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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:50:47 GMT -6
Which was probably why he had left it for so long, especially since in the meantime Avander hadn’t actually manifested any such ability in a more dangerous, uncontrolled form, the way he had with some of his other new powers.
But they had to do it eventually if Avander was to make use of it, and Aster did want him to be able to utilize the full extent of his abilities. And so, on a particularly windy day, Aster gathered all of his fishing things, and hopped onto Avander’s back so the Wiurn could fly them down to the river for another training session.
{Do you even manage to catch anything like this?} Avander said, setting down with a last powerful beat of his wings. He knew from Aster’s mood and countenance that they were going to be training, even though Aster hadn’t explicitly said anything to that effect.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:51:17 GMT -6
“You see me bring the fish home,” Aster pointed out, even though it was also understood that Avander was doing this more or less purely to be snide.
{Not very big fish,} Avander replied with a pointed look.
“No,” Aster agreed, staring at the water’s surface with a dubious expression. “It really doesn’t seem like there are a lot of those around here, does it?” It had troubled him a little, but not so much that he felt compelled to dwell on it for any length of time. After all, he did well enough for food and money now, so fishing really was more of a hobby and a pastime… And sometimes that strange trader in town wanted some of these little things in exchange for a magic crystal, so there was always that, he supposed.
He did take some time setting up his fishing equipment, as he always did.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:51:50 GMT -6
He probably didn’t catch as many fish as he could have if he had taken it more seriously… And possibly the fish he caught could have been larger too, if he applied himself. But to be honest, he mostly came out here these days because it was out of the way, and there wouldn’t be anyone else around to disturb them. Or to be disturbed, for that matter, since a lot of the stuff Avander did these days had the potential for some real collateral damage if anyone else was caught in the mix.
Just to be safe, he turned to Avander. “You see anyone?” he said.
Avander obliged him, or maybe it was better to say the Wiurn humored him, by rising up on his hind legs and stretching out his long neck, the better to see further over the flat grassy area that bordered the river.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:52:37 GMT -6
{No,} Avander replied. {No one’s here. And no surprise, considering this wind. Why did you want to come out today, of all days? There's some kind of reason, isn't there?}
“Yeah, well, see, that’s the thing…” Aster rubbed the back of his neck, trying to marshal his thoughts into an explanation. Even now, he wasn’t sure how exactly he was going to pitch this. “One of the things you should be able to do is… Ah, damn it.” Running both hands through his hair, he shook his head, then sighed. “Here. Watch me do some wind magic first. See if you… feel anything.”
Avander seemed confused, but seeing as Aster hadn’t asked him to do anything outside the scope of his capabilities - or even anything difficult, for that matter - he didn’t protest, and complied. Aster took a breath, and harnessed the wind magic at his disposal.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:52:53 GMT -6
It was easy to find, being the first node he had ever attuned himself to, and one of the ones in his possession that had been made using his own blood. He couldn’t do what Avander apparently would be able to do, but he could manipulate wind in other ways. He had never envisioned it as a ‘pulling’ of the air around him, but now he tried to do just that. If the wind moving around them existed as various lines, or strings running through the air toward some sort of end point… If he tugged at them with the power within the node, and bent them to his will…
A whirlwind formed in front of them, coalescing in a whirl of energy. It looked like a tiny, contained tornado, and Aster had seen it before, back when he was still experimenting with spells. It dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, leaving nothing in its wake.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:53:15 GMT -6
Aster really hoped Avander had been paying attention.
He turned to look at the Wiurn, to see what kind of reaction Avander had. Fortunately, it did look as if Avander had been paying attention, and now he appeared to be thinking things over. {Okay,} Avander said. {I tried to follow along. It makes my head hurt, but… This is one of those ‘thought exercises’, right? For when you teach me weird stuff.}
Aster let out a dry huff of laughter at that. “‘Weird stuff’, you say… But yeah, more or less. It’s just a different kind of ‘weird stuff’ than the ones we’ve been doing recently.”
{Right… Well, I don’t really get it, but you want me to try something similar to what you just did, right?}
“Yeah, but don’t… don’t try to give it a shape like I did. Just up to the part where you ‘pull’ on the ‘strings’. I want to see what happens.”
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:53:33 GMT -6
Aster clocked the blank look that Avander gave him, and waved at him with a hand. “It’s okay if it doesn’t work out. I’ll go through it with you if I have to.” It wasn’t like he hadn’t done similar things before, walking Avander through the mental gymnastics required to do a particularly complicated or esoteric move.
He just wanted to see where this got them, if it was a solid starting point at all or what. It was the best he could come up with, but it was possible that it would fail and they’d just end up back at square one.
But they wouldn’t know until they tried. Or, more precisely, until Avander tried.
Avander wasn’t exactly eager to do this, but by this point it wasn’t so unusual for him either, what with all the other strange abilities he’d learned to navigate as of late.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:53:57 GMT -6
So without much fuss, he closed his eyes, and began to concentrate on the new exercise that Aster had set for him. Aster, standing back and watching him, wasn’t sure what to look for or even where to look. What was going to happen? Would he see it or would he feel it?
That question was answered rather sooner than he had expected. He sure didn’t see anything, but there was the tangible sense of something moving. The wind around them seemed to slow, and then to distort, and Aster could feel that flow of air drawing around Avander. It wasn’t quick, the way the tornado was, but it was definitely something.
