Completed Want of Trying

[Calen]

* CALEN* 1st of Summer, 513 AV With a sharp click, the bolt lock on Calen's door slid into place, thus securing entry from the outside world and, effectively, giving Calen the privacy he so craved. Sighing as the familiar wave of comfort washed over him, Calen threw his backpack across the room before slipping his sweat-stained shirt over his head. As the cool air of his shaded room touched his sticky, moist flesh, he broke out in goosebumps. Choosing to do more than simply bask in the decadent sensation of cool air on his perspiration coated skin, though he was sorely tempted, Calen dropped to his hands and knees and began to search under his bed for a few of his possessions. As he groped about, he gave his room a quick over taking note of his drawn curtains, the small pile of used clothing that lay in the far corner and his lute, which hung from the back of a chair by its sling. Obviously, his room had not been disturbed, not since he had left it earlier in the day. Smiling as his fingers touched upon his rucksack, Calen grabbed a handful of the material that composed it before shifting his position, thus leaving him sitting cross legged and bare-chested within his locked room with his rucksack firmly in his lap. Choosing to ignore just how odd a scene this would make for anyone who stepped in without any context, Calen extracted what he needed from his rucksack before sliding under his bed once more. Getting up from his seat, Calen made his way over to the chair beside the window of his apartment, before returning with a half used vial of ink. Setting the vial down to his left, beside the pair of quills and the blank book he had lain down earlier, Calen nodded to himself, confident that he had everything he would need for the day. He prepared his quill using the ink vial before writing down 'The Study of Magical Practices and Disciplines - Volume One' in his usual, messy script.

[Calen]

* Calen * Placing his book down beside him, Calen threw a lofty smile at the cream-colored wall opposite him, his nerves getting the better of him. " Come on now, Calen" he told himself, fingers flexing one by one as he steeled himself for what was to come "you can do this". Taking a deep breath in, Calen turned both hands so that his palms were facing the ceiling and thus, were clearly within his line of sight. With that done, Calen began to call upon his djed, following the same procedure he had for years to morph it from a purely esoteric substance into the all too ephemeral Res he was more accustomed to manipulating. Soon, the tan mist slipped into the air through his palms and Calen sighed, sounding almost appreciative. The flow continued, thin and slow as Calen pooled it into a pair of hovering spheres, both mere inches from his flesh. Calen took note that both spheres were smaller than fist. Confident that he had collected an amount that would serve his purposes, Calen stopped the flow of Res, and set to work finishing the constructs he had in mind. However, as he always did, Calen allowed a thin string of Res to remain so that he was still physically connected to his masses Separating both masses of Res into two smaller, unequal masses, Calen began to mold each one. Choosing to work the masses floating about his left palm first, Calen drew them into themselves, turning them from shapeless blobs into a pair of compacted spheres. Taking meticulous care, Calen made sure that both masses had managed to make a sphere of identical size, despite the fact that the smaller one had less res within it, logically. Smiling to himself, Calen kept a mind on those two shapes he had constructed before turning the majority of his attention back into the res he had kept floating over his right hand. Following an identical procedure as the one he had just performed, Calen soon found himself with a quartet of small Res spheres, each connected to him by a thin tendril of res. Suddenly, Calen's expression shifted to one of intense concentration as he began to morph each sphere from Res into stone. As he did so, his fingers trembled ever so slightly. Though he was confident that morphing small quantities of res into stone was well within his possibilities, he was still inexperienced with changing multiple portions of res at once; it was slightly more difficult than he had anticipated. However, after a few moments, Calen closed his hand, eyes closed and breathing deeply as he had been holding his breath throughout the latter portions of those acts of reimancy. Opening his eyes and spreading his fingers, Calen found four, perfectly smooth orbs of stone sitting in his palm, not a single one larger than a marble. Sighing pleasantly at them, Calen dropped all of them into his lap before picking up his discarded quill and book. Dipping the quill into the vial, in his haste to put it down earlier, he had failed to ensure it was empty of ink and was now sitting beside a small puddle of the black fluid, which he chose to ignore, Calen began to write. 'On the subject of magic, especially combat magics such as reimancy, one must always take into account their capabilities as a mage to bring the endeavors they pursue to fruition. Today, I successfully managed to form a small quantity of res which I separated into a foursome of smaller quantities. Both the forming and separation, as well as the maintenance, of this res are well within my capacity. However, in my haste to see my own limitations, I attempted to change these quantities into earth, which I succeeded at, but only barely and with some difficulty. I intend to investigate further my lack of prowess at simultaneous morphing of res.' Nodding at the passage, Calen placed both the quill and the book down, once more forgetting that it would soon form a puddle of ink.

[Calen]

