fandomhigh | Magical Theory and Practice, Friday, Period 3

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Magical Theory and Practice, Friday, Period 3

Today's workshop was being held in a classroom. There was a hot Renaissance Faire goth standing at the front of the classroom when the students arrived, and when they sat down they would notice that each of them had a flower and a rock sitting on their desk. "Good afternoon," Yennefer said to her students. "I am Yennefer of Vengerberg, and this is..." She glanced at her notes, and then looked again. "Magical Theory and Practice. Bit of a joke in the class description, I see." Or was it? "Well, we might get to that. We'll see how it goes. For now, I will tell you that while I am new to instruction, I am a sorceress trained in the school of Aretuza, and have been an advisor to the king of Aedirn for thirty years." Yep, she was older than she looked.

"Being as we all come from different realities here, I expect we also come from different magical traditions, and that sticking too closely to what I was taught might be completely useless to you, but I believe that in broad strokes much of that information continues to be true, based on the fact that I have been able to do magic since I got here, so I will teach you starting from that foundation. First, I would like to know what I am working with. Everyone will please tell me their name, so I can check them off this list, and what their experience level is with magic, and a little of how they know it to work, and then we're going to do a little exercise. Any questions so far? No? Good."

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After everyone had introduced themselves, Yennefer said, "Now, my instructor just gave me the rock and the flower and told me to lift the rock without touching it, and then I had to figure it out from there on my own. I've already given you more information than that. A hint, if you will. If you think yourself capable, using whatever magical method you are familiar with, lift the rock without touching it. Even if you do not think yourself capable, try. You might surprise yourself.

Edited 2020-05-15 17:00 (UTC)

Mae looked at the rock. She looked at the flower. She looked at her neighbor's desk as though she could copy their answer.

She was pretty sure 'lifting' the rock by kicking the desk hard enough to make it bounce a little wouldn't count.

"What do you think?" Yennefer asked her. "How should this work, given what you know so far?"

Mae shrugged. "Staring at it doesn't work?"

"Sadly, no. Believe me, I tried, when I was set this task. Remember, chaos creates magic. Living things..." Yennefer tapped the desk beside the flower, "contain chaos."

Re: Lift the Rock!

thishouseishaunted - 2020-05-15 18:49 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Lift the Rock!

tellmehowstuffworks - 2020-05-15 18:55 (UTC) - Expand

Re: Lift the Rock!

thishouseishaunted - 2020-05-15 19:02 (UTC) - Expand

Oh this! Okay, even Julius could do this. It was a pretty simple spell, one of the first things they were taught.

He lifted the rock - harder than it should have been since he hadn't practiced magic since his official training was over - and the flower both, setting them to move about in a circle in the air.

And then basically forgot about them, waiting to hear what to do next.

Show off.

"Very impressive," Yennefer observed as she walked past his desk.

Look, it wasn't his fault that this was the very first trick he'd learned, too, over a decade ago.

"Thanks!" he said, lighting up a little at the praise. "I mean. Umm. I have experience, so it's not all that impressive. But thanks."

Juillenne frowned down at the rock and the flower, trying to puzzle out what to do.

Lifting the rock would be simple, with the war-gift. But Jules had literally just shared how people from her world only had a single gift, so how to explain...?

Oh!

She grinned as inspiration struck. Then used the war-gift to levitate the rock, while simultaneously reaching out towards the flower with the naturalist gift, causing it to shrivel and crumble in to dust.

There. It wasn't as if anyone here really knew what being a naturalist implied, after all. So that was totally feasible!

Edited 2020-05-15 18:17 (UTC)

...Hmm. The energy didn't seem like it had behaved quite like Yennefer would have expected, there, but the end result was what she'd been looking for. "Very good," she told Juillenne.

Pfft, those two actions were totally connected, Yennefer, how could you think otherwise?

"Thank you," she said, still rather pleased with her solution.

Anakin was an expert at rock lifting.

He sent it rocketing into the air like a giant, giant showoff, then let it do looping figure 8's above his head.

While she had just thought it with Julius, Yennefer raised one eyebrow at Anakin and told him, "Showoff."

Anakin smirked. "Maybe."

Definitely.

Frowning as she ducked her head, thinking deeply on this problem, Freya's tail swished behind her as she contemplated the rock.

All of her non-magic magic-based abilities were meant for combat, and so the idea of using them merely to lift a rock proved quite the conundrum. If she were fighting the rock, this problem would hardly be a problem at all! But to merely lift it?

Well. Yennifer did not seem to say anything about how long it needed to be lifted, and so, nodding to herself in conclusion, Freya summoned up a little of her power to cast Reis's Wind, which created a small swirl of green-blue energy around the rock just enough to lift it up for a moment...

...and give it the ability to regenerate health on a consistent basis for the remainder of the class.

It was going to be the healthiest rock on the island! "Well done," Yennefer told Freya. "Do you have a solution for if you needed to lift the rock for a longer period of time?"

Freya gave a small smile to that.

"Find out exactly why it was so important that this rock be lifted for an extended period of time without physical contact," she ventured, "and then work from there, perhaps."

Which was to say, no. No she did not.

But you can bet she'd be thinking about it all week now!

"Is 'because your teacher told you to' not sufficient reason?" Yennefer had been that student herself, tbh.

Amaya had a flower. There was a rock. She was supposed to use that flower to lift said rock.

She blinked at the rock a moment, actually did try squinting at it a little to see if she really could just move it with her mind (which she could not and would deny having even tried, thank you), and then sighed, tucking the flower behind her ear for now as she looked around.

"So," she asked, "anyone got a string? Or maybe a good plank and we can just lever the thing up?"

SCIENCE!

"You're only allowed to use the flower and the rock," Yennefer told her.

"Mmmm." Amaya made a soft, consternated hum, as she never liked leaving a problem unsolved, but problems using magic that she didn't have might just have to remain just that. She frowned at the rock again, wished she had a bigger flower so that perhaps she could create some wind with it or something, but technically that'd be using wind, too.

"And magic," she murmured, before she got to thinking about arguing that Yennifer had said just the flower and the rock. "The flower, the rock, and..." Pardon her while she sounded thoroughly depressed about this last part, "magic."

Even she knew that most wizards tended to use feathers for this sort of spell, not flowers.

"And magic," Yennefer agreed. "The flower, the rock, and magic. With those three items, and what I've told you of magic, if you had magic, how could you lift the rock?"

Magnus poked it with a pencil. Because he was a rules lawyering little shit.

"Did it!"

"You touched it," Yennefer told him. "With a pencil."

"Y--yes? Yes. Yes, I did. But a pencil isn't me, you know?" Sorry, Yennefer.