The Art of water [Avamande]

[Kaiko Marina]

Ash 29th

Waves crashed on the beach just a few feet away from where Kaiko sat. Kaiko sat beside a hole she had dug. The hole held a small group of fish and corals that she had found. She had one arm in the water playing with a hermit crab she had caught. The hermit crab on the other hand was starting to get annoyed with her finger as it poked him. It at first tried to shuffle away and then hid as he realized it was not working.

Kaiko picked up the crab and put it on her other hand. She watched for a minute before it peaked out of its shell. She smiled then screamed, tossing her hand as it pinched her. It completely refused to let go. So she put her hand in the water. It finally let go and once it did she picked it up and put it in the waves.

Now board she decided to release the current contents into the water. She would have gone swimming but she was sick of putting on and taking off clothes that were getting wet and sandy. And she may be needed at the beach. Ok, the last part was probably a lie. The others could fish. They could defend themselves and were able to do really cool things. What she was good at seemed unimportant and even dangerous. We're there other giant crabs in the water? She didn't want to find out. She could play music but that's only useful in a bar or at a party. Neither was happening. One of the others could do magic by drawing.

She instead walked to her chest, got out her tin whistle and notebook. Then sat down and began to play the wellermans song. As she did have a song she was supposed to be writing.

"There wanted was a ship lost at sea
The name of the ship is the duck." She frowned as she realized that it was not going to work. Perhaps a different melody would work better. She started to play the Drunken sailor song.


"What shall we do to help the pore ship?"
Yes, that sounded good.
"Away to find her home"
Eh maybe, maybe not. Perhaps something different. She was told this ship was cursed. Captain said it would be a year's voyage. There had to be something.

[Avamande]

It was yet another picturesque today, and once again Avamande paid almost no heed to it. The Hytori had been distracted with their self assigned task since they had arrived upon the island, mind unable to focus upon anything else. Nothing mattered more to them than figuring out a way to escape this far shore and find a way to return themselves and the others to their homes, no matter what Kynne and the Duck may have wanted from them. Such terms as had been pressed upon them were intolerable, but it wasn't as if they could lodge a complaint.

So it was that Avamande absentmindedly wandered the beach, subtle flashes of power keeping them a wafer width above the grains of sand. It was a tricky bit of Negation, but they were no great fans of... well, the outdoors in general, and it was tiresome to constantly fly. They paused for a moment in their pondering, snatches of song intruding. Coming to a stop, the Hytori inclined their head as they made to follow the sound of music. It had been... some time since they had heard anything like that. Not just music, but the active process of creating it.

Following the sound, Avamande saw the familiar form of Kaiko at the shore. She wasn't one to speak much, but they had seen her here and there, mostly during the pot luck on their first night ashore. In truth, they understood not being one for conversation, the same had often been said of them after all. Kindred spirits, of a kind, but they knew more than most that just because two people were alike did not mean they would get along with one another.

"Hello, Kaiko. It is Avamande, if you remember. Your music is quite remarkable," Avammande said, introducing themselves in a soft voice, well aware that they were intruding. "I can leave, if you would prefer," they offered.

[Kaiko Marina]

"So early in the voyage"
Yes that was much better and so she wrote it down and marked a line through the line it would replace. She sang the verse once through.

"What shall we do to help the poor ship,
What shall we do to help her home?
What shall we do to help the poor ship?
So early in the voyage."

Yes that would work so next she would need to work on the rest of the song. She thought it would be fitting to use some of the others and their adventures. Perhaps the rock and crab would be a good part. So she simply wrote rock and crab in her notes.

"Aardwalden, he lost his finger.
Yea he burned it off.
Aardwalden, he lost his finger.
Fighting a crab in the water."

She stopped and chuckled, perfect verse no, funny verse yes. She wrote it down, then made a note that she would probably write a song about that adventure later.

She looked up to see Avamande floating above the sand. "You're the one that used art to make a shelter." She said with a smile. "Why thank you. I use much of my free time practicing and learning what I can. Do you have a favorite sea song?" She said, Then they offered to leave. And Kaiko shook her head. "No, you can stay if you want. Besides, I need more to add to my song before I can continue." She said.

Kaiko started to play her tin whistle, than had a thought. "Avamande, did your art keep you above the sand?" She asked. She was now curious as to what other things his art can do. "Can your art make things appear and disappear on command?" She would ask. "See, leaving clothes in the sand and wearing them in the water is starting to itch, and walking all the way to my chest any time I come out of the water and switch back to my zion form, is growing annoying " She said.

[Avamande]

Using art to make a shelter was perhaps the kindest description that Avamande had ever received of their work, and they could not find it in themselves to disagree with it. Scrivening was an art, of a kind, after all, and they supposed that meant they were something of an artist. The normally formal and stiff Hytori visibly relaxed at Kaiko's greeting. It helped that the song was quite good as well, though they were curious about that business of Aardwalden and his finger. They'd have to ask the gnome about that later.

