| Logs |
2000-05-05
| Starfall |
| Realms |
Retired
| Reality Fault |
General Info
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Cleo's Magic Lesson
Alex paces with eager anticipation in the tiny cabin she usually shares with Dimitri, sitting and standing up again. Dimitri has long since departed to attend to other duties -- or maybe just to find a quiet place to nap -- while his sister starts to explore her newly recognized abilities. The knock on the door makes her start, even though she's been expecting it. Cleo's voice follows the knock. "Are you here, ma'am?"
Alex bounds happily to the door, yanking it open, "Hi Cleo yes come on in!"
The ship's healer-mage smiles at her new pupil as she enters the cabin. The cat is young and only a little taller than Alex, her fur the mottled black-gray-gold pattern commonly referred to as 'tortoise-shell.' "All ready to start? You've looked over the book I gave you?"
Alex nods cheerfully, "You bet!"
Cleo nods. "Good. We'll try to get you started on actually doing a little bit on your own today, but the theory is important. I'm not a strong telekinetic myself, so I'm going to have to teach you by the book."
Alex nods happily, pulling out a chair by the tiny table for Cleo and then seating herself. The book is on the table as well. "So! What do I do?"
Cleo sits on the bunk and motions to Alex to sit as well. "For now... we'll start with something simple. You know you can move things with your mind, but best to begin at the beginning. Do you have something small and light and very familiar? A dagger, a piece of jewelry, anything like that?"
Alex nods and produces a dagger. "It's a little one, not a misericorde. Is that all right?"
The cat nods. "That will do fine. Now... pick it up, concentrate on how it feels, the heft, the texture... hold that in your mind." Alex nods and does so, first with eyes open, then closing her eyes and using both small paws to feel it. Cleo smiles, pleased that her pupil picked that up..."Exactly. Now... put it down and hold that image in your mind -- the feel of it being held by you -- and reach out with just your mind, match that feel again."
Alex nods, her eyes still closed, and puts the dagger carefully and quietly down with one paw, leaving the other as if she were still holding the dagger. Then she puts her paws together, and 'constructs' the dagger in her head, resting in her hands... the slight weight, the texture of the heavier pommel, the slick, slightly oiled smoothness of the blade, the scent of clove oil...
The dagger trembles, rocking a little on the table, then the handle lifts, dragging the blade along the wood until the whole thing is hovering in mid-air, point down. Alex's ears tilt slightly in startlement at the soft scrape of metal on wood -- that she didn't expect! She closes her eyes a little more tightly -- daggers in her paws don't make noise! -- and forces herself to concentrate more. In her paws... light, cool, hard, resting in her paws...
The dagger trembles as Alex reacts to the unexpected movement, then rights itself. It rotates, returning to the same orientation it had while Alex was holding it before, and then moves until it is hovering in front of the seated vixen, holding the same position as it had before. Alex still has her eyes closed, trying to imagine the dagger resting precisely where it was before, and doesn't see the dagger's movements. She feels the faint, cool touch on her palms and opens her eyes excitedly -- which of course makes the dagger drop slightly into her paws. She looks up at Cleo and exclaims delightedly, "It's here! Did I do it?!"
The cat smiles. "You certainly did. I find it hard to believe you never noticed the talent before; it's quite strong. Try it with your eyes open this time."
Alex beams and sets the dagger down carefully, "Don't know why, Cleo... I guess I just never had a need for it before maybe?" She gently pushes the dagger closer to Cleo than to herself... then stares at the dagger as she once again concentrates on its slight weight in front of her, cool and hard.
The dagger rocks back and forth, finally sliding along the table toward the vixen. It almost falls when it reaches the edge, but Alex gives it quite a fierce glare as she holds onto it and it slowly drifts toward her outstretched hand. Alex continues to glare fiercely at it... until it's safely in her paw. Then she looks up again at Cleo, beaming, "How's that?"
Cleo nods. "Don't get overconfident. Doing it right once doesn't mean you've got it perfect. Now... send it back the same way."
