Body, Mind and Soul.

by **Archailist** on February 27th, 2014, 8:57 pm

75th of Winter, 513AV.

Continued from here.

It was another one of those days. One of the days that he'd soon set aside from the rest, to test his body to its limits. The last time had left him unbelievably sore from it all, traveling around nearly all of the outskirts of Nyka twice over in search of Eric, just to find out that the boy had been hunting and wasn't in the least bit of danger from anyone but the squirrel himself. And he hoped, desperately, that the same thing wouldn't happen again. Unfortunately, some small part of his mind told him that it probably would anyway. Not the chasing of Eric, he meant of course, but he'd end up sore - very sore - and he'd have to learn to endure it if he wanted to make progress. That was what this was - making progress and testing new limits of his body, because if he didn't know the limits of even himself, how would he ever manage to compare to any of the other Pycons in Mizahar, let alone any of the knights? They all knew what they were capable of, and they always had to use it to their advantage and the opponents disadvantage. Just because he was made of clay didn't make him any different in these terms. He'd have to go through the same mental training. Just... without a patron, yet. Hopefully he'd never even need a patron.

The squirrel needed to train himself - and the first place he thought of, was the boundaries of Nyka. The same place he'd been before, because he'd tried there and tested there. It could provide what he needed - trees to climb, perches to balance upon, a sturdy environment that could open up a lot of challenges. He could see if he could find some of the wildlife, and try to chase them. Or he could just go there and start working on his balancing techniques like before.

But on his way from the Celestial towards the South and eventually towards the gates of Nyka and whatever lay beyond.. something in him decided that actually, it would be better if he just did it around the Celestial. There were so many buildings, ledges, roofs that would provide the perfect platform for his work. Besides - instead of learning to balance and co-ordinate himself on the trees that scattered the landscapes.. why not try it somewhere that was so much closer, and could offer a variation from the usual routine? It couldn't hurt, could it? After all, that was the problem in the first place. Doing the same thing, over and over, without a pause and without a change in pace to help accommodate, or learn from his mistakes in a new environment, faced with new challenges. Doing the same old routine of tested environments over and over would not be testing himself.. they would not be pushing at his limits. He'd need to break out of his own comfort zone. So, where better than in a city filled with scowling monks that never gave him a second glance unless they wanted to punch his face in?

There'd be no point in trying to deny that even the thought, when looked at it from an outside perspective, made him cringe like something fierce. So, diligently, he scanned the rooftops in search of a suitable place to begin his self-training. There were so many places that he dared not go, however - even though he was trying to break his comfort, he wasn't going to go out there ad get himself murdered or chased out of the city for breaking some unspoken sacred oath. The Hall of Robes was out of the question because he knew of many monks that were always working around it - many who could spot him and yell at him. Many other areas like the Palace of the Supplicants and the Employment Office were likewise void. He searched over most of the Celestial Quarter to find the one place that could be considered suitable, but after bells upon bells of hopping from one rooftop to the next and scanning repeatedly over the same small patches of city, he found the one place that immediately stood out as the perfect area to hone his talents. And how could he not have seen it sooner?

Of course, he'd never been inside the Palace of the Celestials. Neither had he much reason to; never talked about it, nor heard much about it. He'd been around it, and he'd foiled a plan to blow it up with those same reimancy glyphs that were used in the Zeltivan ships, but that was as close as he'd ever been. There were plenty of palaces and temples, and other places of worship around the city. So many that he found it difficult to differentiate between the ones that had been abandoned, and the ones that were still active. But by God, it was big. The biggest thing he'd actually seen; although, given the fact that every single building in the entire city seemed to be made of exactly the same brick and mortar, proportion soon became confusing as one building merged into the next. Sometimes, he wondered if the entire city and all four of its segmented corners were just part of one large building. It would have made sense, really. So many possibilities.

As soon as he saw the Celestial Palace, he knew he had to climb it. Even when he caught sight of the guards that roamed over its roof and its floors. They couldn't catch him, he was a squirrel!

by **Archailist** on June 10th, 2014, 2:48 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

When the squirrel scampered off towards the Palace and so much as looked at the walls, someone must have known what he intended. He wasn't a monk - he didn't even look like a monk, nor act like a monk. The squirrel stuck out like a happy thumb on a sore hand. "Don't even think about it. Unless you've got business with the Celestials, and damn important business as that, you're not getting near it." Just like that, his dreams were crushed and the squirrel sighed in defeat. Every eye was watching him as he turned his back on the Palace and scampered off again. Perhaps another time, when there weren't as many people watching. For now, he needed somewhere better to practice on. A building, of course - something tall, with plenty of grapples that he could use for climbing.

