Ryuuji Otogi (bybloodbound) wrote in bornintomagic, @ 2008-04-05 14:04:00 |
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Current mood: | accomplished |
Entry tags: | folken de fanel, ryuuji otogi |
let's cause a little chaos/ magic was meant to be misused
Who: Ryuuji Otogi, Folken de Fanel
What: Ryuuji shows off what he's learnt; Folken gloats.
When:Before April Fool's Day.
Where: Folken's classroom.
Rating: PG.
Complete: Yes!
With a wave of his wand, Folken lit the candles in his classroom, glancing at the clock. Ryuuji would there within the quarter of the hour to give his first demonstration and to hand in his first report for their extra-class arrangement. He was curious to see how Ryuuji went about the challenge to create small weather effects. Meteorological magic was a challenging area, but Folken had decided it was best to set the bar high and then make adjustments as necessary.
He had chosen to wear the cream-coloured wrap of fabric around his neck and down his left side over his clothing instead of his black cape with its high collar, and he re-wrapped the swatch of cloth as he waited for Ryuuji to arrive.
Meteorological magic wasn't something that Ryuuji had experimented with before so when Folken had suggested it, he'd eagerly agreed, then borrowed several texts from the library to check up on the details of what he should do. It wasn't a topic that he had anything on, after all.
Eventually, he'd managed to come up with two spells that pleased him. One created a storm cloud the size of his closed fist, the other a tiny tornado about the size of a 700ml bottle of water. To demonstrate them, he'd brought two tall crystal glasses, a bottle of champagne, a packet of strawberries and a packet of heavy cream.
It'd be more fun to show his spellwork off like that than just doing a boring demonstration!
Knocking on the door to the classroom, he adjusted the straps of the backpack a little, and waited to be told he could come in.
"Enter," said Folken. He walked over to his desk and sat up on its edge, waiting for Ryuuji to enter. He smiled slightly. If things turned out well, it would benefit not only Ryuuji but also any another current or future student with similar difficulties.
"Hello, Professor de Fanel!" Ryuuji leaned on the door to open it, entering it with a quick glance at the candles. Perfect. It was after dinner, so there wasn't any natural light coming in from the windows. That meant if he could get the little bolts of lightning to crackle from the mini-cloud, they'd look even more impressive.
Pulling the backpack over his shoulder, he set it down on the desk closest to the teacher's, giving Folken another grin over his shoulder, twisting around slightly to be able to watch him as he unpacked the props he'd chosen. "Thank you for agreeing to see me today."
He stepped to a side, gesturing at the two crystal champagne flutes, the crystal cut bowl that he'd poured the whipped cream into, the bottle of champagne and the plate of strawberries. Hopefully, Professor Folken wouldn't get all picky about Ryuuji being a year too young to drink champagne.
Dressed in black leather trousers and a sleeveless black tee with a cowl neckline, Ryuuji was slightly too warm under his robes. He wasn't sure if he could take the robes off since it was still at least partly a classroom setting, but he'd much rather prefer to not have to be in the heavy blue Beauxbatons robes. "I've created two spells -- one with three levels of intensity, one simple -- and want to use these to demonstrate them, if that's okay with you."
Folken crooked his eyebrow at the items on the desk but kept smiling. "That's perfectly fine," he said. "I'm curious to see what you've come up with. Meteorological magic is a really interesting area." Noting the champagne and the flutes he considered whether or not it would be appropriate to ask for the champagne afterwards, if there was any left. It would be a shame to waste wine.
Picking up a quill and a piece of parchment attached to a clipboard, he motioned to Ryuuji "Whenever you're ready, go right ahead."
"Right. Right." Ryuuji kicked at the floor with one booted foot, the first sign of nerves that he'd shown so far. Holding his wand in his left hand, loosely curling his middle finger over the backs of his index and fourth finger, he placed the fingers of his right hand against the palm of his left hand.
