[Windward Boardwalk] I Was Born To Fly Dammit! (Hadrian)

[Ethan]

"Earth Reimancy? I will have to remember that." He smiled at the thought of popping a person's lungs. Hadrian didn't say you actually could. But under the right pressure anything would give. Especially something delicate and fleshy. He would have to practice on a live subject, but who and how? A human would be best but, an animal would have to do. Hadrian didn't seem like the person to appreciate live experiments on other human beings. He sat on the bench and uncorked the bottle. Offering Hadrian the first drink. "I wanted to improve my flying capabilities with Reimancy. Since the gods blessed me with flight and now the control of wind. I thought it would be best to combine them. And one way I thought up. Was hovering!" Ethan Said excitedly. "For most birds taking off or keeping afloat isn't a problem. Small as they are. But it's a pain in the neck for someone as large as me. So i chewed on the problem a bit. And I came up with thought of using two spheres of Res. In gel form most likely. And placing them under each wing to generate streams of air to make myself hover! That way i can take off immediately. It could also help me get into tighter places such as windows and alleys. But i wanted to get your opinion on where i should place the spheres. Before I actually tried it and got myself into an accident." He felt a little embarrassed asking a human for flight tips. But Hadrian was no simple villager. He was educated in many things Ethan was not. Aerodynamics could be an area of expertise he hadn't ask about yet.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian sat down next to Ethan on the bench, grasping the bottle too tightly to hide the slight shake to his hands. It was always winter in this city, though it was autumn without. His hands were especially white. He took a thoughtful slug or two of wine while Ethan was expounding upon his ideas, and he had to admire the way the Kelvic's mind was expanding, innovating. When they had first met, he had been all enthusiasm and energy; now he had those, but was learning to focus them with creative results. Perhaps it was best Kelvics did not bond, after all, as it forced them to think more sophisticated thoughts if they were going to survive in human company without a human watching over them. "First of all," he said, handing over the bottle, "if this idea works, I would not suggest you use it frequently, because you don't want to rely on magic for things your body can do just as well or better. The gods made you a lammergeier, and you should work with that. But this would be a good experiment to try. Someday you might be in dire need of taking to the air, but too exhausted or injured to do so without the aid of magic. "Just remember that. The ability to do a thing doesn't imply the value of overusing it. Hm." He took out a bit of parchment and a coal pencil, quickly sketching a rather half-assed lammergeier or three, cross sections of wings, and lines denoting air flows. Then he quickly wrote out a few mathematical calculations. He had an idea of about how much Ethan weighed in his avian body, and the relative velocities of things when he flew... "See here? This is how the air flows over and under your wings based on their shape. If you think of Air, invisible even though you can feel it as if it were solid sometimes, as res, then you can imagine how it flows. If you maintain these spheres and keep them moving up through the center and then down around the sides like a fountain, then they should allow you to hover in place. Your mind would bear the weight of you then."

[Ethan]

It was interesting watching Hadrian explain air currents and how it made flight possible. He had never seen or studied aerodynamics but, it was an easy concept to pick up on since he was already an experienced flier. Hadrian's word of caution was taken to heart as well. Ethan was often unruly when it came to authority of any kind. But his Teacher's word was law when it concerned magic. He had proved himself trust worthy on more than one occasion. And deserved the Kelvic's respect. "I will remember to use it only in practice then. But if I place a sphere, here and here." He said pointing at the diagram. "I should be able to sustain a good hover. This is a marvelous chart by the way. It is adorable what humans find the time to think about while birds are simply flying." It was true, people did seem to think about everything under the sun. Scholars worked their whole lives to add to the massive collection of knowledge in books and scrolls. From the mating habits of Dung Beetles. To studies on the stages of rot an orange goes through. It all seemed a bit redundant to Ethan. He was happy to be ignorant on most things other than magic. But perhaps that was just the animal talking in him. "You know... If we really worked on it. We might be able to make you hover? I can fly whenever I need to with a quick change. But it could really help you out of a jam? You even have a flight expert right here!" He nudged Hadrian with a smile. "With your little charts and my knowledge there must be something we can do. You could do much of anything from reach tall buildings, to whisking Kendall off his feet?" Humans as a species where never meant to fly. They're all... pear shaped. Completely wrong for any kind of flight. Even hovering would be a miracle. But Hadrian was the best mage Ethan had ever met. If anyone could do it. It would be him.

