Black Holes
Don't go opening any portals to other worlds y'hear?
Ah Black Holes, this magic is one that delivery or storage companies often like to favour when taking in new recruits, you can probably guess why.
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Now as the name states, this Scientific Magic is based around the creation and control of black holes! The 'Black Holes' Dopalines are capable of are more like portals than matter sucking air-less vacuums though so don't be alarmed.
BASIC SKILLS
Small Openings
Desc: The first skill any dopaline learning Black Holes really wants to tackle, if only because it gives them a good taster of what the rest of the skills they’ll pick up will be like. Soon Small Openings will become proper portals, you just need to start with the baby steps!
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Learning: Many find this skill requires a lot of research, though picking up a book isn’t required for figuring it out! Some dopalines learned this skill by simply trying to tear the air between their hands apart, creating a small opening in the air just by focusing enough! However you decide to go about it, you should have a small black hole by the end.
Limits/Risks: Keeping an opening open for more than a few minutes is fairly tiring, and this skill is more of a stepping stone to other skills as you can’t do much with a small opening in the air. It looks cool though!
Small Vacuum
Desc: Some like to regard this as a utility skill, an easy way to save money on a vacuum cleaner, while others simply regard it as another ‘segway skill’. Whatever you think it is, the ability to make a Small Vacuum is still pretty impressive!
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Learning: Learning this skill isn’t the easiest of things, but it isn’t the hardest either. Some experts have described using it as ‘like inhaling, except you’re making the air inhale’. So that’s what you need to do! Try to make the air inhale. You could sit in a room and cup your hands, then try to pull the air into that ‘cup’, or you and your friends could sit in a circle and spitball different methods for trying it out!
Limits/Risks: The most this ability can really do is pull objects into one place, and you’ll have a hard time pulling anything much larger than a flusterbug towards you. Vacuuming larger things also takes up a lot of unnecessary energy!
Limits/Risks: This ability only allows you to preserve an object, not completely save it from its inevitable death. This is why it’s only useful as a temporary solution until one has access to better means for keeping an object in relatively tiptop condition.
Preserve Object
Desc: Yet another money saving ability, though dopalines with this skill still prefer to buy fridges for mass food storage. This is better for if you have, for example, a sandwich, and don’t want to eat it just yet, but don’t have access to a fridge in the time it’d take it to expire. You simply use this ability, and that sandwich will live long enough for you to either want to eat it or find a fridge!
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Learning: Research is pretty key for some here, while others simply grab an apple and wing it. While it can be hard to tell if it’s worked, there is a very clear signal - a thin veil of orange light over the object, barely visible to the naked eye, but very much there. You’ll also know if it’s been a while and that apple hasn’t gone rotten yet.
Minor Distortion
Desc: The ability to distort one’s surroundings is an odd one, but one that becomes more useful down the line nonetheless. Law enforcement, entertainers, this ability’s even useful in horror attractions and movies!
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Learning: A good way to learn this skill is simply to observe it being used by another dopaline, though if research isn’t your thing, there’s still a way you can do it without prior knowledge. Simply stand in a room, preferably dark and alone, and remember a time when you’ve felt out of place or otherwise panicked. You’ll know you’ve succeeded when the room starts to distort around you.
Limits/Risks: Clue’s in the name, the distortion here is only minor. At most the surroundings should look a bit fuzzy, perhaps wavy, just the start of a bad drug trip. It’s also quite distressing to use for some!
ADVANCED SKILLS
Teleportal
PREREQUISITE: Small Openings
Desc: Here’s where things really start to get interesting! This is yet another mobility skill for any dopalines interested, but it’s also useful for getting objects across short distances if you’re not up for learning Metal or Gravity magic! Plus, it just looks cool!
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Learning: Dopals learning this skill are advised to use the same method as they did for Small Openings, except this time they pull the air further apart than before. Then, once you’ve managed one opening large enough to fit yourself through, make yourself another a few feet away!
Limits/Risks: This skill only allows for a short distance ‘teleport’, and these portals can be time and energy consuming to create. With practice they take less time.
Vorpal Vacuum
PREREQUISITE: Small Vacuum
Desc: An even better money saver, because Small Vacuum just wasn’t effective enough for tidying your entire house! This ability is generally regarded as only good for utility, though dopalines in charge of looking after young dopals and reigning in criminals or pets have stated it also has use for wrangling whatever they have to.
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Learning: To learn this skill, a dopaline should think back to how they learned Small Vacuum and try to replicate that on a larger scale. This can prove to be difficult, so some dopals like to team up and make it a game of sorts! Alone, however, you can probably manage with a level head and enough research.
Limits/Risks: Vorpal Vacuum is a fairly powerful skill, this time able to pull living things towards you. However, it also has capabilities to be dangerous, as if a dopaline is emotional or otherwise careless, they may end up harming their target with how hard they’re pulling them. It’s also more tiring and challenging to target more than one thing with it.
