[Silver Sliver Tavern] Clashing of Minds (Clyde Sullins)

by **Lizzy MacBeth** on October 28th, 2012, 7:16 am

"Hmph," Lizzy let his responses slide for a moment as she fiddled with the journal, knowing full-well that her food was getting cold as time went by conversing with this.. rude man. Was the only description she could give for him in her mind, "People speak in a round about way, it's hard to tell when someone is giving a concise answer, or when they play with their words, you obviously had answered my question if you lit the candle, but now I am asking how you did so, so naturally I assumed you were the giving me answers, apparently they were flighty enough to make them seem like an exact reasoning" she finished off with a controlled inhale of air, releasing it slowly- she had talked so fast just then. Taking a small sip of her wine to clear her throat a bit; setting the glass down as he sat down in front of her.

Letting the childish part of the conversation slide for later use, and adding a small sigh when he asked if she was happy he was sitting in front of her "oh yes, I'm so ecstatic over you sitting with me, why, I could die from the sheer joy I'm feeling right now" Lizzy sarcastically retorted to him, she was hard to understand, she was hard to please but now the conversation had gone a tad dead, perhaps for the best, she was feeling slightly peturbed over the fact he was much, much bigger than herself. Looking back at her food, she set the journal on the table to avoid any more mishap with it, namely food stains, and then she began to eat. Ooo, calling me a child.. I am a grown woman of 19 years old, anything BUT a child, Lizzy thought annoyedly to herself.

Between a bite, she paused and looked at him "Rhysol forbid you starting candle fires with my hair, I know it's red, but that doesn't mean it's immune to flame- and NO I don't want to put that to a test." It was such a random comment towards him, she had to interject after 'red' to fix the awkwardness, feeling as if he might want to test it out. That when he admitted to the candle, as to what, something special, she seemed to freeze up a bit, eyes going a little wide towards his comment. Special ability, what would be... Voiding? But how. How?! Lizzy entered a mental panick mode, but the most she showed on the outside was surprise or rather, disbelief, which quickly turned itself into anger to shield herself from letting such personal information out.

"With something similar to a special ability of mine? You hardly know me." The deer shined upon with light fled her features and returned with a shield and arms, "you sir, are crazy, it takes flint and steel to make a fire, I hardly believe you that a 'special' ability can make fire. Not even.." She didn't finish her sentence, actually, it dropped off as if she were reconsidering what she was about to say. Even her demeanor, it wasn't expertly hidden, it was floundering over the fact her magic may have been figured out by a complete stranger. Let alone being announced in the public, that wasn't something people talked about, so maybe he was speaking of something different? He had to be "okay, so whats similar about us? Arguing? Making points? I don't think you can light a candle by having a conversation with it."

It had to be that.

by **Clyde Sullins** on October 28th, 2012, 9:28 pm

As Clyde had learned what he had wanted, that she was indeed a magic user, he began to withdraw his aura vision, lessening the flow of djed to his eyes, till it cut off. He did not want to overexert himself, and even such a simple use of auristics had him feeling a bit tired, due to his low skill in it.

However as he began to pull back, he felt the brush of her aura once more, and accidentally did something, perhaps unconsciously, for the first time. He used auristics to touch her. Well, not technically to touch her, he had not come into physical contact. But he had used his reading of her aura, and used one of its commonly used facets to take in a physical sense, that of the touch of her skin.

A feeling rather like skin rubbing against his own, flashed through his mind, as he felt her skin... It was softer than his own, she probably took reasonable care of it, unlike his own rougher skin, though he had felt softer... But he could not helping it unnerve him a bit, and tried to play it off by a cough, and a quick drink of his ale, but not to well.

Due to his distraction, he had missed part of what she had said, and he looked back to listen to what she further said, working to pay attention now that his aura vision was completely gone... Thankfully the bit he had missed had not really required an answer, or at least so it appeared.

Catching the end of her last bit of speech, he grinned, and answered back. "Well, maybe if your nice, I will think about it, and wont have to do so... But I make no promises..."

"And maybe I don't know you to well, but don't let that fool you into thinking I can't know you. There are ways for people to learn of things, if they so choose, and decide to put some effort into learning."

