Closed Through Flames and Fire (Elna)

[Kanri]

Kanri watched as Elna spun the blowpipe in the blue glass. Kanri did not often work with colored glass, for fear she would waste it, but she figured she would let the Yasi try it out. She felt guilty enough, she couldn't say no.

She was spinning it just fine but she was really taking a lot...

"Yes, that is fine. You should pull it up now. Slowly. And keep spinning it so the glass clump disconnects from the glass in the furnace," Kanri suggested as the thoughts came to her.

Elna seemed to have no trouble. This was not the tricky part anyway.

"Alright, come back to the marver and keep spinning," Kanri told her. As long as she kept that speed and went no slower or faster, the glass wouldn't drip off or fly off anywhere.

She seemed to get that step down just fine as well.

"I don't want to be too obvious, but glass is very hot. Do not touch it and do not let it touch you. It travels slowly, even as hot as it is. Blow gently and steadily into the blowpipe. It might surprise you because it is a little tough to blow. It isn't like blowing bubbles in water, it takes a lot more time and steadiness," Kanri said as they returned to the marble table.

Kanri watched carefully as Elna began to blow a bubble into the blue glass. Since Kanri had no particular goals for this glasswork, it did not have to be perfectly even and there were no requirements for size, thickness or anything. She called for her to stop as soon as the glass looked big enough with thick walls.

"To cool it, you are going to roll it on the marver as evenly as you can so you achieve a round shape," Kanri said simply.

It seemed to be going a little better, now that Elna was working hands on. Kanri felt less stressed too because she did not have to use her words to explain as much any more, as Elna could probably feel most of the instruction Kanri could not explain.

[Elna]

Elna lifted her clump up, she winced slightly when she realized it was bigger then she expected, but Kanri didn't say anything about it so she figured it wasn't an issue. It was heaver then she expected, probably caused by the size of the clump and the unbalance of it being all the way at the end of the long pipe. She stubbled to spin it under the weight at first, not used to being able to use that much finger motion while making sure she wouldn't drop it. After a while she got the rhythm of the spin action although not particularly smoothly.

She carefully moved it to the table. She kept spinning as best she could while slowly walking over. As she arrived at the table she started to blow down on the pipe. Kanri said it would take a lot of lung power to get it going, but she still decided to slowly build her blowing strength. She didn't want to blow to hard all at once and burst a hole though the thing. She gradually blew into it until she saw it move. It wasn't easy multi-tasking, blowing and spinning both at an even pace, and she figured it was going to cause a problem somewhere down the line. But she couldn't focus on the shape of the glass, for focus was already split enough.

At a certain point Kanri called for Elna to stop. It seems at least she was keeping a watch on the state of the glass. It sounded like Elna was in the home stretch, and amazingly enough, had not yet had some spectacular failure. Her attempts to roll it evenly were not quite succeeding however, her form involved large rotations which then stopped to lift her hand up to spin it over again. These large jolty twists weren't doing the glass any favors, with each stop loping the top of the glass side ways. It wasn't leaving the lump, but it could easily be messing up the shape.

Her ending shape was one that moved in waves. It was a pattern that might have looked nice and dynamic if each wave hadn't ben pushed oddly in the opposite direction when it hit the marver. I looked looped over and then shoved ungracefully back to the center in folded over ripples, it wasn't like any other glass work Elna had ever seen so it was unlikely that Elna had some how accidentally stubbled on some advanced technique. She took a closer look at it and could see the inner bubble was far form the center. She could easily see how thin it was on one side when the light breached though it. It was an out of no where light spot and looked awful and was likely as fragile as her ego. She held it up to Kanri to get her opinion. She couldn't bring her self to ask directly, her let her gesture imply she needed it looked at.

[Kanri]

Kanri knew it wasn't going to turn out. Now that she had done it once, it was time to start refining.

"It's..." Kanri knew she needed to choose her next words carefully. "Terrible" wasn't going to go over well and she refrained from saying so. But it wasn't even close to being decent. No one could use it for anything! It was obviously the work of a beginner who had no idea what they were doing, so it couldn't come off as art either. A competent glassblower would have made the lumps on purpose, and they could come off with that class and style.

"It's... Not good," Kanri said finally. "But it was your first attempt. Melt it down and bring it back. My first tip to you next time is to spin more fluidly when it gets to the marver. Not just fast, but smooth. You gotta get a good feel for it. Maybe in the future, you should also avoid using such a big glass slug. Too late now, though. If the next one doesn't work, we'll use a mold, so don't shatter the glass from repeated reheatings." Did that even happen? Kanri didn't know but she didn't want to shatter the glass all the same.

Once Elna left, Kanri let out a sigh of relief. Trying to teach people was tough! It require a lot of patience. She couldn't imagine trying to teach an even younger student. If she was pushed too much, she might yell at the poor, little tyke. And then what? They'd start crying and Kanri would become the target of pranks and insults.

