IC action: Collaborations for turtle moving

[oceantier]

Characters: All planning to help move the turtle! (Sign ups still open here.)
Date: ICly, mid-October to mid-November
Location: All over the turtle
Situation: Preparations need to be made for moving the turtle.
Warnings/Rating: None.

Feel free to use this log as a catch-all for characters meeting up with one another to build things, collaborate with team members and across teams, conduct diplomacy, consult maps, talk through issues, test spells, etc. for anything related to preparing to move the turtle! It may be a good idea to indicate the time of month for your prompts.

As a reminder, the new resting place for the turtle will be anchored on undersea mountains off the shore of Tavimbi. Nothing is known about the place except for the fact that the land itself is mountainous.

This log is NOT the actual move! That will be posted mid-November -- 16th or 17th.

Comments

Magic / Testruns

[radiantwingedone]

Duke is working on his own end of things. He's often outside the city, in a clearing sort of space, working with a tornado-shaped spell. If he's not outside, he's in the healer's guild, focused on a piece of paper when someone doesn't want help. It slowly becomes less and less circular, and eventually becomes a straight gust, that matches whatever direction he's facing. He'll work on that last part later.

He is available to anyone working on the technological side of things - he did offer to provide windpower, after all. They have to make sure this thing works, whatever it is.

Or maybe he's testing how fire and wind spells work underwater with Lapis.

... Or someone decided to watch him, it's kinda open to that too.

Outside the city.

[12goingon113]

Aang feels the changes in the air currents long before he gets a visual on the tornado-shaped spell that Duke is using outside of the city.

For a brief moment his heart leaps with joy at the prospect that these unorthodox shifts are evidence that maybe there's another airbender newly arrived. He's got his hopes raised that it's Tenzin, but...as he comes in closer realizes that this isn't the case. Not at all.

He glides in at a safe distance, landing not far away from the man causing the tornado. The click of his glider-staff closing is lost to the sound of the wind.

"Hello."

[radiantwingedone]

It doesn't help that Duke's wind magic takes on a visible deep green tint. It's matching the glow about his hands, which fades as the spell ends.

"Hello." ... When did he get there? Duke blinks a little, looking a bit like he'd been focusing too hard and just remembered the world existed.

[12goingon113]

It's not the first green tornado he's ever seen, but it is the first glowing green tornado he's ever seen.

There isn't a whole lot of magic where Aang is from.
Bending, yes. Actual magic, not so much.

"Was that...magic?"

[radiantwingedone]

"Yes." There's a little bit of 'what else would it be' to his voice, but... he's trying to keep it a little low. People aren't as used to magic as he is.

... And Duke is just terrible about talking so there's a pause. ".... Why?" That's a continuation, right?

[12goingon113]

His face brightens considerably.

"I've never seen that kind of magic before. We don't have magic where I'm from, just bending."

[radiantwingedone]

"I'm going to assume you mean 'bending elements', rather than physical flexibility." Otherwise, he has no idea what the boy was imagining.

"... I can explain a little, how it works, if you would like. A break will not cause any problems."

[12goingon113]

"No no, the...the first one," he says sheepishly, ducking his head down a bit in embarrassment.

Which disappears almost entirely at the offer.

"Really?! I'd like that a lot, actually."

[radiantwingedone]

Hey, it's a vague term that can mean many things out of context.

"... If you wouldn't mind explaining a little of how bending works." Duke turns away from his wind damaged section of clearing, and after a moment, sort of just... plunks himself down into a sit.

"... Do you have any ideas of how magic works?" Duke should probably just start with the very very start, of how his world works, but he wants to make sure that is where he needs to start.

[12goingon113]

"Uh uh."
Well, if nothing else, Aang is honest.

"With bending, we're channeling our chi to manipulate the element we're mot spiritually attuned to. Is...it something like that?"

[radiantwingedone]

... If he pretends 'chi' means aer or personal mana...

"Somewhat, depending on what 'chi' is." Duke falls silent for a moment, sorting out his words, then continues.

"For my world, at least, it is a manipulation of a particle that is in... everything. We called it aer, very little can live without it, and too much of it causes problems." To put it lightly- "You learn to gather, store, and manipulate it. Usually with a device to make it easier to directly influence aer." Because he doesn't use one, so.

"The manipulation is where all the variations occur. The... shape, you make with it, will tell what element you influence, or if you are using an element at all."

[12goingon113]

Aang's brow furrows as he tries to parse all he's hearing. This, in turn, causes his arrow to furrow as well.

There are moments through out the day when he longs for the companionship of friends long since gone, this is one of them. What he wouldn't give to be able to ask Sokka...or even Bumi about this...

"And you were using air?"

[radiantwingedone]

And here Duke thought he was simplifying it. Oh well-

... He didn't focus on that for a moment. That's a bright skin marking.

