1486/The Student Interview

The Student Interview
Date of Scene:	03 February 2015
Location:	The Great Ruin
Synopsis:	Kyra becomes Orphen's student!
Cast of Characters:	626, 703, 706

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Orphen (703) has posed:
It's actually still early afternoon in this part of the Great Ruins that Orphen's chosen.

This was on purpose.

It's a clear, warm day, and he's sitting on a rocky bench in the middle of a Stonehenge-like structure. Except it's surrounded by at least five progressively larger structures, creating what would look a bit like a target if one were flying over.

He's got a glass with a tiny spoon, eating vanilla ice cream from a root beer float while he waits for his new student. Or, possible student. She still has to be interviewed.

He doesn't look like the typical wise old magic teacher. He can't be more than twenty or so.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    Kyra's heard what this guy sounds like. He didn't seem much older than she was so part of her was kind of dubious about this whole arrangement. Either way, from what she understood there would be an interview first-and if she didn't like the guy well then she didn't have to /buy/ lessons from him.

    It doesn't take the white mage long to find this place at all. Orphen can hear her approaching-riding some kind of two-legged, very fast creature. Whatever it is, he doesn't get the chance to see it since it disappears by the time Kyra shows herself, circling around one of the stone pillars. Spying Orphen, she stops about ten or so feet away from him and looks him older critically. Yep, definitely as young looking as he sounded. Though maybe he had an eternal life thing going on-who knows.

    "Orphen?" she finally says, "Hi. I'm Kyra Hyral." As she ventures closer, she takes a moment to push down the hood of her hoodie so he can at least look her in the face. "Here for the interview."

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Hey." Orphen casually raises his spoon, not particularly one to take a business-like demeanor. "Stand in the middle of the circle and show me what you can do. I'm curious. If you can't, well, -explain- it. I want to know what you want."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Hold up, before we begin-" Kyra whips a paper out of the front pocket of her hoodie and holds it out to Orphen, "You need to sign this. It's a nondisclosure agreement to /not/ talk about the magical problem I'm currently having that I'm coming to you in hopes of /solving/."

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Well, whatever makes you feel better. Not that I have anyone I'd want to tell." Orphen sits his glass down and takes the paper. He looks it over for a moment, then shrugs and pulls a pen from his pocket, quickly signing and handing it back.

Morgan Vale (706) has posed:
Suddenly, death god. Morgan arrives at the coordinates provided to watch apparently a MAGIC LESSON. As he described on the radio, he truly is shackled. Manacles are on both his wrists and his ankles, two chains that seem to sway on their own as he moves, lengthening and shortening as needed for comfort. As he arrives, he actually doesn't speak, but he's visible. And just preferring to be there kind of spookily. He remains about ten feet away from Orphen and Kyra at all times, though. Magic is dangerous!

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "I'm not taking any chances, especially if this doesn't work out." Kyra says curtly, taking the paper back and stuffing it back into her pocket. "Alright, so it seems like you're expecting something big and flashy but there's not many spells in my color that does that kind of stuff. I'm a white mage, my magic does healing, and you don't look like you need healing." She says this as she heads to the center that Orphen has cleared.

    "But it can do a couple of different things, like this-" she mutters something and starts to levitate off the ground a few inches. Though she floats, she seems to be able to 'walk' around normally. As she does, she takes notice of Morgan showing up, which makes her pause just a little. "-and this-"

    Another brief vocalization too quiet for Orphen to hear results in Kyra's form blurring and turning into four distinct forms. All look identical and only the truly astute can figure out the right white mage.

    She looks thoughtful for a moment, then grins, apparently getting an idea. "And there's this-REFLECT!" That particular spell, however, is leveled at Orphen himself. It's not destructive at all-quite the opposite as it seems to try to encase him in some kind of magical shield. Unless he resists it somehow.

Orphen (703) has posed:
"I see... nice shield." Orphen grabs his glass in one hand, then reaches out to lightly touch it with the tip of his finger. "Alright, I see what you can do. The question is, what do you want from me? You seem like you're doing pretty well for yourself. What can I teach you?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "There's a problem with my magic and it's been happening with increasing frequency lately." Kyra says, lifting a hand, "I'm not sure why it's happening but one of my Professors thinks it's because I decided to reject the religious faith that I grew up with in my family quite recently. It's made my magic do unusual things-" she pauses to murmur something under her breath and-

    Something goes really wrong. Orphen can easily tell. It's hard to say what the spell was supposed to be beforehand but some kind of chaotic warping that occurs around Kyra and within her overwhelming magic presence alters the magic into something entirely different. There's no control there. Lightning lances down from the sky and it would have hit Orphen had Kyra not put the reflect spell on him beforehand. Instead, it strikes his shield and diverts into Kyra, sending her smacking against one of the stone pillars.

    "...yeah. Like that." she groans, obviously hurt but apparently accustomed to getting hurt. "The short of it is the teacher recommended that I try to re-learn magic without having any belief in my parent's faith".

