2017-12-04: It Will Burn
- Log: It Will Burn
- Cast: Kahm Yugh, Elhaym van Houten
- Where: Gunsmoke Desert
- Date: 12/4/2017
- Summary: The Solarians spend a night camping out on the road, and Kahm asks Elly how her training in Ether has been progressing.
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Nights got reasonably cold in the Gunsmoke Desert, a fact Kahm had made reasonable anticipation for by purchasing additional clothes and bedding from November at the outset of their journey. The re-supply at El Pazzo had seen them stocked with another ten days of food while on the road, which was of grateful assistance when the distance between townships proved great enough that night or two spent camping sometimes proved necessary. The Major had directed the group to travel a mile or so off the road before setting up for the evening to avoid any unwanted encounters between night travelers, tying the horses to what they could find (in this case, a sturdy-looking cactus) and nailing down tents.
That led them to now. The stars shone brightly under a moonless sky, and there was little noise save for the occasional crackly and pop of a small campfire Kahm had set up, deeming it more useful to have some light to see anyone coming their way even if it did give them a little more exposure. The Major himself was keeping watch at the moment, with the rest of the officers asleep in their respective tents (as far as he knew, anyways). There was rough blanket around his shoulders, and he held his hands to the fire to keep them arm.
The relative peacefulness didn't make him complacent. The man's blue eyes shimmered in the dark, watchful and alert.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Ten whole days of food, Elly thought.
That's a long time.
Things kept on rolling. Moving that far from the road is not trivial even if it's not exactly a mass imposition when you're not hossing all your freight yourself. Elly has had cause to reflect on the fact that Filgaia is simply IMMENSE - and she hadn't fully realized that, before.
Elly is still fully dressed, of course, when she comes back from the horses, one of which had been pawing at the ground. "It was a scorpion," she tells Kahm, quietly. "I killed it."
A MOMENT AGO
The scorpion raises its claws in defiance at the huge white red-capped god above it. Tail raised, eyes agleam, shell glossy and new, it will sure -
CRUNCH
Elly flicks the remains off of her collapsible rod. Of course she wasn't going to STEP on it, she isn't STUPID.
HERE AGAIN
"Do you need anything, sir?"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm looked up as Elly returned from seeing to the horses, nodding at he report of successful arachnid eradication. He figured if it was a mutated giant one she would have called for back-up.
The Major's initial instinct was to clear her for rest, but the fire dancing in the corner of his eye reminded him of something.
"Have a seat for a moment, if you please." He said, gesturing to an open space by the fire. "It's been a while since you and I have had a chance to talk."
He'll wait a moment for to situate herself, then ask, "How is 'he' doing?"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly steps forwards, a pace, then two. She moves to sit down in a slightly cautious arrangement of skirting, finally coming down with her legs completely hidden by denim. It's probably pretty warm.
"Of course, sir," she says. Then the question.
"He is... stable, I think. He's been continuing to work as a drifter. His amnesiac situation hasn't improved... SLIDE-1 is being stored by the pirates, unfortunately, but from what they've said about it, I don't believe they're treating it as a subject for intensive study or duplication. That man, Bart, seems to think it's Fei's... personal property."
Her eyes turn to the fire. "... I've been developing background material and trying to build a rapport. I'm sorry that I couldn't do more, about the affair in Bledavik."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm leaned forward, nodding at various points as Elly broke down Fei's current state. The fire gleamed softly in his eyes, and he poked at a log with a nearby stick to keep the flames fed. "Hm. Interesting man, that Bart. I did hear he gave Commander Ramses a spot of trouble in the Bledavik incident."
While on the subject, he shook his head at the Lieutenant's apology. "Not a problem, Lieutenant. You had your cover to maintain, and the message you did get to us was key in mounting a quick plan of defense. You did well."
His eyes focused on the fire again, as if it held the answers to all the struggles set before them. "SLIDE-1...somehow, I feel like everything we're facing began the moment we stole it from Kislev. As if, unknowinlgly, we opened something we couldn't possibly hope to contain.."
It was hardly inspiring talk for a commanding officer. Kahm abruptly cleared his throat. "My apologies. It's been a trying few weeks." He said, and attempted to shift the subject. "How has your training been going?"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I haven't had much chance to speak with Bart, though he's been... surprisingly friendly, considering our status," Elly says. "But perhaps he's had the same thought we did." To wit: Maybe red here can be a double agent.
"Mm," she says, about SLIDE-1. Her eyes rest in the fire, and when she looks at Kahm there is a moment of bafflement -- is he talking about the FLUTE? she wonders, but - no - he means - Ah, yes, of course.
"Please don't think anything of it, sir," she tells Kahm, first. "I know it's difficult to get into new responsibilities on any level..." Sympathy? For her superior officer?? Is that allowed?? Well, who's going to stop her, a stray cactaur?
"I haven't been able to really stretch my boundaries. I've accompanied Fei or other Yggdrasil affiliates on local investigations several times, but they've had the situations more or less under control. But I've kept up with the mental exercises."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm certainly didn't seem of a mind to reprimand Elly on her forbidden display of emotion, but then how often had he corrected the younger officer at all? It had been on his mind lately...he'd certainly provided guidance and direction where necessary, but the thought of 'correcting' her the way he had Lieutenant Voss had scarcely ever occurred to him.
Then again, she wasn't much in the habit of saying things that made Kahm's fist itch, either.
"I see." Kahm said at last, eyes checking over the redhead's shoulder every now and then in the name of keeping watch. "Let's see how much they've paid off then. You deployed your talents creatively and adaptively beneath Wayside, so I think you're up for it."