The last bit she said though... It simply made him grin, in a rather fiendish way, as he decided a good way to mess with her, and perhaps loosen her up by showing her that he did indeed have such abilities as he said, like but unlike hers.

"Can't light a candle by conversating with it! I take you up on that bet. I bet my next ale it can be done."

Leaning forward, he brought his hands around to cup the head of the candle at this table, so that all of it was covered from her view, and only a small opening on his side, were the palms of his hands met. He brought his face up to that small opening between his hands, and spoke into it, letting a small mist of res float out on his words.

"Excuse me candle, but would you please light?" He said loud enough for her to hear, but not so loud for it to carry.

Then leaning back, he kept his hands cupped there, and soaked the gaseous res into the candle wick. With his thoughts alone, he set it alight, and pulled his hands back to reveal a slowly sputtering flame, like one from a freshly lit candle would look.

"Your turn!" He said, a smile on his face.

by **Lizzy MacBeth** on October 29th, 2012, 11:31 pm

"Tch." Lizzy exhasperated over the thought of her hair burning, turning her head slightly and raising her chin in a prissy 'I'm better than you' way "I'm sorry, but I believe it's impossible to know someone within a few hours, I may be conversing with you now but that doesn't mean I'll let you know anything about me." She lifted her glass up for another sip of her wine, when she had just noticed it was gone, had she been drinking it in small amounts the whole time? Pouring another glass, her cheeks were tinged a little red from the amount of alcohal but she kept cool; right, slow the drinking down tiger.. Lizzy thought to herself, glancing at the cup and then back to him, feeling a tad drunk.

Something wasn't right, she was conversing with someone she didn't know, and now here he was thinking candles could respond to a voice. What blasphemy, such things didn't happen normally, she watched as he spoke into his hands- as if making a wish. Rolling her eyes, she muttered "lunatic.." as he leaned forwards to the candle. Even she was a tad curious and began to lean forwards as well, she wanted to see what he was doing behind his hands. Yet, when he relaxed again and showed her the candle, it was alive! Burning, as if it had always had been, "wh-what?" Lizzy spluttered, blinking at the candle and then to him, she was utterly confused at what had happened just then. Snapping her gaze at the wine glass, to the pitcher, back to the glass, her eyes going from surprise to disblief as she set it down.

Rubbing between her eyes with her thumb and forefinger "thats impossible" she whispered, "I must have had too much, this is just a hallucination. Candles don't have minds like us.." she remained like that for a few moments, collecting her thoughts, how did he do that? Was there anything he could have done to trick her, especially behind his hands? Maybe it was a magic trick? The pompous girl strained her memory for anything involving fire, but only found the emptyness of her own magic, heaving a sigh she glared at him "Okay," you want to play like that, she thought a little darker "have it your way, I can play a magic trick as well. I'll make that candle disapear, without touching it- and in your plain sight."

Wait, what was she saying? Doing? Lizzy paused, froze as if she were contemplating first about what she was about to do, she was being far too loose to be doing these things but at the same time she just didn't give a petch now. Why not do it? What was the worst that could happen?

Glancing around, paranoidly, she lifted her right hand to the side of the candle in hopes of avoiding detection of any onlookers. Lizzy held her hand up to the side of the candle, not directly in front of it but far enough to shield whatever she as about to do as her other hand did the same except her fingers were lax and held apart from eachother. The first step she had to take was relax, though the alcohal had taken care of that quickly, next she had to even her breathing and with each breath she would empty her mind to a clear, calm nothing, before building the djed up in front of the candle, trying to control it into a small pin sized ball. The hand that was gently open next to the area she wanted to open of a portal, the fingers twitched; Index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and finally the pinky with the thumb remaining still as a constant to feed the djed further.

"Drain," she breathed out quietly, letting her eyes open as the spark word fed the small ball and turned it into a tiny swirling black circular vortex of nothingness within a chime.

It was smaller than she could see at such a close distance so she fed it a steady release of her djed, keeping it as even as she could the small vortex grew into the size of her hand if not a little smaller. Keeping a rather stoic expression, she reached for the small candle and fed it to the portal, letting it drop in just as she felt her finger tips begin pulling towards the small vortex, thusly taking her hand away and cutting off the connection of djed so the portal would collapse and leave her breathless. The hard look on her face gave way to euphoria, though, could that have been from the alcohal, or the feeling from casting magic? Lizzy couldn't tell as she sat smugly in her seat and looked at him.

