pawnstorm | Training: The Gammon edition

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Training: The Gammon edition

Who: Caren and you!
When: Gladia 10th (aka August 10th)
Where: Kickdton, Gammon
What: Caren organized a mass training session. This can only go well.
Rating: PG-13 for possible language and certainly violence. Train on!

It's not a difficult place to find, considering the directions: all heroes had to do was find Kickin' Kiwi park, and head straight for the river. There would be all sorts of helpful signs which hero worshippers may have helped set up. Watch out for the kiwi birds though, they're everywhere! In the distance, there's the Royal Foccer Fellowship Stadium. So in case one wishes to go watch some foccer practice instead, that's always an option.

But that's not what you heroes are here for, is it? You're here in the middle of a truly beautiful park for some training! There's a notice (and possibly a fan or two hovering around) stuck to a clean pile of rocks, saying for trainnees must tie a ribbon (which are in buckets, and also somehow stuck to the rocks?) to their arm, corresponding to the training they wish to take. The categories are as follow:

Healing (BLUE) Weapons (RED) Magic (PURPLE) Endurance (GREEN) Sparring (ORANGE)

Trainers are instructed to take the armbands (also found in the buckets!) of the corresponding colours of their course so not to confuse the students. However, if it turns out you are a terrible trainer, Caren will happily take away your armband and give you your own special lesson. (What that lesson is, no one wants to find out).

Don't forget to bring your heroic weapons, because training weapons are not provided. Though maybe you'll get lucky, and someone will want to teach hand to hand combat!

It's also highlighted in BOLD RED LETTERS THAT KILLING IS FORBIDDEN. Try to break this rule, and Caren will break you. Slowly.

Have your ribbon on? It's time to start that training montage!

((OOC: EVERYONE IS WELCOME! Make friends, learn a few things, and have fun!

Also please incidate in your top level if you are a trainee or a trainer!

eg The Doctor | Trainer -Magic
Donna Noble | Trainee - EVERYTHING PLEASE
Jack Harkness | Trainer - Endurance + trainee -magic))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Not at all. I can read it another time.

[She snaps the book shut, and puts it away. The arm bands slide a little on her arms. Ah, well.]

I did say that. But is there a particular spell that you wanted to achieve? Or try? We could make that a goal for today.

Uh... [She thinks it over for a moment, trying to remember spells she's seen. One in particular sticks out.]

I want to call lightning out of the palm of my hand.

Lightning?

[It's not fire, but it's close. Nah, she can understand it.]

It's certainly possible. Don't expect a large show though; we're working with a limited amount of magic.

Hold out your hands.

Alright. [She holds both hands out in front of her, jaw set in determination.]

[It's that look that one gets when they are totally focused on doing the thing, but have no idea what the thing even is in the first place.]

[Well, at least she's determined....]

All right. What you need to remember is that magic is like any force in the world. The difference is that this is built upon your intention and determination. If you don't mean it, or if you don't know what you're doing, the spell will not work.

Focus is key. This is why magic can be very difficult to master, and it's best to keep to a few spells until you're comfortable in its use.

Intention, focus, and recitation. You need these three so your spell will work.

Intention, focus and recitation.

[Intention... she intends to shoot fuckin' lightning from her hands.]

[Focus... she is focused on shooting fuckin' lightning from her hands.]

[Recitation... Okay, she doesn't know what that one means per se, but she has an idea.]

I'm gonna' shoot lightning. Lightning is gonna' shoot right out of my hands. And it's going to be totally badass. Because I'm godsdamn awesome.

[Well...this isn't quite what she meant...

She makes a small sound, before she makes a hand motion, signalling for her to stop.]

You're getting ahead of yourself Meloria. I hadn't gotten to that part yet. We're still working on getting the mana to gather where you will it.

...Ah.

[Well, now she's gone and made herself look uncool--a fate worse than death.]

Um. How do you do that? Do you just like. Push?

A kind of push, but within yourself.

[And she lightly places her hands over Mel's own.]