"First," He announced as he stepped to the side to make sure that he wouldn't block the sight, "I'm going to create a rain cloud. Then the rain will be upgraded to hail, then to snow. The water will be pure enough to drink."
There. He'd declared his intentions. Now there was no backing down.
Taking a deep breath, he turned his attention to the champagne flutes. He'd used a mix of Latin and Japanese to work out the spells and instead of just using the wand, he'd added in hand seals. "Imbris pluvialis ame kouu. "
At the same time, his fingers moved over his palm, sketching out the kanji associated with the words to draw the oxygen and hydrogen from the air itself then chill the air in the selected area to cause the water to bind together and form a tiny black storm cloud.
"Depluit." The last word was said more softly, Ryuuji's eyes focused on the gathering cloud over the first of the glasses. It was small still, barely the size of a deck of cards but then the cloud fluffed itself up, expanding rapidly to be the size of his fist. Slowly at first, a drizzle started up but soon it became a full-fledged storm with the tiniest, most adorable little crackle of lightning striking into the center of the glass. The rain water started to pool in the bottom of the flute, filling it up about halfway before Ryuuji made a gesture with his wand that had the cloud drifting over to start filling up the second glass.
Voice a little tense, betraying the effort it took him to keep the spell under control, he explained, "It's easier to move the cloud than create a new one. Less draining on my energy. Sorry about the mess the excess rain makes, I'll clean it up once I'm done."
Folken watched the weather display intently, writing down notes on the parchment. "Of course," he remarked, watching the cloud move from one glass to the other. "Did you have any particular difficulties with creating the spells?" It was always useful to know the process, especially when the spell created was successful. "And also, did you make note of the progression of the spell?"
Inside his back, Folken's wings fluttered, as the tended to do when he became enthused about something. His smile broadened. His instincts had been correct. Ryuuji was an exceptional student indeed.
"I actually had a lot of problems getting the middle steps. I could figure out how to draw water out of the air, but not how to cluster it into a cloud. It took me a bit to think of just chilling the air within a selected area, and then I had to figure out how to restrict the actual area of the spell's effects. After that, it was just a matter of increasing the level of cold in the air to change the rain to --"
A pause, and Ryuuji murmured the words for the spell discreetly under his breath to make it seem better, fingers again drawing kanji out on his palm, "--hail."
Little chips of ice started to fall into the glass. "There. Ice-cubes. And, um, apart from that, I couldn't figure out how to get the wand to make all the delicate gestures necessary for the transformations. So that's why I resorted to using traditional Japanese methods instead since those rely more on gestures and ritual finger motions, which give me more leeway to work with."
Another deep breath, Ryuuji making the cloud float to the first glass once more and speaking the mingled Latin-Japanese words that summoned the final stage of snow, "And yes, I took notes of how I worked and the problems I encountered as well as how I solved them or worked around them. I encorporated that into the 'method' section of my lab report."
Folken had tried to compromise with Ryuuji and find a teaching pattern that worked for Ryuuji. Ryuuji appreciated that enough to be willing to put in effort of his own to show Folken that his attempts to compensate for Ryuuji's fidgetiness weren't wasted.
"Excellent. I look forward to reading your lab report." Folken watched the cloud move through the different weather effects. "Those notes might prove useful in the future, if you find yourself encountering similar problems with creating another spell. Having written down a previous solution can sometimes save you weeks, if not months, of time and effort."
Making another notation, he paused his quill. "And don't be concerned about opting for traditional Japanese methods of casting. There's no need for you to limit yourself to the European magical perspective. Find what works for you best and use it."
"Thanks." Ryuuji looked up for a second to flash Folken a quick grin at being told that he didn't have to stick to the European styles that were being
taught in class. He honestly prefered having the magic work through his hands; it felt more natural that way, easier to control. A wand needed flicking, and it was more difficult to control the movements of a stick of wood than of your own fingers.
