TwiLyghtSansSparkles she/her]

What nobles have been assassinated so far, and how were those killings traced back to the king? 

[Datan Nomlibash]

In your world is alchemy seen as a magic or is it more of a science?

You work for rebels to fight back against the corrupt king, how do you feel when it comes to harming people? What if someone under your command harmed or didn't harm some one against your wishes?

Do you agree with everything the rebelion does?

(I have more questions but I don't want to over whelm you or take stuff that other people could ask.)

[The Honor Spren she/her]

Why is your hair white? We're you born that way, or was it an experiment or something like that?

[Mistrunner]

I have not forgotten this! It's just taken me a while to answer a few of these. Sorry.

Aura, you seem to know much about alchemy. Could you explain some of the core laws it follows and generic rules that can be applied to all, or almost all, powders and mistures of them?

I can't answer this one yet, because I've recently realized the appalling lack of defined borders in this system. I'll get back to you when I understand it.

So, what kind of policies is this king fellow pushing that him gaining (more?) control over the kingdom would be such a bad thing?

Aura writes:

He hides everything from the public. He uses the magic to showcase the church's power while neglecting to mention that anyone can use it with proper understanding. He's getting more and more paranoid about things- especially assassins, and that includes his own- and his laws and measures have gotten steadily more ridiculous as a result. The country is hurting and I've been told that international relations are suffering. We're fighting what seems like eternal border skirmishes in a fight over boggy swamplands. He refuses to trade with the country to the east, saying they're a bunch of crooks when they're really the most dependable traders in the region.

He's going steadily insane, but is still smart enough to build safeguards as a wall around himself. Failsafe after failsafe to make sure he can't be touched.

In short, he's a loon, but a smart one.

What nobles have been assassinated so far, and how were those killings traced back to the king?

Just three. I don't know their names, you'd have to ask Avis about it. He keeps track of these things. We know because a few of his assassins defected and joined up. Yes, it isn't the greatest idea to allow a dozen assassins into your top secret base, but let's just say they made a convincing case that included a surprising lack of death threats.

In your world is alchemy seen as a magic or is it more of a science?

You work for rebels to fight back against the corrupt king, how do you feel when it comes to harming people? What if someone under your command harmed or didn't harm some one against your wishes?

Do you agree with everything the rebelion does?

(I have more questions but I don't want to over whelm you or take stuff that other people could ask.)

(I like these ones. )

Aura writes:

It's considered a divine power. Only the priests are allowed to use it 'for the glory of the gods', whatever that means. I currently see it as magic, but my current (self-appointed) position is attempting to find whatever science may be behind it.

Recently we haven't had much violence as a tactic in the rebellion. We're too small. We'd be crushed. We're focusing more on planning and tactics at this stage. The last time a leader in the rebellion thought they were ready to fight, nine people were killed. That's why I'm leading this base. Ivory had decided to attack a supplies carriage leading to the palace with eight of his men. It didn't end well.

I'm not ready to lose more recruits. There's too few of us already. You either follow my orders and don't get aggressive or you end up hauling rocks in the basement.

Of course I don't agree with everything the rebels do, it's obvious we aren't as professional as we'd like to think. Seeing as we were created by a random merchant and most of our leaders have no combat experience, it's obvious we have no idea what we're doing. What am I even doing here? This is all Kona's fault, he made me join.

Why is your hair white? We're you born that way, or was it an experiment or something like that?

(This one's fun. Aura was born with brown hair and eyes, but...)

Aura writes:

It probably has something to do with that time I set fire to the roof. Not my fault. It burned up some powders and I was inhaling the fumes. I'm not quite sure when it happened, though, because I don't own a mirror and it took a while to notice. I should experiment with fumes. Haven't thought of that one before...

(The fire was totally her fault.)

[Datan Nomlibash]

Has Ivory's bungled raid attempt made things more difficult for the Rebellion?

Who is Kona?

[DreamEternal]

Why is the king and church so closely aligned? Is he the head of said church?

If not, I'd think that someone as paranoid as him wouldn't want to give people outside his direct control exclusive acess to a tool like magic.

And why does the Church support him? If they have exclusive acess to such a versatile tool, then I suppose they are rich and influential, could stay so if another was king, and would rather prefer stability than the kingdom falling apart because of an incompetent ruler. Have they at least tried to passively contain the king's madness out of a desire of self-preservation?

Or do they keep the king because the alternative is opposed to them, and they lack the power to put a puppet in his place?

Edited February 11, 2016 by DreamEternal