• Closed • Alchemy 101: Letter Ceritification Part 2

[Rickith Lanza]

Timestamp: 3rd of Cylus, The Rebirth Cycle, Arc 721

Rickith would enter the classroom he had become familiar with over the past few dozens of trials, and get his mind mentally prepared for his next lesson in Alchemy. They had discussed various academia related things when it comes to alchemy, and had gone over several important factors when creating something with alchemy. Doran was an excellent teacher, and Rickith was glad to be able to learn from him. Not to mention he was not that bad on the eyes as well. A slightly growing attraction to the man had presented itself in the back of Rickith's mind, but his first thoughts were on knowledge, and learning all that he could when it came to alchemy. He was mentally prepared for whatever it was that they would be doing totrial, and hoped it would be more hands on learning that the past few classes which had been merely academic. He preferred hands on learning. Letting his dark hued eyes start out the window at the scenery outside, he had thoughts of things that he could do with alchemy, potions that he could make whenever they did start working on potions. Rickith hoped that it would be soon, given that he was almost knowledgeable enough, and had a more scientific view of it based on their past few lessons.

Letting his shoulders droop a bit as he looked out the window, having come fifteen bits earlier than expected, Rickith patiently awaited Doran's arrival. He was always early, since his mother always told him that "You're either early or late, never on time." So he chose to be early as it was how his mother had raised him, to be punctual, especially to classes, so that he didn't waste any of Doran's time, and was able to learn everything he could within the allotted amount of time given.

Tressa, Rickith's mother, was busy that day preparing a dress for the ball that they were to attend in the next trial. Rickith had never really been to a ball before, so he was excited himself to be able to attend, and experience that first hand. He would more than certainly enjoy himself, but would stay away from any alcohol, as he didn't like the thought of being inebriated, and honestly had never had a drink in his entire life, so he did hope that they served some non-alcoholic beverages. Peer pressure had never gotten him to submit to drinking either, so he doubted anyone would be able to convince him otherwise to drink at the ball.

Once Doran arrived, Rickith would turn around, and greet him with a hardy, "Good trial Professor, what will we be learning today?" He was eager to know the answer, and would wait patiently while Doran was getting ready to find out what exactly they would be going over this class...

[Doran]

For a while, the Mortalborn had been wondering if yet more classes would not take place due to the weather. On the 1st of Cylus, a snowstorm had started. While the majority of snowstorms lasted a couple of breaks, at most, this particular snowstorm had continued throughout the night and for the entire 2nd of Cylus, and it had been still as strong as ever when he had gotten up in the morning of the 3rd of Cylus. Around noon, it had finally started to let up though, so that he was fairly optimistic as he made his way to the Academy.

The hallways of what was most likely the greatest center of learning in all of Idalos were still noticeably emptier than they would normally have been though, he observed. A certain number of students had decided to simply stay at home for the rest of the trial rather than making their way to the Academy, only in order to spend but a break or two there.

The Mortalborn who was garbed in black winter coat and a bespoke suit made of fine, dark wool with silver details was confident that he would not be one of those students though. Rickith Lanza, a young man that he had begun to tutor as part of his Letter program in Alchemy the cycle before, gave him the impression of being diligent and hard-working. He was not someone who stayed away unless there really wasn’t any other way.

As he made his way through the vast hallways of the Academy to the classroom where their lesson would be taking place, his thoughts began to wander for a little while, as they sometimes did when there was nothing else for him to do, to the ball that would take place the following trial and that he would attend, a ball that would be held in Treid's honor - and another ball, a ball in Rharne that had changed his life in a most unexpected way.

He had not thought that he would ever be forgiven for what he had done more than four arcs prior, during the battle at Treid's Tomb - that no matter how much he did, it would never be enough, not nearly enough - and yet, he bore Xiur’s mark now, and Daia’s - for he would serve her as well, for as long as he drew breath, and make sure that those that sought to subjugate and destroy never won.

