PM to join [Wright Memorial Library]First Steps [Kenshin]

[Annalisa Marin]

30th Day Of Summer, 513 AV Anna sighed as she placed straightened out a small stack of parchment, the third time she had repeated the action. There were benefits to working as a professor in the University, one being the easy access to parchment and ink. Considering what she taught she possessed nearly unlimited access to the two items as long as she kept them to University grounds, well technically the Library was on University grounds so that made this next exercise in teaching only consuming to her time. The young professor leaned back in her chair at the rather large table, a small stack of basic language books next to her. It was not often that she took books from the Public Section of the Library, they usually possessed very little information that she cared to know. The Restricted Section was her usual haunt, where there were plenty of tomes on the subject of applied magic sciences. She ached to continue her review of the Void and to look further into the dimension of emptiness. Unfortunately, she was denied that pleasure today. It was still early in the morning so her student was not late to this session, in fact he could very well be lost, considering the massive nature of the Library itself it wouldn't have really surprised her. It had only been three days since she had taken the rat kelvic Kenshin into her home, so far the only issues she had seen with his presence had been the occasional scratching sounds under her bed, and an embarrassing incident where she had nearly stepped on him. All in all she considered herself to be quickly adapting to this situation. In her quest to get him employed in an honest profession, Anna noted one issue, Kenshin lacked literacy. Considering he was probably born on the street and he was only one and a half years old this did not exactly surprise her. Being the forthright thinking individual she was she took it upon herself to teach him basic literacy, to set him on the right path that he might be able to learn the rest through immersion. Anna herself was dressed in her common clothing with her cloak draped over her chair. Her hair was bound up in the back in ponytail with her bangs falling about her face. Her narrow grey eyes searched every now and again for signs of her students, absorbing most any detail they saw. She looked every inch the focused professor. She had told him to be here at ten bells and he still had about twenty chimes until that time so she was not exactly worried. Anna was not exactly sure how she was going to educate him into language, Glyphing was technically the language of magic so it should be easy in theory. Though she had never had to teach a Kelvic before now so that was still up in the air. Her current lesson plan involved what she did for her Glyphing students, examples and mimicry. Hopefully it would work here just as well.

[Kenshin]

For Kenshin the oddest thing about lifing under in a true home was staying clean. He struggled to really understand why humans put so much effort into it, after all the world was dirty and they'd get dirt and grime on them at some point why did it matter if they washed all off if only to have it come back?

Of course he lived on her terms and made a large effort to clean himself off, he kept his nails trimmed by biting them and had shaved since he first met her and kept himself decent. Without his beard and long hair he actually looked his age, or at least close to it by comparison. He decided to keep his hair short now, less of a chance for people to grab his hair if ever got into a fight but ever since he started his new life the likelihood of him getting into such fights had dropped amazingly.

The other thing he really couldn't stand were cloths, humans had so many things things they had to wear to be decent, shirts shoes cloaks undergarments he did miss the days where all he needed was his ragged cloak but now he had to wear so much. It felt constricting by comparison, even though he had borrowed a full outfit that was at least one size too big it was still somewhat uncomfortable. He was still surprised nobody paid attention to cloths out on the line to dry, his cloths were a bit mixed matched as a full set was a little hard to come by.

He had tried his hardest to arrive on time but the library was a slightly intimidating place for him and he was having trouble finding her, getting lost a few times in the stacks and was becoming tempting to shift skins and follow his nose. Over the three days he had become familiar with her scent and when in rat form could find her a bit faster then his human form could.

Finally he got lucky as he rounded a corner and found her at a table and heaved a sigh of relieve and walked towards her. "Hello mam" he says still using the title he had when he first met her, using it as a sign of respect and servitude to her. After three days he had grown used to her but there was still twinges of fear towards her and her magic but at the same time he believed she wouldnt harm him unprovoked. "Ready for my lesson" he says a bit eagerly and was grateful he was going to be spending time with her, again his Kelvic nature of socializing was playing with his emotions and desires.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna looked upon Kenshin as he rounded the corner to her table, barely on time but still on time so there was no transgression here. She felt a slight swelling of pride as she looked upon his patchwork of clothing, they were hardly perfect but he was shaping up to at least look civilized. It was a far cry from the dirty and ragged beggar she had been accosted by a few days back, much more presentable and better to have around her house. It was looking like her investment her might not have been a massive mistake. She gestured for Kenshin to be seated next to her, wordlessly readying a couple of pieces of parchments for him and moving an ink well and quill closer to him. She readied her own parchment and ink well, placing her quill neatly to the side and facing Kenshin with an amused smile. It was rare to see her in good spirits but when she was teaching she was usually much more approachable than otherwise. She was more than happy to let him keep calling her 'mam' "Well, you certainly look and smell better than the dirty beggar I plucked off the street. Most excellent." She said, nodding slighting. "Now then, are you ready to learn to learn what I have to offer? I won't be going easy on you just because of our arrangement. I would also leave any complaints you might have at the door, I do not suffer such things for long." Anna warned. The young professor was certainly an intensive teacher, she expected the best of herself and that same view applied to her own students. The needed to work hard to earn even the slightest words of praise or encouragement, just barely getting by was as good as a failure in her opinion. The needed to excel, to become far more than just a passing student, they needed to become an excellent student. Those who complained about her teaching methods were quick to incur her ire. Anna picked up her quill and dipped it in ink, beginning to slowly write out letters for his benefit. They eventually made up a whole word. "I want you to pay attention to my writings and attempt to mimic them. They will help you to understand better, mimicry is a very useful learning technique." She offered, nodding. At the moment the word would just be a sequence of odd symbols with little to no meaning. He needed to understand the lettering system before it could mean something however an introduction was necessary, just to break the ice.

