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Zhavi · **05-10-2014, 11:29 AM**

Zhavi sneezed. Ugh. She sneezed again, and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand. It tickled. The city sure smelled, but outside of the city smelled in another way that got up inside her nose and made it itch something awful. She swiped at it again, trying to get at the internal itch by pawing at the outside. How intolerable.

But then Lalataru started talking, and Zhi's eyes wandered away from the far-off vista of the horizon and towards the lalafell. What he said didn't make perfect sense to her, but she could understand the parts of what he said easily enough. It was entirely outside of the world she'd built for herself, and that made her nervous. She wanted to lash her tail back and forth, but everything was much too open for that. She hid it up under her coat instead, glancing around every few seconds as if to make sure their surroundings weren't rearranging themselves without her noticing.

"Yeah?" She said. She hadn't meant it as a question. She cleared her throat. "I don't know what t'do."

Goodfellow · **05-12-2014, 12:08 AM**

Lolo took a few short steps towards her and handed the notebook back to her, open to the last used page.Â He pointed to the symbol there and said, "Do what you did last night.Â Only this time, don't stop it."

Zhavi · **05-12-2014, 12:36 AM**

That was . . .

Zhi bit down on the word that wanted to come out of her, on the feeling itself that bubbled up and made her want to glare at him and stomp back inside the city. She didn't want to admit to herself why she was getting angry, much less admit it to the lalafell, but once the notebook was back in her hands she didn't exactly have many options.

She looked down at it, hating how stupid she felt. She took out the grease pencil, pressed her lips together and glanced back at Lalataru. No help, there. All that open space, and she was still trapped as good as if she'd been penned up at the end of a dock.

Her first try failed. That made her more angry. Her lines became erratic and crooked, prompting another five failures. She was pretending she didn't care by the seventh, and had stopped paying attention to what she was doing by the thirteenth; she was wondering how long he would stand there watching her before he stopped her when something rippled along her fur and buzzed over her spine. It snapped out of her, away from the notebook, careening upwards at an awkward angle and splatting against the rock with a sound that was almost pathetic.

Zhi fell back on her arse, her eyes wide and her mouth open wide. She felt as if something had just punched through her gut, leaving her feeling empty yet strangely euphoric. All traces of the act had been wiped away, leaving only Zhi to turn her shocked expression on Lalataru. She didn't say a word, just gaped at him.

Goodfellow · **05-12-2014, 08:02 PM**

She'll be needing another notebook soon if she keeps burning through pages at this rate.

He was just reaching towards his pocket to pull out a book to read, prepared for the fact that this exercise might take all day and then some, when Joz finally succeeded.Â He felt, heard, and saw the bolt arc out before her and strike the one of the rocks.Â It wasn't a clean cast, and it wasn't particularly powerful, but she had done it!

They stared at one another a long moment before a smile cracked across Lolo's face and he began jumping and clapping excitedly.

Zhavi · **05-12-2014, 08:15 PM**

In that moment, there was nothing at all in her head. Then he started jumping and clapping and grinning, and gods, he looked so stupid. So stupid that she couldn't help but laugh at him. She lay back, stretching her arms above her head and pointing her toes as she gave herself over to the exultation. Everything went away for that little while, until reality reasserted itself. The ground was wet from the recent rain, and she was now wet too. Whatever. She still let herself lay, cushioning her head on her arms while she stared up at the sky for a little while. Her clothing would be stained, and soon it would be completely uncomfortable. I don't care, she thought, exhaling long and slow. I jes don't.

Finally she rolled onto her stomach. She propped herself up on her elbows and watched Lalataru. There was a distant look in her eyes, though she was smiling. "Hey," she said.

Goodfellow · **05-12-2014, 08:39 PM**

On being addressed, he calmed himself to respond.Â There was something odd in her manner just now, though he was himself too given over to the excitement of her success to catch on to it.

"Heh, heh--eh...yes, Miss Joz?"

Zhavi · **05-12-2014, 08:46 PM**

For a moment, the giddiness returned. She swooped one of her arms out, mimicking the sound the bolt had made when it hit the rocks. She giggled, sobered, let her head hang down. Looked back up. "What's it make me, now I can do that?"

Goodfellow · **05-12-2014, 10:19 PM**

Lolo tilted his head to the side, his hand on his chin.

"Well, it makes you an arcanist, I suppose.Â Or at least, it does once you can do it more...er," he droned off momentarily.Â More what?Â Instinctively?Â Immediately?Â Reflexively?Â Fluently?

"...well, more naturally."

Zhavi · **05-13-2014, 03:51 AM**

Zhi lifted her hands in order to rest her forehead on them. Her wet shirt had settled into the crevasse left by the upward push of her shoulderblades. If Zhi could have seen herself in that moment, she would have labeled the sight pathetic; lack of meat on the bones proclaimed incompetence. At least, that's how it was on the streets. You were underfed, you were poor. Gutterborn. She'd tried to leave that life behind her years ago.

Arcanist.

Arcanist.

Something in her wavered.

"Huh," she muttered, closing her eyes against the backs of her hands. "Tell me. . .tell me how ye became an arcanist."

Goodfellow · **05-13-2014, 10:49 AM**

Unnoticed by Lolo himself, his hand came to rest on the outline of the book in his pocket as he turned and looked back towards the city.

"When it became clear that I had reached something of a plateau in my personal studies, I made a very particular purchase, a collection of codices and compendia and other books of the like, and decided that my studies would proceed more...efficaciously were I to enroll formally in a course of study with other and more learned and accomplished arcanists than myself."

He turned back to Joz and continued, "True understanding can never be fully reached with the efforts of but one mind."

Zhavi · **05-13-2014, 02:09 PM**

Zhi's curiosity was piqued when he mentioned personal studies, but before she could ask he said something else. Something very important. She let her ears go slightly back and sideways; a sign of being at ease for miqo'te.

"A collection? Why'd ye do that? Will I need to?" Her words came slow and languorous: her apparent curiosity stifled by the release of pent-up tension her success had provided.

Goodfellow · **05-13-2014, 06:15 PM**

"Hm?Â Oh, no, not at all," he responded, continuing with nary a thought.Â "My acquisition thereof wasn't really of any aid to me.Â It serves me now more for...erm...inspiration than for any practical purpose."

He was still palming the outside of his pocket.

"There is simply so much to learn in this world.Â And learning it is its own purpose, as often as not," he added pointedly.

Zhavi · **05-13-2014, 09:04 PM**

"Inspiration?" Zhi peeked up over her hands, resting her chin on them. She watched him. Her eyes were wide with curiosity.

Goodfellow · **05-14-2014, 09:43 AM**

Lolo considered Joz and decided that something was off.Â Was she simply enervated or was it aetheric exhaustion?Â He would have to try to teach her Aetherflow at some point.

"Those books--my books--were the final cause of me...re-purposing my life; without them I'd still be in Thanalan, running my company full time, traversing the desert routes endlessly and struggling alone to grasp increasingly obtuse theorems and principles of arcanima."Â A short pause, and then, "I'm much happier now."

Zhavi · **05-14-2014, 11:54 AM**

Lalataru was really making it difficult. Zhi'd heard about him acquiring the book Galleon wanted, but there was no way to directly bring it up, and he wasn't being as talkative as she wanted. She couldn't be sure that the books he was talking about were related to the single one she sought. But, if she could just keep him talking. . .

"Ye changed yer life 'cause o'books?" Zhi's voice was raised in mild incredulity. Books were not exactly prized in the lowtown.

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RPC has moved! These pages have been kept for historical purposes