[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]

As Percy crossed the lawn, he stopped to watch the blonde girl's work. He was not particularly knowledgeable about either music or magic, but the precision of stone circle was enough to draw his attention in a way that the lovely voice of the dark-haired woman did not.

For several minutes, he merely stood, sipping from the mug of coffee that had been the reason for leaving his room in the first place.

[st_rikingblueeyes]

It took Corbie some time to notice that she was being watched, absorbed as she was in getting her circle right. Wards, she was discovering, came to her fairly naturally. It still took a deal of focus for her to do it well. The music served one purpose she hadn't considered, providing a signal that all was well and nothing was out of place.

When she was pushing to her feet, though, that was when she caught sight of Percy. Kash had pointed him out to her, but she'd been far too shy. She began squirming almost immediately. "Uh. Hi."

[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."

for Corbie

[st_rummer]

Music was coming back to Curnen bit by bit, and Coby couldn't be happier about that. He did glance up at the sky for any sign the clear and sunny was on its way to being replaced with wind and rain, but things looked good. He gave her a wink, but followed his curiosity to the blonde opposite instead, not noticing when he began to hum softly along with Curnen.

He watched the cutie call up balls of fire – different from Jag's maybe, but that was just a guess – and throw them at a rock in a circle of smaller rocks inside a larger circle drawn in white. "That's a neat trick."

[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.

Re: for Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Curnen smiled in answer before returning her attention to her fingering.

Corbie's head popped up from the work she was doing redrawing the ward on the pavement. She sat back on her heels and smiled sheepishly. "Thanks? It's a fairly new one, I don't completely trust my aim yet."

[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."

for Curnen

[st_raighttovampire]

Caroline followed the sound of the music and the singing. She didn't know the song, but she liked it. It was moody and dark, traditional in a way that felt both familiar and unfamiliar. The scene of Corbie practicing magic didn't faze Caroline and she left her to it - that was more Regina's department. Caroline's was, among other things, making sure that things didn't get too boring around here.

She still didn't know much about Curnen, which was unusual for her. So she sat down in the grass near the woman and listened to her play. When the song ended, she applauded. "Are you learning to play?"

[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.

Re: for Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

Curnen smiled and tucked a strand of her long dark hair behind her ear self-consciously. "Kinda. Relearning. My sister taught me when I was small, but it's... been a while. Lost the knack." It was true enough.

Re: for Curnen

[st_raighttovampire]

"You have a sister? Older?" Not that her younger sister couldn't have taught her but it would be strange. "I don't have any siblings. My dad's boyfriend has a daughter though, so that's something at least." Not that they were particularly close. She went to birthdays, if she could make it, but that was more for her dad than anything.

[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?"

Re: for Corbie

[st_rummer]

"So this is what, target practice?" Cool, and probably a better idea than trying to wing it if the need for fireballs arose. Coby wondered if she'd been at that meeting the other day for the fighter types. She looked too sweet for things like that, but looks could be deceiving.

"I knew a guy, could do all kinds of shit with fire. Turned the heat way up once when a bar fight turned nasty."

tag Corbie

[st_huntermom]

Mary turned the corner, drawn to the area from music, but when she came around the woman drawing on the ground caught her attention first. The ground around it seemed to be scorched which seemed a little weird.

"Do you... need some help?"

[st_rikingblueeyes]

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

Re: for Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie shrugged. "It's a lot of things." Studying what was at hand, staving off boredom, learning to use her power in a way she hadn't really considered before, and, yes, target practice. "It's also finding out if I can ward anything worth a damn," she said, gesturing at the chalk marks.

Re: tag Corbie

[st_rikingblueeyes]

Corbie looked up at the question, then sat back on her heels when she realized the question was for her and not the girl with the guitar. This lady was annemer, that she'd stake money on. She looked a little puzzled. "No'm, I'm fine."

Re: for Curnen

[st_oneswidow]

"Older," Curnen confirmed with a nod. And despite sounding like she couldn't come more from the heart of the Bible belt, she didn't blink at the dad's boyfriend or his daughter. "Bliss can make a guitar recite Shakespeare."

[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."