One Power Creativity and Skill - Lesson 1

[Muirenn]

OOC: I will be not be grading on whether or not you can do the tasks set forth, but by how well you RP them. I expect most of you to have some trouble with these things, unless you are already fully Aes Sedai, and even then, not all sisters have a high skill level. The tasks are meant to be ICly challenging for you. I will also be posting the required elemental and skill levels neccessary to do each lesson. I think that you will each enjoy this class, and I hope that you can have some fun with it.

 

IC:

 

Muirenn adjusted the red-fringed shawl on her shoulders before walking into the first day of her Creativity with the One Power class. While it was certainly not the first time she had taught a class, each session she had a new group of students to impress. She opened herself to the warmth of saidar and used a slight tendril of Earth to undo the latching mechanism on the door and a gust of Air to blow it open. She walked into the classroom and over to her desk, where she used a small blade of Fire to warm her tea, apparantly she had waited a bit too long in the hall; it was cold. Looking around the room at the Accepted, she noticed one who had apparantly decided that sleep was a more interesting pasttime than this class, and had laid her head down on the desk. Muirenn smiled as she flicked the girl’s ear with Spirit and Air. “Thank you for joining us today,” she said, as the girl colored in embarrassment.

 

Turning to the rest of the class she said, “I am Muirenn Sedai, of the Red Ajah. Some of you I recognize from my Ethics class, but there are quite a few unfamiliar faces here today. I would like for each of you to stand up and introduce yourself to me and the rest of the class. Tell me your name, where you are from, and something interesting about yourself. I would also like to know to which Ajah you are aspiring, if you know.” She waited for each girl to answer before going on, “This is the Creativity and Skill with the One Power class. Everything you saw me do as I came in is within the ability of each of you. They are simple tricks that come with long working with saidar. You don’t have to be strong in any of the Five Powers to accomplish anything we do in this class. In fact, today’s lesson is going to be on improving your skill with your weakest element.

 

Now, I’m sure that for many of you, your weakest element is either Fire or Earth, so we will start with those.” As she spoke, she wove two small threads of Fire and caused them to rotate around each other in a double helix. “Now, as you can see, this is a relatively simple exercise. The challenge is not to let the two strands touch. If you lose your concentration, you will not be able to keep them apart.” She allowed her control to falter slightly, and the two red threads immediately combined to one. “See? Now it is almost impossible to separate them again, and you will have to start over.” She demonstrated the technique with each of the Five Powers, finishing with two green strands of Water, which she allowed to continue rotating over her outstreched palm while she spoke. “Now, I would like each of you to practice with this. You may start with the Power in which you are the strongest, to get the feel for the exercise. Then, continue with each until you can perform the trick with your weakest element. I will be walking around the room to monitor your progress. Feel free to ask any questions.” (OOC: Elemental: 1, Skill: 14)

 

After she was satisfied the all the girls had the basic elemental control needed, she moved on to the next exercise. “Now that you all have a feel for your weakest element, I would like to move on to practical applications. Being able to work with a specific element is all well and good, but you need to be able to apply your knowledge. I would like each of you to find something that you can do with your weakest element.” She gestured to the assortment of candles, rocks, potted plants, quills, paper, and various other objects strewn atop a table. “These are the objects at your disposal. I would like to see what you come up with. And as you are all Accepted now, I expect it to be above a novice’s trick of lighting a candle.” (OOC: you can do just about anything. just make sure that it is within the range of knowledge of the Accepted; Elemental: 1-2, Skill: 14-16)

 

Satisfied that they could each complete the assignment, she continued her lecture, “Finally, we will work on splitting flows. This is something that takes a great amount of skill to learn, so do not be frustrated if you cannot yet accomplish it. It is much easier to split the flow of one element, rather than attempt to use more than one at a time.” To demonstrate, Muirenn used Fire to light three torches she had left on the back wall for exactly this purpose, and then Water to snuff them out again. She noted that a few of the girls looked as though their eyes were about ready to pop out of their heads and she allowed herself a smile, “Don’t worry, I won’t be asking you to do that just yet. What I did is probably not even within the realm of possibility for most of you. I have never seen an Accepted who could split a flow three ways, and there are even Aes Sedai who cannot.” She saw the girls relax and smiled again, gesturing to the two candles she had placed on each girl’s desk, “I would like you to practice this by lighting both candles at the same time, then causing them to go out at the same time. It is all right if you are not able to on the first try, there is no shame.” She walked around the room as the girls practiced, helping out where she saw need. (Fire: 2, Air: 2, Skill: 22)

 

After each girl had successfully split her flows at least once, she continued, “Next, and lastly, we will work on using two separate flows at once.” She lit two of the torches and then snuffed those out at the same time she lit the third. She reversed the process by snuffing out the lit torch while lighting the other two. She made sure that each of the girls had seen her using the two separate flows of Fire and Air at the same time. “You may use Water or Air or even Spirit to snuff out your candles,” she explained, “Whichever is easiest for you. Now practice with your candles. Light one, and then douse it while at the same time lighting the second. If you cannot do this at all, it is all right. Just give it your best effort.” (Fire: 2, Air/Water/Spirit: 2, Skill: 26)

 

Assignment: RP doing the lesson. If you have any questions, IC or OOC, please feel free to ask!

