hollowmaster740
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"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Aug 24, 2023 3:50:40 GMT
Moll smiled widely at his response, glad he was willing to be taught how this stuff works. Something told her that he was going to be pretty good. All it takes is some practice and some passion, and she had both for years! Looks like this was going to be fun! She spoke in her traditional Irish accent as she replied to him, wrapping her arm around him. "Alright, me boyo! Let's crack on and make ya the fiercest damn witch Leonardtown has ever seen!"
Nature, Rejoice!
(Celtic Fiddle Mix - Feel Goods)
The question is, where to start? Well... the basics, for one. However... "First, I'll need a pouch. Gotta make sure my seeds are taken care of." She opens the book he gave her and finds the number where they're located, going to the cabinet and opening the corresponding drawer. Taking a pouch out, she closes the drawer and begins scouring through the cabinets quickly tpo gather her seeds she needs, making sure to get a good variety of them into her new bag while following the book as her guide. Once she was done, she made sue the cabinet was fully closed before making her way back to Brant. "There we go. Now, come." She closes her pouch and attaches it to her strap right next to her book on her hip, heading to the larger room from before. "You'll need to learn the basics and meanings of Witchcraft before anything else. I'm having you start practicing from the ground up." |
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Post by DornKoon on Aug 24, 2023 8:33:18 GMT
Brant was not sure what he had been expecting in terms of a reaction, but he did not think it would be quite that... loud, or that she would wrap an arm around his shoulders. She was... a surprisingly strong girl, and as she let go he adjusted his shirt and rubbed his shoulder before watching her collecting seeds from the cabinet. It felt oddly... nostalgic, despite him never having met her before, she was nothing like his mother for sure... and yet.
"S-Sure," he said, following her into the next room. Gabrielle ran past him and returned to her usual spot in the armchair by the fireplace. "Suppose that makes sense," he had never been bad in school, at least not in terms of the learning part, it was the getting along with others part that had been a problem. "Well, I'm as ready as I would ever be, so let's f-cking do this." He cleared his throat, and the idea of casting spells and doing magic was... more appealing than he had thought.
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Aug 24, 2023 18:21:24 GMT
"Alright then. So..." Moll loosens up her Book of Shadows from its straps on her belt and picks it up, opening it and flipping the pages to certain parts. "To clear up a bit of confusion, Magick in our terms is spelled with a CK instead of a C. They both sound exactly the same, it's just that they have different meanings. C-Magic is a term for sleight of hand tricks, like stage magic and whatnot. C-K-Magick is what we'll be doing, the real stuff." Making her way to a certain page on her book, she channeled mana through her free arm and waved it over the book, causing the pages to glow a green aura.
From there, she used her power to summon five different small things, materializing a solid rock, an orb of water, a small cyclone of wind and a burning flame, all orbiting what appears to be a waving form of energy in the middle, all hovering over her free hand. She smirked at him. "Looks cool, right? In Magick, mana is the fuel of the world that allows us to create spells and it exists all around us. There are five key elements of the universe that mana can form, in any combination. Fire, water, earth, air and spirit, with spirit at the center of it all. Without it, mana doesn't have a direction, a form to take hold. Even we are made of mana. We're just using our spirit to channel it into the forms we want them to be. Of course, no two witches channel it the same way, but for someone starting out..."
She then approached him and snapped her fingers, the elements breaking apart and fizzling out into nothingness. It was very clean, too. The woman knew how to use manage her energy effectively as a teacher. "We're going to see which of these elements you naturally work with. Usually, one or two of the elements will be tied to a witch before they expand into the other elements through practice."
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Post by DornKoon on Aug 25, 2023 8:52:18 GMT
Brant paid close attention as Moll talked.
"Oh, yeah, I know a little of that." He commented with a smile, pulling out a loose coin and making it disappear by flipping it (in truth, making it slip down his sleeve but making it look like it should go upwards.) "I'm a killer at some nice card tricks too, but, I can see there is an obvious difference."
He was very fascinated when Moll summoned representations of the five elements: earth, water, air and fire.
"Yeah, that is proper cool, for sure," he nodded. He took in her words... even if he did not fully understand her meaning. It was similar to how his mother used to talk about the elements, but he did not remember her talking about mana. It did make sense for it to be a difference between magic and magick... even if you said them the same. He did not say it, but he was starting to think it was really cool that he was related to a witch like that. If only Ma had been alive to see it. She would have loved this.
"Ok," replied Brant, "and how exactly do we find that out?"
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Aug 29, 2023 19:54:37 GMT
Moll paid attention to his reactions, seeing how intrigued he was with figuring all this out with her help. It's certainly a lot and he'll need a lot of time to understand everything over the course of his training, but she figured he would be able to handle it. Now comes the fun part. "There's a good number of different ways to test someone's magical inheritance. Though, we're going to keep things a little simple."
