trans_9 | What's a girl like you doing in a place like this? [Open]

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What's a girl like you doing in a place like this? [Open]

Sleeping, is what. Now, Ellyn had not intended to come to the Media Library to sleep, but the book she had chosen had sealed the deal. It was yet another treatise on magic by the Endless--"A Dissertation on the Vagaries of Elemental Magic". Required reading back at the Elemental College. Dry as a bone.

Even now, that book was sitting in her lap. Ellyn herself had her head thrown back on the fattychair she was sitting on, sprawling bonelessly across it. Only the fact that she'd had her robe closed protected the book from sliding onto the floor.

Every once in a while, she let out a loud, rumbling snore. It was sort of like a small, localized thunderstorm had rolled in, only without any rain...

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It was one of those times that Kaya had decided to pop into the Media library to get more information on things she didn't know. Right about now? She was reading up on different kinds of elves, just to see what she could dispel of fact and fiction with the ones she knew on the ship.

But after awhile, of course, she was going to notice the thundering snoring a few aisles down, so naturally, she went to investigate and found the sleeping woman. She was a little confused: why would anyone come to the Media library to sleep?

Still, she would try to continue to read her book despite the snoring. Hopefully it would eventually taper down.

Except it wasn't, really. Though for a little while, Ellyn stopped snoring when she rolled over on to her side, nudging the book on to the seat next to her.

Though after a while, a surly-sounding grunt escaped her, she rolled over again, and the snoring returned. It might have only been the silence, but it sounded as if Ellyn were snoring louder than before.

And it was right about this time that Kaya would definitely have to say something. There was being polite, and then there was intentionally inconveniencing her own self.

"Um," she said, lightly tapping the girl's shoulder, "I don't mean to be rude, but its sort of hard to read when you sleep because you snore loudly. If you're tired, I oculd recommend a place to nap."

Zouichi came mostly to investigate the sound, but when he spotted Ellyn sprawled out there on the chair, well. The least he could do was make sure the book didn't drop and wake her up. He moved quietly toward her to retrieve the book. "A Dissertation on the Vagaries of Elemental Magic"? Sounded boring.

It was. The Endless loved to read his own writing, or something. This is exactly why the pyromancer was asleep!

As Zouichi retrieved the book, she gave a grunt, and her yellow eyes opened.

"Ugh, ya don' wanna read that, yer gonna melt what passes fer yer brain," she grumbled at him. "Think it gave me a headache."

Ellyn grunted again and jerked awake, blinking.

"Dammit," she growled. "Uh. Sorry. Naw. I ain't tired, I oughtta know better'n ta read th' Endless when I don't wanna be put ta sleep. 'Specially his stuff on magic. Even his Lives of th' Monarchs're less snoozeworthy."

She shook her head, and got up to replace what she'd been reading. "I c'n get quieter, I'll jus' look fer somethin' else ta read."

Kaya felt a little bad about getting her up.

"It's not like you could hep it, but why read something that you know will put you to sleep?" She asked. "Magic always sees so interesting: i can't imagine reading something that would make it unintersting enough to bore you to sleep."

And now she realized she hadn't introduced herself. "I'm Kaya, from the Northern water Tribe! Who might you be?"

"Guess I was that bored. An' th' guy who wrote it's from my world. Kind'a familiar. I s'pose it might be interestin' fer an outsider, but I've been learnin' that stuff since I was half my age, if that."

Ellyn chuckled a little. "Dad's always told Ethellon ta lighten up, but I don't think 'e can." She shrugged, and held out a hand.

"Ellyn Vitner, pyromancer. Yer tribe got any meanin'?" She was, admittedly, more curious about the "water" part, but she wasn't about to be that obvious about it.

"I've never heard of magic being boring, but then all magic is a little different, I guess. I do know a few people on the ship who use magic though, so maybe I'l ask them how their texts are."

She smiled. "Pyromacer? I don't think I've heard that term before. Is that a kind of title for a witch in your world?"

