[closed] Calm Hectic Waters

by **Tiernan Swiftriver** on January 15th, 2013, 9:02 am

Timestamp: 1st Day of Winter, 512 AV. Twelfth Bell

NPCFull Name: Fionnula Swiftriver
NPC Type: Traveling Companion
Race: Svefra
Association: Adopted-Daughter
Religion: Laviku
Birthplace & Age: Northern Suvan Sea; 10
Status: Alive

Skills:
Dance: 5
Sailing: 5
Fishing: 5
Cooking: 5
Swimming: 5
Dagger: 5

Tiernan felt at ease alone in the murmuring aura of shifting ocean waters. Enveloped in an abyss that tricked the senses into feeling devoid of feeling. Devoid, yet fully aware and connected to the sea as his Oceanus mark allows him to sense the ocean currents. He spun in spirals as his body glided through the water until he was laying on his back, looking up at the surface of the water through the Swimming googles he wore. The sun was shining high in the sky causing the waters surface to become an etheral reflecting mirror of the world above. Tiernan couldn't help but notice that It looked exactly like the portals he opened when preforming a summoning. He laid suspended underwater for two minutes until his mouth opened, releasing bubbles of air that floated up towards the surface. As soon as the bubbles rippled along the surface of the water, he watched as a dark figure hovered above the shifting aquatic mirror.

The figure began to fall until it shattered the surface and plummeted into the depths to accompany him.

Once the shifting bubbles of freshly disturbed water dissipated, he came dace to face with Fionnula his adopted daughter who had dived off the side of his ship into the water. She hovered above Tiernan looking down at her father curiously. They were both playing a game to see who could stay underwater the longest. Tiernan himself was slowly running out of air which caused him to paddle his arm forward, the itself propelling his further down into the water backwards.

Fionnula followed as she swam further down though stopped, gesturing a finger up towards the surface as if wanting to ask him something. Tiernan nodded his head agreeing to head back to the surface. In the back of his mind he didn't wish to reveal that he was completely out of air and was resurfacing anyway. It was that fatherly feeling inside of himself that wanted Fionnula to believe he could do anything. Even the impossible. That he could protect her when she needed him.

Thrusting himself towards the surface with a series of flutter kicks, he gasped for air as soon as his head broke free of the waters pressuring aura. Fionnula laughed as she easily cupped a handful of water to splash Tiernan in the face. She smirked as the man went stumbling back underwater over-dramatically. Once he remerged from the water again she asked her question. It was a question which Tiernan expected. "How old'er ya when'ya learned Reimancy?" She suddenly sang quietly under her breath as she flopped around in the water, kicking her feet to stay afloat. The rhythm of the song was one Tiernan sung when bored, and must have rubbed off on the girl.

He gave her a little shake of his head then swam to the hull of his Casinor, which was anchored into place in the middle of the ocean. "Ay'am not teaching ya, yer'too young." Fionnula chuckled softly, following her dad back to the ship. "DIdn't ya tell me that ya were my age when your ma'ma taught you?" He could only puff up one of his cheeks as he looked over his shoulder back at her. His tone was playful, almost chuckling the words out as he spoke. "Don't sass me with yer back-takin' logic." Helping her climb onto the small ladder and onto the Casinor. As soon as Tiernan was aboard his ship, he began to check the Running rigging lines at the base of the mast used for raising, lowering and controlling the sails. The sails themselves were lowered leaving only the empty mast standing high like a dead tree.

Fionnula chewed lightly on her lip as she looked at the floor, wondering how she could possibly get her Papa to teach her. Admittedly, Tiernan knew that she was obsessed with learning new ways to defend herself, but obsessed with leaning how to kill. He knew it was the reason why she always held onto her dagger, and cried when he took it away from her. Being new to the world of father hood, he gave into her temper tantrums when it involved the dagger. "Well can ay at least watch ya? Please, Please, Please!?" She made the largest eyes she could and pouted like a sadd puppy. The look caused Tiernan to stick his tongue out at her and make a funny face. "Fine.." Said in a huffed sigh and a chuckle as he leaned in close to her. "Now watch close, the secret is in the dancing..."

by **Tiernan Swiftriver** on January 15th, 2013, 12:03 pm

Tiernan took her arm and guided her to the bow of the ship, looking over to the horizon that lay ahead of him. Besides her urges to stab things, he knew Fionnula enjoyed dancing so he used dancing to deter her from thoughts of violence. Tiernan understood his reasonings were filled with contradictions, but the oxymoron of a forward-retreat was a concept the girl understood. Showing her violence, to make her not want to be violent. The foot loose and fancy free life style he lived might not be as exciting as life as a pirate, but he enjoyed it. There was something about dancing that freed the mind and allowed all the thoughts in a persons head to slip away. He could only guess that the sensation of dancing to Fionnula was like the feeling he received when submerged fully underwater.