And then Avander opened his eyes, and it went away - but not before a sizzle of electricity sparked through the air, surprising them both.
“Well,” said Aster, impressed in spite of himself. “That went better than I expected.”
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:54:14 GMT -6
{It was strange,} Avander said. He shook himself, as if trying to rid himself of insects. {That’s going to take some getting used to.}
“Good news then, we’re going to keep practicing at it,” Aster said. Avander blew a long breath, but this wasn’t a surprise anymore either. It was always like this, practice and more practice, until Avander got something down. And they’d only made one attempt so far, so there was a long way for them to go.
{Okay,} Avander said. {You want me to do anything different this time?}
“No,” Aster said after a moment’s thought. “It… sort of looked like you got it the first time, actually. Just keep going for it. You’ll probably naturally get faster as you get used to doing it.” That was how it had happened with a lot of other things in the past, so right now Aster didn’t feel compelled to rush Avander.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:54:34 GMT -6
It really had been a very good first attempt, especially considering that even Aster hadn’t known exactly how things were supposed to turn out. “Ah, wait, we’ve got to decide on a signal for it, huh? How about ‘twist’?”
{Got it,} Avander said. When Aster gave him the newly minted signal, he closed his eyes and tried again.
The second attempt went much like the first, but rather than creating sparks on dissipation like the first time, there was a lingering heat in the air instead. Avander looked to Aster for an explanation, but Aster didn’t know, and for the moment they chose to just proceed onward without paying it much mind.
By the fourth attempt though, Avander was clearly beginning to tire, so Aster let him have a break, while he himself returned to his fishing. Avander chose to doze off at his side, and Aster spent a mostly unproductive afternoon waiting for fish to bite.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:54:46 GMT -6
At least the weather was warming up. If it were any colder, he might have just packed things up and gone back home as soon as Avander got too tired to continue with the training.
They returned a day later for another session. Since it was one of those weirder abilities, Aster didn’t want Avander to lapse in the recall for very long, especially early on, when he didn’t have as good a grasp of it. Avander was, once again, not exactly eager, but still obliging.
“Twist,” Aster said. It took a little more time, but Avander replicated the phenomenon that Aster had seen him display the day before. The winds weren’t as strong today, which might have had something to do with it, but he managed it, in the end.
To give him a bit of a mental break from doing this, Aster decided to give him a few other commands between repetitions.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:55:06 GMT -6
So now they went through some of his more basic tricks for a bit, before Aster asked him to do it again. The second attempt was faster, if not by much. Still, it was a good sign to see that he was slowly getting the hang of it. “Okay, now give me a tail strike,” Aster said.
Avander swung his tail… and a burst of light followed. Aster and Avander were both left stunned for a moment, before Avander turned incredulously to Aster. {Is that supposed to happen?} he said.
Aster racked his brain for answers, but his knowledge didn’t cover this one. “Maybe?” he said. “Let’s just… take a breather, and try it again.” Avander seemed dubious, but it wasn’t as though he had any better ideas, so after a short break they reconvened to try again.
The wind manipulation was almost an afterthought this time.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:55:23 GMT -6
Aster gave him the same follow-up command: “Tail strike.” This time, when Avander’s tail arced toward the target, it was followed by a streak of icy energy. “A different element, huh…” Aster recalled the sparks that had followed their first attempt, and the heat that had followed the second.
“Hey, humor me for a bit. This time, when you do ‘twist’, I want you to think of water after. It seems like there’s some sort of… residual energy that stays behind, and I want to see if you can influence what shape it takes.” This was getting into theoretical territory, but part of training was experimenting to see what you could and couldn’t do… And they were somewhere remote enough that they didn’t have to worry too much about collateral damage.
At this point, it was hardly the strangest thing Avander had ever been asked to do, so he just went with it.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:55:52 GMT -6
And sure enough, when Aster asked him for a tail-strike after, it produced a watery splash on impact.
“Huh,” Aster said. “That’s interesting, isn’t it?”
The practical applications were certainly food for thought. If Avander could use this to change the elemental alignment of some of his other attacks… But that experiment was going to have to wait for another day. Avander was already complaining of a headache again, and for his sake, Aster didn’t want to push him too hard, even if the curiosity was eating away at him.
The reprieve only lasted out the day, however. The next day saw them back again, trying more of the same.
This time, Aster asked him to do a variety of other moves, starting with body slam, which was more or less similar; and then moving onto less physical things like his sonic blast and his ice breath.
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Post by Noa on Mar 3, 2021 19:56:22 GMT -6
The elements changed after he did his strange bit of wind magic, but only if he performed them directly after, within a relatively short window of time; the residual magic whatever it was didn’t last very long. And Avander had to really concentrate to manifest the proper element, though Aster was optimistic that he would grow more proficient at that with practice, at least.
It took a lot of practice though, which necessarily had to be spaced out to lessen the strain on Avander’s mind. Two weeks’ worth of fishing trips and experiments happened before Aster could finally pronounce himself satisfied with the results. Maybe he was being a little too picky, since Avander had been able to produce more or less the desired effects right from the start, but Aster wanted him to be able to do it quickly and consistently before he would call it good and done.
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