trans_9 | You Can Learn to Do It, Too! [open]

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You Can Learn to Do It, Too! [open]

Namira had never imagined that her head would start to ache from simply reading. She enjoyed reading, as did most Magi of the Circle, but trying to learn concepts that otherwise took years to understand by mashing it all into a few weeks... Oh, what a mess it all was!

Some of the people from the more advanced places (for even on Thedas, Ferelden was a backwater), just didn't realize how lucky they were.

Exhausted, and her head heavy with new knowledge, she and Hakkar sat on the Observation Deck, on one of those meaty couches. Namira's head lolled back against the couch and she sighed heavily.

How could she make herself, and by extension the other Wardens, fit? And properly, too? "It's like learning to read all over again, hmm, Hakkar?" The dog whined, for as smart as it was, it wasn't as if he'd been sitting there researching with her. "Oh, don't make that face, you know what I meant."

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Luis was sitting not far away, reading one of his thicker biochemistry books for the fourth or fifth time and trying to pretend like it interested him. It was hard to hold it up with only one arm and he was quickly growing frustrated.

Until he caught sight of the lovely lady and the dog on the other side of the deck.

A few seconds later, he was leaning over the back of her couch (with his casted arm making him look rather clumsy.) "You look a little stressed out, amiga. Anything I can help with?"

His voice sounded a bit... Antivan, which surprised Namira for a moment. She opened one eye to scope out the face attached to that voice (Alistair forgive her!), and sat up with a little smile.

"Only if you care to explain the finer points of," Oh, what had she been reading? "anatomy to me. There are so many body types, did you know? Quite boggling."

"I would absolutely love to explain the finer points of anatomy to you," Luis replied, his eyes lighting up like a child's at Christmas. "As it so happens, I happen to be quite well-versed in anatomy."

Surprisingly he didn't mean it the way almost everyone who knew him would have thought he did. He offered his left hand out for her to shake, the right one currently indisposed in that ugly cast. "Dr. Luis Sera. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss...?"

Namira grasped his hand, though unfamiliar with the exact gesture of greeting, and smiled. Finally! Someone who could explain all these new definitions and theories to her. "Namira Amell, and you, Dr. Sera, are a welcome blessing. I thought my head might just fall off."

She pointed to Hakkar with her free hand, who was busy looking at the couch as if deciding it would be good to eat or not. "This is Hakkar." She patted the place beside her. "Please, sit. I insist."

"Namira! That is a beautiful name, so it suits you quite well." He grinned at her as he came around the other side of the couch. "Though please, 'Luis' is more than fine."

He held his hand out for Hakkar to sniff as he had a seat beside her. "What a big strong dog we have here. It is nice to meet you as well."

Rule #29: Always be good to her dog.

Hakkar sniffed Luis's hand and gave him a long, inquisitive look. It seemed Luis would at least distract him for a time while the dog puzzled out if the Spaniard was indeed a threat to his mistress or not.

Namira, on the other hand, laughed softly. Even if this man wasn't Antivan, it seemed as though he and Zevran would have much to discuss on the matter of flirtation. "May I ask what happened to your arm, Luis?"

"You may," he lamented. "Perhaps you heard about all of that, er... Tyrant business last week. I happened to be lucky enough to be on the front lines of it." Luis patted his cast with the other hand, making a bit of a face.

"I cannot comment on the fashion, but it feels much better than it did and it will be fine in a few more weeks."

"I have a little trouble using my, what is it? Omnicom? But I did manage to read about that, yes. How very brave of you." It wasn't something Namira thought she could do, and what the others had been left to their own devices, but she was glad to see that it had all ended well, and the boy was alright. It made her think of Connor a little, actually.

Well, minus the demon possession and the hordes of undead.

"Do you think there might be anything I could do to help? I admit I'm not very up to date with most of the things here, but I can at least help speed up your recovery," she offered. "Consider it my payment for your help."