Edited 2011-11-17 22:05 (UTC)

Ellyn chuckled again. "Th' magic itself ain't boring. But the dronin' on an' on about theories an' stuff? Bah! I s'pose some folks need that, but I didn't need it drilled in ta my head." She grinned at that, a bit wolfishly.

"Naw, I ain't a witch. Pyromancy's usin' fire, it's elementalism. Like geomancy, an' aeromancy, an' hydromancy. One'a my best friends back at th' college was a hydromancer, come ta think of it."

Kaya nodded. "I've got a friend on the ship whose actually something of a genius when it comes to magic. I don't know how he would teach it though: I never asked. Maybe he's one of the people you could read about it from without dealing in too much theory?"

She was right though: Kaya was terribly interested in reading about that since it wasn't something she would learn in her world.

"I don;t really know anything about mancy's, but the hydro one sounds like the waterbending I'd use. So you can make fire! How does it work?"

Zouichi smiled apologetically and handed it back to her. "Sorry," he said. "Thought you were asleep. And I wasn't going to read it; I don't think I'd know where to start when it comes to magic."

Ellyn blinked. She never had been too concerned with the how of her powers--but she had been trying to read the words of the master on the subject, even if the Endless wasn't an elemancer himself.

"Uh. Somethin' 'bout excitin' mol'cules. Like rubbin' two sticks t'gether 'til ya get a flame, but so small ya can't see 'em." She shrugged. "It c'n set lots o' things on fire."

Ellyn grunted quietly as she accepted the book. "Yer right, I was sleepin'. Endless always did put me ta sleep, long-winded bast'rd that 'e is."

She sat up a little, trying to dispel the fog of sleep. How long had it been since she actually slept, anyway? She couldn't tell. Maybe that was part of the problem.

"Not somethin' ya had on yer world? Lotta this is theory, so if ya got curious, might actually be a good place ta start. Ethellon does a lot o' thinkin' in his massive 'mounts o' spare time."

"Really?" Kaya said, looking interested. "It's a bit different in my world. There, the original benders were the dragons, and so firebenders learned from them how to harness the powers of their inner fire. From what I was to understand, it had something to do with harnessing the energy of their inner chi, from the belly. I'd try to understand, but I am a different bender, so its difficult."

She smiled. "I can't produce the water if there isn't at least little bit of it about. For instance, I can on Stacy since shes's always humid, but in some place like a desert, it would be impossible."

Ellyn nodded. "T'be honest, I think even a hydromancer from my world would have a real hard time gettin' water inna desert. There's water in a body, an' there's water in th' air, but there ain't much. They like seas, wher I come from. M'best friend planned ta go right back ta his family an' sail on their ship."

Which kind of made her miss the bastard. Damn it. She brushed it off. "Ya say the firs' benders learned from dragons? We have one dragon on my world. An' it ain't wise ta poke him."

"I make do with what water we have on the ship," she said. "There's a lot more than there used to be, thankfully, but it always helps to conserve what you have and use what's around you when necessary. I'm glad to hear that you and your friend got along: its not quite so easy for different element people in my world to see eye to eye, especially when it comes to those who bend fire."

A fact she knew, even in her case, she might feel a little sensitive about. "Well, there aren't really any dragons left in my world. Unfortunately, firebeders got it in their heads that hunting and slaying a dragon for sport brought them great honor and made them stronger somehow."

Ellyn grumbled a little at that. "'E's th' last dragon in th' world fer me, so...he says th' rest just upped and left long ago. He's way too big for anyone but the Bladewolf ta stare 'im down."

The pyromancer shook her head. "Can't think of anyone huntin' him for sport. Uh. Well. 'Cept th' wolf." But that beast was the imp of the perverse personified, really.

"Some hydromancers an' pyromancers don't get along. It's kinda family tradition ta train with one though. Not that I'm crazy 'bout tradition, but it did make me stronger, so..." Ellyn shrugged again. "Not that I go 'round too much swingin' my pr'verbial stick 'round."

