Kick The Training Wheels

Kick The Training Wheels
Date of Scene:	21 December 2012
Location:	Traverse Town - District 2
Synopsis:	Aerith invites Synestria to Traverse Town's second district in order to demonstrate the results of her experimentation into the use of spirit energy. Of course, she's always looking for pointers, so she asks for advice and perhaps training in using magic without relying on materia...
Cast of Characters:	Synestria, Aerith

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Aerith has posed:
Aerith stood behind the church, the grass and dirt they'd kicked up during her last time here having been replaced, good as new. A new set of training targets was here now, and she'd set them up herself, something special planned for them. The flower girl waited for one specific person to join her so she could demonstrate what she'd been practicing besides just her staff work.

Synestria has posed:
Despite how large she is, Synestria can moce quite silently when she wanted to. However, after the problems in Manhattan, Synestria had been in hiding, mostly to avoid the Shadow Lords and anyone else that would consider her a monster. She peeked around a corner and looked around to make sure Aerith was alone before slinking around the building more formally. "Greetingssssss Aerith." She says as she coils herself up near the building.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded, able to hear the 'accent' as she called it in Synestria's voice. "So you're in your true form, huh?" She turned and smiled. "It suits you. You're quite beautiful when you're like this, you know." Ever the flatterer. "I invited you here because I wanted to show you something."

Synestria has posed:
Raising her eyebrows, Synestria leaned down on her elbows and tilted her head. "What wasssss it, I wonder?" She says softly, her tailtip wiggling in the dirt for a moment or two.

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and walked over toward the back wall of the chuch, placing her staff against it. She then stepped twelve feet away, twice the length of her staff. "You'll see I have a new weapon. It's longer and made of wood, which one would think would be inferior to the metal one I had before." She smiled. "But this isn't just any staff." She turned toward the staff, reached out her right hand, and her brows frowned in slight focus.

Moments later, the staff flashed a pale green for a moment before it snapped from the wall, blurred through the air, and ended up in the outstretched hand.

She glanced toward Synestria with a grin. "I did that with my metal rod too. This one though... this one's faster."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria looked towards the staff and tilts her head. "Interesting wood." She then flicks out her tongue for a moment. "Interesting smell as well. Not any normal wood." She then watches the staff fly back to Aerith's hand. "So it isssssss a different pieccccccce of wood, and it reactssss to magic a bit fasssster than your old rod. It sssssoundsssss like there'sssss a ssssstory to tell."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded. "This is a special kind of wood from the Targ Woods. There's a tree there that's older than anything else... Not even I can tell how old it is." She looked at the staff, six feet long and an inch-and-a-quarter thick. "The tree has a life of its own, a powerful spirit residing within, and it offered me this... carved from one of its branches." She wrapped the weapon over her right shoulder. "It doesn't have a real name, this kind of wood, so I gave it one. Spirit Wood."

Aerith lifted the staff and smashed it against the dirt, hard enough to make it break... and it bent instead, just at the first quarter. "It refuses to break." She shifted her grip on the staff and focused for just a brief moment before a flash of green traveled from one end to the other. "It channels energy like nothing I've ever seen."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria smiles a bit as she watched it all. "Sssssso you were given a branch from an elder tree." Synestria says with a brighter smile. "I would not brag about this fact. Keep it as one of your many ssssssecretsssss Aerith. Becaussssse, something like an elder tree might draw the wrong sssssort of attention." She then makes a bit of a face. "Essspecially if it can channel energy. Ssssssome people might try to ussssse it for larger weapons, and require more of thissssss tree..."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded. "Oh trust me, I'm keeping this to myself." She planted the back end of the staff on the ground. "But then when I discovered how easily I could focus energy into this..." She turned toward the targets. "I took what you taught me and thought about it quite a bit." She pointed her left hand toward one of them. "Why channel energy.... when I could just project it?" Aerith focused her will, and a small sphere of energy, the same color that she'd sent through the staff, appeared just two inches away from her hand. She gave it a little juice, and it grew to the size of a baseball. Then a bit bigger, then a bit bigger, until it was a good size and looked like it could knock someone over. She sent it flying... and it smashed the target apart.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria chuckles. "Because what I taught you was controlled applied force." She then chuckled a bit as the target went flying. "Very good, Aerith. But that's not completely meant to smash people apart. It also can be used for healing purposes as well."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded. "I have other means for that." She turned toward the second target... and the strike came faster this time, the shockwave of energy ramming into the dummy with the force of a car crash.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "You are doing quite well, Aerith." She says softly. "You can create a variety of effectsssss with that simple focussssssing technique I showed you, but there are othersssss. "One is during action, the other is when you're not in combat."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith turned toward Synestria, one brow lifted. "Really? Well I was going to ask you about that, so..." She headed for the wall of the church and leaned against it. "Let's hear it. I was wondering about that."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "One doesn't really have a name, other than meditation. The other one issss used as 'combat meditation'. Essssentially it maintains your awarenesssss to danger while you focus upon a spell. It isssss quite ussseful when you're facing someone like Rubicante."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith shrugged. "From the way you tell it, it's basically keeping your eyes open for anything outside of what you're doing, but I'm sure it's a lot more difficult." She pushed off from the wall. "It might coincide with what I can already do though... so teach me how to do it."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "it's a bit more difficult, Aerith." She says before shrugging. "Can you imagine hitting ssssomeone in the back while looking them in the eye?" She says softly. "Or hitting someone with a ssssspell while fighting someone elssssse?""

