Wayfinding 9

Alright you blue haired son of a bitch I'm coming for you.

Taiga catches sight of that man , Ethan Hawke sitting pretty on his perch up on the academy's balcony. But not for long - oh no - Taiga was going to wipe that smug look right off his face. How? With a flourish. A swoop of his hand flying through the air with a dazzling display of green and blue lights following his fingertips. Ethan could tell right away that Taiga had been practicing far more than he had let on.

That Netherworld circle was nearly flawless. The supporting weave was solid, the radial glyph precisely etched into the air. But as he moves down towards the second circle, his status as an amateur made itself clear to his trained eyes. Territory - just a bit off the mark. The parameters improperly set... but not by much.

And he continues. Circle after circle etched to life in a live performance for the folk on the bench, a Wayfinding portal coming to life before their very eyes. The further down he moved, the more... unfamiliar he was with the individual motions, but it was all stable for once. But the same warbly mess of a Travel and Interpolation circle as Ethan had seen in Crafthold those many moons ago.

With a flourish, he sliiiiides between Conversion and Portal - his own showoff style still very much holding him back in terms of accuracy. He was still stuck on the idea of how cool it all was, how awesome he looked when the dancing lights reflected on his pale skin and dazzled the crowd. The freedom it offered was far too enticing to not embrace.

But it'd be his downfall.

"WATCH THIS, HAWKE!" He dives through.

...And lands a few feet short. Right in front of the lip of the balcony. The look on his face as he steps through the portal, shimmering with energy is priceless. That confident, smug look melting into FEAR as he clamors to try and get a foothold, or reach a hand out to latch onto anything--

But he plummets right on top of Declan and Oyl. Crashing into the bench and creating one big gay pile.
(Taiga Rowan)

…

Felt the entire destruction of the bench on his side of it, feeling Taiga on it as well, and even feeling some of his fragile boneless, calcium loss bones actually crushing a bit. Not only was it painful, it made him actually cry.

Thank god he was a magi, he only cried a little bit. Not a lot, he ain't no bitch...

BUT DAMN TAIGA WAS HEAVY.
(Declan)

Oyl finds himself mystified as he holds Declan and peers around to Taiga, who appeared to be performing some type of runic ritual. Before Oyl knew it, Taiga had manifested a portal of some kind and jumped into it, vanishing from sight.

The koi winces as he finds himself totally crushed by the weight of both Declan and Taiga, as it appeared the Dhampir's efforts to reach the keep's balcony proved futile leaving him to fall directly on top of Oyl and his lover(?).

"Mfmfmphh!" he groans from the bottom of the 'gay pile'.
(Oyl)

Ethan remained right where he was on the balcony, pretending not to pay much attention to Taiga as he tried his best to impress him. Green eyes remained far, far away towards the horizon while the Dhampir failed to receive the gratification he needed so much. All that stumbling, hand waving, and failing was for nothing. Or at least that's what the Hawke would make it seem like.

Stretching out his arms the man looked down towards the commotion that had grown audible, leaving him with a few choice words, the kind that would drive a youth as determined as Taiga further.

"'Sup Taiga. Made any progress?"

A second chance. Though not one that would be wasted. The staff upon Ethan's back seemed to emit a clear glow. Golden mana ran up along the shaft - filling up a small window reminiscing of a Qilin or an Oscuri's lines before it hit the foci.

"Look at him again, showing off. Whoopity-do. Wow, so great..."

A voice that seemed to come from the weapon itself was only the second most important thing happening right now. Surrounding the Wayfinder the connection to the spirit world was unlike any other. It was as if both the real world and the spiritual world were coming together - combining into one. The Lifestream's soothing energy shone as bright as the repurposed green core of Eidolon's star, its presence making itself known and the process to use spatial magic much, much easier.

Was he actually helping Taiga or showing off?
(Ethan Hawke)

"Auugnnnh…"

Taiga rolls off with no small effort, digging his leg out from between Declan's arm and his midsection to flop over onto the grass next to the now destroyed bench, he lays limp on the grass for a moment or two longer. He was already injured, after all, and that fall certainly didn't help anything.

"Fffff--" He bites his tongue. "Imsorry...imsorryimsorry-" he stumbles back to his feet, muttering a few quick apologies as he struggles to stand once more.

He winces, a hand reaching for his hips and clutching against a particularly sore spot. "...Well. I can... do it now. It--" He hisses again. "Feels like every time I try, I never end up where I want to go. Oh... lord." He turns his attention to Declan, Oyl, and the others whose rest he had so rudely disturbing.

"My... apologies... sincerely. I shouldn't... have practiced an art I'm unfamiliar within the presence of... innocent civilians."
(Taiga Rowan)

Taiga Rowan asks, "...Hawke, who... who the hell is up there with you?"


Ethan Hawke asks, "Huh?"

Ethan Hawke says, "I can't hear you from down there, Taigay."

Taiga finally makes his way up to Ethan after sprinting up the stairs, and he seems exhausted from the short jaunt after having absolutely annihilated his mana circuitry with that Wayfinding circle. Inefficient and inaccurate? Maybe that flourish was to hide the fact that he was still terrible at the art in truth. "Al...Alright... Hawke!"

He clears his throat.

"You saw that! All six circles... functional! ...In...some capacity. That is the progress I've made since we've last spoken! I bet... when you were learning it took you... YEARS to reach that level of... expertise!"
(Taiga Rowan)

Taiga is panting between every word, pretty much.
(Taiga Rowan)

Ethan scratched his cheek, looking towards Taiga in a manner that seemed to indicate he didn't understand a bit of what the boy was saying, or maybe he was just intentionally playing dumb. Regardless, the blue-haired man spoke up.

"It took me about a bit over a year to properly be able to use it. Five years later there wasn't much left for me to learn."

Harsh. True. Disheartening.
(Ethan Hawke)

Taiga crosses his arms.

"...Regardless. ...I do want... to seek your advice once more." He pipes down a bit, speaking in a far less excited, more respectful tone. His adrenaline often got the best of him, that much was clear by how impatient he was to start showing off, but he knows when to take things a bit more delicately.

"You saw my progress. I can form the circles... but there's often tiny, imperceptible inaccuracies when it comes to the execution. They work. But not always in the way I want them to. Did you experience similar troubles, when you were learning...?"
(Taiga Rowan)

Ethan Hawke says, "Yeah."


Ethan Hawke says, "My book's got tons of notes on that, in fact."

Ethan Hawke says, "But-"

Ethan Hawke says, "It's my book."

Ethan shrugged, moving closer to the young one. A hand was brought to his shoulder and a certain word of advice was offered. It wasn't much, but giving Taiga the answer right away was... not how he'd learn.

"Start with the fourth circle. Work using glyphs for the other circles, they're like cheating on a test."
(Ethan Hawke)

Taiga feels like his mind explodes.

For some reason, he had thought this to be an exact science of copy/paste precisely how things were written in the books. Without a single alteration aside from what was absolutely necessary. If he put a glyph in the wrong place he would scream and start from step one. Heavens forbid if he stole one from another circle! But Ethan's methodology cracks these misconceptions wide open. Wayfinding, after all, was an art of ultimate freedom.

To go wherever he pleased, however he pleased, using whatever method was easiest and available. It was working smarter, not harder. His hardheaded showoff attitude had blinded him to this truth the entire time, and Ethan showed him the pearly gates and cracked them wide open in a few simple words.

Those gleaming crimson eyes alight.

"...I.... see..." he seems flabbergasted.
(Taiga Rowan)