75 Searing, Year 123
[Closed - Solo]
Sometimes, being around others that were far more knowledgeable and more skilled was daunting. Sometimes it was inspiring. Today seemed like it was going to be a mix between the two. But the only way to get better at this was to keep practicing, and so rather than waste paper and ink, Hilana was working outside under the shade of the pergola, sitting on a blanket in the sand, focusing on her drawing.
Lia was supervising her from a nearby chair, a book open on her lap. She stayed quiet for the time being, well aware of the fact that Hilana might get frustrated with this subject if she constantly poked and prodded her about it. This wasn't one of the subjects that just came naturally to her, like botany and herbalism and poisoncrafting, this was something that required thought and practice and thinking things through. Elementalism had been instinctive, Semblance took time, and so too did Scrivening. She knew that her sister was determined to do better with it in order to help and enhance her own skills, and unless Hilana wanted help, she had resolved to stay out of it. Her sister sometimes just had to puzzle through things and fuss at them over and over and over until they stuck, and if it was a manner of learning that worked for her, then that was the manner of learning that worked for her. She knew herself best; and Lia trusted her process. Even if she was largely self-taught and had out of sheer stubbornness avoided learning at a formal institution, Scrivening was one of those things that could be learned from a book, and the one that Hilana had beside her was admittedly incredibly thorough and insightful.
Talon had taught her in the sand, and that meant the sand was a viable way of practicing. It might not be the same as sorcerer's sand, or a carefully enhanced area where she could improve the viability of her pictographs beyond her own skill. But at the same time, for someone who loathed waste, this worked out well for her. She wasn't out to make anything fancy, but she did have some homework that he had given her, and that was to find a way to use Scrivening that could play catch with the wind. This would allow her to do some practicing before she put it to actual paper and brought it to show her teacher and Aoren and see what they thought of it.
Hilana had been quite skeptical at first, but the silver-haired Avialae had assured her it was completely doable with what she knew, she just had to think it through. This was why she was going over her book on pictographs once again, rereading each of them in order to arrange her thinking and visualize how she wanted this to go. The act of playing catch meant she needed pictographs that were capable of reflecting and capturing the wind to effectively bounce it back and forth between the two. She would need two of them that were placed apart from each other at a distance, and they had to be capable of receiving, holding, and directing.
As she studied her book, she found herself nodding. If she thought about the pictographs, and thought about the mechanics of what she wanted to do, it did make more sense. Mirrors would absorb, copy, and reflect the aether, so she needed those. Paths were needed to direct the flow of aether, so she would need that in order to guide the wind in the direction that she wanted. They should be able to make a line for the wind to follow, and depending on how she built them... amplify them. The Path was the very first pictograph that she had learned, and the one that she used the most. She just needed to remember that it had to come together.
As she looked over her notes, she made a note on her page that she would also need the Mirrors. That pictograph would immediately reflect the aether, and unless it was constrained by another pictograph, it wouldn't hold it. So it would just need to be directed to the Mirror, which was where the paths could help. She felt a bit pleased with herself for seeing the connection, and Lia saw her do just the tiniest shimmy in the sand. She hid a smile behind her book, though she knew Hilana wasn't necessarily looking at her to see it.
She flipped the page in her notes, rereading what she had written down about Convergences. By crossing Paths, that should allow her to control the loop between the Mirrors with the Paths, and that way it should be about the same strength of breeze between the two. That was sort of important; if there wasn't some equalizing and stabilizing controls worked into this, it would all blow up in her face, probably quite literally. Continuums and Vortexes didn't seem to be needed at this point for what exactly she wanted to do, and likely would be overkill at this point. It wasn't anything as fancy as what they had been doing in the cold room, but the designs in that regard had been the brainchild of Lykos and her sister. They'd told her what to make, and so she had done it. This was something she was working on on her own first.
After thinking about it, Hilana took up her finger in the sand, and when focusing her aether, drew a five-pointed star. Five lines, with multiple intersection points, with the pentagon-shaped Mirror in the middle. Five Paths, Five Convergences, and the Mirror. It was perhaps a simple choice to design it that way, but sometimes, simple was better. And this way she could easily replicate the design once she tested it. The young woman pulled a face as she activated her Rune of Semblance with aether and studied the little would-be Glyph. This way she could at least see if anything seemed a bit wonky before she tested it, which was of course cheating... but the last thing any of them needed was for Hilana to cause an explosion and send the pergola sky high.
