Closed [IHL] A Lesson in Frustration (Amelia)

[Irriari]

33rd Day of Summer, IHL grounds

Irriari shifted her pack on her shoulders as she entered the grounds of the Institute. Earlier in the day, she had unpacked the majority of her poisoncrafting kit and philtering kit in favor of the bare essentials. In her bag, Irriari carried ‘The Wondrous World of Philtering’, a vial of roughwood poison, a vial of the poison she had made during her last IHL lesson, one silken lily mushroom, and a half of a dried hasale’ith’savanht plant. While she had wanted to bring her entire poisoncrafting kit, Irriari doubted that her vials would balance well on the ground. Additionally, she knew the importance of the foundation that she had nearly missed, due to her haphazard education. If Amelia learned of the basic types of poison and enjoyed the lesson, they could begin crafting poisons at a later point. Irriari chuckled at her optimistic thoughts as she placed her bag on the ground near a bench. The zith didn’t know why she was so thrilled to have someone interested in poison, but she was happy to teach it, so long as the human didn’t try to use it against her.

As she waited for Amelia, Irriari did her best to recall what Sevrai had mentioned about reading and writing. Her slave had harped on the subject whenever she was out of arms reach. ‘Imagine all the poison books you can read!’. No matter the argument, Irriari had always maintained that reading and writing were something that Sevrai could do. The girl had to pull her weight somehow, if she wasn’t going to harvest mushrooms in the deep tunnels. After a half bell of reflection, Irriari determined that she had no memories that would be of use. She would have to learn about the human scribbles with no prior knowledge. Irriari sighed, and hoped that the learning process would be more fun than she imagined it to be.

[Amelia Cross]

This was most clearly an interesting day for Amelia. She was about to teach how to read and write to a zith. It was quite an unusual thing for her, as she wasn’t much of a teacher and usually, ended up becoming quite confusing and awkward. So she hopped that the two of them could find some common language. It would be a shame if she ended up not being able to help the girl. Maybe it was her origins at Zeltiva, but she thought that knowledge was meant to be shared.

And after Amelia got ready, her makeup set and her hair done nicely, she left her home. Walking casually, in no rush, she had left early to make sure she had the time to buy what she needed. In this case, it was paper and charcoal sticks. She guessed that ink could be too messy and she wasn’t sure would the woman be able to hold a quill. So, better safe than sorry. At least coal marks are easier to remove!.

As she walked, she made sure to stop by a shop and pick up some lose sheets of paper, for good measure she bought 20 of those. She was well aware that there would be little use of so many, but she could use it for letter writing latter on, so she didn’t mind paying extra. The same with charcoal, it sold only in sets of tens sticks, she didn’t need that much, and even though she didn’t know what use she’d have of them, it probably didn’t hurt having them around. Maybe she could use them for glyping practice latter on?

With everything bought, she finally walked to the Institute and entered confidently. It felt nice to enter a building that not a lot actually were able to, made one feel superior. She walked to the inner grounds of the institute, and there she saw Irriari. The human waved at the zith as soon as she was in the full range of sight ”good morning!” she called with a smile.

boughtx20 sheets of paper…no clue how much, I’m confused with the ‘sp’ marking next to the price o.O
X10 sticks of charcoal, 5cm.

[Irriari]

Irriari smiled back to Amelia and waved her over.

“I brought my poisoncrafting supplies, and I can tell you more about my people as well.”

She glared upward to the sun before looking back towards Amelia,

“Would you like to find an empty classroom? The sun is hurting my eyes and annoying me. I don’t like buildings much more, but at least it’s away from the blasted sun.”

The zith paused for a moment and realized that it would be a good time to tell Amelia more about her people.

“We zith have an excellent sense of night vision. I can see better at night than I can in the day, actually. But our gift comes at the cost of the sun hurting our eyes. We also have better hearing than humans, but that tends to be more of an annoyance in Ravok.”

