Scene #666: Magic Lessons 101

Owner	Pose
Iianor	Somewhere unlisted ... Okay. Well. Very listed in the Union Capital Station, is a studio. A studio from which magic flows like water, a studio which is very popular with all of it's neighbors which happen to enjoy enriched enviornments. A studio that has a painting which Shirou just stepped into... ...And unlike the last time when he was gated here, the sudden rush of motion that follows in it's wake is a bit more disorienting... ...It starts by going through the forest as before, but this time a moment later it's like you rush up into the sky, circle around a field of stars, and go zipping out past the massive core of a galaxy, out to it's very edge, past a sea of billions upon billions of stars before your deposited on a planet... ...A mostly dark planet, where an archmage and a giant dragon rest watching the core of the galaxy as it goes rising over the edge of the planet's horizon. "Hello young mage. I trust you're ready to get started?"
Emiya Shirou	What is with all of the rushing through everything?! Shirou's response to the disorienting travel is some amounts of fear mixed in with wonder. Probably nothing too unusual for the Archmage. No matter how welcoming the place is, one cannot be awed without acknowledging the terror that's part of that emotion, can they? So his knees are somewhat wobbly when he lands on the planet. He stumbles awkwardly, but leans forwards with hands on his knees, then raises. "what a trip..." Standing tall then, Shirou locks his gaze on Iianor as if this is the first time he's seeing him. After an experience like THAT... he can't help but wonder, just what he's actually gotten himself into. But what choice does he have? "...yeah. Man, you don't do anything in halves, do you?"
Iianor	Iianor chuckles softly, "That's because you're now at the outer edge of this galaxy. I could just will you here but..." He shrugs and reaches over to lightly stroke the Dragon's head before standing, "But do you really want to miss out on the journey to try and achieve some kind of instant results?" Glowing green eyes focus on Shirou, "And you really wouldn't want me to teach you just half of how to use your powers, now would you?"
Emiya Shirou	"G-galaxy." Shirou's defeated. Utterly defeated. Nothing Kiritsugu said could ever prepare him for this, and he's already spent over a week in this crazy Multiverse. This is beyond even True Magic, he's sure of it. Which means he might have stumbled upon the Multiverse's best archmage. If there is anyone SUPERIOR TO THIS... well, he can't guess what they'd be like. "... yes, and no. There's things I need to be able to do quickly. But I'm not stupid enough to think anything can be obtained just like that." He answers quickly. Images of Leyte's recent rampage are fresh enough in his memory to prompt that answer! "er, yes to the former. But really, anything yo can teach me is more than I began with."
Iianor	Iianor reaches over to Emiya and gently pokes him in the shoulder, "The problem with instant knowledge is that it's full of holes. And if it's not full of holes then..." He shakes his head, "It's either got a price tag attached that no one wants to pay, or worse... ...What's given instantly can be taken away just as rapidly." He smiles slightly as the dragon leans around his shoulder to gaze at Shirou for a few moments, then puts her head back down... ...Apparently napping again. "So tell me about this, reason you want to learn. Tell me about what you've been tought traditionally, give it to me in about ... oh ... a hundred words or less." He grins slightly, "After you do that, we'll start talking about the various things that you can make weapons from, and how best to abuse them."
Emiya Shirou	"...Ergh... yeah. I'm not that crazy, Iianor. You can't obtain anything without hard work." There's more depth in those words than most would manage to inject. Such is the devotion of someone who's spent almost every night nearly killing themselves for litle gain, and at least his well-trained body is visual proof of SOMETHING. He makes a sheepish face at the poking, though his gaze wanders across the dragon... really, a dragon. Only now can he pay it much mind, after that amazing journey. "Well... to be honest, I've been trying to become... you might as well call it a superhero." He sounds a bit embarassed by the word, but there's no doubting the honesty of those words. "... It's something I decided on a long time ago, but the Multiverse made it even more important. I came way too close to death several times now, and there's more awful things happening every week." "...Um... the only magic I was ever taught was how to Reinforce things. Fill them with prana to augment them. Making a wall stronger, or eyes see farther. Until recently I had a really bad success rate... under one percent. I was told not to bother with Projection since it's relatively inefficient..." And yet, well, look at the other day. That did NOT seem inefficient. Shirou makes a confounded face after saying that. He doesn't get it either.
