[Pre-Episode Three] The Soulless Smols Practice Magic

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ISS Downrider
Cargo Hold



Rhea paced back and forth, as she waited for the smol wizard. She had called her earlier, asking if she could come over and maybe, teach her about magic at around this time, afterall she figured that even if she couldnt learn it... It would still help with understanding her own abilities. Probably. Though, she had kinda left in a hurry before checking if she was actually, okay with teaching her.

"It took me nearly a decade of study to master magic, fun fact," the familiar voice of Aradia Sivins echoed through the largest room in the ship - not like that was an achievement. She approached the more firey redhead, tossing a cozy-looking garnet up and down in her hand. Showoff.

"Of course, that's actual mastery. Just managing to control what's already there should be a lot easier and faster.

Rhea looked up finally as she heard the voice, having to look around a bit before spotting the show off mage. "A...ah. So, you think you can, teach me some of that control, maybe? Osco was kind of saying that, I'd probably have to learn a whole lot of this on my own unless we got real lucky with finding another syllic." Rhea`s eyes trailed the garnet being tossed about. Gosh, it was almost as red as her own hair.

In anycase, Rhea tried not to show how relieved she was that Aradia did infact show up, and was at least willing to try teaching her... something.

"I'll do my best. I've heard about people having a similar situation to yours - that is, magic they have no explanation for - but I've never met one like you in person. So... Let's start with this: Can you make any crystals right now at all?" Hands on her hips, Aradia didn't really look that much like a wizard on account of her sky-blue t-shirt and matching plaid skirt. Actually, she looked kinda normal.

Rhea, stopped pacing as Aradia talked, and took a seat to listen, her legs hanging off of one of the crates now, still wearing a jacket despite the fact they were most definetely, no longer in Bivonia. Probably a habit, at this point.

"Yeah.. I can." She gave a nod, and reached out behind her, putting her hand on the cargo crate, and mimed like she was pulling something out of it... And something did, infact, come out. That familiar, purple crystal, a bit rough around the edges, was now `resting` in the palm of her hand, as she showed it to Aradia. "I can... make it fly around and move too, but I guess you want it to sit still while you're looking at it?" Though she said that, Rhea didn`t seem comftorable with knowing it was so close to somone else`s face, really, from what she`s heard of her own powers.

"Well, not really. I'm actually quite curious, though... What are you thinking about? How does it feel to do this?" The pilot seemed to be looking into the crystal but also actually at Rhea's face and back at the crystal, and back to her face.

"I... that..." Rhea was stumped for a moment as she thought. She knew that mindset, emotion even, seemed to be important, feelings too, from how osco was talking about how people needed to be guided to beable to do these things but... "I just... to me it feels like, i"m just moving my body... I guess. No, rather, it feels like I Have to move my body to do it? It's... it's hard to explain how I actually feel, or what I'm thinking when I'm doing it, really..." After all, this all comes so naturally to her, afterall. As natural as breathing, almost.

Rhea, had a look of concentration and, a bit of confusion on her face that... mostly, seemed to stem from Aradia's question, even as she started manipulating the crystal on the palm of her hand, making it go between her fingers and what not... She probably didn't actually have the skill to pull of those dexterious feats, but her control, and total sense of where the crystal was, did make it so much easier.

"...Huh. So it's just.. .You think of the crystal, and it just shows up? Odd..." A moment passed by. "So it's very... Easy, I'm guessing too easy, for you to bring it into being. And it's magically fabricated, too... Alright, can you dispel the crystal?"

Rhea just nodded when asked the question, and by the time she finished, it had already evaporated in her hand. "too... easy?" She asked, after the fact. "I... don`t know why it would be too easy... But well, the overseer said that there could be some very... strange things, I guess, that people like me could do with the right... mindset, I think... That a parent would usually pass down what they learned, or something..."

"Well, I'm no parent of yours. Don't give me that look, I'm old enough to be. But you have... Exceptional control over it so far, so what do you... want to know?"

Rhea`s face went a bit red with that retort. It wasn`t what she was trying to imply, but... "I... Uhm... I don`t exactly know, I just, think that learning about how you do your magic, or, even learning HOW to do it might... help, somehow." Rhea didn`t say that, she doubted she had anything akin to exceptional control, compared to what she was sure was possible. She might even only be slightly ahead of the curve for a syllic without any Guide... she just didn't have anything to compare herself to, she hadn`t even had a chance to watch videos of what WAS possible in the overseer`s archive.

