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Face your demons rolled 5 6-sided dice:
3, 3, 3, 3, 3
Total: 15 (5-30)
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 Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:46 pm
Although she watched the demonstration, her nose was apparently not working very well. When it came time to guess which scents were which, she held each up and tried to mimic the example. Except every single scent smelled Exactly the same to her. Amarus sighed internally, and arranged the blocks silently.
She tried to keep her face straight, empty, even as she felt intense doubt. There was no way every scent was the same, but she legitimately could not tell the different one from another. This would not end well. It was definitely not going to end well.
Finally, because every single scent smelled the same, she formed Chapter 53: Tenarai. Writing Practice.
Well, time to see how she had done. She had been kneeling briefly, while changing the blocks around, and she stood to see how her guesses went.
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Face your demons rolled 5 6-sided dice:
6, 1, 5, 2, 4
Total: 18 (5-30)
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Posted: Mon Apr 02, 2012 8:46 pm
As the horseman explained, Amarus realized how terribly wrong she had been. The actual pattern itself resembled Chapter 9: Aoi (Heartvine). Essentially, the first two incense sticks had the same scent, so at least she had been right there... but mostly it was an accident she was right anywhere, as there was no other pattern, and she had basically just assumed they all smelled like those first two incense sticks. Perhaps that was what had thrown her off: having 2 sticks of the same scent side by side right at the beginning, and everything afterwards had just smelled like the incense.
Amarus sighed. Well, she'd gotten one point, at least. "I should never play this again, should I," she stated, as if asking a question. She neglected to use the inflection, however.
"On second thought... I suppose I should just try twice as hard, next time. Thank you for playing this game with me," she addressed the Horseman and those who had demonstrated.
At least if she couldn't be a winner, she could be polite.
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:41 pm
Amarus had a pretty costume. Also she felt uncomfortable in it.
Apparently she felt so uncomfortable in it that she just stood there. Awkwardly, waving her sleeves around. Amarus was not happy in the magical girl costume that one time in the open class, and she was equally unhappy now, in whatever this was supposed to be.
Unhappy Amarus was very cranky.
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Face your demons rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:42 pm
Instead of getting something useful in the box, she sort of groped it half-assedly, and when she could not find anything, gave up.
Whatever, she'd wave her sleeves around or something.
Really, this was not Amarus' thing. This was even worse than sniffing incense endlessly = A=
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Face your demons rolled 1 20-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-20)
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Posted: Tue Apr 03, 2012 8:43 pm
DANCE f e Aef
Except Amarus did not dance. More accurately, she waved her sleeves around, fell over them, and lay there. She was not getting up. No, she would die here, vanquished by yet another Conquest training exercise.
Why the hell had she ended up here? This was clearly not Amarus' strength. It was actually beginning to really bother her; Amarus was not used to being so subpar at things. And lately, that was all she had been; she'd basically fallen flat on her face trying to dance e xe
Poor Amarus. She just lay there, until she felt sufficiently embarrassed and retreated to the dorms to change.
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Face your demons rolled 1 4-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-4)
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:04 pm
Amarus accepted the list of instructions from Rucha. She didn't read ahead, but rather approached it step by step. Her eyes scanned the first directive. Bow to the Adhara. That would be easy. Amarus, given her experience with whatever culture she must have hailed from once, did have a natural affinity for bowing. In fact, it made a lot more sense to her than shaking hands, or whatever other weird greetings people might have.
She approached the birds and chose one, near the middle, which had not been picked yet. She maintained eye contact with the bird, and bowed at a proper angle, pausing for long enough. The bird seemed fine, ultimately. It cocked its head at her and dropped a feather, which she collected.
What was next?
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Face your demons rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:09 pm
She didn't have a cup to gather water, but perhaps they had some anyway-- ah, ultimately, Amarus decided on a salted cracker, even if she herself wasn't particularly fond of crackers. It was strange, because Amarus actually really cared for birds. Her ghost treat back home, for example, she had named Crow because of the strange avian-like way in which he moved. She even liked Muka extra because of the way he moved and acted. Birds had a special place in her heart. Or whatever ghosts had instead of hearts.