Iianor	Iianor considers for a moment then with a gesture, a number of tools, weapons, objects of various types, armor bits, and other strange nicknacks appear in front of him, and around Shirou in piles. "First you're going to enhance all of these until they're ... incapable of holding any more energy. Second, how many magical circuts do you have?" He pauses for a moment, "And how used to using them are you?"
Emiya Shirou	THINGS ARE APPEARING. Shirou glances all about at the things clanking to the ground with... just a wave of his hand? Whoah. Consider him amazed. He even gapes a little. All that with just a GESTURE? "... Erm... 27. I thought I just had one, and making it was pretty painful, but something weird happened the first time I pushed them here. Whatever it was threw my body for a loop, but it's gotten better. Now it's like I can switch them on... but I've still not used them a lot. I've probably used more prana in the last few weeks than in my whole life before now." It's really, REALLY no joke. He reaches down to swipe up a knife and turn it about, examine it. "Reinforce these?"
Iianor	Iianor nods, and narrows his eyes at Shirou, the glow inside them increasing just a bit. "Yes. I'll feed you energy, so you don't need to worry about that, I want you to pour energy into the specific attribute of each item that calls out to you the most." He pauses for a moment, then grins slightly, "You have a lot more then just one circut you know? And that's just the physical circut that I'm talking about. More can be added metaphysically and new patterns can be grafted on to make things easier."
Emiya Shirou	Glowing eyes. Mystic eyes? And crazy claims. But with everything he's seen so far... how can Shirou doubt this being? "G-graft and change the circuits? You mean like a proper Magus' 'Magic Crest'? ...That sounds painful... but do you really think you can? ... how do you know so much about Magic Circuits? The Servants?" Shirou asks out of curiosity, before nodding and closing his eyes to focus. "Trace, on." Switching on the Magical Circuits is indeed easy. But he has so little energy without Iianor's help, compared to his capacity. Only a tenth of his capacity is full, and this seems to be the norm. For the knife, he'll focus on durability. Sharpness can't be changed without changing the shape, after all. Exhaling, he puts forth the attempt. His prana flows in through the handle, worming its way up through the 'cracks' in the object's structure and filling in. The flow isn't exactly steady, but it completes in just a second after a few seconds to study it. It's an amateur job. But at least the knife didn't snap or anything. It came close!
Iianor	Iianor smiles slightly, "Something like that. Magic is the power outlet. Your magical circuts are the wires that you use to connect the power out to the light bulb. And your spells are the light bulb." He chuckles, "Now, you can craft the glass for the light bulb, and all of it's myriad parts seperately each time, which is, as I understand it, what you've been doing or..." He gestures, and a series of runes appear in the air around him, "You can pick a lightbulb at will and choose to power that one, or you can have a large number of lightbulb parts, lenses, and back-reflectors handy, and instead of making each part through your own power, simply put together the parts you need for said spell, and then power that." He shrugs, "And I know about your world's version of magic because I've studied so much of magic across the Multiverse, Heh... Many of my children go out to places unknown just to learn new and fascinating things, and of course they pass it back to me."
Emiya Shirou	"..." Shirou takes a few moments to ponder over that given idea. "I see. Like a shortcut or an engine that you just need to put gas in! It would make things easier... yeah, that analogy works." he's not gona stop being amazed at how well Iianor is talking shop with him, when he's barely aware how to describe these things to begin with! Speaking of light bulbs, Shirou actually grabs one of those next. No chant this time, he's already in the mindset. But this time... A few seconds pass... BANG! The glass fails, being more fragile in some ways than metal. And since it's a lightbulb.... well... vacuum. "Gah!" He drops the base in a hurry just out of pure reflex.
Iianor	Iianor smiles slightly then reaches forward to brush any remaining glass off of Shirou, "You couldn't cut yourself with it if you tried." He considers the shattered glass for a moment then shrugs as it vanishes from existence, "Try this instead." A glass sword hangs in the air in front of Shirou, "And tell me. Of the dagger, the lightbulb, and this... ...What parts of them called to you?" Shirou would feel a constant flow of energy into his body, it's gentle... ...Almost more like it's life energy then it is magical energy. Or at least it resonates in time with the user like life energy, and is far more stable then just merely magical energy is.