[Kenshin]

Taking his seat beside her he removes his cloak and looks over the tools for his lesson at the warning of complainants he wanted to let out a little joke about how he wouldn't dream of arguing with someone like her but decided humor wouldnt be a good avenue of interaction with her. So instead he nods and watches her diligently.

In a small way he was honored she was helping him, after all all their agreement had been he works for her and she gives him a home, there was nothing in there that suggested she had to teach him and this was of her own free will. Deep down he knew there were secondary motives to her actions but at the surface he just didnt care here was someone so his superior and was taking time to help educate him.

He watches closely as her quill draws some shapes upon the paper he grabs his own and dips it into the ink and glances back and forth between his paper and hers and tries to mimic her writing. Compared to hers it was a bit sloppy with a few bloctches from dripping ink onto the paper he did try his best to be neat but the result wasnt nearly as good as her own and he looks at it a bit frustrated as he turns to her to see if she would explain what it was he just wrote.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna noted how Kenshin went about writing, his hand writing was of course sloppy and rather terrible he also appeared to have over inked the quill as there were splotches on quite a few areas. He looked to be frustrated by his job, though considering he had zero idea what it was he had just written that was understandable. Anna tapped her finger on the parchment he had just finished using, her eyes appraising. "Congratulations, you just wrote your own name. Though I suppose it is hard to give the sequence meaning if you don't understand its components. So allow me to present you with a nice list." Anna picked up one of the literary book nearby and flipped through the pages. The young professor stopped on the page that dealt with the letters and symbols of the Common alphabet. She pointed with her quill to the letters on his name and to the letters in the book with her finger. This was shaping up to be a slow process, no doubt about that. "This is K, E, N, S, H, I, N. When you arrange them with the phonetic sounds in the certain way you have your name." Anna said. She returned to the book itself and moved her finger down the lines of letters, sounding out each one slowly and waiting for him to copy the general shape of each one on parchment. This would take a lot of memorization and practice on his part to fully get down, luckily once she helped him with the basics he should be able to go from there. At least that was the theory. Anna waited for a moment after finishing explaining the names of the letters and their place in the alphabet before pulling out her own sheet of parchment. She slowly wrote down the words of the common lettering, making it clear that he was supposed to mimic her actions. The motions of creating the letters were just as important learning what the letters meant and how they fell into a sequence. "Be lighter on how you handle a quill, what you are doing is wasting ink." The young professor commanded. This was going to be a long day.

[Kenshin]

Kenshin's head would turn from the parchement to his teacher and his eyes were sharp with focus. A misconcept about him was that since he was a beggar and criminal that he was a fool, this was wrong and underneath his often dirty exterior he was actually quite clever.

But when she told him what he had written his eyes widen somewhat and he looks back at the words sounding it out slowly and looking it over. It was the first time he had seen his own name in text and it was surprising, not at all what he had expected it to be but still it was his name.

Then as she started to write down more symbols, which he rapidly started to understand as letters across his parchment and with each letter his handwriting became better the grip on his quill more stable. He repeated it again and again sounding out each letter and figuring out how each one sounded and as he began to figure it out he starts to scribble down at the bottom of his paper. Just a few words and even as he praticed he formed a simple phrase

"Kenshin is rat" true it was child like and simple but at the same time it was something that was his first written sentence and it was his. He couldn't help but feel some small pride that he had managed to create something on the paper that was his own. But after completing his small writing he refocuses on his lessons trying his hardest to learn the tools needed knowing that this was in part of an order she had given him to learn a skill he could use for a more honest living.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna watched her student work with the gaze of a careful painter examining their work for flaws. He was a quick learner, which came as a shock to her as she had expected him to be a difficult student due to his background as a beggar. This was a surprise but it was definitely a pleasant surprise as it meant that her work load wouldn't be nearly as bad as she had feared initially. The young professor noted that he was easily mimicking her own writing, but writing on his own was much more tricky. Still, she had faith that he would progress quickly if today was any indication.

Anna looked at his simple sentence, secretly pleased but did not show it. The young professor was a teacher who looked at the flaws and picked at them first, never giving compliments until they were actually earned. So she decided to go over his flaws and tell him how to improve on it and why what he did was incorrect. Sentence structure seemed a bit too complex to get into right now, but in never hurt to get an early start.

"Kenshin, there should be a letter 'a' between 'is' and 'rat'. You would not say 'Kenshin is rat' you would say 'Kenshin is a rat'. Also, be sure to end your sentences with a period as it completes a thought." Anna said, her expression stern and her tone instructional.