"Ta-da" she simply stated, if anyone else had seen she would be in trouble "well, I may have gone back on a bit of what I said, I did touch it.. But it's gone. Forever." She let out a girlish giggle.

OOC :

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 1st, 2012, 4:08 am

Clyde simply smiled at her... Such a simple way of thinking of things she had...

"There are more ways than one to learn of another person. Much more than just simply talking. You of all people should know that, with what you can do."

Clyde's grin spread even further, as the girl denied the fact of what had clearly just occurred. Tried to deny that the candle was lit, even though he had just done it before her eyes. Or perhaps she was just shocked by it.

As she blustered on, and promised to make it dissapear without touching it, he arched a single eyebrow in interest, wondering what exactly she had in mind... He tried to run his mind through what she could possibly do to come to that end, but seemed to be drawing a blank... Certainly a personal magic, he did not think any world magic he knew of could do that... But which personal magic... Though he had already known she most likely did some personal magic, from the djed remnants on her aura...

He watched as she worked her magic, he could feel a slight tingle in the fingers of his aura, as she used the spell so close to him, perturbing the air... For a moment it distorted, and shifted, until it split open, revealing a rent in the air before him...

Then she picked up the candle, and set the candle in the black split in the air, and the nothing ate it up, allowing it to vanish inside, just before the rent closed sealing itself and leaving no trace... Interesting...

Voiding! That was what it was called! He could not recall why it was so named, but he had been shown the magic by Hadrian long ago during their magecrafting, and he had called it that... But what was the void? A place? He had mentioned voiding, and the void... Was this small black hole the void, or an entrance into it, like a window? That seemed to make more sense...

"A interesting little trick... If a bit empty... Perhaps you could show me how to do that. I would be interested to know how it is done... Perhaps I could show you a little something to, in exchange, to make your work a bit easier next time... To help you focus. So, what do you call that little trick there?"

by **Lizzy MacBeth** on November 3rd, 2012, 5:35 pm

"Knowing what you could show me, won't do, I want to know what cards you're putting on the table first, as well as how much you're willing to go through in order to learn before I can put my cards down as well," Lizzy finished off, leaning forwards a bit due to the alchohal making her a little more relaxed in her frame and actions. The word 'friend' had seemed a bit forced out, as if she had been trying to think of something else to call him. Not knowing his name "personally, I would really love to know how you lit those candles."

"Since none of us has taken the initiative, what are you called?" Lizzy questioned as she leaned backwards again, and then stated "I am Eliza MacBeth, people..who I consider worthy, call me Lizzy."

There was no offer to shake hands, or a curtsy, nor any formality to her introduction; she had partly hoped there would be more fear, a reason for her to be rid of him if he was scared of what she had done, she could scare him away but that wasn't the case. Rolling her eyes lightly, she waved a waitress to the both of them and ordered a refill on the wine pitcher. If it had been something djed related, then the wine at the establishment was definitely not spiked, Lizzy reasoned with herself.

"Though talking about this in public is horrendous... as well as displaying, what I did earlier is called Voiding," she simply put out there, a name was nothing, telling him how it was done.. Well, that was more complicated for Lizzy and she preffered not to go into detail what she had to do to accomplish learning said magic, yet, it was the simplest thing ever to be initiated into "now what is it you could show me, or at least the name of what you think will help me with concentration..?"

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 3rd, 2012, 9:52 pm

Clyde simply smiled at her, as she got herself all worked up and got demandy. She certainly was high strung. Strangely enough, Clyde was not, a bit unsually for himself... Maybe though he was more willing to put up with her sass, since he saw an opportunity to learn a new magical skill. It was always helpful to add to his magical repertoire.

"Trust me, I have gone through much worse than anything you could throw at me... I am not one to flinch when learning."

As Clyde said this, he absentmindedly, brushed his fingertips across his face, quickly going past the burns on his face, inadvertently drawing attention to them... He had learned much in his time, and he was not scared of this little girl, and her intimations of an ordeal in learning a new magic... Not after all he had gone through, both in learning magic and reimancy... And in losing it...