Emiya Shirou	"...I can't? But it's glass!" Shirou protests, more shocked by that then by the invasion into his personal space. he can just force down the awkward on that, this is way too promising to fret about the small things! "Hmmm..." And now he finds a glass sword hovering out in front of him. A... glass sword. He boggles. Then reaches out to take it. "... I was focused on the knife's blade and the bulb's glass dome." He answers simply. They were the most obvious parts. "Durability for both. I wanted to keep it simple for the first few... and there's not much you can do with a knife." But glass... a glass sword. He feels like this is some kind of trick... Or it would, but he's feeling way too full of energy for any thought like that to bother him! "Whatever you're doing, I've never felt so much energy before... how...?" No, he'll focus on the task first. With this power, it's easier to channel too... So he focuses on the glass sword. A glass blade, man, that's an awful choice of material. Swords are good because they have some give. Glass just shatters, unless it's specially made. It's brittle, despite technically being a 'liquid,' in some weird way. He takes a good ten seconds longer to decide what to do this time. Prana flows into the weapon quickly, filling it out from within! The focused qualities? Some durability, but mostly into its give and flexibility. A glass edge is already plenty sharp!
Iianor	Iianor frowns slightly, "So there were no parts of them that simply called out to? Felt more natural then others?" He shrugs slightly, "Well... It is true that you're working within the items limitations..." His lips curl into a slight smile and an image of a rune appears in front of Shirou, "Can you enhance the existence of this onto the blade?"
Emiya Shirou	"Hrmngh... called out to me..." That question takes Shirou by surprise. He's never thought about things like that before. "... I was definitely thinking most about the knife's blade... nothing about the bulb really stood out at all. Figuring out something's structure isn't really hard if I'm touching it... though, I guess swords just easily grab my attention." He mutters. Swords, swords, swords, everything's always swords. It doesn't bother him, but it's surely boring for others. "Though yeah. There's a line between Reinforcement and actual Alteration... mh?" The rune appears before him, cutting off his speech. Alteration. He's experimented with it a few times, but not to any serious results. Again his brow furrows with focus. A part of the blade, down near the hilt, glows slightly and the glass sort of melts and reshapes as if scooped into a new position. The rune is 'carved' and surrounded by a ridge. The new shape's enforced by prana - it won't last forever. "Like that?" He himself looks, checking his work. He frowns at it though.
Iianor	Iianor smiles slightly. "There more affinity you have with something... ...the more likely parts of it are going to tell you to enhance them, if you can listen..." He leans forward to look at the rune, before he nods, "There is indeed a difference between the two... ...Though not so much as you would think if you're enhancing the reality of something." A pause, "If you enhance the existence of something to the point that it has to exist, it does." He gestures at the rune, "That means fire and strength." The Dragon behind him opens an eye and yawns silently, positioning her head to watch the scene a bit better. Iianor continues, "I want you to put power into that rune, invoke it. It's a preshaped spell... ...If you can do that... And if we can find out what calls to you..."
Emiya Shirou	"You used the word 'existence.' I just added the shape...?" Shirou mumbles confusedly. Rune magic? He knows of it, kinda. Can he really do something like reproduce a rune? "... I'll give a shot." He really did just carve the rune's shape, with great detail. It is just that, a well-carved etching. 'Put power through it?' He does try. Shirou's prana flows through the weapon again, up towards the trenches... there will definitely be some GLOW... but what else?
Iianor	Iianor mmmms softly. "Just the shape? Mmm... I suspect you added more then that." His eyes narrow slightly, "Yes. You did, though I suspect..." A pause, "I suspect you won't be comfortable doing it for some time, and perhaps not without the outside help of an artificial crest. On the other hand, this result makes me hopeful." He grins slightly, "Can you see it? It's trying to ignite. It's also working with your original enhancements to be ... several times stronger. I wouldn't try the technique in combat yet, but..." He shrugs and eyes the sword for a moment longer before he nods. And offers Shirou a chunk of black crystal shot through with red viens. "I know you can manifest weapons. Make the sword out of this. Or the lightbulb. Or whatever. If you can."