Irriari found herself thinking on all the times she had overheard the conversations of the vapid nobles and merchants bickering about the value of an exotic fabric or jewel. It was enough to make her wish that her house was on the outside edges of the lake.

“I don’t know where any empty classrooms are though. And before we leave, we should decide a course of action. Would you like to learn about poison first, or would you prefer to teach first?”

OOCSorry this is so short- just getting everything set up. Feel free to lead Irri to a classroom/room

[Amelia Cross]

Amelia understood the discomfort that the sun might be causing to the zith. She herself enjoyed the outdoors more, especially the lake, but she was good with a compromise of leaving for an empty class. She was sure that she could find an empty one. The library not really being a good option, as she thought her friend might find it a bit offending to bring her there.

Latter on she was a bit taken by the question, well, she was interested in the culture and the poisoning, but, she believed that it would be unfair to be a student, after all, she was the one who offered to teach her, not the other way around ”I think it would be better if I start teaching you, and then with that to base off reading, we could start slowly, and read your book” she offered with a smile ”let us head to the class” feeling like a teacher as she said that.

As the two walked alongside to the classrooms, Amelia checked the door handles to check what rooms were open. Usually, the students and their corresponding teachers locked the doors of the classes that were occupied, in order for nobody to disturb them. She could see the point in it, as most of the classes required superb concentration and if someone is constantly running in and out, even the masters of meditation might not handle it.

And after a good time of searching, the two did manage to find an empty class. It was slightly smaller than most, but it had a good light source, with the desk being big enough to cover it in books and notes. She assumed this was one of the classes to use when someone wanted to study in peace and quiet, not for something practical or meditation. ”this will do” she said, letting Irriari enter the class and closing the door behind them. Locking it in order to make sure that nobody disturbed them.

She put the paper and charcoal on the desk. ”so, in order for you to begin reading and writing, you need to learn our letters and how they sound, how they look and little things like that” Amelia explained, taking a sheet of paper and a thin pencil like peace of coal. On the piece of paper she began writing

Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz

”so, this is our alphabet, do any of the symbols look familiar?” she asked, hopping the zith had at least some understanding about language.

[Irriari]

Irriari smiled slightly, happy that Amelia had a plan for the days lesson. In the colony, lessons taught by slaves were often badly prepared, and the content that could be gained from them was as variable as the movement of the grasses. A few of the newer slaves had thought themselves wise when they spread misinformation about the outside world during the time they spoke to the colony. The older, loyal slaves had quickly intervened and the newcomers were killed on the spot. Such occurrences were rare, but they could be disastrous for the small colony if such information was related to the drykas or akalak.

“That sounds good to me.”

With that, Irriari began following Amelia through the lengthy hallways of the Institute. Her classes were on the other side of the building, so she was reliant on Amelia to guide them to a suitable location. They walked in silence together, and Amelia would occasionally stop and check a door or two. After a few chimes, they found themselves in front of a large oak door that swung open easily. The room was dry and musty, but otherwise unremarkable. As the zith entered, Irriari looked to the front of the room. The front wall was dominated by a large chalkboard and table that was pushed against a wall. She pivoted slightly, looking towards the arched windows that covered the side wall. They were just wide enough that the zith cold fit through them, if need be, but she cringed at the thought of what the jagged shards would do to her body. Lastly, Irriari glanced to the back of the room. A few wooden crates were stacked in a corner, but otherwise, the far wall was empty. Satified with her appraisal of the rooms fighting conditions, she sat down on a bench next to the human, being careful to adjust her wings so they wouldn’t catch on the lip of the seat.

As Amelia began speaking and writing, Irriari nodded, and remembered the few things that Sevrai had mentioned in passing. Letters were the stuff that made up words, and numbers were symbols for counting. While the zith hadn’t developed the patience to learn the alphabet, she had learned to identify the numbers 1-1000. While it was an irksome task, the numbers had a distinct system of order than the alphabet did not.

