8183/Research with a friend

Research with a friend
Date of Scene:	09 October 2021
Location:	Belvedere Castle
Synopsis:	Mairin explained her training to Demona and got some tips on how to better focus her will.
Cast of Characters:	Mairin Moran, Susan Sullivan

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Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin is spread back out in her favorite outdoor spot to get some work done. Only this time... Her Lord of the Rings blanket isn't covered with engineering books and papers. But with books on... well it's hard to tell actually. Some of them look rather old.. and some look really suspect, but she's still pouring over them with her trademark intesity. A few notebooks lie open around her as well, including one with several of what could only be called 'arcane circles'.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona wanders through the park again, looking around rather intently. The sunlight shines through the trees, shadows dancing over her body and face as she isn't wearing her gas mask, today. She still has it, but it's not on her face. She notices Mairin and walks toward her, then hesitates. "Hey," she says, hesitantly. "What are you doing?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin looks up at Demona's approuch and smiles brightly. "Good afternoon, Demona. It's nice to see you again. And so... free." She tints the last word with a hint of admiration and... pride? "Feel free to join me. I'm just.." she looks at the books and shrugs. "Studying, I guess. A little backround research and a little practice."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona is very careful about approaching, taking every step slowly and deliberately, checking the ground before every step. "This isn't to do with me, is it?" she asks. "If it is, I'm going to have to start avoiding you."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    She blinks in obvious confusion. "Why would this have anything to do with you?" She shifts a few of the books so Demona can sit on the blanket if she wants. "Oh, I guess you don't know." She thinks, "In fact I don't think anyone knows but..." She shrugs. "I 've started taking lessons with Nettie Crowe. She's... well I guess she's a witch. Which I guess makes me a witch too. Or at least an apprentice one. But don't worry, I don't know how to do hardly anything yet."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona sits carefully among the books. "I just figured--you saw me fly...I don't really want you coming at me with spells like I'm an ACTUAL demon." She takes off her Beauty and the Beast backpack and sets it beside herself. She reaches around, not touching anything but clearly curious and wanting to touch everything. "Does any of this have to do with manipulating the flow of qi?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin shrugs slightly. "I did. But I've also seen a woman who claims to be over a hundred years old pull take out from Boston out of a white board." She laughs. "My expectations of what consitutes normal, or believeable, have changed considerably even in the past few weeks. And besides... You're obviously no more a threat to anyone than I am. Why would I come at you with anything?" She tilts some of the books and notes so Demona can see them a bit more easily without having to touch them. In case that's something she can't do for some reason. "I don't think there is anything about qi in here. But then I'm not sure what qi is. I'm just trying to get some basic history. And maybe some tips on focusing your will. That seems to be my main problem so far."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Oh, I can absolutely help you focus," Demona says. "Do you do yoga or martial arts or anything?" she asks, looking up at the other woman.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Yoga? No. Not really. I've done it a few times, but nothing really serious." Her brow furrows as she squints a bit at one of the books. "It's not as if I've ever had a hard time focussing either. I mean... If anything I guess I focus *too* much." Or that's what Nancy told her. "But it's different. The idea of using your will... of pushing it into somethinng else..." She sighs. "It's.... hard." She grins, "But if you have any tips at all I'm glad to try them. Who knows what might help."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Okay," Demona says. One of the books lifts itself off the small stack it's on and shifts to sit in Demona's lap. "This is basically ALL I do. I think I have quite a leg-up because of what I am, but to push things around, one needs to manipulate the flow of qi in or around things. I personally have to avoid consuming certain things' qi, but you probably won't have that problem."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin considers this. "What *is* qi?" Perhaps better to start at the basics. But she does lean forward listening intently.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona huffs a bit, furrowing her brow. "Have you seen Star Wars?" she asks.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin laughs. "Don't you mean 'How many *times* have you seen Star Wars?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona smirks a bit at Mairin's joke, then nods. "Fair enough," she says. "Leia is Disney Princess enough for it to be on my watch list," she confesses. "Anyway, the easiest way I can describe qi is that it's kind of like the force. It's living energy. You're exhaling it right now. You can't NOT exhale it. Your body is like a fire of life. Until you die, you will always make new qi and exhale it like puffs of short-lived smoke. It's vibrant, it's beautiful, and it is controllable if you know how." She raised a hand, pointing it at the far side of the path nearby. A small stone wiggled, then tumbled, then rolled at her. As it got closer, it got more controlled, then lifted from the ground and floated to her. It came to rest in her palm. "It took me several years of dedicated study to be able to control my qi," she says. "And like I said, I don't even know if I could have done what I'm doing now before the incident. Still, you've got books about magic, so maybe!"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin listens, rapt, and watches with complete focussed attention. "I think.... What Nettie is trying to teach me is... differnet. She's said that there are different kinds of magic. And different people harness it in different ways. But when you talk about qi in the body, it does make me think of how she described 'will'. Like it was a thing. Like smoke, that I could gather and focus and use. Like... Like pushing against a stone."

