Scene #4280: A Matter of Spirit

Owner	Pose
Lin	A corner of the ring's been committed to simulating a barren rocky cliff by a noisy ocean shore. The crashing of waves assaults the ear, the smell of churning saltwater tickles the nose. And Karal Rei Lin has taken up residence at the cliff's very edge facing the ocean. Every thirty seconds or so, a great wave collides with the cliff face... and a jet of water sprays high in the air up along it. At the spray's peak motion... she strikes! A single, clean, smooth, very practiced manuever. The blade carves through the water and parts it neatly, trailing the faintest wispy of golden light as it goes. The cleave's fierce and swift enough that the vacuum it leaves behind drags the surrounding water in its wake and thus leaves it parted for a barely measurable moment... before the entire column comes crashing down. Whatever she's trying to do, there's no doubting just how hard she's FOCUSED on it. Each watery spray's treated with a fierce glare and full focus!
Priscilla	This seems to have been a long time coming, for whatever reason. Admittedly, Priscilla is far from an eager teacher, but if Karal is going to keep showing up to Lumiere, and keep . . . being herself, she can wholeheartedly condone just this particular aspect of a thirsty Exalted grasping for power. Of course she still has that habit of practically never announcing her presence, though she hardly needs to be invisble to remain out of the new Solar's attention, judging by how intently she's focusing on that, admittedly seemingly pointless, exercise. Maybe it makes perfect sense in her head. So she watches her cut away at the waves for what must be several minutes, remaining dead silent and still, probably hoping to glean some inkling of what compels her to swing her sword at the water over and over and over, before giving in at the end. "I hope thou art having a productive evening, for I cannot possibly imagine what it is thou seest in such exercise." she intones, impolitely unannounced from behind. "Or is this how thou busy thineself between work?"
Staren	Staren wanders in through the door. "Hey guys." He watches Lin's training curiously. "...Trying to cleave water in two, huh? Well, you scared my fearless constructs the other day, so... hey, maybe it'll work?" he shrugs.
Lin	Lin at first yelps like a child, plainly startled... but then gestures to the air, bringing the crashing waves to a halt... though the terrain remains unchanged. She turns around wearing a rather PUZZLED look... blinks a few times... then. THEN, after calculating the distance to ensure Priscilla won't be hurt, she swings the weapon HER direction... except the horizontal cut's done at speeds so terrific that the air visibly heats and ripples. A thunderous CRACK like a gunshot echoes across the cliffs and a warm wind rushes over Priscilla and anyone else gathering, and only when the echo's quieted does she bring the sword up and around... then smoothly sheathe it. "A sifu of mine once said, fear not the man who has practiced a thousand kicks, but rather the one who's practiced one kick a thousand times."
Priscilla	To Priscilla, why Karal is swinging a sword in her direction is pretty much equally as perplexing as why she had been swinging it at simulated waves. She has no love for the sound of gunshots either, or uncomfortable heat for that matter, adopting a vaguely displeased expression rather than an impressed one, in the kind of sense that an extremely tired mother looks at a very loud and ill-behaved child at a supermarket currently aggravating a building post-work migraine. Exalted. Every goddamn time. "I supposeth then thou shouldst be a fearsome adversary to the water by now." comes the deadpan and yet mildly sassy reply. "Thou either of them shouldst logically fear the one who hast practiced a thousand kicks a thousand times each. Versatility and competence art not exclusively opposed concepts." Slightly less sassy. "Dost thou believeth then thou art ready to tackle something more practical?"
Staren	Staren jumps at the gunshot, staring at what just happened. His muse assists with calculating the amounts of force and energy involved. "Geeze... you're like a pistol shrimp now?" He nods. "True, as long as that well-practiced kick is the move you need at the moment." He rubs the back of his head. "A thousand kicks a thousand times sounds like a bit much, but hey, you're an exalted, you won't get old, right?" He stretches. "Ah... Are you suggesting one of us challenge her?"
Lin	"By now I've practiced that swing... ten thousand times, ten thousand times over." Well. A hundred-million times might be a bit of an exaggeration. And Lin's math skills are clearly not high school level if she's describing things that way. Nevertheless... She seems to be in a more easygoing and calm mood today. Just a bit, comparatively. "The poor water has no idea." She retorts with equal sarcasm, unwilling to give way there. "... if you've something to teach, I'm listening." Of course, calming herself so is probably because Priscilla is here to teach. It does not do to aggravate one's master, however brief that relationship might last. And over at Staren... she grins. "No idea. Probably not for at least a few centuries, going by the Dragon-Blooded. A few millenia, by old legends."
