Quenten Delacreaux (theblindmage) wrote in emillion, @ 2013-08-12 21:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !log, merrion priddy, quenten delacreaux |
Who: Merri and Quen
What: Walking & Talking
Where: Commoners Park
When: This afternoon
Rating: PG
Status: Complete~
With everything that had been going on in Emillion lately, Quen found herself grateful for the little things in her life. She had great friends, most of whom she’d just spent time with at the beach on Saturday. The weather was pleasant and sunny, with just enough breeze to break up the heat. She had been spending an inordinate amount of time studying, but she’d made some noticeable progress in the past few weeks; and it was for the very worthy cause of testing into her first class.
Today she was taking a break from all of that studying and once again getting out in the sunlight, this time with Merri. He’d been working hard the past few weeks as well, between council duties and the studying he still did, even as an experienced red mage. When Quen noticed how much studying mages still did long after their scholar years had ended, she knew she was in the right place. She couldn’t imagine not wanting to learn more about everything she possibly could, and everything she learned only led to more questions and more topics she wanted to research. It was all she could manage not to bring a book to the park. She knew Mer wouldn’t have minded if she had, but that wasn’t the point of this outing. The point was to put the work aside and spend time with someone she hadn’t seen enough of lately.
Merri hated how neglectful of his friends he had been the past couple of months. He was trying to make up for it at every possible opportunity, but it had been difficult between the attacks, fighting his own demons, learning the two new spells, and covering for Peony. Not that he minded covering for her, of course. She needed and deserved her vacation, and he had been the one to insist that she take it despite everything. But now that she was back, he could go back to trying to spend more time with the people he cared about, and today, he would spend time with Quen.
He was worried that this was cutting into the time she might rather be studying, but surely an hour or two would help more than hurt. After running a quick errand to the Lux and Livre, he darted for the park, hoping that he wasn’t late.
Quen was easy enough to spot. Merri grinned and slowed his pace to steady his breathing. “Quen, hi!” he said. “It’s good to see you!”
When Quen heard Merri’s voice, she was up like a shot, running toward him. She ran into him rather harder than she meant to, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him tightly. “Mer!” she exclaimed happily. “I’m so glad you came!” It wasn’t as though she’d expected him not to come, but between his council position and his new relationship and her own increasingly rigorous studies, time alone with him was rather scarce. She couldn’t have been sure something wouldn’t come up at the last minute to make their meeting impossible.
“So,” she said, settling herself at his side and linking her arm with his, “tell me about the most exciting project you’ve been working on lately.” She was content to let Merri lead the way and genuinely interested in what he’d been doing—she knew there would be something. There always was.
His smile was easy as they walked side by side along the trail. "My most exciting project? Well..." He paused to think. He certainly had quite a few projects going on, and all of them were exciting in their own right. Still, Merri decided to settle on something that he knew would likely interest Quen the most.
"I started learning a new spell," he said. "Two of them, actually! Protect and Shell. Guy and Cy and even Father Luscini are helping me with them."
“That’s great, Mer!” Quen exclaimed, squeezing his arm. “Guy and Cy and Father Luscini are all great, so I’m sure you’ll learn them in no time. And you’re really good at synergy, aren’t you?” She knew Merri had been a synergist at one point. It was no wonder that the other synergists in the guild were so willing to help him.
“I sort of figured out something of my own about Protect,” she admitted hesitantly. “When the fighters have Protect status on them and they get hit by a physical attack, I can sense it.” She shrugged. “I don’t know how that will help me in actual battle, but it’s something.” Obviously if they were fighting enemies, they wouldn’t want their enemies to have buffs; but being able to follow a battle even that much more made her feel a little bit better about her own abilities.
"I can think of a few ways it might help," he said. "You said you can sense magical signatures and you use them to aim, right? Well, maybe if you could sense where they were hit, it'll help you counter somehow, or figure out where the enemy is. Or you could sense if the enemy has Protect or Shell on it."
“I do think I could aim at an enemy who had some sort of positive status effect,” Quen agreed. “I don’t know if I could counter or use the hit to tell where the enemy is. I guess that would take more experimentation, and maybe even me being part of the battle. So far I’ve just been observing the Holy Knights spar at Hellwyrm Hall and taking notes on how much of the battle I can follow. When they start with Protect and Shell, it’s actually a lot.”
“That’s good to hear,” said Merri, grinning. “If you’re with people who know these spells and cast them immediately, I know you’ll do fine when you need to protect yourself. All it takes is practice, after all, and watch--observing Holy Knights, or others who are well-learned in these sorts of things, is a very good start. They don’t mind you watching them?”
“I haven’t really asked their permission,” Quen admitted, suddenly unsure of herself. “Do you think I should? Storm brought me there to show me what they do—because, you know, he wants to be a holy knight—and I just went back to the same place on my own after that. Is that okay? I don’t want to bother anyone.” Merri never asked her things like ’Why don’t you just stay in the tower and study your black magic?’ He never thought that these sorts of investigations were a waste of her time. It was one of the myriad reasons she liked him so much. Still, it worried her to think she might be committing some sort of faux pas against the knights who’d unwittingly taught her so much.
“It’s always safe to ask,” he said reassuringly. “I don’t think they’d mind if you’re just observing, either. Most fighters I’ve met have been really nice about that kind of thing!” Not that, of course, Merri had much experience with fighters aside from Drake, but the one fighter he dared to ask for a spar with had been exceptionally kind about the offer and agreed to it, though they had yet to share a bout themselves. “But it’s a good idea too, just so that they know that you’re there. Just in case something happens.”
“That’s a good point,” Quen agreed. “I don’t think I know any holy knights, though. Well, actually, Ric is a holy knight, isn’t he? Maybe he wouldn’t say no.” She didn’t sound completely convinced, but it was better than having no leads at all.
She smiled suddenly and squeezed Merri’s arm again. “This is why I love talking to you. You always have such good insight.” He wasn’t treating her like a child, either, which didn’t fail to catch her notice. He was talking to her like a fellow mage, worthy of the same respect as any other practitioner of their craft. That realization made her nearly as happy as every compliment she’d ever received combined.
Merri smiled at the compliment. “You could also ask your friend -- what was his name again, Storm? Maybe he could ask the holy knights for you,” Merri pointed out. He was curious as to how Quen knew Ric, and he didn’t know for himself if Ric was a holy knight or not since that hadn’t come up at Drake’s impromptu party, but connections in this city were a strange thing. “How are your studies going otherwise?”
“I suppose I could ask Storm,” Quen agreed, but she wasn’t sure if she should. She wasn’t able to articulate her misgivings, even to herself, but it had something to do with not wanting him to think she wanted things from him. She definitely wasn’t sure she wanted to go into that with Merri yet, though, so she launched into a discussion of her studies with enthusiasm.
She realized later that they’d ended up talking about work for the majority of their time together that afternoon; but maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing that they were so enthusiastic about the path they’d chosen. Not only that, but they had gotten out of the tower, had some fresh air and sunshine and exercise.
It was good, Quen decided; and if this was how her new adult friendship with Merri would be, she would take it.