In the Wake of Friction

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Eirik Maste
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:06 pm
Topics: 8
Race: Galdor
Character Sheet: CS
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Writer: Mythic
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Wed May 08, 2019 8:36 am

21st of Intas, 2719
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Well, just... fuck me, right?

Eirik Maste furrowed his brow as he walked along in silence next to Melody. Of course they were bound to share in classes. It was just Eirik's "good fortune" to be thrust into a classroom with a familiar face. While the young Gioran didn't outright dislike Melody, he knew the friction was bound to come. Being treated as a child was inertia, the eternal consequence of his accelerated achievements. The mona, unlike the galdori, didn't treat Eirik as a child in need of instruction. Instead, the boy delved into things at his own pace, breathing in the lessons that others couldn't quite bestow upon him. Abrasive, some called him. Outright rebellion eluded the meek Maste child, but certainly, sarcasm was the prison he kept himself in isolation with.

"I forgot you were new, with how you just charged into my space that day," he grumbled aloud, his arms crossed as he led them down the hallways of the offices of Static magic. Professor Sonfield dismissed her class early, splintering them off into groups with their own assigned classwork to perform. Twelve sets of two had filed out of the classroom, dismissed until their next class period. Such elusiveness was rare for the Maste to experience. Professors, in his experience, were very hands-on and in one's face. Now? Left to his own devices, Eirik might've even been comfortable if he were with anyone else.

"We'll head to the Lawn, first. We've got some 'Practical Application' to figure out, anyway," he mustered. Eirik didn't enjoy being thrust into leadership, but he had no reason to expect Melody's guidance to be of any use to him. Though the Lawn and the Offices of Static Magic were very close, the pair had quite the time to enjoy the awkward silences give way to sarcastic bickering. One-sided, perhaps it was, but it made Eirik feel better and better as they advanced. Once the two were at the Lawn, he'd see others in the distance. With plenty of space apart (a necessary thing for their practice), Eirik looked to Melody before he said,

"Sonfield expects a few things from us, right? A practical evaluation along with written summaries of what we're doing? Mina and Dee took phase change out from under us... Leaving us with fission? Clocking fission," the boy summarised. The task they needed to undergo was one of the more difficult options, but it wasn't like they'd spoken up sooner.

If I'd been paying attention... maybe we could've gotten something nicer. This... he trailed off, fully aware of the tendency to drown in his own apprehension.

It's not the most outlandish project we could be working on... But I need to get on task. I can do this, he assured himself before he closed his eyes. The brush of the seasonal chill buffetted his form. He covered himself with his school uniform, but refused to wear a coat. He supposed he had evolution to thank for his body's reception to the cold, and was glad for it as he let the chill permeate along his skin. He took a deep breath, flooding his lungs with the cold air before letting it out in a plume of steam. He rubbed his ungloved hands together before reaching into his bookbag, retrieving from it his grimoire before setting his bag on the snowy floor.

He read snippets of inscribed spells, looking over the multitude he'd scrounged about for in his textbooks and the library. Unfortunately for the Maste, his lack of foresight had his grimoire unsorted, and his collection of spells were splayed across the pages, bleeding over margins and quite possibly incomprehensible to prying eyes. He knew the madness of it all, but it took time even for him to sort through.

"You got anything to add, mom?" he mused, his words stuck between a sarcastic jab and a playful tease.


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Melody
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Mar 10, 2019 3:55 am
Topics: 6
Race: Galdor
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Thu May 16, 2019 5:44 am

21 of Intas, 2719
The Lawn, Brunnhold
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Oh Hulali grant me patience! Melody consciously tried to not stomp as she walked a bare step behind Eirik Maste. The tall youth had cloaked himself in silence ever since Professor Sonfield had called out the names of the students who would be partners for today's out-of-class assignment. She couldn't judge how common such methods of self-directed learning were at Brunnhold as opposed to the typical professor overseen classes. However she'd felt a frisson of excitement in the minutes before the names had been called out. Unfortunately, that excitement had been substantially dimmed afterwards.

She'd ruefully acknowledged the propensity of gods to enjoy jokes at the expense of hapless mortals, and dipped her hand in the bowl which held chits containing details of what their assignments would involve. "Fission : Cutting / Slicing Materials" She'd called out, her eyes on the Gioran as he stared out of the window. That had earned a scowl thrown her way, which Melody took to mean that fission wasn't one of the aspects of static conversation Eiric especially enjoyed. Or he just didn't like her. That was certainly highly probable as well.

