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Post by Rapunzel on Feb 1, 2011 23:38:36 GMT -5
Rapunzel was a bit worried when she was told that she was going to need a shield. Was she getting herself into something bad here? But then she just thought that if she was going to have to use a shield at some point, she might as well know how, and it might as well be a magical one. It seemed like a good enough conclusion to her. Oh, Eugene and her parents would be sooo mad if they knew what she was doing, but once she knew how to take care of herself, they would be so proud of her for being so independent and safe!
But not all of her childlike qualities could be lost in this magic class; after all, she fell into a state of awe immediately as she watched the magician's experienced apprentice, Anna, begin to, well, work her magic! She stared, mouth agape, at the hair, and the mimicry... It was all so exciting and wonderful! When the demonstration was over, she clapped smilingly, glad that she'd decided to give Anna the benefit of the doubt after all.
"Fun!" she answered eagerly, face bright with sincere excitement. "Oh, how did you do that with your hair? How did you know that's just what I wanted! Show us more!" she begged. Only a moment later did she, slightly sheepish, turn to the man who was supposed to be teaching them magic - albeit magic that was a little less fun. "If that's okay with you, of course, Mister Horvath."
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Post by Bertie Moreland on Feb 2, 2011 0:10:42 GMT -5
Bertie was about to further question Horvath on this idea that they would not be ready to practice any offensive magic, when she was interrupted by Anna. Narrowing her eyes to better take in what the other girl was doing, Bertie gave a start when the colored butterflies began fluttering around the room.
Honestly? Did she look like the sort of girl who was captivated by floating light--
Suddenly her train of thought was interrupted as her chair levitated into the air. Now this sort of magic she would not mind learning at all. Gaping in a most undignified manner at this show of power, she watched in awe as Anna transformed her own appearance.
Then her hat was off of her head. Her fingers tried to snatch it back, but all she grabbed was empty air as she glowered at the other girl. And then Anna was suddenly replaced by a mirror image of Roberta herself. Slack-jawed in wonder that was soon replaced by indignation, Bertie stood up to pick up her hat as it fell to the ground, doing her best to not drop it again when a cat emerged from beneath it. Gripping the hat tightly in her hand, Bertie hastily returned to her seat.
The levitation and illusions were certainly something she was interested in learning, but all those colored lights? That was simply silly. Nothing she wanted to learn, certainly. If anything, Bertie was determined to ignore learning how to make pretty lights dance around the ceiling.
But there was something that certainly drew her towards the combat magic. She wanted to learn something useful, after all, and what was more useful than being able to keep oneself safe? If she had to study it on her own, then she would without telling anyone else.
"I see..." she said a little sourly, especially when Anna demanded to know if they would rather have fun or learn something they wouldn't use. Of course they would use combat magic! Everyone used some form of combat at some point or another. "I, at least, am certainly interested in that bit of levitation."
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Post by Maxim Horvath on Feb 2, 2011 0:33:23 GMT -5
Horvath smiled, all the expression he would allow himself. Inside, however, he was beaming. His Anna was absolutely brilliant. If he were in the habit of hugging his student, he might have done so now, he was that pleased with her display. Not only was it a brilliant bit of magic- she had to have been practicing that transformation spell on her own- but it was perfectly timed.
"Anna here has been studying magic for most of a year now," he told the other girls. "And she has demonstrated several of the skills you will be learning. Miss Moreland, the levitation spells are quite easy and we will begin on them within the first few lessons." He checked his pocket watch, an old-fashioned engraved silver affair that he'd picked up around 1890. "We have a few minutes left before it's time for us to get started. Anna, if you'd like to show them anything else?"
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Post by Anna Stutler on Feb 2, 2011 0:52:10 GMT -5
Anna looked over at her master, just barely managing to avoid looking shocked. Seriously? She'd just done about seven spells in thirty seconds, and at least two of them had been difficult. She had plenty of power, but she was feeling a bit winded, magically speaking. Full body transformations were hard. She was definitely sticking to light lifting the rest of the day.
"Nothing comes to mind, boss," she said. Fingering her Incantus next to her, she thought it over. Her display had been intended for distraction, and it seemed to have done the job. "Unless maybe you want me to start walking them through setting up a work space?"
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Post by Maxim Horvath on Feb 2, 2011 0:54:52 GMT -5
He caught the look she threw at him and nodded slightly. Not that he'd expected her to try and show them anything difficult, but it wasn't precisely taxing to make some colored lights.
"That will do," he told Anna. He glanced at the other students. "I'll be back in a moment with the tools you will be working with today."
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Post by Anna Stutler on Feb 2, 2011 1:16:00 GMT -5
"Cool," Anna said. She slid off of the desk, sliding the girls' chairs back a little as she walked forward with her Incantus. "Okay, spread out a little, and give yourselves some room. This is the most basic of the basic, and you'll have to do it every time you practice."
She took a deep, cleansing breath, to clear her own mind. "Step one is to clear your mind. I know you're all jazzed to get started, but this can't be rushed. Why don't we just do a few breathing exercises and get ourselves focused while Horvath gets your supplies."
