Lore of Leyuna RPG (FRPG)

[Hopeflower]

There were days when Firel was certain he was on the right path, that he would one day make a difference in the lives of people like his mother. He'd be able to spare families the pain of watching their loved ones fade into a shell of themselves - be able to say that something he'd done had been worth leaving home for.

This was one of the days when he was questioning all of that.

Dahnae's mind was almost alien, a shock to his senses every time his control slipped and the shapeshifter got through to his mind. It was a whirlwind of impressions, scents, sounds, memories - he couldn't have made sense of it even if he'd tried. He simply gritted his teeth and pushed back, closing himself off again, and hoped she hadn't picked up on anything important.

They might have been - almost friends? He wasn't sure where they stood, with his attempts to be kinder to her being met with her apparently taking that as permission to get cuddly - but that didn't mean he wanted her in his head.

Through his and the struggles of the rest of the class, Viho observed - and tried not to stick anything else in the ceiling. When they began to tire, he would call the lesson and give them time to rest before their lunch break. There was no need for them to exhaust themselves, after all.

[C S]

Syria's descent was more truncated, slowing to a hover just over the spiraling Septimus. She then pulled back on the staff, tilting it backwards and willing it to drop its altitude in time with the Scholar, staying in the center of his glide until his talons touched down and he began to trot off the rest of his momentum. The mage, meanwhile, angled herself forward and held her heels out to gently land on savannah.


Dahnae was the first to flag. After the novelty of reaching out with her mind for the first practical time wore off, Firel's valiant shoving had him cascading into her chaotic, split mind, where the thoughts of a girl were constantly being parsed by that of a predator. In his brief exposure, the urges to run and find food and run some more were almost maddening in how they made his muscles tense in preparation for a sprint. Or a marathon.

No one person should have this much energy.

[Hopeflower]

The poor young elf startled badly at how quickly Dahnae's shielding failed, and he reeled back so hard he fell off of their shared bench. The flare of energy and resulting thud had Viho turning in surprise. He slid off his desk quickly and strode to Firel's side, where he knelt and set a hand on his student's shoulder.

"You're alright?" Viho asked quietly, glancing at Dahnae so she knew the question was meant for both of them.

Firel could only offer a somewhat shaky thumbs up. He wasn't hurt, he just...needed a minute. On the floor.

[The Kingpin]

Ceridwen, in contrast to the relatively massive Son of Storms, practically flitted back and forth, descending much like a leaf, dropping downwards before arching upwards again in an undulating U formation until eventually she reached a point where her final drop put her on all fours, wings tucking against her flanks as she trotted after the larger Hueilin.

Septimus himself, meanwhile, shifted to a smaller and less imposing form, the Scholarly elf soon casually strolling across the golden grasses as he approached the location he sought to see up close.

[C S]

Dahnae, on the other hand, was unfazed initially. She yawned widely in a very feline way -- without the very feline fangs -- and then leaned forward to make sure that Firel really was okay. Gazing down at him, she worried that she'd have to reteach him how to sit down. She'd made progress teaching him how to go up stairs, but sitting was one of those things she'd have to think about if she were to educate the other elf, for the fact that she didn't need to think to sit anywhere. Not in any capacity that she found especially noteworthy. It was the type of thing to make Firel wince if he were still listening to her mind.


Syria came up next to Septimus, the tip of her boots just passing over the tips of the blades of grass underneath her. Again, not privy to the dragon's eyesight, she flipped her lenses back up onto the front of her tricorn and squinted to make out the small shapes on the cacti ahead. "It must take some impressive molting to get enough feathers for a duster," she commented offhandedly.

[Hopeflower]

After a moment of regaining his wits, Firel took the hand Viho offered and, somewhat shakily, sat back down in his seat. Keeping one eye on Dahnae, the psychomancy instructor glanced around the room to judge how everyone else was doing.

"Perhaps we should all take an early lunch," he suggested to the room at large. Magic was draining in more ways than one - he was sure at least a few of his students were starving at this point.

And he did have a new arm he'd promised to show Evisa.

[C S]

The jungle girl did not have the chance to ask Firel how confident he was in his sitting skills. She perked up at the mention of an early break, which meant an early run across the city to throw letters at their respective recipients. Viho heard a succinct "Yes!" at about the same time he saw Dahnae spring from her desk.

"This is entirely too common," someone mentioned. There wasn't much of a response but vague agreement as others started to shift, stretching out their stiff joints. Solaurn and Gwenviere among them, they had their own things to tend to. Research and medicine prep.

[Hopeflower]

"You'll thank me when you aren't collapsing later," Viho replied mildly, glancing at the speaker. For all of his lessons on taking it easy on themselves when they were just starting out, there would always be the few who wanted to keep going until their bodies started to fail them.

A bad habit he hoped to nip in the bud where he could.