However for now, she had to decide how, if at all, she planned to react to his petulant seeming outbursts. She had no desire to spout off advice, clearly she didn't quite have the knack for it. She supposed a retreat into Hoxian formality was called for for the time being... To re-act is to give up control over your actions. Her mind supplied in the calm, slightly hoarse voice of Ynan Ziev.

So when her study partner for the class finally broke his silence, if only to grumble at her, she was able to maintain some sense of perspective. She offered a few neutral sounds in response, and allowed Eirik to lead the way. Did he not like being forced into company the last time? She mused to herself.

"We'll head to the Lawn, first. We've got some 'Practical Application' to figure out, anyway"

Melody nodded, agreeably enough, "All right." The youth would likely know the appropriate place for experiments of this sort. She wished though that they hadn't needed to do theirs in the cold, but needs must. At least she was warm enough in her layers.

Melody considered herself used to, and even comfortable with silences, yet this one felt vaguely awkward. The two students were walking closely enough that Melody loosened her careful hold on her field. Any emotional overtones she picked up from the younger student's field would provide her with at least some inkling of his feelings.

If the field was any guide, his feelings had calmed down a lot by the time they made it to the field. Melody nodded again as Eirik summarised what they were supposed to be working on, practice and demonstration of at least one practical application of cutting and slicing aspect of static magic. Then ventured, "Mr Maste, is this a usual sort of assignment for Brunnhold? The students seemed surprised..."

Melody kept an ear on the answer even as she followed Eirik's example and took out her static grimoires. She hadn't practised a lot with fission, but she had had some practice. She wasn't sure what Eirik had in mind for them to try, he had taken the leader's role and she wasn't going to quibble about that! In any case a revision of the standard roster of fission spells was definitely merited. She selected the grimoire with the relevant section, dropping her bag next to Eirik's on the snowy ground.

Now that she paid attention to her partner paging through his grimoire, sometimes ranging ahead, then doubling back, she wondered if he needed help? Or was it another erroneous assumption? Would he even welcome such help? Wasn't 'helping' what had created friction in their last encounter? In the end the fact that this was a shared assignment, and that any success or failure on either of their part would be shared, convinced her. She was about ready to speak, but Eirik beat her to it.

"You got anything to add, mom?"

The 'mom' jibe stung, but she allowed that to fade into the back of her mind before replying, "Here, I think all the most common fission spells are written in this section." She extended the grimoire to him, open to the section mentioned. She hoped he'd not be stubborn and just accept the help, but she may be wrong and he might not actually need any? "If you could look through and pick a few that you think we should try first..."

She looked around the field. "We're meant to demonstrate a practical application of cutting or slicing magic.. Any ideas? We haven't brought any material along as such.." They were still near the edge of the field, and the low, moss covered stone wall was visible. It gave her a vague idea and rather uncharacteristically, she spoke on without bothering to examine it for flaws first. "A slicing spell variant that allows us to specify the size of the slices would be practical if we can carry that off.. something like creating set size stone blocks from a big boulder.. or equal sized squares from a sheet of metal etc.." She paused for a few seconds, staring off into space as she followed through on the constraints they were working in and the objective of the task they had been set. Then slowly she continued, evidently still thinking aloud, "Since the objective is to demonstrate a practical application, I think we can work with an easy to split material... So long as we show the process works well for one or two materials, with a few variants in shapes and sizes, like rectangular pieces vs triangular pieces.. I think.." She focused again on Eirik as she summed up her idea, " We can show the many practical applications via the written explanation part of the exercise.."

Melody's eyes sparkled with a certain joy in the challenge of the thing, but she recalled that this was to be a joint endeavour and courteously she asked her partner for his input. "Of course, if there are other ideas you have, we can look at those and then pick something we both can agree on?"
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Eirik Maste
Posts: 36
Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2019 4:06 pm
Topics: 8
Race: Galdor
Character Sheet: CS
Plot Notes: Grumpy Scribbles
Writer: Mythic
Post Templates: Codes
Contact:

Tue Jun 11, 2019 7:34 am

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The wax and wane of a field provided insight into the mind of its possessor. Eirik Maste knew his reign over the mona that permeated about his being was unpractised, but it was purposely so. The galdor felt the offense whenever he'd attempt to do so. He nearly heard the whine of the monic presence about him when he brought it closer to his frame. While suppressing a field wasn't a permanently damaging thing, the galdor had come to realize that it was further friction, a wholly different inertia that jeapordized what was by far the most important relationship a galdor could have.

