Kowa/Meria - Gravitational Pull

Meria Boucher waits quietly for Kowa's arrival, her mask turned towards the expansive heavens and her star globe hovering over her single, outstretched hand. The cards float around it slowly, evenly spaced and turning in an even rhythm, and even her breaths are carefully measured, slow and deep as she contemplates the rolling dark of the ocean. When Kowa approaches, she turns towards her, offering her the simplest of nods. "Good evening, Miss Brimaine."
Kowa Brimaine ambles over, ears rising as she breathes deep of sea air. "Good evening, Miss Boucher," is the answering nod, a smile lingering at her lips. "Beautiful night, is it not? The Ewer is bright these past suns."
Meria Boucher: It is, to both points. An auspicious set of stars for a lesson, to be certain - and for the creation of things, to weave and to secure, to stich this world into a tapestry of our own making. How have your days been since we last met?
Kowa Brimaine: "Long," is the honest answer, "Clinic business, the Observatorium, students of my own. I have looked forward greatly to putting those matters aside this evening. And yours? Are you well? Your fiance?"
Meria Boucher pauses slightly, her thoughts rendered unknowable by her mask and her generally even tone. "We've been well ourselves; he recently finished dealing with a rather irritable client, and we went out to celebrate not to long ago. This moon has been otherwise quiet - blessedly so."
Kowa Brimaine: "How wonderful. Quiet is underrated, especially these days, and peace is to be savored." A faint smile. "I - used one of your techniques recently, now that I recall. It had more startling results than anticipated."
Meria Boucher: Do elaborate. I am curious.
Kowa Brimaine leans on the railing, gazing at the stars. "An impromptu divination ritual under dire circumstances," she explains. "We were in an aetherially swamped environment and I needed insight on the whereabouts of a missing girl. The quick version of that ritual is rather rough as is, but I - spilt blood, as you did, to heighten it. The images were sharper, the afterimages likewise but lasting days after.
Meria Boucher nods once in understanding. "Ah, yes. The sky sings and its depths are fathomless; too easy is it to drown when your lifeblood is woven into the star's radiance. You are well now? Having done so often, I can - perhaps - offer you some advice regarding communion."
Kowa Brimaine: "I am well now," she confirms with a nod. "I am used to the perils of being chewed on by the cosmos, but a part of me...was not expecting such a voracious response. An /eagerness/, almost, to accept an offering that I was not sure it would want. I would welcome your counsel."
Meria Boucher: The sky wants all, Miss Brimaine, for the sum of everything shines within it. In the realm of all and all that may ever be, what room is there for... denial? Rejection? The sky shall swallow everything. It is indiscriminate. Your virtues and your sins... Regardless - first, I have a question for you. What is the most important side of a cube?
Kowa Brimaine 's brow furrows, Meria's words about rejection striking an odd note. "None, they are all identical and integral to its structure. I suppose a philosopher would say the side or sides facing you, but that seems a selfish answer."
Meria Boucher: Ah, but if it is impossible to view all sides of a cube at once... is it truly selfish to find the one in front of us the most important? Or is it simply knowing one's values? This world is a cube - six plus one. The sides and the interior. To feel the stars in ones blood is to become aware of multiple sides at once. Picture a conversation occuring at the edge of a soiree. One must tune out the sounds of the other partygoers to pay appropriate heed to one's conversational partner, yes?
Kowa Brimaine 's tail curls in thought. "So inviting in facets of awareness which would previously be a distraction, background overstimulation...often enough that such multi-sided attunement and balance of the mental burden becomes instinctive, allowing one to receive more of what the stars can offer."
Meria Boucher: Yes. And similarly, be able to draw boundaries around certain insights, understanding where they fall geometrically and summarily be able to turn them away or pull them into view as becomes necessarily. Hold the world within your hands. Learn to manipulate your viewpoint, so you are not distracted by the overwhelming summation of all. Also. Eat more fish and blueberries, and bring nuts with you when performing mentally taxing operations. They travel well and are extremely nutritious.
Meria Boucher: It helps the mind function well.
Kowa Brimaine: "One more person telling me to eat," is the murmur. "Very well. I have a rather extensive meditative regimen as is, but did you do anything special of your own when you began blood divination to make the process more efficient?"
Meria Boucher: It is difficult to describe the beginnings of my process - it is... imagine a linkpearl, imagine what it is like to listen to its frequency and then... let the noise fade into the background. I do something similar, to adjust myself to the appropriate way of thinking. When coming down from such rituals, I have a more easily articulated method.
Meria Boucher: Five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. List these, and reorient yourself with the world around you. ...It also helps in moments of panic.
Kowa Brimaine smiles faintly. "So often advice focuses on the process and not the after. It is wise to consider both. Thank you, Miss Boucher. I will keep you appraised of my progress." She turns her gaze to the mask, studying it. "Shall we speak of gravity?"
