Paschal: Unit for Academic Pressure (Emy!!)

Poppy · Apr 25, 2015

Lei didn't like Paschalis forcing him to look at this in a new angle. New angles were terrible. They messed with perfectly logical traditions. If new angles were so great, why didn't people from the past think of them before?

"I mean... that's how the Saviors before me learned. That's how it's always been done. If that's how it's always been done, then I'm the one with the problem, not these scrolls." Lei scratched his head, frustrated. "If there are outliers, like me, and I'm too powerful as you say, then wouldn't there be writing telling me that's a possibility? Wouldn't our Village be buried in snow by now? Maybe I'm just too dumb to get this. It wouldn't be the first thing I'm bad at."

Lei bit his lip. He decided... Paschalis would need all the information he could get, so he should tell him about Deith. He could do that without divulging unnecessary details, anyway. "The other day... Like, something weird happened. I don't know. I was in... this guy's place practicing my power and there was something about dripping water. I saw it... matched my heart beat. So I followed the rhythm. And it worked, kind of? I managed to do the basic forms and make the water dance. But I can't do it anymore. I tried... but no good. It was impossible."

Emy · May 1, 2015

Paschalis de Santis

"I only said that it was a possibility," Paschalis explained smoothly. If he could single out issues so quickly as on his first try, then the Academy was really holding back on his paycheck. "Most people at the Academy are already outliers in their own right. For those who aren't, they often find that thinking out problems in different ways helps them to understand and control their powers more effectively. Time tested methods are all well and good but at some point, the future generations will outgrow them. In that case, holding on to them becomes an act of unnecessary sentimentality."

At Lei's report of temporary progress earlier, Paschalis merely nodded his head. "We'll work on it. I think I have an idea of what that probably is." Something about primal harmony and all of that. It was the sort of idea that you had to be on the same wavelength as whatever it was that you were trying to work with. To be honest, Paschalis (really) disliked that method but if it worked, it worked, so what was there to complain about?

"If you don't mind, I'll take this to Wong so he can look at it," he said, indicating towards the scroll.

Poppy · May 1, 2015

Lei considered the possibility. Shit, did the future really promise other incompetent Leis in their village? It was a sad thought, but it was an unfortunately real possibility he had to acknowledge. Lei thought about documenting his progress, if that was the case. "Then fine. Let's say I'm an outlier, through sheer incompetence or some other reason. Do I get special training or? Is there a magic drink to help me? What do I have to do?"

"I think I have an idea on what that probably is."

He practically stood up in surprise. He knew Paschalis wasn't full of shit; it seemed like he immediately understood the situation. They might be on to something, here. "Really? You know how to work on that?" He was getting a little too excited now. "Can you teach me to do it again?"

Lei's eyes widened. "Wait!" He reached out to touch the scroll, almost like readying himself if he should yank it back. "That — that belonged to my Village. They've been using it for a hundred years and there are no other copies. They'll be so pissed if it gets torn or broken. Are you sure this 'Wong' will take care of it?"

Emy · May 1, 2015

Paschalis de Santis

He didn't make any move to keep the scroll out of Lei's reach. Having dealt with antiques before, Paschalis knew that it would be dangerous to be hasty while handling them. "Wong Ha Jung is one of the school counselors," he explained. "He's as soft as they come but if you give him something to do, within reason, he will get the job done right. In any case, he is actually capable of reading this." And I am not went unsaid but was still clearly implied. "Moreover, he has experience with translating texts. If something happens to this scroll while it's in his possession, he would probably be even more devastated than your own elders."

"It would be unwise to keep only one copy of this." Rolling up the scroll again, he held it so that it wasn't quite being offered back. Although, Lei was free to take it if he wanted. It would be counterproductive to his learning but Paschalis wasn't going to fight him over it. That was not part of his job description. "If you take this back, I would strongly advise that you go to a photocopy machine and get a digital copy instead of carrying it around in your backpack all the time where it can be significantly damaged."

Poppy · May 1, 2015

"Oh..." That was actually pretty comforting. If there was was something Lei appreciated, it was dedication to their job. He drew his hand back. "All right. Take care of them."

...And then Paschalis started speaking gobbledygook. Photo... copy? Di... gital? Lei gave him a long, hard stare to indicate that, no, he had no freaking idea what those were and it would be really nice if Paschalis started making sense soon. "Reproducing them would be incredibly difficult. I can't just make copies! It'll take days, weeks even. I'll need to hire an artist for the illustrations. It's way too expensive."

Emy · May 1, 2015

Paschalis de Santis

Paschalis stared right back at Lei. Then, without missing a beat, he pointed down the hallway with the scroll in hand. "Follow me. Now."

He was not about to start a purely verbal explanation that would inevitably be misunderstood in some way. He always thought that it was such a terrible way of teaching to just throw something out of the blue at somebody like that. Because honestly, if they had absolutely no background in a subject, words should be chosen carefully. And since they often weren't and also because that was hard, it was easier to simply demonstrate.

There was a photocopy machine in the teacher's lounge on the other end of the hall. That would be a good place to start.

Poppy · May 1, 2015

Lei followed Paschalis, curious as to where he would lead him. He felt like he said something wrong because he spoke out of ignorance and dread began to slowly pool in his stomach.

They eventually entered the teacher's lounge — which he was not supposed to be inside of!!! he noted angrily — to look at a funny looking table. He looked at Paschalis with a confused expression. "...Okay. It's a weird table that's hard to put things on. What does it have to do with my scrolls?"

Emy · May 5, 2015

Paschalis de Santis

There was absolutely nothing that he had to say. All Paschalis did was lift the top of the photocopy machine up and slap on a random flyer that he found lying around on a nearby table. Then pressing a button, he let the machine do it's job. As it spat out the new copy within a few seconds, the man took up both it and the original and showed them to Lei.

"You should probably learn to use this," he said after a moment. "Also scanners and computers in general if nobody has taught you yet. I would recommend going to a librarian for that."

Poppy · May 5, 2015

"WHAT," Lei screamed. "WHAT THE FUCK!?"

He approached the magic table and looked it up and down. Upon closer inspection, it did look a bit like a computer-table hybrid, but this shouldn't be possible. "That's a joke, right!? Something shouldn't have that much power! If that can magically reproduce texts, then why the fuck do we need bookstores!? Can't we just have one copy of a book and multiply it to infinity with that thing!?"

He touched it and retracted his arm when he felt it was warm. "Can you... uh, can you make a copy of these scrolls to give to this Wong person? The original is valuable, but I won't mind so much if he destroyed the copies."

Emy · May 5, 2015

Paschalis de Santis

Well, there went his plan to offload Lei onto Wong. To some degree anyways. Paschalis was quite certain that Wong was unqualified to teach power classes of any sort but he had been vaguely hoping that the two of them could simply get together and, something. They were both Chinese, language barriers would be down. Would that have made any difference? Probably not but he could always hope.

"Not everything in the world runs on magic," Paschalis said as he checked the paper tray. There were only a few sheets left so he refilled it, not knowing how many it would take to get Lei's scroll copied. "And generally, copyright laws are the reasons why we can't just get rid of bookstores."

Then he put the scroll down on the machine and started copying it. Maybe three copies would be enough.

Search

Paschal: Unit for Academic Pressure (Emy!!)

Poppy

Well-Known Member

Emy

Well-Known Member

Poppy

Well-Known Member

Emy

Well-Known Member

Poppy

Well-Known Member

Emy

Well-Known Member

Poppy

Well-Known Member

Emy

Well-Known Member

Poppy

Well-Known Member

Emy

Well-Known Member