This pairing really was a cruel sort of joke. But, at the very least, Melody is competent. The rest would heckle me and then sit back and just let me do all the work. Lazy sacks of--

Cut off by Melody's sudden question, the Maste ruminated on it for a long moment. In one hand there was the cobra, the sarcastic jab that threatened to bite at Melody. He felt the waxing frustration with feeling her intrusive presence poking at his field, trying to ascertain his emotions. It'd come easily to her, the inkling annoyance embedded with hints of appreciation. Without much time to ascertain, Melody had gotten an accurate representation of the situation. She asked him to verify her concerns, and at the very least that sort of intuition required acknowledgment. Even if he didn't compliment it in the slightest.

"It's not normal? But also not unheard of. I bet Sonfield wants to get day drunk while no one's watching," he answered, eliciting a soft chuckle from himself.

I'm the only one to laugh at my jokes, he mused, his mind adrift and his senses not picking up whether she did or didn't at all. He continued to pore over the pages of his grimoire, careful with the parchment so as to not tear the fragile and valuable information. When he uttered his jibe, he looked away from Melody, but listened avidly to her suggestions as he shifted his attention to the grimoire. True to form, once Melody got to speaking she didn't seem capable of stopping. Her thoughts were an outpour, providing a redundant explanation of what fission spells were.

Eirik debated showing his disapproval but decided in the interest of their working together to be civil. Dare he say it, even nice? He put on his best smile, though it quickly shifted to a grimace as he felt the cough settling in his throat. He hacked twice, covering his mouth and looking away from the elder student before pulling up the fabric of his coat. Monite poured from the young sorcerer's lips as Melody continued to speak, her thoughts coming to their inevitable close as he looked towards the ground. He wove his spell carefully, entreating the mona with sweet cadences. He felt the twitch of his fingertips, his focus set on the white mottled earth. The padded snow began to thin as Eirik wove his machinations. White powder matted into a thin sheet of ice lifted up from the ground and shaped into a perfect square.

He held his spell in upkeep as he began to answer Melody's concerns, one by one.

"We don't need materials when we have an environment to make into our subject."

Eirik shifted his attention back towards the ice, the Monite shifting in tone as more specific additions to the existing spellcraft was made. The ice, moulded to the perceived consistency of glass was cut in perfect halves. There was no hint of breakage as Eirik's spell separated the halves to further demonstrate his point. He reached up, taking the half closest to his hand as the other fell to the floor and shattered upon impact.

"However, we're meant to show Sonfield the fruits of our work, meaning we aren't going to find some kind of big boulder and lug it into the classroom. We can, however, use this," he told her. Eirik reached into his rucksack, allowing the rest of the ice to fall to the floor and shatter, liquid water seeping into the snow as Eirik ended his spell entirely. How he relished casting, doing so when a purely vocal representation might have sufficed. When Eirik found what he wanted, he pulled a perfectly round, glass orb stained with a delicate expanse of crimson wisps in the center from his rucksack. He released the sack next, letting it fall to the floor as he demonstrated to Melody the item she'd given to him in their previous meeting.

"You'll recognize it, of course. Very useful, and as you noted last time, a perfect tool for us to use in this sort of experimental magic, yes? Ice, while another good material to take advantage of might just melt inside while we present our findings," he continued, cocking his head just slightly before he allowed himself to add,

"Simply cutting things into geometric shapes seems a bit basic, too? You're right, though. That all would satisfy the requirements of our exercise, but... isn't fission more accurately represented in the form of molecular decomposition? Cutting something in half when compared to shredding it and re-solidifying it... I think we'd earn top marks if we show that," he told her with a grin. Melody's ideas had segued into Eirik's conclusion, and he decided to demonstrate. While he held the glass in his hand, he began to incant Monite.

Cracks began to form within the glass orb, the material wrenched apart before bursting within his palm. Rather than the glass flying about, Eirik seemed to use no 'force' in his ministrations, prying the glass apart so that the pieces in suspension spun in his hand for a moment. The red-mottled glass within the very core gleamed in the white light of the sun before he completed his incantation and the orb was fully intact once again.

