let's get down to business

[whattaprick]

Who: Nightrunners and whoever wants to make use of the training yard for whatever reason.
When: S2 D1-D5
Where: The Training Yard
What: Training, or pointing and laughing at people training.
Warnings: Explosions and swearing, probably.

Though it's never really been off-limits, once they're down off the moon, Lambert wastes little time informing the nightrunners he officially expects them to get back to training and getting in shape. They can make ample use of the training yard facilities to learn how to work with each other after their extended vacation, or just get to know their newer coworkers in an environment closer to what their actual working conditions will actually be like.

The yard, as usual, isn't limited solely to nightrunners. Anyone who wants to work on their physical or magical skills are welcome, as well as anyone from the other departments who have anything they might want to test out that requires a combatant, for some reason.

Lambert's generally a constant presence at the fringes, sometimes participating in exercise or sparring himself, but mostly just watching and making sure no one's about to put someone's eye out or break the equipment, because that would be bad for obvious reasons.

[ ooc; this is an open log, so bring your own toplevel! ]

Comments

[soft_focus]

Yes, that remark on them being alive is...one part reassuring, and another confusing. But evidently it's important somehow, and she'll take it.

'Reagents'. She will have to ask Taako a bit more about that later. Not to mention ask about many, many other things but...Hmmm. "Oh... ...So...it's because you can't make the wind something to hold," she concludes, assuming that this is, in fact, about the Desired spell she'd talked to Foster about. The one that made Taako decide shield would be best. Well.

She ponders this. "....Birds and the Wind are tied together... ....maybe, I should use flowers, and something from the moon too though. Those are all tied together... ...ummm..."

It occurs to her, as she says this, that Foster is not likely referring to anything like the En Cards. "...you said feathers are those things though... ....Flowers. And the Moon... ...they probably mean something different, then..." Ah well.

"....If the feathers are to help, do I have to do something with them? Or just hold them when I'm practicing?"

[criticallyfucked]

Foster has.... no idea what Reira is talking about! This doesn't trouble him at all; it's not like this isn't a common phenomenon. It's not even remotely exclusive to Reira, either.

Truth be told, the conversations he has where he responds coherently to what people say are a great deal more attributable to luck than to his own abilities. Even when he responds in a way that can be perceived as 'correct,' it doesn't always correspond to comprehension. After all, if he can comprehend something and be unable to articulate a response that makes any kind of sense, why would the opposite not also be true?

So he just stands there, his tail flicking occasionally, his face dispassionate while she muses. And he waits for her to say something that permits an answer, however coherent it does or does not turn out to be.

"If anything happens to them, it would be as a function of the magic, wouldn't it?" he asks in a blander tone. "But don't use your birds' feathers. It's.... unsafe."

A thin, humourless(?) smile.

[soft_focus]

Patience is a wonderous virtue, though perhaps no one should ever compare what Foster is even doing-or feeling, for that matter- to patience. All in all it was probably this awkward sort of confused calm that allowed Reira to get so far off track. Ooops. Regardless.

She nods. "Mnh... ...If it's unsafe to use feathers from the birds, but these feathers are from alive ones... ....what might happen to the birds they came from?" she asks. She doesn't sound excessively concerned, fortunately-just curious. If he figures it would be unsafe around HER birds with THEIR feathers, then just what on earth does he imagine to be the worst case scenario?

That much is...worrisome, truly. But they'll work around it, and so she stashes an even amount of feathers in each of her current pockets, before holding four in particular. Four is a Special Number, see.

[criticallyfucked]

"Good question!" Foster responds, and means it. It's almost... energetic. Maybe too energetic? Definitely too energetic, given what he follows it up with. Which is a calm smile with lidded eyes and the words, "You don't want to know."

Not that he knows the answer to that either, but very little unintended magic could be considered benign. He waves one set of claws, still smiling, and adds, "There are a lot of ways for the world to end up with one less bird."

Then, because he knows how people get about the thought of something being dead, he continues:

"But it's better magic to have feathers taken from birds that are--or at least were--alive. The symbolism you want might be negated or changed by death." Negated is useless; changed is, of course, dangerous.

[soft_focus]

Entirely too energetic. Woah. And... "...Ok." Well if Foster says she doesn't want to know...He's probably correct. At the very least, he probably understands where her morals sit in regard to unnecessary harm and the like.

Especially when he continues Anyway. "Mmnnh...it's definitely better with these feathers, then..." At least then, it won't be some bird she knows... ...Ah, don't think about that. Though, it's a bit confusing, how he phrased that bit. 'Were' alive. "...Does it still act like they're alive, if I don't know whether they are or not..?" she asks, blinking.

Is this a Schrodinger's bird scenario, where the feathers and birds are all alive and properly symbolic as long as she doesn't look for the source to find it dead? Because yes. Negated is bad, but changed is Worse.

Much worse.

[criticallyfucked]

Sometimes, Reira startles him with her perceptivity. He doesn't know if it's intuition or observational acumen or simply that he is much more blind to what he's revealed than he realises, but the effect is the same.

She is right, and he is both surprised and impressed--in a critical kind of way.

"Its power is rooted in perception and belief," he says simply, though he's merely parroting common text. When he continues, he does so while taking great care--such as he can--to avoid the kind of logical loops he himself gets quickly trapped in if he thinks about it too hard. Or without divesting the feathers of their power.

"The feather does not have meaning of its own. It's only... it's only a feather. A thing. And it means nothing. Do you understand? But the--the body of minds give it power, give it a... a message which can be writ in magic. The thought that comes with the feather, that is what is used to draw upon for magic, the frame of reference."

[soft_focus]

Perception was what kept her alive, after all. More than that, it's something that can make or break what's going on in a strategy game rife with chance. Pay attention to the cards scattered about the field.

It could mean the win. The girl pays careful attention to what Foster is saying however, nodding only occasionally as she listens. Perception, and Belief. So then, if the feather itself isn't what does it...

"So, if I think-and really, really think it," she adds, "Then that thing I thought comes out in the magic..." And that explains the feathers, then. Becoming 'lighter' is something that can definitely be tied to birds. Birds are lighter, it's how they can fly at all. So then...

She nods, and more than that, manages a smile. "Umn! I think I understand then..!!" If she manages to work well enough with this then, that air-transformation might just be in grasp..!