[C S]

"I meant Dahnae flipping out, or making someone else flip out," the student corrected as the first wave of hungry, tired psychomancers-in-training took their leave.

[Hopeflower]

To that, Viho offered an easy shrug. "Felines tend to be unpredictable," he replied. "One gets used to it." Eventually.

Once the classroom had emptied and Viho had finished wolfing down his admittedly bigger than usual lunch - he found it paid to be cautious when experimenting with new types of magic - he was left pondering where Evisa was likely to be at this time. He'd all but made up his mind to just follow the elementals when the decision was taken out of his hands.

Arsenic stepped through the door and nodded to himself when he caught sight of Viho. 'Thought I'd find you here.'

The older psychomancer tilted his head. He hadn't been expecting another visit. "What can I do for you, Arsenic?"

'I wanted to come and see the 'new arm' that has Andruil all twitchy,' the mute replied, stepping closer for a good look.

Viho glanced down reflexively. Now that he thought about it, Andruil had requested leave from the class for a while, the same day as he'd first had full, painless use of his arm again. "Twitchy," he repeated, and held the limb out for inspection. Can't imagine why.

Arsenic's gaze snapped straight to Viho's shoulder. 'So he wasn't exaggerating.'

"No."

'What kind of painkillers must they have you on?' Arsenic wondered aloud, reaching out to manipulate Viho's arm a bit and watching for any small flinch. He saw none.

Viho cracked a small smile. "The strongest ones they can give me without knocking me out cold."

For a fragile moment, they were father and son, not Viho and Arsenic. Viho scolded himself for being selfish even as he let it linger, let Arsenic satisfy his curiosity.

[C S]

The moment lasted for quite some time while, out of sight, people gasped and shuffled out of the way of the speeding figure making her death-defying way back to her classroom. The set of windows did well to keep the sounds from intruding on the bonding, but those very windows made a loud retort when Dahnae landed on the windowsill and pressed against them, a cheek smushed on the glass. When she exhaled, the fog on the window obscured most of her face.

"Lemme in."

[Hopeflower]

Arsenic startled, dropping Viho's arm. What in the - ?

"Excuse me," Viho offered, and moved to open the window as usual. "Welcome back, Dahnae."

[C S]

Dahnae entered and gave Viho her mittens, making a habit out of putting them into his gloved hand in recent days. "I think I broke my record," she told Viho, kicking some excess snow off of her shoes. "Laepardi toth ba-snow," she added, commending the jungle cat's ability to rise to the unfamiliar climate and excel, if only for short bouts per day. Dahnae then fixed the other redhead in the room a look. "Who this one?" she asked Viho.

[Hopeflower]

"This is my son, Arsenic," Viho replied, turning and crossing the room to set the shapeshifter's mittens on her desk. "Arsenic, my student, Dahnae."

Arsenic inclined his head politely. He knew of her, of course - the shapeshifting stabbing victim and the reason the residents of Brodudika had learned to start ducking around mail time. 'Pleased to meet you.'

[C S]

"Oh, now I remember," Dahnae replied, getting very close to Arsenic in what seemed to only be a few steps, her pupils darting about in a very twitchy manner as she took in everything she could see. "You were in my way once with another lady-person." Dahnae stepped back, spine rigid and straight like a soldier. "You look older than Viho," she observed. "T'is the scars."

[Hopeflower]

Arsenic leaned back a little in an attempt to reclaim his personal space, not sure if he took offense to being told he looked older than he was or not. 'Uh - these things happen, I suppose,' he said, and he didn't know which statement he was replying to.

Viho leaned against his desk and stuck his hands in his pockets, making no move to step in.

[C S]

"Ya-huh," Dahnae agreed. Her mitten-free hands were put to use undoing the buttons of her coat before lifting up her shirt underneath enough to show Arsenic her own set of scars left over from the stitches.

[Hopeflower]

The mute elf was moderately alarmed until he understood what Dahnae wanted him to look at. His expression softened with empathy, and he nodded. 'I heard about that,' he murmured. He wasn't sure she needed to know he was there keeping Viho on his feet when they learned how serious her condition had been. 'It's good to see that you're back on your feet.' So soon, he tacked on privately. An impressive recovery if ever he'd seen one.

[C S]

"Cats heal quickly. So does the dogmun, but he thinks Viho's new arm-thing will hurt him," Dahnae responded while most of her attention was on putting her coat back together. At the mention of Viho's aid, her sights snapped to her desk with an abrupt alertness, which subsided seconds later when she was reassured that her mittens had not gone wandering.

[Hopeflower]

While Dahnae was distracted, Arsenic and Viho exchanged a glance. 'Bad blood,' Arsenic offered by way of vague explanation. 'We're working to move past it.' Granted, it was slower going for some of them than others.