"I am afraid it has been many years since I last saw the sea, until I had joined the Duck of course," they confessed, the mage realizing with a start that this was the first they had thought of their early childhood in over a decade. "My parents were... cousins, or something like that, it doesn't really matter, of a Prince. A Prince of Sol'Valen," Avamande began to explain, even their speech relaxing around the woman. "When I was very young, we lived in his castle, overlooking the sea. It was a... a very nice time in my life," they said.

"One song does stick out though, the sailors would sing it..." Avamande said, inclining their head as they tried to remember. "A drop of Arcas' blood."

Before they could embarrass themselves by attempting to sing, Kaiko did them the favor of continuing to talk, moving the conversation to far more familiar topics for the mage. "Ah, yes. I performed both with Negation. Making things appear and disappear is somewhat more difficult however, but I can come close." Stretching out their hand, they extended their will towards a shell on the sea shore. In a flash, it vanished from the sand, and reappeared in the palm of their hand. "I can bring things close," they explained, and then closed their around the shell, causing it to return to where it originally was, "and send them far."

"You are... not the first mage who has mentioned this issue to me. I've discussed it with Imogen."

[Kaiko Marina]

She listened to there story with a warm smile. A cousin of a prince. A long time from the sea. And finally a song. A song she remembered. She played the chorus on her ten whistle. "A drop of Arcas' blood wouldn't do us any harm, and we'll all hang on behind. " She sang. It was a good song If you can understand it. Though the thought of drinking blood was not something she would do. That said she knew Arcas' blood was just another name for rum.

"I don't remember why they did it but I do remember what the song means. Acras and his crew were far away from their home land when he died. He was really important. Like a war hero or something so they couldn't do the traditional sea burial of sowing him in his hammock and dropping him overboard. Instead they had to bring him home and to preserve his body they had to put him in a burial of rum," She said. And watched thim make the shell appear and disappear.

And then realized they said this was a more common issue than she had thought. She also had not realized there were other Animus mages in the group. She really did need to get to know the group better. "Yea just like that. That would make life so much easier." She would say as she got to her feet.

"You said it had been awhile since you have seen the sea. I couldn't do that. The sea is a part of me and being away would be worse than losing both my arms. But you have probably never been below the waters." She said looking towards them. "Under the waves is a different and amazing world but people can't really see it without drowning. Otherwise they wouldn't want to leave the sea either." She kinda hoped some of the others could go underwater with her to explore. She still had a crab shell to get out but was not willing to go to the drop without others. A giant crab was enough to convince her that it was not safe and that she was not able to protect herself out there.

[Avamande]

"Something like that," Avamande said with a soft smile, not certain that they should be pry at the moment but curious nonetheless on how Kaiko had come to know that particular story. Perhaps she simply knew about all the songs of the sea, no matter their provenance. That would fit her choice of totems, at the least, not to mention her self claimed need to be near the sea. They had spent oh so few years with an ocean view after all.

Well, in any event, your problem. The simplest solution would be a Featherlight bag, but then you'd have to drag it everywhere with you. Not the worst, but maybe not what you wanted. It's... a tricky problem, the more you think about it." And Avamande had thought about it a lot. The consultation with Imogen had resulted in an entire notebook being filled with the resulting ideas, most of which ended up being nonviable for one reason or another."I'm certain that together, a suitable solution can be decided upon and implemented," they added, almost as an afterthought, falling into more formale speech.

"Not deep below the waters, no," the Hytori admitted. "I did once stick my head beneath the waves while on a boat but the salt stung and I was dragged back out by the hair before I could see much. Still, it's been nearly twenty years since I last saw the sea. Believe me that I find the surfface alone fascinating after so long apart," they said in a wistful voice. From the sea, directly to the mountains. Lake Udori had always been close, but it was a far cry from being able to just look out on the open ocean whenever one wished.

"Come to think of it, I think I ought to be able to look beneath the waves properly now," they mused, quite taken with the idea.

[Kaiko Marina]

"Well, all cultures change the song a little like the instruments that play it, but the beat and melody rarely change," She said. Drunken sailor was a good representation of that fact. Everyone knew the chorus 'what do we do with a drunken sailor.' but the other lines often changed. She knew 13 different stanzas but often stuck to 3 or 4 of them when she sang.

"A Featherlight bag had crossed my mind a time or two in the past but they are usually expensive and the concept confuses me. Where does all the stuff go? How is it so light?" She would respond to his answer. "I try to use my sea bag but it is in no way waterproof." She listened and thought about how she could start leaving her sea bag on shore on a limb or something to keep its contents dry. That would definitely help. "Well if you and Imogen figure out a solution do let me know."

The surface of the sea. Always moving and always changing. It can vary depending on location, and weather. Simple rising and falling waters of the deep all the way to the crashing waves of the shore all can change and all will change. Constant motion and yet so different from the waters below.

She tilted her head at his words properly looking below the waves. Land people were fun, but could one actually join her under water? She put up her interments in their case and folded her book before sliding off her chest and placing them inside. She smiled. “So you think you can survive what many men of the sea refer to as damnation in various ways?” she teased, kind of wanting to see how an air breather would handle the world she loved.