She got to preparing something on the table near her. After some work had passed, there was a small glass of water, a lit candle, a small pot full of fresh soil, and a small windmill put onto a stand. Using her fingers, she gestured him to approach. "Channeling mana through your veins allows you to manipulate the elements of the world. We're going to go through each of the four and see how well you can use them right out of the gate. We'll make some adjustments over time to help you get better suited for them." She rested her hand on his shoulder as she stood next to him. "Which one do you want to try first?"
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Post by DornKoon on Aug 30, 2023 9:01:37 GMT
"I guess that makes sense," Brant said, watching as Moll prepared the glass of water, lit the candle, placed the pot with soil... and took down the decorative windmill from a nearby shelf. He slowly tilted his head and approached that side of the room, looking at the four representations of the elements... water, fire, earth and air. He did not have to guess which was which.
He absentmindedly rubbed the side of his arm. Now that he had time to reflect, he was feeling an odd sensation of itchiness. Not in any physical sense, but like there was something inside of him that was itching. Oddly enough, he had memories of feeling it, but that was several years ago when he was a little kid. He decided to push it out of his mind for the moment, instead focusing on what was happening in front of him.
His eyes wandered between the four objects, thinking... not entirely sure what to pick. He mentally did eeny, meeny, miny, moe...
"Suppose we could start with fire?" He replied once he was done, having landed on the candle. "Yeah, we need to do them all anyway. Don't think it matters too much in what end we start."
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Sept 17, 2023 5:18:07 GMT
Moll watched as the boy made his decision. Rather simple in his delivery of that choice, but she's not gonna complain. Fire it is! "Very well! Let's see how you do!" She stayed next to him, her hand moving to softly hold his left lower arm. Despite how lingly his body was, he has a sense of strength to him much like herself. "So, normally a newcomer to magick has a weird feeling inside of them whenever they attempt using it the first few times. It's typically normal. We just need to get it more used to the output."
She moved her hand from his arm and raised it towards the lit candle as it flickered gently yet strongly, her open palm facing the flame as her arm was stretched out. "Come. Raise your arm towards it like I am." Once he got into position, she simply let him do the work as she slowly lowered her arm while watching him. "Keep your focus on the flame. Watch for its movements, how it reacts. You'll feel a strong tingly sensation as it flows through your body. Concentrate..." She kept tabs on his progress as they went on.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 17, 2023 19:59:40 GMT
"Okay," said Brant, raising his arm, mimicking Moll's gesture as much as possible. "Raise my arm like this.. gotch. Focus on the flame, movement-" He frowned and watched the movement of the flickering fire. At first, he was unsure how he would know if he felt a tingly sensation or flow.
He took a deep breath, eyes focused on the candle.
There was a surge of energy. It came quickly and seemed to radiate from... somewhere he could not see but feel like energy going down a track. His eyes widened as the candle grew brighter, growing momentarily into the size of a torch. Brant closed his hand, the flow stopped, and the candle returned to normal... having shrunk by about half its previous size. He did not know it, but it was clear Brant had an affinity for fire.
"So, that happened," he commented, glancing at Moll. "Was that good?"
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Sept 18, 2023 4:18:58 GMT
Moll simply watched as the boy began to practice his mana channeling, witnessing her descendant use the power hidden within him for years to know his craft. Before their very eyes, the mana flowed through his arm and the flame grew to a much larger size, up to the size of a torch flame. It flickered with life before he relaxed his arm, the flame reducing itself to its previous state. This time, with the candle being essentially half it's size because of the effects of his magick.
She smiled widely and looked back at him, hearing him ask. "Yes! Oh yes, that was--" Clearly excited about what's going on, she remembered her position and recomposed herself some. "That was very good! That's one of the elements down! Fire's a pretty useful element, should you learn how to harness it without hurting innocent people. And believe me, your natural connection with it will make it easier for you to use." She put one hand on her hip as she looked back at the items on the table. Time for another one to take the stage.
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 19, 2023 10:38:14 GMT
"Fire, huh?" Brant rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "Yeah, when I think about it... I suppose that would make perfect sense. People keep telling me I can be hot-headed sometimes, but I never imagined it would be so... literal." He was unsure what he would do with fire magic, but throwing flames sounded appealing. Although, there might be more to fire than just that. There were a few old books about the elements among his mother's old things; he did not care to look at them more than glancing at the cover, but there could be something useful there.
"Well, guess it's just to move to the next one..." He stepped to the side, looking at the nearest object from the candle, which turned out to be the pot with soil, earth. Brant raised a hand, and he focused on the pot. The room became silent as he waited for the same kind of feeling as before. There was something there... but it was far weaker. "There is- something there, but it is really difficult to get it out," he commented; after a few minutes, the pot had vibrated slightly, and there was what looked like a hole going into the soil, but nothing more. "No idea what that means. I never had much in terms of a green-thumb. Ma was into flowers and digging, but... was nothing for me."