Priscilla	"If thou wouldst wish, Sir Staren, but there is an immediate and far more obvious metric by which to judge." Says Priscilla, taking a couple of quiet steps towards the cliff. She lifts one hand from her waist and holds it partway out to Karal, where a pale and eerily soundless flame gutters to life an inch over her upturned palm, and remains in that exact spot as she withdraws. The softly luminous, baseball sized wisp is closely equivalent to a well developed human soul, but despite the appearance of the gesture, has not been created out of nothing like a god. It's a few hundred units of the free souls Priscilla has kicking about, produced for trade as would be an ordinary occurrence in Lordran. "Let us first see what thine never ending battle with the ocean hast taught of thee thusfar. I believeth what to do shouldst either be obvious for thee, or perhaps instinctive, if thou hath fully grasped it."
Staren	Staren shrugs. "I'm not a very good teacher, but I can fight you and see what comes to our attention... To stand against an exalted, though, I'd need to let the Ring enhance me a bit, if that's alright." He looks to Priscilla. "What are you doing?" As far as he knows, outsiders can only use souls for currency in Lordran.
Lin	"Huuuah?" Lin can't help but lean in and caaaaarefully examine the wispy, strange energy. "Looks like a spirit." She affirms. After a few moments of apprehensive staring... she clenches a fist in answer to the challenge. "Alright, goingg to try it!" She takes a few steps back... and brings a hand down to her sword stance deep and gaze focused. "...HYAH!" The blade flashes out of its sheathe and slashes blindingly through the soulstuff, wreathed in the faintest golden glow... actually dragging 'a few units' of wispy stuffs with it, dispersing only a tiny bit of it. The mass as a whole remains intact, as if mocking her. ... Well, perhaps there WAS some merit in cutting the water and meditating on how similar it is to a soul.
Priscilla	"Thou wouldst do well to learn estimation of thine own rather than relying upon reputation, Sir Staren." Oh Priscilla knows he's totally capable of it, so it's a jab at him instantly selling himself short at the sight she has so dug in her heels on deciding is wasted effort. Karal might have had some tiny iota of truth when she had put her foot in her mouth and suggested that the disapproval comes naturally with age, in less polite terms. "Lady Karal's ambition here is to mimic the Abyssal and learn the Exalted's manner of inflicting wounds upon the spirit rather than the flesh. As none of us hath the slightest clue as to how any Solar wouldst expect to do anything, this is the most obvious and visible gauge of progress. Here is a soul. She will strike it." Which is to say, in terms of progress, more than Priscilla expected (being zero), but much less than it seems Karal would have hoped. For the large part, the weapon phases through the little conflagration like a hologram, though a few, tiny wisps of grey-white trail her blade, like she had cleared a few motes of physical dust from it with the sweep. "Which is, as it wouldst seemeth and soundeth, much more easily imagined than done. I am supportive of this endeavor if only for the fact that she may very well be required to learn it in order to survive Lumiere for much longer, but one must consider if there is the time for another thousand training sessions, or if any further mysteries of the soul shalt be revealed through them."
Staren	"Oh, is /that/ what this is about." He rubs his chin. "Hmm. Damaging the spirit... I think there are spells that do something like that, but... I haven't messed around with it." He stares off into space. "Hmmmmmmmm..."
Lin	"As you might guess, very few spirits are happy to play punching bag! Would be a kind of cruel thing to do for practice, too. But I feel there's something... similar about what that Deathknight does and what I do. Something I can't quite put in words..." "I think the trick to cutting a spirit... huuuuh." She's HIGHLY critical of what just happened. her gaze focuses very narrowly on the results. "Hard to put this in words. It's about exerting your authority over it."
Staren	"What about the small god of a punching bag? Wouldn't that be literally its purpose?" Staren can't help piping up. He rubs his head. "Exerting your will on it? I know that's part of magic, but... Not any kind I've ever done."
