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 Posted: Sat Jul 16, 2016 10:39 am
Alg complied, scratching his fingers along the shadow marten's head. Surprisingly the shadows gave the resistance of fur, if not for them being wisps of shadow. "That's an A. See you already wrote it. A makes a sound almost like it's name, which most letters do." Alg pointed down at his paper where next to the A he wrote 'ANT' and drew very easily several black circles with legs that clearly were an ant. "Ant. The A - then an N -" he pointed to it and enunciated that the sound of the letter was almost like it's name, "and a T." He then took the paw, and next to the hovering A made the N and T motions next to it.
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 5:58 pm
Gloom wrinkled up his snout a bit, trying to understand. It made sense but also seemed a little overcomplicated. All this was part of reading? ... and that was what made up ant? Those things were small and annoying in the free side but over here- Not worth thinking about, no. When Algie took his paw, Gloom made a noise but also made the shape of the letters next to the A to spell out ant. "... seems like secrets," he said with a chitter, "things Gloom shouldn't know." Still wanted to know though because otherwise he would never be able to understand all the things he had run off with.
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Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2016 6:28 pm
"Everyone should learn to read if they have the desire," Alg corrected. "Everything we say, everything we see, has a word- letters- than can make it up on paper." Alg looked down at his notebook again and wrote while speaking. "G-L-O-O-M. Gloom." And then, "A-L-G-E-R-N-O-N. Algernon." He looked back up, "It may be easy to recognize some words as wholes, if you are used to symbols."
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 8:36 pm
Gloom took it all in and was chittering every so often. His eyes widened as he saw his name written out and there was an excited squeak. "Gloom can understand this!" It seemed complicated but it was not that different than symbols or glyphs or the magic he had helped America learn. Parts were needed to make up the whole. "Y'can teach Gloom more, yes?" He did not assume that the professor would want to stay and explain it all in one day. Also because he assumed that it was not something you learned in one day. There were lots of letters from what he could see. "Gloom can teach y'how to make dark light now if y'want." Since he had gotten his first lesson and all.
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 8:53 pm
"I can," Alg nodded, glancing down at the creature in his lap and giving him another round of head scratching. The offer of magic education right this moment had Alg closing his notebook and sitting up a bit, "Right now? Well, yes sure if you'd like." The book and pen were set aside a moment so he had free hands, "What should I do?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2016 10:14 pm
"Y'teach Gloom, Gloom teaches y'a thing." The shadowed creature shifted and wriggled one last moment in Algie's lap before he was carefully climbing up to the man's shoulders. It seemed in the process that he shrunk down in size some, not as large as he had been, and able to fit comfortably on the professor's shoulders. "Y'gotta focus on the shadows first." Which were now wisping up at the corner of Algie's vision as Gloom spoke.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 5:06 am
Alg readjusted, sitting straighter to provide more shoulder to stand on, and nodded as the pine marten instructed him. The shadows, normal at first, when focused on seemed to move and shift. Thinking about the nature of such a thing was a bit terrifying, almost as if they were alive, but it wasn't the time for that. Focus on the shadows. So he did. "Alright.." Gloom was given a tiny nod.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 7:33 pm
"Some shadows are bad," Gloom's voice is soft and his eyes are far more luminous now as he seems to darken. The shadows of the room have crept up and come closer. "Y'can't trust those shadows but y'can trust Gloom. Gloom is shadows - good shadows - and good shadows will help if y'ask." Was he implying sentience to shadows? Perhaps. "Not words either, that's not how y'ask." His head rubbed along Algie's cheek, then his jaw, and Gloom's head tucked there underneath it. "Shadows know. Y'just got to nudge them a little."
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 7:38 pm
Alg's eyes almost crossed as Gloom slipped under his chin. He gave the crature a little nudge with his chin, "And how do I tell the difference? Between the good and the bad?" Shadows looked like shadows to him. "And how do I coax them?" A hand ran down Gloom's back lightly.
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Posted: Tue Jul 26, 2016 8:24 pm
"Y'can tell. Instinct." Prey in the face of a predator, not that he knew how to explain that. Gloom knew no predators but he knew fear. The shadow creature stretched under that hand, pushed into it and then- He was gone and Algie was consumed in shadows. Gloom was there, he would be able to tell, and shadows were all around him. Sometimes the easiest way to teach someone was to show them and this was the best way Gloom knew how. It was a quick share of knowledge, Algie left with the impression that while it was not words that were needed, it was thought. Will. Intent.One worked with the shadows if they could speak with them in a way they understood. Algie only had to think, to nudge, to let the shadows know what he wanted with a thought and the right intent and they would listen. Then Gloom was there again, the shadows pulled back, and his head still tucked under Algie's chin. "Good shadows listen. They answer. Bad don't." ... and now he would also know what they felt like to his senses.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2016 5:19 am
It was hard to describe what it felt like to be enveloped in shadow. A bit frightening if he had to be honest but he could feel Gloom's presence even if he couldn't see him in the dark. The shadow creature was in the driver's seat of the current demonstration and thus he was along for the ride. The fear ebbed when he really gave thought to what the the pine marten was saying about feeling the shadows out. Similar to willing things into existence in this place, feeling the nature of the world change around you, the shadows seemed equally pliable and cooperative if approached in the right way. "And so you," Gloom was more solidly there again, head tucked to his chin, "just tell them to make a light?" Of course the dynamic of a shadow making light would drive a scientist mad but he was thankfully a fiction writer. Some things had to simply be let go.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2016 7:51 pm
"Yes," Gloom's tail swished from side to side along Algie's shoulder. "Y'just talk to them, let them know what y'want." There was an amused chitter. "Y'gotta be firm too. Not all shadows listen like Gloom."
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Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 6:31 am
"Are you a shadow, just like them?" Gloom seemed to be more, but Algie didn't exactly know the dynamics of life in this strange other world. It felt like Gloom was urging to him to try so Algie turned back to the room, to the shadows in corners that he closed his eyes and felt out. Magic didn't come as easily to him as it had to others but he would give it a solid try. He visualized the dark light once he felt he'd a grasp on them, Alg mentally attempted to be firm though like most things he moved his hand because it felt easier for him to direct. With a quirk of the mouth he made a fist and willed the shadows to coalesce (and perhaps, mentally said 'please'- no reason not to be polite to the shadows). They whipped and waved and slowly seemed to gather into a small orb of dark light. It wasn't easy, nor as quick as Gloom had done it. The light was also a bit smaller but- he'd managed.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:01 pm
"Shadows raised Gloom." A pause, then a quiet chitter. "Gloom is shadows now." He was silent then, watching as Algie worked and asked the shadows to bring forth a dark light. A pleased purr escaped and he shrunk once more as he was clambering his way onto Algie's arm to inspect it. The tip of his nose brushed against the dark light that now hovered over the professor's hand. "Small but y'did good." Gloom's eyes looked far more eerie in this kind of lighting.
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Posted: Wed Aug 03, 2016 6:27 pm
"Were you not always shadows?" Alg looked at Gloom curiously, even for the spooky eyes, because the way the creature said it sounded like he'd been turned into this. The dark light seemed to maintain, though small, without him thinking much about it. He realized then that this wasn't so much him doing it, as it was the shadows. It seemed very different from the force of will that he and Jeremiah had been working on. Alg concentrated and instead of having the light simply release, he made sure the shadows knew they could let it go.. and it disappeared.
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