As he glanced about for such a building, his mind hit something. It was as if a brick had been thrown and slammed straight into the middle of his brain. Why just one building. He was stood in the middle of a city filled with buildings. Forget the Celestial Palace, there were more buildings in a city than there were droplets of water in a storm - why did he bother focusing on that one? Why didn't he pick another, or several? Why was he even picking? He could spend his time running around the entire city and nobody would bat so much as an eyelid as long as he stayed away from the government buildings and places of worship.

Just like that, his mind was chosen. Although, it wasn't really, because he didn't even bother picking one building in particular to head towards. The one nearest to him was turned towards, and scaled - the squirrel took little time by now to jump up to the lowest possible ledge, and then use to climb up to the upper ledge from the sill, and from there - well, then it was just repeating the whole thing over and over. That's all it was, any more. But it didn't make it any less exhilarating, how the monks turned and stared at a squirrel climbing up their buildings, before taking to a roof and leaping from one to the next in spectacular leaps that ended in quick, nimble rolls. And then he was off again. Over and over. He didn't pick a direction, he just ran off in the first one he could see - the nearest building, or any one that took his fancy. One to the next.

Some were taller than others. Some were smaller. All required thought before he crossed to the next, but not nearly as much as he'd once believed. To a lower level, he cut down on the spring put into the jump and made sure to land with a roll over one shoulder to break down the effort put on his legs. Occasionally he could even pick up on minor details - chimney-stacks that rose from the ledges, that could be used as platforms if he ran towards them at the right angle and switched position at the last moment to press a foot against the smooth stone stack and push up. The momentum was often enough to bring him all the way up without much need for a pause and when it wasn't, a quick grapple for the edge of the stack soon sorted the problem. And then, he had even more room to move - he could jump off and onto a higher ledge of another building, or jump off to reach a shorter building further away.

But, after jumping down to a lower building and immediately crossing it for the balcony overlooking the streets of a higher building made of red stone that seemed much cleaner than the majority of others, he stood back and reviewed his path. He'd been running around in circles - never leaving the corner and although he'd visited nearly every rooftop more than once by now of a residential building, he didn't feel like he'd found anything out. The mapping of the city was more or less coveted in his mind already, after all the exploration he'd gone through. All the adventures and whatnot. It wasn't testing him, the very reason he'd gone out of his way to put other things aside like his courier work to focus on this. He needed somewhere in particular to try out his molding abilities. And then, he saw the Safe Haven Hostel, standing there mockingly practically right in front of his face. Staring at him through the entire day, and yet he hadn't even considered it. He didn't need anything complex - heck, he didn't even really need a building. Why hadn't he used the Hostel before?

by **Archailist** on June 10th, 2014, 4:58 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel took nearly no time at all to climb the building - leaping from one grapple to the next became surprisingly easy, the only issue now was finding the correct grapple to use and how to use it. Some were shallow while others were deep, some were mere cracks in the walls that required the squirrel to press his claws firmly into them until their tips became deformed and adhered to the surface when there was no more air to push out. Others were simply crumbling chunks of mortar and any weight pressed against them would cause any handle to fall away in seconds. Eventually he made it though - the building wasn't old, but it wasn't new either. Somewhere between the two and relatively well-kept, which meant there were little worries of anything significant breaking off and crushing his poor little body. Plenty of windows for the different rooms and a few balconies overlooking the city at various angles that stuck out like pre-made handles, like the building was meant to be climbed. And once he reached the slanted roof, it all became even better. There were views from every angle over most of the Celestial Quarter, and the streets around it as well.

In truth, it was just like the branches back on the edges of the Nykan out-lands. Except the branch was made of stone and much thicker. He could even hear the people below talking as he prepared himself at the very far corner of the roof and reached down, nearly bending over in double completely to grab onto the ledge with both of his arms. This was the difficult part - he couldn't overbalance otherwise he'd topple forwards over his own arms and probably fall straight down. Underbalancing would be fine, he could just catch himself on his feet and try again. There were a few wobbles to start off, as the squirrel tried to move his legs and tail around in a way that would be able to balance out the weight of his body over the edge.. but at the same time, his insides were slowly being coaxed into different positions. Not an immediate thing but a slow, steady process, like a trickle of fluid building up into a puddle. First one way, then another.. testing it, while his legs wobbled and his arms began to quiver from the weight holding them up for so long.