Can you feel the mana between us right now?

[She shuts her eyes, focusing on Caren's hands.]

[...There's something. It makes her feel a bit better, helping clear away the uneasy ill feeling that's continuously circled in her gut since a little after she'd arrived.]

[It's like... there's a flow of something between them.]

I... think... so..? It's hard to explain.

[She might feel the trickle that reminded her of fog. But it wasn't much, especially since they were only so close.]

It's a light mana exchange. We're gathering and purifying mana via skin contact. The more contact, the more mana is drawn in around us.

But I want you to to focus. Focus on gathering that strange feeling within your body, and letting it pool within your palms.

It might feel like fire, mist, water...or something else. But try to bring it to your palms, and your fingers in particular.

Oh, right... I heard of that. Alright.

[She shuts her eyes and focuses on the feeling in her hands. It's like... mist. A strange, prickly mist that's feeling like her hand's fallen asleep. It feels enveloping, alien, but somehow comfortably warm the more she focuses on it.]

[Then--from there, something else. Deeper. Slithering underneath the comforting warmth. Is that mana too? She thinks about spreading the feeling from the rest of her into her fingertips--a more delicate form of channeling than just going 'WORK YA DAMN GUN' like she's used to.]

[She can feel it slithering along her body, crawling underneath her skin towards her hands, her palms, her fingertips--tiny serpents crawling within her digits.]

[It feels freaky as hell, but she's pretty sure that means she's doing it right.]

...It... tingles. In a good way. I can feel it.

[Considering that Caren's mana is like fog or mist, it might not be surprising. But...well, she's waiting for the sensation of built up, breathing in slowly as she waits. She doesn't expect too much but...well.

Who knows, maybe she'll be surprised.]

Good. I want you to focus on that feeling. And I want you to concentrate on your intention. You want there to be a ball of lightning in your hand, correct? A little one.

Picture it in your mind. This is your wish.

On that feeling... Okay...

[She pictures the lightning, pulling her hands apart a little to look into them for a tiny ball. There's no lightning, and as she focuses on it she can feel the mana pulling back. So she has to do both at once... She focuses on the lightning, and also on getting that same 'slithering' feeling back into her fingers.]

[It feels weird... but she's gotta do it, and so long as she remains focused Meliora's sure she can--wait does she smell ozone?]

[AH, SHIT. Don't think about if it's working just focus on it! She finds manipulating the mana difficult, since it's so... slippery. Indistinct.]

I'm wishing, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing..! [So she falls back to her favorite thing: complaining.]

[Hence why some don't work with actual spells at all...it's hard to get over that first hurtle. Also why Caren is keeping her hands so close. She'll ground it if the spell goes out of control.]

Currently, you're whining.

[Even teaching can't stop the sass.]

But you want to get that balance of mana and focus until you're ready to release. And that's when you use a word as a trigger, to push it into the world. You may want to use a phrase; it's really quite up to you.

When you're ready.

A word, or a phrase...

[come on. Slither on in, you stupid mana. Get there... and become...]

[Lightning. ZAP. ZAP INTO A BALL SLITHER OUT THERE AND ZAP INTO A GODDAMN BALL.]

[She's glaring at her hands at this point and she grits her teeth as she wills her mana to just go a little more. Be godsdamn lightning.]

...

[Why the hell not she already looks stupid.]

Be.

Godsdamn.

Lightning.

[There's a spark. An arc between two fingers--then two more. It's not a ball, but there's the start of something.]

[She grins, just a little, but she doesn't stop focusing.]

[...she's heard better. But then...she can't expect the world here. At least she didn't go 'THIS IS MY BOOM STICK' or something like that.There were some sparks but...she wasn't there. Not yet.

Caren took in a deep breath.]

Again.

[Go ahead, yell it out. Let the world hear it.]

Be godsdamn lightning!!

[More sparks, more arcing as she wills the mana out through her fingers.]