Elna returned and the process began again.

"When you blow, tip it down slightly so you have gravity to help and spin it around often. As you can see, the glass drips very quickly," Kanri suggested, watching the process closely. This time, she called for Elna to stop a little sooner so the edges would be thicker and a little easier to work with.

"Now, hold your hands level to each other, so the glass makes contact evenly with the marver. That's it, that'll create a smoother flow," Kanri instructed, guiding the girl's hands a little. As she continued with a bit more guidance from Kanri, the finishing product came out looking much better and far more even.

[Elna]

Elna could hardly feel offended at being told her work was terrible, she could already tell by looking at it. She never really expected any kind of miracle paperweight that would be the start of her journey of being the best glassblower in all of Wind Reach, she had just kind of inwardly hoped for it. Kanri was dispensing better advice now that she could see what needed to be corrected, but Elna still couldn't shake the feeling that Kanri didn't know what she was doing much more then Elna did.

Elna went to the furnace to reheat her misshapen hunk of glass. She dipped it in with a heavy and defeated sigh, she wasn't any good at this and her teacher was next to useless. Trying to learn glassblowing would likely wind up being a waste of valuable time. She snapped out of her self-defeating daze before overheating the glass, no matter how bad she was she needed to at least pay attention to prevent some horrific accident.

She returned carefully yet quickly with her glowing reddish orb, not going slow enough to drip molten glass on the floor, but putting heavy focus on her surroundings. She took each of Kanri's suggestions to heart on her next attempt. It's not like Elna had any idea how to correct her approach so she had to take what she could get. She slowed down her spin rate, although she still wasn't quite sure of to accomplish the nice smooth technique that was asked of her, she just had to go with it. She also tilted the blower at a higher angle, she couldn't be sure if it was the right height, but it was about as high as she could get it and still blow properly. She didn't understand what holding her hands evenly went and first, but Kanri put her hands in the right place. But the end of it all, the piece looked a lot better, she was honestly caught of guard by the level of improvement that she had accomplished this time around. "Wow" she proclaimed "That really made a difference."

Her new paper weight looked somewhat plum shaped, a product of how the glass had laid on the cupped surface. It was wider then it was tall and had a bit of a divot in the corner where her pipe had been. As far as she told tell it looked plenty smooth, she wasn't about to touch it to check, even with her gloved hand she had no idea if it was safe to do yet or not. The blue color had an even darkness this time around. "I'm guessing this is about right, right?"

[Kanri]

Kanri looked at this new piece. It had the resemblance of an actual attempt at glasswork. That was a huge improvement over the last one. The blue jar-like shape would never amount to be useful for very much, Kanri did not think. But it would be a good memory. She did not think the girl would make a very good glassworker... at least, not under Kanri's tutorage.

She looked in the girl's fierce, eager eyes, smiled slightly, and nodded. "That's right. Good job, Elna," Kanri told the girl. "Since your piece has cooled a lot, you will want to try to reheat the end attached to the blowpipe. That way, you can disconnect it. Although, I cannot say honestly that I am good at that. So, we’ll just reheat the whole thing a little. Here, I'll show you."

Kanri took the blowpipe, with Elna following, and began to reheat it, but spinning it all the while to help it keep its shape. While Kanri by no means thought it was easy, she felt thankful for how much easier this came to her than the girl. Better not to say that, though. It quickly softened up just a little, so that if you poked it, it would leave an indent but the surface would not break. Of course, Kanri was not going to poke it.

"See that consistency? That's about what you want to detach it. We will go back and you can clip off the end yourself," Kanri informed her.

And so they did. Kanri handed Elna the blowpipe back and a set of shears.

"Just clip off the end nearest to the pipe with one clean cut. It might be thicker than you expect but I don’t know. Just do your best. My hands are right here to catch it so don't worry about that," Kanri told the girl, praying that she did not, indeed, drop it. That would be awful, especially since it would result in a medical expense for the both of them!

She held her breath as the girl carefully went to cut the glass free.

[Elna]

Elna smiled after having her work validated. She smiled even more when Kanri said she wasn't very good at reheating particular parts of glasswork, which helped to validate Elna's assumptions about her. That second smile she tried to hide a bit by looking of to the side and covering her mouth. She'd rather not have to explain what she was finding funny. Elna handed over the pipe with no resistance and followed behind her instructor. Elna watched as Kanri spun the glass in the furnace simply.

