[open]

[wingsandwill]

Who: OPEN
What: Open powers and abilities training log!
When: Forward dated slightly to Day 13, around noon.
Where: The grounds of the Heimdall house.
Rating: PG-13 or so for potential violence/minor self-harm for testing powers/language.

Comments

Hel: Shadow control! <3

[roadstotheriver]

Here was the nervous-looking Lirael, holding a little ball of shadow above her hand. She was pretty pleased with herself for getting that far, but she wasn't entirely sure just how she should practice with someone, when it came to that. Maybe she could find someone to try and drain the power away, or she could cut herself with her little silver knife for someone to heal, or... something.

But she was standing there, waiting for someone to practice with, now that she was sure she wouldn't be chased off for not being specifically invited.

[agoodfamily]

[When Nakama spots Lirael, who she now considers to be a friendly face, she approaches quickly and stands beside her. Instead of making her presence known, though, she just makes the shadow expand until it's nearly the size of a medicine ball. When Lirael turns, she'll find Nakama smiling shyly beside her.]

[roadstotheriver]

The sudden expansion of her little ball of darkness nearly made Lirael drop it, but when it came to magic, at least, she was a little steadier than when it came to people. Even so, she jumped and stared and had to hastily reassert her will on it, so that it didn't fly apart and away on her, back into the shadow it came from.

Once it stabilized, she looked over her shoulder and spotted Nakama, and gave her a little smile. "Was that you...?" She gestured at her clump of shifting shadows with her wrist-stump.

[agoodfamily]

She blushes a little. "I make other peoples' powers stronger. That's what I can do."

[roadstotheriver]

"Oh. That's... that's a good power," Lirael blinked. Having someone around who made your magic stronger and presumably more stable, just by being there? Kind of amazing, and something she wished she'd had in the past, too. She drew out the shadow with a little bit of concentration, turning it into something vaguely flower-shaped. "Have you been able to practice it often?"

[agoodfamily]

Nakama tries to change the shape of it, but she can't control the power, only make it stronger; all Lirael might notice is that it doesn't take quite as much work to craft her flowers.

"No, not really... I just discovered it by accident, this is the first time I've really done it on purpose."

[roadstotheriver]

"You did really well for only doing it on purpose the once," Lirael told her solemnly, eyes on her work, and for a moment it actually came together into the shape she wanted. She smiled at it, pleased. "I've been doing a lot of little practicing with this... but only little practice. I move shadows, but I can't do it very much."

[agoodfamily]

Naturally, Nakama blushes deeply. Even if she barely knows what's going on with these powers, a compliment is a compliment.

"I just have to focus on someone doing magic, and it happens. That's all."

She watches the shadow move, entranced - she's not sure what use the power could have, but it's interesting. "D'you think we have to train, like with your body? Make our magic stronger somehow?"

[roadstotheriver]

"Practice improves everything, I think," Lirael answered, and let the shadow itself dispurse. It stretched out, two-dimensional for now and in something like her own shape, and then snapped back into place behind her. "I'm better at controlling it than I was before, I think. I can make it do a few things, and take it away entirely, but it always goes somewhere."

She hadn't quite managed making it solid yet, but she was getting there.

[agoodfamily]

"That's so cool," she murmurs absently, too distracted by the display to take in her words. But then she snaps her gaze back to meet Lirael's, nodding seriously.

"I'd better practice too, then. If it helps, then maybe I can learn to give people more power. It'd be good for people like healers."

[roadstotheriver]

"Oh, definitely," Lirael agreed, nodding a few times, and tried pulling at Nakama's shadow... but nothing happened. Apparently she only had her own to work with. So instead, she pulled one little tiny bit of shadow, from the underside of her bandolier of bells, and twirled it around her finger. "There aren't very many people here yet, but we could go talk to Conan, maybe-- I don't think he has the same power I do, though he's in my house...."

[agoodfamily]

"Yeah, I think each house has two powers. I heard that somewhere..."

She glances over at Conan, then smiles slightly. "He told me you two were friends. I'm glad."

[roadstotheriver]

"Oh, yes. Hel's other one is body control, which is a little frightening, to be honest." It reminds Lirael far too much of necromancy, only with living bodies, which is even worse. Ugh. "But I trust Conan with it, at least. He's a good boy."

She skirts around the idea of being friends-- she hardly knows how one does that, much less how one takes the title of "friend". She just stretches the shadow between her fingers, letting it coil like a string or a tiny snake.

[agoodfamily]

"Body control?" Her shock shows on her face. "Controlling - someone else's body?"

[roadstotheriver]

"Yes," Lirael answers, not showing shock, but rather distaste. "Controlling someone else's body. It's bad enough to control a Dead body, but when someone is alive? That's much, much worse, and not fair at all. I don't like it much." Obviously. "I suppose that's why I didn't wind up with that gift, myself."

[agoodfamily]

"It's terrible. It's terrible. Why would the gods give someone an ability like that?"

Her thoughts go back to all the discussions she's had about wars and violence, and she gets a visible chill. If there is to be a war, it'll be worse than she ever could've imagined - it will be very possible to fight dirty.