[EP] Progress (OTA, Corbie or Curnen)

[st_oneswidow]

It was almost December, but the day was still more than warm enough to spend outdoors. So two girls were out in the sunshine, one fair, one dark, aware and amused with each other’s efforts but not particularly paying attention to each other.

Curnen’s fingers were starting to remember what to do with a guitar, though they were still incapable of being fancy. Sitting on the lawn with Rob’s guitar in her lap, she played anything that came to mind. Her sixth fingers were a bit lost, but it did sound like music at least. It would be some time yet before she could really play again, though that didn’t bother her much. If it meant she was scraping herself back together, becoming a Tufa again, it didn’t matter. And besides, the singing was always the best part. She wasn’t sure why this song, since there was no wind and rain, but in many versions of this same song there were two girls colored rather like the two of them.

There were two sisters came walkin' down the stream
Oh the wind and rain
The one behind pushed the other one in
Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain

Johnny gave the youngest a gay gold ring
Oh the wind and rain
Didn't give the oldest one anything
Cryin' oh the dreadful wind and rain

Corbie meanwhile was busy setting things on fire again, but this was different fire. Or at least it was for her. She and Regina had been practicing creating fire and putting it out. She set a circle of protection around a small stone, using what she understood of Cabaline theory to keep the spell literally grounded. And then she proceeded to do her best to destroy the shit out of that rock by throwing fireballs at it. It gave her something to aim at, gave her more than one thing to practice at a time. She was getting better at aiming and her ward was holding.

She stopped only to take the ward down and set another one, larger this time, on her knees in the road with a piece of chalk.

Comments

[st_ockandbarrel]

"Did the rock deserve it?" Percy sipped his coffee again and walked a bit closer to examine the circle.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

That made her blush faintly. "Not exactly. Just if I screw up, rocks don't burn." She nudged herself straighter and continued. "Also it's part of the theory I was taught. Air and glass for working, gems for focus, rock for grounding, water for cleansing." And wood of course could play any of those roles, which was why Cabalines weren't fond of it. Corbie had been fascinated, though, seeing more opportunity and flexibility than fickleness.

[st_ockandbarrel]

"Sound logic." Percy smiled, just a bit, and knelt to examine the chalk lines. "Does the chalk count as rock for grounding? Or is it simply convenient?"

Only Tiberius had been interested in the actual workings of magic. The rest of Vox Machina simply did magic, whether divinely or naturally or...whatever it was that was behind the power Scanlan wielded.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie thought about that, tilting her head to one side. "It probably could be, depending on the working. In this case, it's giving shape to the spell I want to cast."

[st_ockandbarrel]

Allura used the same. He recognized that much, if not the actual construction of it. Percy vastly preferred the real to the magical. If he could not test it, if he could not rely upon it, he did not trust it. Still, he was curious about it. Anything that could bring magic into the understandable. "And how does it do that?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie grinned at that. It had been one of her earliest questions. "Like any other writing or drawing. The symbols you use have a meaning to you, and more importantly to a wider culture. Lines and curves arranged in a certain way make a letter, letters make a word, words make a paragraph, getting longer and-or more complex the more you wanna say."

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy raised an eyebrow. "It's a language of magic. Universal?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

That wasn't quite what she meant, but close enough. "No language is," she said simply.

[st_ockandbarrel]

Naturally. Percy nodded his understanding. "Cultural. Or by school of magic? In my world, magic takes many forms. Some require rituals like this. Others are more spontaneous."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Bit of both?" Corbie's nose wrinkled as she considered this idea. "Schools of magic and language are both pretty tied to national identity in my world." It was why Caloxa was still pissed about the war that overthrew the Hume dynasty forty years ago, even if they'd liked not having warlocks anymore.

[st_ockandbarrel]

"Interesting. There's some regional variation in Exandria but I believe that most formal magic retains the same basic structure." Percy finished his coffee and set the mug aside then bent lower. His finger traced just above the markings she'd made. "What is it that sets up the containment?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie frowned a little, having settled enough to admit, "I'm not sure I understand the question."

[st_ockandbarrel]

"The elements of its construction, what contributes to what?" He took out a notebook and flipped it open to show her a design. "This is the initial plan for a glove I constructed," he was not, of course, wearing Diplomacy right now. "You can see here that the design for capturing and converting energy utilizes that basic properties of the metal as well as the shape of the gauntlet to hold the energy stable once it's stored. Your circle must do the same."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie's eyes went big as she looked at the plans. She didn't understand everything she was looking at, but she did grasp some of it. "We're getting to a place where I dunno how well I can explain. There comes a point where what actually makes it happen is just... me. In theory, I don't need any of this if I have enough discipline. Few people got that kind of organization in their head, though."

[st_ockandbarrel]

"A fundamental difference between engineering and magic. The mental part is merely the beginning in my work." And yet, often the most important. Executing on a design was largely a matter of following logical progression. Developing it took genius. "My question was about the supporting structures that you use for the mental control. How do you ensure efficiency?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Well, the way that I'm doing it here..." One by one, Corbie pointed to each of the four symbols at the cardinal directions on her chalk circle, what they meant, and why they were there and not in a different place.

"A lot of this I got from Coeurterrene theory. It ain't the magic that's taught in my country, but it... speaks to me and how my brain works, I guess."

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy asked a couple of clarifying questions as she explained. "If you constructed it differently, or assigned different meanings to the symbols in your mind, would it change the outcome? Is there inherent value in the symbols or are they placeholders?" The malleability of magic was one of the things he trusted the least about it.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"I honestly don't know," Corbie admitted. "A Grevillian wizard would tell you yes. They think of magic a lot like a machine, change a part, change the result. A Cabaline or Eusebian or Couerterrene would tell you... maybe. My teacher always told me it's all metaphors. Metaphors mean whatever the hell you want them to mean."

[st_ockandbarrel]

"That would be an interesting experiment. If I drew you this," he quickly sketched the de Rollo crest. "What would it mean for you? What would you put into it?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie tipped her head to one side and considered it. "I'm not sure. What is it?"

[st_ockandbarrel]

"An old crest of a ruling house. Thousands of years of history, both triumphant and tragic." Percy watched her face. "Alternately, it isn't anything but what you make of it."

[st_rikingblueeyes]

"Mm..." Corbie considered that for a long moment. "I can't think of how I'd use a family crest aside from something related to a member of that family. If I didn't have an inkling of what it was... I dunno. I've never tried to use a symbol I don't attach to anything."

[st_ockandbarrel]

"If it's a metaphor, then it should be whatever meaning you decide it should have, correct? Irrespective of what it may mean to the family." For his part, his feelings about the crest were complicated at best. Pride, regret, grief, trepidation, shame.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie said nothing for a time, briefly holding up a hand to beg a moment to think. It seemed to her that an answer well considered would go over better than an answer quickly given. "That's true," she said slowly. "But it can be hard to write, or rewrite, a symbol completely. Cultural weight means something. Personal connections means something. It's not always quantifiable, but it is there. If I already connect a symbol to something, I could theoretically use it to mean something completely different. But my thoughts would still be colored by that first idea."

[st_ockandbarrel]

Percy was pleased by the thoughtful answer. "Ah, so there is something inherent to it beyond your mental framing!" That was interesting, very interesting. "What would you do if you needed to research such a thing?"