Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106 
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
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Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
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Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Jan 24, 2022 20:13:27 GMT -5
"Ah."
Avalux said as Jun closed the gap and wrapped her arms around him. So he had not, in fact, misheard her. Well, he really wasn't quite sure what to do about this development but eventually he reached out and patted her back gently if a bit awkwardly... but that didn't last. After a moment of that his hand rested on her back and after a moment he returned the embrace sagging slightly for a moment and then he broke the hug and straightened his shirt coughing awkwardly.
"Er, well, that was a bit improper but I suppose that it is fine. Not quite as scandalous as showing so much skin."
There was a slight twitch at the corner of his lips. Two things were very apparent from all of this. It had been a very long time since Avalux Kesterven had been hugged and he was at least a little aware that his reaction had been unusual. But his expression returns to his normal, more studious one, a moment later.
"Anyway, yes, I do hope that we will not repeat past mistakes and actually help people. As for sports... No, not particularly. As for working out... hrmmmm."
It was clear from the way he said it he wasn't sure what to make of the proposition. It wasn't an idea he had really ever explored, he stretched regularly to keep his body limber and prevent aches and pains. But escalating his exercise beyond that hadn't ever really been needed or desired.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305 
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Jan 31, 2022 23:34:11 GMT -5
Despite Avalux's initial reluctance and awkwardness, Jun did feel better after the hug. Based on Avalux's body language, it seemed she had made a good call. She was glad, and it showed on her expression.
"I suppose if we engage in a physical activity together it would need to be something where it's advisable to keep our clothes on."
She blinked and shimmied over to her chalkboard to grab a piece of chalk and re-examine her symbol. This was a partially superfluous gesture meant to help her hide her embarrassment; yes, she recognized she accidentally made an innuendo. She hoped it would blow over quickly while she tried to think of an actual idea.
Then, an actual idea came to her. She swiveled around. "It's pretty cold in the mornings and late evenings by the sea. We could try spear fishing. We could supply some food for ourselves, and maybe a bit extra for the village, and get a workout in, and practice our pointy stick stabbing skills, and we could exhaust ourselves to the point where we could use ourselves as test subjects for the new rune, all while perfectly safe and bundled up in a proprietorially non-scandalous manner. We can even do it from here on the ship where it's safer from predators."
Jun had a thing for multitasking. It was a useful skill to have. In combat, she used to love spells which served multiple purposes, such as attacking, defending, scouting, and aiding in mobility. (Between that and Lum'Valia's mind-split training, she actually excelled at fighting while outnumbered.) In terms of research, she liked focusing on things which could serve multiple functions. Turning back to her rune, she already started coming up with alternate uses for an augmentation rune which thrived off of input from non-casters. Of course, she knew she needed to get this rune right first. As Avalux thought, it wasn't quite ready yet.
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
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Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Feb 1, 2022 18:23:25 GMT -5
"For the moment. At the current rate we are going I am either going to have to get over my prudishness or start strapping pillows to my head."
Avalux responded with a bit of dry humor to Jun's comment about requiring an activity where clothes remained on. He was studiously ignoring the innuendo since he suspected there were two possible reasons his reaction had been so pronounced. One he'd rather not dwell on but it likely did bleed into the other. Jun was moving on as well which was good and when she finished her suggestion he blinked slowly.
"Spear fishing?"
The concept was self explanatory and yet utter alien to him. Mostly because he'd never even gone regular fishing, he'd never thought that someone would try to spear one.
"How do you account for the light refraction through the water?"
That was his first and most obvious question. At least, to him. He imagined that throwing a spear was hard enough, how was one to manage to hit a target when one couldn't trust where it was?
"Actually, this may come as a shock to you but how do you even throw a spear? All of my meals have been delivered either by servants or monks, I'll admit to being entirely pampered up to this point in my life in that regard."
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 4, 2022 16:13:21 GMT -5
Jun grinned. She sort of liked the idea of Avalux living in a world where people didn't have to throw weapons to survive. It made him adorable, and it also reminded her of when she first visited Isra after growing up in the Expanse. Asadrack had taught her a lot about spears, and while she respected him for his martial prowess, she hoped one day the isles would be a place where Asadrack could become an artist instead of a mercenary.
"That's a good question! Generally, if the fish is close enough to the surface and to the boat, you can aim straight on top of it. But if it's farther away, you aim underneath. I'm not a master at it; I'm still learning myself. If we can light some torches around the boat, maybe even get some buoys with torches in the water, we can attract some fish and make it easier."
