24 Jun 2019, 17:08
Extracurricular
Meenauh watched the infinity symbol appearing on the chalkboard and listened to the explanations. Then Ress took her hand, the one with the wand ready, and helped her with the gesturing the infinity symbol. Her touch was soft and she guided softly as if she was doing that not with her hands but with the Levitation Charm.
Also, it turned out that she transfigured her watch into two different birds. That was where Meenauh broke. How can one create two parts of two different creatures merged into one? That was powerful. Ress explained that transfiguring a watch into a bird required imagining of the core, imagining the essence of what you want something to be transfigured into. The plain idea of a bird. Meenauh liked the example of studying a new language. It organised the understanding just right, but Meenauh was still thinking about everything at the same time.
Ress let Meenauh's hand go and placed her palm against the tip of Meenauh's wand, requesting to perform the incantation and the gesture separately. But Meenauh couldn't stop the thought storm, and she asked right from the middle of it:
"But that thing... like two different species as a single entity... it doesn't exist, does it? So you've transfigured something into a completely new entity, which never existed before? And you've just imagined it. Does it mean I could transform things into anything by just imagining it? I mean, if a spell would fit the purpose."
Could it work vice versa? Could two things be transfigured into one? Could a part of something be transfigured into one? She read about partial transfiguration before — it was considered extremely dangerous. What would be the key? Imagining the form or going down to atoms? Everything was a collection of atoms. Ress's watch was just a watch because our brain translated the collection of atoms as a watch. But in reality, it consisted of just a certain set of atoms like anything else. But no one could memorise the molecular structure of things-to-be-transfigured from and into and keep it in their minds during the transfiguration. That was just impossible. No memory castle would help with that.
She stood steadily trying not to move her wand, which was blocked by Ress' palm, and waited for further explanation, though she thought the conversation might continue for quite a long time if she wouldn't stop thinking.
"I'm sorry, I'm constantly derailed by thinking about everything at the same time," she took a deep breath and started to silently draw the infinity symbol with her wand. She tried hard not to think of the incantation and not to imagine any birds, not to transfigure Ress' hand into one (just in case she was incredibly talented and capable of non-verbal magic).
As she did the gesture a considerate number of times, she lowered down her wand and pronounced:
"AH-vi-fors."
Also, it turned out that she transfigured her watch into two different birds. That was where Meenauh broke. How can one create two parts of two different creatures merged into one? That was powerful. Ress explained that transfiguring a watch into a bird required imagining of the core, imagining the essence of what you want something to be transfigured into. The plain idea of a bird. Meenauh liked the example of studying a new language. It organised the understanding just right, but Meenauh was still thinking about everything at the same time.
Ress let Meenauh's hand go and placed her palm against the tip of Meenauh's wand, requesting to perform the incantation and the gesture separately. But Meenauh couldn't stop the thought storm, and she asked right from the middle of it:
"But that thing... like two different species as a single entity... it doesn't exist, does it? So you've transfigured something into a completely new entity, which never existed before? And you've just imagined it. Does it mean I could transform things into anything by just imagining it? I mean, if a spell would fit the purpose."
Could it work vice versa? Could two things be transfigured into one? Could a part of something be transfigured into one? She read about partial transfiguration before — it was considered extremely dangerous. What would be the key? Imagining the form or going down to atoms? Everything was a collection of atoms. Ress's watch was just a watch because our brain translated the collection of atoms as a watch. But in reality, it consisted of just a certain set of atoms like anything else. But no one could memorise the molecular structure of things-to-be-transfigured from and into and keep it in their minds during the transfiguration. That was just impossible. No memory castle would help with that.
She stood steadily trying not to move her wand, which was blocked by Ress' palm, and waited for further explanation, though she thought the conversation might continue for quite a long time if she wouldn't stop thinking.
"I'm sorry, I'm constantly derailed by thinking about everything at the same time," she took a deep breath and started to silently draw the infinity symbol with her wand. She tried hard not to think of the incantation and not to imagine any birds, not to transfigure Ress' hand into one (just in case she was incredibly talented and capable of non-verbal magic).
As she did the gesture a considerate number of times, she lowered down her wand and pronounced:
"AH-vi-fors."
Meenauh Silmataurea | STA: 9 | EVA: 10 | STR: 2 | WIS: 25 | ARC: 14 | ACC: 13
29 Jun 2019, 02:30
Extracurricular
Cy dipped her chin in partial agreement. "Theoretically, yes, you could do that. Magic is weird. But the sheer strength and amount of energy that would take would be incredibly overwhelming. Think about it - by spending time around birds, you're well aware of the idea already. But to create something new, well, you'd need to know every single detail possible about that thing, because you don't already have the idea imprinted in your brain as a sort of template for the magic to follow. How do you think new spells are created?" The young woman shrugged.
"There's a reason why we study physics and try to know our subjects of Transfiguration as well as possible. That would be Rist's Theory of Transformation: The amount of knowledge we have about our subject and target added is directly proportional to our chance of success. But it's a theory, not a law, because it can't really be proved. Knowledge isn't really measurable in numbers."
She listened with a nod of forgiveness as the girl apologized. "It's all right. I invited you here so you could learn more - that means answering any questions you might have." Soon the wand tip placed gently against her palm moved, and she shut her eyelids to imagine the visual path that the wand must be tracing. Considering her uttered incantation with a tilt of her head, Cy removed her hand from the wand and motioned for Meenauh to put it down. "Your wand gesture is pretty good," she informed the student. "The left side of your loop is just a tiny bit bigger than the right, but it shouldn't cause you much trouble, though the first few times you might end up with a lopsided bird with one wing grown bigger than the other.
