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 Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:41 am
44.1 :: Focus and Willpower, the First {Rhetoric Quest Post 1}
Yambati looked through the notes on the Bear Grip Mudra, eyes going again and again over the words. His hands made the motions lightly, simply practicing the motion without the force behind it. He had been meaning to practice Mudras since Melonia had tutored him, but the thought had somehow been pushed back by all the other things he had been doing - religion and Botany and forging ahead with Kallisto. He had almost thought to practice the Ushas Mudra, but had shyed away, unsure whether he was truly interested in its results.
Instead, he had settled on Bear Grip - something protective and ultimately most likely to be useful. He would have to go outside of the City if he pursued Botany to gather samples, and shields were just as important as weapons.
He held up his left hand, palm away from him, turned to the right so his thumb pointed down. His right hand he held in the reverse position, palm towards him, thumb up. His fingers hooked together and he closed his mind, focusing, putting will behind the motion, visualizing its intended result.
{Roll: 39. Invalid. Required roll reduces to 45}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:42 am
44.2 :: Focus and Willpower, the Second {Rhetoric Quest Post 2}
{Required Roll: 45}
Something distracted him, though. He heard the soft squeak of Hien's bones and glanced up, not quite as centered as he should have been. His brows furrowed, and he swore, softly. He really needed to talk to Kortus about changing some of his technorings to Certed. He shot a glare over at Hien who sniffled, then curled back up on his bed.
He readied himself again. He was prepared to try as many times as possible until he succeeded, though he knew that after a certain number, it was better to wait and relax before trying again. His frustration was still low key enough that he thought he could continue, however, and he settled back, kneeling, and repositioned his hands. He took in a deep breath, and focused.
{Roll: 25. Invalid. Required roll reduces to 40}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:43 am
44.3 :: Focus and Willpower, the Third {Rhetoric Quest Post 3}
{Required Roll: 40}
This time it was his own fault that his concentration faltered. His mind drifted at the crucial moment, and the Mudra failed once more. This time, his frustration increased almost to a damaging level. He could still focus, though, if only he took deep breaths, steadied himself. He told himself, though, that he should only try once more that day. After all, he wouldn't succeed if he became too irritated to think straight.
One last try for the day, then. He didn't lift his hands immediately this time but instead closed his eyes, took deep breaths. He idly thought to pray for success, but pushed the thought aside - it was not his place to ask for success in a skill that depended on ability and talent. No, he would have to earn it himself.
Finally, he lifted his hands and concentrated.
{Roll: 13. Invalid. Required roll reduces to 35}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:44 am
45 :: A Worthwhile Break
Books Checked Out
The Flower Faeries
Caring for Poisonous Species
The Encyclopedia of Classical Mythology
Grave returned to the Library after a short break in his still rather sparse home in the District. His hair was freshly washed and smelling of lilacs and freesias, his clothes freshly pressed but as he returned to the dusty corners of the Library and began sorting books, he recalled with a mirthful grin why he never usually went to such lengths. Soon he was up to his elbows in unsorted tomes. He began making neat piles organizing them by subject as he tried to sort through the piled returns.
Yambati, still frustrated with his failure in practicing the Bear Grip Mudra even a day later, had made himself stop stewing and take a walk. He still wasn't sure how he had lost focus three times in a row while trying so hard, and over such trivial things, but it had happened. He wold calm down, and then he would try again. That was how it would work.
His feet took him to the library, his long-rented books in arms. He felt mildly guilty, having kept them for so long, but he'd never made the time to return them, and so he had forgotten, to an extent.
He glanced around the library, looking to see if Requiem or Grave was anywhere in sight.
Unfinished.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:45 am
46 :: Manifestations
Location :: Teacher's LoungeParticipants :: Yambati & Biwa & Quenda
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:46 am
47 :: Organic Inorganic
It wasn't long now, until they would be able to ascend and Kallisto was both nervous and anxious. Swinging by Yambati's room, she knocked on his door to see if was still around or if he'd gone ahead and was going to meet her at Abrid's classroom. "Yambati?" She called, shifting from foot to foot.
He was still there, albeit just about to leave. He opened the door almost as soon as she knocked, smiling briefly before crouching quickly to pick up Hien, who darted towards the hall. "She's been whining about not being able to come," he explained, a bit sheepishly. Carefully, he set her back inside and closed the door behind him. "Ready?"
She blinked and stepped back as Hein made a break for the hallway, smiling. "Mmhmm... Just seeing if you were ready." Kallisto nodded and turned to leave, "I'd offer to have Cecil keep her company but I think there'd be a bigger spectacle then." Laughing lightly, she caught his hand and started off.
"I would come back to a destroyed room," he said, wryly, squeezing her hand and continuing along side her, until they came to what Yambati assumed was the classroom (since Kallisto slowed down). He knocked with his free hand.
As the two students entered the classroom set aside for Abrid, they saw all the periphenalia that would be expected of a Professor of Science. High counters with beakers, alembics and test tubes filled the front half of the room, with equally high stools tucked neatly under each table. Along the walls, cabinets and bookshelves covered every available inch of wallspace. Countless glass jars filled with fermented and well-preserved specimins leered eerily from the open bookshelves, and imagination only knew what lay concealed behind the closed cupboard doors. At the front of the classroom a massive slate board had been securely fixed to the wall, and across it in casual, loopy cursive was written ANATOMY. In front of the board was a naked skeleton, standing up much of its own accord.
There was only one other person in the room, and that was not the Professor, but a small and chubby Zero of the Sanguine alignment.
"Hiya!" Cyphr chirped happily, seeing another couple of students enter the room. "You here for the Science lesson?" For those that had known Cyphr any degree of time, they might have noticed that his grammar had improved a great deal; he'd also dropped the falsetto sweet voice and spoke in more natural tones, husky and sturdy like the rest of him. He looked expectantly from one to the other, swinging his chubby legs over the side of the table he sat on.
Her gaze had settled on the skeleton towards the front of the room, inspecting it, and then had moved on to play across the equipment that was laid out. Some of it was familiar to the alchemist-in-training and she smiled happily, wondering if they might be using them in this lesson. When Cyphr spoke up, she blinked and turned to face her fellow sanguine, "Hello!~ Yep." She nodded and tugged lightly on Yambati's hand, "We're not late are we?" She seemed a little worried at the thought and glanced from Cyphr to Yambati.
Yambati was focused on the skeleton, remembering how strange it was that Hien could move as if she were alive. Maybe he could ask Professor Abrid about that? At Kallisto's tug, though, he turned to look at her, a bit off-guard. He smiled a bit after a moment, though, and shook his head. "I doubt it. I allowed myself fifteen minutes to get here, in case I got lost. And we didn't, so..."