Orphen (703) has posed:
"It makes sense. If your magic came from some form of belief. I've never heard of it, but the concept seems sound. Magic bestowed by a greater being or beings. If you break their rules, then they're not going to let you keep the goods." Orphen presses his hand against her shield, sighing. "Alright, I'll teach you. Your magic seems to have a vocal component too. So I'll teach you the fundamentals of my magic, and you'll do everything that I say. How does your healing magic work, exactly?"

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Pretty much. And it's starting to put the people around me in danger so...yeah." Kyra peels herself off the pillar, the Float spell still in effect. "And I don't want people to know about the strange, uh, chaotic effects because it might make people from my world assume that I'm turning evil. It'll especially make my parents think I'm turning evil."

    With the terms set, Kyra nods, "And pay you, of course." Money doesn't seem to be a concern for her. Questioned about the healing magic, Kyra goes ahead and demonstrates it on herself. There's also a verbal component and it outright reverses the damage that she just took from her own magic, leaving no physical trace behind. "It resets the 'pattern' back to its original, non-damaged state.

Orphen (703) has posed:
"My healing magic, which uses white magic, is time magic. It reverses the area to its original state. The same spell can also be used to repair objects." Orphen explains as he points up at the shield, as if indicating for her to remove it. "I'll teach you. The magic will come from within yourself, you won't be thinking of any gods or anything like that."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...ohh, yeah, that's very different from mine. Time magic is a different school. White magic only repairs organic things, not objects." Which, Kyra has found, is a problem considering the non-organic people working with the Union. She finally realizes what the pointing of the shield is all about and she mutters something ending in, "Dispell." The magic shield fizzles away. "/Great/. I will enjoy that." Kyra rubs her hands together.

Orphen (703) has posed:
Orphen sips at his increasingly melty float, then licks his lips when she finishes speaking. "White magic in my world covers spirit and time. Spirit is complicated, and largely nothing good comes of it. I don't practice spirit magic, but I know how to wield it if I needed to reverse it in some way. Time is primarily used for healing and repairing."

He begins to walk over to her, then holds up his hands. "The first thing you want to do is channel your energy into your hands. Focus. And manipulate the magic with your vocalization, then -release- that magic from your hands. We cast on a particular frequency, so it'll take some practice to get it right, since you didn't learn phono-magic like mine."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "What does spirit magic /do/, then?" Kyra asks, putting a hand to her chest and dispelling her Float spell. She drops back to the ground, then holds up her own hands, mimicing his gesture.

    From the look of it, the magic does indeed flow into her hands. As she looks from one to the other, she mutters, in this case it seems to be a healing-related incantation. A few moments pass and...nothing happens. The magic stays where it is on Kyra and does not manifest. Kyra makes a face and promptly starts trying again.

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Gives you control over the spirit world, which allows all sorts of complicated things, like body switching and other unpleasant things." Orphen points his hand at one of the monuments. "I'm going to teach you white magic, -my- white magic, for healing. You're already capable of doing magic, so if I explain it and you practice, this might be possible. If not, then the fundamentals should help you use your own."

"Hurl, The Hammer of Gods!" Some sort of invisible force falls from above, smashing the structure into large chunks. "You're going to learn one spell, a spell that'll cover healing and repairing. You need to say it in the frequency that I say it in, visualize what you want to do, assert your force of will. Focus. You're manipulating the physical forces with the magic of your body."

"Heal, the Scar of the Glowing Sun!" The monument seems to be -rewinding-, like watching a VHS tape. Then it's right back to how it was before.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...body switching? Actually a thing? Huh. Sounds...interesting. But unethical." Kyra doesn't seem to be too sad to be missing out on spirit magic. But she nods to him, letting her hands lower as she watches him throw his magic-and does so very carefully, squinting with concentration. "...what exactly do you mean by frequency?"

    Still frowning, she lifts her hands again, forcing the magic out into her hands again, "Okay." she says quietly. "I think I'm ready to try. Break something again?"

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Wait, here." Orphen reaches out for her hand, then places it against his throat, saying, "Aaaaaa." he says as he holds a solid note, trying to show her just what he means by 'frequency'. "The frequency at which we cast. It's precise. It takes practice until it's natural. It's what helps form your magic once it leaves your hands, and the volume that you cast can make that spell even stronger. Well, volume isn't accurate, more like strength of will, or... well, when you get to the casting part we'll figure that out." He holds his hand out, reciting the same spell, and smashes a different monument.

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    There's only a split second of surprise when Orphen puts her hand on his throat but the action gets the point across "/Oh/, I see. So you need to say the words very, very precisely or the spell will not work. Oh. Okay. I've got this. Yes." She pulls her hand away and turns to face the newly-smashed monument.

    The magic warms up in her hands, clearly visible in the faint light surrounding her palms. The natural magic field around her seems to shift in this direction as well. "HEAL! The Scar of the Glowing Sun!"

    A few moments pass and...nothing happens right away. Kyra frowns and repeats the phrase a bit more forcefully. Still nothing. A third time finally brings some slight movement of the rubble.

