(8:47:30 AM) Claire: Climbing back out of the hole that was the source of the magic-seeking vines had been difficult enough; then came dodging those same vines as she took to the air, flying back toward the crystal ruins that weren't all that ruined. But finally the spires come back into view and Claire adjusts her flight path to come down over the "protected" area that the vines leave alone.
(8:47:30 AM) Claire: She touches down and dismisses her flight spell, glancing at TIsiphone, not saying a word but moving along to the towers themselves. Curiosity spurs her along, though mated with caution, trying not to touch anything if she can avoid it...
(8:51:33 AM) Ikiryo: Tisiphone sighs. "...do you think we'll find Alexa tied up or Tazzari knocked out when we return?"
(8:54:43 AM) Claire: "Honestly?" She shrugs. "I wouldn't be surprised to see some...weird gestalted Treelexa or Vine-zzari thing. And the vines somehow detect and hunt magic so the sealing procedures I half-remember from an old class won't work unless you're far enough away, which neither of them are."
(8:56:15 AM) Ikiryo: "...well, hopefully we can fix whatever it is in the end."
(8:57:03 AM) Claire: "And then fix the penchant to just reach out and touch unidentified stuff?"
(8:57:15 AM) Claire: Her tone shows quite clearly how likely she thinks that is to happen.
(8:57:41 AM) Claire: "Anyway...have you seen or otherwise detected a way in to these towers?"
(8:58:40 AM) Ikiryo: She shakes her head. "These don't line up with anything in my database. They look like crystal...but the structure isn't right for crystal."
(8:59:41 AM) Claire: "What's it closer to, then? Normal stuff like we'd use?"
(9:01:28 AM) Ikiryo: "...closer to barrier jackets. They seem to be mana...but it's more solid than a barrier jacket. Not being powered. It's like someone managed to freeze electricity." She sighs. "I wasn't built to help with magic so I'm having to use analogies."
(9:03:32 AM) Claire: "No, it's alright...believe it or not, that made a lot of sense."
(9:05:11 AM) Claire: Then she frowns. "But...the vines hunt magic...is it the act of shaping mana, then? Or is it the mana flow itself? Do they not break down the towers because the mana is...static, I guess?" She sighs. "Rhetorical questions, Tis, I don't expect you to know any more than I would expect me to."
(9:07:02 AM) Ikiryo: "...oh good. I do not like to look particularly ignorant." She nods.
(9:07:48 AM) Claire: "Nobody does. Shall we head inside?" She walks toward one of the towers...
(9:08:57 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. "Would you like to form up?"
(9:10:23 AM) ***Claire considers, then nods. "Couldn't hurt."
(9:11:25 AM) Ikiryo: She nods, vanishing into Claire.
(9:13:15 AM) Claire: Their unison takes moments, and leaves Claire with the blue eyes and pink-hued hair of their joining. [Alright, here goes...] She reaches for the nearest wall.
(9:15:14 AM) Ikiryo: [...wait, try a few meters over] She feels Tisiphone push towards the left.
(9:16:09 AM) Claire: [Alright.] She takes a few steps in that direction, then tries again.
(9:17:04 AM) Ikiryo: She passes through the wall easily. Finding herself in darkness.
(9:18:39 AM) ***Claire withdraws her staff in its card-shaped storage form and expands it, then conjures a ball of light.
(9:19:42 AM) Ikiryo: She finds herself in...huh, this tower has a very different design than the last one. It's a single large room filling the entire building. There are platforms up above her.
(9:20:18 AM) Claire: "Curious..." she mumbles to herself, spawning her flight spell and lifting off to head up to the platforms.
(9:22:32 AM) Ikiryo: ...there is a vaguely humanoid figure in transparent crystal standing on one of the platforms. The light from her staff plays along it, producing a rainbow behind it.
(9:24:22 AM) Claire: "...What in the...?"
(9:24:27 AM) Claire: She approaches cautiously.
(9:25:47 AM) Ikiryo: It's unmoving, the light playing through it but otherwise nothing seemingly happening with it.