He shrugged, then glanced over at Cypher, nodding in greeting.
They were indeed on time, in fact a little early. And still no sign of their Science Professor. If one watched the skeleton closely, though, they might notice a slight rise and fall in it's ribs, as if the thing had issued a sigh of small proportions.
Cyphr grinned from ear to ear at that and jumped down off the high table with a flat-footed thud. He kicked out one leg to shake off the vibrations and then the other and then, shoving both hands deep into his pockets he gallumped over to them, glancing up at the skeleton as he drew nearer to it. "Pretty neat, huh??" Cyphr asked, pausing and craning his neck. He was not even up to the skeleton's hips.
Kallisto's eyes narrowed as she thought she saw movement in the skeleton but quickly dismissed it as a trick of the eyes as she was distracted by Cyphr's thud. Nodding she agreed with him, amused that the little guy wasn't even half the skeleton's height. Granted, she didn't come up too much higher but at least she didn't have to cran her neck to look up at it. "Yeah." Biting her lower lip, she moved further into the room and took a seat at a nearby table. Smiling at Yambati, she patted the seat beside her. "Wonder what it's for...."
Yambati suddenly felt very tall, compared to Cypher and even Kallisto, a little bit. He shifted slightly on his long legs, but shook off the feeling and followed his love, sitting beside her.
"If this is anatomy class, probably to teach us the bones in the body," he pointed out, indicating the words on the board.
"Very Astute, Master Yambati." came a rich, mirthful voice from the direction of the skeleton. In fact its jaw bone wiggled about held on by invisible strings as it clacked out the words. And then, to further make the situation odd, the skeleton lifted up one fleshless arm and indicated the board. "Anatomy, indeed. But not just the skeletal system, all the bodily systems of both Empyrean and Outsider!" The skeleton sounds very much enthused by this prospect.
Cyphr giggled a tad and sniffed unconsciously, watching as the thing moved in its unstable wiggly way. Cyphr did an impression of its wiggly arm pointing at the board and then chortled harder. "Hee, nice!" he complimented the skeleton in a pleased, genuine voice and then turned on his heel to take a seat on the floor in front of Kallisto and Yambati's seats.
Kallisto cocked her head to the side when the skeleton started speaking, confused and more then a little intrigued. Was this skeleton like Hien then? "Outsider?" She asked, curiosity piqued. So many of the othe professors were tight lipped about the Outsiders.... it seemed like such contradiction to learn something like their biology when other subjects were so hush hush.
Hien was the first thought in Yambati's mind, too, after the initial start faded. He shifted, slightly uncomfortable from being surprised. "Sounds good," he murmured, then glanced at Kallisto. "And if we're going to be fighting them, it's probably best that we know where their weak spots, anatomically, are." That was his conclusion, at any rate - the idea of knowledge for the sake of knowledge only went so far with him, and into anatomy was not a part of it.
"There are actually a startling number of identical systems between the Outsiders and the Empyreans. So, for this particular lesson, I - an Outsider- shall be a good model to illustrate the point." The skeleton gave a little mock bow, it's head lolling dangerously to one side before righting itself. "My name is John Burnham. Pleased to meet you."
Cyphr grabbed his boot-toes and squealed with glee at that little bow of the Outsider Skeleton. What a fun class this was. So, this is what Outsiders looked like, then? Cyphr scrutinized it carefully. They didn't look so tough or scary... In fact, with all them naked bones, they looked mighty easy to crush. There had to be a catch.
She'd nodded in agreement with Yambati. Once he'd mentioned that fact, the relevance seemed obvious and she flushed slightly, embarrassed at her oversight. Kallisto blinked, taken aback by the introduction, then shook her head. There was no way this skeleton was a reanimated Outsider... the Metatrons wouldn't allow such a thing, would they? Still, her curiosity grew and, like Cyphr, she scrutinized the skeleton, wondering where the similarities and the differences lay.
Yambati also focused on the skeleton, trying to find differences in the length of the arms compared to the length of, say, Grave's arms. Trying to find differences in the shoulders. But all of it seemed comparatively normal, from what he could tell. He kept himself focused on the physical before him, though, slowly taking out his notebook. There were too many questions he would ask, otherwise.
"To begin." Mr. Burnham said with another clattering of jaws, "Both an Empyrean minus their individual Additions and a full grown Outsider without their Grafts, looks like this:" And at that he lifted into this slow, parody of a pirouette, revolving entirely and coming to rest again. Aside from the soft clack of bone rattling against bone, the revolution was graceful and unearthly in its way.
But regardless of theatrics, it gave them a full view of the entire set of bones that composed both sides of the warring factions.
Cyphr sat forward, rocking into a squat as the skeleton lifted up on a foot and slowly turned around. He stared at the skeleton's hand, and unconsciously wiggled his own hand. He stared at the flat bladed scapula covering the back ribs and flexed his own. "Huh." was all he said.
Just bones? There wasn't anything special to either or and it gave Kallisto a strange sense of familiarity. Nodding slowly, the sanguine moved to retrieve her own notebook and jotted down notes, even doodling basic porportions into the margin. Shivering, she glanced at Yambati to see how he was doing.
Just the same? It was a strange thought, and though they had never been expressly told otherwise, it seemed to run contrary to what they had heard. But he cast aside doubt for the time being, accepting what was said as truth and writing slowly, making careful diagram sketches. He caught Kallisto's glance, twitched his lips into a slight smile.
"After the skeletal system comes the Circulatory System." Mr. Burnham announced and grew still as lines of red and blue spread out rapidly from his chest lacing their way over his entire body. And there, in the centre of the ribcage a fleshy piece of muscle formed, throbbing and pumping, making first one set of tubes swell and then the others. "Again, between Empyreans and Outsiders, precisely the same." This time the skeleton did not turn, but lifted his arms so they could see the paths of blood as they ran over his otherwise fleshless body.
"Neat!" Cyphr exclaimed before he could stop himself. He'd cut his finger before, and it bled and bled and bled. And at the time, he couldn't figure out why it kept coming, and couldn't see where exactly it was pouring from. Now, staring at the multitude of tiny capillaries coating the boney hands he understood quite clearly.
Kallisto watched the tubes grow and entwine throughout the bones, paying particular attention to the handful of thicker ones - the one that ran behind the heart, a few up the neck, and the two that branched off into the legs. They looked important... on her diagram, she bolded the lines and looked up, "Why are there blue lines when we bleed red?"
Yambati nodded, silently seconding Kallisto's question (though could the skeleton see without eyes?). Then he set down his quill, after a few sketched paths, and placed his fingers against where one of the larger pulsing tubes was in his own neck. He could feel a steady beat there, something he had always known, but never quite understood the reason for. Parts of his body beat in time with where his heart was... but this was how it happened. He nodded, understanding.
