A bit like that, but not really.

by **Bakar** on September 14th, 2014, 7:34 am

Fall, 12, 514
20th bell

Bakar sighed as he arranged his paper and ink on his table. "Now, how did this go again... God it's been a while. I really should keep up with this. I may need it one day, and if I'm out of practice, then I'm pretty much screwed.. Now, lets see here.. I'll start with the focus.. How does it look again?" The Nuit dipped his quill in the first pot of ink, then carefully started his construction of the glyph.

"The focus goes in the center.. barrier around it, then a trigger somewhere else.." He spent quite some time on just the focus, trying to recall what he was taught. "It was a bit like that, but not really... what's wrong with it..? OH! I know! I need to curve this more, and this part was pointed. It was symmetrical around this point, and here there were straight lines!" He finally finished with his basic focus, proud that he had recalled what it was like. He execution, however was far from masterful.

"Well.. it's not exactly what I had in mind. But I'm just rusty. I have the image of the focus in my mind now, I just need to practice drawing it a bit more. Maybe.. I won't make a scroll out of this sheet. I'll practice drawing my focuses some more. Next one. I promise I'll make a scroll. I need to start eventually. Not that I can really use them.. Wouldn't quite trust storing magic in these right at this point. It's still good practice though." And so he started on his next focus. He knew now, what to draw. He just needed to steady his hand, and get used to the movements again.

He laughed to himself quietly, an hour later after finishing the second focus, which was marginally better than the first. "Man.. my teacher would kill me if he saw these terrible glyphs.. bah. I'll make him proud, one day. I'll get better. Let's see now, I can fit another on this side here..." He started on his third focus of the night.

He took his time with this on, taking even longer than he did with the first. After he was finished, he had finally replicated the focus from his memory, with near perfection. "There we go... That's much better! You just need to take your time. Now, might as well use the same sheet to practice your barriers and triggers. Now, the barrier is a circle of glyphs, around to focus to contain the magic, right? Yeah. What did they look like again? Damn, this is the most important part." He racked his brain, trying to recall what he had been taught.

"That's right.. I remember, that one time I messed up the barrier, and when I tried to use the glyph, the air basically threw everything around the room. I think I got a quill to the back that day.." He rubbed the back of his shoulder, where a scar would be, had he been in the same body. "So, it's not this.. what was it then.. Right, right. Irst. Irst is the one I'm looking for." And with that bit of recollection, the barrier was complete. The earlier practice with the focuses giving him enough confidence to draw a decent first barrier. "Huh. That's pretty good. Oh well, can't hurt to draw some for the other focuses as well."

He worked late into the night, for hours, drawing his barriers carefully. The triggers were just simple things. A couple glyphs to let the barrier know when to release. Nevertheless, the decided to write a couple anyways. "When you place your ring finger here, the barrier will fall. When you read these lines, the barrier will fall. When you place a stone here, the barrier will fall." Bakar spoke aloud as he wrote his simple triggers. Never tiring, he didn't even notice when the days turned.

by **Bakar** on September 14th, 2014, 8:31 am

Fall, 13, 514
7th bell

After a short break from his practice, he held his sheet up. His three focuses, barriers and triggers. He was already starting to get better again. The last focus nearly perfect from what he remembered, and with the practice writing the barriers and triggers, he was one hundred percent confident he would be able to replicate exactly as he remembers. "Not bad.." He said to himself quietly. He looked at his ink pot, and scowled. He had used nearly the rest of the vial.

"Geez.. I'd better be more careful with that. It's pretty expensive.. I need to start spending more wisely if I'm going to pursue this." He looked at his small stack of sheets, then shook his head. No.. I'm done making these for now. Maybe I'll try the paint, and make something with that.. He headed toward his chest, and carefully took out the pot of inscribing paint. "Man.. this stuff is pretty awesome.. now then, I just nee-" He stopped mid sentence. "You're an idiot, you know that." He sighed and lowered the paint back into the chest. "Who buys paint, but forgets to buy brushes?" He shook his head and took out his mirror and a small amount of makeup.

"Man, this is so much easier with a mirror. You can touch up the spots you miss, and even out where there's too much. How did you ever get around without this? Well, the tunnels aren't usually the brightest, so that's probably how I got away with it. But I will admit, it is a lot more convincing when done with the mirror." He made various faces into the mirror, testing the integrity of the makeup, glad to be able to see himself. "This mirror.. is one of the best purchases I made with Garland. I'm glad I decided to go with him." He smiled at himself, just reveling in the fact that he could see himself. He eventually put the mirror away, and made a quick trip to the Bazaar to pick up some paint brushes.

As he made his way through the Bazaar, he kept an eye out for Garland. He enjoyed the last time they were together, and decided to at least say hello, and good morning. If he was in the Bazaar though, Bakar did not see him. He made his way to an art shop, where he ordered a detailing brush and a medium brush. He decided to get some normal paint too. No need to get the expensive stuff though. Just what he could buy cheap. Inscribing paint was expensive, and there was no point in practicing with it. He decided to use it when he regained his confidence in his glyphing more.

