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 Posted: Wed May 14, 2008 10:09 pm
Morgan was quiet for a moment, a thoughtful, almost uncomfortable expression on her face. "Well... alchemy is supposed to be something anyone can learn, but it takes a certain level of inborn talent, too. You have to know what circles to use for something, what the symbols mean, all the atomic elements, and generally speaking it's a good idea to know what elements are in the objects you'd be working with... And even knowing all that, some people can't ever go beyond the basic stuff because they just don't have the talent. It's... not something that's very common among kitsusagi."
Endless, for instance, could learn things about Potions because all it boiled down was basically a complicated form of cooking. When he'd tried Alchemy, however, nothing had happened. It hadn't worked for Diina or Ened, either, but Eruanna had gotten a bit of a reaction. She wasn't really interested enough to try for anything more, though. It seemed that, at least generally speaking, it was something that only the kitsusagi from past lives and their descendants could do. The little bit of testing she'd done didn't mean that no "regular" kitsusagi could... but it seemed like it would be highly unlikely.
"But then... we've all got our special talents, right? I couldn't spout off star-charts and things like that off the top of my head, either. I think that's pretty cool." She grinned and wagged her tails at him. "And as for being a bad Aries... well, maybe you're not bold, but you're smart, and you're obviously a survivor or you wouldn't be here. Maybe the boldness will come as you get a little older and start learning more about things. And it's not like you're the first bobtail to be cautious by nature..." She shrugged a bit and sat back up. Hers was a touchy feel family and she wanted to go nuzzle and comfort the little guy, but she wasn't sure how he would take that.
Then she sat up on her hinds and clapped her front paws. "Ah! You said your guardian person has been trying to toughen you up? Like how? Teaching you how to fight? I've learned some combat stuff too. Maybe I could help figure out a good way to train you for what you'd be good at so you could be more confident about it? If your friend is trying to teach you what they know without knowing what would work best for you it might be making things harder than they need to be." She sat back a bit, her expression turning sheepish. "I mean... if you'd want me to look into it, anyway. It's not really fair of me to go bulldozing over you like that..."
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 9:22 am
"I didn't say my big sis was a bad teacher." Kajik said defensively. It was the first time since meeting Morgan that he didn't stutter.
He was sure this kitsu meant well, but why did she think she was so much better than the one who had saved him?
"I- I just- I have nerves. It isn't her fault. She's the strongest kitsu I know."
And so here he was, bringing shame on Alcyone's name by not being a proper Aries. Couldn't he get anything right?
He hung his head, feeing more than a little depressed, before he caught sight of the ram figure and perked up a little.
"This is, um. Pretty cool." Kajik changed the subject, smiling sheepishly. "Your alchemy is pretty cool too. S-so thank you!"
The figurine was awfully smooth. He turned it over between his paws, trying to look at it from all angles.
"My big sis, she met this male. He's- I can tell even without his stars that he's really bad news, but she doesn't see it. I'm trying to build a circle to help me measure the future." The young bobtail said, with quiet determination. "Then I'll know what to do. If you want to help, you- um, you could help with that. Please."
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Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 10:05 am
Morgan grinned a bit sheepishly. "Ah, I guess I might have been going out on a limb there. Zell just always says it's better to make sure you learn the kind of combat you're suited for. Best fighter I know, so... I sorta look up to him, I guess kinda like you said your friend is the strongest kitsu you know?" She shrugged. "I wasn't trying to speak down on her..."
Morgan seemed thoughtful for a moment. "Well the only way to get over your nerves... is to work through something that makes you nervous. Not necessarily something BIG... sometimes it works better to start off with smaller problems first. After you get past something it's not as bad anymore. Though... it might still bother you, but being brave is more about doing something even if you are afraid rather than not being afraid in the first place. That is just being stupid, I think." She face-palmed again. "Gah, there I go jabbering again..."
She sat quietly as Kajik went on to explain what he'd been up to, and her expression became determined as well, and a little bit grim. "I know about wolves in sheep's clothing..." Envy had nearly killed her and her siblings before they were even born... just because he had some sort of vendetta against her father for existing. "What do I need to do?"