Jun went to grab some mana seeds she had made earlier that day and continued talking. As she did so, she drew her longsword and placed it on a work table. It was an unusually colored sword with a chrome blue finish and multichromatic shine. Jun hadn't told Avalux the story behind it, though he likely wouldn't believe her anyways.
"The lands are still virgin lands, so there is actually plenty of fish. We just need to make sure not to kill too many females or young, or too many of the same species. And if we can, we should also take some of their prey, like shellfish and kelp, as well as a few of their predators. We want to keep ourselves in harmony with the land as much as possible."
Jun placed some seeds and some plant material she drew from her coat, and placed it in a pile at the hilt of her sword. She also made a second pile, sans sword of course. "You know, I'm actually not very good at throwing things. I can show you the technique, and I'm sure you'll excel at it. But I personally use a bit of magic to help me aim and throw things. Same with my bolas."
Jun placed her hands over the plant material and seeds, and concentrated. The seeds and plant stuff started to sprout and coalesce, and sky blue mana filaments surrounded and permeated the mass. The pile around the sword consumed the hilt and extended outwards, while the second pile simply grew into a long, pointy shaft with a serrated tip. After a few seconds, Jun had made two spears. One was made of her sword, and the second one was a simple mundane wooden spear.
She picked up her sword spear and handed the other one to Avalux. The wooden wasn't ordinary wood, but textured more like a vine and green. It was quite solid, however, and not very heavy. Jun's did not appear to be very heavy either, though it was a little more nobby in some places, presumably to add balance to the awkward shape. "I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement." She smirked.
She held the spear up gently with one hand closer to the pointed tip, and the other hand supported it from the back. Her arms were outstretched as if she was going to hug someone. "And you just kinda, shunt it forward while rotating your body." She demonstrated in slow motion; even she wasn't foolish enough to throw a spear indoors.
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Feb 5, 2022 17:42:15 GMT -5
It was at the point that she thrust the magically grown spear into his hands that Avalux realized that he was not, strictly speaking, being given a choice. Jun had a profound capacity to get caught up in her own ideas and the question he found himself currently facing was if he would get caught up in her energy.
On one hand, he had zero experience in anything like this. His family had been rich even before he'd take the helm and the principle of struggling to get a meal wasn't something he'd dealt with before the floods. So he was quite certain that this would involve him expending quite a bit of energy for less than stellar results.
However, on the other hand, there were two things to consider. The first was that being able to feed himself and getting additional exercise might be beneficial. The other was that it was hard to say no when she was clearly quite keen on the idea.
"Well, I am sure that this won't end poorly,"
Avalux managed a slightly bemused, slightly hapless smile to Jun and gestured.
"We can get onto the roof I suppose and cast spears from there."
His ship didn't actually have a deck since it had started its life as a horseless carriage. But the roof was long and flat and the back of the boat was far enough into the water that it was deep enough for smaller fish to swarm about it.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 10, 2022 15:50:24 GMT -5
"Great! We can give it a shot tonight!" Jun then glanced over at her unfinished rune and slowly lowered her spear. "Which means I should probably get this rune in working order so we have something to actually test. I'm also not sure what our experiment should actually look like. I wouldn't mind us just tossing spears until we're sore, and then healing ourselves while counting. And maybe we do it again the next night with the augmentation rune. Oh, but then I'm defying your advice about healing twice a week."
She inhaled and huffed. "I'm starting to see the value of taking things slowly and doing them one at a time. You've probably noticed I get overwhelmed by my own ideas sometimes."
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Feb 11, 2022 10:40:44 GMT -5
"Yes, I have rather noticed that you have a lot of unrestrained creativity that leads to a lack of patience," Avalux said as he held up the spear to drive that point home since she had gone from having that idea to making the spears all without actually checking if it was something he wanted to do.
"Fortunately, I am here to provide some balance. I'll prepare a set of questions for when we use the rune this week so we have a base to work off of and then next week we can try it with the augmentation rune and see how it stacks up. Though we will have to repeat this experiment a few times to verify results."
After all, levels of exertion were a bit arbitrary and couldn't be replicated perfectly so the only way to get accurate results would be a larger sample size so they could get an average and see if the enhancement rune consistently produce better results.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 18, 2022 16:31:44 GMT -5
Later in the week, evening
Copies of the healing runes on parchment, check.
Spears, check.
Dinner, consisting of dried pork, dried kelp, dried bagworms (she was surprised by how quickly Avalux took to those), check.