It wasn't easy. It was anything from easy. It was taxing and stressful, held on the precipice of falling and having to find a balance before he toppled over completely. The smallest mistake could set him back precious chimes that he didn't have. But, eventually, he found it again. Faster than last time. More clay was added to his arms to ease some of the weight that strained against them, his legs eased and his tail slowly straightened up so that he could find a more comfortable position. He didn't want to be sprawled out with limbs uncomfortably pressing out at odd angles, so there were a few subtle movements inside his body and the weight was slowly distributed equally again. He could relax now. Somewhat. Call it a brief respite before he did anything else and ended up throwing himself off the roof.

And what a roof. What a view. He didn't know what it was but perhaps viewing the entire city from upside-down made it even more beautiful. Of course there were some parts that ruined it - the fact that every damn building was made out of that same red stone. The colour was beginning to make his eyes strain every time he saw it - it was a miracle any of the monks could still see, having to see that same stuff day in and day out. The strain of switching between the intense, odd colours of the regular citizens that packed the city itself to the gills and the strange, monotonous colours of the city itself. There just wasn't any escape from it, anywhere but the big outdoors that he could just about see through the mountains of red stone stacked high atop one-another. Even though the buildings were carved out of that god-awful red stone, they were works of art. The chambers, the wide domes and the harsh-cut brick all made something altogether new for the Pycon to fawn over. It wasn't like in Syliras when the one thing anyone would ever see would be a big castle surrounded by walls and a few smaller buildings scattered loosely around the outside. This was a real city - a bowl filled to the brim with buildings of all different odd shapes and sizes, that looked like they shouldn't really belong together. And it didn't help that it seemed like every Quarter had a different style.

It was strangely beautiful, how everything came together. And yet it was all so different. Each building had its unique features but came together as a style matching its Quarter, and each Quarter was distinctly different from the rest and yet came together to create a city, that worked. Like a painting made out of hundreds of smaller paintings all stuck together.

by **Archailist** on June 10th, 2014, 6:57 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The Pycon thought of these things, to ease his mind as he begun to slowly shift his position again - only this time, it was purposefully distorting the balance that he'd worked so hard to control. Inside his arms and legs, especially inside his tail, he could feel little columns of clay shifting and forming to move here and there. And with it, he could feel his balance shifting. He'd barely noticed how far he'd managed to lean over the edge of the roof until he opened his eyes again and found him staring straight down at the ground beneath him with both legs tilted nearly horizontally back towards the Hostel, along with his tail. Unbelievable. Although, he felt like he could push at the boundaries even more. So, he slowly begun to shift weight off his left arm while pushing more into his right.

A one-handed handstand would be something he'd never really tried before, but he could give it a shot. He just needed to funnel more clay into the right arm, ease it off the left.. shift his body weight so that the center of mass was directly above the arm in question, moving down towards it to provide a more stable surface for balancing. Another helpful advantage of being a Pycon - one could manipulate their limbs almost entirely to make even the slightest imperfections disappear. A human would have to worry about whether their palm could be pressed completely flat to compliment the surface they had to balance on - but Archailist had none of these issues. His entire hand pressed tightly against the cool stone and begun to mold to its shape, taking on every single groove like a pair of puzzle pieces come together. Slowly, less and less weight was focused on his left paw.. until he managed to lift it just an inch of the surface of the roof. But his balance took a turn and he nearly tumbled - having to grapple back onto the edge for dear life, essentially holding the Pycon from simply toppling off to the right and collapsing.

One problem he hadn't taken into account - his arm still had mass in it, and moving it around too quickly would mean that the rest of his body wouldn't be able to keep up. He needed to move it slowly.. but he'd have to take a while to slowly reshape the rest of his body to restore its complete balance, before he could even prepare to lift the paw. Let alone get back to where he'd started at the beginning of all of this.

And there were other things going on beneath the Pycon that he couldn't ignore. Like someone yelling. It'd started off as a fairly distant droning that he could easily ignore because of all the concentration put into his balancing, his co-ordination.. but as it all faded away and the Pycon found himself squarely rooted back on Mizahar, the voice called out so crisp in the air, he could have sworn that it was coming from directly beneath where he was balancing. And a glance down proved it. A young monk, yet completely bald and dressed in yellow robes with an orange sash spread over his shoulder and wrapped loosely around his waist, was following a considerably older monk. Looking to be in her elderly years and wearing a starkly contrasting robe that looked completely out-of-place in Nyka. Where others were rather simple but bold, it was old and frayed at the edges, with faded colours... but oh, so much detail. There were little details stitched into every seam possible, creating a tapestry that she wore like it was a bathrobe. Unbelievable. He couldn't actually take his eyes off the mesmerizing scene and because of that, he nearly lost his balance and toppled forwards.