He made his way back home and carefully packed his things away, leaving out the paint pigments and the detailing brush. He looked around for a container to mix the paint in and sighed. He had forgotten something else. He wasn't about to go back to the Bazaar, so he cleaned out the remainder of his ink from the first vial, and mixed the paint there. "What a waste.. at least there wasn't much left." He whispered.

He dipped the detailing brush into the paint and carefully started painting onto his left hand. "Let's see.. we'll just put a focus here, no need for a barrier or trigger. When I use this, the effects will be immediate so there's no need to contain it." After a couple of hours, he finished his focus. He was right to be confident earlier, as the focus centered on his palm was exactly as pictured. "Perfect! Good job! Now, let's see.. what can I do with this.."

by **Bakar** on September 15th, 2014, 6:42 pm

It had been a while since he had tried this. He concentrated all his energy into the production of his Res, concentrating the output on his left hand. slowly, surely, a small amount of glowing liquid trickled out of his palm, and floated there. "Hey, that wasn't so hard t-" The Res dissipated, and he was left with nothing. He sighed to himself. "I assume that's because you lost focus. Lets try again." He started over, and again the ethereal liquid leaked from his palm, floating above it in a small ball shortly after.

He concentrated on holding the Res there for as long as he could, nervous about changing his thoughts and losing it again. His right arm twitched, and he nearly lost focus on the Res. "Overgiving. Be careful." He soon realized that doing this would get him no where. His thoughts needed to change in order for the Res to do anything. Just holding it there is of no use to him. "Lets start with changing states.." He whispered to himself. After a a vast amount of concentration, the Res started to loosen, and become a gas. Not exactly like the air. It was still contained in the ball, which was slightly bigger due to the change of state, above his palm, but you could see that it was different. It swirled around itself, it's slightly green glow more concentrated in some places than others. "Okay.. so far so good. Solid." The Res condensed and formed a small sphere. Now square. Pyramid. "There we go.." He allowed the Res to rest in his hand now. It was solid, but not. Hard, but soft. Only to him though. He could shape this however he wanted.

He tossed the Res around a little, getting a feel for his field of manipulation. It wasn't very far. He would push the Res to the furthest of his field, and it would fall and disappear. Wasted. "Okay then.. so it's only a couple meters I can control it in. I need to remember that."

"Now, I can change it to the element of my choice.. well, not really. An element I know. It's only Air at this point.. I must be honest, I feel it's the most useless element.. why did I choose this element.." He hung his head. "No used thinking of it now. It's what I know. One more time then." He once again created a small amount of Res, and rested it in his palm. His head was starting to hurt now. "More Overgiving. Be. Careful." A small sphere of gaseous Res. "Just need to concentrate... Air..." The Res changed into a small ball of air. Just. Air. The same thing everywhere in the room already. He sighed. "Couldn't take something interesting, like fire, or water. But air. "I'm sure I can find some use for it.." He waved the ball of air around his field but it quickly assimilated into the rest of the air. "What happened?" He whispered to himself. Then he remembered. Once you change your Res, you lose control of the element after a short while. He sighed. "Once more, for real this time. He repeated the steps, this time leaving a small amount of gaseous Res near the center of the sphere, the Res attracting the outer layer to itself so it doesn't join the rest of the rooms air. His entire body spasmed and he fell to his knees, but remained focused on the Res. "You need to stop soon. Yeah, yeah. After this. He stood shakily. He started manipulation again, condensing it, expanding it. "Hm.. actually.." He condensed the ball even further, further and further. "Condensed enough, air can become basically solid.."

When he was done, he was left with a tiny, pea sized ball of air. He convulsed and was forced on his knees, the effect unexpected. He shook his head, gritting his teeth. This was too much for him. He needed to be careful, but he didn't want to stop now. He wouldn't grow if he never pushed himself. The key was pushing himself to the point where he'd grow, but not to the point where he killed himself. He stood and re-concentrated on the task at hand. "Well.. it's not very intimidating.. but..." He practiced with this for a while tossing the tiny ball of air around. Seeing how fast he could get it to go. Not very fast.. "Well..let's just see.." He stood at the end of the room, balancing the ball in front of him and tossed it at his table. It flew at an anticlimactic speed, but still faster than when he was practicing, and dissipated shortly after leaving his field, with seemingly no effect. He sighed and shook his head. "Well, that wasn't as effective as I had hoped." He limped weakly up to his table and sat down, disappointed.