"Ah, that's very kind of you, thank you. But shouldn't you see if I help you at all first before you go about trying to repay me?" he teased. Of course he was going to help her though. It was anatomy. Luis was reading anatomy textbooks before bedtime when he was 10 years old.

"We can make a little trade of it, sí?"

"Oh, even if you couldn't help me here, I'm sure there's something else you're good at," she grinned. "But please, here."

Namira had, through trial, error and haranguing Stacy for not being more useful to poor, backwards people like her, managed to download several datapads. She liked them very much, actually, and the fact they responded to her fingertips.

Wouldn't the First Enchanter simply die to get his hands on such a thing? She flipped to a page with a series of interesting circulatory systems. "I was looking at this. Do you see this knot, here? I've looked at several other things, but nothing explains exactly why they're like that. I dislike the answer 'it just is', don't you?" Namira jutted her lower lip out just slightly. "Please help."

"Several other things," he added offhandedly, scooting over to get a look at what she was asking.

He studied the diagram she was showing off and then nodded. "Aha, see-- the different colors in the diagram represent different 'sides' of the circulatory system. Half of your blood vessels go toward your heart, while the other half carry blood away from your heart, see? At places where there are important muscles or organs, there will be quite a tangle of blood vessels because they need a lot of blood to work properly. See this one? This is the spot where the kidneys are, so that knot actually wraps around the organs."

"Oh! That makes much more sense, thank you so much." Namira studied the diagram for a moment, "I assume that's the same idea in most of the humanoid species, then?" Well, maybe not the Qunari, if you listened to Sten at all. But who knew?

"I think so," Luis confirmed. "At least, in every humanoid species that I've studied on this ship so far, but... I can't think of a system that would work better than this one. I can hardly claim to be an expert on that one, though."

"Completely understandable," Namira assured him. "On Thedas, we hadn't even truly discovered anything of the sort; they depend mostly on us - the Magi - for things." Though, not without good reason. Namira just didn't always enjoy being the walking medic's tent, as it were. "So, anything you tell me, or show me is such a boon, you cannot imagine."

Ego stroking, check.

"I happen to be the head of the Science Department on this ship and a career biologist-- so if there is anything in particular you would like me to show you, please, feel free to ask."

He paused, making a curious face. "A magi? As in, some kind of sorcerer? Ah, those are getting more common around here too... though I haven't heard of your world before, actually," he offered.

Giving her a chance to talk about herself, check.

"Something like that, unfortunately," Namira agreed. If it had been a different era, maybe Namira would've been a scientist. But if wishes were horses, then beggars would ride, so it wasn't worth thinking about. "Rather, look at it as something I was unfortunately born with a... genetic defect." At least, it was if you ever managed to talk to a templar or a Sister of the Chantry. "A very useful defect, but one nevertheless."

After all, being a scientist didn't get one locked up in a tower for the rest of their lives. (At least, not unless they chose to be.) She shrugged, quite practical. "I prefer learning this, though."

Now there was an interesting take on things. "Magic is a genetic defect?" he asked. "That's... fascinating. I haven't put much belief into something that doesn't exist in my world at all, but of all the other worlds I've heard of, that's something new." If he was capable of doing any research with one bad arm, he might have tried to look into exactly how true her "genetic" theory was. He did need a new project to study, after all.

"I guess this is a great opportunity for you, then-- you can learn all you want about science around here."

"It is! I'm very pleased by it. In the Tower, they had many books, but most of them were on magical theory." The occasional was cookbook thrown in so the poor apprentice mages wouldn't burn the tower down trying to figure out porridge. "As for the other subject; it's widely known on Thedas that all mages are terrible creature and must be contained for the good of the rest of the world."

She winked, "Though we're really quite normal, albeit unlucky, folk." For the most part.

And could also bend the cosmos to their wills. But, you know, they liked simple things like wine and gardening, too. "Anyway, I believe I now owe you in our part of the trade, don't I?"

Magical theory. He'd love to read one of those sometime.