Instead, he managed to just about catch himself and tilt backwards sharply, landing on his hind-legs and lifting himself up to follow the pair from the rooftop above. There were still more shouts but they were becoming more muffled, and since both of them were yelling at the same time, he couldn't make out the individual words. Or even the individual voices. Goodness knew it was hard enough to concentrate without a pair of monks having a yelling contest in the middle of the day, but at least they got some withering looks from the other monks that they passed on the way. And a huge amount of awkward looks from the citizens that soon parted to make room for the pair - knowing, after all, that they were completely powerless to stop such an argument and instead choosing to keep as far away as possible from then. Not that any of this did any work because the two only seemed to yell even more and gesture to the other few people in the area as if it was the other ones fault. And that just made everything awkward.

by **Archailist** on June 11th, 2014, 7:24 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel couldn't look away - his attention immediately hooked onto the pair and shortly after they disappeared around a corner, Arch turned on his heels and sped as fast as possible up one end of the roof and slid down the other, jumping right at the bottom of the ledge and crossing the small gap between the Hostel and the next building over. He wanted to hear what they were doing, see what was going on - if anything, the fact that the old lady was in a monks garbs just made him even more curious. After all, it was true that there were plenty of elder monks. But they were old, not elderly. If any of them needed a walking stick, it was become of some injury and not because their hip was acting up again. If they had wrinkles on their face, they were from the constant stress of their training and not because of their years spent in the city. The woman did not remind Arch of the other older monks. She reminded him of an elderly woman, the kind that never did any fighting with anything but a particularly hard set of stitching. Perhaps that was stereotypical of him but it was what it was.

And the fact that there seemed to almost be someone else harassing her.. well, that filled the squirrel with anger. Why did it seem that the strong always fed from the weak, did none of them have a moral compass? The Nykan Monks certainly didn't, whenever he saw them, they seemed to have no respect towards anyone that wasn't from Nyka. He wouldn't readily believe that the elderly monk had done anything wrong, but his previous experiences with the monks told him.. what if she'd done something to cause the yelling? Was she the sole problem, or was it the other man? Well, he wouldn't find out the truth if he just speculated this and that without collecting evidence - he needed a closer position. Which was why the squirrel decided to suddenly grapple the edge of a ledge he'd been about to use to hop to the neighboring roof, causing his lower body to swing overhead while his upper body lay anchored to the roof beneath. It left the squirrel hanging off the edge of the roof by his paws, and when he let go, he fell straight down to land on the floor, and with a quick roll to break most of the momentum from distorting his legs, the squirrel scampered right up to the corner of the building and glanced furtively around for the pair. He must have landed closer than anticipated because he could hear every word.

"No, I don't think Xannos is a wise leader." The scratchy voice had to be the elderly female monk shuffling along the street, occasionally turning back to the rather colorfully-dressed man that stood only a few steps behind and kept grabbing her shoulder - pressuring her.

"That's because you're ignorant - Uphis has blinded you with his sharp tongue and folly!" The citizen, apparently dressed in very bright orange clothes scattered with strips and stripes of yellow winding intricately around the hem and peeling off to the chest and arms specifically, was getting very heated in the argument and that just provoked the elderly monk to become even louder in return. Thankfully they were moving out of the Celestial. Practically teetering on the Bridge of the Dead. However, the elderly female was looking more and more angry. And so was the squirrel.

"Hey! You leave her alone!" he suddenly yelled. The citizen practically reeled about on his heel to face the squirrel that stood further down the street from them both. He looked surprised, but otherwise undaunted. As they all did. But when the squirrel leveled his gaze and begun marching forwards, not only did the female monk begin walking even faster off towards the Bridge, but so did the citizen dressed in the odd clothes. Not because of the squirrel, but because the elderly monk apparently just wanted to make a quick escape and the citizen didn't want to lose his easy prey. "Hey, come back here!" In a second, the scene had gone from nerve-wracking to just plain embarrassing. He had a monk and a citizen both running away from him, for all the wrong reasons, and he actually had to run to catch up with them both. A full-out run, because that monk could run a lot faster than he thought she should be able to - she practically danced straight across the bridge and the citizen, of what he could guess was of the West, followed obliviously.

"Come back here! Xannos will corrupt your mind and desecrate your body!"