"Nice to meet you Eliza... I am Clyde... Clyde Sullins."

Clyde's smile came on again as she told him it was called voiding. He had recalled it right from Hadrian. Good thing he paid attention to details...

Now it seemed it was Clyde's turn, to do some speaking. Or at least, that was what Eliza was demanding of him. He simply smiled at her, thinking of how easily he could set her smug little head on fire.

"Well know... What I did earlier with the candle. That is another thing, but it is not part of the deal. Not what I was speaking of showing you to help you concentrate your ability... Lets just say I have a friendship with fire, and can call upon it if necessary... As you saw when I lit the candle..."

Clyde paused here, for emphasis, giving Eliza another smile, then glancing around to make sure no one was listening, and that the dull background of talking had not cut off... It was easier to hide one voice amongst many, than to be quiet and unnoticeable.

"As for what I was speaking of showing you... Well, the specific thing is aptly called a focus. It helps to focus djed, and draw it to specific points, to concentrate it. So if you say drew a focus on the palm of your hands, you would likely find it easier to channel djed there for your magic, and open a... Void... Above the focus. It is a specific application of Glyphing, which is a much broader skill with many other nuances to it. The focus is one of the easiest bit to use, and the most often used by people using other magics."

Clyde smiled,. looking at Eliza, to see how she took it all.

"So, I show you how to make a focus, which will help you in using your magic... And you show me how to make a void like you did, and explain its nuances and information to me... And then, I will tell you the rest of what you need to know to be able to do glyphing on your own. Sounds like a fair deal to me."

by **Lizzy MacBeth** on November 16th, 2012, 6:11 am

Lizzys eyes hadn't been exactly on Clyde, since her glasses were off- it was hard to see anything up close without difficulty. But her eyes had caught the blurry movement he was making towards his face with his hand as he spoke, so she put her glasses on and focused a bit more clearly on his facial features. Grimacing at what she saw, burns were on his face, but past those he was rather attractive with the bright blue eyes and messy looking brown hair- if not for the burns.

"Clyde Sullins," Lizzy repeated, as an echo of his own introduction, he didn't sound familliar or rather important to her, but since he wasn't reacting in a totally bad way over the bit of magic performed and he wasn't calling her out on it and was also a mage "It's a pleasure."

"Well why is it not apart of the deal? Fire creates light, and light is detrimental to finding ones way in the dark where there is nothing," she was relaxed, a bit confused over the lack of true explanation of what he had done, but inquisitive nonetheless before shrugging after a moment of thought- if he could 'control' fire or at least ask it to do things then she might not want to irk him by pestering him on more about it, lest she'd find.. a fire monster..? Or something chasing after her, the thought was amusing, if not a bit frightening..but if push came to shove she could try to void his fire friends away.

Readjusting the spectacles on her face as she leaned forwards to listen to him, she might as well be happy- she was learning something that might help...with 'it' not going out of control. Biting back interruptions as she paid attention to him, a rare courtesy she granted to others when she was speaking with them. Until he was completely finished speaking, Lizzy tapped her fingers against the table, turning over the information while at the same time trying to ignore the buzzed feeling.

Why wasn't I taught this 'glyping' along side voiding? Lizzy pondered, lightly within her mind, feeling jilted over never being shown such an application early on. Might have made everything so much more easier.

"So," Lizzy started off, "this 'focus' you're speaking of, is...like meditation? It seems to have the same concept," Lizzy furrowed her eyes, now not looking at him but at nothing as she let the gears spin "and it would create automatic voids, then how do you not know of voiding? Or is it used for a wide vareity of magic? Like your 'fire friends'?" She made a gesture with both her hands, both fore fingers and middle fingers making up and down motions at the words 'fire friends'.

Letting her hands fall back to the table, from was once a concentrated expression on her face turned to a sharp gaze underneath the spectacles "I can't show you how to do it, I can tell you certain things, but showing? No. Thats not how it works, or at least, that was not how I was initiated into voiding" The straight line for a mouth remained tight, not even alcohal could deter her from being whimsy on the topic "I'll take you up on the offer, but..." Lizzy didn't finish her sentence, trying to decide how to go about this, what had her tutor done? What had she done to be initiated? What was said? Petch it, she was never good with 'teaching' in the first place...she didn't know how to proceed on this, how would she 'teach' him voiding?