Aradia gave the smol crystal-summoner a pat upon the head and harumphed quietly. "Well, we'll see what we can do. First, then, the most basic idea..." Aradia cleared her throat, and preached, "'Practicing magic is to control the universe, harnessing its limitless energy to your will, limited only by your imagination. A wizard is thus the most demanding of pursuits, but one is always needed.' That's a load of garbage, even the parts that are right. I tossed that textbook out as soon as I was out of college. It's pompous and conceited. Magic is very much not that. Magic is powerful, but where does the power come from? Everywhere, yes, but more importantly, from you." To emphasise her point, Aradia tapped Rhea in the center of her chest. "The body is a conduit of sorts. Even magic stored within another medium - like this right here," Aradia said as she raised the gem she held, which seemed to suddenly be glowing, "Has to go through your body."

A mote of light seprarted itself from the surface of the garnet, before flying directly into Aradia's chest - then it reappeared at her finger, before flying through the air and resting next to Rhea's sitting position, having taken the form of a tiny candle's flame.

Rhea watched along carefully throughout the whole display, after looking down just above her solar plexis where she had been poked. It was... pretty. And, near as Rhea could tell, probably not nearly so dangerous to the caster, or the caster`s friends. Curiousity getting the better of her, Rhea swished her hand near to the candle flame looking thing, to see how hot it was. "It's, um, very pretty looking." She said with a nod.

She most certainly apreciated the showmanship involved there- and, if magic did mostly come form ones self, maybe she could do it, having a slight head start, if she could use her `crystal magic` for this kind of casting that Aradia was performing infront of her...

The flame licked at Rhea's fingers, having actual heat to it, as little as there was - then the flame winked out of existence. "Thanks. But I hope that the message came across, at least. Though I can make it look the part, there's a bit more to magic than snapping your fingers and willing a bolt of lightning into existence. You need to know that lightning bolt, mold it with your mind, and feel its power."

"To... know the lightning bolt, right..." Rhea scrunched up her face a bit as she wondered what exactly that meant, and lightly shook her slightly warmed fingers... like, scientifically knowing a lightning bolt? In anycase it sounded like it would be... harder than what she was doing now but, she didn`t really know how to `advance` with what she was doing now, so... it might be her only way forward for the time being.

"It's a bit on the abstract side, while being literal. Literally, a lightning bolt is the result of positive and negative electric charges making a connection so powerful that it splits the air, linking two points in a brilliant flash of energy. Abstractly, though... It's high energy, moving to low energy. Heat, and light." As she spoke, Aradia's hand were moving, and as she started talking about the abstract parts, one hand glowed slightly before an electric discharge linked it to the other hand, making a buzzing noise and producing some smelly ozone.

Rhea watched the tesla hands going on, and nodded slightly. "So you just... need to think about what a lightning bolt is all scientifically like, and then also what it is... also scientifically like but less specific?"

"In a way, yeah. It's one of the reasons Marie and I can actually understand each other 'bout all this. That's the basics of elemental magic, at least..." Crossing her arms, Aradia paused for a mement, then said, It's a little more complex - complicated, even - to combine things and use raw arcane energy."

"Raw... arcane energy?" Rhea parroted, as she tilted her head. Was it something like her Echyllis? Or, maybe the two things weren't even vaugely related. Really, she didn't have the slightest clue, but somehow she figured that, maybe the more 'raw energy' would be more helpful to figure out how exactly it works, if not outright figuring out how to manipulate it herself.

"It's... complicated. Basically magic in its most direct form, pure energy. Usually it's useful for a counter to another magician, or defensively - a barrier to protect you, for example. I don't use it very often, in general, though - so teaching you about that needs me to study up on my own again, anyways."

"Uhmm.. Okay, I think i got it... maybe..." She said as she thought back tom one of those cartoons she caught a glimpse of, with some frilly character using her barrier to stop herself from being hit on the noggin by an agressive blob. "Is... that what we are starting with? or something?" Rhea asked with a half frown, this all sounded like it was going to be really hard, and complicated.

"Honestly, I have no idea... I'm pretty crap at this whole teaching thing, and on top of that I don't know what you can do... I mean, you can summon crystals and all, but yeah..." Aradia sighed, leanign against a crate and brooding for a moment. Part of the problem is... are you asking for control over your crystals, or magic in general?"

