writing sketches

these writings aren't part of anything, they're just here

the guitar
The lizard struck the guitar, and the haphazard network of strings and coins resonated with an inharmonic, parasitic buzz. Ve went through a cycle of plucking (claws were especially useful for guitars!), shifting the coins, and turning the tuning pegs. Ve went though this cycle for hours, just exploring the exotic sounds the modified instrument could make. Until the string snapped, causing ver to leap in shock, frills wide, tail whipping. "Holy fucking shit," ve muttered, clutching vyr chest.
untitled sketch about some magic system
The horn blares before anything happens.

Currently, Lili is on a field trip to a mine, watching an example of industrial magitech at work. Like nearly all other instances of such high-energy magic, the caster in question uses Lei casting. Right now, she is only scribing the spell. Brilliant thread whips around the dusty, flattened clay while the fox inside of it makes intricate, practiced gestures. It's very fast, only taking a minute to complete. Then she steps away, and the real magic happens.

From an X marked in the spell, dust kicks up as an iridescent Skylon of light erupts into existence. The characteristic high fuzzing of high-energy magic gives Lili tinnitus, and the light makes it hard to keep her eyes open. That's a Beacon tone, one of the signature ways Lei casters direct their magic. Lili dons her goggles and earplugs quickly, praying that her eager attention to the appetizer wouldn't let her senses be blasted by the main course. Another horn blares.

And then a bolt that is as bright as the sun, and half as loud as it, attempts an assault on Lili's senses, stopped by her earplugs and goggles. After a couple of seconds, she smells ozone. She's studied: it's a Bolt tint, and it's liquefying the clay with a beam of pure magic, expressed as constant lightning. Of course, this is not a practical way to mine. What would be far easier is just moving the earth itself with a Force tint, and this is what they normally do. But that's not the point of this demonstration. The actual reasons this demonstration is happening is to be cool for the green little tradespeople, and also to impart the fear of God into those who didn't cover their senses.