"That was a bit of a mouthful," he mused, allowing his jaw to slacken as he spun the glass orb in his hand. Unbridled joy was present upon the boy's features before he raised and lowered his hand, demonstrating that he was about to toss the orb at the elder student before he did not a moment after.
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Melody
Posts: 38
Joined: Sun Mar 10, 2019 3:55 am
Topics: 6
Race: Galdor
Character Sheet: Character Sheet
Plot Notes: [url=http:/fullurl/]Plot Notes[/url]
Writer: Saffron
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Mon Jun 17, 2019 2:58 pm

21 of Intas, 2719
The Lawns, Brunnhold
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Melody knew her reserve put off most people from getting too friendly with her, and she told herself that was fine. Even if she tried to be friendly, her personality just wasn't built for easy small talk and shared giggles or... She wasn't even sure how friendships began to be honest. She supposed that sounded sad, but it wasn't like she lacked for study partners or was the class pariah or something. At least nowadays she wasn't. She could usually get along with her peers for the space of a class, unless maybe they were bullies. She could even tolerate chatter and a less than sharp mind, and a questionable attitude. She had a better than average control when it came to not letting her emotions bleed through to her field, and if her reserve didn't win her any friends, it helped her avoid outright enmity and aggravation as well. Neutral. That was the usual state of most of her interactions.

So why oh why did she keep feeling that that wasn't happening at all when it came to Eirik. At this point, she'd be glad to have a neutral interaction. But no... Eirik clearly didn't like her, he kept making somewhat snide comments, and she kept catching flashes of irritation in his field which could only be directed at her. Well. She would be circle damned if she didn't keep trying to keep up the calm facade and stay professional but the pressure behind her eyes kept increasing, as did the fiery thrum of suppressed annoyance in her veins..

She took a deep breath and watched Eirik page back and forth through his grimoire. She had her own grimoire opened to the section which listed the standard fission variants and she offered that to him, and was summarily ignored. And then "You got anything to add.. mom?" It stung. A lot. And it shouldn't have, mom wasn't a bad word after all.. But the tone, half jeering half playful, it stung. Was it wrong to wish people with you well? Clearly, it was. She swallowed and attempted to do just that, provide some ideas. But she still kept getting flashes of irritation from Eirik, and unfortunately, the previous jibe of 'mom' proved to be the pebble that started the avalanche.

There was the smallest hitch in her breathing and she felt like she was on the brink of turning abruptly and walking away. The flood take the shared assignment. Either that or tears. But she couldn't, wouldn't do that, second by agonising second, breath by painful breath, she made herself back down from that point, she wouldn't let anyone make her lose her composure quite so publically and over such a seemingly trivial thing. Only once she felt a little more in control did she realise that while she had been fighting with herself, she had lost all control over her field, which had suddenly bloomed with all the suppressed emotions of her heart. Waves of hurt pierced with jagged spikes of outrage had radiated out into her till now almost perfectly indectal field. The misery of being excluded and disliked snaked through more slowly, swiftly followed by a flood of grim determination and slowly the emotions began clearing out again.

As Melody realised what had happened, perhaps from some reaction of Eirik, embarrassment flushed through her whole body, to someone as reserved as her, someone who found the Hoxian percept of rakhor largely admirable, such a disastrous breach in public was... It was something to be ashamed of. Such emotions were supposed to be reserved for family, and if you were lucky enough to have them, for friends.

The only thing to do was to go on and keep pretending nothing had happened, and she anchored her feelings to the memory of the joy in Eirik's field at his successful casting. She dragged her mind back to the assignment at hand and almost fumbled the ball Eirik tossed at her, before catching it securely in palms that still shook minutely.

"Yes", She dredged up a smile for the boy, praying he wouldn't have noticed her earlier lapse, and if he had, that he'd be considerate enough to not mention it.. "It'd certainly be impressive enough." Talking about the assignment, and retreating into the realm of spells helped, and she began rummaging in her own grimoire for the right page. "I think I have something similar with me as well.." She put the grimoire back over her bag after running over the notes she had made and the spell variant she'd cobbled together and tested a few months past.

A string of monite, somewhat shorter than Eirik's spell, spilled out from her, and the concentration needed for that and for the properly respectful attitude to the mona helped Melody further centre her jangled emotions. The mona thankfully cooperated, and the glass lifted in the air, she didn't like to cast with it in her palm for some reason, and was neatly sectioned into slices much like an orange. The slices didn't rejoin again though, and kept swirling in place, before gently settling back in her palms.

"I can of course add on the joining part like you demonstrated so it's effectively the same effect, but..." The successful cast had lent a subtle joy to her face, and her voice when she next spoke was almost back to her usual warmly neutral tones. "How do we show the practical application bit of this? I suppose destruction could be said to be a practical use... But it doesn't sit very well with me to be honest..." She spoke another longer string of monite and the glass rejoined together again. Handing it back to Eirik she continued, "Is there a better practical application we can show with the same sort of effect?"
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