Market Research

Extensive experimentation is the key to true knowledge. In the age of philosophers, wise men spoke and spoke, but without action, their words could only ever serve as a foundation upon which greater things were realized. In the modern era, well-structured tests and replicable results were what mattered. Both participants and testers needed to be unaware of the circumstances, and the participants should be selected as randomly as possible. That being said, Rei did not have the reach nor assets of a large pharmaceutical or the government, at least one of these restrictions would have to be thrown out the window.

She had posted a brief advertisement for volunteers in various places around campus requesting that people of all aptitude's take part in her magical research. The premise was simple; the experiment would test whether or not an individual's personal ability aptitude altered their ability to use her spell books. She had prepared a wide variety of spells to ensure that each candidate could be paired off with some imagined magic that did not relate to them at all. Still, given the lack of response she had received, it seemed dubious that she would get to use most of them. After all, a student with no financial backing had very little to offer in the way of incentive. Rei was essentially relying on the curiosity of those who possessed particularly specific abilities.

In any case, she had at least thought to pick a time late enough that many people would be out of classes. However, the occasional chilly breeze was beginning to persuade her that it wasn't such a great idea. Waiting around is pretty bothersome... Maybe I should just make a new spell in the meantime. Something silly to keep myself distracted. "Hm..." At least the lake was quite nice to gaze at. Maybe a super high resolution photo spell was called for. That would certainly sell, even if it was a bit specific. After all, the goal here was to get rich, because instant food was starting to get old.

There doesn't seem to be anyone coming... Rei sighed to herself lightly as twiddled her fingers atop her suitcase. Even if it was a waste of time, she had resigned herself to staying at the lake for the duration of the study. After all, if by some chance a willing participant showed up, she wouldn't want to disappoint with her absence. Contemplating the pond, the young lady soon noticed the arrival of another, standing near the edge of the water on the other side. There wasn't really anyone else around at this time, especially since it was getting to be on the nippy side, so perhaps this person had seen her flier? Maybe?

All of a sudden, Rei noticed that a smaller figure had appeared beside the figure on the other side. She squinted her eyes, but to no avail. "Blast, I hadn't thought to pack a binocular spell because those are so uninteresting." Picking up her suitcase, Rei began to walk briskly along the perimeter of the pond, but a safe distance away from the water. As she approached not-quite-having-to-shout distance, she shouted, "Excuse me, miss, but are you here for the study?" While waving towards what was now visibly a younger girl, Rei's briefcase popped open, spilling the small pocket journals within onto the grass and dirt before her. Embarrassed, the young researcher wannabe began to scramble and pick them up.

With a face that would have been flushed red if not for her lack of ability to blush, Rei scrambled to retrieve the journals. Luckily, they weren't quite close enough to the water that the ground was muddy, but still! The other girl didn't seem to mind helping out, and within a short amount of time, all of the small journals were once again locked up inside Rei's soon-to-be-replaced suitcase. She brushed herself off slightly, although considering the ragged hoodie she was wearing it was mainly a symbolic gesture.

"Ah, thanks for helping out." She scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "I was so ecstatic because I thought someone had finally showed up to help out with my study, I suppose I got a bit too worked up..." Rei gave the other girl a quick appraisal. Somehow...it doesn't seem like she's here to help. I think I'll avoid asking about that fox for now too...

In any case, she had troubled the young girl enough. Feeling kind of awkward about just running up to someone like that, Rei cleared her throat somewhat nervously. "Sorry to have bothered you, in any case. Since it doesn't seem like anyone else is showing up, why don't I offer you something from my stock, since you helped me out?" She gingerly opened up the suitcase and retrieved one of the small journals. "It seems I've got a few of these to spare."

Awawawawa...there's suddenly some interest! It seemed that both women had at least a modicum of curiosity in her work. At least the late arrival had mentioned the fliers. But...even so, only two people showed up, and I've been waiting here a while. Maybe I should try some different form of advertisement next time...

Rei let those thoughts be banished from her head for the time being. Failures aside, there were some willing(?) samples here ripe for the plucking. She had been willing to just give up one of her books to the helpful girl, but now she may as well do things properly. Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Better explain things first.

"*ahem* Well, this is the place of the study alright, although as you can see, there's really no one around. I should've made better fliers...I digress!" It was oh so easy to get off topic sometimes. "As you both probably know, the people that come here exercise varying degrees of control over their abilities. My power," she said, flourishing her small journal, "is to write within books and make them mini-grimoires of sorts. Observe!"

Rei flipped open the journal and looked at the spell she had written in this one.

Finagle

This spell will allow the user to be able to insert USB connectors properly on the user's first attempt for a duration of 30 seconds.

She shut the book hurriedly. I must've been in some kinda mood when I wrote that one... "Uh, this one isn't really a good demonstration. Besides, the point is that I wanted to see whether a person's influence over their own ability determines their influence over an instance of mine, by having them try out a few books I've prepared." She rapped her suitcase. "It's a bit vain to conduct a study based on my own ability, but research like this could have interesting applications depending on the results." Applications in the field of revenue generation, that is.