She stood straight, feet shoulder-width apart, in the stance that her martial arts instructor used for basic centering. Anna brought her hands up as she inhaled, pushing them back down with the exhale. "Just picture the energy moving through you. Empty your thoughts and your minds." It would be difficult for them, as they seemed to have a lot of questions. But the upside to having to clear one's mind to be successful at magic, meant not focusing on such questions.
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Post by Rapunzel on Feb 2, 2011 21:27:26 GMT -5
Rapunzel's eyes darted back and forth between Anna and Horvath as she listened to the spirited dialogue they traded. She wondered if someday she would be as good at magic as Anna was - but, being a princess, she wasn't sure if she could devote a whole year to its study. After all, a year ago, she never would have thought she'd be where she was now; a lot could change in such a time.
But for the time being, of course she was going to devote herself to magic wholeheartedly. It was horribly vain of her to want her hair back so badly, but it was more than just hair; it was a symbol of who she was. Besides, she didn't feel very pretty without it.
She watched Horvath leave and tried to focus on what Anna was saying. Clear her mind? This didn't sound like the 'fun' that Anna had promised then. But she sighed inwardly and tried to do as Anna had said. It was really hard not to think about anything. When her eyes closed, she found herself thinking of her parents... of Eugene... And suddenly a most unwelcome image flashed into her mind: Mother Gothel.
Eyes opening, she uttered a startled gasp, looking about at her surroundings. She was here with her new friends, not in the tower... She was safe... But the first inklings of doubt were still in her mind about magic. She'd tried to quelch them - after all, magic had both ruined her life (Gothel), created it (the flower which had saved her mother's life before she was born), and made it better (bringing Eugene back to life with her tears). Since she still had that magic in her intrinsically, she didn't need to learn anymore, but magic could be good or bad, she realized: you just had to use it the right way.
But those philosophical things were still hard to grasp for a scared eighteen year old. She looked at Anna, biting her lip, afraid to speak up as if talking about her fears might make them real (and not wanting to annoy Anna). "Umm, Anna? When you tr-try to clear your mind, do you ever have trouble? I mean, when you close your eyes... do you ever see things you don't want to?"
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Post by Anna Stutler on Feb 2, 2011 22:50:19 GMT -5
Anna opened her eyes and looked at the most timid of the students. Fantastic. Her boss had chosen someone with psychological trauma. Not that Anna was unfamiliar with trauma herself, but still. She wasn't the best at dealing with it.
"It can be hard, if you have a lot on your mind. Try to focus on what you're going to be doing. On the magic. Try to relax. It's like meditation. If you have trouble with it, then doing some meditating in your down time will help. Just...let go of what's bothering you. Or if that's too hard...picture a box, or a closet or something, in your mind. You're shoving all the bad or distracting things that keep popping up in your head into that closet, at least for now. When you're done, your mind is like a big empty room. You can do whatever you want."
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Post by Rapunzel on Feb 2, 2011 23:10:27 GMT -5
At the mention of a box, Rapunzel swallowed hard. Ever since the tower, she’d had a fear of small spaces. But then Anna mentioned a closet, and she began to giggle a little, remembering trying to stuff Eugene into the wardrobe. Stifling her laughter, she nodded solemnly. “Okay. Thanks. I’ll try.” She wasn’t having any better time of it when it came to emptying her mind, but at least now she wasn’t thinking of anything scary, as a picture of Eugene came into her mind.
Was Eugene something bad or traumatic? Hardly, even though she’d thought so at the time. Still, it was gratifying to think of stuffing Mother Gothel into a closet… giving her a taste of her own medicine… Even though the woman had acted like her mother for eighteen years, and Rapunzel had loved her at the time, she realized now how unfair she had ben. Of course she still thought of her, and sometimes she even missed her old life, but that certainly didn’t mean she wanted Gothel to be a part of her new one. And so into the metaphorical closet she went.
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Post by Ariel on Feb 3, 2011 18:21:54 GMT -5
Ariel couldn’t help but roll her eyes as Maxim offered up his explanation for why they wouldn’t need to study offensive magic. In her experiences the problem hadn’t been with her planning to engage any experienced sorcerers, it was with the experienced sorcerers planning to engage her. Hadn't she even told him that this was the reason she’d wanted to study magic in the first place? She was about to raise this objection (she always had found it difficult to let matters drop when it was good for her, hence the amount of time shes flaunted her father’s bans), however before she could speak the girl she’d chosen to call Emma spoke up and began a wondrous demonstration.
“That was amazing!” exclaimed Ariel as the demonstration ended, the redhead quickly joining Rapunzel in a burst of applause, “Although it’s not really why I wanted to learn magic...” She trailed off into silence, not wanting to draw too much negative attention from their tutor onto herself this early on in the proceedings. Besides, she couldn’t deny that the tricks Anna had shown her (thankfully Hovarth had revealed her actual name) had each been appealing in their own way, especially the transformation; if this girl could turn herself into a cat than it should be easy for her to manage becoming a mermaid once again. The levitation spells that Hattie had picked up on (her surname had been revealed as Moreland now, however Ariel was still forced to use her made-up first name), were also intriguing. Would it be possible to levitate herself instead of an object, and swim through the air as if it were water?