Meria Boucher: Indeed. Have you been doing any practice on your own? Not that I expect it; I'm simply wondering approximately where we should start.
Kowa Brimaine: "With mixed success," she replies. "I can hover a dagger more or less reliably, but my aim is still...problematic. In part because the driving force behind it is still lacking."
Meria Boucher nods. "There are multiple facets of gravitational control, and all are important to train. One is, as you mentioned, sheer force. You must practice efficient usage of aether, along with techniques for making a stationary object move. Another is accuracy. I primarily utilize daggers because I am very, very familiar with handling their weight. I can reliably make them go where I wish them to because I know exactly how much force to use, and similarly, I understand how to tailor said force to -
Meria Boucher: - the variety of environmental conditions you will be working in. Endurance is important as well, along with focus - to manipulate multiple objects at once, one must be able to maintain multiple simultaenous processes. I practice each facet using different drills. It makes progress easier to track, and breaking it into different categories makes improvement seem less overwhelming. Before I get into that though, how have you been practicing on your own?
Kowa Brimaine withdraws the dagger strapped to her thigh, holding it flat in the palm of her hand. "Nothing terribly formal, simply trying to imitate what I watched you do. It helps that gravity has always been on the edges of my awareness, but the large spell is malms away from these smaller manipulations - hence the trouble..." She trails off to concentrate, ears stiff, and the knife wobbles unsteadily into the air. "I am more used to using cards as projectiles. Special ones with sharpened edges."
Meria Boucher: Then perhaps you'd be better suited to starting there. Have you tested how much you can lift at once?
Kowa Brimaine: "Four daggers was the limit. As for my special cards, an entire deck."
Meria Boucher nods. "Very well. Lets do a few more precise tests. If you'll follow me..."
Meria Boucher has, by the edge of her fence, set up a variety of metal weights - each labelled in ponze and resting on the ground. The lightest is a single ponze; the heaviest she's provided is sixty.  "Try each one in turn - one repition, a fulm off the ground. That would be to the top of the first stone on the fence." She pauses. "I measured."
Kowa Brimaine nods, takes a measured breath, and begins The one, five, and ten ponze weights are lifted without much fanfare. The twenty ponze, however, begins to wobble dangerously and she makes a frustrated noise, letting it settle into the grass.
Meria Boucher: Very good. Do not over-exert yourself; it is better to do numerous, safe repitions of a smaller weight than strain against a large weight beyond your current ability. Let me see a bit more of your technique - raise the first weight five times, except be quick as you lift, and let it fall as slowly as you can.
Kowa Brimaine does better here: is used to aetherial control, enough that the fast-slow against a weight she can handle is a task well-completed at one and five ponze. At ten, she lifts and lowers evenly before transitioning into what Meria asked; though the speeds occasionally falter she manages on the whole. A deep breath. "I'd - like a moment."
Meria Boucher: "It's good to take rests. Here - " Meria reaches beneath her coat, withdrawing a water pouch and offering it to her. "Hydration is critical."
Kowa Brimaine accepts with a faint smile. "I imagine this is not the most riveting activity for you."
Meria Boucher: Hm? Well, to begin with, pay no mind to my own entertainment. I agreed to train you, after all. But secondly, I'm measuring your current abilities and... seeing how you control aether. It'll make it easier to give you applicable advice and suggest a suitable training regime.
Kowa Brimaine smiles faintly. "Thoughts, thus far?"
Meria Boucher: You have a thorough understanding of the basics. A perfectly performed movement at a lower weight is infinitely better than a shoddily executed manuever with a heavier one; the latter trains you improperly, and it also enforces habits that'll be detrimental to your growth.  This is a good position to be in - it means you can focus on improving the amount you can lift, which will strengthen your... how to put it - endurance, perhaps. As for more specifics... how much do you know about -
Meria Boucher: elemental affinities, Miss Brimaine? Of the cycle of life and the aetheric interplay between Gates?
Kowa Brimaine: "The gates themselves I understand well." Her aether swells, enveloping her in a sphere that shifts rapidly between the six aligments before dissipating. "Astral, umbral. Aetherial interplay between them, less so - I was trained by the Observatorium to treat them as distinct save the seventh gate that rules them."
Meria Boucher: Hm... Does the term 'Conquests' mean anything to you? Submissions?
Kowa Brimaine: "Not in the context I imagine you mean it. Why?"
Meria Boucher very carefully lets that particular comment lie. She is not emotionally ready for that kind of conversation with anyone. "The six nativities rule every aspect of our lives. Just as ice melts into water, so too do the first moons of our year flow into the ones presided over by Thaliak and Nymeia. In reverse, the Heaven of Ice - the Spear - is preceeded by the Heaven of Water, the Ewer. So does it go around the entire circle of the elementals. There are other relationships within that circle,
Meria Boucher - thought." Meria holds a fingertip to the air, drawing an invisible triangle as she speaks. "Lightning boils water, water erodes earth, and earth grounds lightning. This is the relationship of the Conquests. The second triangle exists between the Submissions," she begins a new shape. "...How fire melts ice, ice obstructs wind, and wind extinguishes fire. --Of course, these are all aetheric relationships that describe patterns in different forms of energy. Don't take it too literally when -
Meria Boucher - comes to physical forces." Meria finally pauses. "...Did any of that make sense?"
