Welcome to Gaia! ::

She kept her face impassive. She knew that it would be impossible for him to learn simply by stalking her. Just before she retorted, she let a dirisive snarl creep into her expression.




Her voice was low and steady:"It took Vassily over twenty years of training to attain the trance-state necessary to channel earthly spirits, and he was a Shamanic genius. When he first encountered a demon and it occurred to him to channel it, he was already over forty. The perfect halt and stilness of energy that the trance requires is something that does not come easily to someone with regular-flow magic, that is to say almost every human being. Those who are born with reverse-flow generally end up as prophets or the like. Vassily, who was born with regular-flow, had to train that long to reverse his, and he'd never taken a step towards strengthening that regular-flow through normal summoning magic. How long would that take you? You think the trance can be learned by just watching?" Her voice was rising, now. "You're too damn cocky, Siber, have you been listening to a word I've said? You can't do it. You'll tear yourself apart slowly over the rest of your life, and I won't help you. And even if ten, fifteen years from now you do manage to reach the trance without falling into a coma, what will you do in Hell? You think your pets are just mindless brutes? Here, maybe, but not down home with the fire and brimstone. They will not welcome you, and you will not leave there alive. For your own sake, stay away from it!"

edit

Siber laughed at the end of her tirade. "How sweet. You care about me."
True, he had listened closely. And true, he had come as close to breaking into a nervous sweat as he had in years. And true, what she had said had made him doubt his capacity to capture this type of magic successfully fairly significantly. However, she had insulted him multiple times already. Not only that, but she was wrong: everything could be learned from watching. He had learned that very quickly. Basic training, practice, and observation can teach anything the world has to offer.
He then listened to Sindhlot speak, as well, and checked his fury. That cheeky b*****d.


Instead, he lightened his mien politely. He nodded obeisance. "Sindhlot, I would never presume to ensnare you, no. That would be a mite more presumptuous than I can usually expect from myself. And in general, I try to refrain from treating anything like a blunt instrument until proven it should be." It took an effort of will to not glance in Takeshi's direction. "Thank you for your advice and any future aid, though."
His countenance darkened ironically demonically and he turned to address Kayla. "I have never thought my 'pets,' as you are arrogant enough to call them, are mindless brutes. You, to suggest it, are a child. You assume understanding where you do not have it. I do hope we can work together more harmonically than this in the future. For now, though, I bid you a good night, and fortune on the morrow." He ad libbed farewells to the others in the chamber, made a low, sweeping bow towards Kayla, and glided out of the room.



He got to his room, a place sparce of commodities, with Sindhlot's help, thanked the demon, made sure the door was closed and locked, and sat on the bed, holding his head in his hands.
Keldan sounded genuinely worried. It would not be good if his mode of transport became incapacitated.


He winced and fell on his back on the bed. His head was pounding, but he didn't cry out.
School it, he told himself. They're illusions... there's nothing physical about it!
Energy was suppressed within him, as always. He didn't know how to let it out. Every time- voices and energy, they didn't leave him alone! He heard Keldan's distinct voice among the miasma of mutterings. He was talking hurriedly, as though observing research data that would quickly decompose.
He spoke to himself for a moment.
But he was lost for the night. He sat in bed for an hour, gripping the sheets so tight he tore them, every muscle in his body tensed beyond what is healthy. And then, devoid of all thought and emotion, he slept.

Sindhlot faded into a shadow beneath a staircase.

Takeshi, seeing that it was winding down, debated between sleeping, going out clubbing (and more likely than not, killing), and striking up conversation with the "fresh meat."

Paul slowly righted himself. After a fair bit of practicing as well as creating several thaumaturgical objects for the sake of self-defense, Paul was fairly worn out, if not exhausted. "I guess I'll go back to the other room... get some sleep," Paul said. It had become later than he'd expected, and he needed rest. Partially ignoring any other comments made to him, he slipped off to the other room, found a couch that looked comfortable, and settled down.

((There. Asleep by (or on sweatdrop ) Friday.))

"I can count the things Legion can't do on one finger," Sindhlot commented. "Vassily did not, per se, have much to do with the dagger in my shoulder. But yes," he suddenly changed topics, "It would be unlikely for you to have met a deep black such as myself, seeing as it's been several hundred years since I have been summoned without killing the summoner promptly, though I find the human world more enjoyable the longer I stay here." He shifted topics again, seemingly oblivious to his short attention span, a characteristic shared by many upper-level demons that made them extremely hard to harness. "Your rooms are this way." He began to drift at a slow walking speed towards a side hall on the first floor. His eight-foot frame shrunk smoothly to six feet as he approached the door. "I'll show you each to individual rooms." His eyes snapped around to Takeshi. "You up there. Do you mind? I don't feel like waiting around for you."

Takeshi laughed and jumped from the balcony, blasting wind at himself up from the floor to soften his landing.

"How dramatic. I'm so impressed. Hurry the ******** up. And open the door, it annoys me having to solidify enough to do it." Takeshi obeyed. "My god. That Siber kid. He thinks he's hot s**t? I'd love to see him try to summon me. I'd love it." He rambled a bit longer, than somehow got onto the topic of omelets as he led each of them to... a staircase.

"Hey! I couldn't have just gone that way?!" Takeshi complained. Sindhlot snickered with petty malevolence. He then led them out to the main hall and through to the door Joe had gone through, to the actual location of their rooms.

Their rooms, of which there were sixteen, lined either side of a hallway. A dim light glowed from above each door. Sindhlot explained that red meant it was occupied by someone who was doing sensitive magic, blue for sleeping, yellow for awake but not-to-be-disturbed, green for occupied and not busy at all, and white for empty. Each of them was brought to a white-light room.

Takeshi began to walk towards the end of the hall.

"Let me know if you need anything," Sindhlot commented to Kayla before sinking into the shadows. "You know," he commented, still as a particular dark spot of shadow, "Legion should just give you maps."

His spot faded away.

Each room contained a bed, as well as an empty desk, a filing cabinet, lamps over the bed on on the desk, as well as a ceiling-mounted one, and a large, comfy-looked plushy chair. There seemed to be an overall black-and-red color scheme going on within the rooms. There were artificial windows that showed the outside, but were not actually linked. The air was never stuffy.

It made one wonder why Legion could do so many non-killing related spells, really.

Erik didn't realize how exhausted he was until he climbed into the bed. It was comfortable and he was sleepy. He started drifting immediately.

Erik couldn't answer.

Siber hopped out of bed and changed clothes rapidly. That was odd- he had left his clothes and other items at the hotel. Convenient, though. He needed to go check out of there, though, so he did.

(Convenient scene skip!)

commented Keldan.
Siber, back in his room, opened the mini-fridge. He glugged one down happily.

His uncontrolled behavior had been unacceptable.

In addition, the infusion of caffeine was helping his mood immensely.

A pause.



He spoke as though to an idiot.
They went to the practice room.
9:15.