Alex blinks, looking faintly puzzled -- send it back? Interesting... she nods slowly, trying to figure out how to think of it. Hm... well... ah! She'll think of her hand being empty, and the dagger being where it was before. That's... visual for the dagger and tactile for her paw, got it. So... she concentrates. No dagger in her hand... it's sitting there on the table, really... over there... the dagger trembles on Alex's open palm, turning slowly, almost as if it's looking around for where it should go. As Alex continues to will it elsewhere, it suddenly accelerates, jumping forward and badly overshooting the desktop, a moment later embedding itself an inch deep in the bulkhead with a resounding *thunk*. Cleo mrrowls in surprise. "Gradually, I meant!"
Alex oopses, her ears flattening in embarrassment, "Um... sorry! I was thinking real hard about it not being in my hand! -er... too hard, I guess..." She sheepishly gets up and works it out of the bulkhead, then comes back. "Um... let me try again?"
Cleo nods, suppressing a grin but with her eyes twinkling. "Try to think of it as if you are putting it down yourself. The whole sequence of how it feels as you move it. At first, you see, you'll be practicing by duplicating things you can do yourself, picturing how you would do it with your muscles and then leaving the muscles out of it. Eventually, you build up until you're doing things with your mind that you can't do at all with just your muscles, but you need a bit more practice for that.
Alex oooh!s softly, nodding, "Got it! Yah, that makes better sense. Okay, moment..." She sets the dagger down several times, with her eyes both open and shut... the last time she sets it down she keeps her eyes closed, and puts both paws together, palms up... then wills the dagger back into her paws. Scent of clove, cool steel, smooth wooden and twisted wire grip, slight weight...
Alex frowns after a moment, opening one eye... darnit! Not moving... she closes her eyes and scrunches them up, concentrating hard, ears back... in her paws, darnit! Cool steel in her palms again... Alex sighs a bit in relief. Now... slooooowly... she closes her eyes again... putting it down gently... This time the dagger floats gently across to the desk and sets down with a gentle click. "Much better. You need to concentrate, but you also need to remain relaxed."
Alex nods, "Whew! Yah... um... want a drink?"
Cleo smiles. "You've been doing most of the work... but it IS hot today. Why not? Let's try something..."
Alex leans back to hook the canteen off its hook on the wall, her ears tilted inquiringly at Cleo, "Okay... what should I do?"
The cat smiles. "Try to drink without using your hands."
Alex blinks startledly! ...then gets an intrigued look..."Huh! Okay! Um... let's see..." She hangs the canteen back up, turning so she can see it, and concentrates on it. It's a sort of... wobbly weight, and that scratchy woolen outer shell, damp now to hold in the cool... and where... ah, here. On the table in front of her, resting on end... Alex stares intently at the canteen, her ear tips practically quivering with her intense concentration. Okay, got the canteen in front of her, held still... now, cork... kinda um... crumbly, dry on top, bit damp on the sides... work it back and forth, slowly now... Alex beams happily as the cork works out of the mouth of the canteen without breaking or exploding into tiny cork bits flying everywhere! -then gently sets it down, damp side up, on the table. Whew! She gives a big sigh, staring at the canteen. Now... the difficult part! She frowns, thinking... best to raise it up to right in front of her, then carefully tip it, she thinks... okay... she's lifting the canteen, slowly and carefully... Alex whews again, and thinks amusedly that by the time this is over she's going to really need that drink! She leans forward slightly. Now... gently tip it... she gulps thirstily for a while, then sits back with a sigh of happy tiredness. "Yeah! Okay... moment, almost done..."
Alex is moving things more and more slowly... but with squinty-eyed care she lowers the canteen to rest on the table, lifts the cork, and then gently taps it back into the canteen's mouthpiece... then finally decides not to press her luck, and lets the canteen carefully lay down on the table. She flops back in her chair when she's done, tired but with her eyes shining with excitement, "Yay! How's that, Cleo?"
Cleo applauds! "Very nice indeed. You're looking a bit worn out, though. Harder than it looks, isn't it?"