(9:26:06 AM) Claire: [...More solidified mana, Tis?]
(9:26:25 AM) Claire: She touches down on the platform gently, surveying the scene, looking for anything the figure might have theoretically been interacting with.
(9:26:29 AM) Ikiryo: [It seems that way, yes.]
(9:27:01 AM) Ikiryo: It's standing in the middle of an otherwise empty platform...though as the sets down, a few runes spring up around the figure...
(9:28:13 AM) ***Claire grips her staff a little tighter, trying to analyze the rune pattern, see if it's a style she's familiar with...
(9:49:13 AM) Ikiryo: ...and then she accidentily steps on one of them.
(9:50:24 AM) Claire: "Uh oh," she mutters, hastily stepping back, hoping she didn't just disrupt whatever was happening...
(9:51:33 AM) Ikiryo: ...she feels off, like she's a bottle of liquid...and some was just taken out of her. The crystal figure is also starting to shift...
(9:55:08 AM) Claire: The dizzy, woozy feeling persists, and she puts a hand to her head. Shaking her head to try and clear it, she glances at the changing figure.
(9:55:08 AM) Claire: Claire herself looks much like normal, except that her hair is a dark pink, almost red, hue, instead of its normal silver, and her eyes are a bright blue instead of green. Her usual barrier jacket's tabarded design sports a golden breastplate now, and the jacket itself includes a kind of split surcoat in pink and yellow.
(9:56:43 AM) Ikiryo: ...and she's staring into a mirror of herself now.
(9:58:07 AM) Claire: "...What." [Tis, what the heck just happened?]
(9:58:41 AM) Ikiryo: ...she gets no reply. "What on..." That voice...it sounds like her but the tone and mannerisms...are Tisiphone's.
(10:00:29 AM) ***Claire freezes and stares at her copy. "...Tis?"
(10:01:03 AM) Ikiryo: "...Claire is that...of course it is but..." She looks down at herself. "...what?"
(10:01:32 AM) Claire: "...Uuhhhh."
(10:01:58 AM) Ikiryo: "...I don't have context for what just happened."
(10:02:58 AM) Claire: "Haha you think I do?" Her grin is...a little worrying. "Crap. Stupid magic. Why doesn't it ever explain anything it does?"
(10:03:39 AM) Ikiryo: Tisiphone's claire more looks confused. "I do not know." She shakes her head. "How do we fix this?"
(10:05:18 AM) ***Claire sighs again. "...I...have no idea. Definitely need someone who understands magic theory better than I do." She glances down at herself. "...And somehow we're both still unisoned. Saint-King I do not understand this at *all.*"
(10:05:50 AM) Ikiryo: "...we could try un-unisoning?"
(10:07:22 AM) Claire: "Maybe. Hey, if that works, maybe you'll look like you, just big."
(10:07:51 AM) Ikiryo: "...that would be really nice." She nods
(10:09:13 AM) ***Claire grins slightly, starting to relax a little. "I've heard that Commander Yagami's Rein Zwei is growing up. Haven't seen for myself." She concentrates for a moment. "Here goes. Unison...out."
(10:12:59 AM) Ikiryo: ...things feel very weird for a moment...and she finds herself shrunk down to Tisiphone's size, the wings of her spell out of her back. In front of her is a claire-sized Tisiphone...which makes her slightly unnatural figure all the odder to see. "...this isn't right."
(10:14:16 AM) Claire: "Haha, very funny," she grumps, glaring down at the floor from her place hovering in midair. "It wasn't even a body swap or anything. More like a...circumstances-swap, or something weird."
(10:15:25 AM) Ikiryo: "I think the magical connection between us got all messed up..." She rubs her temples.
(10:16:09 AM) Claire: "It's kinda backwards, yes. Iiiiiiii can feel it a lot stronger now."
(10:16:46 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh?" She tilts her head.
(10:18:13 AM) Claire: "Well...normally, I can feel the connection between us, right? It's like...it feels like a faint memory at the back of your mind. Something I'm always just on the edge of remembering. Right now though it's like WHOAH."