Nothing seemed to be too remiss, and so she elected to test it before making its partner. With Influence and her Rune of Elementalism, she gently guided a small breeze over the collection of pictographs, watching with her breath held as it bounced straight back up, and she shifted into a seated position and punched a fist into the air. It also went a bit higher than she had planned for it to do, so that meant that she would need to adjust the Convergences a bit more... but perhaps what she needed was the other set of pictographs to enable it to bounce back and forth. The air didn't seem to mind, as the little gust dropped back down into the set of pictographs on the sand, bouncing up once more like it was a trampoline.
"That's going rather well," Lia remarked finally, having lowered her book again. "Perhaps you should try it on the parchment now and see how well it still works. Or, at least, try once and hold it over your first attempt in the sand," she advised.
"On it," Hilana took out ink, parchment, and the brush, and when the brush had collected the ink, she smoothed away some of the excess, and made the same design as she had before, infusing the pictographs with her aether and the purposes in each line. Each Path, each Convergence, and the Mirror. She would give it a minute to let it dry, before lifting the piece of parchment off of the writing board that she had used underneath it for backing, and stood up. "Ready?" she asked the breeze, nudging the gust that had been hanging around since it had gotten to bounce on the star in the sand before, and letting it press against the pictographs. As soon as it was coming back up, she held the parchment at about waist-height for her, only for the breeze to bounce off of it, and back down. "Yes!" she let out a cheer, only to thank the little gust - that was a bit disappointed that the game appeared to be over for the moment, but figured it might be worth its time to hang around just in case there was a repeat like there had been.
And it turned out that it was the little gust's lucky day, because once the second one was ready, the breeze didn't have to bounce vertically anymore. Lia was given one to hold, and Hilana held the second, and the gust started to get some horizontal distance back and forth. Yes, yes, yes! She knew from here that she could build on these principles and work on making glyphs that could contain the wind, accelerate it, and produce whirlwinds and dust devils. That was going to be something to practice later, when she was further out in the wild, but it wouldn't be long before she and the little gust, flying along in her wake, hurried back inside the Citadel to show her work to Talon.
[Closed - Solo]
Sometimes, being around others that were far more knowledgeable and more skilled was daunting. Sometimes it was inspiring. Today seemed like it was going to be a mix between the two. But the only way to get better at this was to keep practicing, and so rather than waste paper and ink, Hilana was working outside under the shade of the pergola, sitting on a blanket in the sand, focusing on her drawing.
Lia was supervising her from a nearby chair, a book open on her lap. She stayed quiet for the time being, well aware of the fact that Hilana might get frustrated with this subject if she constantly poked and prodded her about it. This wasn't one of the subjects that just came naturally to her, like botany and herbalism and poisoncrafting, this was something that required thought and practice and thinking things through. Elementalism had been instinctive, Semblance took time, and so too did Scrivening. She knew that her sister was determined to do better with it in order to help and enhance her own skills, and unless Hilana wanted help, she had resolved to stay out of it. Her sister sometimes just had to puzzle through things and fuss at them over and over and over until they stuck, and if it was a manner of learning that worked for her, then that was the manner of learning that worked for her. She knew herself best; and Lia trusted her process. Even if she was largely self-taught and had out of sheer stubbornness avoided learning at a formal institution, Scrivening was one of those things that could be learned from a book, and the one that Hilana had beside her was admittedly incredibly thorough and insightful.
Talon had taught her in the sand, and that meant the sand was a viable way of practicing. It might not be the same as sorcerer's sand, or a carefully enhanced area where she could improve the viability of her pictographs beyond her own skill. But at the same time, for someone who loathed waste, this worked out well for her. She wasn't out to make anything fancy, but she did have some homework that he had given her, and that was to find a way to use Scrivening that could play catch with the wind. This would allow her to do some practicing before she put it to actual paper and brought it to show her teacher and Aoren and see what they thought of it.
Hilana had been quite skeptical at first, but the silver-haired Avialae had assured her it was completely doable with what she knew, she just had to think it through. This was why she was going over her book on pictographs once again, rereading each of them in order to arrange her thinking and visualize how she wanted this to go. The act of playing catch meant she needed pictographs that were capable of reflecting and capturing the wind to effectively bounce it back and forth between the two. She would need two of them that were placed apart from each other at a distance, and they had to be capable of receiving, holding, and directing.
