Scene #6998: Magic Lessons for Witches

Owner	Pose
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo was in pain and yet, here she is, outside the castle, leaning up against one of the myraid of sakura trees dotting the landscape. In front of Tamamo is a small cloth, jade in color with various tools upon it: blank paper strips, calligraphy set, a book and a small bento box. "She should be here shortly." A few already made talismans slip from her sleeves and rest on the jade cloth. "The basics should be good for now." she nods.
Sumiko	Mikoto arrives before too long, in civilian clothing instead of a magical girl outfit or school clothes. A long skirt, with green and a bit of gold to accent it. The blouse she wears matches, but only comes up to her elbows. Her hair is short, though well kept. She does take appreciation of the sakura. While not quite her Japan, it was still beautiful. As she arrives, she watches the fox witch for a moment, setting up for their lesson. Calligraphy? She kind of wishes she hadn't dismissed those lessons entirely. With a sigh, she approaches giving a respectful bow towards Tamamo. "Good evening! How are you feeling?"
Tamamo no Mae	As if she's lying through her teeth, "Couldn't feel better." Tamamo laughs, with a small wince of pain. "Let's get started." She slowly sits down, trying to not make visible signs of pain, picking up one of the various made talismans on the cloth. "My magic is similar to witchcraft, old style and it's hard for Sabers to counter since it's not traditional magecraft. I use these talismans as a conduit for some of my magic spells such as my ice spears and fire balls." Shetakes a soft breath and nods, "And, with the right application, you can make them do all sorts of things, such as ... proximity mines as some people call them." there's a brief wave of the hand, "I want you to write what you see on this talisman on one of those strips and I'll show you how to enchant it."
Sumiko	Mikoto moves to take her seat in front of Tamamo on the other end of the small table. She listens as Tamamo covers the basics of her type of magic, though there was one thing that caught her interest. "Why is it important that Sabers have a hard time dealing with it?" Obviously, she was uninformed about their natural magical resistance. She takes the brush, a bit gingerly at first and dips it. Looking at the paper, she takes a breath, making smooth even strokes. She has SOME experience in this, but it shows either she is out of practice, or had shirked some of those studies. Making a face, she keeps at it. "So is it primarily defensive, or is that just the basics of this type of magic?"
Tamamo no Mae	"I do not have an immediate answer for that." she starts, the fox-servant's eyes watching the drawing hands. "We will have to work on your calligraphy." she states in a flat tone, "It's passable though." there's a pause as she looks to the magical girl, hmming, "Defensive, offensive. Witchcraft can be used in a multitude of ways. More advanced magic can allow you to curse your opponents or create defensive walls." She looks at the paper and hmms, "Okay, let's try enchanting this one. Place your hand on this and focus." she states, "This fire talisman is currently blank, without energy, without the magic. Imagine this turning into a ball of fire, igniting the one you throw it at."
Sumiko	"I never did think I'd have a use for it, outside of the practice of calligraphy," she says, honestly enough. There was nothing much to hide there, it was something that was old fashioned in her time, and she did not see the need to keep up with old practices. Of course, now? Well, that is the strange way of the Multiverse. She listens to the overview of what advanced witchcraft can accomplish. "So it's flexible?" She asks, curious, but nods when she is instructed. Placing her hand on the talisman, she focuses, attempting to see if she could even infuse anything.
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo nods, "Perhaps you should practice more." she states, "Or develop a way to magically burn the text required." she hmms a bit, looking at the talisman. It glows a faint green and she gives a bit of a chuckle, "Well, that's new." she comments, "At least you have some basics down, though, I may not fully know your magic capability." She hmms a bit and pulls up another talisman, "Go ahead and try to make this one, it's ice related. One of two that I love to use."
Sumiko	Mikoto gives a small smile at that, "Well if I want to be good at this I suppose I have to! Just add it to the pile of things I need to get better at..." Though the reaction to the paper was...interesting. She was curious about how it'd behave. It DOES, however, provide Mikoto with a way to train herself in spending mana. She seems to have a thoughtful face on, as she moves to the next. The fire was easy to think about, ice? Well, you see ice, sure...but in a way that can be useful? Does it have to be? She closes her eyes and focuses. Drawing in memories of her time on the streets, shivering due to lack of warm things to be covered in.