Aerith has posed:
Aerith blinked for a moment, trying to envision that. Then she shook her head. "I can see what the problem might be. The second one though would be handy." With a smile, she sat on the grass and peered up at the lamia. "Well then, teach me."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria coils herself up and sits upon her coils. "The first is simply meditation, Aerith. Sit down, and relax...."

Aerith has posed:
Oh she'd done that before. She had to if she wanted to cut those voices off when she was younger.

Now though... now she used them to tap into her inborn abilities further, to contact those voices. And so without pause, she folded her legs, closed her eyes, and took in a breath. She let it all the way out before starting her breathing pattern. Like an old hand, she settled herself and cleared her mind of distractions.

It may very well be impossible for Synestria to read minds, but she could sense... taste, perhaps... the changes that the Cetra underwent.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria smiles as Aerith does what she asks. "There are many ways to do thisssss. You can listen for other dangersssss. You can smell other dangersssss. You can let the wind tell you where they are. But when you find the danger..." She then hisses and a crack of lightning hits one of the sparring dummies. "You ssstrike."

Aerith has posed:
The barest nod of her head was her only response, and the crack of thunder certainly made her ears perk, but other than that she did not move, the calm she radiated almost impenetrable. After a few more moments, she opened her eyes with a sigh. "So basically it's doing this with your eyes open, spreading your senses to check for threats that you wouldn't normally be aware of."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "Yesss....but you can only go ssssso far with it. Unlessssss you literally have ssssomeone watching your back, it'sssss quite hard to go further than 30 yards with it."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith smiled. "That's a lot more than most can accomplish..." She stood, stretched her arms over her head. "So is it like, spreading yourself outward or something like that?" She didn't say that she'd been working on that. It was how she'd sparred against her friend blindfolded a few days ago...

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "Mmhmm. Much like that. it's pinpointing the target that's usually hard."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith gave another nod. "There's just so much going on... you have to assess the biggest threat first, and then find out what the second one is behind you, fast enough to react to it." She sighed. "I can see how this could be something difficult to learn, much less use."

Synestria has posed:
Synestria nods. "Exactly. It'sssss a lot for your mind to take in at once. Now, imagine that... coupled with the difficulty of using a gravity sssspell, a tornado spell, or worssssse... a COmet ssssspel."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith shook her head. "Okay so. It's not really something that can be taught, except by myself." If that even made sense. "Right?"

Synestria has posed:
Synestria nodnods. "And it takes a while. Even for me, I had to learn on my own. When you learn the meditation that I jussst taught you, I'll teach you the next one. And it'll be much harder." She says before stretching out. "I should go. Being in a ccccity with guardssssss makessss me a little nervoussssss."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and began to make her way around to the front of the chuch. "I'd say I have the first one pretty much in hand, but I suppose I could ask... what exactly do I have to learn about it?" She could use any advise Synestria could give.

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "How to quickly determine who is around you, whom is a threat, how big, and how to eliminate him quickly. Then you have to do it while moving, then with your eyes open, THEN You start attacking with spells at something from where you're not looking or where they aren't looking."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith nodded and stopped in front of the church. "Right, so the point is, do all that with your eyes open first, then all the rest." She tilted her head to the right. "Or am I getting it confused?"

Synestria has posed:
Synestria says, "CLosed first.....then eyes open. And it's a lot harder with your eyes open, especially when you get flashes of insight in the middle of battle." She then chuckles. "Give it a try, and Ill sssssseek you out again, Aerith. I can keep track of the your progressssss." She then winks, and starts to slither away."

Aerith has posed:
Aerith glanced toward Synestria as she moved away. "Keep track of me, huh? And how exactly can you do that?" She smiled and shook her head. No need to answer that, just train it and learn it. Fortunately for her, what she'd described was exactly what was going on at the moment. The whole eyes closed thing was what she'd already done... but then there was doing it with her eyes open. She had to admit, she'd never tried that before.

Oh well. First time for everything.

With that, she headed for the hotel to begin this new and interesting phase of what was becoming a very long journey.