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Sept 21, 2023 1:37:05 GMT
It seems we're getting somewhere in terms of weaker connections, with the boy only managing to sustain a hole into the soil in the pot. Earth was a more difficult element for him to manipulate, that much is certain. But it will only grow in time, even if it's mainly used for medicinal or food production purposes. Moll scratched her cheek a bit. "Your mana was trying to synchronize with the soil to help you control it. The fact that you managed to create a good gap in the dirt and make it shiver is proof enough that you can manipulate it. Just not as much as fire."
She shrugged. "It's not a bad thing. It just means your mana needs to be trained to strengthen its bond with the element. It wouldn't surprise me if you started using it to produce food and resources for yourself and just stopped there. When used with water, of course. Plants kinda need that too." She giggled a bit as she looked at him. "Two done, two to go. Let's see what you can do."
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 21, 2023 8:54:08 GMT
Two done, two to go.
Brant looked between the windmill and the small glass filled with water.
"Ok, let's get this over with," he muttered before turning his attention to the glass of water. He repeated the same step with similar results as the pot. He could cause the water to swirl slightly in the glass, but nothing more. At this point, he did not wait for a response before he moved on to the little decorative windmill. He did not need to be told that he had less affinity with water, so there was just one left: air.
He raised a hand, focused, and like with the fire, the energy came far more naturally, like it was waiting to be summoned. The windmill spun almost instantly, picking up speed until the wings were a blur, accompanied by a low humming. Brant's clothes fluttered from the air moving about. He once more lowered his hand and watched as the windmill continued to spin, slowing down to a stop.
"Well, that was that." He looked to Moll. "Seems I have a thing for fire and air?"
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Sept 21, 2023 15:18:41 GMT
Fire and air! A dual-elemental bond to start with!
Moll witnessed him attempt to manipulate the last two elements, with trouble with one and seamless practice with the other. She then smiled and let him finish up to complete the examination. The woman saw that he was getting a little impatient and just wanted to get it done, not that she minded. She knows what they can work on now as she clapped her hands in applause to him succeeding his test runs with his magick. "Well done, Brant! Well done! It's awesome to see since those two elements work together very well. Now that we know your affinities, we can adjust your training some more to fit your specialty."
She moved to the table to help him clean up, putting the windmill back to where it was, putting the candle to the side, setting the pot of soil near the window and taking the cup of water back to the kitchen. After that short job, she met him back in the main room to possibly continue their training. If he's willing to keep going, that is. "So, how did it feel so far?"
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Post by DornKoon on Sept 22, 2023 10:57:05 GMT
Brant frowned slightly and rubbed the back of his neck as his cheeks turned pink from her clapping. It was not common for him to be praised for anything he did. In school, the teachers mainly just sighed. His mother sometimes praised him, but she was often high or cooked up on drugs and medication. "Sure," was all he could think about replying.
He watched as she returned the things to where they used to be, exchanging a glance with Gabs from her armchair when Moll was inside the kitchen. "So, what do you think about her Gabs?" He asked, picking his feline companion up and scratching her behind the left ear. "You're a cat. Shouldn't you be able to sense things?" He only got a small chirp and some content purrs. "Not very helpful, but I'll think about it."
"How did it feel?" Brant tilted his head to the side, and his brow furrowed as he reflected on the surreal experience. "Honestly? I'm still unsure if any of this is happening, if I am having some mental breakdown, or if I ate something weird in my ma's stuff to make me lose it. Ma would not stop talking about legacies, magic, spirits and everything." There was a pause. "Guess I'm just feeling confused why all this happened now if nothing happened while she was... well... alive."
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hollowmaster740
Moderator
"From the crumbling remains of our old home, I rise again!"
Posts: 73
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Post by hollowmaster740 on Sept 23, 2023 5:40:23 GMT
Curious. Moll puzzled with his explanation of his feelings towards everything going on right now. She couldn't help but begin to have soft worries for the boy as he had recently lost the one member of his family that gave him a sense of home to begin with. She needed to tell him what could've most likely happened with her trying to connect to the magickal world. So, no more holding back.
"...I think I may have the answer to that." Her arms went to hold each other under her chest. "Usually every generation of magick-users has their own level of mana they can use to connect with the world around them. Sometimes it takes them a few years to master, sometimes it takes them their whole lives to become better at what they do." She frowns in a slightly somber way. "However... there is a time when a new generation in a magickal family has become completely null and void of their connection with their mana. The children with that problem can never truly succeed at casting spells, let alone controlling the elements. So, they turn to... other, heinous means of trying to unlock their magickal connection."
She turns her head to the side and closes her eyes slightly. "It... never goes well."
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