Irriari squinted at the squiggles, trying to make sense of the curves and lines that composed the alphabet.

“They look familiar… I’ve seen them all, but I don’t know what they mean.”

Irriari stared at the parchment for a bit longer and looked towards Amelia before she continued speaking,

“Why are they in groups of two? Does that matter?”

[Amelia Cross]

Well, Amelia couldn’t hope for anything more, really. If the Zith already has seen the alphabet, its better than she could have wished. Her question however was a bit unusual, but understandable ”Well, those are letters, there are only 26 of them total. But, each letter has a capital letter, the big letter that is used when we write important words, like names, for example Irriari would start with a capital I, location names fall under the same category! For example, Lake Ravok, each word starts with a capital. Book tittles start with capitals…new sentences…important tittles and deities” but there were exceptions she couldn’t really come to explain this easily, explain while she was still new to writing.

Amelia placed the paper closer to Irriari, just as the coal sticks, while she herself walked to the chalkboard and began looking for chalk. If she could write the alphabet there, where she could show it easily, it would help in teaching. ”if I was chalk…” she wondered, and then it hit her. The small cupboard that had cloth to clean the board with right on top of it. Amelia came closer and opened it, and sure, it was there. A small box that had chalk of two colors, white and blue. Amelia toke the blue chalk and wrote the alphabet down on the left side of the board. Making sure she wrote it down big enough so the Zith would have no trouble seeing it, but small enough to leave enough room on the board for writing. When she was almost done, the chalk made a horrible sound against the board, making Amelia jerk away from it and drop the blue chalk ”I’m sorry!” she called while picking up the chalk that had broken into two and finishing the alphabet.

That out of the way, she placed one half of the broken chalk next to the damp cloth. ”And now, repeat after me” Amelia said with a smile as she pointed her pale finger, that ha marks of blue chalk on it, against the letter A ”A, Armor” moving on to B ”B, Black” and the next ”C, Capture” and so on until she reached the end D, Dark…E, Ebonstryfe…F, Fight…G, Great…H, Home…I, Institute…J, Joy…K, Kill…L, Lake…M, Mother…N, Noble… O, Open…P, Poisson… R, Ravok… S, Sun…T, Truth…U, Unite… V, Vain… W, Web… X, Xylophone… Y, You…Z, Zith” while she spoke, Amelia made sure to pronounce everything as clearly as she could. The girl had an accent, something between Zeltivian and Sylirian what made some of her pronunciation sound a bit odd. But she hopped the girl understood her.

She once more went over just the sound of each letter, and then turned to Irriari ”now do it on your own, name each letter and a word that starts with it, don’t worry if you’re lost or confused, just give me the word and I’ll help you…”

[Irriari]

The zith did her best to focus on the lesson, but the letters began to swirl in her mind. She copied the letters slowly, trying to take special note of the ones that had difficult curves or odd shapes. Letters like 'I' were simple, but 'S' and 'G' gave the zith a headache. Each time she wrote a 'g', the letter came out differently. The first time she placed her pen to the paper, it was larger at the top- the wide loop shadowing over the rest of the letter. The second time she attempted it, the opposite happened. The writing utensil shook in her hand under the pressure of holding an implement designed for human hands. The annoyances of the day were piling up. Amelia reminded Irriari of Sevrai. Her patient nature made learning difficult concepts easier, but she knew that if she stayed for much longer, she would be apt to tear the paper to shreds. The zith thanks the human who had the patience to deal with her and left the Institute with her makeshift alphabet page tucked into her quiver.

[Nemesis]

Amelia Cross

Skills	*	*
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Lores

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Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

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Irriari

Skills	*	*
???	*	+??
???	*	+??
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Lores

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Consequences, Injuries, Expenses, and More!

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• Amelia, if you decide to return, fling me a PM and I'll grade this thread.
• Irri, you know the drill...