"Quite true! We don't bleed blue..." The skeleton rolled his head to look at Kallisto with gaping sockets and clattered its teeth together. "The starkness of these reds and blues are exagerrated. While in the body, blood is not nearly this red. When it hits oxygen in the air, it darkens to a bright red that grows steadily darker the longer it is exposed. The blue, on the other hand, represents the blood that has been emptied of it's nutrients. without the oxygen in it, it has much less of a red colour, and can appear anywhere from mauve to purple to blue, depending on the skin tone."
"My blood's -real- red." Cyphr chirped, committing the lines of bloods vessels to memory. He didn't take notes, just sat back on his haunches again, crossed his arms ober his knees and grabbed opposite hand-to-foot boot toes. He barely even blinked, staring at that skeleton before them.
Kallisto nodded at that, raising her hand to gaze at the veins there. In her skin, the blue seemed more of a purply-green then the stark blue of the model before them. And then she paused as a though ran through her mind, "Where's Professor Abrid?" Here they were, learning from some re-animated Outsider skeleton and not a one of them was questioning the lack of a Three in the room.
"Probably watching from somewhere," Yambati suggested, shrugging slightly, too entranced by feeling the pulse of blood in his wrist, now, and observing the teal color of his veins. It was like a sort of awakening, coming to understand what was inside of his body. He felt a bit more aware.
"Hahaha" Laughed the same, joyous voice, only this time it came from the wall. There was a ripple and then the whirr of a Technoequip being deactivated, and then Professor Abrid simple walked away from one of the cabinets and grinned at them, all droopy dog ears and scaley face and bushy mane. "I am indeed watching, and you've been absorbing this information well so far, so let's move on shall we?"
The jaw of the skeleton no longer rattled in time with the Professor's voice, but still it stood there of its own accord, all pumping heart and glistening veins. "Next is the Nervous system." At this, a series of pale green threads sprouted from the skull and spread down the body to every last extremety. "Again, between Outsiders and Empyreans, precisely the same."
"Ha!" Burst out Cyphr poniting a chubby finger at the Professor and grinning broadly. "I kneeeew it!! That's why you told me not to touch it, before the class started. Heeee..." Cyphr waved a hand at the professor and then stared back at the skeleton. "What do the green ones do?" He murmured under his breath. He recognized blood and bone, but what did nervous lines do? Make you nervous?
Kallisto jumped as Abrid materialized and walked out before them, turning to peer at Cyphr as he called out. "You knew!?" She laughed, however, and shook her head, intending on asking how Abrid was doing this demonstration and what technoequip he had been utilizing. Turning her garnet gaze on the professor, Kallisto voiced her question, "And what does the nervous system do?"
Yambati blinked, jumped a little at the sudden reveal. His heart beat faster for a bit, and his hand still against his wrist noticed the change. He was caught between being startled and being fascinated, but he shook off both. "I can't think of anything they'd carry..."
Abrid grinned, his whiskers curling up at the edges of his mouth. "They carry electricity. Specifically, electric pulses from sections of your brain out to the body part it's trying to communicate with. It is these lines that we activate in medicine with arts like acupressure and acupuncture." Abrid stroked his mane and thought to add something else on. "Likewise, signals can be sent from a body part to the brain to keep it informed on what is going on around you. Your senses are a good example. Cyphr, if you'd help me with a mini demonstration...?" Abrid raised his eyebrows.
Cyphr hopped up, a big grin in place. Interactivity, his favourite! "Okay! What do I do??" Cyphr asked. The professor sat him up on the edge of one of the tables and extended one hooved finger. He tapped Cyphr on the knee cap, and Cyphr felt his leg jerk, kicking out his foot in a little spasm. "Cooool." Cyphr cooed, staring at his leg as if it no longer belonged to him. "What does that mean?"
The professor replied that his nerves in his knee had just sent a signal to his subconscious mind, and the brain had in return responded with a reaction for the situation. In this case, a reflex. "Neeeeeeeat." Cyphr purred. This was now his favourite class. Hands down.
Kallisto nodded, writing furiously. This was rather interesting! "Will that result if you tapped him anywhere? What if you pushed on his neck, where that big cord is? What would that do?"
"Probably hurt, if it connects to our senses," Yambati tossed out, quirking a brow curiously. Reflexes... that would include recoiling from something painful, yes? "Can reflexes be overcome, with practice?" he asked, after a short moment's thought.
Abrid laughed joyously, pleased that they were asking so many questions. "That specific response won't happen everywhere. But, each grouping of nerves has its own responses, many of which are interconnected to other sets of nerves. If you were to tap someone of the back of the neck, depending on the angle you would either knock them unconscious - and a dangerous way to do it, since those nerves are connected to the medula oblongata which controlls your heart rate and breathing. If the impulse went down, rather than up, it can cause paralyzation in the body that has varying lengths of lasting which vary from person to person." Abrid paused and then adressed Yambati's question. "As for whether or not you can overcome your reflexes, yes and no. Some, like the one Cyphr's knee gave, certainly. It requires a great deal of practice, will-power, and having a relative resistance to pain. There are some things that you can only repress, such as the reflex to breath, or the speed your heart pumps at. For these, even if you develope the power of will enough to cease them, as soon as you lose consciousness - assuming you haven't damaged your brain too harshly - your medula oblongata will resume these activities. Hence why you don't die in your sleep."
Cyphr's mouth hung a little agape. Wow. That was a lot of information. This study seemed to cover just about everything... Cyphr stared at all those many many lines and began to wonder where each one sent it's signals, and how many it could carry, and what would happen if they broke. So many questions, and so much knowledge, he wasn't sure he could take it all in at once. He'd have to study this.
"So, providing you learn it well enough, you could potentially put someone to sleep with a simple tap on the neck or paralyze them by poking a certain spot? That's really useful for sparring..." Kallisto had perked during the wave of information and her mind was racing forward. "Is the nervous system what controls Essence then? Essence is an ambient thing like breathing, right?"
Yambati just listened, writing down notes. He had mostly asked his question so that he could more easily work with prickly, dangerous plants. Less flinching meant steadier hands, after all. He supposed it could be applied outward, but his focus had narrowed - after all, it was a way to organize all the new information.
"Yes, it can be applied to sparring, and far more broadly than that. You ought to ask Professor Orrys about that one nerve plexus in your arm that makes it impossible for you to make a fist for a few minutes." Abrid grinned and winked. "As for Essence, it can be applied to the nervous system, but it is not the same. We'll get to that. The next system is the Lymphatic system." A series of white lines sprang up between the nerves and the blood vessels, with small concentrated nodes growing behind the ears, in the jaw, in the throat, the armpits and the groin. "This, while the same in structure between both Empyreans and Outsiders, is a tad stronger in Empyreans due to our use of essence and a tad weaker in the Outsiders due to their use of Grafts."