For a bit, his thoughts also went to a young blonde mage, and a love that he had never expected, not in all of his centuries. He could not help but wonder where Llyr was. Several seasons had passed since their last meeting, although the etherist that he knew to be a Mortalborn now, just like himself, had sent a letter, so that he knew that he was at least alive, somewhere, and that it was possible, perhaps even likely, that they would meet again.

As the door to the classroom came into view, he pushed his thoughts back into a corner of his mind where they would stay until he left the Academy again, at least. When he was alone, he allowed himself to think, and wonder (although he rarely worried), but as soon as he walked into the classroom his focus was on those that the taught, and only on them.

“Good afternoon, Mister Lanza”, he spoke in a calm and polite tone of voice as he opened the door and stepped inside, inclining his head in a greeting as he did so. He took off his coat and hung it onto a hook by the door before he put his lab coat and a pair of protective gloves on, expecting Rickith to do the same, if he hadn’t done so already. “It’s good to see you. I hope that your walk to the Academy was not too unpleasant”, he added, referring to the fact that the streets were covered with a thick layer of snow.

A few moments later, he set a tall glass jar that was filled with what looked like deep orange sand down on the worktable where they would spend approximately the following break.

“As we discussed during our last meeting, you will make an object feel warm to the touch this time – which is something that should be of some use to you during the Rebirth Cycle”, he reminded him. “This jar here contains the reagent that you will be using. Since you made some progress in our time together, I will start this lesson a little differently, by asking questions rather than giving you instructions”, he explained and smiled very lightly, for but a trill or two, before he continued, in a serious tone of voice,

“First of all, I would like to know what you think the substance in the jar is. You know what kind of effect we want to achieve. There are a limited number of reagents that have the property that we need, and for our experiment we will be using a reagent that is readily available in a particular part of the world. And secondly, I would like to know how exactly you would go about making something, a piece of cloth for example, warm to the touch. Most of the basic principles are the same, no matter what the effect”, he added, providing a small, helpful hint.

“Now then, which steps would you take, Mister Lanza, and why?” he wanted to know and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Rickith had performed reasonably well when he had told him what to do and helped him with some of the more complicated steps. Now the time to see how much he actually remembered from his previous lessons had come though.

[Rickith Lanza]

As Rickith heard the door behind him open up, he turned to allow his deeply dark hued eyes to see who was coming through it. Turned out it was Doran, whom greeted him politely, to which Rickith would say, "Greetings to you as well, Professor." As Doran put on a lab coat and some protective gloves, Rickith mimicked him and did the same, in preparation for their lesson today. Watching as doran procured a jar of sand, which was an interesting hue of orange, Rickith then would listen to what all Doran was explaining to him, and the questions that he was posing to him. Once he had finished, and was awaiting Rickith's answer, he said, "May I feel the substance to see what it's like?" If given permission, he would reach towards the jar, open it up and place a finger or two on top of the sand, careful not to push into the sand, but just feel it on top. "Well, it is a type of sand, I can tell you that, and it gives off a bit of heat," he stated factually as he could feel the heat coming off of the sand. It wasn't scalding hot, but it definitely gave off a decent amount of heat.

"Give me just a moment to think here..." he said, then pausing as he thought back to their previous lessons. "Okay, so the process I would go for when utilizing the sand to make a piece of cloth or some other object produce heat, is, I would start by using a primer to prepare the cloth or other object, possibly a stone, or article of clothing to receive the substance. Once it was properly primed, I would take the article of cloth or clothing, and add a binder and metabolizer to help bind the reagent to the cloth, as well as enhance the effect of the reagent on the cloth. Finally I would mix the sand after I maybe grind it up a bit further with a mortar and pestle, or is it already fine enough? Whether or not I do that, I would mix the resulting substance with a solute, such as alcohol or some other substance, then apply that to the article of cloth or clothing. Let it dry, and see if the effects work afterwards?"

As he was explaining, he paused a few moments here and there to collect his thoughts as he was partially unsure of himself, but was hoping that he was explaining it correctly. Once he had finished explaining, he'd allow his gaze to look towards Doran again, and patiently awaited the verdict to see if he had gotten it all right, part of it right, or none of it correct. He was sure he had at least some idea of what to do based on their last few classes, but hoped he had gotten most of it right so they could put it into practice, and work to make the self-heating cloth a reality...

