Strawberry Swing

Strawberry Swing by Coldplay!

 

 The VaM-style spell today is Strawberry Swing - the title coming from this song by Coldplay.

Viva La Vida is so beautiful - there are lots of good Coldplay tracks - but I love all of Viva La Vida.
There is something so momentary - such a sweeping windy feeling - like euphoria at passing a graveyard, like driving through places you don't go anymore, like burning something you would like to forget.

It is good from start to finish - and multiple other tracks would be good spells: Lost!, Life In technicolor, Violet Hill, Death and All His Friends, 42, Yes - all possible spells - and all beautiful songs.

I still can't get over this album - especially Death and All His Friends.

Here are some definitions of Strawberry and Swing that inspired the spell -

a sweet soft red fruit with a seed-studded surface.

the low-growing plant which produces the strawberry, having white flowers, lobed leaves, and runners, and found throughout north temperate regions.

a deep pinkish-red color.

also: Strawberries are a symbol of purity and sensuality, fertility and abundance, humility and modesty. 

move or cause to move back and forth or from side to side while suspended or on an axis.

be executed by hanging.

turn (a ship or aircraft) to all compass points in succession, in order to test compass error.

move by grasping a support from below and leaping.

move quickly around to the opposite direction.

move with a rhythmic swaying gait.

move or cause to move in a smooth, curving line.

bring down (something held) with a curving movement, typically in order to hit an object.

attempt to hit or punch, typically with a wide curving movement of the arm.

throw (a punch) with a swinging movement.

shift or cause to shift from one opinion, mood, or state of affairs to another.

have a decisive influence on (something, especially a vote or election).

succeed in bringing about.

play music with an easy flowing but vigorous rhythm.

    (of music) be played with an easy flowing but vigorous rhythm.

(of an event, place, or way of life) be lively, exciting, or fashionable.

engage in group sex or swap sexual partners within a group, especially on a habitual basis.

a seat suspended by ropes or chains, on which someone may sit and swing back and forth.

    a spell of swinging on a seat suspended by ropes or chains.

an act of swinging.

the manner in which a golf club or a bat is swung.

the motion of swinging.

a discernible change in opinion.

a style of jazz or dance music with an easy flowing but vigorous rhythm.

    the rhythmic feeling or drive of swing music.

a swift tour involving a number of stops, especially one undertaken as part of a political campaign.

(in musical theater) an understudy, typically one who covers multiple roles in the chorus of a particular production.

Here are the beautiful lyrics!

They were sitting
They were sitting on the strawberry swing
Every moment was so precious

They were sitting
They were talking on the strawberry swing
Everybody was for fighting
Wouldn't want to waste a thing

Cold, cold water, bring me 'round
Now my feet won't touch the ground
Cold, cold water, what you say?

When it's such, it's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

I remember
We were walking up to strawberry swing
I can't wait 'til the morning
Wouldn't want to change a thing

People moving all the time
Inside a perfectly straight line
Don't you wanna just curve away?

When it's such, it's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

Now the sky could be blue
I don't mind
Without you, it's a waste of time
Could be blue
I don't mind
Without you, it's a waste of time

Well the sky could be blue
Could be grey
Without you, I'm just miles away
Well the sky could be blue
I don't mind
Without you, it's a waste of time

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, here is the spell's effects!

Strawberry Swing

Duration: Each pivot lasts 1 hour per caster level – the crush lasts 1d4 days

Range: Chosen Pivot Person

There is a kind of axis – a central point that a lot of people rotate on – and that is love.

Heady love, fast love, crushing love – fast and intense and confusing, this form of love is obsessive and omnipresent and intoxicating.

This spell uses this axis to swing the caster around it – simultaneously engendering a crush on the chosen pivot.

So imagine an invisible pair of ropes tied around an invisible branch, which hangs from the pivot’s heart – upon this set of ropes there is a plank of invisible wood, which the caster conjures, and may reconjure as a free action while the duration lasts.

While the caster makes contact with the swing, they are intangible and invisible – and immaterial, passing through anything material in their path – flying in an arc underneath their pivot person.

So, if the pivot person is above the caster, or below – this will have very different effects.

When the duration is over, if the caster is inside part of the material world – they are teleported into the pivot’s arms.

Anybody who has been a target of this spell is a crush of the caster’s – this means that the caster is not willing to put the crush into harm’s way willingly – and the caster will be clumsy, hotheaded, masculine/feminine, confident/nervous, ETC around that person. If they do not roleplay this a reasonable amount – then the caster will feel rejected, and at the referee’s discretion the caster will then be at disadvantage for up to 1D4 days.

Miscast Table

1 – The invisible rope snaps – and the caster flies untethered, immaterial – falling forever.

2 – The swing is inverted – and the pivot swings off the caster’s heart instead.

3 – The pivot and the caster are both swinging – like a string with two weights dropped.

4 – At the apsis of the swing – the pivot is in apogee and the rope violently contracts – slamming the pivot into something which will hurt them.

5 – The caster is prone to swooning when the crush is in effect – if the pivot does something swoon-worthy – the caster will swoon, right onto the swing, summarily falling uncontrolled in a random direction.

6 – The caster is lovestruck in a particular way: They are now prone to poetry, an excess of poetry – and will continually attempt to write love poems while the crush is present, even in they are in immediate danger.

7 – The caster daydreams about their crush whilst swinging – this means that, most likely, whatever plan they had is out the window and they are going to fly like a small child off a swingset at the end of their swing’s arc, hurting something in the process.

8 – The spell leapfrogs, as the caster and pivot alternate every ten minutes – and must make at least one swing each ten minutes – or become madly enamored and attempt to crush their amour in a fearsome attack of “cute aggression”.

9 – The pivot feels the tug – and this will most likely cause a heart attack, or at the very least – a dropping to one’s knees at the tremendous weight.

10 – The spell engenders a petty hatred, a nemesis, not a crush. The caster must thwart and subvert whatever their nemesis attempts for the next 1d4 days, the rest of the spell functions as normal.

11 – The invisible rope is umbilical – and the caster and pivot are both immaterial – and they both fall tethered, immaterial – falling forever. They may exchange thoughts through the umbilicus – but beyond magical or divine intervention – they are lost.

12 – The spell does something unexpected – the caster has such a strong crush that the spell misinterprets this, and thinks that the caster wants to be their crush – so the caster and pivot swap bodies – and the two players swap character sheets and spaces at the table.