 

Next lesson: Keep it small

 

-Muirenn Lina Alianin

Aes Sedai of the Red Ajah

[Lih-Lyh]

OOC: Ignore. This is here to make posting convenient for Saline. OP score: (Earth: 5, Air/Fire/Water/Spirit: 6, Skill: 33)

 

IC: Silver and Blue thread whizzed past her ear and tapped at the Accepted behind her with stunning accuracy, eliciting a gasp as the lass flushed, realising where she was. Cutting her eyes to the front of the hushed class, Saline pulled gently clenching hands away from twirling with her curls, folding them unto each other attentively, nervously perspiring into her lap. The hem of her dress hiked up, but she dared not smooth it in case the motion drew the formidable gaze of the Red Sister introducing herself.

 

When it came the students' turn, the Taraboner was glad that she did not chose to sit by the door, for it was where Muirenn Sedai indicated should speak. Few of the lasses she recognised from a course here or there; for dear Rossa she ventured a serrupticious smile at before bending over her desk, grateful for that haircut - glad, glad, glad that her beads would not chatter in front of the Aes Sedai.

 

A small class meant personal attention. Attention from Muirenn was not something Saline would willingly pit her strength on. She was the product of Tower Guard Lyssa's strenuous training, enhanced with an earlier waking, and endorphins from running about the grounds disappated after an intense bout of being whacked with the lathe over and over and over again like some sadistic gauntlet. Drained. That could be her interesting fact.

 

All desire to sleep vanished as the eyes lit briefly on her.

 

"I am Saline Wastrel from Elmora, Tarabon. Recently training to fight with a scimitar in hopes of keeping fit." Hands fluttered up, smoothing her dress into proper place. She had debated not answering the last, but why be shamed of her aspirations? It was not as if she would falter from what was right, not after her Mentor's death. Perine Sedai had not only been an instructor to her. She was also a sturdy friend, a wise confident, a patient sister, a surrogate mother. Many of the same facets could be observed in her beloved roommate Syara. Syara was a Novice, but borne the courage of a troupe of lions. For you, Perine Caval. "Red Aspirant."

 

Oddly, her voice did not shake; it sounded calm. The eyes roamed on to unsettle the lass next to her, now standing. Blanching the Accepted pronounced in a thick Murandian accent, brown eyes quivering less than her words, "My name is Amber Mantle of Lugard. I used to work in an apothecary there." A stubborn jut of the chin. "Aspiring to Yellow."

 

Heaving relief, one that was shortlived as the Red Sister struck at their hearts with "improving your skill with your weakest element", the focus of the exercises in this lesson.

 

Deftly, Muirenn Sedai twined two Red threads so closely Saline's mind boggled that the Fire did not merge, until it did. She sketched crudely, with the artistic ability of something dead, but it delineated the technique the Red Sister demonstrated.

 

Ex. 1: Not to let the two strands touch. Once they touch there is no way to separate them. Keep them apart. [Elemental]

 

Her quill danced slowly across the parchment, recording in careful script (for she had been improving her penmanship ever since taking on literacy tutoring for Aurora) what her expectations were as well. After several years around channellers, practicing control, Saline had a fairly decent grasp of her weakness.

 

OOC: I will continue this.

[Guest nephitess]

IC: Sitting in her seat Zeveria looked around and observed those entering the room. A few rows over a newly raised accepted was having trouble keeping her eyes open. A commotion at the door caused her attention to move to the front of the class. The door had been pushed open with a gust of wind..Veria was sure it was done with the power, she could see the weaving.

 

“That new girl better stay awake...” she thought to herself.

 

After introductions and a humiliating incident for the new accepted, the teacher moved on with the class.

 

“This is the Creativity and Skill with the One Power class. Everything you saw me do as I came in is within the ability of each of you. They are simple tricks that come with long working with saidar. You don’t have to be strong in any of the Five Powers to accomplish anything we do in this class. In fact, today’s lesson is going to be on improving your skill with your weakest element.