(10:18:31 AM) ***Claire spreads her arms out wide. Of course, this only stretches across ten or twelve centimeters.
(10:19:09 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. "It feels a lot weaker right now. Must be what it's like to be the...umm...mistress feels wrong to say."
(10:21:51 AM) Claire: "But it's perfectly accurate, Mistress!" Mini-Claire chirps...then blushes furiously, clamping her hands over her mouth.
(10:22:16 AM) Ikiryo: "Oh no...oh no no no..."
(10:23:16 AM) ***Claire lowers her hands after a minute. "...That was..."
(10:23:40 AM) Ikiryo: "I'm so sorry..."
(10:24:14 AM) Claire: She looks up at Tisiphone. "...That's what you put up with? All the time?"
(10:24:42 AM) Ikiryo: "I've gotten a lot more used to it." She nods. "I'm sorry, it must feel terrible..."
(10:26:32 AM) Claire: "Uh." The blush returns. "...Not really. Kind of the opposite. But um. We--Tis, why didn't you tell me it was that strong? We should have tried to help you a long time ago."
(10:27:28 AM) Ikiryo: "...I didn't want to be trouble..." She shakes her head.
(10:28:54 AM) ***Claire flies over and hugs Tisiphone's upper arm. "Tis. Before anything, you are my friend. I would want you to be my friend even if we weren't all tied together. Nothing you can ask for would trouble me." She pauses, then smiles a little dryly. "Assuming, y'know, we get this part fixed."
(10:29:37 AM) Ikiryo: She blushes brilliantly. "Wait, what?"
(10:30:06 AM) Claire: "What what?"
(10:31:44 AM) Ikiryo: "...oh, I thought you said...don't worry, I just missheard you..." She shakes her head.
(10:33:31 AM) Claire: "Oh, well that's okay then, Mistress!"
(10:33:36 AM) Claire: Cue more blushes.
(10:33:59 AM) Ikiryo: "...I'm sorry." She pets Claire's head.
(10:34:58 AM) ***Claire preens under the attention. She just can't help herself.
(10:36:30 AM) Ikiryo: "We need to get this fixed." She sighs, still petting.
(10:36:43 AM) Claire: "...In a minute..."
(10:36:58 AM) Ikiryo: "In a minute?"
(10:37:37 AM) Claire: "Er. Sorry." She snaps her eyes open and ducks slightly out from under the petting. "Um. Maybe we should...check the other platforms?"
(10:38:13 AM) Ikiryo: She nods. "I was thinking we try to Unison again."
(10:39:36 AM) Claire: "Okay. You have to be the one to start it, though, I think."
(10:40:07 AM) Ikiryo: She blinks a few times. "Oh...right. I didn't think of that."
(10:41:55 AM) Claire: "...Not that I have any real idea what to do either," she admits after a moment.
(10:42:10 AM) Claire: "Pretty sure that, if I flew at you, I'd just...bounce off."
(10:42:22 AM) Ikiryo: "You fly at me, I'll try saying it?"
(10:42:41 AM) Claire: "Okay, Mistress!"
(10:43:14 AM) Ikiryo: "Unison...In?"
(10:44:55 AM) ***Claire gives her friend a resigned expression and flutters off about a body length before turning around and diving for Tisiphone's chest...
(10:45:37 AM) Ikiryo: And now she's stuck in Tisiphone's cleavage. Unison...unsuccessful.
(10:47:06 AM) Claire: "Soft," she murmurs, trying to push herself back out.
(10:48:06 AM) Ikiryo: She has a lot less upper body strength than before. She's kinda stuck. "...sorry. Being on the other end of this is different."
(10:48:31 AM) Claire: "You said it," she says, tiny voice muffled. "Um...help?"
(10:49:22 AM) Ikiryo: She reaches down, carefully extracting Claire. "...well, this isn't good."
(10:51:09 AM) Claire: Remarkably, she is blush-free in spite of having dived head-first into her friend's boobs. "...I almost wonder if the opposite way still works, but...I'm kind of afraid to try."