Water candles, check. (She wasn't sure if these would actually work out.)
Avalux's gift, check.
Feelings of contentment and ambiguity, check.
Jun lay on the Kesterven's roof, watching the sun set. Behind her began to peek little evening stars. The sunrises and sunsets on this world were the same as those in her own. She thought back to Avalux's theory that whatever had done this had sought to protect them from the deaths of magically drained worlds. A part of her still resented, even hated the theory. But a part of her wanted to embrace it as well. She and many others were alive. And the sunsets were far too beautiful. If whatever did this really wanted to punish them, why allow them such beautiful stars and sunsets?
Not to mention the fact that magic wasn't actually dead. It was harder to work with, trickier, but the more she and Avalux worked together the more she realized, she was actually having fun. The challenge, the limits, the quest for efficiency and power, they were strangely invigorating.
There was another magic that was left to them which couldn't be taken away. Friendship, love, hope. These positive emotions still existed.
Jun winced a bit and leaned back on her mat with a little smile. Damn it. She didn't want to think of their spearfishing session as a date. Why not though? Why was she finding it so hard to embrace something like that like a normal human being? A civilian instead of a soldier? This wasn't a world where she might die tomorrow and leave a widowed husband behind (ironically).
She turned to the pile of magically grown wooden spears on her side. A few of them had vines attached to them so they could be retrieved, but there were also some extras they could use as back-up in case they were lost. She also had her spear-sword for emergencies (she decided not to throw it right away; the balance was a little wonky anyways). Next to those were Usquean atlatls, spear-throwers that greatly improved the velocity of their spears. A few of them glowed in the dark, because of course Jun couldn't help but try to magically enhance anything related to combat. What if one of the fish turned out to be a vampiric toe-eating zombie horror or something?
Her head rotated back up towards the emerging stars. Ok, even for the isles that was a little unlikely. Yah, it was a little unlikely wasn't it?
Jun realized that in this moment, she wasn't just content. She was happy. Was this what normal felt like? She could get used to this.
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Feb 18, 2022 22:11:03 GMT -5
"I am still getting used to that."
Avalux said as he climbed up onto the roof to join her. He'd been setting up a few lights around the rear perimeter of the ship. A few softly glowing spotlights would act as a beacon to the fish as well as help the two see them as they attempted their throws. He'd delayed just a bit as he found himself viewing the coming activity with a certain amount of trepidation. Normally he was not reluctant to try new things, as Jun had discovered with the bagworms, but this was a bit different. He'd never been particularly skilled at physical endeavours and felt certain he was about to make an ass of himself. Normally even that did not bother him since he understood being bad at something was a normal part of life but... Well, he should finish his earlier thought.
"Where I come from there are three moons in the sky. The brothers, the children of the sun."
It was one of the more popular religions in his world. He walked up to the pile of spears and picked one up examining it. The one she'd handed to him earlier was in the pile of them and he looked down at the water.
"This is going to be interesting if nothing else I suppose."
Avalux tried to console himself with those words and a slightly self-deprecating chuckle.
"So care to demonstrate proper technique to me?"
With that, he turned his attention from the spear and over to Jun, this was her idea so only fair she take the first throw. Also, while she had shown him proper technique briefly earlier, he would need to see it a few times before he fully got his head around it.
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 18, 2022 23:08:43 GMT -5
Jun was barely roused from her reverie towards the sky. "Maybe, every world has a moon to watch over and protect its people."
She sat up excitedly when asked about technique. "Of course." She giddily picked a spear, and one of her enchanted atlatls, and paused for a moment. She grinned. "I was, in a sense a country girl, before I moved to the big city of Isra. And one of the first things I remember being happy about was that I wasn't the only person terrible at throwing things anymore."
She embedded the spear into the atlatl's divot, then held up the hand so that the spear tip was closer to her head, arching her back slightly.
"A lot of the power comes from your core and hips. Make sure your back foot can pivot like you're throwing a punch."
She swung with all her might, and the spear flew. It cut into the water like a hot blade through lard. Avalux might sense a slight spike in mana at the moment of her throw.
"You know, until I came to this world, it never occurred to me to try to improve this one singular thing I was bad at, with or without magic. Maybe I was secretly trying to spite my mother. She wanted a boy, you know. It's not as bad as it sounds. She loved me. But her culture valued physical warriors. It was just the way things were."
She began to pull her vine back to retrieve the spear. "I was about to say I hope she's proud of me now. But I haven't given up hope she's alive out there, somewhere."