 

Now, I’m sure that for many of you, your weakest element is either Fire or Earth, so we will start with those.” As she spoke, she wove two small threads of Fire and caused them to rotate around each other in a double helix. “Now, as you can see, this is a relatively simple exercise. The challenge is not to let the two strands touch. If you lose your concentration, you will not be able to keep them apart.” She allowed her control to falter slightly, and the two red threads immediately combined to one. “See? Now it is almost impossible to separate them again, and you will have to start over.” She demonstrated the technique with each of the Five Powers, finishing with two green strands of Water, which she allowed to continue rotating over her outstretched palm while she spoke. “Now, I would like each of you to practice with this. You may start with the Power in which you are the strongest, to get the feel for the exercise. Then, continue with each until you can perform the trick with your weakest element. I will be walking around the room to monitor your progress. Feel free to ask any questions.” (OOC: Elemental: 1, Skill: 14)

 

Opening herself to the source Veria concentrated on what Muirenn Sedai had instructed them. Pulling out a few brown threads of earth, Veria started to rotate the threads above her left hand. At first the act of rotating them in small movements was difficult but got easier as she continued the exercise Eventually Veria had the threads siting around each other in a spiral. Smiling at her spinning threads Veria changed elements. Calling up two threads of fire she tried to do the same exercise. Her fire threads kept spilling into each other.

 

'Concentrate!' she thought

 

Focusing a little harder she could see the threads fray at the ends. Stopping the threads motion she let them merge and stand straight. Bringing her right hand to the top of the spiller, she took her pointer finger and created and split down the middle of the red pillar. Now that Veria had two threads, she made a twisting motion with her hand and sent the threads spinning. Smiling once more she nodded and let the threads go after a few more moments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“Now that you all have a feel for your weakest element, I would like to move on to practical applications. Being able to work with a specific element is all well and good, but you need to be able to apply your knowledge. I would like each of you to find something that you can do with your weakest element.” She gestured to the assortment of candles, rocks, potted plants, quills, paper, and various other objects strewn atop a table. “These are the objects at your disposal. I would like to see what you come up with. And as you are all Accepted now, I expect it to be above a novice’s trick of lighting a candle.”

 

Tyeing the items on the table she decided to take the rock. Sitting back down in her seat she placed the rock on the desk. The rock was flat and pourus, mailable.

 

“I could carve this with a thin fire thread. Maybe a flower.”

 

Focusing her mind she called up a thread of fire. Thinning it out to a point, Veria touched the rock lightly with the heat of the thread. A small tendril of smoke rose from the rock. After about ten minutes Veria finished her crude sketch of a tulip. After her instructor saw what she had done she waited for the next set of instructions.

 

OOC: I'll be a copy cat and finish this off soon.

[Muirenn]

Dulcinea arrived a few minutes early for her first lesson in Creativity and Skill with the One Power. She was simply exhausted from the chores she had been assigned this morning. Having a banded hem apparently did not mean that she would be let off on light duty. She folded her arms on the desk in front of her and lay her head down, just for a moment while she waited for the others to arrive.

 

She was awakened suddenly, and quite forcefully, by a sharp flick against her ear. She slapped her hand up, and heard an amused voice thanking her for joining this class. She could feel the color rising to her cheeks. She looked around sheepishly, noting that the rest of the students, and the teacher, had indeed arrived after she'd dozed off. She sat straighter in her chair, determined to not let such a thing happen again.

 

At her turn, Dulcinea stood smoothly, pulling on all those generations of genteel breeding and said in a voice that still bore a trace of Tear, "I am Dulcinea Velasques, of Tear." By now, she knew better than to claim the titles her nobility bestowed. She had tried to do so for some years as a novice, but that had quickly and firmly been stopped. "I enjoy riding, and once as a girl I convinced a visiting Saldaean soldier to show me some of the easier tricks they know from saddleback," she said briskly. That should be interesting enough... "I have only just made the passage through the Arches, and do not know enough about the Ajahs to choose one." The words seemed to satisfy the Aes Sedai, who nodded and moved on to the next girl.

 

When Muirenn Sedai told them that the lesson would be on working with one's weakest element, Dulcinea was intrigued. Rarely did she get to do much work with Earth, her weakest by a hair. Perhaps now that she was Accepted, she would be given more lattitude. Perhaps. The exercise looked simple enough, but was much more difficult that it appeared. She started with two thick yellow strands of Air, unable to make them as thin as Muirenn's. She twisted them slightly, and they promptly curled around one another into one fat strand. Dulcinea sighed and let them dissapate, then tried again. This time, knowing what to expect, she was able to make the two strands spin gently around one another. Pretty, she thought, and let them go, moving on to Spirit. She was able to make these spin as easily as the first, and then Fire and Water also with little difficulty. Earth was a bit more of a challenge, but not by much. She had always been close in ability with the five Powers.