(10:53:07 AM) Ikiryo: "I wouldn't want to crush you." She nods. "Maybe one more try? I'll try to line it up better?"
(10:53:58 AM) Claire: "Let's do...hmm. When I called for it before, what do you do, if anything? A spell, a command, a...something? To make the unison happen?"
(10:55:19 AM) Ikiryo: "I tried to visualize the end result and just sort of...went with the flow."
(10:56:09 AM) ***Claire nods. "It was...pretty much the same on my end. Try being more assertive about the 'Unison in' command, too, maybe hesitation breaks it."
(10:57:31 AM) Ikiryo: "Alright." She nods. "Unison in!" This time she sounds like the mistress of the pair.
(10:58:13 AM) Claire: Hoping it works, Claire holds a picture of her unisoned self in her mind and flies at Tisiphone again...
(10:59:22 AM) Ikiryo: ...and there is a flash of light. Before long she spots a Unison'd Claire...at Tisiphone's size. Now there is two familiar-sized unison'd Claires.
(10:59:40 AM) Ikiryo: The other one facepalms. "...that is...oh dear."
(11:00:57 AM) ***Claire giggles manically. "At least I can hug you properly now!" She does so!
(11:01:21 AM) Ikiryo: She hugs back. "I suppose that's nice at least. And we are at least changing?"
(11:03:04 AM) ***Claire sobers. "Yeah. On one hand: we could keep trying until we're back to normal, and then just leave it be. On the other: no guarantee that that'd happen."
(11:03:31 AM) Ikiryo: "Yeah...one more try and hope one of us it at least large enough to work doors?"
(11:04:08 AM) Claire: "Blah, doors...bane of the tiny!" She nods. "Alright. Let's say it at the same time. Ready?"
(11:04:18 AM) Ikiryo: "Ready." She nods
(11:04:57 AM) Claire: "Unison out!"
(11:05:05 AM) Ikiryo: "Unison out!"
(11:07:11 AM) Ikiryo: There is a flash of light...and Claire finds herself chest to chest with...herself. Sort of The Claire she can see has the milk chocolate skin and green hair that Tisiphone normally has...and the pair both have the impractical, nearly foot-length hair that Tisisiphone's form nearly has.
(11:07:13 AM) Ikiryo: Both are them are at least human scale now and aside from hair length Claire is back to normal.
(11:08:32 AM) Claire: "Ehm...well...progress?"
(11:09:23 AM) Ikiryo: "...I guess?" She looks herself up and down. "I guess...at least we have someone human size and don't look the same? Well, mostly the same."
(11:13:21 AM) Ikiryo: She sighs. "I'm sorry Mistress..."
(11:14:05 AM) Claire: "You look good, though, Tis! I can't wait until we fix this *and* get you a normal sized body to boot. And don't be sorry, you're not the dunce who stomped all over a magic circle while it was powering up."
(11:15:39 AM) Ikiryo: She hugs Claire. "I'm still so sorry Mistress." All the changes seems to have undone her control over the Mistress thing.
(11:16:41 AM) ***Claire returns the hug eagerly. "It's alright. We have some idea what's going on now, or at least how to deal with it. So cheer up, Mistress!"
(11:16:49 AM) Claire: She looks surprised the word slipped out, but giggles.
(11:17:30 AM) Ikiryo: "...wait...I'm not the mistress, you are the mistress." She blushes at saying it but seems resolute.
(11:21:33 AM) Claire: "...I dunno, I still kinda have the feeling to, well...you know. So that makes *you* the mistress~!"
(11:22:19 AM) Ikiryo: She shakes her head. "No, I'm the familiar so *you* are the mistress." She pouts, giving Claire a poke.
(11:23:27 AM) Claire: "But you're not a familiar and it's more fun!" She pokes back!
(11:24:45 AM) Ikiryo: She pokes back again, giggling. "Nah, you are!"
(11:26:23 AM) Claire: "You are!" She smiles, returning the poke again!
(11:27:04 AM) Ikiryo: "You are!" The poke war continues.