"Yes. To be specific, that was Havoc Gale, which is generally considered one of the more difficult air spells."

[12goingon113]

"Too difficult to see again?"

Because he'd really be interested to see the motions that go into creating the funnel.

[radiantwingedone]

"Just because it is generally considered so, does not mean it is to me." Sorry for the... casual bit of arrogance there, but Duke really does find magic particularly easy.

And unfortunately, he's not someone who really moves when he casts. He does get back to his feet, but for the most part it seems like he's doing something internal.

He just raises his hand, palm toward himself yet, and the green lights form in strings of lettering about him.

"Havoc Gale." And he turns his palm outward. The green wind tugs a little at clothing, and more at the surroundings. It.. also doesn't last very long, maybe five to ten seconds from when it appears.

[12goingon113]

Aang's smile widens when it becomes clear to him that he'll be getting a demonstration. He watches the motions carefully, marveling once again at the light show that accompanies the controlled display of air.

Aang begins to airbend just as the magical wind begins to die down, doing his own version of Duke's magic.

[radiantwingedone]

Oh, that is fascinating. Duke tilts his head slightly, watching in.. perhaps an odd, absent sort of way that hints he isn't entirely looking at things normally visible.

It's a lot more... active, seeming. Duke will wait until Aang is done, and the result dies down, before sharing what he thinks the difference is.

"Your movements are directing the... shape, of the result?"

[12goingon113]

There's no music to be seen, but if Duke is sensitive to energy and the manipulation of energy...then it's possible that Aang glows like a Christmas Tree.

"It depends on what I'm trying to get the element to do, but yeah for the most part. And different elements require different motions, but there is some cross over."

The air falls quiet and then still.

"Everything is connected," he repeats like a mantra.

[radiantwingedone]

Duke is at least able to tell how things flow about, so he might be blinking a few more times as he focuses on... the mundane world.

"Perhaps I ought to ask that as well. What are your elements defined as?" He pauses then continues. "Mine are fire, wind, water, earth, dark, light, unaligned, healing. Combinations of fire and wind produce lightning, while water and wind produce ice."

[12goingon113]

Aang's eyes widen at the list of elements. So similar in places, and not so much in others.

"Traditionally there are only four: earth, fire, water, and air, but...Well, a lot has changed really recently. My friend Toph, who's an earthbender, learned how to bend metal. And my friend Zuko's family are really good at bending lightning. They're firebenders. I'm an airbender first, but as the Avatar I can bend all four elements."

[radiantwingedone]

... Ah, so that's where the elemental ... affinity, or .. Aang had used spiritually attuned. Where that makes a difference. Duke spends a moment trying to imagine being locked into a single element, with some minor variations, and ... there's a tiny frown for a second.

"I would say that seems.. limited, but it is likely that I am just used to having multiple elements available, and reacting to situations by changing what I use. You likely have more ways to work with air than I am familiar with."

[12goingon113]

"It's possible? order for an Air Nomad to earn their arrows," he says pointing to the one on his forehead...a gesture that also serves to show off the matching on one the back of his hands. "We have to prove mastery of all thirty-six forms of airbending."

[radiantwingedone]

Ah, so that explains what those are.

"... Thirty six forms of airbending...." There's a hint of a smile. It might be the tilt of his head making it look like he is, but that would be the intended appearance anyway. "I would have to make quite a few more spells to match that, I think. I will keep in mind that you are most likely better prepared with just air than I will be."

[12goingon113]

Aang both stands up taller, and yet still seems to shrink slightly, at the praise.

"Can you do that? Make more spells, I mean."

[radiantwingedone]

Well, it isn't likely he would hear it often from Duke himself so. No need to shrink further.

Duke nods slightly. "I have... One I am very certain no one has, another I am reasonably sure. Two more, that I am fairly sure that I have seen another use but I believe they learned on their own, or got to the same result from a different starting point." He won't say anything further on one of those, and to dissuade any asking, he moves on.

"The other term for spells, home, is formula. It makes it easier to alter and make your own spells, as most have enough flexibility normally to change a little."

[12goingon113]

"It's that way with bending too. I didn't...technically master all thirty-six forms, but since I created a new one, the Monks let me pass."

"Zuko told me his Uncle Iroh invented the bending form that lets you redirect lightning from watching waterbenders."

[radiantwingedone]

See, Duke would have thought altering lightning would be a combination of wind and fire, but that was just how it worked for him.

"Sometimes it works out, learning from watching and making something that way." ... Of course, failing to redirect the lightning would.. be disastrous so it was a good thing it worked out.

But after he thinks a second more, how water interacts with lightning makes it make sense. "... Although sometimes its a little hazardous..."

[12goingon113]

"No kidding. Iroh already knew how to bend lightning when he developed the form, so that probably helped. I can't imagine asking someone to shoot lighting at me so I could practice the technique."