This time Morgan didn't yammer on. This was serious. Her father might have just passed astrology off as nonsense, but she'd seen too much that seemed like it would be nonsense at first turn out to be something important to just brush it off. And Kajik took it so seriously... and that profile he'd spouted off... well, if he thought this would help him protect his friend, then she'd do her best to help him. And if he really was trying to do everything in his power to fight for her when she didn't see the danger... "Maybe you're not all that bad of an Aries after all."
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 12:48 am
"Th-thank you."
Doing things even though you were afraid, hunh? W-well... Kajik was afraid all the time, but he still did things! Right now he was even talking to a stranger and not hiding inside a dead log! So maybe he could be brave after all, if only just a little.
"Um- i-if you could flatten the earth in the circle, please, that would be very helpful!"
Kajik beamed hopefully up at his new friend.
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Posted: Mon May 19, 2008 8:37 pm
Morgan's ears went back at the request. She could do it, but that was a far larger task than she normally took on. She examined the area with a leery expression and then nodded. "I think I can... I probably won't be good for much for a while after, though. I don't normally do things so... big. Gonna take a lot of energy. I'll get out of the way, though, until I can help some more." Being smack in the middle of the ring might interfere with his work after all... and that's where she was gonna have to be to make her circle to get the appropriate area flattened.
Morgan took a couple of minutes to pick a spot pretty much in the middle that had a large enough open space but wouldn't require her messing up the pattern Kajik had started. A few moments of pondering and then she started drawing, double checking things a couple of times before she seemed satisfied. Then she clapped her paws down and light flashed from the ring and spread across the hilltop. The light visible began leveling out, the middle sinking and the edges moving up. All it was was shifting the dirt around, basically... but it was still a lot of work for the amatuer alchemist.
Finally the light faded and Morgan stumbled just outside the edge of the circle and collapsed in a panting heap. "I just know... Dad would get on to me... for doing something that big... when I'm not used to it..." She grinned. "But he'd do... the same kind of thing... to help someone who needed it."
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 3:37 am
If Kajik hadn't been covered in blue fur, then Morgan might have seen him blanch. He hadn't know the limits of her capabilities. If he had, he never would have asked her to take on a task that made her look so faint.
Oh dear oh dear! Now they were out there all alone, in the dark a- and Kajik didn't know if he had the power to defend Morgan if something scary like a raccoon came along!
"Oh. Oh! I didn't mean-" He bit his lip. "That was very impressive! Thank you!"
To think that there were really Kitsu would could bend the elements of the world to their will. It was amazing. Big sis was super-strong, but Morgan... what she did was on another level. It made Kajik feel as tiny as he was.
"P-please- um- here!"
He dragged over a packet of oreo cookies that Alcyone had stolen from the HQ, and set them near Morgan's head. They were supposed to be his midnight snack.
"To get your energy back! I'll be, uh. I'll just be marking some things! Tell me if you feel faint! That's probably bad!"
With that, Kajik skittered over to the flattened circle and began sketching lines and stops. It was much easier to get the angles right without a slop to contend with, so he made quick progress.
If Morgan had been familiar with human historical sights, she might have recognized the pattern that Kajik dug into the ground as resembling the lay-out for the great obelisks of Stonehenge.
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2008 3:48 pm
Honestly Morgan had brought some cookies Ginny had baked from home for her own snack. She appreciated the gesture though, and... well, she could give him a couple of the cookies she'd brought if she ate some of the Oreos. Which, in the end, she did. Even having a little bit to munch usually helped a lot when she overdid things, and she always recovered quickly. "Give me ten minutes or so... I'll be all right."
And if any raccoons showed up she still had her wand. Hopefully she wouldn't need to use it though. She figured Kajik was freaked out enough for one day. Night. Whatever.
Morgan had heard of Stonehenge, vaguely, but that wasn't something that particularly effected her family. She'd have been far more interested if she could actually have seen such a monument, being the paws-on learner that she was. She'd taken an interest in geology as a side study for her alchemical practices, but that was about all she really read outside her lessons for alchemy and magic.
It was rather fascinating to watch Kajik work, though. Maybe she'd look into some astronomy and astrology later to learn more about it. She was tempted to ask him about what he was doing but she didn't want to interrupt, either. Interrupting her father in the middle of an alchemical demonstration usually didn't turn out well, and she wasn't sure what would happen if she broke Kajik's concentration while he was so carefully measuring and placing his rocks.
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