    She considers this, then looks down at the circles drawn in her notebook. She *really* wants to try.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "I would like to meet this person," Demona says. "If she is as cool with my weirdness as you are, maybe she could help me further my own abilities." She tosses the stone up and catches it. She sniffs the air before throwing the stone toward the path. It landed roughly where it had come from. "Peter seems like kind of a tech-head, despite not having a very tech-oriented major." She looks at Mairin again. "Do you think he'd know where I could get an arc reactor?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Hmmm?" Mairin's focus lifts from the circles and returns to Demona as she tries to process what she heard. "Wait.. an arc reactor?" She laughs. "You're kidding right?"
She laughs a little more. "You did seem very taken with him, though." It's a friendly tease. And the only reason she can give it is because Demona made her interest so obvious.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Yeah," Demona says, looking down at her hands and raising her palms. "He is taken, though," she continues, a bit down about that. "He's super cute, and I have never had such a strong reaction to anyone in my whole life." She shakes her head. "Anyway, why is an arc reactor so out of the question? I know it would be prohibitively expensive, but they do exist."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    "Well, that is the first problem. So unless you have large sums of money and can find one for sale... Your only other recourse would be to steal one. And I wouldn't advise that either. I've never even *seen* one. Not in person..." She sounds pretty disapointed about that. Almost pouting. "I'm sorry, though. About Peter. He seemd really nice. I'm... afraid I'm not really a good person to give advice in," she gestures a little vaguely, "That area. In my experiance nothing about it ever makes any logical sense." Regret tinges the words... but so does resolve.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Yeah," Demona says. "I thought I had better control over myself than that." She takes in a breath only to huff it out her nose. "I felt like a complete moron once he revealed he was taken," she confesses.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin nods, looking a little morose herself. "I know how *that* feels," she mutters. "At least the feeling like a moron part." One hand reaches out to touch the notebook with the circles, almost tenderly. "I don't know if you ever have as much control over that as you think, Demona. It just seems to come out of nowhere." She chuckles dryly. "And it's even harder when you're... different."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona nods sadly and takes in a deep breath. "I don't know anything about the arc reactor," she says, "but I was hoping for something like that to power the van." She shakes her head. "But that's not helping you, is it. I'm sorry. I got distracted by all the qi around." She closes her eyes and folds her hands with palms upright over her folded legs. "Mmmm," she says, her shoulders relaxing slightly. "Okay, how does Nettie want you to move your qi around?" she asks, looking back over at Mairin.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    It takes Mairin a good few seconds to look up from the notebook and when she does, she looks a little out of sorts. But it passes quickly as she takes a deep breath and focusses once more. "Right. No time for feeling sorry for ourselves." She grins. "Well, it's hard to describe. She's teaching me circles right now..." she motions to the notebook. "I drew one, a simple one, copied it from a book actually, and the she had me place my hand over it, like this." She moves the notebook in front of her and places her hand over one of the circles, thumb and forefinger touching the exterior lines. It's a simple cicle, two concentrics, with a series of geometric lines crosing the interior.

    "Then she told me to focus my will into the page. To let it... pool there. Like smoke." She's looking down at the page as she says this.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona wrinkles her nose a little. She then reaches up to hold it. "Oh, god, it stinks!" she says, pulling back a little.

Mairin Moran has posed:
    This immediatly breaks Mairin's focus and she looks up in surprise. "What? What stinks?" Her will fades back away.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona sniffs a couple times like she's just sneezed. "Whatever you were doing. It smelled like you, but...really REALLY strong," she says. "What were you doing?"

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin shrugs slightly. "I..." She looks down at the circle, then back up. "I was just trying to focus my will into the circle. Last time, Nettie had to help me. I think she used herself as kind of a... conductor. Between me and the circle. To make it easier. I *think* I was maybe trying to hard before... I've been practicing trying to focus it, without having to try so hard. WHich sounds so contradictory, but I can't think of another way to say it."

    "Are you ok?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Yeah," Demona says. "Sorry," she insists, putting her gas mask on. "Sorry," she repeats through the speaker. "That surprised me. You clearly are doing SOMETHING with your will."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin balnches, "I'm *so* sorry," she says, reaching a hand out but not touching Demona. "I didn't know. I'll stop." she pushes the notebook away "Strictly speaking I'm not supposed to be practicing without Nettie anyway. Which is a good rule. I could hurt myself."

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "It's fine," Demona says. "It's probably a good idea not to wade too deep if you don't know how to not hurt yourself. I don't need you to stop just for me, though. Only stop if YOU want to."

Mairin Moran has posed:
    Mairin laughs, a little bit of giggle creeping into it. "Trust me, if it was up to me I'd be practicing non-stop. But the last time I did this, I nearly fiented afterward. Woke up..." She blushes and clears her throat. "But, I would really appreciate it if you could just help me practice. Maybe if you taught me something that works for you?"

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    "Okay," Demona says. "Let's focus on just some meditation. The more self-control you have, I think the better you'll be able to focus your will how you want it." Demona begins walking Mairin through some meditation techniques as the two sit in the shade of the trees beside the path on that delightfully nerdy blanket.