"My suggestion is to think about the sounds of the letters when writing out the words. It won't always work, however it is a useful tool when writing out words. At the moment, concern yourself with memorizing the alphabet." The wizard said.

She was happy that he was getting ambitious, but until he got the basics completely down he wasn't going to be able to accomplish much. Once he had the alphabet known by heart then the rest would fall into play more easily, and the symbols would become more than just a correct sequence of letters. Eventually every letter and word would have actual meaning for him, they would actually become words. It was still going to be a long process but once he got the alphabet down then he could actually do much of this himself. It was just getting him to that point that would be difficult.

[Kenshin]

Kenshin turned and wasnt hurt that she didnt show him any encouragement but at the same time her pointers made perfect sense and he started to rewrite his sentence to make more sense. Then as he started to talk aloud, realizing that written and spoken were the same expect with letters and ink rather then voice.

Knowing this he started trying his best to make more little sentences on the paper, understanding that the written was the same his errors stopped being grammatical as he simple said his sentence before writing it. Soon his sentence took on deeper meaning and form.

"Kenshin is a rat and lives under a bed" he looks at it sounding out each word and often going back to his list of letters to mutter each one then his quill would dart back to his sentence to keep writing, getting swept up in the moment. Often he wrote so fast that he got sloppy or ran out of ink and each time he dipped his quill he calmed down some. "Kenshin is a rat and lives under a bed, he is an or-" he paused looking at the word and then back to the list before trying to spell the next word. "Orfan, and likes shin-" he pauses again and keeps muttering aloud trying to understand the sound he needed to finish his sentence properly. Finally he takes a guess and writes "shinie things"

Of course he was worried he had written it wrong and he turns to her hoping he was making her happy but then his eyes widen and he almost knocks over his inkwell as he hurried gets a another bit of ink on his quill so he could add a dot to his sentence creating a period and ending the sentence.

[Annalisa Marin]

Anna watched as Kenshin worked to create simple sentences, noting that it was correct at some part and that sounding out words did indeed help. Unfortunately, Anna had failed to account for some words that possessed letters that, when placed together made different sounds that were similar to the sounds of other letters. An oversight on her part, but then again she was not a literature teacher. Glyphing was similar to reading and writing for mages but it possessed much easier to understand concepts, in her mind, than the complex inflections of magic.

The young wizard sighed slightly and wrote out his misspelled words on paper. She wouldn't worry about the sentence structure, not at the moment. Grammar was the most important part here as getting the parts down was integral to forming a good whole. She showed him the words and repeated them aloud so that he would know what they were.

"Not every single word can be spelled by just sounding it out as combinations of certain letters will yield different sounds. 'Ph' give the same sound as 'f'. 'Ie' is similar to 'y'. Be careful going forward as some will trip you up." Anna instructed.

Since he seemed to actually grasp the concepts of the alphabet, which was rather shocking in so short a time, she opted to move on to other concepts like basic grammar. He thought he was ready so why not just let him go and see what he could do? It was also interesting for her to note how easily this seemed to be coming to him, did Kelvic's learn more easily due to their accelerated life cycle? It would be the subject of research, there was no doubt about that.

Anna dipped her own quill in ink and started to write a series of words out on her paper.

-The
-Deck
-Miza
-Ship
-Wizard
-Annalisa
-University
-Zeltiva
-Syliras

They were simple words but she decided to see if he could sound them out on his own an figure out what they were. She was doing the reverse of what she had told him to do earlier, now he just had to but the pieces together to figure out the whole puzzle in front of him.

[Kenshin]

Kenshin listened carefully and hearing that certain combinations of letters made different sounds he looked at the paper again. He felt like that was cheating, that if a letter made a sound that should be the end of it without all sorts of tricks and hookups. But he kept such problems to himself and instead had a small realization that this had to be one of the longest times he had spent with her without being scared of her. In fact this had to be the longest time he had spent with someone where he wasnt in chains after a failed stealing attempt.

When she presented the list of words he got to work copying them but then spoke them aloud, realizing that it had to work both ways of putting his voice to words and words to voice.

Trying to read each one was slightly wrong at first it was like learning to talk again except he was reading a script. "The, Deck, Mmmmiza?" he asks pausing but then nodding and getting back to work. "Shhhip" he says starting to get the hang of it and getting a eager smile on his face. He managed Wizard with some difficulty but getting to the larger words his smile faded as he struggled and after trying a few times to say "University" he becomes frusated and sits back biting his tongue annoyed his eyes turn to Anna and the light catches off her earrings and his eyes loss focus for a moment.

Kenshin looked at it for a few seconds his fingers twitching as dozens of thoughts ran though his mind of having them, they were just so shiny he began to crave them he was almost twitching and his fingers move once more, towards her as if to try but his mind takes control and rather then try to steal it from her ear he chomps his teeth into his hand eyes back on the parchment as he took a few deep breaths.

"S-sorry mam" he mutters licking the blood from his bite marks on his hand as he looked down ashamed. "Please don't be mad mam, I'll be good" he says grabbing his quill worried and getting back to work with almost panicky fervor as he tried to get back into the swing of pronouncing the words on the paper.