Cyphr perked at Kallisto's question. He'd been thinking of fixing people, medicine and the like. But that was a ponit to, you could use the same vessels to inflict pain. Wow, versatile. He glanced over at the two of them, Kallisto, a sanguine kinesthetic like him, he figured they'd probably agree on quite a lot. But Yambati...he didn't look like a fighter. Cyphr wondered what the quiet Choleric spent his time on. But then a new system sprang up on the increasingly complex Mr. Burnham, and Cyphr's gaze snapped back to attention to try to remember it all.
Kallisto nodded and switched to a new diagram, pursing her lips thoughtfully, "And what does that system do? It looks like it's linked to the circulatory system."
"But it has more than one larger point... the circulatory system has only the heart. What are the larger parts of the lymphatic system?" He couldn't think of any names he knew for them, and was thus dumbfounded as to its purpose.
"The Lymphatic system works very closely with your circulatory system, it's true. It is in charge of creating the white blood cells and antibodies you use to fight infection - just as the bone marrow produces new red blood cells to carry nutrients. When you get a slight cut and that clear liquid oozes out, that's lymph. The larger centers are the nodes, those are the body's first line of defense.
"When ill or trying to fight off an infection prior to becoming ill, the lymph nodes swell as they produce antibodies to attack the invading organisms. Our Essence enhances the speed and efficacy of our Lymphatic System. The Outsiders use Grafts to augment theirs." Abrid paused and then glanced at the model beside him, pulsing with life. "And that's where the similarities end."
"Huh." Cyphr piped from his spot on the table. He'd had that clear good happen before too, especially when he skinned himself not bad enough to bleed, he'd leak this sticky stuff that would harden and turn yellow. He always picked it off. Now that he thought about it, the stuff did work to seal the wound. What better way to seal it than with a bunch of little fighters who'd protect the breach?
Kallisto nodded once more, falling back into silence as Abrid spoke. That made sense. But... if that's where the similarities ended, what were the differences then? Obviously Additions versus Graphs, but what system, exactly, were those tied to?
Yambati took some more notes, silent once more. The body was more and less complicated than he had thought. Now he had names and images of what made the body work... but those systems were complicated in and of themselves.
"The final basic system of the Outsiders is, as I've mentioned, the Grafts. These are not an organic or natural part of their growth, but are augments and alterations built of plastique, metal, oil, gears and electricity. They insert these pieces into the body to help with natural weaknesses. In some circumstances they can achieve an unnatural speed and strength. These are the Grafts that John Burnham had before he died." Abrid turned towards the Skeleton, and it began to develop machinery-looking additions. A glowing red eye formed in one eye socket, the metal brackets and wires running through holes drilled in the skull, bolted in with screws... The heart developed a series of four pistons that began their revolutions forcing the heart to pump ever faster and faster, injections of adrenalin and stimulants being pumped into the blood vessels...panels of metal screwed into the bones along his forearms and shins to offer added strength and protection, tubes and wiring in his gut where his digestive organs would be... by the time the Grafts had all materialized, John Burnham was nearly half composed of machinery.
Cyphr swallowed at that, feeling uneasy all of a sudden. This thing before him...it was threatening, even without it's skin and armour and weapons. It scared him a little, the unnatural look of it, the coldness of it, like there was no feeling left in it, only purpose.
Kallisto felt a shiver arc down her spine and looked away from the skeleton. How could someone function like that? It was so.... false. So unreal. This Outsider shouldn't be alive, with all that augmentation. It had to have damaged his core somehow. "That's.... depressing." She said at length, truly more saddened then intimidated by the Outsider. If push came to shove, she had faith that she would be able to stand against these murderous people. But to live as what was essentially a fancy technoequip? She shook her head. Impossible to imagine, really. And she felt luck for having been chosen and rescued from a life lead in such... horrors.
Yambati's eyes narrowed, almost dangerously. He felt sick, absolutely sick, at the sight of the natural being contaminated by the constructed. Additions he accepted as natural outgrowths of the person... but this? This was unnatural, inorganic, and disgusting. "How could anybody live like that with a clean heart?" he asked, voice almost a hiss. "How could they live with what they have done to their bodies? Even death would be better than this polution."
It was a reflex, a gut reaction, not influenced in any real way by anything he'd heard about the Outsiders. He had, for a long time, imagined them rational. Sentient. Misguided, of course, but... but not this. Not this... horror?
Abrid turned his gaze sadly away from the skeleton before them and slowly shook his head. "The more Grafts a person takes, the less personality and truth of self they retain. When an Outsider dies, they strip his body of any still useable Grafts and implant them into another Outsider who requires an...what do they call it? An Upgrade." Abrid sighed and then continued. "But their troubles do not start with their Grafts. The large majority of Outsiders are born with mutations, everything from blindness to limbs that never finished forming. I once saw an Outsider child with my own eyes that had been born with it's stomach outside of its ribcage. They built a graft around it to protect it, and this child, this tiny girl had to live with this metal thing on her chest. It was terrible. But, it is the result of their own chemicals. The fallout from their attacks on us, and from the explosions and accidents that our offensive fighters cause in their plants and factories poison thier lands. Not to mention the abundance of Plastique." Abrid waved a hand of dismissal, and the Grafts disappeared, leaving the other systems intact.
"Enough of that sadness. Onto the final system of Empyreans: The Essence." And over the body a shimmering, opalescent skin formed, but this skin moved through all the other systems, it was in constant motion, moving deeper and shallower in the body as if it possessed some inner current. And there, along the centerline of the body, 7 centres of light glowed softly, from the crown of the head all the way to the base of the spine.
Cyphr had clenched his fights tightly as he listened, aand ground his teeth without thinking about it. It was not until the Grafts disappeared and the Essence replaced it that he felt soothed, calmed. Back in the realm of the familiar.
Kallisto, too, had felt her blood almost boil at that. She wasn't sure what, exactly, she felt but the sympathy was quickly replaced by a fire. They suffered, but it was their own fault, they warped and destroyed their bodies by their own hands... it was a diseased and horrid existence. Kallisto briefly thought that the Empyreans were doing the Outsiders a favour by putting those they did kill out of the misery they were surely in and good riddance, too. Combined with the history lesson, Kallisto's view of the Outsiders had grown ever more biased. Such that when the Graphs were gone and replaced by shimmering Essence, she relaxed and admired the subtle beauty of what she saw before her. Then something nagged at her... the placement of those glowing nodes... Sitting up with a hopeful expression she spoke, "Those are the chakras, aren't they!? I was reading about those..." She hadn't spent much time on the subject but to actually recognize (or hope she recognized) them.