[Doran]

“Of course“, the Mortalborn replied when Rickith wanted to know if he was allowed to feel the substance to see what it was like and inclined his head. He was glad that the young man had decided to ask rather than sticking a finger into an unfamiliar and thus potentially harmful substance as some alchemy students were unfortunately wont to do. Protective gloves were helpful, but they didn’t protect you against everything, of course. Not even the ability that one of his Awakening had afforded him did, at least not to his knowledge.

“It is indeed sand, but it is a special kind of sand”, he confirmed a few moments later, once Rickith had examined it sufficiently. “It is orange sand from Faldrass, a volcanic island that is a part of Scalvoris. It can only be found there. Sand, the kind of sand that you can find on beaches outside of Scalvoris, has a low specific heat which means that its temperature increases quickly when the sun shines, for example. Faldrass Sand is always warm to the touch though, even in the middle of Cylus”, he explained before he gestured for the younger man to hand him the jar.

“There are other kinds of sands in Scalvoris as well though, rainbow sand, silver sand, green sand and yellow sand, sand that is cool to the touch and sand that glows softly in the dark, not unlike the stone that we created during our first lesson together”, he continued. He thought that Rickith might be curious about that. To him, Scalvoris with its wealth of unusual creatures, plants and substances constituted a source of endless fascination, at least, and sometimes, a source of great worry, for Scalvoris seemed to have to endure catastrophe or catastrophe – and it was on the bring of an actual war now.

“Exactly”, he remarked when Rickith answered his question and answered it correctly, at that. For a moment, a hint of a smile flickered across his face. “That is how I would do it as well. Since your answer was correct, you may start by preparing the item with a primer, grinding the sand up and mixing it with a liquid now. This time we won’t need alcohol though. Water will be entirely sufficient. Depending on how those two steps go, you may do the rest of the work yourself as well”, he continued. When they had started working together the cycle before, he had helped the younger man a lot more.

“I think a piece of cloth may actually be our best choice”, he decided. “In the bottom drawer of the leftmost cabinet at the back of this room you will find a box with various pieces of fabric. Pick whatever color and material you like best”, he told him. If Rickith opened the cabinet, he would find that pieces of fabric were not the only things that were in there. There were also stones, like the one that they had imbued during their very first lesson, as well as small piece of metal and various trinkets, objects that his alchemy students learned to imbue with various effects.

[Pig Boy]

Player Name: Rickith Lanza

Points awarded: 15 xp
Magic xp: none

Knowledge: None requested.


Renown: 0
Loot:
Injuries/Overstepping: None
Wealth Points: None
Consequences: This doesn't quite rise to the level of a qualification thread for your letter, as you only wrote 900+ words, but I'd say it's worth it as a 'homework' thread for waiving 5 of the required knowledges from the knowledges needed to attain a letter.

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriately to PC's level

Player Name: Doran

Points awarded: 15 xp
Magic xp: None

Knowledge: None requested.


Renown: 0
Loot: none
Injuries/Overstepping: None
Wealth Points: None
Consequences: None

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriately to PC's level

Notes: It's too bad this was abandoned, as I always enjoy learning more about alchemy in class-like settings. I can really never get enough of that brand of crafting, using alchemical processes to make something extraordinary. Unfortunately it was cut short, but oh well.

Doran: It's obivous that Doran thinks about Llyr a lot still, and he seems to be on his mind even now after having been absent for such a time. Perhaps it's just that he's still in love or the fact that Doran sees things in terms of a long-view, because of his long life. Either way, your writing was very good here for how far you managed to take this thread. Well done.

Rickith: If you come back and want knowledges, feel free to PM me. You're entitled to 6 knowledges as your contribution doesn't quite rise to the level of a collaboration. Still, your writing was quite good, and I appreciated the reference to the Ball that you even made! Anyway, I hope to see more of you again, sometime soon.

Well done all.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns regarding this review, feel free to PM. Enjoy your rewards!