He began to slowly shift his body from side to side in rhythm with the ocean waves that rapt against the outer haul of his ship. With no warning or mention of preparation he outstretched his right arm with a closed fist. HIs fist began to glow an ethereal white as Res began to manifest in the palm of his hand. The glow soon enveloped around his fist as the Res took the form of a hazed gas. When turning his res into a gas, it help him to imagine a cloud was forming in his closed hand. He knew it was working as the res steamed through the cracks of his fingers. Holding his arm over the side of the ship, his res began to attract the ocean water to it. A small geyser of water erupted from the sea forming a grapefruit sized sphere of water around his fist.

Opening his hand inside of the sphere of water, the water that began to float and hover infront of his outstretched palm. "Come'ere Fi." She stood next to her dad watching the sphere of water curiously. Pulling his arm back slightly, he made a pushing motion as if shoving the ball of water away from him. As a result, the sphere of water flew off into the distance and crashed into the ocean twenty feet away. The concussive force of the blast caused a large splash of water to erupt into the air as if a brick had been thrown in to the ocean.

by **Tiernan Swiftriver** on January 15th, 2013, 1:35 pm

"T'was amazing papa, look how far it went. An'then the BOOM, SPLASH! "

He couldn't understand it. There was nothing about that water sphere that should have prevented it from working correctly; It should have kept flying a total distance of forty feet. It couldn't have been his concentration which was fully focused on the task at hand. Surely if it was his concentration, it must have been due to the idiotic dancing he was preforming. The swaying interrupting his aim. That was the only possible thing that he could think of, because anything else seemed to be implausible.

He became acutely aware of his failure as Fionnula championed his deficiency with ignorant, joyous glee. "Yes, it was very amazing." Said laced with hidden sarcasm. Tiernan had always been Conscientious of everything he every did. Wanting to do any task that he set his mind to with perfection and this misstep truly caught him by surprise. "Sit down Fi, aye'am going to practice some more. Keep quite since aye must focus." Said as he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath.

The sun waned in vitality across the sky as a cloud of winter brought a moment of shade. His eyes snapped open, his memories flashing back to him in painful blows of the endless hours of the past he spent practicing, only to fail randomly today. Holding his right hand out towards the sea, he began to feel the surge of Djed cascaded through his body and through his right arm. The sensation inside of his tingling limb was cold, losing feeling in his arm feeling the frigid embrace of freshly summoned Res sing in his muscles. The res took the form of a gas yet again, forming a ethereal cloud around not just his hand, but the entirety of his right arm. "Maybe, it was due to not transforming the res?" He thought to himself, deciding against attracting ocean water to his res.

A part of him wanted to show off in front of for Fionnula to give her something truly amazing to gawk at. He couldn't feel the sensation of overgiving but it showed in his bloodshot blue eyes. Tiernan gritted his teeth as his Res began to gather above his right hand. The ethereal white light began to form into another sphere just like before, except it was the size of a human head. Unlike before, his free left hand started to wave around the sphere of Res using the gesture to ignite the outer layer of the sphere, turning it into a hollow liquid ball of water filled with his Res. The inner layers of Res remind untransformed so he could still control where to aim the impending blast.