 

For the next challenge, Dulcinea stared at the items on the table glumly. She was never very good at being creative. While sorting through them, however, she did manage to find a small, rough, blue rock that she thought might be an uncut sapphire. Now that was certainly interesting. She first used a weave of Earth to probe fro any internal flaws in the stone, and was disappointed right away when she found there were several large ones, making this completely unsuitable for the large brooch she had thought of for it. She immediately split the stone down those fault lines, and ended up with five much smaller pieces afterward. She then changed her weave, and began to Polish and Shape the first stone alternately, until she had a small sapphire sphere. And it was actually recognizeable as a gemstone. She was inordinately pleased with herself. It was highly unlikely that she would be able to cut proper faces into it, but there were likely some gemcutters in the city who could. She wondered if Muirenn would let her keep it. Doubtful. It was probably valuable. Now. So much for her efforts.

 

The next exercise was much more interesting. She had never before tried to split her flows. Dulcinea knew that it would be one of the things she was to learn as an Accepted, but she hadn't thought it would come so soon. She lit both her candles, but hard as she tried, she was unable to do both at once. She came close, once, when she lit one only a hair behind the other. She did even more abysmally when trying to use two seperate elements, and didn't even manage to replicate her marginal success. She felt like an untrained novice again, and was glad when Muirenn called an end to the futility dismissing the class. She had been assigned the task of practicing more this evening until she could get it right. Small chance of that, she thought, irritated, as she carried the pair of candlesticks with her to her next lesson. There was simply not time to return to her room to put them away. She hoped she would not be punished for toting them around, apparently for no reason. But she knew she was sure to be if she didn't arrive on time for her next lesson.

 

-Dulcinea Velasques

Accepted

[Guest nephitess]

Continued:

 

IC: After Muirenn Sedai placed two candlesticks on each desk the red sister spoke...

 

“Finally, we will work on splitting flows. This is something that takes a great amount of skill to learn, so do not be frustrated if you cannot yet accomplish it. It is much easier to split the flow of one element, rather than attempt to use more than one at a time.” To demonstrate, Muirenn used Fire to light three torches she had left on the back wall for exactly this purpose, and then Water to snuff them out again. She noted that a few of the girls looked as though their eyes were about ready to pop out of their heads and she allowed herself a smile, “Don’t worry, I won’t be asking you to do that just yet. What I did is probably not even within the realm of possibility for most of you. I have never seen an Accepted who could split a flow three ways, and there are even Aes Sedai who cannot.” She saw the girls relax and smiled again, gesturing to the two candles she had placed on each girl’s desk, “I would like you to practice this by lighting both candles at the same time, then causing them to go out at the same time. It is all right if you are not able to on the first try, there is no shame.”

 

Feeling on familiar ground Veria nodded at this instruction. Veria had split flows before, she had read how to do so in a old book she found in the library. She had practiced in her room for a week until she got it. A few time she set her clothes on fire and once even her blankets. Smiling at the memory she turned to her assignment. Focusing her mind again she looked at her candle wicks. Drawing a thread of fire out she split the thread easily this time and set the wicks of her candles to burning. She then used water in the same way and snuffed them out. Doing this a few times she mastered the skill. Hearing Her teachers voice again Veria looked up from her work....

 

“Next, and lastly, we will work on using two separate flows at once.” the Red Sister lit two of the torches and then snuffed those out at the same time she lit the third. She reversed the process by snuffing out the lit torch while lighting the other two. She made sure that each of the girls had seen her using the two separate flows of Fire and Air at the same time. “You may use Water or Air or even Spirit to snuff out your candles,” she explained, “Whichever is easiest for you. Now practice with your candles. Light one, and then douse it while at the same time lighting the second. If you cannot do this at all, it is all right. Just give it your best effort.”

Turning back to her Candles....Veria concentrated on the power flowing through her. Calling up a thread of fire she light one candle. Holding the thread of fire, Veria focused on bringing up a thread of water. Holding both was a little slippery for Veria but as she held them she got used to the feeling. She then directed the two flows to there respective destinations. Touching the wicks with the flows she saw that she was able to light the one and douse the other.

 

' a useful skill' Veria thought to herself. Nodding with satisfaction...she continued to practice until their instructor dismissed the class.

 

OOC: I'll try to finish the other lesson soon :)