[Avamande]

"Why, it goes to the space between spaces, stuck before now and after then. What you carry is only the bag itself, you don't actually carry anything you put into it. It simply goes... elsewhere, until you retrieve it." The Hytori immediately became animated when talking about the magical mechanics of transdimensional containers, one of a handful of concepts that truly made excited. It was what made them such an effective mage, but very few people would consider them particularly interesting as a result.

Perhaps luckily for Kaiko, even an excited Avamande was not rude enough to talk over other people, and as she carried on they quieted and nodded along to her words. "I will make sure to tell you if we discover a solution that might be of use to you. Perhaps I should ask Aardwalden for assistance in becoming a runesmith, it might come in handy for some designs that I had..." Avamande trailed off as they started to think through possible magical items that may be of use to an animist on the go, the sand beneath them shifting into sketches and designs as they unconsciously thought through the burgeoning ideas.

Twice in a conversation Kaiko was able to redirect Avamande's racing mind with a comment of her own, the mage's head snapping up at the implicit challenge in the tease. "Why yes, I believe I can. Not forever, of course, and certainly not as long as you, but perhaps enough to see what the fuss is all about," they replied with a soft smile of their own. They even had multiple ideas on how best to go about it, with both Kinetics and Negation. Traversion, technically, too could be used but the solutions there would either be ruinously draining upon their aether or would be essentially cheating.

[Kaiko Marina]

"you know lots of stuff." She eventually said. They knew lots of things that she didn't. Things that were way over her head. But she listened with interest nevertheless. A space between. Interesting concept.

Aardwalden, she had sadness for a small second. "The Little Rock person is nice. He also is amazing at using element magic," She said. "I saw him turn sand into glass but it also caused him to melt a finger." She felt guilty for it. For that reason she had mostly avoided him for the last few days. "It was my fault. I woke up a crab and brought it to him," She said. "Can't sting a crab."

She again became happy as she watched the sand shift into cool designs. It was not something she had been used to. She found it exciting and pretty. She did not touch the design in the sand but simply tilted her head as she tried to decipher some of it but gave up. She was too simple to understand it but that was fine by her. As she was a sailor and a sea slug who had no use for it. Well some call her a siren buy she still disagrees.

As soon as the challenge was accepted she turned her back to him and slipped off her clothing so she could change into her Lycan form. Soon her legs became one to form a slug tail. 6 long fin wings grew from her back in pairs. Her back side became a silver gray color as her front side became a mix of blue, Gray and black. She would lie on the sand for a second before putting her clothing in her bag and placing it next to the chest.She would then slither to the water and go under. After she became hydrated she would pop her head above the water. "Coming?" She would go under for a moment before remembering he was not formalure with the water world. She would pop back above the water. "Things to know. Seaweed will tangle you up worse than rope. Speaking underwater is impossible unless you're Aardwalden and watch for predators. Crabs around here are huge."

[Avamande]

"I was raised to know lots of stuff," they explained with a casual shrug, pretense and formality both melting away as they walked with Kaiko. "I am certain you know many things quite beyond me that were never considered important to my parents, but which are far more useful than the facts floating inside of my head." They did not speak in a self-effacing tone, merely stating fact. Much of what they knew was theoretical, the true utility of it coming solely from their arcane prowess. Without their Runes, they were fairly worthless outside of a study or an office, and they knew it. Practical skills had always been secondary at best when one could blink from place to place with the same ease of walking to the next room.

"Hm, yes. Crabs tend to have rather hard shells, stinging them must be very difficult. He seemed well enough however, made himself a new finger and everything," Avamande explained. The last time they had seen the stoneborn gnome, he had been busily reworking his very body, and the notion of a broken finger seemed too trivial for him to worry about. It was an interesting existence, but not one that they could ever truly understand. Perhaps it was similar enough to how accomplished necromancers could create and replace body parts, but that was a field of study they had never engaged in.

Avamande was rather taken aback at how quickly Kaiko immediately made for the water, the Rathari's transformation occurring with the same swiftness as one might take off a jacket. It was an extremely natural ease, which they supposed made sense considering she was born to the water - yet another thing that they could never truly understand. Ape, perhaps, with magic, Animus in this case, but never quite grasp. There was something about that they quite liked, the eternal mystery that they could only be told about and not touch. A truth that no amount of study would ever reveal. Yes, they liked that thought very much.

While they were ruminating, they began to craft their spell. An intricate series of wards blossomed to life all around them, encapsulating their entire form with the anchor upon their clothing, tasked against seawater. They took a step in when they were finished, the water parting before them. Slipping beneath the waves to join Kaiko, the water actively pushed them back with the tide, waves crashing around their shields to drain a constant flow of aether.

"I think I can talk as well," they said in the bubble of air, the sound immediately distorting as soon as passed through the ward and into the water, coming to Kaiko's ears as jumbled mess.