Alex beams tiredly, "Yah, that's true... although it is pretty wonderful to see it work!"
The cat smiles. "True enough. Okay... the next thing is how to replenish your energy. I'll feed you the first time, but watch what I'm doing. You remember how to watch for the energy flows? The 'auras' you see around living things?"
Alex nods slowly, "I... sorta half-close my eyes and it kinda glows there, right?" She is doing so as she speaks, looking for the orangey-red glow she expects to see around Cleo.
Cleo is glowing bright blue to this inner sight at the moment. She holds out a hand to her pupil. Alex looks a bit startled, "Uh... Cleo? You're... blue?!" She takes Cleo's hand without hesitation, though... must be an energy thing...?
The healer nods. "I'm all charged up right now. Now... this is the hard part. I'm going to feed you some energy, since you're a bit drained at the moment. You'll have to open yourself to me, but concentrate on the sensation. Energy is not something you can pick up with your hands, so you have to learn the feel this way."
Alex nods, looking both bemused and fascinated, "Okay..." She gets that squinty-eyed look again, concentrating on sensation. Cleo takes Alex's hands in hers, and begins to gently push some of the energy she's collected over toward her pupil. It begins as an odd tickling sensation, not entirely pleasant. Alex just concentrates on the feeling at first, trying to implant that odd tickling firmly into her head. Once she's pretty sure she's got it, she tries very carefully to 'accept' the energy being pushed her way... to tuck it neatly into her own energy aura.
Cleo stops in puzzlement after a minute. "This is odd." She starts again, and stops. "Oh, that will never do. Ms. Alex, you're shunting it away."
Alex says, "Oh!" She looks sheepish, "I'm sorry. Um... let me try again? Or wait... is there a way to um... to gather it from the air, so to speak?"
Cleo nods. "Just the opposite of what you were doing, in fact. You were pushing it out of you as fast as it came in. It's harder to do in reverse, though. You can try if you want."
Alex frowns in concentration, "It's... like that tickling feeling, right? Okay... let me try then... it's gotta still be out there..." She closes her eyes halfway, trying to see if there's any visible aura or energy floating anywhere but around her or Cleo... okay, got to remember that odd tickling sensation, and try to... sort of pull it in... Alex stops and follows the instructions she's been given before... think about exactly how something felt before trying it. She reaches out with her mind, seeing Cleo's now green aura surrounded by little tendrils in rainbow colors as she replenishes the energy that was shunted back to the environment. The vixen tries to recreate the same thing... little tendrils flowing in, with the feeling of fur standing on end and tingling hide... and the locked door in her mind opens and the energy flows in. She opens her eyes in surprise, but keeps pulling in the energy, careful not to intertwine her tendrils with Cleo's now, until her mentor tells her to stop. "Enough, Alex. Don't store more than you can handle just yet." Her own aura is now a pale green, and she feels refreshed and perhaps even more energetic than when she began the session. She beams cheerfully, "Okay! Um... what happens if I take too much? Shall we practice some more?" She feels positively bouncy -- she'll have to remember this for after the next fighter practice, she thinks happily! She adds curiously, "I got the funniest feeling, like a locked door opened... is that why most folks don't do magic? Because their doors are... are still all locked?"
Cleo looks very serious. "It's not usually a problem at this stage, but that's because most furs don't figure it out right away. Normally if you charge up too much the excess will leak off over time. But it is possible to overdo it and cause yourself damage. For now, don't brighten yourself up past where you are now.
Alex looks faintly surprised at Cleo's seriousness, but nods and carefully checks her own color, so she knows where to stop for later. "Um... don't figure out what, please?"
Cleo purrs, "Most novices take a while to figure out the pattern to draw in energy directly. That's why the first time I replenished you, and why I was going to try it this time."
Alex says, "Oh! I got it, I think. Huh... it felt really easy though, Cleo... was I doing it wrong or something?"
The cat nods. "At first, yes. You weren't accepting the energy I tried to feed to you, you were sending it back out... but you realized what you were doing and figured out how to draw it in. And as for locked doors... it feels different to each of us, really. But it's as good a metaphor as any. Most furrs have... too strong a lock, too stout a door to ever use the primal energy."
