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by Aidara on May 5th, 2011, 12:45 am
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by Vala on May 5th, 2011, 3:28 am
Vala looked up from her work. It was a very elaborate thank you card from one Avora to another – something about an 'amazing' night. Vala chose not to ask any further, nor try to decipher the not so cryptic innuendo. She wiped the quill nib against a towel before putting it down to the side of the stall counter to better examine the pretty lady that didn’t look too much older than her. Vala gave her an 8 out of 10; she had yet to find a perfect 10. From her bearing and fashionable dress Vala assumed her to be an Avora, one that could pay for her wares and service; Vala bumped her up to a 9. Vala’s eyes continued to quickly scan, making sure not to linger for anymore than a moment, as not to seem too invading. She especially noticed the lady’s supple skin, obviously cared for far better than her overworked chiet’s flesh, and she especially noticed the lady’s sharp green eyes. They told Vala that the lady was not one to be easily manipulated – Vala would have to be conscientious of what she said. She chose to start off with a compliment herself, since the lady had been so generous with hers. “I’m sure your handwriting is beautiful, without any unnecessary flourishes. And I’m sure none of my work could ever match your radiant prettiness, ma’am.” Vala’s honeyed words, were not lies as much as they were business orientedly enhanced. As Vala spoke she pulled out the still fairly thin portfolio of examples of cards, invitations, and poems she had written before. The leather casing was new and shone with oiled luster. It was not Vala’s, well, not yet. She had yet to fully earn it from Warden. She still owed him at least four more copied books before he officially ‘gave’ it to her. Vala had a lurking suspicion she was getting gypped by the old man sometimes, it was just hard to resist accepting his terms when he did his cutesy grandfather wink. Pushing aside the drying work, which needed maybe just a patterned border before it was really finished, Vala untied her folio and spread out her work. “I don’t have many examples yet, I’ve just started you see, but is there anything here you like? I write all manners of cards, invitations, business letters, flyers, announcements, almost anything. It doesn’t have to be in a calligraphic font either, if you just need a bunch of letters written up for a business I can get those written up in a matter of a day. Costs are all dependent on the supplies you choose. We have a selection of parchment, vellum, and even paper made from the mushrooms from our very own underground forest. A few of them are even scented, if you’re interested in a… more romantic gesture.” Vala winked, blushing. “We also have a rainbow of ink colors you can choose from. Unfortunately I have yet to order any silver or gold ink, I might have a stock in twenty days or so.” Though she probably wouldn’t make enough extra money to buy them from Warden for at least another season (and she definitely wasn’t going to be borrowing any more materials at the steep prices, er slave labor he demanded). Vala wasn’t really interested in new stuff, but she mentioned it anyway. “If you are not interested in a straight Pinion trade, I’m open to certain trades.” Clearing her throat, Vala took a deep breath. She was sure she had spoken a little too fast, probably slurring her words a bit. It was a little nerve wrecking trying to run a stall by herself. It wasn’t at all like working in the library where she always had Kirna to look to – she was on her own here. Warden was far too busy dealing with his onslaught of his own customers to bother with his semi-apprentice. Vala bit her lip, trying to gauge her potential customer. She didn’t seem too interested in buying any of her actually wares, but Vala really didn’t want to lose her now that she was there. The lady had mentioned something about wanting to write calligraphically. Vala had never thought about trying to train anyone before. She had learned everything by herself, mostly through experiment and straight up perseverance. That and the better copying jobs usually went to those who knew a bit of the pretentious art. Too selfish and impatient to really be considered a good teacher, Vala wondered if she was really up to the challenge. She wanted pinions for a more supplies, but did she want it that bad? The answer: Yes. “Or would you rather like to learn? I have some simple learning exercises I can do with you here, or if you would like I can draw up some lessons that you can do on your own time… for a price.” Vala smiled nervously. Suddenly remembering the old saying – Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you’re out of a fishing job. |
by Aidara on May 10th, 2011, 12:17 am
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by Vala on May 17th, 2011, 9:24 pm