[Hadrian]

Hadrian thought about it for a moment; this was not the first time he had done so. Originally he had concluded that the human form was just not built for easy flight, not without artificial apparatus to catch enough of the air pressure to heave a heavy body aloft. Birds were light by comparison, all things considered, with their hollow bones. "I'm working on becoming a bird," he reminded Ethan. "But there are perhaps some emergency things I could manage. Whisking Kenny around would probably hurt him, but if I were to fall..." He held his hands out at waist height, palms turned down. The res answered his call quickly anymore, pooling out of his hands, a yellow tinge to the gas, which usually meant he was going to call upon Air. There was some rhyme and reason to the coloration of his energies, but sometimes there were strange things that altered them, throwing the rhyme and the reason out the window. More and more gathered, beginning to swirl around in ever-growing orbs of light, faster and faster. Finally, he began to transmute it, began to will it straight down from his hands, blasts of sustained Air hitting the ground beneath them. In no time at all he was struggling to keep his arms from just flying up, forcing them straight and straight down at his sides, locked and pushing him up until his boots were dangling from a few inches high. He bit his lip in concentration, trying to keep it up for a little while, but his arms were not strong enough and he had to Flux some pure djed down his arms to keep them strong, supporting his weight. He did smile at the accomplishment, then relaxed, letting the res cycle sputter out and the Fluxed energy disperse throughout his entire body, giving him a bit of a buzz of excited energy. "I could do something like that on a grander scale in an emergency, but it would not be, hm, elegant. It takes too much energy to make a human body fly because they aren't meant to fly. But eventually that won't be an issue anymore." That said, he raised his hands which had begun to web together, then form almost into flippers before black feathers slowly peeked their way out. There was a model at use here, one he had practiced with Ethan before. His feathers came dark as his hair unless he willed them otherwise, but the bone structure of his vestigial hands was certainly better than his last attempt. Pouring djed into a few more areas, especially hair follicles, his eyebrows became feathery too, and his lashes as he winked. "Someday I will be able to become a bird and I won't even need more magic to fly." And that was the more elegant solution, he thought.

[Ethan]

Ethan sat there for a moment. somewhere between astonished and peeved. His idea of helping Hadrian fly seemed childish now. Even with his experience. His magic was much too weak to even attempt what Hadrian had just done. The power eminating from his aura was massive and sent shivers down Ethan's spine as he observed it. And now Hadrian had formed wing like structures from his arms. The two feelings fought it out for control but, astonishment took the lead. Ethan was never one to be made jealous by the skill of others. Not for long at least. "I'll still be able to out fly you no matter what." He said with a good natured laugh. "But you need a little more work on your feather placement." He grabbed Hadrian's arm. "See, you got the Primaries and Secondaries right." He pointed towards the bottom row of feathers. The ones closest to Hadrian being the Secondaries and the farthest being the Primaries. "But the feathers overlapping the Primaries. The Coverts, are all off. The Secondary Coverts need to be farther down. And the Primary Covers a bit farther up." He used his finger to show the lengths they needed to be at. "Ive been going to the library here and there. The Vantha have a wonderful series on the structure of bird wings. Here, take off your jacket and I can help you with your feathers." If Hadrian wanted any help. Ethan was eager to assist him. He knew too well how hard wings where to manage in human clothing.

[Hadrian]

"Probably," he said with a rueful grin. He wasn't sure there was magic he could work that would give him a lammergeier's instincts, unless he were to craft a Legacy charm from the skull of a lammergeier and get the enchantment just right. But when Ethan began to instruct him, he paid close attention, nodding occasionally and silently berating himself for making such mistakes. He had observed the layout of Ethan's various feathers when he was in his raptor form, and he knew all this that Ethan was saying, but apparently not well enough. More djed poured down his arms to mold the feathers' arrangement properly. The more often he got things exactly right, the easier it was to form a model that he could come to quickly. "I'll go look at those books, then," he promised. But, "I'm not going to take my coat off out here. It's cold as balls!" Then he laughed. "If you want to get me naked, let's go back home. We'll tell Kenny it's magical research if he asks." He let the djed and concentration go, and his arms returned to their natural state. Putting an arm around Ethan felt natural, as he had taken him under his wing, magically speaking. It was strange as there were few people he was comfortable touching: Kendall, Ethan, perhaps Caelum. The list grew, but very slowly. "Let's go." And he began to walk with Ethan back where they could do more work perfecting his morphing models.

[Ethan]

END

[Liar]

EXPERIENCE AWARD I'm helping out Cheshire while she's away. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me. :) Ethan Skill Points Reimancy 2 Unarmed combat 1 Auristics 1 Rhetoric 1 Lore Training in Ingenuity Suffocation via Aeromancy Respect for the Worthy Avian Anatomy Hadrian Skill Points Teaching 2 Reimancy 2 Shielding 1 Mathematics 1 Morphing 1 Lore Internal Shielding Advice to the Enthuiastic The Mechanics of Hovering Hovering via Aeromancy Notes I gave Ethan a point in Rhetoric for their theoretical discussions, but Hadrian's skill is too high to warrant it; the rest of the skills should be self-explanatory. Hadrian and Ethan play well off of each other, the excited and the reasonable. This short episode is a good balance between building skill points and glimpsing at their relationship. :) Good job.