It took a bit longer for Yambati to relax. His blood had boiled, and he fought to reign in his temper. His temper... something that had long been controlled, actually. But this had pushed him enough to potentially make him rage, and he shied away from that, forced himself back. He took deep breaths, letting the soothing image of Essence wash away, bit by bit, the lingering burning memory of the Grafts. Such inhumanity.... it was the Graft that was more important than the person who bore it, it seemed, that they would take it from person to person. People didn't even get customized Grafts to suit their exact needs - they got leftovers, what remained of others. It was horrific. His mind was still so fogged with disgust that even his recognition of the chakras didn't penetrate at first.
"Very good!" Abrid beamed, quickly regaining his equilibrium. "They are indeed the Chakras. Crown, Third Eye, Throat, Heart, Solar Plexus, Sacral and Root." Abrid point out each one as he named them, from the top down. "Essence works differently than any of the other systems. It does not rely on specific roots, like the veins and nerves. It moves through tissue and through those other systems freely. This means that it has a potential flexibility and application far greater, but also that its weaknesses are everywhere. While Essence flows, if it becomes unbalanced, it can gather in certain areas, causing blockages that can cause unexplained pain, illness or infection. This is why it is important to have your Chakras cleansed and balanced from time to time. "
Cyphr focused on his hand for a moment, and slowly felt a warm tingling in his fingertips as his essence flowed there. If he looked really carefully he could see a bit of flickering aronud the edges of his fingertips. It was faint, but it was there. Likely as he grew older, it would grow stronger too.
That fascinated Kallisto and she cocked her head, to the side, "So... When you charge a part of your body, does that pull Essence from other parts of your body and leave those areas more vulnerable? Kind of like tilting a container of water to side - you get a deep end and shallow end." The sanguine was going on the memory of Grave's surprising attacks with charged limbs that one time and it made her wonder if she might be able to counter such a move or at least match it.
Yambati was able to do no more than listen - he didn't trust himself more than that. He listened and wrote down notes, but they were brief, too brief. He focused on what he could, pushing the still lingering nightmare-images from his mind's eye. He would probably have to compare notes for this part later, though.
"All of the Essence never fully leaves any part of the body, but it does thin out as it concentrates in other areas. The Chakras are the centres from which you can help focus where you want to direct the Essence to, because as they have no exact lines to follow, without direction they spread out even and you lose direction and strength. Like water on a table top, it spreads itself even to cover the surface." Abrid smiled and clasped his hands behind his back.
Cyphr sat agape once more, head reeling with all the information and body feeling oddly sensitive. He felt almost as if he could hear his own heart beating, and feel his nerves tingly now that he was more aware of them. He stared down at his skin, amazed it help so much under the surface.
Kallisto kept writing and then paused as Abrid finished, waiting for him to continue for a moment before blinking and looking up once more. Was that it? "Are... we done, Professor?" That seemed rather short.... Then again, maybe not. There were quite a few notes in her school book now and she fully intended to find out more. She certainly felt more aware of herself and held a great deal more respect for her body.
It was more than enough for Yambati, for the day. He was coming back to himself more fully, now, almost completely. He looked down at his own notes and then stretched some, hearing a couple loud pops from joints in his back. Skeletal system. He, too, had a new awareness and respect for all the workings of his body... that worked organically. Naturally.
Abrid nodded. "Merely the tip of the iceberg. But there are many tomes in the Library if you wish to expand on these points on your own. And, as always, I am more than willing to chat with you any time you wish to." He smiled again, friendly and pleased that the lesson had gone well.
Cyphr sat still for a little while, wiggling his toes inside his boots to get the circulation back in them. "Circulation, huh." he mumbled to himself. When he'd gotten all the feeling back in his feet he jumped down off the table as he'd done at the beginning of class and gave Abrid's waist a big hug. "Thank you, Professor." He piped and offered a grateful smile.
Kallisto nodded and closed her book with a thoughtful expression. Upon rising, she waved at Abrid and smiled warmly at Cyphr, "Thank-you very much, Professor! It was really interesting and I may just take you up on that offer."
Yambati rose as well, if more slowly, and put away his own book, pulling his bag over his shoulder. He inclined his head in something of a bow to Abrid. "Thank you," he repeated after the other two. "You've greatly increased my understanding of the workings of natural things."
Abrid chortled, quite pleased with how things had gone indeed, "That's the idea, m'dear boy! Take care now!" And Abrid waved pleasantly with his hoof-fingered hand.
Cyphr peered again at the skeleton, but it had gone back to being a boring ol skeleton. After all those other cool things, he was kind of disappointed to see it without any of its fancy systems. But, he was still very glad he'd seen it at all. And shoving his fists into his pockets he galumped to the door.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:47 am
48 :: Companions
Kallisto was in a particularly good mood today and she couldn't quite put her finger on the reason. Nonetheless, she didn't question the feeling and fairly bounced through the hallways, pigtails bouncing along in time with her walk. Smiling broadly, Kallisto knocked on Yambati's door once more. Since it was animal care, she'd brought along Cecil and Jadeite just in case she would have a question that needed them there with her.
One last class. This was their one last class, and Yambati felt strange about it. On the one hand, he was excited... on the other, frightened. They would change, soon. Things would change.
He opened the door with a bit of nervousness, because of those conflicting feelings, and smiled over at Kallisto. Hien wove out of the room between Yambati's legs, immediately brushing up against Kallisto happily. The little skeleton hopped up on her hind legs to paw at Kallisto - she was looking at Cecil.
"You're bringing him?" Yambati asked.
Kallisto immediately picked up on that nervousness and frowned, dropping Cecil down on the ground so that she could lean in and give him a warm hug, "Why not? It's Animal Care. You alright, Yambati?" Concern shadowed her words. Yes, they would be changing but wasn't it a good thing? Her only hope was that she didn't grow into something thoroughly awkward. After a moment, she kissed him on the cheek and stepped back, "You should bring Hien too, see if you can't get any advice or pointers." Nodding sagely she smiled and bent down to pick up Cecil, who had been busily trying avoid Hien's attentions.
"Nothing much. Just... we're so close. It's almost unbelievable. Are we really ready?" He laughed the question off, though, and bent to pick up Hien, as well. Hien climbed onto his shoulder, settling there with a soft rattle. "And any advice with her would be welcome.
"Ready?" He linked his arm with Kallisto, shutting his door behind him.
"Yup." She nodded and turned to go, Cecil held against one hip and looking both a little perturbed and a little anxious. "I know I'm ready, that's for sure." She was cheerful and energetic, and glad that their final class looked particularly interesting.