Vala sucked in her breath, gathering her wits. By the hour would be the most profitable if Aidara was slow to learn, patient enough to stick to the lesson and rich enough not to care. By the lesson would force Vala to come up with something to actually teach and then put a fair price to it. Then there was the lump sum - Vala just ignored that since she was still really green to the whole business thing and had not idea how to set that up. Now the decision was: Less work, less money vs. More work, more money Evaluating her energy level, Vala deemed it high enough to be tolerable, as in she was tolerable to work with. Preferring quick interactions, anything that prevented having to get into that awkward state of a conversation where she might actually start caring about the other person, Vala was unsure of how she would fare teaching. Being a student was one thing, you could feign extreme engagement in the work and the teacher would more or less leave you the bloody petch alone to do what needs to be done, but if she was to be a teacher she would actually have to engage Aidara, instead of the other way around. Lets see - short tempered, self centered, and usually disorganized - yep, the perfect traits to make the worst teacher that ever lived. Thinking about the extreme incompatibility of her traits with the job at hand began to rile Vala up. She even began to mentally argue with a confusing lack of opposition. Bad teacher? I’ll show them! I can do anything. And I’ll probably do a better job than the semi-incompetent teachers of the Yasiry... .I’ll show them. If anyone was paying even the slightest bit of attention they probably would have been unnerved by the crafty gleam in the bright baby blues of Vala’s eyes. Now back to the original question of payment. Vala wasn’t one to volunteer extra work when she had nothing to gain, but seeing as money was at stake, Vala definitely wasn’t one to do anything half-assed. The obvious answer was then made clear - pay by the Lesson. It was the fairest way to exact payment, and judging by Aidara’s countenance, she seemed like one to pick up on something fast (a.k.a less work in the long run) Sifting through her folio, Vala pulled out a worn sheet of parchment. It was so worn down that the corners where Vala liked to hold it were thinning to the point of transparency. She pulled out another two just as worn as the first and splayed them out onto the counter, pushing the other work back into the leather case. Holding up her hand, a silent gesture to Aidara that she would be right back, Vala walked over to Warden’s booth. The old man was busy cajoling a poor reimancy student into buying an overpriced volume. Using as much sneaking skill as she could muster, Vala plucked one of the two unused stools behind the Written Word’s booth, right behind the old man’s back. Waddling back to her booth with her prize, Vala set it down two feet from hers, basically the other end, the left of the cramped stall. “You can sit right here,” Vala said a little out of breath. She sat back down on her own stool, trying to settle back down. “So these,” she said, pointing to the three sheets of parchment. “are my copied master sheets. Nari actually doesn’t have than many types of traditional fonts, well compared to Common that is. These three are the most commonly found. Just a little fact that Warden actually told me, these fonts actually go back all the way to the Valterrian.” Vala beamed, proud to share her informed trivia. “Anyway, as to the lesson. I’m thinking we could start with something that I actually used to get into the hang of the font, which is writing the characters of your name. You can pick whichever font you want, I’m comfortable with all of them.” She didn’t mention that was because the last two were basically the same font with just varied serifs and what not. “Oh and here, you can pick from these styluses... hold on.” Vala blushed, running back to Warden’s stall. She was met with a gruff old man. “Did you take my stool?” It was obvious; Vala wondered why he even asked. There was no point in lying. “Yeah.” Warden smiled at her childish honesty. “And let me guess. You’re back to take more of my stuff?” Vala pouted. “I’m not taking. I’m borrowing!” Warden chuckled. He leaned to the right to get a better look at Aidara, before turning back to Vala. “So you’re teaching now.” He said more as a fact instead of a question. “The student tools are below the books on glassblowing. You know where. Just make sure to put them back where you found them. And don’t forget, you still owe me copied books.” He chuckled again before turning back to another customer. Puffing out her cheeks, Vala flushed a little. It was annoying to be treated like a Yasi. Instead of letting herself get further worked up, which she really wanted to, Vala just grabbed what she needed and walked back - she had no intention of losing her first student by keeping them waiting. The redness had faded to a duller rose, just on her cheeks. “Sorry about that. Anyway...” Vala dumped a handful of styluses on the counter and handed Aidara a beaten up tablet. The hallowed center of the gray stone tablet was filled with semi soft clay. “You can also pick any of the styluses here to write with. I would suggest the wooden one there, the one with the thicker nib. It’s lighter than the stone ones, and a load better and easier to handle. Oh sorry, let me explain. I know you already know how to write but calligraphy is all about perfection. Starting out with ink and paper is going to be super frustrating - trust me. With these practice clay tablets you can actually erase any mistakes just by smooshing it a bit with your fingers. Go ahead, try it out. It’s super fun.” Vala smiled, feeling a little more comfortable in Aidara’s presence. Actually surprised that the teaching thing was going so well so far. “The feel is different, but its easier to adjust to the feel of the nibs on different surfaces versus getting the hang of letters. So I’ll give you a minute to decide which and what you want.” Vala swung her legs back and forth, a little impatient to start. She stared at Aidara, a little too pressingly, almost like a needy baby. Vala was so engrossed in teaching that it completely slipped her mind to determine payment - not unusual for the occasionally absent minded twit. Font Types :
I have no idea what Nari looks like, but I personally think, judging from the culture and available surfaces (stone, clay, glass, and not much wood/paper) , that hey would have something similar to what they had in Mesopotamia. I kind of cuneiform/syllabary thing.