* Calen * Leaning forwards, Calen selected one of the spheres he had made from his cupped palm before placing it upon the floor. Smiling as the orb remained where he had placed it, he had been worried that it might roll away, but it appeared that would not be the case. Humming cheerfully as he repeated the action of placing the stones down with his other three creations, Calen soon found himself sitting in front of a square he had made, with each stone marking a corner of the imaginary polygon. Satisfied with his physical preparations, Calen sat back onto his bottom, back slapping into his bedframe a bit harder than he was comfortable with, but he ignored it. It was time to take things beyond the physical. Closing his eyes, as he so often did when he wished to focus on his djed, Calen began to gather what he imagined was a sort of backed-up flow of it before he began pushing at his left shoulder. Though he was nowhere near as proficient or as informed on the subject of projection, Calen had been carefully warned on some of its more...gruesome dangers and as such, had always chosen to use the safer, if a bit more time-consuming method of dislodging his astral body from his physical. Slowly but surely, Calen began dislodging the astral form of his left arm from its physical counterpart. Soon after his shoulder had been dislodged he sighed with relief, though his arm did go slack as the shoulder muscles relaxed. Moving onto his elbow, Calen applied the same meticulous care he had been using up to that point. Calen repeated the same, slow, careful and efficient method on his wrist, once he felt the corresponding portion of his arm's astral body become free at the elbow. Before moving onto his wrist, Calen raised his right hand to scratch at his cheek and reposition his writing utensils; he probably wouldn't be using his left hand to steady them in his lap so he moved them so they were on his right side. Turning his full attention back to his partially dislodged astral arm, Calen began to dislodge his wrist. Interestingly enough, though he was suspicious that it might have been his imagination, Calen had the slightest inkling that dislodging his wrist was easier than dislodging his shoulder had been. Choosing to take note of it when he was writing about this day's ventures into projection, Calen focused on his hand and dislodging his fingers. Finally, after what felt like a considerable length of time, though Calen suspected it had only been a few minutes, Calen found himself sitting with his arm completely limp at his side, and his astral arm, which remained connected at the shoulder to his physical body, extending before bending at the elbow; Calen was testing it, having never actually completely dislodged his own limb with no one to watch over him as he did so. It was a very odd sensation. The arm laying against Calen's side, the one that his torso flesh was telling him was hanging there, was sending no tactile information to his brain, while his astral arm seemed to be doing just that. Focusing, Calen reached out with the arm, grabbing a hold of the pillow that lay on his bed, only just within his reach. Instantly, Calen came to two conclusions in regards to his astral body's limbs. One, they were just as useful, if not more so, than his physical ones when it came to manipulation and, possibly, dexterity; he just didn't have the practice with them that would allow him to utilize them to their fullest capacity. Second, they were weak as hell. Grunting with the mental strain, Calen struggled to lift the pillow from his bed. After a few moments, Calen found triumph as the pillow smoothly rose into the air before falling back to his mattress in a crumpled pile. "Wow....I don't know if that's sad or fantastic" Calen frowned at the spot on his shoulder where he felt his astral limb was originating. "Guess I need a bit more practice" he muttered before he threw a grin at the array of spheres he had laid down earlier.

[Calen]

* CALEN * Having separated his astral body's left arm from his physical body's, Calen was having trouble making sense of what he knew and what his astral body seemed to be telling him. The oddest thing was that there seemed little difference in control or sensation between Calen's physical arm and his astral one; his astral body's was a little bit clumsier and many times weaker, but controlling it was fairly simple, if a bit foreign. In short, he had, temporarily, traded his perfectly useful left arm for one that was slightly clumsier an much weaker. If not for the fact that it was invisible and thus, everything he did with it seemed to be that much amusing, he would've felt as if he had been ripped off. Flexing each of the fingers on his astral arm, Calen took note that while relaxed, his astral arm felt just as strong as his physical one, but when it was actually being moved with any sort of force, it had trouble maintaining or even summoning it. "Well, time to get to work" he said rather abruptly. Without moving his physical body, Calen reached out with his astral arm, invisible fingers searching for the stone orbs that Calen had laid out on the floor earlier. They remained firmly out of reach. Frowning, Calen attempted to reach towards the orbs, refusing to move his body as he knew that his astral limb could stretch quite a bit. Suddenly, there was a slight ease in Calen's strain and he felt the limb sort of...elongate. And then it did it again. And again. Bit by bit, Calen felt his projected arm begin to stretch until, finally, his fingers were just barely making contact with the closest of the spheres he had set up. Grinning broadly, Calen raised a trembling, astral finger, he was having a fair bit of trouble maintaining the stretching and move the limbs extremities; it was like of like using a very long pole for dexterous movements. After a few moments, Calen was holding the sphere in his fingers, though he could feel the trembling in the limb increase as he did so. With a grunt, Calen began to reach out towards the other spheres, having curled his astral body's ring and index finger around the first stone orb to secure it. Due to the fact that he was using projection, Calen saw his little experiment as anyone else would have seen it; he was watching each of the stones slowly rise into the air before pooling into an area roughly the size of a person's palm. The only real issue in his collection came as he reached out for the last of the spheres. His fingers felt as if he had been playing his lute for hours on end without rest; they were just so very tired. However, gritting his teeth against the feeling, Calen gathered up the orb with the same precision that he had used for the others; as if he were using a pair of tweezers. Immediately, Calen began retracting his limb. Dumping the spheres into his own lap rather unceremoniously, Calen began the painstaking process of reattaching his astral body to his physical one. Following a similar process to the one that he had used when he had detached the limb, Calen slowly and surely began to attach it at the extremities, in this case, his fingers, before he slowly worked his joints in as he moved up the arm. He was done with both his magic use and writing for the day. All he wanted to do was get something to eat and go to sleep. "I'll write some more tomorrow" he vowed to himself as he yawned, still attaching his astral body.

OOCI wasn't too certain how to describe Projection or its usage in this post, but I decided to kind of imagine it like moving around a limb that's only just been released from a cast; it feels light and yet oddly powerful, but the instant you try to use it for anything you realize just how clumsy and weak it truly is. I hope this is an appropriate portrayal.

[Verilian]

. . Thread Award . . Calen +1 Reimancy +1 Writing +2 Projection You Question My Logic? : If you have any questions regarding the award, feel free to PM me. Lores: Reimancy Technique: Simultaneous Transmutation of Different Portions of Res, Limits of an Astral Arm, Notes: Interesting thread. I don't know much about projection, so I had to reference it real quick, but I found it enjoyable to read. Good job, and keep writing! Notice As per the request of the Founders, threads cannot be graded unless your CS is up to date. This means you need to add threads to your thread list when you make new threads, keep your skills up to date, ledger, living expenses, ect. If you aren't up to date, you'll get a PM from me before i grade your thread. If you are up to date, disregard this notice.