Pointing his palm in the same direction as the last attack, he preformed a double shove. Forcing the sphere of water away from him at a excelling high speed. Right before the sphere exited his range of control, he ignited the Res inside of the sphere, transforming it into complete ball of arcane water. Tiernan watched as the sphere traveled past his intended target area, crashing sixty feet away from the ship. The resulting cataclysm of water that erupted when the bolt of water exploded on impact with the ocean surface caused Fionnula to jump to her feet. The small girl quickly made her way to the edge of the ships railing to watch as the water that jumped ten feet into the air fell back into the ocean. 'WHAO! THAT WAS AWESOME!" She yelled as Tiernan happily agreed with a nod of his head. "Now that is amazing. Want to see it again?"

by **Tiernan Swiftriver** on January 15th, 2013, 2:20 pm

Tiernan didn't realize his hands had been shaking until Fionnula glanced at him, eyebrow raised. Catching himself, a bit stunned at the realization, he was quick to run his hand self consciously through his hair in a vain attempt to hide the quiver and steady himself at the same time. "Are'ya alright Papa?" Asking inquisitively as her brow lowered and narrowed her eyes. "Yeah, aye'am alright. Its just all this excitement has given me the nervous shakes. Why don't you go get my harpoon out of the cabin, but first set the rope on the end so I can go catch us some lunch and dinner.

"Alrighty." Fionnula hummed to herself as she bounced with a skip down the side of the deck before sliding the rest of the way on her wet feet. She giggled to herself and caught herself by grabbing the door frame before she ran downstairs into the ships cabin.

He knew she wasn't good with tying knots so setting the rope onto the harpoon would take sometimes. Tiernan couldn't take her worrying eyes and needed to send her away for a short while. Looking down at his shaking hand, it trembled uncontrollably no matter how long he focused to try and stop it. The stress from his last attack had shot his nerves from releasing so much res. And yet, he felt the urge to do it again. Taking a seat cross-legged on the bow of his ship, he held up his left hand to the level of his chest with his palm facing the sky. It felt as if everything slowed for a moment and the hairs on the back of his neck rose as more of his Res gathered in the palm of his hand.

He ran his gaze quickly over his should to scan over the deck, ensuring Fionnula was not watching him. Tiernan shifted his gaze from the ship itself back to the palm of his hand. The res began to change in solidity, turning from a gas-like ethereal white substance into a thick circular solid gel-like sphere. Removing his palm form under the sphere of res, he began to push it away from his body. Letting the ball of res linger on the edge of his area of control. Deciding to practice his control as he made the sphere of pure res float, decline, push, and pull it away from himself. Suddenly a metallic taste filled his mouth causing him to lick his lips, spitting to the side to get rid of the flavor.

His right arm was already out and he stared, with full concentration, at his left arm , feeling the presence of on his inner Djed as if it were pumping inside his veins. His muscles twisted and his left arm felt as if it were pulled back and forth, by the spasming arm muscle. Tiernan howled in slight pain as he felt the urge to turn his res into another attack. The floating ball of res meandered back over to his left palm. When he tried to ignite the outer layer of the sphere into water, he accidentally turned the entire ball into water. WIth no more res left in the sphere for him to control, the ball of water just splashed down onto the palm of his hand.

by **Tiernan Swiftriver** on January 16th, 2013, 2:42 am

oocIf it isn't clear, he is hallucinating that FI is his pods Lia. Overgiving ftw.

"Pa! I'm done." Fionnula shouted with a proud smile. It had taken her far less time to rope the harpoon than she had imagined. Her smile was even wider due to retrieved her favorite dagger from under her pillow when she was in the ships cabin. She wore a lose fitting dress, but had the knife strapped to her belt. The light harpoon was roughly the the full size of ten year old girl as she carried it with two hands.

""Pa! ay'am done."

"Pa! Ay'am done."

"Pa! Ay'am done."

"Oy! Boy! Get off your arse!"

Twisted voices echoed in his mind over and over. They taunted him. Taunted him until Fionnula's voice faded away, falling apart until it was drowned out completely in his mind. Blinking furiously, Tiernan was suddenly confused about the voice he heard speaking to him. "Lia Gwendolyn?" He spoke aloud as he glanced over his shoulder to Fionnula. She opened her mouth confusedly and looked over her own shoulder. "Lia? Where!? " Excitement erroneously grew in her heart as she began to believe the rest of the Swiftriver pod would soon join them. Though after a quick check of the sea, she couldn't see any ships in the area.

"Quit yer magical lillypaddin'! What have aye always told ya!" Tiernan maladroitly repeated something his lia always told him before the hallucination could say the phrase. "WIth a blade one can defend, with magic several can't depend." Fionnula had heard the saying before from the Lia and chuckled. "Ya sound like her Papa." The Lia of the Swiftriver pod had no qualms against magic, in fact she supported it since most of the pod practiced summoning. Yet, The Lia felt more at him with a blade in her hand.