But since I don’t exactly have the time to help develop that yet, lets just assume that everything is Roman Lettering with an alphabet - for the sake of teaching calligraphy. Here are the fonts that Aidara can choose from. 1. Thin flowy script. Think Italian Handwriting fonts. Letter weight is airy - more space between the letters and words. More curls and longer lines. Clean yet almost windy in appearance. Hardest to keep uniform, yet fastest to do letter wise. Strokes are fast. Very little pressure needed. (medium) 2. Thick, almost blocky letters. Very thick and heavy. Requires a steady hand and concentration. Strokes are slow and deliberate. Also requires more pressure. Straight forward and clear to read. Think gothic fonts. (easiest) 3. Almost exactly like the second but a lot more frills. Lots of those annoying extra little lines and spikes at the end. Makes it harder to read, but more fun to look at. Also takes twice as much time to do as the second, four times as long as the first. Think super gothic. (hardest) OOC :
I would have written this up sooner, but I totally forgot to bookmark it and it just got lost. Sorry if everything is a little too technical or if you need more descriptions to draw from, just give me a nudge.
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by Aidara on June 4th, 2011, 8:27 pm
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by Vala on June 6th, 2011, 3:18 am
It wasn’t that Vala lacked the potential to be a good teacher - far from it. She had all the necessary skill and dedication to start showing others the basics of calligraphy: she was extremely book learned though she may have lacked practical experience. No, the one thing that made Vala the worst possible teacher was her impatience. Vala had a constant need for something to be happening... always. She didn’t mind boring work as long as it kept her occupied. Once she was left alone to the emptiness of her mind she would start to lose it. Even meditation was a good time filler, but unfortunately, her lack of skill still held her back from practicing the art in any environment other than that of complete and utter silence with a comfortable space for her to sit or lean. It was a lucky break for both Aidara and Vala that the new Endal was quick enough to keep up with the attention deficient girl, and her near incoherent stream of instructions. “Oh shush.” Vala said rudely, quite out of her station. Another one of Vala’s issues, was when she started to work, like really work, she had a tendency to lose herself, forgetting about other people, and most especially their feelings. “Don’t worry, stop saying your bad. Just show me what you’ve got and I’ll correct you from there.” Vala pulled the master scroll for the thin font Aidara had chosen, to sit between them. “I’m guessing you use these characters,” Vala began pointing to the Ai, D, A, R, figures on the scroll. “,to spell your name...” She continued once Aidara agreed or corrected her. “The first character of your name only has four strokes, not so bad. They don’t even require that much dexterity. Here I’ll do each stroke individually to make it even easier.” Vala made the first stroke on her clay tablet with an extra stone stylus. It was a quick flip of the wrist, straight and true. “The next line is nearly perpendicular. Nearly, but not quite. Like this.” Vala drew the first stroke again, right next to the other one, but this time she continued with the second perpendicular line. Vala was just about to explain the next stroke when she forced herself to pause, biting her lip nervously. “Actually, so I don’t get too far ahead, why don’t you show me what you’ve got now. First the downward stroke, next then the perpendicular one. Remember the second stroke is slightly angled up, diagonally, to the corner of the page.” Vala watched as Aidara tried drawing both strokes in succession across her page. Before Aidara could get to ten of them, Vala held up her hand, shaking her head. “Wait, wait.” The insensitive twit didn’t even bother keeping the hint of disappointment out of her voice. “Why don’t you just try the first stroke thirty times... and uh... then we’ll try to put the strokes together, eh?” Vala hesitated as she spoke, ripped from the work trance she had sunk into, by a gruff cough that conveniently emanated from Warden’s booth. Vala puffed up her cheeks, forcing herself to release her breath slowly. Then drawing on all her acting skill, Vala tried to pretend like she wasn’t getting impatient at all, by altering her voice and relaxing her tensing facial muscles. She was still probably quite transparant, but she hoped Aidara was still too focused on her own work to bother looking up at Vala’s crazed eyes. She may have been able to force her lips into a delightful curve, but she still wasn’t skilled enough to stop her eyes from dilating in anxiety. She wasn’t angry or annoyed at Aidara, far from it - Vala just wanted her to be perfect. |