So, when they arrived at the class not too after, Kallisto entered the classroom and called out Lelaus' title, determined not to be mislead as she had been with Science.
"Hey, hey, hey!!" hollared Lelaus by way of greeting. He rolled off a high ledge in the vaulted ceiling and soumersaulted to his padded feet with a great deal of feline grace. "Welcome to Lelaus' Animal Care class! here you learn about the Tricks, Traps and Trials of working with Familiars, whether they be Monsters, Cicus pets," At that he winked at Cecil, "or constructed Familiars. Are ya ready to have a blast??" Lelaus was all grinning fangs and bristling whiskers. The youngest of the Professors, and the most informal, he held the bearing of a classmate rather than an authority figure.
Cyphr came stomping into the room in a hurry, slightly winded and rosier cheeked than ever. "Am I late?" He puffed, hands on knees. "I ran all the way here!" he added, breathing hard, by way of explanation. He really liked Lelaus, so he didn't want to miss a minute of his class.
"We haven't started yet, no," Yambati answered, recognizing the excitable boy from their class with Abrid. He hadn't caught his name, though. Hien, meanwhile, at the mention of Cicus pets hopped up onto Yambati's head, determined to be noticed as was her due.
Red eyes widened in surprise as he rolled into view, reminding her very much of an acrobat of sorts. "Definitely excited, Professor!" She responded, flashing a bright smile before moving further into the classroom and setting Cecil down. Jadeite quietly floated around behind Kallisto, watchful as usual. Kallisto nodded in agreement with Yambati and waved at Cyphr. "Hello~"
"Stellar!" Lelaus replied, swishing his tail back and forth. "Well, where shall we begin, eh? Any particular types of Familiars you kids wanna learn about??" As Lelaus spoke he circled around them with slow, casual steps, eying their pets with much appreciation.
"Hallo!" Cyphr replied to Kallisto and Yambati with a wave of his hand and then looked about at all their pets. He'd spent much time with Danna's Radical... But he didn't have any pets of his own, unless you counted his squat cactus that he watered. He wondered how these students had gotten such neat pets.
"I'd like to hear about Cicus pets. For keeping company with one, I hardly know anything about them," Yambati put forth, perhaps a bit tentatively. Hien rattled her skull along her vertebrae in agreement.
Kallisto nodded, "Cicus familiars and abberations, if that's alright, Professor." She followed his movements with her eyes and then turned with him, something about his movements made her feel a little nervous.
"Aaaaw...not interested in meeting any fun monsters?" Lelaus wiggled his eyes at them playfully, a glint. "Suuuuuit yerselves." He made his way back into the classroom, curiously empty of desks and chairs and took a seat in the middle of the floor. "Cicus pets!" He declared suddenly, pointing at Hien with one pointer finger and Cecil with the other. "Know what they are, exactly?" He asked, smiling at them all.
"I wanna see monsters! ooo!" Cyphr squealed excitedly, when the professor suggested it. But when Lelaus asked if they knew what precisely Cicus pets were, Cyphr scratched at his unkempt hair. They were familairs... But he wasn't sure where they came from, and looking at the two rather different Cicus pets before him he was reminded of the skeleton model from Abrid's class. Yambati's pet aaaalmost looked like a skeletal version of Kallisto's. Almost. But what did that mean?
"I'll confess that I have no idea," Yambati said, reaching up to pull Hien off of his head. Her little bone digits were digging in a little too much. "All I know is that they communicate telepathically with one Empyrean only... right?"
Kallisto ran a hand across Cecil's back and laughed lightly, "I'd like to learn about the other monsters too... and I don't know either." She followed Lelaus and sat down a respectful distance away, wondering if she should get her trusty notebook.
"A Cicus Pet," began Lelaus, stretching out his feet and wiggling his fuzzy toes, "is an animal that somehow managed to bind to raw Essence, only, rather than mutating into a monster, or dying, they created a fusion similar to that of an Empyrean. They can communicate with Telepathy to the one they deem should be their caretaker. Some have unique abilities or appearances due to the unique way they fused with the Essence." Lelaus shrugged as if that were all very fine and simple.
"They just happen by chance, then? Or are the animals stronger or smarter than other animals so they get chosen by the Essence, like our Husks got chosen?" Cyphr murmured, staring at Hien.
Yambati was looking at Hien for a different reason. "And... how would a skeleton Cicus come to be? Did the fusion only happen after the power of the raw Essence ended their first life...?" It certainly was odd that she was a reanimated skeleton.
Kallisto echoed the questions with a murmur of agreement. It was all just chance? She looked at Cecil for a moment and then looked over at Hien as well, it just happened? Pursing her lips, she looked up at Lelaus for an answer.
Lelaus shrugged and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't presume to know the will of the world. Essence does as Essence wills. As for something like your Skeleton Cicus there... It's more likely that a side effect of being fused with the Essence stripped all else away from the body, and left just the bare basics and a heavy coating of Essence. Which, is actually a good example. A Cicus pet like yours possesses a great deal of Essence, which can interfere with spell work, certain crafts - like technoequips, alchemies and sciences - and interfere with some wards. And that's why there are designated Safe Areas for Cicus to wander freely in - the Flora and Fauna Gardens, the Aviary and personal Dorms. Otherwise, they are to be accompanied or kept in a Certed Technoring at all times."
"Ooooh." Cyphr murmured, grabbing hold of his boot-toes. Owning a Cicus sounded like a bit too much work for him. He glanced over Cecil and shrugged. A cicus didn't seem to be the right familiar for him. So, what other kinds of pets were there that might be right for a Cyphr?
"Ah..." Hien, powerful? Well, all the more reason to keep a tight leash on her. "And.... what about Abberations, before we move on to the monsters?" he asked, shooting a glance over at Kallisto.
Kallisto nodded, glad that Cecil at least seemed less powerful then what Lelaus had made Hien out to be. Still, she usually took him out safely tucked away in her certed technoring or left him in her room. "I don't remember how I got Jadeite... she just sorta ended up in my room one morning..." Those memories were rather foggy and she smiled sheepishly, "I don't even know what she's capable of."
Holding up a hand, Kallisto smiled as her Abberation glided over to sort of settle above her open palm and twirl as though showing herself off.
"Abberations are unique, one of a kind. An Abberation is the spiritual manifestation of a specific type of mineral or stone that exists in the world. There is only one soul to each stone. Abberations have an offensive manouver and a defensive, and one specialty skill unique only to that stone. Jadeite's is...Longevity, if I remember correctly?" Lelaus twitched his whiskers and squinted one eye in thought.