Tamamo no Mae	"That's good to hear." Tamamo replies, watching the focusing girl on the new talisman. "That's good, you're doing it right. Keep practicing and you won't need to do the focusing, you'll be able to do it.. 'on the fly' as they say." there's a soft little sigh, and a wince as she leans back to watch the girl.. The talisman looks to be coated in a light bit of frost, in that same jade color as the cloth, "Hmm." she mutters, keeping a look on it. She slips a few more premade talismans near it, watching the magic spread to it and she grins, "Okay, I think that's good." she nods, "It's not /hard/ per se, but it does take practice to get this correct." "Open your eyes, Mikoto, take a look at the talismans you made."
Sumiko	Mikoto opens her eyes, to look at the talisman she had created. The light layer of frost as well as the color of it. This was slightly different from before, and she takes a very long look at both. The fire was just a bit odd, but this one seemed far different than the first. "Huh! Yeah, this seems...well not as natural to me as my powers are, but I suppose that's to be expected. It's, also, seemingly a good way to get a better feel for my own mana. Even if I do use my soul up to do this, it's still more efficient, and potentially a good start to learn other basics." There is a smile on her face, "I think the hardest part is going to be mastering calligraphy."
Tamamo no Mae	Tamamo chuckles at the comment about calligraphy. "I think you can do it." comes an ego boosting set of words. "It will take a lot of practice, but if you keep at it, you might be able to get to some more basics of the craft. Talismans are simple, but every magic sect has their own basics to build off of. Perhaps, one of these days, you'll show me a new thing with Witchcraft that I may not have thought of." There's a hmm, and she looks at the talismans once more, "They are made with your energy, so they should have taken on some of your own capability. I wouldn't put it past you to use jade-like colored fire and ice. You're welcome to use one on one of the attack programs I have." There's a snap of her finger and, with a digital teleport, an attack program comes into view nearby. "Go on, destroy it, show me your new talismans."
Sumiko	"Yeah, I'm getting used to 'you can do it' followed by 'but it'll be hard work'. Still..." she says, looking at her work. She was almost proud of it, something that she could call her own, instead of something granted to her. Or something that was taken by her. Standing up, she takes the talismans, trying to get a feel for how'd she use them in combat. Does she just...unleash them? Hit the target with them? "Alright, let's see what these can do," she says, with a bit more confidence. When the attack program takes form, she attempts to first push a talisman forward, seeing if she could just unleash the ice at it. Failing that, she'd attempt to strike the target with one, attempting to use it's freezing effect on it. When that happened, she'd use the fire one to try and blast it while frozen.
Tamamo no Mae	"What I do is throw them, though, I use magic to help guide them." Tamamo mentions, watching the girl. The talisman is pushed forward, but nothing happens, it doesn't seem to react. When it's used as a striking implement, it freezes part of the attack program. "So it does what it's supposed to do." she nods, watching a bit more. The fire talisman does blast it properly... and Tamamo thinks.... "Go ahead and take another ice one and /throw/ it. Think about making an ice dart." she nods, "That way you don't have to get up close with your opponent. It makes it easier to dance around your opponent and assail them with magic." she opens up another summon for an attack program and gets up. There's a few talismans dropping from her sleeve into her hand and she dashes, visibly in pain, as she throws the ice ones towards it, forming into small daggers, before spinning around and launching another set of fire ones, forming balls, to blow it up. "I don't expect you to do this immediately, but, it's good practice."
Sumiko	Mikoto watches Caster show her how she does it, observing it with great interest as she produces the talismans and throws them. She seems a bit out of her league, but at the same time, the whole point was to /learn/ from someone who is a master. She takes another ice one, holding it up. Ok, she just has to imagine it and throw it. Closing her eyes, she focuses on opening them again. The Talisman is launched towards the attack program. Just as it starts to change, it instead becomes a snowball, smacking the thing in the face, but...well it's a snowball. There is a frown from Mikoto, that clearly wasn't right. "That did not end correctly. Oh, Touta wants to know if you want inarizushi. Apparently, he's trying to appease me by making me snacks."