Kowa Brimaine hums, ears flicking. "So trios different from the poles based around function rather than nature. I see. Where are you taking me on this train of thought?"
Meria Boucher: Well. There is no particular aetheric attunement associated with gravitational forces. It is the... space between two objects. It is what defines their relationship; or, you could consider it to be the force defined by relationships. What those forces are, however... you are the one calling upon the powers of the Heavens. Wind, lightning, and fire - the aether held within the Arrow, the Spire, and the Bole - tends to skew Astral. Being active forms of energy, they're naturally inclined to -
Meria Boucher: - rise. Water, ice, and earth - the Ewer, Spear, and Bole - skew towards Umbral. They're naturally inclined to fall. By defining 'up' as 'towards the energy of the Spire' and 'down' as 'towards the energy of the Ewer', you aetherically operate within the system defined by the Conquests, and can use the Astral/Umbral balance to support a controlled descent more easily.
Meria Boucher: ...I can repeat any of that if necessary.
Kowa Brimaine: "But as the constellations turn, those proportions shift with them. The skies are not static - unless you mean 'up' being astral and 'down' being umbral? Associating those elemental energies with three-dimensional positions and thus fueling their movements on those axes?"
Meria Boucher nods, and then turns her attention to one of the weights. "Precisely. Lift towards the Spire - " The twenty ponze weight gracefully rises as she speaks. "And descend towards the Ewer. Not literally, but aetherically. Within the force they exert on each other, the humming space between... well, it's one way to think about the motion." Slowly, she lets the weight settle, thumping delicately onto the grass. "There's also a method that equates the push-pull dichotomy with Astral and Umbral -
Meria Boucher: - variations within the same Gate, such as Astral and Umbral water. That kind of process can be particularly useful on nights like tonight, where the Ewer calls particularly sweetly. As with all things within our field, we must adjust our methods to suit the arrangement of the heavens.
Kowa Brimaine: "Amazing," Kowa breathes, and for once her admiration is clear on her face. "You are amazing, you do know that, right?"
Meria Boucher looks away, fiddling with her hair in what can only assumed to be a subconscious gesture of embarrassment. "...I know what I know," she replies simply. "We all have our skills and our failings."
Kowa Brimaine shakes her head firmly. "What you know is groundbreaking. The Observatorium not taking you is their loss and it is a loss to the art itself."
Meria Boucher: It is - well. I am glad I can pass some of my insight on, then. This is... even in Sharlayan, my techniques didn't garner much interest. Anything with martial applications was looked down upon, at best. This is the first time I've spoken with anyone possessing an interest in my techniques who also has the skillsets to impliment them.
Kowa Brimaine: "Then I hope that I can one day give as much toy ou as you are so freely giving to me."
Meria Boucher: While the sentiment is welcomed, I don't live my life by the tenants of equivalent exchange. After all, how could someone possibly quantify the value of knowledge?
Kowa Brimaine: "Quite easily, if that knowledge can be of use."
Kowa Brimaine: "Whether that quantification is fair is another matter, but this is of great import to me. Therefore, you are owed an equivalent gift."
Meria Boucher: I'm more referring to the specificity of it. What I offer to you, what you offer to me... what we each offer to this star, and all others, as the aether flows around us and keeps it spinning - the value of it all is... fluid. Malleable. Still - it's been... enjoyable having someone to teach. And.
Meria Boucher sighs. "Isaudorel is extremely pleased I'm finally consenting to visiting a physician."
Kowa Brimaine , to her credit, manages to hide her amusement. "I am sure any doting partner would want to see their beloved in the best of health, yes."
Meria Boucher: He is an expert when he comes to fretting over my health. Probably a remnant of our youth, but it is a bit ludicrous when a mere cough has him fussing about the possibility of me taking ill.
Kowa Brimaine: "Lovers are like that. The good ones, anyway."
Kowa Brimaine 's smile is soft. "Speaking of, I should leave you to yours. The hour deepens."
Meria Boucher: It does. Yours may be missing you as well, and I think I've given you a fair bit to digest. I recommend doing routine drills to improve your strength and stamina - starting with a one ponze weight and working up as you grow stronger. Perhaps... Two sets of ten repetitions to begin with, taking a rest between each set, and increasing the weight and number of sets as you progress. Does that sound sensible to you?
Kowa Brimaine decidedly does not go any sort of rose at the mention of her lover. "Sensible, indeed." A bow. "Thank you, Miss Boucher."
Meria Boucher: Of course, Miss Brimaine. Thank you for the company, and keep yourself well.