She nodded. "Well, we have a few dragons on the ship, although they're all a little bit different. Some of them are playful and don;t talk, some are pretty big, and I knew of aa boy that was actually a dragon once. My advice is to simply get to know theones that come on the ship, really. There was a big hoopla a little while ago about a dragon in the city, but I bet no one actually tried to sit and talk with the dragon first."

She sighed. "The firebenders in my world declared war on the other benders,. and we've been fighting their eventual takeover for a hundred years. It's a shame when things like this happen, but thankfully most of that war has been out down. Have you met a boy named Zuko yet?"

"I met a dragon down in the City. He said he wasn't gonna eat me, so he's all right." Ellyn had no idea that this was the same dragon Kaya was talking about.

She blinked at the news of war, though. "An'...th' leaders o' th' other countries didn't jus'...rise up an' smack 'em down? No Monarch from my world would ever let an upstart like that jus'...try an' take over. An' my dad might be a pyromancer, but he'd never try an' take over. Rulin' his own lands is rough enough, he says."

Ellyn thought for a moment, and then shook her head. "Naw. Ain't met too many people yet, an' not any Zuko."

Kaya was happy abut her decision to only work as a healer in the med by: it gave her plenty of time to go down to the city when she needed and start noticing things like dragons that were not going to hurt anyone. For now,s he would take Elyn's word for it.

"They started by taking out a whole nation: systematically killing off every single one of them. and then started to go after the other nations. It was the fault of some of us that we live farther away than others. Once they had taken out the air nomads, they started in on the earth Kingdoms, and came down hard on the Southern Water Tribe until they were a fraction of themselves. Reaching the North was harder and we held our ground, but it isolated us too, which left smatterings of the Southern water tribe and the Earth Kingdom against a fortified, well built militia of firebenders. And their cruelty was swift when it acme to putting down insurrections."

She sighed. "Not that they were all bad, but that's another story. In any case, Zuko is a firebender, and the current leader of the Fire nation after the war was finally ended. He's a pretty serious guy, but definitely likable enough."

"To be honest, I'm not even sure I'd be very good at it. Or if it would be any use, if I returned to my own world." He looked a little dubiously at the book. If it put an actual magic user to sleep...

"So why are you reading magic texts? Trying something new?"

Nearby, Shoutarou was browsing the things in the library, and idly wondered if Phillip had been here yet - he'd bet that he hadn't, given the wealth of material here, and the timeframe his partner had provided for being here - even if he'd been in here every waking moment, he couldn't have consumed everything here already. And knowing Phillip, he'd have stayed here until he had.

The detective is jolted from his musing by that raucous noise, and he stumbles backwards, whipping out a Driver on impulse. "Who's there?!" He can't quite see Ellyn from his position, so he makes the first logical assumption - that noise meant trouble!

"Eh, more like refreshin' myself. Even if he's borin' ta read," Ellyn said. "They used this as an educ'tional text back at th' college I went ta."

She grimaced a little, then. "Though it prob'ly wouldn't hurt if I did poke through th' stacks an' see if they got anythin' else interestin' here, now that ya mention it. Never stop learnin', my brother says."

The pyromancer's expression just got more grim as Kaya relayed what the Fire Nation had done. By the time she was finished, Ellyn was scowling.

"Divided ya all up an' that's what got ya. Since yer still here, would I be c'rect in assumin' a bunch o' ya got t'gether ta put down the Fire Nation?" Because that's probably what would happen--and often DID happen--when a Monarch went bad back home. It was what happened when her parents had become Monarchs, individually, at least.

"An' Zuko, 'cuz he ain't a bad dude, is now th' Monarch?" Well, that was impressive in its own way, Ellyn had to admit.

"Mebbe ya c'n intr'duce us some time. Could be interestin'." They could at least swap stories and practice technique or something.

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What's a girl like you doing in a place like this? [Open]

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