One does not simply show one how to void "I'm not exactly sure how to go about this, just that you remain isolated for a very long time until you understand the meaning of empty.. Isolation, as in, no contact with people whatsoever, bare necessities, little food, little water....few candles...." Lizzys expression couldn't have gone any more darker as she listed off things, now the effects of the alcohal had seeped in, she was beginning to ramble a bit as she tried to think of how to show him, or at least let him know how so she could learn this glyphing?

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 16th, 2012, 7:57 pm

Clyde just smiled, as she tried to bargain with him, trying to include his reimancy, of which he had yet to name. As she tried to get him to teach her that magic, he just let out a grin, stared her in the eyes, and said... "No."

The last thing he needed to do was get into initiating another person into reimancy. It was not exactly easy on him, more mentally than physically... People always spoke of magic in awe... Of what wizards could do... And really, big flashy shows of magic were easy for him. Natural almost, to do such large things...

But initiation was different... It required finesse, and a amazing amount of control and restraint... It was so hard to not give in to his impulses, and use it to his full extent... To hold the magic back... To only do the set task of initiation... It was so hard mentally, and exhausting, to do so... Even the slightest slip, transmuting the tiniest bit of res into an element during the process, would most likely be fatal to the person... People did no realize the burden he was going through when he did it... Nor the pain of that particular initiation.

"No. That is not on the table. Glyphing is. Take it or leave it."

But as she continued, trying to speak of what she thought he had said of glyphing, he frowned. Had she listened at all?

"Do not jump to conclusions, and try to infer what glyphing does, from what I have said. It does exactly as I say, nothing more. It cannot create magic, and certainly cannot create voids."

He let out a sigh... He was a good teacher, but he had a feeling this one might be a bit tricky...

"Listen carefully. I will start with the basics. I will tell you exactly what glyphing is, and can do, and cannot. Alright? Now, it is not some magical art that lets you create magic from nothing. That is foolish. Glyphing is simple in principle, even if not in execution. Glyphing, manipulates magic and djed. Nothing more. Now, in the case of a focus, it helps you to draw djed to a certain area, which can help in concentration and execution. At higher levels it can even capture magic. But it does not make it cost any less djed, and it does not do magic on its own. It can be used for anything that works via djed and magic, which includes your voids, and my fire magic. And much more. But all it does is manipulate and influence these other magics, it does not do anything on its own. A glyph with no magic to interact with, is impotent."

Clyde listened as she explained voiding to him, or at least, how one was initiated into it... But, usually things such as this could be sped up a bit, if done under a teachers hand... And this was not his first magic. Working his djed and feeling it was already something he knew how to do... So he had a bit of a start in that regard... He smiled at her once more, as she tried to explain things, and said she did not really know how to do so...

"Well then, we can figure that out in time... But first, why don't you explain to me the major principles of the magic... What it does exactly, how it works... The exact extent of its power, or perhaps the mechanism through which the magic is done. Surely as in glyphing, there are some idea or specific terms upon which the magic is based. And perhaps explain what you do in your mind, when you are opening a void... Perhaps then I could understand it better."

by **Lizzy MacBeth** on November 24th, 2012, 4:59 am

Right, how silly of her to assume she knew such things when he was the one teaching her, Lizzy nodded to him, it seemed he liked to talk- and that was just fine with her.

Basically what Glyphing sounded to be, as he explained, was nothing- without meaning until another magick stepped in to fill a void. Hah, she was so funny, making a witty, albeitly mental pun in her head over voiding and its' less than, vacum like matterless hole. For something to spark it, it needed life, just like any item- a fire maybe? After all you couldn't make fire without the correct tools or matiriel to burn, it was a partner, perhaps in buisness, the magick the idea and the glyphing for faster production. Lizzy kept making little, real world connections to his explanation, understanding best when she had examples within her mind. Hopefully she was getting the point of his explanation, taking into account the word 'manipulation' was said a little longer, empathized a little harder.