Maybe that was why Ryuuji never really understood why people in Beauxbatons learned wandless magic last as some sort of difficult feat. Wandless magic was the easier one to him -- but the caveat was that he did use his hands. The wandless magic students learned in the higher classes seemed to be based on nothing but will, whereas when Ryuuji resorted to the traditional Japanese style, he still could use his fingers to shape his will into a spell-form.
Letting the spell die, the cloud dissipating back into, the atmosphere, Ryuuji exhaled slowly, then inhaled again, eyes closing for a moment as he centered himself.
He placed the wand down, then tugged at the collar to his robes, uncomfortable in the many layers. "Would it be okay if I got rid of this? We're after school hours anyway, and working weather magic makes my skin heat up for some reason."
"Go ahead," said Folken. It might not have been proper form for him to permit a student to not wear the school robes, but Ryuuji did have a point that it was after class hours. "I'd much rather you were comfortable, since not being so might impact your practical."
"Great." Ryuuji leaned forwards, grabbing the robes by the collar and pulling upwards. He tugged them off over his head, brushing the ponytail to flick over his head, and then tossed it away on a free bench. Under it, the loose black cowl-neckline of the sleeveless tee hid his throat but kept his arms bare; true to his word, a flush of heat pinked his skin slightly, making the golden hue a little more cinnamon-shaded.
He stuffed a hand into a pockets for a moment, then reached for one of the champagne flutes. He poured the liquid from it into the other, then sipped at it. "Next trick involves turning heavy cream into whipped cream. How sweet do you like your whipped cream, sir?"
"Somewhere in the middle, I suppose," Folken answered. "Not too sweet but not plain - if that makes any sense at all." He offered a slightly sheepish smile by way of apology. "Wait . . .you're going to make whipped cream with a metereorological spell?"
Curiosity and amusement coloured his voice. To have a student decide to use magic in ways most people wouldn't necessarily think of was particularly exciting to Folken. Successful spellcrafting of the kind of magic which helped to shape and change the world required that kind of free thought a creativity.
"I'm a fifteen-year-old boy. I don't have much use for meteorological magic, so I figured out a way to make the spell relevant to my life and more interesting to work with." Ryuuji responded with a wicked grin, opening the paper container of heavy cream and pouring it into the bowl. The pale color of it was dusted with a little powdered sugar on the top, just for style.
Picking up his wand again, Ryuuji placed his index and middle finger against his palm again, flicking his wand in a loose circle. "Tubo ventrus redimus tatsumaki."
The words were carefully pronounced, Ryuuji continuing to twirl the wand in a spiraling motion as he tapped his fingers against his palm to start up the small tornado inside the heavy cream. He knew better than to plunge the tornado directly into the cream, since that would result in it splattering all over the wallls. Starting it up inside was much tidier, and it meant that Professor Folken could have the advantage of seeing how beautifully the tornado made the cream whirl up in scallops on the sides.
Pushing himself away from his desk, Folken approached the tiny tonado and watched as it began to whip the heavy cream. "That's the whole point of it," he said. "It's only by making magic relevant to your own life that it becomes something more than just a necessary, and sometimes tedious, tool. What matters most is taking the principles from something that isn't particularly useful to you and seeing if you can reapply them to some other situation."
He jotted some more notes on his clipboard, then slipped the quill into the holder at its top. He was relieved to see that his initial instincts with respect to Ryuuji had been correct and that giving him more freedom to work in academically was the best choice.
His success with the weather spell challenge promised great things to come in future assignments.
The cream frothed into white bubbles, then peaked into stiff puffs. Carefully, concentration completely on juggling the two spells, Ryuuji levitated the packet of powdered sugar and had it pour into the cream. Just enough to make it mid-level sweet, like Folken liked.
Letting the tornado remain, he asked, "What would you have used it for? I've tried washing my hair under the rain spell, apart from just using it to make myself drinks."
Keeping his eyes on the cream, he killed the weather spell and heaved a sigh of relief. The heat under his skin remained, a side-effect of having cast so many cold spells, but there was clear triumph brightening Ryuuji's eyes as he pushed the bowl towards Folken. "Strawberries and cream, Professor?"
