Touch (Training)

[Lu Gavima]

Winter, Day 55, AV 511

The night was cool, the winds blowing at Lu's back as he sat in the courtyard of the Pavilion. Leth's light was accompanied by Zintila's many eyes, looking down on her devoted son. In his hands he held his staff, his palms raised toward the sky. Its weight rolled back and forth over the skin of his palms as they read the smooth surface of the wood. he let it roll out to the tips of his fingers and then toward him until it rested in the crooks of his elbows. His eyes followed the motion of the weapon, the way it rolled, the brief indentations it made in his skin as it trailed over its surface. Every detail was paramount for the exercise he planned.

After half a bell of intent study of the movement of arm and arms, Lu placed the staff on the ground before him. His breathing became still and even as he held his arms in fists, elbows bent at his sides. The practice of detaching had become more disciplined and fluid with the use of it, though Lu always remained vigilant to allow the transition to be as smooth as possible. It took mere moments and his physical arms were hanging at his sides, the backs of his hands against the ground, palms open with the release of physical tension.

Now he could see the hazy outline of his astral arms. To remain focused, he had kept them in the form they had been in while still inside his arms of flesh. He looked at them, his vision searching for the minute details they possessed. The bones of his arm, the turn of muscles. While they were illusory constructs in the astral arms, they were part of the process as far as recalling the whole picture. He pushed them out, stretching them. He watched his astral fingers curl and uncurl as the blue ethereal limbs turned and moved.

His understanding of their manipulation and extension via Projection was varied. He watched them move ahead, stretching beyond the length of the staff. He pressed his fingers into the dust on the ground, his name appearing there, written by invisible fingers. He smiled, drawing in the limbs until the dusty fingers pressed against the surface of the staff. While an opposite configuration visually, Lu now imagined the wood rolling against his fingers again. This time, though, the staff rolled beneath his astral manipulation.

[Lu Gavima]

His success in moving the staff, hearing it roll against the gravel and sand of the courtyard floor, gave Lu a giddy excitement. He let himself indulge in the pride of his actions, but only briefly. He knew that it could easily become overgiving if left to its own devices. He still wore a grin as he increased the pressure on his staff, slowing its roll to a stop. The concept of applying pressure had to be ingrained in one's mind in order to effectively use Projection. The astral body lacked the sensations that the physical body often took for granted, so concepts like touching and holding an object were much more complex tasks than one might suspect.

This was often the downfall of Acolytes who wished to jump directly into using a weapon with Projection. Without the basics of holding the weapon properly and with enough force to mimic the strength of forearms, wrists and hands, the weapon became a hindrance. So, as the saying went, one must learn to crawl before learning to walk. Lu turned his astral hands over, his mind seeing the circular motion as wrists, though they allowed for complete rotation when not attached to solid joints and muscle groups. He watched as hazy blue thumbs looped over the length of the staff's wood, completing the grip.

Carefully standing, his focus split between using his physical and astral body simultaneously. The effort was great, though either action would be natural in its own parts. It made the Acolyte question why he was able to use it so naturally when training, when seconds mattered. His tingling butterflies of excitement and pride resurfaced with the act's completion, causing him to attempt to swing the staff in this perception of grip. The staff did swing out and then passed through his ethereal hand, bouncing and rolling along the floor before him with a rattling clatter.

[Lu Gavima]

While walking toward the fallen staff, Lu kept his attention on the astral arm, extending it before him. When he reached the length of two men from it, he stopped. While he used the illusion of musculature to aid in his finer control with his astral body, he knew that the astral body could extend beyond the limits of the flesh. He watched the arm push and stretch to the staff, its hazy fingers nearing it.

Once his hand arrived at the staff, he would retract it to its normal length. His feet went into a solid stance, his body turned slightly. He began to extend, grasp, release and retract his arm. Repetition. Practice makes the master. He followed his breaths, exhalation with the push, inhalation with the grasp, exhalation with the release, inhalation with the retraction. It could have been the focus or something else, but each time he grasped the staff, he could almost see a thin outline around its body. It was a minor detail and he did not allow him to deviate from his method.

After several chimes of this repetitive activity, he allowed his astral arm to release the staff midway through the retraction, catching it firmly with his physical hand. He would then fold his elbow and throw the staff back out, reaching out and catching it with the astral arm, retracting it and tossing it to his physical arm. To the gathering Initiates, who studied Lu's technique from the shadow, he appeared to throw the staff out and it would stop in midair and lash back into his hand, as if it were attached to some kind of cord.

[Lu Gavima]

Lu was mostly unaware of the gathering Initiates until he heard one sneeze. His attention turned to the sound as the young boy darted for cover. The second of lost focus cost him smartly, as the retracting staff smacked him across the side of his head, dropping to the floor with a clattering rattle. He quickly rubbed at the sore, stinging spot, his eyes turning to the young ones. They couldn't help but laugh and soon the young Acolyte followed suit. Had their places been reversed, he would surely have been laughing at the sight.

Sliding his toes beneath the staff, he kicked it up and into his physical hand's grip. Still smiling, he lifted the staff above his head. His eyes turned up to see his astral hand also reaching up and he tossed the staff over to it, making it appear to float vertically above his head. He watched it and leveled the weapon out before him, parallel to the ground. Extension with an extension weapon.. Before the though could congeal fully,, his astral arm was already gripping the end closest to Lu, pushing out to the area where the Initiate who had sneezed was last seen. The other end of the staff could be heard hitting with a thud against the wall opposite him, the boy jumping out of the way.

Lu's smiles began to come easier ans he would retract and extend the pole, its hard length sailing across the room with a greater speed and force. His body was covered in a light second skin of sweat, but his focus was fully attached to the astral limb and its actions. Until a sharp cry was heard. One of the Initiates, a young blond girl, was on the ground rubbing her calf.Lu let the wooden weapon fall, his arm returning slowly to its physical vessel.

By the time he was stooping next to the young girl, his arm was nearly together again, only his wrist and hand still crawling back inside their counterparts.

"Are you alright, Initiate?"

"Yes, Acolyte Gavima. Your flying staff just caught me off guard is all."

Lu could see slight mist rising in her eyes. Be it from the pain or the sting of embarrassment, he didn't want her to suffer needlessly in front of the others. Lifting her chin with his now reoccupied hand, he smiled and winked.

"Why don't you go back to the Monastery and rest, Initiate. Tomorrow you can practice avoidance with me."

He smiled and watched her eyes light up, a few drops escaping her green eyes anyway. He had said the second part loud enough for the others to hear, the first part just for her. Rising and helping her to her feet, he motioned to te others.

"Help your Sister back to the Monastery. We are all family. No one gets left behind."

[Legion]

Thread Award Lu Auristics +3, Staff +3, Projection +4 Consequence & Commentary Nicely bundled little training thread. As ever, feel free to PM with questions and concerns.