When finished she handed both the pipe the shears to Elna. She had been focused so much on being careful with heated glass, always holding the pipe with two hands she was already finding it awkward to hold it in one hand. If just holding the pipe felt weird in on hand, then holding it steady and using the other hand to clip it was likely to end up in an even worse position. She nervously tilted it so that the glass could hover over Kanri's hands. She turned her head to the clippers the worked them into her hands so she had a good and sturdy grip. While looking of to the side, her tilt on the pipe started to drift down and outward. It took Kanri snapping Elna back into attention before she realized what was happening. Elna brought the pipe back to a level position with a cringe. She brought the clippers up to the glass, she felt it would be better to get this done now and fast rather than letting this just spiral out off control when given more time. With a hard clench of the clippers and a girt off her teeth, Elna snapped the glass right off of the pipe. It jumped forward a bit in separation, but Kanri was able to adjust her hands to make a successful catch.

With that, Elna was pretty much done, successfully making a glass something or other without any catastrophic incident. Her finished product wasn't much to look at, but at least she break anything or injure anyone, and that was kind of a victory.

[Kanri]

Kanri handed the piece over to Elna and she took it to the annealer. She was proud of the girl, but she was also proud of herself because she had managed to guide her through it. It was a rough few hours, but it was worth it. And Elna had hopefully learned something. Next time she worked with glass, she would find it easier. Especially if she had a better teacher.

Kanri smiled at Elna as she returned. "Well, you will be needing to get back to the other Yasi soon, right? So, we shouldn't try to start anything else right now. Maybe another day..." Kanri mused, trailing off. Her mind was tired of trying to focus on what she was doing. Usually, she could let her mind wander through the groves and outcroppings of the imagination as she worked glass. Today she had to think about the Task At Hand.

"Thanks for your hard work today, Elna. I will make sure you get your piece when it cools. And I am sorry I could not be more helpful. I promise I will try to get better... not that it will make much of a difference to you," Kanri apologized, refocusing her attention as quickly as she could. "There once was a great amount of eagles that lived in a beautiful tree in a lush, green forest. In this colony, there lived a little, brown finch. She loved the eagles and felt very privileged to live among them. But this finch was not as big or fast as the eagles. She could not hunt like the eagles either. But she could sing. The eagles scorned her for sitting around and singing all day while they did all the work. But if you compared the eagle's call to her chirpy tune, hers was by far the superior."

"The finch decided one day, she would go to live among the other finches and woodland birds, where they might come to love and understand her songs. And so she did, without much trouble, and there they welcomed her. Compared to an eagle, this little finch was not a magnificent creature but she knew that she was Special in Her Own Way, one different from the eagles."

She grinned at Elna's baffled expression. "My father once told me that there is no story not worth hearing. Now then, you should hurry so you can get back to the Yasi Center in time for your next class. See you around!"

[Elna]

Elna agreed that their wasn't much time left in the day to start more work. Her souvenir was good enough, she didn't need to make a bunch of glass hunks that no one would ever buy. But then Kanri did something that caught her of guard, apologizing for her teaching ability. She had that way about her all day, admitting when she wasn't good at something and all that. It was weird to her, Elna still didn't feel like Kanri had earned her place as a Avora, but at least she didn't have the high class ego she was used too. It was just a situation she wasn't used too, and she not one she was prepared to deal with, if she should react with anger or pity.

Even stranger after apologizing she starting breaking right into a story. It was a nice story, but Elna wasn't really convinced the metaphor fit her. It's not like she had a talent that didn't fit into Wind Reach society, she just didn't have any talent. Maybe it she just need some fresh perspective but she doubted it. It was very much a Avora kind of story, not being hunters but being able to create something beautiful such harder hands a spirits might not be able to create. It wasn't really a story for a struggling Yasi. Maybe every story was worth hearing, but she couldn't believe that everyone has some special place. If that was the case there would be no such thing as Deks. But Elna faked a polite smile and thanked Kanri for her time. At the end of the day she may have been left with something to think about for how she makes assumptions about people, but no actual direction in her life. Basically the same old thing, but the worst part is that she may end up missing these days if she doesn't figure something out soon. "Yeah, see you." she responded as she left.

[Whimsy]

Kanri

Experience	Lore
+3 Glassworking	Mentoring a Yasi
+3 Teaching	Technique: Rolling Glass
+1 Observation	Apologising for Arrogance
+1 Storytelling	Glasswork: Creating a Vase
	Teaching: The Importance of Words and Action
	Elna: Never Likely To Be a Glassblower

Elna

Experience	Lore
+1 Falconry	Glasswork: A Social Imperative
+3 Glassworking	Technique: Reheating Glass
+2 Observation	Frustrating Teachers
	The Use of a Glassblowing Pipe
	Technique: Spinning Glass
	Technique: Detaching Glass

Comments
It was really interesting to see both players' frustrations and inabilities played out so honestly! I enjoyed reading this. Kanri, please be careful of controlling Elna's actions too much. PM me if you have any questions or concerns.

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