Limits/Risks: It’s difficult and draining to use this skill on more than one object at once. Additionally, if a dopaline leaves an object in stasis for long enough, they may forget they froze it in the first place, which can then result in them trying to use it again and using up unnecessary energy.
Object Stasis
PREREQUISITE: Preserve Object
Desc: If you ever feel the need to keep something in its current state, stasis is generally the way to go. Often a good choice for keeping leftovers from a large party fresh or ensuring that chemical concoction gone wrong won't explode till you’re out of the house, scientists, caterers and dodgy children's restaurants alike tend to love a skill like this when in a pinch!
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Learning: Some advice for learning this skill involves taking a glass of water or some other liquid(honey is actually a popular option) and tipping it upside down. Then, try to use the Preserve Object skill first, then focus more into that, just trying to make that skill stronger. If one finds themselves easily frustrated by failed attempts, they may be advised to take a break.
Major Distortion
PREREQUISITE: Minor Distortion
Desc: This skill tends to be used by more malicious dopalines. Extreme horror attractions and movies may utilise it, but fiction isn’t the only place you’ll find it, which is possibly the scary part. To distort one’s perception of reality is a rather morally bankrupt thing to do, and unfortunately this isn’t even as bad as it can get!
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Learning: Once again, a dark room is the ideal setting for learning this one, somewhere you can just close your eyes and focus on your fears. Go as abstract as you need to, and once you open your eyes the room should be much more distorted than if you used Minor Distortion. Some say it’s easier to use Minor first and ease into Major, while others prefer to get it over with as quick as possible.
Limits/Risks: This is when you can really start inflicting this skill on others, though it isn’t recommended. Being closer to the target makes using it easier, as you need to know their fears to exploit them for this ability. It can also be even more emotionally draining to use than before!
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS
Limits/Risks: With more experience, one may not even need to send an object into stasis before storing it in a portal. Holding a Portal Pocket open for long periods of time can be quite draining, not to mention it makes your stomach feel rather upset. Make sure you don't throw up on your way out! It also isn’t an infinite storage space, though it is close enough to one that it could be mistaken as such.
Portal Pockets
PREREQUISITES: Object Stasis & Small Openings
Desc: A perfect utility skill for any dopaline, especially those who tend to go on large journeys. Instead of packing rations, dopals with this skill can take their entire fridge with them if they like, simply storing them in a pocket dimension for use later, completely fresh as though they’d only just been put in there!
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Learning: The first step for this skill is to use Object Stasis on the object you want to test, then start with a Small Opening. Once you’ve made one, which shouldn’t be too difficult, simply focus on making a space inside that opening! Your own little pocket dimension if you will, it could literally be the inside of a pocket if you like. You’ll never be going inside it, so the interior doesn’t matter too much. Once the portal looks as though there’s actually something other than blackness inside it, toss the stasis’d object into it and close it! You’ll really know you’ve succeeded if you then open the same portal and can reach in and retrieve the object.
Dimensional Distortion
PREREQUISITES: Major Distortion & Small Vacuum
Desc: They say a dop's worst fear is the unknown, going into the heart of oblivion and not knowing whether they'll make it out the other side. Dimensional Distortion can make that fear a scarily believable reality, warping and twisting the world as you know it into some horrific nightmare, no wonder scaremongers rely on this so much as it gives you the power to trick the eyes into seeing things they shouldn't…
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Learning: Another skill to learn by your lonesome, unless you want to find safety in numbers, though with this skill there isn’t much safety to be found…especially if multiple dops are using it in one room. Find a dark room, sit in the middle, and close your eyes. The same methods used for the other distortion skills are recommended here, though you will need to focus on your deepest, darkest fears. The things that scare you the most. By the time you’ve succeeded, the room should be completely unrecognisable, and you wouldn’t be blamed for panicking - luckily, it wears off once you’ve lost focus.
Limits/Risks: The psychological damage this skill can cause is immense, to the degree where in the past some have argued it should be illegal, or at least have a licence required to use it. Not only does it harm the target, but also the user, as it drains their energy both physically and emotionally.
Long Distance Teleport
PREREQUISITES: Teleportal & Preserve Object
Desc: This skill is useful for a myriad of professions, namely travelling merchants and circuses, generally any dopaline that finds themselves needing to move a long way quickly!
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Learning: The way to learn this skill is fairly simple, though the chance of failure and what it can do to a dopaline tend to put some off. Simply use the teleportal skill, but put the second portal a lot further away than you would normally. Then, as you step into the portal, use the Preserve Object skill on yourself. It’s heavily recommended that a dopaline trying this skill for the first time use an inanimate object instead of themselves.
Limits/Risks: You need to have a vague idea of the location you want to travel to, though the clearer the image is in your brain the more accurate you’ll be. Failed attempts can end in severe injury as bad as being cut in half, so it’s always best to test with an inanimate object you don’t mind losing, even if you’re experienced with the skill.