As she studied her book, she found herself nodding. If she thought about the pictographs, and thought about the mechanics of what she wanted to do, it did make more sense. Mirrors would absorb, copy, and reflect the aether, so she needed those. Paths were needed to direct the flow of aether, so she would need that in order to guide the wind in the direction that she wanted. They should be able to make a line for the wind to follow, and depending on how she built them... amplify them. The Path was the very first pictograph that she had learned, and the one that she used the most. She just needed to remember that it had to come together.
As she looked over her notes, she made a note on her page that she would also need the Mirrors. That pictograph would immediately reflect the aether, and unless it was constrained by another pictograph, it wouldn't hold it. So it would just need to be directed to the Mirror, which was where the paths could help. She felt a bit pleased with herself for seeing the connection, and Lia saw her do just the tiniest shimmy in the sand. She hid a smile behind her book, though she knew Hilana wasn't necessarily looking at her to see it.
She flipped the page in her notes, rereading what she had written down about Convergences. By crossing Paths, that should allow her to control the loop between the Mirrors with the Paths, and that way it should be about the same strength of breeze between the two. That was sort of important; if there wasn't some equalizing and stabilizing controls worked into this, it would all blow up in her face, probably quite literally. Continuums and Vortexes didn't seem to be needed at this point for what exactly she wanted to do, and likely would be overkill at this point. It wasn't anything as fancy as what they had been doing in the cold room, but the designs in that regard had been the brainchild of Lykos and her sister. They'd told her what to make, and so she had done it. This was something she was working on on her own first.
After thinking about it, Hilana took up her finger in the sand, and when focusing her aether, drew a five-pointed star. Five lines, with multiple intersection points, with the pentagon-shaped Mirror in the middle. Five Paths, Five Convergences, and the Mirror. It was perhaps a simple choice to design it that way, but sometimes, simple was better. And this way she could easily replicate the design once she tested it. The young woman pulled a face as she activated her Rune of Semblance with aether and studied the little would-be Glyph. This way she could at least see if anything seemed a bit wonky before she tested it, which was of course cheating... but the last thing any of them needed was for Hilana to cause an explosion and send the pergola sky high.
Nothing seemed to be too remiss, and so she elected to test it before making its partner. With Influence and her Rune of Elementalism, she gently guided a small breeze over the collection of pictographs, watching with her breath held as it bounced straight back up, and she shifted into a seated position and punched a fist into the air. It also went a bit higher than she had planned for it to do, so that meant that she would need to adjust the Convergences a bit more... but perhaps what she needed was the other set of pictographs to enable it to bounce back and forth. The air didn't seem to mind, as the little gust dropped back down into the set of pictographs on the sand, bouncing up once more like it was a trampoline.
"That's going rather well," Lia remarked finally, having lowered her book again. "Perhaps you should try it on the parchment now and see how well it still works. Or, at least, try once and hold it over your first attempt in the sand," she advised.
"On it," Hilana took out ink, parchment, and the brush, and when the brush had collected the ink, she smoothed away some of the excess, and made the same design as she had before, infusing the pictographs with her aether and the purposes in each line. Each Path, each Convergence, and the Mirror. She would give it a minute to let it dry, before lifting the piece of parchment off of the writing board that she had used underneath it for backing, and stood up. "Ready?" she asked the breeze, nudging the gust that had been hanging around since it had gotten to bounce on the star in the sand before, and letting it press against the pictographs. As soon as it was coming back up, she held the parchment at about waist-height for her, only for the breeze to bounce off of it, and back down. "Yes!" she let out a cheer, only to thank the little gust - that was a bit disappointed that the game appeared to be over for the moment, but figured it might be worth its time to hang around just in case there was a repeat like there had been.
And it turned out that it was the little gust's lucky day, because once the second one was ready, the breeze didn't have to bounce vertically anymore. Lia was given one to hold, and Hilana held the second, and the gust started to get some horizontal distance back and forth. Yes, yes, yes! She knew from here that she could build on these principles and work on making glyphs that could contain the wind, accelerate it, and produce whirlwinds and dust devils. That was going to be something to practice later, when she was further out in the wild, but it wouldn't be long before she and the little gust, flying along in her wake, hurried back inside the Citadel to show her work to Talon.