“Clearing my mind?” groaned Ariel as Anna revealed what the first step was going to be, “but what if my mind doesn’t want to be cleared?” If there was one thing Sebastian had always criticised her for, it was a lack of focus. Ariel just couldn’t help it; her mind just wasn’t the type to focus on only one thing when there were so many other exciting things she could be doing. Now that she thought about it, this could be the reason why she hadn’t been able to remove the scales from her foot; she’d been so freaked out by it that of course she hadn’t been able to keep her mind in any state even resembling clear. Her advice to picture the energy moving through her wasn’t much help either. That just reminded Ariel of the time her voice had been dragged out of her by Ursula’s magic, which brought a whole new stream of distractions with it.
“Hide everything away in a box?” she repeated, more to herself than anyone else. She supposed that made sense, in fact in a way it reminded her of the way she’d had to seal away her amazing collection of human artefacts every time she visited it, in order to keep herself clear the rest of the time. Picturing her grotto, Ariel slowly but surely imagined her different trains of thought and questions spiralling into it one by one, until finally she was able to visualise the rock moving in front of the entrance and leaving the rest of her mind empty.
“I did it!” exclaimed the former mermaid happily. Of course this happy outburst had exactly the opposite effect to desired, and in an instant the seal had shattered and all of her distracting thoughts had rushed back to the front of her mind once again, if possible seeming even louder than they had before due to her attempts to quell them. She blushed involuntarily at this, hoping that the attention wouldn’t stay on her for too long.
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Post by Bertie Moreland on Feb 3, 2011 21:24:18 GMT -5
Bertie eyed the enthusiastic redhead beside her and had to say that the girl's exuberance was really starting to grate on her nerves. Turning her attention once more to Anna, Bertie cleared her throat and closed her eyes.
While she had never meditated or done anything similar in her life, Bertie was familiar enough with the theory. Her grandfather once had an Indian manservant who believed very strongly in the healthy practice of meditation. For hours each day, he would sit perfectly still, even when young Bertie would come romping in looking for a playmate. Perhaps what Anna was instructing them to do was based on a similar principle to her grandfather's old servant and his practices.
Of course there were several little thoughts that insisted on making themselves known now of all times as Bertie fought to keep her mind clear. The box idea was a rather good one, she decided, and began to act upon it.
She and the family Robinson had made all sorts of boxes and traps for hunting purposes in her time on their island, and she remembered the processes of making said containers quite well. In her mind, Bertie imagined recreating the best of the Robinson's traps. It was made of the thick wood from the palm trees of the island, with bamboo serving as the lock and hinges. Once the frame was created, she shooed all her other thoughts but those about magic into its center, shutting her mental box firmly.
Opening her eyes slowly, Bertie kept at least part of her mind on the box, to allow herself to shoo any new thoughts that popped up into it. "I'm ready," she said firmly, her brow furrowed in concentration.
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Post by Maxim Horvath on Feb 3, 2011 21:58:54 GMT -5
Horvath ghosted back in, setting a glass sphere in front of each young woman, "Very good," he said in a low voice. "I am giving each of you a glass ball. You will attempt to call light to each in just a moment. Open your eyes please. Do you all have your focus with you?"
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Post by Rapunzel on Feb 3, 2011 22:44:19 GMT -5
Rapunzel exhaled quietly, releasing her breath in a gentle sigh, as she opened her eyes to see Mister Horvath walk by, setting something in front of her. She stared at for a moment in awe before nodding mutely in response to his question. She did not know how she was supposed to light it, but she was sure he would explain to them.
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Post by Ariel on Feb 4, 2011 0:50:51 GMT -5
Ariel shifted uncomfortably under the gaze of Miss. Moreland, getting the distinct impression that she’d done something to annoy the girl (although couldn’t even begin to guess what that was). She was glad then when Hovarth returned moments later, for it shifted attention away from her outburst and back onto their tutor as he explained the first practical task that he’d prepared for them.
“I have mine,” replied Ariel quietly as he inquired as to whether they each had their focus with them, idly fingering the ornate, silver ring that she now wore on a chain around her neck as she spoke. The task at hand seemed simple enough at first glance, however now that she thought about it she had absolutely no idea how to go about it. At least with her (albeit disastrous) attempt to transform herself she’d had a clear visualisation in her head, but she had no idea of either what exactly light was, or how to create it from scratch.
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Post by Bertie Moreland on Feb 4, 2011 2:23:50 GMT -5
Bertie nodded and held up her hand slightly to show the focus ring that now graced her right ring finger.
Call a light into the glass? Bertie frowned a little at this. How did you...well, summon light? Chewing a little at her bottom lip in thought, Bertie stared fixedly at the ball of glass that was set before her.
"Forgive me, sir," she finally said after a moment of merely contemplating the glass. "But how exactly are we supposed to call the light to the glass?"
She recalled seeing something about summoning energy and light in the Incantus, but to be perfectly honest she had become distracted by her focus ring moving about seemingly on its own, and the combat magic.
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