His daughter's words went unheard as he slowly stubbled to his feet. Tiernan smiled lovingly at the facaded image of his Lia and was grateful to know he had family there for him. He shrugged out of his shirt and tossed it gently away not wanting to rip it incase she cut him. He crept to the entryway of his cabin below deck as he breathed slowly in and out. Curious to see what her father was doing since he was wobbling like he had been drinking, peaked into the cabin. She watched as he picked up his Kopis blade that rested on his bed then turned to look at Fionnula.

"Now draw yer blade an'give a ~young~ woman a run for her money." Once Tiernan staggered back onto the deck of the ship, he stared at Fionnula, the light harpoon she held appear in his overgiven mind as a sharp cutlass. During his youth, his backside had been hit with the broad side of that blade during his weapons training. Like most Svefra he enjoyed short curved blades to fit the style of close quarter combat fought on ships. However, unlike other Svefra he loved to use a Kopis rather than a cutlass thanks to his father's liking towards the blade.

The muscle in his arms were singeing with burning pain. The fact he asheld the Kopis in his right hand did not help his trembling hands. "Ay think ya should reconsider the merits of magic Lia. Lots more damage ta be done from a distance. For example." He could barely lift his left hand, but still managed to start manifesting a pathetic amount of Res from his palm. The gas of Res was no bigger than the size of a grape. Tiernan was just about to send a bolt of water past Lia Gwendolyn, not to harm her, but to show her why Reimancy was better than swordplay. As he began to concentrate on where to aim his vision suddenly cleared.

"Fi?" It was the last word that slipped from his mouth as his Kopis fell to the floor. He tried to reabsorbed small amount of res he had summoned, but most of it had dispersed during the absorption process. Only managing to retake twenty percent of the grape sized volume of res.

The world began to fade into darkness as he began to lose consciousness. Falling forward head first and watched as the ground swiftly came closer. Fionnula quickly dropped the light Harpoon she held and sprinted towards her father, bracing his fall, letting him fall onto her. She rolled Tiernan over and hugged him close with tearful eyes. She didn't know what to do so she just sat with him until he would awaken.

by **Tiernan Swiftriver** on January 16th, 2013, 4:05 am

Timestamp: 2nd Day of Winter, 512 AV. seventh Bell

Several bells had past, the sun had risen and set, and the morning light of the sun shined down onto his face. Tiernan laid asleep along the stern of his ship. At some point during the night he had regained his consciousness enough to slip into a dream. He dreamt about summoning. Summoning ghastly things, ghoulish beings that broke free of their leashes to lunged toward him. His dream quickly turned into a nightmare as strange creatures guided by malice set ragged claws into his skin, pealing and ripping him apart in a nexus of pain. Awakening with a sudden start he released a scream of rippling anguish. It had been all he could do to come back to himself as the reality of the nightmare faded into obscurity. Fionnula hugged closely next to her father, having wrapped his arm around her so she could lay her head on his shoulder. Nestled snuggly in his arm with her eyes tightly closed fearing his terrifying scream.

There were no words to describe the feeling he felt when he looked at his daughter. He could only try to hug her closely.Even though his arms felt like anchors weighed to the floor, he willed himself to hug her. "Was thinking that aye would have ta lay here an watch ya die." Fionnula whispered softly with her blue eyes still shut closed. "Aye don't want ya'ta die." Tiernan began to sit up which took an excessive amount of willpower to preform. "Ain't no tragedy befalling us today. So dry yer eyes an help Pa ta his bed." Flashing Fionnula an encouraging smile as he leaned on her to support some of his weight. They both slowly staggered below deck into the cabin.

Once he laid down he began to relax while looked towards the ceiling. As he laid there contemplating what had happened, a sweet whisper echoed in the back of his mind urging him to cast another spell. Ignoring the sensation, he slipped back into a dream to rest and recover.

by **Cascade** on January 17th, 2013, 6:21 am

Adventurer's Loot

Tiernan's Loot :

I enjoyed this thread! I'm also glad that you had Tiernan experience overgiving, he really did go overboard, and you wrote the consequences well. His relationship with Fi is also something I adore. Keep up the good work. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me!

Solo [closed] Calm Hectic Waters