Stone huh? That seemed more up Cyphr's alley. He wondered how he'd go about getting his hands on one if they were as rare as Lelaus said.
"How conscious are they?" Yambati asked, finally settling down on the ground and taking out his notebook. "It's hard to tell..."
"Longevity?" She tilted her head to the side thoughtfully and pulled out her notebook, scribbling a few quick notes in it. It was kind of neat, knowing she had something as special and rare as an Abberation now that she knew a little about them.
At that Lelaus extended a hand to Jadeite. "They have a strong sense of will, but unless engaging themselves in a situation - like a fight or a task - they tend to have a subdued sense of recognition of their surroundings. Abberations, for instance don't use speech, facial expressions, yes, but not speech."
Yambati nodded, slowly, jotting down notes and applying what he heard to Amber and Peridot. Peridot was always singing...
Jadeite paused in her slow spin and blinked at Lelaus before floating over and settling above his palm instead. "That explains why she's always so quiet... she hasn't said anything at all to me, just sort of watches everything." A sort of understand dawned on Kallisto and she smiled, "Do they speak at all, or...?" The sanguine was no longer as worried about her abberation's lack of involvement but it would be nice to know if they actually could speak to you through telepathy or somesuch.
"Weeeell," Lelaus hum-hawed. "They can speak in the language of abberations. But only a few of the monsters and other abberations can understand it. It's not really a series of words so much as it is a series of tones. If you get one of the monster types to translate for you, I suppose you could understand their speech. But they don't say much, and they can understand your speaking just fine." He paused and admired Jadeite. "You've a lovely little lady here, Kallisto."
Cyphr peered at Jadeite curiously. She was such a small thing. "Can we see her do a move??" He asked, glancing at Lelaus, and then at Kallisto for permission. He wanted to see just was such a one-of-a-kind familiar could do that was so tiny on its own.
He wondered, for a moment, if when Peridot sang she sang in the language of abberations or just in tones. He shrugged it off, though, at Cypher's request, and nodded. "I haven't seen either of my two perform any moves of their own, so I'll second the request."
Kallisto nodded, "I wouldn't mind either. I haven't had any reason for her to perform any moves so that'd be neat." Smiling at Lelaus, she gestured at Jadeite, "Do I need to ask her or....? And what can she do? If they all have an offense and defensive ability, what are hers?"
Lelaus twitched his whiskers and licked his lips. "Well let's see here... Jadeite's offensive is Eclipse Beam, her defensive is Earth Shield... and the specialty is Longevity, as I said." He paused a moment and saw a look on incomprehension on Cyphr's face. "They're Spells." He explained with a grin. "Spells Empyreans can't do, and that are very useful. In order for her to perform one, you can either ask her specifically, 'Earth shield' or whatever, or you can in a time of battle have her act on her own, which she can do quite proficiently."
Cyphr stared at Jadeite without blinking and mildly cross-eyed in his concentration and said, "Eclipse Beeeeeaaaam!" in a loud and excitable voice. Lelaus just laughed at him and shook his head. He told Cyphr that only the owner could command an abberation. Cyphr looked disappointed.
Yambati blinked, smiling only wryly at Cypher's 'command'. He took a few notes reminding him to find out Amber's and Peridot's special abilities. So they could function on their own...
Kallisto quirked a brow at Cyphr and chuckled, amused but also a little annoyed. Jadeite was her familiar not his and it was rude to try to command another's pet. "Eclipse Beam, then? Alright. " Glancing around she frowned as she didn't see anything that could be destroyed so she settled on balling up a piece of parchment she tore from her note book and tossing it on the floor between them all. "Jadeite," she spoke confidently as she addressed her abberation who perked and turned to regard Kallisto with an expectant look, "Perform Eclipse Beam on that paper," She pointed and then waited, not sure what to expect and hope she'd done the right thing.
Lelaus watched with an expectant grin as the Abberation rose up above the paper and began to glow in a sense, the light came from within her transluscent form as if she held a light bulb inside her, and then a beam of smoke-like not clear and not dark light shot from her chest and strunk the ball of paper squarely. The paper caved under the weight of the seemingly insubstantial lightbeam and shuddered, caving in upon itself until it disappeared altogether. Lelaus slapped his knee and cackled. "Ha-ha!! Lelaus just LOVES that one!!"
"WOAH!" Squealed Cyphr, on his hands and knees in an instant, sniffing around where the paper had been just a moment before. "It...it's just plain GONE!" Wow, that little lump of rock, pretty as it was was damn powerful.
Yambati quirked an eyebrow, impressed. He would certainly have to see what Peridot and Amber could do, then, he decided. He glanced over at Kallisto with a smile, then back at Lelaus. "Is there anything else we should know about abberations, Professor?"
Kallisto blinked, thoroughly impressed and beckoned for Jadeite to rejoin her, "That's was really cool! Thank-you!" Smiling broadly, she stroked the little abberation's head and beamed with pride. She hadn't known Jadeite was capable of such a neat trick. "Or golems?" Kallisto had recently started seriously considering commissioning a golem but she didn't know too much about them and wanted to know if they would indeed be useful for her.
"There is, actually." Lelaus said to Yambati, grinning. "While you don't need to feed Abberations food or anything, they have a short stamina. So, Jadeite would only be able to do that little trick another 4 times before she'd be worn out of that type of manna in her make up and be unable to cast it again until she's been given a chance to sleep. So, while the Abberations are potent, they don't last very long without a break." Lelaus flicked his tail and rolled onto his stomach, propping his chin up on his upraised hands. "Golems? Golems are great familiars, since they're basically tailored to your needs. It's called your Golem's Protocol, the purpose it was constructed: Duelling Protocol, Labour Protocol or Defense Protocol."
"Radical's a Defense Protocol. Danna doesn't plan on instigating fightings." Cyphr piped up knowingly, sagely nodding his little head. Danna's yammered endlessly in his ear as she'd been building hers, and he wondered in Lelaus might fill in the holes that Radical wasn't applicable to.
"Golems are what we were trying to design for Art Class, right?" Yambati asked, remembering the... distinct shame he'd felt at his own attempts. Designing a hybrid had been much easier.
Kallisto nodded, "Yeah... They're really interesting but I just haven't had much of an idea to build on..." It was a bit of an admission but she only smiled, "What kind of care do they need?"
"Well, again, Golems don't need to eat or drink, only Hybrids need those sorts of care out of the Constructed familiars. But, like abberations they do need rest, how much varies from Golem to Golem. And each Golem seems to have a specific like for something. One of Elias' loves to play with lace, for instance. When you find out what that thing is, and let your Golem indulge it, they tend to be better balanced and more obedient."