He opened the bottle of champagne deftly and poured out the pale golden liquid into the two flutes, "There's champagne as well. Perfect for a celebration of spells gone right, right?"
"As long as we keep this to ourselves, it would be fine," said Folken. "It probably wouldn't be a good idea to mention it to anyone else, though. And yes, you should celebrate. Those are two impressive bits of spell creation - something you have every reason to feel very proud about. They're a great starting point."
Gently, Folken took a hold of one of the champagne flutes in his prosthetic hand, the metal tinking against the side of the flute.
"I promise not to tell anyone if you don't." Ryuuji crossed over his heart with his fingers and then snapped his fingers together as a way of sealing the promise. His wand was tucked away out of sight again, Ryuuji's slender fingers curled around the stem of one of the flutes.
The clinking noise made him look down at the glass out of mild concern -- no, it wasn't him. He glanced at the other glass, pausing for a moment at the sight of the prosthetic hand. It wasn't that he hadn't seen it before, since he'd been in Professor Folken's class all year, but he usually wasn't quite this close to it.
He held out his glass to clink it against Folken's, smile a mischevious curve of red, "A toast, then? To unorthodox teaching methods and their success."
Folken returned Ryuuji's smile. "To unorthodox teaching methods and their success," he repeated, raising the flute to his lips and sipping the champagne. "Where did you manage to get a bottle of champagne? I can't recall ever having it during meals here. Then again, sometimes my mind is so engaged with things that I don't really pay a whole lot of attention to food and drink."
Ryuuji took a sip of his champagne as well, the curve of his mouth a little impish, "I picked up the champagne last time I left the school for the weekend. I wasn't sure why, but I knew that eventually, something good enough would happen to be worth celebrating!"
Children in France often had a tablespoon of wine added to their water for health reasons by the time they reached the age of seven, so it wasn't as if drinking in moderation was entirely new to Ryuuji. Champagne was a little different from wine, though. More festive, more expensive, and a better accompaniment for the lush red strawberries and the beautifully decadent cream.
"I don't think we get actual alcohol with our meals. Not even something as mild as champagne." Ryuuji speculated, trying to think back. "Spiced rum for the seventh years during Yule, maybe, but that's about it."
"The Faculty can have wine with dinner, that much I remember," said Folken mildly, "but champagne is special, not like ordinary wine, so that's why I can't recall ever having it before during meals here. Though it's certainly part of the festive season parties before we take the Yuletide break." He took another sip, making a mental promise to himself not to finish the whole flute.
As harmless as this way, all it would take is for the wrong person to find out that he'd had alcohol with one of the students - particularly a male student- and he'd find himself in a great deal of trouble.
"Ordinary wine's okay. I'm not that much of a drinker, though. But champagne's pretty mild." Ryuuji explained, taking up one of the strawberries by the green stem and dipping it into the whipped cream. He darted his tongue out to lick at the cream first, just to see how much sugar he had mixed into it.
Perfect. Mid-level sweet, not so sugary that it drowned out the natural smooth richness of the cream but sweetened enough to make him smile instinctively. He bit into the strawberry, then took a sip of the champagne, laughing at the way the bubbles prickled at his tongue and how the cream soothed the prickling. "Perfect! Now you try one, sir."
Ryuuji nudged the bowl a little closer to Folken, head tilted to a side as he waited, "Tell me if I managed to get the balance of sugar and cream that you wanted."
With a dexterity that shouldn't have been possible with his prosthetic hand, Folken plucked one of the strawberries from the bowl and dipped it in the cream, careful not to crush the fruit between the metal finger and thumb. He tasted it, smiling a little. "It's perfect," he said. "And a perfect accompaniment to champagne."
"I'm glad you like it." Folken's smile made Ryuuji smile in return, the response purely instinctive and unstudied for a change. Ryuuji knew very well that his father had instilled a desire to please in him; it was one of the reasons that he fought so hard against authority figures in general. He didn't want to be manipulated by them, or finding himself in a situation where he was trying to please a second male authority figure.