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
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Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
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Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Feb 19, 2022 9:19:21 GMT -5
"Well, I can assure you, you are still not the only one terrible at throwing things now."
Avalux said with a chuckle as he watched the demonstration. The mechanics of it, especially with the inclusion of the atlatl, made a level of sense to him. He could see how she planted her feet and pivoted would add extra power and distance to the throw. This knowledge did not, however, translate to competence in the act itself. There was a level of coordination that was required and as he prepared to make his own cast he delayed it for a moment longer.
"I... I'll admit, I haven't thought of my mother in some time. Even prior to the floods. We were... distant. My fault at the end of the day, at a certain point she stopped trying and I always told myself I would make time and never did."
There was a pause as he looked out at the oceans dwelling on his regrets. He was a workaholic, always had been. It was hard for him to think of anything else when he had a project to attend to. He'd been in the middle of breaking ground on his first magical refinery when news had reached him that his father was ill. When Avalux hadn't returned home immediately the rift had started to form.
With a shake of his head to banish the spirits of regret, he tried his hand at throwing the spear. It went... Not as poorly as he expected. It was obvious what had gone wrong, he'd thrown with his arm only and not his whole body. So instead of a smooth flight a far distance like Jun's spear, his wobbled quite a bit and landed in the seawater maybe thirty feet away from the boat. Still, he grimaced at the failure and gave her a sheepish smile.
"Well, we knew I wouldn't be very good at this."
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 21, 2022 15:39:48 GMT -5
Jun recognized that Avalux was not a man to use his hips for anything other than their intended purpose of walking. So when she was done retrieving her spear, she set it down and took some steps to the side to make some space between them.
"You just need to get to know your own body a bit better. Maybe we should warm up a bit first. How about this?" Jun planted her feet on the ground in a horse stance, and then raised her leg up side ways until it was nearly parallel to the ground. Then she brought it back down and stomped. Then she did it with the other leg. She didn't go down too low however so as to not lose her balance, as she wanted it to be an easy warm up. (They were on top of a ship after all.) It was a bit like a sumo wrestle posturing to an opponent.
"You might feel silly but doing exercises like this can help you understand yourself better. My mother taught me a number of these exercises. They annoyed me growing up but I learned to appreciate them as I got older."
If allowed, Jun would also walk him through some other exercises, mostly easy in difficulty and engaging the hips and core muscles. There was a lot of twisting around.
During one such exercise, she continued Avalux's previous point. "If it helps, I get where you're coming from. Running around the world, being a hero, learning new magic, I could go months at a time without contacting family. I kept telling myself I was making myself stronger for them. A few times I was right. I did help protect them against serious threats using what I learned. But there were a few times where... well, I arrived late."
She paused for a bit, and then continued exercising. "Not worth dwelling on it I suppose."
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Avalux Kesterven
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 106
Age: 42
Appearance: Avalux is quarter elven which makes his age slightly hard to guess. His hair had turned a silvery blonde when he was quite young and most of the signs of age on his features are due more to squinting to read in candlelight than his years. He is on the tall and lean side but not to an excessive degree. Perhaps a hair's breadth over six feet and with enough meat on his bones to be healthy. His features are angular and they have a slightly severe cast as his habitual expression is a frown of thoughtful consideration.
-------------------------
Equipment: Utterly insufficient for the task he has been presented with but he has the essential. A fresh notebook, a pen enchanted to replenish its own ink over time, a rune scribes etching tool, his glasses, and various crystals for creating apparatus.
-------------------------
Skills and Abilities: Avalux is a magical engineer (Artificer if you wish to offend) and researcher. He specializes in the creation of devices that use magical power to power mechanical designs. He tackles magic with the scientific method trying to quantify something that most people believe to be unquantifiable. His drive and determination to do so often make him overlook certain things.
Registered: Nov 14, 2021 12:43:02 GMT -5
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Post by Avalux Kesterven on Feb 21, 2022 18:04:08 GMT -5
Avalux was retrieving his own spear finding that the result was not nearly as bad as he'd feared. Oh, he had done exactly as poorly as he expected he would but he didn't feel... Well, nothing he'd been worried about happened. She hadn't laughed or taken pity on him. Logically he knew that she wouldn't, it would have been outside of her character to do so and he knew it. The worry had persisted in the face of logic which had irked him mightily but it had not cared. Well, until she'd come up and simply pointed out where he was coming up short and presented a solution.
"There are many remarkable things about you Jun of the Celadine."