She offered the cracker on her palm, but the adhara didn't seem to want it. Hmmm. Perhaps if she just... edged closer? As she was moving, another bird approached and snatched it out of her hand, dropping a feather as it left. Well, at least something liked her offering.
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Face your demons rolled 1 6-sided dice:
1
Total: 1 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:15 pm
Amarus asked the bird about its origins, which was apparently a very bad idea; the bird basically began a long, long narration. Amarus nodded off, after having slept very little lately, feathers clutched in hand. Basically, very early on in the story, the bird noticed her sleeping and waddled off.
Oops. There went her Lotus Eater calm making her pass out at an inconvenient time, again. Still, at least she'd gained something's approval twice before failing miserably. That was a first.
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Face your demons rolled 5 6-sided dice:
4, 2, 3, 5, 5
Total: 19 (5-30)
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:21 pm
Once she'd woken up from her nap during etiquette training, Amarus stopped by the Kumiko training, again. She'd done badly last time, but maybe now that she'd gotten the Lotus out of her system, she could play for fun.
Arranging the blocks, she had Chapter 3: Utsusemi (Shell of Locust).
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Face your demons rolled 5 6-sided dice:
2, 1, 3, 2, 5
Total: 13 (5-30)
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:22 pm
And this time, the horseman's pattern was: Chapter 21; Otome (The Maiden). She'd been right about a couple scents, but hadn't matched them properly. Too bad. Good thing she was just playing for fun.
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Face your demons rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 12:53 pm
Back to the adaras. Her natural love for birds showed through again; this time, she hadn't properly acknowledged the bird via eye contact. However, she had managed to charm the chosen bird and lure him close anyway. She got a feather for her efforts. "I'll look you in the eye next time, I promise," she offered the adara, smiling faintly.
This place was so nice, in a way... Amarus felt heaviness settling into her. She had wanted to feel something for a very long time, and had assumed she was incapable of it for some reason or natural defect, but... here on this isle, the lotuses made her feel like she was home, and because of that she was just altogether more expressive. She'd even made a friend or two.
"I'm gonna miss you all," she told the Adara. Yeah, she wouldn't really miss the clan members, but she did like their birds.
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Face your demons rolled 1 6-sided dice:
6
Total: 6 (1-6)
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 1:36 pm
Distracted by her unfortunate sentimentality, Amarus dropped the crackers and water. An adara walking by trampled them.
This was a stupid way to fail. Oh well, she'd done worse... like when she had tried to dance. That had been awful. Amarus was clearly not much of a dancer.
She said her goodbyes to the birds, promising to be back soon.
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Face your demons rolled 1 4-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-4)
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:22 am
Choosing one of the adaras off to the side, Amarus approached it tentatively, and then more confidently; she remained slow, however. She bowed to the adara, a respectable bow, but again her eyes slid to the ground automatically. A little too late, she realized that she hadn't been paying proper attention to eye contact again. "Sorry, birdie," she apologized.
Again, her love of the birds and her charisma was what pulled her through, the bird forgiving her this lapse and dropping a feather again, which she collected.
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Face your demons rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:24 am
Looks like this adara knew what it wanted, and how to get it; after she'd given it the water, it went on to another student offering it a cracker. Amarus stared not at the bird, but at the student: the look she gave them could have frozen a fire newt, it was fairly possible. Looks like all she had actually learned from her incense and charms class so far was how to stare in a chilly and scorning manner.
The adara, however, she would not address with scorn. It was just a bird, after all; it wandered away, and it came back. That made sense. She held out her hand to it as it returned, offering it a little more water to wash the crackers down. No feather, but at least she could continue.
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Face your demons rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2012 11:39 am
This bird was by far the most mentally unstable bird she'd talked to so far. Not only did it get upset when she asked it how it was, but it then proceeded to shiver and wander off, dropping a single feather. Well, she had two feathers again, but she was perplexed. If this was supposed to teach her etiquette... were lower life forms so irrational and unstable?
Because honestly, this adara had wandered off to get food from another student, and now it was frightened off by being asked how it was doing. Maybe it was touchy about its mental health.
Slightly down about the weird bird she'd met, Amarus headed out for the day.
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