[It's close. She can feel it, but there's a part of her that's holding her back. She's never been able to do it. Even seeing it like this--it doesn't feel real. The slithering feeling of her mana's direction is distracting, and that she can feel it at all is vaguely terrifying. If she actually casts a spell... if she can do it now, doesn't that change everything she thought she knew? Her pride as a magic null--as someone who could survive without that bullshit magical abilities the gods had blessed literally the rest of existence with--has always been who she is. It's infuriated her... but it's an excuse. Her way of justifying why she's lost when she inevitably decides to turn tail and run.]

[If she can start using the same powers as everyone else... If she loses now... If she can't keep up, she really is better off dead, isn't she?]

[Not that Caren can hear any of this internal conflict going on right now, as she focuses and repeats the phrase and the arcs grow in number but never quite get to what they're meant to be.]

[It's tiring. It's tiring and her head is starting to hurt from focusing so hard in a way she's not used to. Should she be able to do this? Is this right? It's easier if she's just a null. 'Just' something handicapped compared to everyone else. That makes her successes more awesome, and her losses more excusable.]

[But... She can't do that. If she doesn't claw her way up and use every advantage that she can get, she's going to die. She has to play smart. She has to use every dirty trick she can come up with.]

[In the back of her mind, she remembers something. The first time she saw a friend of hers fire off lightning at an enemy. About how she was impressed, but she brushed it off by saying she could make a more intimidating incantation.]

[She takes a deep breath. Time to take her own advice.]

Taste lightning, asshole!

[This time, the arcs work right, forming an orb of electricity in the middle of her hands that wriggles around like it's ready to burst at any moment in any direction. She can feel her mana around it, twisting within it.]

[This is her. She's done this. She can do magic. Actual magic.]

[If she weren't so focused on not letting this orb explode, she'd be smiling right now. Really.]

[She has no idea what's going through her head; what pride is needed to be set aside for magic to work in the first place. But she watches her struggle, and sees that she's trying. So she stays silent. Not encouraging, but not picking on her either as the sparks start up.

It's not the right focus. She can tell that much. It's that, or she's got a slipping focus, with her intention all over the place. But...then...

There it is.]

Well done.

[It seems like small praise, but since Caren doesn't praise (unless sarcastically) it does mean something. And since she's got it in her hands...]

Throw the lightning onto the ground, away from us. And not in the river.

[Because who wants to kill all the fish? That's wasteful.]

[She nods, very carefully moving her hands out together as she focuses on not losing the spell.]

[Cautiously, with all of her focus on it, she flicks her wrists and sends the orb shooting into the ground, where it spins for a second before winking out of existence entirely.]

[There's a second's pause, as she cautiously lets herself stop focusing on the lightning.]

[Once she realizes it's safe and she can stop, she turns back to Caren with the biggest, most genuine smile she's worn.]

Did you see that?! I used magic! Like, the real thing! And it worked! I can do magic! I.

Can do.

Magic! That felt great--like, like..!

[WAIT HOLD UP. This is like, the opposite of cool and calm and collected.]

[She swallows back down her feelings, looking away and running a hand through her hair in a vain attempt to make her excitement seem less obvious.]

Er.

It was okay, anyways. Not like it's a big deal, right?

[....yeah she's totally blown her cover at being cool and uncaring about all of this. Yup.]

I'd say for you, this is a big deal. You, who could not do magic, can now do magic. Like everyone else of the Hero Task Force of Blanc.

Yeah. So that just means that I have to go at it even harder than any of 'em if I want to keep up.

I'm just at the same starting line as everyone else.

[She's still trying so incredibly hard not to smile and to remind herself that there's several downsides--not the least of which is that she's got no experience and needs to practice a whole ton just to get to where she could do the one spell properly.]

[It's only barely working.]

Still... it's... a little cool. I guess.

If that's what you believe, then that's how it will be.

[She's not the only magic-less wonder around here; she's just used to thinking herself differently without it. But, well, she'll still have her work cut out for her.]

You can jump around and shout if you want. Just not beside me. I might make you louder by accident.

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