The Major gestured towards the campfire, burning and snapping as it was-wild, yet under control. "Compress the flame to a point of about...this." He said, making a circle with his thumb and forefinger about the size of a single gella coin. "I'm sure you know this, but the pressure will raise the temperature dramatically. It will fight you, but you'll need to maintain your concentration and form."
A smirk gleamed at the edge of his lips now, and one might get insight in the kind of things Kahm found entertaining. "That's the easy part. The hard part will be reversing it so we have a camp fire again and not a brush fire. Think of it tensing and untensing a muscle, probably the best analogy I can give."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly had to learn to be easy to get along with.
This is harder. "Um!" she says, as she's put on the spot, but beyond that one verbalization of surprise, she doesn't talk back. There is a moment of sucking on her teeth and shifting in place, but that's probably standard-issue focusing in. She was squashing a horrible bug a minute ago. It's a different kind of gear.
So to speak.
"... I understand. Ah." Her brow furrows slightly, staring at the fire now with intention, with focus. The fire flickers without much effect right away. Then it seems to die down.
No, not really. The flame is drawing inwards. Gray ash is visible, on the wood that has been charred but not badly burned or fully carbonized yet. The contracture wobbles, but the trend is inwards. Elly breathes with effort and focus.
It's taking her a moment. Several, really. Maybe she's trying not to choke.
"... it was interesting, in El Pazzo, wasn't it? I suppose my manners weren't their best," she says, not looking away from the fire. She silences herself after that, the compression now reaching the point where it resembles a tiny, mostly-concealed glow lamp, the flickering a little stronger. One of the sticks suddenly sags forwards, trailing a ragged edge of smouldering charcoal.
"It feels like it's dying. Is it because - it's using up all the oxygen...? I could put it out this way, I think..."
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm watched, not just the fire, but the Lieutenant herself as she invoked her will, gauging not just the visual phenomenal but the ineffable, sensory output discernible whenever someone channeled ether. It was interesting...he'd never quite felt anything like Elly's particular etheric signature, so to speak. The closest example he could think of was a recent one, and not something he cared to explore just now.
"I don't think the Black Ties are known for their good manners." He said, eyes unwaveringly fixated. "But it was...interesting, yes. They almost felt like..."
Like what? Friends? A family? A cult?
"A unit." He finished the sentence. It had reminded him a bit of the mess halls the enlisted tended to gather in.
She voiced hers doubt, and he had an answer for it. "Conventionally, yes. You could snuff it out, or you could separate oxygen from the air and feed it to sustain the reaction, or build it. Envisioning the natural processes will give you greater control, but focusing on it exclusively will restrict. You'll be more powerful if you can apply both schools of thought when you need them. Natural law dictates the flame should die without material to burn. Etheric law says if you want it to burn, then it will burn.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly's control is perhaps not the most perfect in the world, but it is steady and calm. She is already learning from this experience, which probably had never occured to her - even the hoary trick of putting out a candle wasn't exactly something that happens in Jugend training. There are no candles, you see.
"It's funny. They're welcoming, in a way. I can compare them to those pirates, I suppose... though it's been harder to make my way into their affections. I was fortunate, with the temple..."
She listens then, not looking away from the fire.
Elly's eyes narrow.
Nothing happens for about two seconds, and then Elly breathes in.
If Kahm is looking - feeling - then the sense of a sort of 'mesh' shifts around. In a way, what Elly is doing is LIKE building simple shapes of certain materials, a more complicated and advanced form of the simple and fixed visualizations they teach to every mediocre idiot and drive-head in the corps. Spheres. Cubes. What Elly imagines resembles a pot-bellied stove with a slit in the front and a tube upwards.
The fire suddenly shifts to an intense blue and a sharp if localized breeze forms up, pulling dust and stray ash inwards. That in turn dims the fire, although the heat is enough that anything coming out is far too hot to appear as smoke. At least, down here.
"Hah! He'd love this, wouldn't he? Mr. Hauch, I mean," Elly says, glancing aside, which is exactly when the fire flares up, still blue, and then puts itself out because the wood she was 'burning' has been calcined to carbon residue, and without the focus on the Ether pattern, it is so much glorified cremains.
"... Oh!"
<Pose Tracker> Kahm Yugh has posed.
Kahm is not terribly great at small talk, but he could at least be a good listener-a byproduct of his habit of always paying attention to his surroundings. He hears Elly talk, but doesn't respond to anything beyond a generally affirmative grunt at the comparison of Bart's pirates and Kent's honkytonk crew of neer-do-wells.
His eyes followed the shape and structure of the flame as Elly took the advice to heart, perceiving the shape of her will and in a fashion reverse-engineering the methodology she was employing. It was true-square and cubes were the most basic, fundamental shapes, devised and taught in Jugend specifically because they had the widest applicability possible. This was more advanced, the sort of thing special corps existed to take advantage of.
The Major lifted his hand to ward the sudden spike in heat when flamed turned blue, nodding in appreciation all the while knowing the inevitable result. It wasn't quite what he asked for at the start, but it was definitely progress.
"Heh, you're probably right." He admitted, trying to imagine the perverse glow Kent got in his eyes whenever something was aflame (why would he think about that?!). "Best not show this off around him, otherwise you'll have him asking for demonstrations all the time."
As was ordained, the intense burn saw the flame snuffed out before the exercise could conclude. "Yes, that's what we call mission creep." Kahm observed, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "But you showed good ingenuity in the shape. That's important. Keep working at it as you have the opportunity, and you'll keep growing. I've already seen a good deal of progress since the last time."
It was all towards a purpose. Kahm could keep a presence around Lieutenant Voss, but Van Houten's mission increased her exposure. If Azazel found her...she'd need the tools to survive.
The Major considered that, as his eyes settled on the young woman's face.
"No worries, i'll just start another fire. Get yourself some rest, Lieutenant. We'll pack up at dawn."