He closed his eyes and placed his hands on the table. He stayed for a while, trying to think of other ways to make this useful. After an hour or so he started to stand. He brushed his hand on the table and immediately pulled his hand away from the table. "Oh, what the he-" A splinter. He carefully extracted it. Tiny wound. Wouldn't hurt him in the least. But where did it come from? He looked down on the table. There was a small dent in the table. Nothing serious, easily missed. But it wasn't there before. "Oh. Well. I'll be." It wasn't much, but it was a start. He would have continued practicing, but he knew that overgiving was becoming too much. As if his body was agreeing with him, his arm convulsed and knocked his quills off his table. Then he noticed a familiar pull. He had the want, need to cast more. But his teacher always made this very clear. Stop before things get out of hand. Stop, or things will go very bad. He had already gone beyond where his teacher had told him to stop. He concluded for the day, and looked down at his palm. "The glyph, right. Forgot about that." He starred at his palm for a minute. Overgiving was making him want to cast more. Then the realization that he hadn't tried out the glyph made the urge stronger. There was something he wanted to do, overgiving making it worse. "No. No. I can't. I can't. It's dangerous." He sat and stayed still for the rest of the night, resting, Nuit not having a need for sleep, there was nothing to do, but sit and wait.

by **Bakar** on September 18th, 2014, 1:53 am

As Bakar waited quietly, alone, he realized he had gone further than he had ever gone before. His body was still convulsing, but at least the urge was dissapating. He didn't want to continue when he was in this state, however. He decided that he would wait a few more days, at least.

Fall, 18, 514

After his waiting period, he believed he was ready again. He stretched and looked down at his palm. The glyph was faint and smudged. He didn't want to use it as is. I most likely wouldn't turn out so well. He made quick work of cleaning it off, and reapplying. After deeming it was good, he decided it was time to practice again.

He closed his eyes and began channeling his Res through his left palm. The glyph gave off a slight glow, and he found it easier to produce and manipulate his Res. In a the same amount of time he had produced a bit more Res than he previously could days before. The glyph still remained, the spell still being manipulated. He found he could move and arrange the Res more precisely, and faster. He changed the states of his Res in half the time, only taking about 20-30 seconds instead of a minute. He constantly changed it to get a feel for the added ease. "Should have tried this sooner.. this isn't so bad."

"Now, what was the other property of Res? Mm... Oh, right. It can attract an element to itself, to make my spells stronger without having to produce more Res. Well, lets try that then." He closed his eyes and concentrated on the Res, willing it to absorb the air from the room. Soon his little ball of air had grown, attracting all the air in the room into one, concentrated area. It had attracted more air faster than he thought it would, most likely do to the amplification of the glyph. The fire in his hearth went out, and he turned his head, nearly losing concentration again, which would have sent the air flying back into the room. He did make a note to test that later on, however. Thank God he was undead, or the lack of air would had panicked him, and might have made him lose control of his magic, basically pushing his concentrated air into the rest of the room, now a near vacuum, air still coming in from his door, but it was quickly attracted to his spell. The force of which the air rushed back could have been quite great, tossing him and his things around. He stopped his Res from attracting more air. He didn't want it getting too out of hand, or tiring himself out too much, already feeling a dull throb in the back of his head, a twitch of his shoulder.. He slowly released some of the air he had contained, filling the room once again, to lessen the force of transfer when finally released the main spell. With a small glimmer, the glyph on his palm vanished, leaving no trace behind. "Right, glyphs, one time use. That's an important thing to remember."

When the room was sufficiently filled with gas, he released the rest of the air, it gently combining with the rest of the atmosphere of the room. He walked over to his hearth, now devoid of fire. He pondered this as he left his room to relight it, weakened. When that was done, he produced a small amount of Res. Without the glyph, it was harder than before, and the dull throb started to spread. "Just this one last test. I promise." Once again willed the air to gather around it, slowly this time. Standing near the hearth, the air around that area was the first to gather, and once again the hearth expired. Just then, however he convulsed and stumbbled, leaning against the table for balance,and lost concentration. There was something pulling at the back of his mind. Something not quite fully formed. "I need to stop now." He sat on the edge of his bed, almost never used, and thought about the last experiment. "It seems that fire needs air to stay maintained. Without air, fire will die out. I doubt that'll work so well with magically produced fire, but it's good to know either way. It would at least reduce the effect by a degree."

He shook his head, and decided on another break. The practice of the last couple days were getting to him, and he could feel he was nearing his limit. Not wanting to hear the Sweet Whispers just yet, lest he give into their temptation. Or maybe he was hearing them. The pull on the back of his mind. He shook his head then nodded to himself. Yes, he would break, for a while this time, not just a day. He sat and smiled, proud with himself for remembering his training, but highly weakened do to the high amount of magical manipulation he had been doing. He would one day make his teacher proud of his progress. He had to.

by **Nightmare** on December 2nd, 2014, 7:05 am

Bakar :

Additional Comments: This was a really neat exploration of the realm of Reimancy and Glyphing. You did a good job both portraying the magic and Bakar's limitations. I look forward to future threads from you. Sorry about the delay!

Please PM me if you have any questions or concerns.
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Skills	Amount
Glyphing	+3
Observation	+4
Land Navigation	+1
Planning	+1
Cosmetology	+1
Painting	+1
Reimancy	+2

Solo A bit like that, but not really.