by Aidara on June 9th, 2011, 5:15 am
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by Vala on June 20th, 2011, 6:07 am
She wasn’t genuinely worried or angry, she didn’t really feel anything, but her mind was still anxiously whirring away at a hundred miles a chime. Vala stood from her stool, only to stand annoyingly behind Addy’s shoulder, just looming and basically blocking the light. Thankfully the pupil was still too new and working on too simple a project to really notice the lack of the ever important light, something every scribe learned to cherish. Cringing at every wayward stroke, Vala bit her inner cheek. The glint of a passing Endal’s talon sword brought her swiftly back to the world of Wind Reach – the caste dominated, xenophobic, red headed culture that was her home. Vala knew she had already pushed, too far for her own good, it was a miracle she had yet to be beaten down for her impertinent tongue. The coppery taste of her own blood flooded her mouth, filling it with delicious warmth. The taste of blood never changed – it was at least one constant in her life. Vala’s right eye twitched as Addy presented her the finished the clay tablet. It took every scrap of will power to not point out every wobbly line and miss angled stroke that she saw. The color drained from her face, giving her winning smile a strained look that matched how she felt. Somehow when anything was connected to work Vala always felt it was harder to put on an act, even when it meant her own skin. She had seen Warren teach before. She never lingered. There wasn’t much to watch. It was boring watching others fail and flounder pathetically, always asking their insistent questions but never really listening to the answers. Vala was always the opposite – never asking questions when she was taught, preferring to learn things on her own. Flexing her right hand into a claw then back into a tight fist, Vala distracted herself physically as she convinced herself that Addy was doing great (she really was) and that there was no need to be overly critical. It was painful for her. She would have much preferred a well placed sucker punch to the gut, but she pushed through. “It looks perfect!” Vala lied through her teeth. If Addy wasn’t paying attention she might not have caught the false twang – Vala realized she should be working on her acting skills if she really wanted to get into teaching. “Why don’t we start on the rest of the strokes of the character? Now that your wrist is all warmed up I’m sure it will all be a breeze.” Vala kept going, the rest wasn’t as much lies as it was exuberant cheerleading. “Here I’ll show you step by step.” Vala began the rest of the steps for the character Ai. Once she had done it several times for Aidara, Vala smudged out her own tablet and gave that to her. As Aidara worked, Vala smudged out the full tablet with her thumb, getting everything ready so Addy wouldn’t have to wait for prep work… but mostly so Vala wouldn’t have to wait with her anxious thoughts so obsessed with perfection. As the chimes progressed, Vala showed Aidara the next character – D. As she was her second tablet in, with all the strokes memorized, just the execution to work on, Vala asked, halting Aidara mid stroke “How’s everything going so far? Too fast? Too slow?” The ‘self-aware’ questionnaire only made possible by Warren’s less then subtle mouthing and ham gestures. And with all of Vala’s insistence of nonstop repetition, Addy’s hand was no doubt getting quite fatigued. If she didn’t stop soon, there would be a serious risk of cramping that could last until the next day. Vala didn’t bring it up not because she was cruel, but because it had been so long since she had cramped from such a short time she had forgotten that newbies didn’t have the stamina as she and Warren did. Only Addy would be able to speak up to her own hand’s defense. |
by Aidara on September 14th, 2011, 12:50 am
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by Indigo on October 13th, 2011, 5:02 pm
Character: Aidara Skills: +1 subterfuge, +2 Observation, +2 Calligraphy Lore: Using OCD to your advantage, Being an eager student, I'm a lefty! Too magnanimous for rank pulling, Practice makes perfect, Fair payment Character: Vala Skills: +1 Calligraphy, +2 Teaching, +1 Subterfuge Lore: Butt-kissing business style, It's not stealing: it's borrowing! Teaching before money, Book learning isn't experience, Overstepping your Chiet caste Notes: Your rp is quirky as always. I enjoy the see saw balance between perfection/OCD and her innate kindness despite rank! If you have any questions or comments about your grade, please don't hesitate to PM me. |
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