"No, you come back here and tell me why you thought it was a good idea to bully an old lady!"

by **Archailist** on June 11th, 2014, 7:54 pm

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

As soon as they crossed over into the North, the elderly monk turned around the first corner that she could find, and the citizen followed behind her, still shouting. Although, the squirrel could already tell that something bad was going to happen. One simply didn't go into another Quarter yelling about how bad it was unless they wanted that entire Quarter to beat them bloody with their own fists. And just as he'd thought it would, seconds later the rather young man was grabbed and yanked around the corner, to the sound of several firm punches. He didn't know who was doing it but the squirrel crossed the bridge as fast as he could possibly manage and practically sprung around the corner... to find that same elderly monk with one fist holding up the man by the scruff of the neck like there was nothing to his weight, while the other wrinkled hand repeatedly slammed into his lower jaw, retracting his ability to speak one tooth at a time.

"I'll. Teach. You. To. Not. Disrespect. Uphis." The elderly monk seemed quite calm and composed as she beat the snot out of the citizen, sending blood all over his nice orange dress to matt down the orange and yellow colors. She practically lifted him off his feet to turn and slam him back against the alleyway when she'd apparently become bored, to instead let him slide down the side of his own accord while she kicked at his mangled body. There weren't any broken bones but damn.. he looked a mess in the space of barely a chime. He wouldn't be disrespecting Uphis again. But while he was focused entirely on the citizen, he'd barely noticed the monks attention shifting over to the squirrel until he looked and found her staring coldly at him.

"And you. Don't think a monk of Uphis can stand up for herself, do you?" Suddenly Arch found himself in a very uncomfortable position. He definitely didn't want to hurt this person, whoever it was, and neither did he want to do anything to annoy her, so he lifted both paws as a sign of defeat and shook his head. Apparently this made everything worse because her eyes took on the same look he'd often seen in a bull before it ran straight for the nearest red object. He'd tried to get something out of his mouth, but she just kept staring and rolling her shoulders.. there was nothing the squirrel could do but run.

The female monk had been anticipating that. For an elderly woman she moved incredibly fast, and before he'd made it towards the mouth of the alleyway, she was there blocking it. Although... maybe... he could just try to move out of the way? Maybe just escape this, without having to knock her over? It'd be difficult, for certain... but...

There was no time to think over the subject. The female monk seemed uninterested in letting their time last any longer than expected, and suddenly a foot was thrown rather carelessly straight for the squirrels face. Thankfully, he found himself fully able to hop to the side before it crashed into him - and this left a clear window to run through with one leg raised and the other lowered - or it would have, if not for the fact that just as quickly as the leg was raised, it came crashing straight down for what would have been his spine, if he hadn't managed to roll off shortly to the opposite direction. Now he was back where he started, and the female monk looked... well, now he didn't know whether she looked annoyed or impressed. Possibly a bit of both. And now was his chance to try and explain himself.

"I meant no disres-PECT!" he yelled as the woman lurched forwards and tried for a second kick, that the squirrel had a much harder time darting out of the way of, since the other foot came just as fast and nearly stepped on him. He had to make two hops in separate directions, but it left him behind the monk and with freedom within sight. Though she could see it as much as he could, and immediately lurched a second time to step back towards where she'd once been. The squirrel had already passed that spot though.

"I was TRY-ing to be helpful!" The female monk reached down with one hand to try and grab onto the squirrels tail and nearly succeeded, but he made sure to keep a good eye on her, in case she tried to make a sudden move, and rose his back-end high into the air in a hand-stand. Much like the ones he'd been performing before. Her grapple landed on nothing but the air behind the squirrel as he rolled over onto his own back, and from there to his feet, performing a rolling somersault that meant her next grab for just above where he'd once been also landed on nothing.

"I just wanted to say SOR-ry!" Another kick came from behind and the squirrel rolled quickly out of the way, but only into a second attack that he couldn't have possibly anticipated - a full elbow-drop. He'd never seen an elderly woman do that, but he guessed she was a monk so she didn't count. Nevertheless, he rolled back to his feet and immediately leaped for the nearest wall at the side of the alley, while picking up one of the moves he'd learned in all his time jumping off rooftops. His tail wound around and the weight inside turned the rest of his body, until his feet touched the wall and sprung back, sending the squirrel into a double-leap that sailed straight over her power-driving body to land right before her once again, within freedoms reach.

Finally, he'd had enough trying to explain himself in such adverse conditions. Seriously, there was a point where it all boiled down to a little patience and common sense. Which was why the squirrel boiled up all of the verbal assault tactics he'd formed so far, kept them tight in his chest, and turned around on the spot to raise himself up on his hind legs and stare at the female monk straight in the eye. "HEY!" That stopped her dead in her tracks, looking down at the little squirrel. "Would you pack that shyke in? I was trying to help, I now know you don't need it, jeez." With a final withering look, he turned and scampered straight out of the alley, and straight out of the Northern Quarter. Talk about your hardcore grandmothers.

Continued here.