Alex says, "Huh. So this energy is um... primal? What is it? Where's it coming from?"
Cleo smiles. "If you can figure that out -- where it comes from -- you'll be one of the most famous mages in all of history. We call it primal, it seems to be part of the universe, but no one really knows why..."
Alex looks interested, "So... it's just... there, no one knows why? Does it go away?"
Cleo shakes her head. "Not permanently. It can be drained temporarily, but it flows back in from other places if that happens. Occasionally there are major flows, currents of the stuff in high concentrations. It's fairly thin though, so any major kind of magic requires that you gather the energy first to be ready to do it."
Alex says, "Interesting. So... this sort of um... pale green is where I should maintain it, yes?"
The cat nods. "For now. Be careful about using it to counteract physical tiredness, as well. Your body needs to replenish water and salt and food independently of the energy, and if you start using the primal energy too much you can develop dehydration and deficiency diseases."
Alex says, "Oh! Well foo." She grins ruefully, "So much for using this after fighter practices."
Cleo smiles. "Tempting, but in the long run not a good idea."
Alex grins at Cleo, "Very tempting, after a work out with Dimitri! -but no, I won't." She tilts her head, then says cheerfully, "So... what else? Should I just practice this, or is there more we can do today, or what?"
Cleo shakes her head. "You can practice a little more if you want, but it's best not to overdo things at first. Do this a little every day, until it becomes second nature. Try doing things with the dagger that you can do with your muscles... including throwing it. Eventually, work your way up to throwing it and then guiding it. You did that at the Palace; you need to learn to do it consciously."
Alex nods thoughtfully, "Got it... practice 'til it's second nature. Anything else I should be doing?"
"Study the book. It tells you what you're doing in more exact terms. You're not doing anything supernatural, and the rules still hold. Ever notice that when you swing a really heavy sword that it swings you too?"
Alex says, "Sure. It's one of the reasons I stick to heavy rapiers -- a sword like Dimitri's is a pain to control!" She grins, "Well... for me, that is..."
The cat nods. "Exactly. When you start in on heavy objects you'll move more than they do unless you brace yourself. The book tells you how to do that. A powerful kinetic has to brace herself against the land itself to lift large objects, else she just flings herself around."
Alex says, "Huh! Fascinating... okay, I'll do more reading." She beams, "So... got my homework! Anything else? If not, thank you so much, Cleo, for helping me! This has been fun!"
Cleo purrs. "This has not been a hardship at all, milady. Or should I say Dame Alex, now? Besides, it's part of the oath I swore when I finished my training, and one that I'll ask you to swear as well. Always help new mages learn the Craft to the extent that you are able."
Alex nods, "That's easy, Cleo... it would be foolish not to help, I suspect. I promise." She grins ruefully, then says hopefully, "Um... Sir Alex is okay with me, if you want?" -then adds almost as an afterthought, "Besides, at this point the best help and teaching I could give a new mage... is to bring them to you!" She grins.
Cleo giggles. "Sir Alex, eh? That's not what they said at the Levee, from what I've heard." She smiles again, but more seriously. "That is one reason I haven't asked you to swear it yet."
Alex nods amusedly, "Yah, it was Dame Alex there. But... well, dame sounds like... like I should be this fluttery stout lady in an ill-fitting corset and too many petticoats, chasing after hordes of cubs, y'know?" She giggles softly at the image.
Cleo shrugs. "Or a female knight. I suppose it's what you're used to hearing."
Alex nods, "I guess. I just don't know why I need to announce my sex to anyone through my name, y'know?" She smiles, "It's not that big a deal, really... dame is fine."
Cleo smiles. "I don't think it will fool them for long, Sir Alex." She turns at a yelp from on deck, and sighs. "I think my professional services will be in demand again. We can do this again in a few days, I think." She goes up on deck to see what happened.
Alex grins, rising, "Thank you again, Cleo. I'll see you later then."