open and closed.

[luaithre]

WHO: Marcus Rowntree and various.
WHAT: Activities.
WHEN: Kingsway
WHERE: Mainly the Gallows
NOTES: Some open prompts in the comments, but also works as a catch all for planned things. Let me know if you'd like to do something specific, or if we have CR, feel free to just hit me with a wild card honestly.

Comments

[luaithre]

Maybe Marcus can see it, that urge, with the measure of his study being hard and prying. It's oddly familiar, this—how many nervous apprentices has he had stand before him? Some of them likewise fighting back tears for any myriad of reasons. Of course, this one is older than those ones, and under a different set of pressures.

Still, it's Marcus' instinct to do as he would have done with those he considered his wards, which is, to simply get on with it. "The staff is a tool of focus," he says. "It's not necessary to a mage to pull back the Veil, but it does offer a measure of control. For mages of this world, control is everything. More powerful than power. Here," and Marcus moves, shifting his hold on his own staff so that the blunt end of it is set against the ground, and both his hands wrap around it.

"This is a casting action," lifting the staff up an inch, setting it back down against the ground, to demonstrate. "Once settled, focus. See if you can get a sense of your access to the Fade, your magic, and sense the way you can gather it in your hands while you hold onto the staff. It will feel different for every mage. Like fire, or like ice, or something else."

[voidtransport]

'More powerful than power' is a funny thought to him, considering the way that magic worked in his home and the lengths that those without it would go to achieve it. But control is powerful, he knows this in more ways than just one.

One moment, he has both hands on his staff and ready to follow along, and the next he hesitates. He worries what the something else might be, and if 'something else' will be the case for him knowing what he knows about his own magic. He fears also accidentally manifesting anything that would betray magic that is not looked upon kindly here. Moreso than he already has, that is.

But he cannot hesitate forever, and so he tries to stay focused on the lesson, mind set on the intent as he follows through with the same action as shown. There's a bit of comfort in knowing that the feeling is not entirely the same as the magic he learned from the his time in the Black Void... but it's also not entirely dissimilar either, something cold and foreign creeping along his senses from another plane. He tries to swallow down his panic - he's read enough to know that the Fade is not the Black Void, no matter how similar they may be.

"Alright," he says with a nod, looking to Marcus to make it clear he's understood this step of the lesson.

[luaithre]

Marcus watches him process the lesson, act on it, respond, all those internal workings that are the real labour, and that he has little dominion over. By the time Allumin is nodding to him, he's roamed around a little to give them further space from each other, coming to stop more sidelong.

He nods back. "I'll show you through some casting actions," Marcus says, hefting his own staff. "And I'll go slowly, so you can mimic me."

What follows are some patiently shown manoeuvres, paused with instruction ("keep your hands further apart" and "make certain you're balanced first" and "keep your eyes up") without any explanation as to how to make them summon magic. Even then, when some motions are executed well, there's that low hum of potential zithering through the enchanted staff.

These motions feel like they could be martial, or like a dance, or meditative, and like they could be more of one of those things than the other with practice. Marcus is more mechanical, but perhaps that's just for the sake of the lesson.

[voidtransport]

He follows the movements with as much grace as he can, trying to take all the little notes into account but struggling against his inclinations to do otherwise. It's unusual and different in the first place, all of this, and even more unusual with the cognitive dissonance that the somatics for casting spells might all be shared? Rather than unique to each spell? He can't be certain of that yet of course, but learning the movements separate of any context other than being designated as casting actions is just Odd.

The nature of how Marcus moves also makes adapting tricky, the nature of his own movements tending towards frenetic fluidity under usual circumstances. The slowed pace and almost rigid feeling of this makes him doubt his own work with the staff despite the vague resonance of energy here and there. Eventually, his mouth purses up for a moment before speaking.

"Do you always move like this? Not the pace - the actual style of somatics."

[luaithre]

Marcus sets one end of the staff against the ground, leaning in place. The question strikes him as odd, but not in some unexpected way. He's had conversations with Petrana about the way her own magic operates, its differences, although he's never been moved to try to teach her something new. He would, of course, if she wanted.

But he tips his head as he says, "In using a staff, aye, mostly, there are common and basic spells with their set of movements. Somatics," he says, as if to try that word out. "The best way I've heard to described is not only thinning the Veil, but manipulating it to produce the kind of magic you're channelling into spellwork.

"And in my opinion, it makes better sense once you know the motions by heart, when you're no longer thinking about it. So I drill my apprentices in the motions only, until that part is learned."

He pauses, and adds, "I can show you what it's supposed to look like instead."