"Your incantation is spot-on. Just remember to let the soft s at the end come out a little more clearly. The only other thing I'd warn you about is, I think, to not cancel out a lopsided gesture with a lopsided imagination. Don't visualize a bird that's larger on the right to make up for a gesture larger on the left. It's a bad habit, and it's really hard to get yourself out of. When you move onto harder spells, it will be your downfall. Focus on correcting your gesture instead; you'll know based on your results." Cy looped her wand in a strange motion several times, and a stack of small matchboxes appeared on the nearest table, along with a set of instructions written on the chalkboard wall, the previous drawings and notes wiped clean.
"Now, I've gotta go plan my next lesson, but there should be ten matchboxes for you to practice with. The first five are there to get your technique right, and the other five are for the exercises written on the board as mind exercises: make the bird purple, make the bird smaller, make the bird a different species, change the shape of the bird's beak.
"They're to help you gain better control over your magic, and they're also fun. You don't have to use all five of the practice boxes if you don't need them, but I'll be in my office if you need more, or if you just need to ask a question. Don't worry about the birds flying everywhere, by the way, they'll be fine." Cy began sauntering off in the direction of her office, pausing to look back for a last note: "Come get me if you're done or if you need to leave."
1 Jul 2019, 11:47
Extracurricular
Meenauh listened carefully for all the comments Ress made, especially the tasks she had to accomplish.
Instead of standing up, she decided to pull herself into the closest chair and just watch the flock of the birds above her. When the first wave of euphoria calmed down, she cleared her throat and loudly called out:
"Professor? Ress?" her throat felt a bit dry so she pulled out a glass bottle of fresh water she used to carry with her at all times. She gulped half of the bottle before being satisfied with the level of thirst and added, "I think I'm finished."
What else could she achieve if she'd practise enough? She particularly liked how she progressed with the concentration. Though the conditions in which she practises were quite soothing and tranquillising, so she didn't know if she'd be able to concentrate in the more disturbing environment. She came back to her thoughts about research. What would happen if she'd change a few vowels in the incantation? Or change the tone of it. Was it only the imagination that influenced the results. Of course, the quality of the result was influenced by the wand movement and incantation as well. But what about the quality effects of spells? Could they be influenced?
She stopped the unnecessary flow of thoughts as she was tired enough and she still needed to study in the evening. So she just kept silently sitting there and watching the flock of birds, while waiting for Ress to come back.
Reducio
Meenauh was sitting on the floor, smiling widely with an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, and not quite able to call out for Ress at the moment. She pulled the rest of the chocolate bar and finished it before being able to stand up.Almost an hour later...
Instead of standing up, she decided to pull herself into the closest chair and just watch the flock of the birds above her. When the first wave of euphoria calmed down, she cleared her throat and loudly called out:
"Professor? Ress?" her throat felt a bit dry so she pulled out a glass bottle of fresh water she used to carry with her at all times. She gulped half of the bottle before being satisfied with the level of thirst and added, "I think I'm finished."
What else could she achieve if she'd practise enough? She particularly liked how she progressed with the concentration. Though the conditions in which she practises were quite soothing and tranquillising, so she didn't know if she'd be able to concentrate in the more disturbing environment. She came back to her thoughts about research. What would happen if she'd change a few vowels in the incantation? Or change the tone of it. Was it only the imagination that influenced the results. Of course, the quality of the result was influenced by the wand movement and incantation as well. But what about the quality effects of spells? Could they be influenced?
She stopped the unnecessary flow of thoughts as she was tired enough and she still needed to study in the evening. So she just kept silently sitting there and watching the flock of birds, while waiting for Ress to come back.
Meenauh Silmataurea | STA: 9 | EVA: 10 | STR: 2 | WIS: 25 | ARC: 14 | ACC: 13
4 Aug 2019, 02:08
Extracurricular
After she entered her office, she had the great idea that this would be a fine time to redo the chair in her office, instead of completing the giant stack of homework she still needed to grade. Silencing charms were great and all, but the chair wasn't all that fun to pull out, and it tended to scratch at the carpet. No, the chairs back home or in her quarters were much more fun to work in, allowing her to roll around the room without needing to get up. Wheels - not really modern technology, were they? This place was set on making everything as inconvenient as humanly possible 'for tradition.' Might as well... spite them a little.
And that was how she spent an hour magically building a spinny chair instead of working.
When the woman emerged from the office, beads clinking against each other musically, it was with the roll of an office chair that looked like something straight out of IKEA. "Good news," she announced, raising her wand like a conductor baton. She brought it down then, and with an audible pop, the chairs in the classroom morphed to resemble the one she was sitting on. "We've got new chairs! Because everyone hates the sound of wooden chair legs screeching against the ground."
Another wave of her wand sent the windows snapping closed, a precaution she should've taken before the birds were conjured. Regardless, Cy rose from her chair, sending it back into her office with a crack of magic that sounded like the toned-down version of a gunshot, and brought the birds down with a sharp flick of her wrist. "They're certainly well-formed birds," she approved, a hand gently brushing the back of one of the birds. If they were normal ones, then they probably wouldn't have allowed that to happen, but magic birds were quite different from natural birds.
"I can't actually tell if you got the colors right, but hopefully you can and you did. Great job! I deem you," she waved around at a sour attempt at pointing at Meenauh then gave up with a sigh, "safe enough to not die while practicing this yourself. Your attempts look good, but I smell chocolate, which means that you're running out of energy fast - you'll need to practice on your own, and pretty soon you'll be able to cast without as much fatigue. Here, have some more. Now run along, you've got mischief to make and a castle to trash with bird poop!"