He said as he attempted to mimic her horse stance with... Well, he was a bit unsteady and his thighs hurt already but he had managed to assume the same stance. He wasn't about to stomp though.
"But your ability to talk me into things is the one I am finding most surprising."
Honestly, he had never thought of himself as someone who was easy to convince. But something about Jun's personality, logic, or just the way he got caught up in her energy had him doing things he'd never thought he'd try. Yet he let her guide him through the various exercises and found that he didn't hate it. Well, not entirely anyway. It had some selling points that he did not want to dwell on at present.
"I think, I might have felt better about it if I was running around being a hero. But I wasn't. I was just being... Well, at the time I thought I was being someone who would change the world for the better. With hindsight, I realize I was just being self-centred. But I would disagree, or well, partially. You are right, dwelling on it is probably not good. Reflecting though? Reminding ourselves why we need to do better that, I think has merit."
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 24, 2022 20:47:58 GMT -5
"I'm glad to have been such a good influence on you. The feeling's mutual." Jun, for her part, felt satisfied with her own warm up and decided to pick up her spear again. She took a moment to study her atlatl and the enchantment she had put on it. For some reason it made her sigh. "Heroism isn't all that clear-cut. It can be self-centered too. When I started, I definitely had a power-hungry side to me. But without that power, I wouldn't have been able to protect others. I think we have that drive in common, and it has the potential to be both good and, well, not so good." Jun decided to make her first real attempt to catch a fish. She squinted when she saw several shimmering shapes in the water.  "I did say aim low right? Yes I did." She rotated her core, gave Avalux a quick wink, turned back to her prey and fired. (Roll a d20 for yourself and the fish you are trying to catch! Fish rolls with advantage. You can add your own additional modifiers if you want to go after a really cool or tough looking fish.) Jun: ZvUK1LdX1-20 Fish: 1-20 1-20·1-20·1-20·1-20 |
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Jun of the Celadine
Dedicated
Roleplay posts: 305
Age: 33
Appearance: Jun stands at about 5’ 4”, with a willowy, slightly rectangular build. Her tawny olive skin has lost its flush from constantly wearing cloth armor, and she is dotted with small scars, including wrinkled patches of old burns on her left arm. She has deep brown, slightly hooded eyes and not quite straight dark auburn hair. Her face is still youthful and strong, though her gaze suggests she’s seen way too much for her age.
Equipment: An emerald, muddy long coat-style gambeson. A chrome blue longsword with a rusty hilt. Rusted shackles on her wrists ending in broken chains, giving a false impression that she had been a prisoner; the bracelets are easily removed.
Skills and Abilities: What remains of Jun’s power is a mix of animal friendship and elemental control. She can communicate with and control weaker animals, like insects, and request the help of larger, sentient animals (though they are not compelled to obey her). She can perform subtle manipulations of fire, water, earth, wind, and other “elements” like light and shadow. Her most unique ability is to imbue elemental magic into other life forms and channel her spells through them.
She is a decent cook and survivalist and has a solid academic understanding of agriculture and ecology. She is also a decent sword and hand-to-hand fighter.
Biography: Jun of the Celadine was a stereotypical hero of legend. She was one of Isra's mightiest spellcasters, had gone on dozens of adventures, possessed several powerful artifacts, and helped bring peace to the world on many occasions.
A notorious overachiever and workaholic, Jun had driven herself to near madness pursuing powerful magic. In standard fashion, it was the power of friendship that kept her sane.
Now Jun must cope with the fact that much of the world she helped protect has been lost, and that most of the magic power she had accrued over the years has stopped working.
Her family (whose whereabouts are unknown) was a clan of farmers and gardeners. Her tribe lived in peace and harmony in a mostly forested region. Every two hundred years or so, their people produced a powerful mage and master of all elements. Jun was not this chosen one, but rather her grandmother was. Still, Jun's (somewhat unhealthy) obsession with keeping up with her ancestor made her a pretty close second.
Jun has no regrets about her journey, though she sometimes wishes she had spent more learning other skills, like cooking and dancing. She also feels she made a poor lover, though it's likely her old partners passed away in the floodwaters anyways...
Registered: May 25, 2021 13:33:31 GMT -5
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Post by Jun of the Celadine on Feb 24, 2022 20:56:35 GMT -5
The spear sailed into the water and struck its prey. There was a splash and suddenly a torrent of thrashing in the water.
"... I DID NOT EXPECT TO HIT IT THE FIRST TIME!" She shook herself out of her shock and started carefully reeling the spear back in with the fish attached.
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