Then perhaps Glyphing was a politician, a debater, or a snake oil salesman? No, no, she couldn't attempt to personify the magic, but it seemed.. to fit right, correctly. Images of a vendor selling goods, catching the eye of the customer, offers something to the customer that they would be more efficient and productive than they would have been before? Yeah, that seemed about right to Lizzy.

"So Glyphing would be like a merchant?" She blurted the words out before she could stop herself, making small gestures as if trying to explain what she had just meant "er, I mean, metaphorically- as in, perhaps Glyphing.. if you were to make it into a person.. offers the customer.. i.e. the other magick, something that makes them work faster, and with greater chance to enhance themselves, to be ready.. er.."

Facepalming herself, where was she getting at? That was surely the stupidest connection she had ever come up with in such a short period of time whilst buzzed.

Sighing, she peeked through the spaces inbetween her fingers at him, a tiresome feeling washing over her "voiding is.. it's nothing, empty, what goes in- can never return, it works like a trash can really. It's.. not exactly easy, but neither is it.. hard.. You just need to focus on a point and let it.. drain of it's meaning to the point, when you let the djed spark it, it'll open a black hole; a void. I don't use it all too often, but when I do- it has a pull to it, to go to the other side. It's not something you should use while moving either, Rhysol forbid that act, you might lose a limb or two if it's big enough" she let her hand drop as she had explained, watching from under her spectacles "does that make sense? Or am I just spouting nonsense?"

by **Clyde Sullins** on November 29th, 2012, 2:56 am

Clyde just took her nod as acceptance, and understanding, to what he was saying. Perhaps he could be a bit harsh when teaching, he knew, but compared to the teachers he had in his past, he was a dandy. In his mind, he was just getting his message across in a clear concise manner.

He thought for a moment, upon her odd metaphor, of comparing glyphing to a merchant... Honestly, it was not the way he would have described it... But perhaps there was something relevant to Ravok, and both of their lives, to which he could relate it to.

After pondering it for a few moments of silence, an idea struck him.

"Perhaps it is. But i think I would think of it more in the terms of... A canal and water. A canal being the glyphing, which guides and manipulates the flow of the water, which is the magic, forces it to go in certain ways, and sometimes makes things go more smoothly... "

Clyde nodded to himself. Yes, that metaphor seemed to work. Perhaps he would use it again if he trained another in glyphing in Ravok... Though he tried to recall... How had he explained it to Gallo? He supposed it had been in another entirely different way.

That was one of the things of teaching. One had to choose your words based on your audience, molding it to better be absorbed into their skull. It was a teaching skill Clyde was getting better at, almost instinctively knowing which way to explain and guide things.

"But the canal, just as with the glyphing, is useless without the water, or magic. Could you imagine a canal sitting there, with no water in it? Laughable! By itself, a canal does nothing, but when you flow water into and through it, it gains meaning and purpose, and is able to manipulate the flow of things."

But now Clyde was listening, taking in what she said, as she spoke of her magic, of voiding... Such an intriguing magical form... He tended to dabble in many different lesser magics, of which he had little skill... But perhaps this would be one he would pursue a bit more...

Though he tried to think of what she said, in a critical way, not just taking for granted what she said, trying to guide her lesson with probative questions... Sometimes, the smallest derivation of a word could make a big difference...

"Now... Is voiding nothing?... or does it lead to nothing? What you showed looked more like a hole in the air... At least from my perspective... Somehow it seems an odd notion, to be creating nothing through magic... Though considering some of the other magics... But it seems... I don't know, more like a gaping maw of a beast, into which things are sucked in and eaten, not a, well nothing in itself..."

Clyde thought some more on her words, trying to piece together meaning, from her sparse description... Paying close attention to hear and observe every word and motion she made.

"You said you use djed, to drain a spot of everything... And then use that to open a hole... Or a void... And you mentioned a other side... What do you mean, when you say another side? And would not that mean the void is more of a doorway to the void, than the actual nothing itself. Or else there would not be another side to it, it would be it."

Clyde thought on his own words, waiting for Eliza to answer his questions, and clear things up a bit.

But also, Clyde needed to continue on a bit more with his own lesson for her.

"I wonder... What sort of symbols have meaning to you the most? Pictogram's or whatever, to represent things, words, letters, shapes? What has meaning?"