But back to the matter at hand, Luis. "Is that all you needed to know?" he asked. "You know, I've been teaching some basic science classes lately. If you'd like to learn more you are more than welcome to attend the next one."

"It is, thank you," Namira assured him. "I'd be happy to attend. There's still so much I don't understand, that it bothers me a great deal." For instance, firearms.

"Your arm, if you please. I promise it won't hurt, I am really quite gentle." Just, well, just tingle a little. But he didn't need to know all the nitty-gritty details did he? No.

Well, he kind of did. "What, exactly, are you going to do with it?" he asked. "I don't mean to sound paranoid, but there isn't such a thing as magic where I come from."

"Well, the short version is that I encourage the bone and tissue to heal a little faster. It will not heal the bone completely, but it should cut a couple of weeks from your recovery, and I believe that will be quite handy, won't it? Instead of using my staff as a focus, I'll be using you; so please, continue to look as handsome as you do so I am not wholly distracted." Usually, it would have been no problem to heal a broken bone. But with the Fade so very weak here, Namira was anxious to try it.

Wouldn't magical backlash be a terrible thing? Of course. Best to start small. "It is the least I could do."

"I don't suppose I can complain about that," he chuckled. "Not to mention that looking handsome happens to be what I do best." He held out his arm for her and tried not to look too nervous.

"Don't worry," Namira soothed. "I said I'd be gentle." There wasn't a whole lot of chanting or eye closing as Namira cast her spell. The small and fizzy-feeling white sparks gathered around his arm as she concentrated on Luis. The pull of her mana made her crave a lyrium potion so badly, but she continued on.

It wasn't a very long spell, thankfully for the both of them, and as the light faded and Namira sat back and sighed heavily, she winked at Luis. "There we are, how does that feel?"

"It feels... a lot less bizarre than I thought it would," he admitted, setting his arm on the cast as though he wished he could rub it. "Gracias, amiga. If it means I can get back to work sooner, it's worth every bit." Every bit of the creepy tingling, anyway.

But hey, it also meant having a gorgeous woman pay attention to him.

"Well, I suppose I could've stripped and covered myself in earthy paints," Namira teased, "but that would have just gotten in the way of the spell."

"That's a shame, I would have loved to see that," he teased.

"Yes, I'm sure you would've," she chuckled. For a moment, Namira was glad that the likelihood of Luis Sera and Zevran Arainai meeting was low. She probably would've turned ten colors of red before she'd ever encouraged the healing on Luis's arm.

"I suppose I'll just have to show you the next time your find yourself with a busted limb, won't I?"

It was hard to tell if Luis and Zevran would be best friends or mortal enemies, really.

"Don't say things like that, bonita. I'll be breaking them on purpose if you're not careful."

They'd be friends at least until Luis found himself naked in Zevran's quarters, Namira was sure.

Zevran was just kind of like that.

"Oh, you wouldn't do that, would you? It would put such a damper on things if you couldn't enjoy anything because of your casts." Namira patted Hakkar's big head lovingly.

Naked and sobbing, no doubt.

"I'm already forbidden from work since it mostly involves working with sensitive chemicals and I'm down my good hand," he lamented. "Other than that, though, I am sure I could find something to do in the meantime."

"You poor dear," Namira commiserated. She couldn't imagine what would happen if something had struck her down so that she'd be unable to work.

Well, she supposed the Blight would've killed everyone, like as not. "If you ever need a hand, or two, I'd be happy to assist you however you'd like."

He raised an eyebrow and had one of those sorts of smiles on his face. "However I like? That's quite an open invitation."

There was the smile she was used to seeing! ...Though it didn't always lead to something good for her. ~~Damn you, Leliana.~~

"Well, the offer still stands," she assured him, and scratched behind Hakkar's ear. The dog leaned his head into her hand as much as he was able. "I imagine you'd show me some interesting things."

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You Can Learn to Do It, Too! [open]

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