You've Been Requisitioned (Ilta)

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“Like I said, it could have its roots in that. I was taught by my parents who were taught by their parents and so on and so forth. I don’t know how many generations this has been passed through and maybe altered.” However, now Ilta was curious as to what fast alchemy even looked like. Yet, if her ancestors were so skilled, they would probably be at the Arch. She makes a mental note to avoid that location until she could determine if there were any family members present there.

Roland’s solution was one way of dealing it. “Whatever you can make work for you. I certainly don’t believe that there is only one way of dealing with a problem. However, that does seem like the most efficient use of the spell, so that might give you issues in the long run. I mean, how much paperwork would you have to file if you did that?” she jokes.

The skin thing was weird to explain. It was easier if he had some experience in something similar. “So have you ever done shapeshifting before? Or is this completely new to you?”

[Roland]

"Well let's not worry about that another time." He says as the origin of this spell was not as important as the actual ability.

Roland actually lets out a chuckle as Ilta reminds him of all the paperwork he'd need to do if he just rounded up a city block. "That's probably true, I am a very good administrator though." He jokes back continuing the analogy. Roland had far more magical stamina than a normal mage, he suspected it had something to do with his mother, but he might just have gotten lucky.

When she asks him if he has any shape shifting experience he shakes his head. "None, I get he theory for the most part, but I've never actually done it." He replies.

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Ilta nods. No experience. “Will this is a bit simpler than that thankfully. There’s less twisting and breaking involved.” Shapeshifting wasn’t the most comfortable process. More or less, a person would just get used to the sensation of their body rearranging themselves. “It helps if you have kind of a template to work with.” She taps on the stone slab next to her. “Become familiar with what you are trying to mimic. Then focus your magic to the flesh and recreate the stone. It’s not a perfect mimicry. You wouldn’t want to turn yourself into a statue. You need to keep some elasticity and flexibility. Obviously, you lose some strength and durability, but it’s better than not moving. I suppose it is more of a partial transformation than a full one.”

She pauses for a second and tries to think if she is forgetting to mention anything. It seemed like she covered the basics so far. “Oh. Just a word of warning. It’ll feel like all your muscles have locked up for the first seconds. And while you are using the spell, you lose some ability to actually feel things. It’s like touching everything with gloves on.”

[Roland]

When Ilta suggests that he would need to become familiar with a stone Roland nods and motions for her to follow him. Then with a swift step he runs off towards the castle's main fountain. There sitting with it's mouth open and water pouring out would be the inanimate version of a very familiar lion.

Roland hops up into the fountain and then splashes over to the lion, placing a hand on it. "I am quiet familiar with this stone." He announces proudly, then he focuses all his senses.

Really changing his skin to stone shouldn't be much different than petrification or alchemy and he had rudimentary knowledge of both. He focuses on identifying the make up of his skin as he would with the metal shaping spell. He focuses and suprisingly found it easier to change himself than he thought. Then he found himself on his side in the middle of the fountain, unable to move with the lion pouring water on his head.

He'd accidentally gone to far...though Roland lets out a breath and suddenly he could feel his body surging with strength. With a slightly unplesant grinding sound Roland gets to his feet. It was strange to be an animated statue. He walks out of the fountain and marks on the ground. 'Can't talk, think I got it wrong.'.

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Ilta looks at the fountain. Well, that answered where the stone lion evidently came from. She had to wonder if the people minded that the spout for the fountain disappeared every so often. “Alright. Work with that then.” It was a good enough template as any other.

Ilta winces he falls over into the fountain. However, it probably didn’t hurt nearly as much as it could have since he cast the spell. She did warn that the first few moments were unpleasant though. “Yeah, you get used to that after awhile.”

Thankfully, he seemed to be somewhat animate as he gets up. She watches him curiously as he starts writing on the ground. “Oh… I wouldn’t say you messed up that bad. I mean, it’s mostly right, just somewhat too rigid. It’s just like… relaxing a muscle. Unclenching a fist Just don’t fully relax or else you’ll end up cutting the spell short.”

[Roland]

'Actually I think I'm basically a statue, I'm using the power I use to animate the lion.' he writes on the ground then looks up at her and manages a somewhat perplexed look which was impressive given he was currently a statue. He sits down on the fountain and exhales once again becoming unable to move. Though he focuses on unclenching his power and letting it go.

After about half a minute he was still stone, letting go of his magic was hard, harder than he thought. Roland was someone who always had his magic close at hand, not just for safety, but because it was part of him. After a few more minutes he finally begins to return to normal. Though his eyes grow wide as his face begins to flush and he pitches forward. Panic inches into his eyes as he attempts to gasp but appears unable to.

As he sweats and begins to turn purple he closes his eyes and finally be takes a deep breath then begins to cough. "*gasp* *gasp* that was terrifying." He gasps as he lies on his forearms gulping down air and at this point having attracted quite a few stares. "When I became a statue I turned by lunges to stone as well and I turned back before they did." he explains as he gets back to his feet. "Well I'll keep working at that one." He says as he tries to smile, though given his grizzled features it comes off as vaguely menacing.

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Ilta shakes her head. “No you are pretty close. You aren’t quite a statue. You can still move. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be writing. I mean, my brother damn near petrified himself the first time. Good thing, it requires some energy to keep up. Eventually, he just passed out and returned to normal.”

She watches as he seems to struggle with his new form. Roland seemed to have trouble with moderation. Always too much manna. Efficiency wasn’t the easiest trait for people to learn when it came to magic though. While most people probably couldn’t boast as much magical strength, it was a bit impractical for some of these spells to use so much force.

She watches a bit unconcerned as he gasps for air. Well, this was almost exactly like her brother learning that spell. There wasn’t much she could do other than wait for him to get his lungs going again or pass out. As he admits to that experience being terrifying, she shakes her head, “No… you wouldn’t really have to worry. You would have passed out from not being able to breathe and would have just went back to normal. While not pleasant, it’s pretty much impossible to kill yourself doing that kind of transformation. Well, not impossible, but unlikely. Besides, it’s easier than learning how to shapeshift into an animal. You can actually break bones doing that if you mess it up.”

[Roland]

Roland nods at Ilta's explanations, but still looks uncomfortable for some reason. "Alright, thank you for the lesson. I will practice from here on out, but unfortunately I don't have time to keep going with this now." he admits as he gets to his feet and dusts himself off.

"Is there anything else you would like to ask of me regarding your new assignment before I go back to the pit and resume my battle against the paper sea?" He asks her.

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Ilta shakes her head. “I'm fine. Enjoy doing those reports. I should probably get back to training.” However, this whole exercise made her feel like pushing the limits of her own magic. Maybe relearn how to change shapes. She looks back at the balls of metal from breaking the sword, particularly the ball of arsenic. That probably shouldn’t leave that rolling around the training grounds… She picks up the nickel, tin, and arsenic, and wonders what the hell she was going to do with these useless things.

[Roland]

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