"Radical likes birds!" Cyphr squawked excitedly and rolled over onto his back half by accident and flailed for a moment before righting himself on his stomach.
Yambati nodded, scribbling down notes. He'd never actually seen a Golem... or at least he didn't think that he had. "Just how large are they? I'm guessing larger than an Abberation, but..." He really had no clue on the subject, and his lips quirked sheepishly.
Kallisto didn't know either, and nodded, "But if they're custom made, doesn't that make them variable?" It just seemed like that would be the way things would work.
Lelaus grinned and nodded. "Golems can vary a great deal, some are even designed to have maleable shapes. The smallest Golem I've ever seen was 5 feet tall, and the largest....40 feet. It depends on what you're wanting to achieve with your Golem."
"If you choose your Golem's skills and stuff, can't you just make it have the best of everything and totally unbeatable?" Cyphr asked, wondering why there were super Golems running around protecting the city so the Empyreans had more free time.
"There's probably some limit... like how Abberations can only have three abilities. Hybrids can only have... five maximum parts, I think? Something like that," Yambati mused, pondering.
"Do the shards have some sort of affinitity already? Would that influence their and specs?" Cyphr had a valid point - if you could design these things why weren't they more... invincible? Kallisto wrote down the questions and the range Lelaus had noted, leaving room for any related answers.
"There is a limit, but it's a great deal more strategic than other familiar's limits. With a Golem, their Shard possesses a certain amount of pep. When you draw skills out of that primal juice, you have to balance out potency with frequency. The more potent you make a skill, the less times in an outing the Golem can use it. So, you can have a very specialized, potent attack, or you can have several weaker attacks that are perhaps more versatile. There's a lot of planning that goes into it."
"And what about it's stats, huh?" Cyphr asked impatiently, but not brattily. "If you make it super taaaaaall, does that mean you can't make it as fastfast?"
"Well, if it's super tall, it might not have to move fast... when walking, anyway. Longer legs means it can cover more distance in a shorter time," Yambati suggested, still writing.
"What goes in to crafting a Golem, anyway? I know you have to select a shard and plan it out... but what then?"
"And if it's tall, that would make it more visible over distance. So it could move further but also been seen more easily...." Kallisto mused, pausing to regard Cyphr with a thoughtful expression.
"I don't know it too in depth. The Golem Technicians hoard their art pretty closely. They have incubators, I know...and they fill these crucibles with all your ingredients and plans and shard and stuff, and then...." Lelaus wiggled his hands and tail from his prone position on the floor. "They work they hoodoo and BAM! you got yer golem." He shurgged simply. "Try asking Raelyn or Euphrasia, they're both certified Techs."
"Huh." Cyphr said with a shrug of his shoulders as well. As long as you didn't need to know how the process worked to get your Golem to work. Danna was studying away to being a Technician too, so she wasn't a good example of not-knowing.
Yambati nodded, filing away the information for... well, probably not later use. Still, he wrote it down all the same. You never knew. "Is there anything else we should know?"
Kallisto wrote down their names and frowned, tapping her lips in thought. They seemed fairly easy to take care of... these constructed familiars. It made her want to look it a little more then she already had. Glancing up as Yambati asked his question, she met Lelaus' gaze with a nod.
"Oh, well, there's always more you should know... but if you wanna take a credit for that. Go for it. I'll be around if you wanna chat the topic up more." Lelaus rolled over again and grinned up at them from his upsidedown position on the floor.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:48 am
49.1 :: Focus and Willpower, the Fourth {Rhetoric Quest Post 4}
{Required Roll: 35}
Transcendence was near at hand. Yambati fretted, felt unprepared, so far from ready it was frightening. He had so much business he felt that he should finish before he moved on from being the Zero he had been for so long.
His practicing the Bear Grip was one of them. He supposed that it didn't much matter if he mastered it before he transcended, but it was outstanding business. He had to complete it, just as he had to at least decide on what to get Kallisto for a belated Yule present.
He knelt, therefor, after making sure Hien was sound asleep and Peridot had quieted for the time being. He closed his eyes, and focused.
{Roll: 46. Valid. Successful rolls remaining: 2}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:49 am
49.2 :: Focus and Willpower, the Fifth {Rhetoric Quest Post 5}
{Required Roll: 35}
A success! Finally! He tried to fight down his elation, but he couldn't help a delighted laugh. He leaned back, murmured a quick thanks to those above, and then shook his head. He had to focus. Being able to perform the mudra once wasn't enough - he had to do it repetitively. Time to try again.
{Roll: 26. Invalid. Required roll reduces to 30. Successful rolls remaining: 2}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:50 am
49.3 :: Focus and Willpower, the Sixth {Rhetoric Quest Post 6}
{Required Roll: 30}
Failure again. He sighed, rocking back on his heels. He wouldn't let himself become frustrated, though. He would instead relax, then try again. He stood up, stretched a bit, and walked about his room, letting his mind drift.
After straightening up, he settled back down. He'd thoroughly distracted himself, banished the frustration. He began to try again.
{Roll: 46. Valid. Successful rolls remaining: 1}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:51 am
49.4 :: Focus and Willpower, the Seventh {Rhetoric Quest Post 7}
{Required Roll: 30}
Failure again. He sighed, rocking back on his heels. He wouldn't let himself become frustrated, though. He would instead relax, then try again. He stood up, stretched a bit, and walked about his room, letting his mind drift.
After straightening up, he settled back down. He'd thoroughly distracted himself, banished the frustration. He began to try again.
{Roll: 8. Invalid. Required roll reduces to 25. Successful rolls remaining: 1}
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:52 am
49.5:: Focus and Willpower, the Eighth {Rhetoric Quest Post 8}
{Required Roll: 25}
He wouldn't let the failure get him down, not this time. He closed his eyes, focusing, trying not to push himself too hard. It hadn't been natural the last time. This time, he would let it flow, let it come through him. He wouldn't force it.
{Roll: 96. Valid. Quest finished!}
And this time, it worked. It worked so well and so easily that Yambati smiled, relaxing. He would still have to practice it in the future, yes, but he felt confident that he could call on it if the need truly arose.
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:52 am
SkieBorne Rhetoric Quest Completion After much effort and practice the art of Rhetoric has slowly begun to unfold for you. Don't stop practicing but for now you've seemed to develop and affinity for the Bear Grip Mudra such that whenever you use it, there is an increased effect. The bonuses from this augment therefore increased from their standard value by 3 three, making the bonus you receive from a successful Bear Grip mudra -8% when used to defend.
Congratulations on a successful Quest!
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:53 am
50 :: New Feelings
-Transcendence Reactions-
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Posted: Fri Jun 19, 2009 7:54 am
51 :: Abandonment
-Religious Nutjob-
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