One was enough.
Folken seemed harmless though. Even with the metal hand.
Drinking down more of the champagne, Ryuuji refilled his flute, watching the little bubbles in the liquid sparkle under the candlelight. Looking from them to Folken, he asked a little unsurely, "What happened to your hand? If it's okay to ask, that is."
"A dragon ripped my arm out at the shoulder," said Folken. He could talk about it without hesitation, now that ten years had passed since the incident, but it still brought back the memories of desperate fear, pain, and acceptance of the death which was thwarted by Isaac's timely arrival. He raised the prosthetic slightly and looked at its palm and the intricate, articulated clawed fingers.
"Isaac saved me that day and designed the prosthesis which replaced my arm. Though I think it's very . . . ominous."
The mention of the dragon made Ryuuji flush for a moment. It wasn't guilt, per se. After all, it wasn't as if he'd been the dragon responsible for it. But it was same sort of thinking that made Ryuuji refuse to wear standard dragonhide gloves for class and instead use his own gloves.
The corners of his mouth turned down a little, "I'm sorry to hear about that."
He wasn't exactly sure what else he could say, so rested his own left arm on the counter, reaching up to touch the back of the metal hand, "If it helps, I think that it looks kind of cool. Very..."
Ryuuji searched for the right word, grinning when it came to him, "--cyborg-android-ish."
Folken chuckled. "Yes, I suppose it does," he agreed. When he'd first looked at the arm after it had been attached to his body, it had frightened him. "Isaac said he wanted it to be reminiscent of a dragon's claws, so that I would always remember that I had stood my ground against one."
Isaac had also said that he'd modelled it after a dragon since 'Draconian'implied a connection to dragons, but Ryuuji didn't need to know that.
Glancing at the clock, Folken frowned. "I'm sorry, Ryuuji, but I need to meet with the Headmistress about something." He placed the champagne flute on the desk. "I'll have your report graded by the end of the week. Stop by my office Monday and I'll assign you your next challenge."
"Oh." Momentarily disappointed, Ryuuji shrugged it off and pushed the strawberries towards Foken, "Do you want to take some with you? Or should I just finish munching on them and then leave?"
It was a nice set-up, after all. Candles, champagne, strawberries and cream -- it seemed like a shame to waste it.
Realizing he had yet to give over the lab report, Ryuuji pulled his backpack onto his lap and dug around in it for a moment, tugging out the black-covered book that he'd used as a journal. A red bookmark stuck out of the top. "Here. I used a book instead of a scroll because I had to take a lot of notes and it seemed easier to organize it this way. The bookmark shows where the formal lab report begins; everything else before that is just notes."
Folken took the book in hand. "You can finish them or offer them to someone else. Thanks, though." Not wanting to be late, he headed towards the door. "Have a good evening, Ryuuji. I'll see you Monday."
He strode from the classroom, unaware that one of his large, black wingfeathers had stuck to his robe and dropped to the floor behind him.
Ryuuji shrugged and decided that if he was going to be left alone, he might as well finish the strawberries and cream on his own. It was a nice setting, after all.
Taking his time, he lingered over the snack, enjoying the warmth of the room and the quiet. When he was done, he used a quick Cleaning Charm on the bowls and utensils, then packed them into his satchel once more. The bottle of champagne was closed up, and Ryuuji chose to leave it on Professor Folken's desk instead of taking it with him. It'd be more appreciated by the Professor, most likely.
That done, he pulled on the school robes again and made his way to the door. On his way out, he caught sight of a black, gleaming feather on the floor. It looked large enough to create a quill from, and it glistened in a way that no crow or raven feather could. Deciding to keep it for himself, Ryuuji stooped to pick it up and placed it in a pocket of his robes.
He extinguished the candles as he left, unaware of the trouble that the acquisition of the feather would cause...