Rhea looked down, and scratched her head in response to that... what, DID she want... "I, am thinking that learning magic, might help me with my Syllic abilities... That it will uh... 'expand my horizons' i guess. Even if it doesn't help... it won't hurt to try and learn something new."

"I see, I see..." Aradia tapped her chin, lost in thought for a time. "It's possible that your Syllic powers are interfereing, but I can't recall any facts for certain at the moment. Certainly, I'll need to do more research to be certain - possibly asking for Osco's assistance."

Rhea nodded in response "Then, I guess we wouldn't be jumping right into trying to learn anything of the sort for now, then?"

"Not... now. Of course, what I've told you - you might be able to manifest something if you concentrate hard enough, even without me being around, but it's quite unlikely. Certainly - the ease you have at conjuring your crystals, but struggling to cast magic..."[/color]

Aradia coughed, and said, "Magic is easy. The hard part is magic that actually does something powerful... And after that, not killing yourself with burnout. But that's why colleges of magic exist!"

"Magic, is easy huh?" Rhea frowned a bit, as she tried concentrating... Really, the idea made sense to her in a vauge sort of way, but at the same time she had a hard time actually thinking of those concepts regarding a lightning bolt, and using that kind of natural 6th sense to pull lightning into existence with echyllis in mind with that... As she did, trying all of that she brought to existence into her hand, pulling it from the cargo crate she was sitting on... A vaugely lightning bolt shaped crystal. Very shortly after, Rhea's look of concentration changed to one of mild disapointment.

"Huh. That's a new one." Those wouldn't have been the most comforting of words to hear from one's teacher. Then again, maybe that's good?

"Well, certainly, there's some sort of connection. The... Crystallized spark is evidence of that. Bigger than I thought, but the crystal part of it is probably why." The glasses-wearing one scrunched up her nose in interest, briefly tapping the crystal with one finger.

On the light inspection provided by the tap of a finger, it seemed to mostly be a cosmetic change echyllis, more than anything. Maybe. If it did have some kind of magical properties, it wasn't showing any off, at least for the time being. And, on that note, Rhea's face slowly turned red from emberassment. This was probably the most childish result she could imagine- trying to create lightning, and instead creating an artistic representation of lightning. And not even a very good one at that. "...M...maybe i'll... figure it out later..." She murmured, a bit dejected by the result of the attempt.

Several quick taps on the top of the ventcrawler's head brought her attention back up towards the pilot. Said pilot had a smile on her face, thought it looked like she was a big smug... Must be the eyes. "Hey. You did it, even if it's not right an' proper yet! Though, the fact that it's still around is... Well, that's interesting, might have plenty of potential applications..." The elder redhead trailed off, staring into the purplized lightning before her.

Rhea mumbled after her attention was brought back to the pilot. "you sure you aren't just making fun of me?" Rhea kept a hold of the oddly shaped Echyllis Crystal, with a grumble. Though, at least she didn't seem to totally lose all hope of trying to do magic.

"Not my style of teaching. ...Okay, maybe it sometimes is, but not now," Aradia corrected with a chuckle. "I need t'learn a bit more about you before I can do that, anyways. Most obvious point would be your height, but," the magician stood up straight to make an example of herself, continuing, "Not really any different in that department, myself!"

Rhea harumphs, and then stands up next to Aradia to measure out their own respective heights real quick. "So you're not making fun of me right now, but you want to, right?" Rhea almost grins at that.

"Yup!" Aradia responded with a tilt of her head. It was weird to look at someone without having to look, well, up at them. "Makes it more fun to learn that way, at least in my experience. Long as it's not bullying, though, since that only makes it worse."

Rhea pouted a bit, particularly upon discovering she was infact, very slightly shorter than Aradia. The world just isn't fair. "Well, thank you for, teaching me, or at least, trying to, what you have so far... Maybe I'll figure this stuff out later." She said, setting the weird lightning echyllis down.

"Want to go ask for hot chocolate to be made, or something? It's one of my favorites." Rhea continued as she took Aradia and started practically trying to drag her off to the kitchen. It definetely wasn't becuase she had stolen from said kitchen at least once so far that she needed a face to ask for it in her stead.

It was surprisingly easy to drag the magician around. For someone who can spend a lot of her energy on magical.... Spookiness, Aradia sure wasn't physically fit. Not a lotta weight to her at all! She was, however, chuckling to herself - Rhea was gonna be surprised when she realized that the Sivins family had a mean hot cocoa recipe... Kept as a family secret, of course.


 
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