Emiya Shirou	"Fire and strength..." Shirou repeats, a bit mystified. Can he really make a rune that would do that? A flaming, glass sword? That sounds pretty cool, if a little weird. "Hrmngh. That could be a big help if I practiced it... you're sure it will work?" He's a bit amazed, honestly, but... on o the next challenge. He makes a weird face at the material. What exactly is he supposed to do with this? Make... the glass sword... out of this weird crystal? "... You mean transform this into a sword? No, make the sword out of this..." His lips twist about. Now that's an odd request! "...Trace, on." Golden light flies from his hands and stretches out into a wireframe which quickly fills in with a sizzle-CLANK! Well. There is definitely something that looks like the glass sword, if it were made out of ominous-looking black crystal with red veins. But... on any real inspection? The insides are pretty basic, almost hollow. A few moments later, he tries the OTHER interpretation of those instructions. Alter the crystal into a sword. The rock glows and stretches out, then 'cools' in a matter of seconds into an... EXTREMELY SIMPLIFIED version of the glass sword's design. It's more solid, and more sword-like on the inside, but only barely. "Uweh... it's not even close to what I had in mind..." As a final act, almost an afterthought, after stabbing the swords in the ground (or handing them over for inspection), he holds a hand out. Again, the light flares, the wireframe forms and fills in with a sizzle-CLANK ... It's the glass sword. Perfectly substantial and detailed. Though it lacks the rune design.
Iianor	Iianor smiles slightly, "Everything will help if you practice it. It may not be efficient but..." He shrugs, "Can you honestly say that it would hurt to be able to do it?" The first few attempts draw a slight frown from the archmage, "I know you can do-" The last, the full trace, "Ah! This is perfect!" He starts to chuckle, "Now tell me, those veins in the crystal? Can you feel them? What do they want? How can you enhance this? What will happen if you empower it?" He shakes his head, "Don't do it yet. It can't hurt you, or anything drastic, but I want you to feel it out before you actually do it."
Emiya Shirou	"Of course I can't say that. Although... somehow this is the exact opposite of what I was taught. Projection's supposed to be hard and make only weak, basic things. So Reinforcing, taking what's already there and making it stronger's supposed to be more efficient. Though, how to put this... oh! You're an artist, right? Imagine if you had to take someone else's painting and change it around. ... no matter what you do, it doesn't feel right, nothing's where you want it to be, and it comes out ugly. It's easier to start over with a blank canvas and put your paint on that if you want it done right. That's why the pure copy comes out best." Or... at least that's why, in how it feels to him. He does listen though, and... gathers some prana, to try and feel the thing. It takes a few seconds. "Fire. Lots of fire!" He blurts out simply, now a bit afraid of actually putting any power in that.
Iianor	Iianor smiles, "That makes perfect sense." He crosses his arms, "I suspect part of your abilites and personal affinity are what makes it so..." His eyes focus on the crystal of the weapon for a moment, "Fire is a part of it's nature. You're tense. Worried." His eyes focus back on your face, "Shirou. Look deeper. It is fire given form. But a weapon also effects it's weilder, just as much as the weilder effects the weapon." His eyes glow a bit brighter, "Tell me more about it."
Emiya Shirou	Wait, that made sense? Kiritsugu would think he's crazy if he told him that... .... no, it's very possible he already did say that, and Shirou forgot... so Shirou makes a somewhat disbelieving face at how easily Iianor believed him. Blink. Exhaaaaale. Shirou relaxes. Right, nothing to worry about here. "Hmmmh..." Another grumbly noise as he focuses on the crystal that became a sword. It will eventually turn back, but right now it's a crystal sword. "...Even if you say that, I'm not feeling much else... though it doesn't feel like it would backfire. Hm. An enchantment?"
Iianor	Iianor mmms slightly, "So you can't feel everything about it... It enhances your affinity to fire as well." He chuckles softly, "As you become more fire-like, you become immune to it's effect." The archmage nods slightly, "Yes... I think I see now. The other point to what you're saying, is that because you've created it, you know it. Inside and out, thus you're connected enough to it personally." A shrug, "Which makes it easier for you to work with. In any case, I want you to start by trying the following weapons, and the following materials..." A gesture banishes everything else that was already spawned for the testing, "We'll go over all of the traits as we go..." He grins widely, "And as we go, you'll learn the material ways to enhance your weapons. Or rather the materials to make them out of, to enhance their effectiveness."