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Yeah, this will take some work, but you'll get there. I'll need to educate you a bit on physics behind how the magic functions. White magic is incredibly complex, and using this kind of magic requires education as well as magical tutoring, so we have a lot of work to do. But don't worry, you don't have to do any math." Orphen starts to walk through the monuments, holding his hand out to recite the spell and repair the thing himself. "Come on, we'll start you with something smaller. And I need to give you a bit of a physics lecture."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "...oh really?" Kyra looks to Orphen with a somewhat disconcerning glint in her eyes. Completely undeterred, if anything, she seems even more interested. "Hey, I'm not afraid of math either even if I'm not a Calculator. So how do your physics work? I'm REALLY curious about that." Merrily, she follows after Oprhen, the magic field around her turning back to its "normal" state quickly.

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Well it's easy to explain things like fire or electricity. But you're going straight into white magic, the time part of it. Understanding time might take a few days of lessons to really sink in, but you'll get it. If you can wrap your head around things like the general 'direction' or 'state' of time, and complicated explanations on how to alter that state in a particular area, object, or even part of an object, then you might get it. But this isn't something I can teach you in a day." Orphen seems to be heading out of the area in general, though obviously is inviting her to go along with him. "Normally you'd learn something simple, like setting a stick on fire or something. Learning white magic is highly advanced, but you might be able to get away with it because you already know an advanced and strange kind of magic."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Ah, yeah, I understand. Can't say that's a problem, scheduling might be tricky but I'm sure my other Professors would understand. Maybe I can even swing class credit for it too." Kyra rubs her chin thoughtfully. She willingly follows the older sorceror from the ruins, clearly curious and clearly not intimidated by the prospect of seveal days of complicated lessons. "So for your world, are magic and physics two separate things?"

Orphen (703) has posed:
"That's a bit tricky. Not all magic is the same, some dragons have magic that we can barely figure out. White magic can deal in things like the spirit world, which is far outside the realm of a scientific explanation." Orphen answers, finally out of the monuments and walking across a grassy plain which has other, similar religious ruins scattered about. "Black magic is a manipulation of the physical forces. So on one hand, yes, they're separate things. But on the other, some magic is manipulating physics. They can be separate but linked. Your hand isn't a doorknob, but you can still turn the knob with it."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "So there are some things in white magic that you do have a scientific explanation for but for things like spirit magic, we're SOL?" As she walks along with him, Kyra pulls an object out of her pocket-an mPhone-and starts jotting down notes on it with the gestures of her finger against the touch screen. "Very interesting. Out of curiosity, what consists of black magic in your world?"

Orphen (703) has posed:
"There are more spiritual and esoteric magical explanations for things like spirit magic. It's incredibly complex and high concept. I probably couldn't teach you within a -year-, let alone a few weeks. And I wouldn't anyway." Orphen stares down at his now empty glass, grunting for a moment. "Black magic covers basically everything else that sorcerers are capable of doing. Manipulating the elements, shooting beams of light, things like that. Black magic is very broad. Magic outside of the type of magic sorcerers do aren't really anything I can explain from experience, since humans can't use them."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "I'm trying to get away from the whole spiritual thing anyway so...one thing at a time, I guess. I'm still trying to decide if I can tolerate you enough to be around you for a few weeks, let alone a whole /year/." A smirk passes over Kyra's face. "Huh, I see, interesting that 'shooting beams of light' falls under black magic. That'd get classified as white magic to me though our classification systems clearly differ. So anyway...this white magic. The time magic, specifically, and it's physics. Where do we start?"

Orphen (703) has posed:
"I'll give you a book that explains it in the context of magic, you'll read the book and ask any questions you need to while reading it. Then we'll get back to more practical practice and explaining how to actually do all of this. You need to understand it before you can really get it to work." Orphen seems to be approaching a nearby gate, likely the one they both came from, if she actually used a gate. "I've got a tab at an inn not far from here, but not close enough to walk. You can come if you want, I'll just put your room on the tab."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    "Ah." There's only a slight bit of disappointment there-she enjoys the hands-on stuff, clearly. "Heh, homework. Fair enough. Nah, if we're going to part ways for now, I'm going to be heading back to my dorm. Once I get the book though. I have classes tomorrow-yeah, I could skip, but that'll rack up problems for me. Thanks, by the way, this all looks like it'll be a lot of help." Especially that non-organic "healing" spell.

Orphen (703) has posed:
"Don't worry about it, maybe I can actually pay off some of my debts with this money." Orphen reaches over to lightly pat her on the head, then he heads for the gate. "I'll see you around. And you'll have the book in the mail tomorrow."

Kyra Hyral (626) has posed:
    There's a small frown from Kyra at the head-patting, a gesture that seemed to be the domain of someone else close to her prior to this. None of this gets mentioned and she brushes it off a moment later. "See you around, Orphen." Kyra offers, lingering at the edge of the ruins for a moment longer, thinking.