Tamamo no Mae	"Inarizushi is fine." she states, "A snowball is good so far. It's functional and it works for what you need it to do." there's a slight smile from the Caster and she moves over to pat the other Mage on the back. "See, you can do this. Just practice." she nods, "Practice and practice... you'll be..." Tamamo drops down a bit, wincing, "Ah... sorry, I'm stil trying to recover." she mutters, "I shouldn't have moved like that. Eheh." she shakes her head slightly and moves back over towards the cloth, "Ah, this bento is for you. Home made food, you should be able to recover your energy... or at least have a good meal from me."
Sumiko	"Well, it's a start? Still, don't go easy on me. I do really want to master this," Because it's a link to her own heritage. When Tamamo winces and drops, Mikoto moves to try and help the woman back to her seat. She gives her a frown, "If you were so hurt, you could have put it off. Geeze, about as reckless as your husband." A beat, "Or me, haha..." she says, and sits back down as the bento is offered. She smiles, and opens it up to take a look inside, and starts eating. She pulls out her Soul Gem, taking a look at it before placing it on the table. There was just the slightest bit of darkness. "Yeah, I thought as much...it's a way to stretch it out, but not subvert it," she comments. "It appears my magic is tied to my soul gem...which is exactly what it sounds like." "If this becomes all dark...I turn into a witch. Which is more like a raging monster. From what I understand, it's worse than death."
Tamamo no Mae	"I don't plan on it." Tamamo grins and winces a bit more, "No, it would be unbecoming of me to do that. Besides, I set this time aside for you, regardless of my own condition." she comments, leaning back, "Well, my husband is less restrictive than the last one." she states, "Seifer's still a good man, I'm happy for him. Really hope his situation with Sora gets resolved soon..." She sighs a bit, a light chuckle from Mikoto's response before she leans back, eyes looking at the Soul Gem and the slight bit of darkness on it. "I see. I would be careful then. Don't overexert yourself, don't push it." a pause, "Though, I think you're a girl who would choose to ignore that suggestion." "Hopefully you have a way to reduce the dark."
Sumiko	"Thank you," She says, with a smile, "I appreciate it. You and so many in the Concord have done a lot for me. Hopefully, someday, I can return the favor." She understands that to an extent, she is an investment. If it helps her, then it's worth it. "He is a good man, and I'm sorry it came to this. With Sora, with Riku...Riku didn't seem so bad, but with all that he's done lately..." she sighs, "I can also see things from his point of view sometimes. When you think you're all by yourself..." She points at the gem again, as she starts to eat, "I can restore it with a Grief Seed, and other artifacts that seem to interact with it. I don't know what qualifies, though I know Santa is able to make one for me... well, I can't rely on that." "I am looking to learn ways to help me either to gain more, ignore this requirement altogether, or...well teach myself how to be more efficient."
Tamamo no Mae	"I'm sure you will return the favor." she states in this knowing tone. "I'm sure we can request a favor from you one day without problem. Of course, with proper compensation." she grins a bit and listens to Mikoto about Riku and Sora. She gives a shrug... "Honestly, Seifer's just trying to help the kid.. but... he let me have fun so." she sighs happily, before listening some more, "A grief seed... and other artifacts." Tamamo taps her foot a bit and she shakes her head. "I've got nothing for that, however, I think I might be able to make something. I just need an unused seed then. I'll see about the magic it uses and try to work on a replacement."
Sumiko	"A seed...well, I guess I can secure another one. I have to get one for Lezard and Thurgeus. However, it's not like Witches are rare, but they can be tricky to find sometimes." She admits. "Consider it gotten." As for Riku and Seifer, she shakes her head, "I know. Seifer's a good guy like that, I just wonder if the answers he's looking for are going to be the ones he wants to hear at the end. It's likely Riku doesn't know anything, or if he does..." She finishes the box, "Thank you, again. This was really good! Also, the training is good, even if it's not free."