Priscilla	"Authority?" Priscilla actually pauses to contemplate that. As far as she was ever concerned, and as far as the laws of Lordran now corroborate, authority over a soul goes either to its owner, or whoever is strong enough to wrest it from them. In fact, she is the sole exception to that rule; the reason she had been so reviled in an age past. She'd never given any thought as to whether that means she has any /authority/ over a part of her world in any fundamental, rather than newly bureaucratic level. "Then I feel that there is little, if not nothing, that wouldst link mine experience to thine. I supposeth the act hast becometh far too natural with time, but never once did I consider it any form of mine right, other than perhaps some perverse right of birth. I am not certain thou benefit from weighing the banishing of a spirit alongside harm to a sovereign soul. To inflict wounds so deeply and so closely to something's core essence is no simple feat accomplished by sorcery or pure willpower. It is not simple coincidence that the Deathknight wouldst knoweth. Such an act is rooted deep within pain, and some tenuous grasp of unexistence, whether thou wouldst consider it heroic or diabolical. It may be one's authoritative right to command a spirit, but I cannot imagine it is granted by any celestial bureaucracy to violate the soul. Many of Lumiere's denizens art of course, the former, if such is all thou art concerned of, rather than imitation of the Abyssal, but they reflect upon one another."
Lin	"Iiiiii... don't think that's how it works?" Lin asides to Staren, giving him a vaguely dumbfounded staaaaare. She requires a good minute or so of thinking to parse Priscilla's lengthy explanation and musing, but in the end... she just purses her lips. "Really would love to know the right kind of words to explain this. I'm... starting to understand the nature of my power, the more I use it. The Unconquered Sun is the ruler of heaven, right? All matters of the Celestial Bureaucracy are ultimately under his command. His power is my power. So... that's the trick. I need to put that authority over spirits in my blade! ... Easier said than done." She takes a step back and executes a few more test swings at the soulstuff. It's not turning out much better. "Hmmm... this might take a few days. I fell in a hundred times when I was learning to run on the water..."
Staren	Staren shrugs. "I have /no/ idea how to put authority in your blade. Maybe an angel would know, if you could find one to talk to about it." Staren scratches his head. "So, was there any trick to running on water, or did you just do it after trying hard enough?"
Priscilla	"He is the ruler of thine own heaven. Such forms an increasingly crucial distinction. What is it that thou art attempting to emulate? What beings dost thou expecteth to yield to such fledgeling rule? Thou canst be certain that the Deathknight benefits from no such illusions of dominion. Chooseth carefully which power it is that thou pursueth, and think with equal care upon what thou expect to obtaineth from it." Priscilla then reaches for the little bobbing, soul, wraps her fingers around it, and crushes it in the palm of her hand, making it burst into a hundred little swirling embers, which then swarm back towards and into her. "Dost thou wish to know the difference in what breeds of weapons thou art attempting to employ? If thou wouldst will it, I wouldst offer thee fully the experience, but warn very well that it wouldst be neither pleasant nor dignified. If the latter of choices is what thou seeketh, thou wouldst do well to knoweth what it is thou hope to inflict upon others."
Lin	"Understanding your speech isn't the easiest thing in the world. What do you mean offer the experience?" Lin makes a quizzical, sliiiightly worried look. This offer sounds a biiiit on the worrying side, after all. She frowns as the soul's withdrawn, but this has given her plenty of food for thought... and inspiration. Even those few swings were legues more helpful than one might have expected...
Staren	"I think she means she's gonna use her Eye on you." Staren comments, drawing his laser pistol casually. When he's seen Priscilla use the eye, it caused a debuff, not an explosion, so obviously it has to be followed up with an attack. "Although, I wonder... surely you've had powerful attack spells you couldn't defend against used on you before?"
Priscilla	"Exactly as it sounds. Thou art very well attempting, but without any clear idea of what the ends shouldst look or feel like. Thou art aware the Abyssal was able to perform the task, but thou were and art incapable of viscerally confirming such for thineself, yes?" She looks to Staren and shakes her head. "Such is another matter for a time far in the future. I am not here to attempteth to 'put her in her place'. The Ring of Philosophy is one of two places in the entire sector where one may experience the normally extraordinarily hazardous or lethal without true consequence, so as to aim to prepare for what an Elite may expecteth to face. As many in a position of power wouldst be expected to be subjected to what they themselves wouldst wieldeth, I wouldst cautiously offer thee to experience, first hand, what it is."
Staren	Staren blinks. "No, I get it. I admit I personally try to avoid feeling the effects of my own weapons, but maybe for stuff like this, it's important." He puts the gun away though. "Then again, most of my weapons would kill me in one shot."
Lin	"Uuuuuuuuargh... that sounds pretty dangerous." Lin makes a rather long, uncertain, agonized face over this. Is she volunteering to suffer hellish misery. "Are you REALLY certain that'll be helpful? I'd rather practice on that... whatever that thing was... for a few hours, if you can leave it here..."