• Solo • Borrowed Echoes

[Devin]

Cylus 14, Arc 721

On the 14th of Cylus, Devin Thorn, masterful bard, medical genius in progress and unexpected Baron (Saoire had given him the job, or at least one third of it, even though he had just wanted Alyssia to have it!) sat in front of the luxurious vanity table in his bedroom, grinning all over his face because he was really looking forward to what would happen later that trial.

He would teach a class, and a class on Becoming which was his favourite magic ever at that!

Once upon a time, he had hated school and university and teaching and everything that had had something to do with it with a passion, at least in part because his own experience at school had not been particularly pleasant. Over the course of the arcs, he had realized that being a teacher was actually a whole lot of fun though. He got to talk about his favourite topics, and what more, he had an audience that couldn’t just leave if they didn’t like what he said!

And he got to show off his favourite outfits!

A class was a play (with a literal captive audience!), a storytelling session, a fashion show and a learning experience all in one, and it was incredibly and indubitably awesome!

He had already decided on his outfit. Since waistcoats were in fashion this season, he was of course wearing one, a fine black waistcoat that was decorated with pretty feathers. Since he was not someone that followed trends, but preferred to set them, he had improved it by sticking various golden buttons as well as a silver chain on it. Of course, he was wearing pants and a shirt to go with his waistcoat as well. It was cold and dark and unpleasant in Cylus, and besides, he doubted that teaching a class half-naked was even allowed!

Since the rest of him still looked rather plain, he put on some eyeliner, of the blackest kind, with nearly surgical precision (he was a surgeon, among other things!), using an angled brush in order to create little wings, combed his dark hair until it was nice and shiny and added some glitter to it for an extra dose of extra shininess. Having done that, he got a few rings. In regard to his jewelry, he decided not to go for totally over the top but picked a few rings made of silver and gold to match the silver and gold on his waistcoat instead.

Too much of something, he’d come to realize, could have the opposite effect, both in regard to medicine and cosmetology, and he wanted people to be in awe of him and not become blind because every part of him shone brighter than … well, there was no sun in Cylus, but it was still a decent comparison in his opinion. He liked the sun, and he missed it a great deal!

His being melancholic about the absence of the sun didn’t last very long though because he was just too excited, and he couldn’t wait to get started.

So, he grabbed his bookbag (made of fine black leather!), dumped a few books, his notebook and his pencil case into it in quick succession, added something to drink and a bag of cookies (because teaching always made him hungry and thirsty), put on his coat (purple and very fancy, with a warm hood!) and his boots and went on his way, with a spring in his step.

[Devin]

When he arrived at the university a little later, he extinguished the little lantern that he always carried with him when he went outside in Cylus because he preferred to actually be able to see where he was going – and stopped dead in his tracks as something suddenly occurred to him, something most unpleasant. When he had heard that he would be teaching another class, he had of course prepared himself because he wanted to be envied and admired and not made fun of because he was the worst teacher ever.

He had checked the notes that he had made when he had first researched Becoming, back before he had gotten initiated. He had thought about his own, practical experience as a (somewhat untraditional) Becomer, and he had even tried to remember what his mentor Adeline, whose qualities as a teacher were a bit lacking, to be honest, had told him. He knew a lot about a lot of different aspects of Becoming, but there was one aspect of that magic that he knew next to nothing about – because it was absolutely disgusting!

His students, he realized, might be curious about that particular topic though, so, he quickened his pace, and then he actually started to run. There were a few books in a shelf at the back of the classroom – nothing that contained obscure or secret knowledge, but appropriate and (hopefully) helpful reading material for Letter and Certificate students - that he opened in quick succession. The first book that he pulled out of the shelf turned out to be an introductory work on Defiance. Upon pulling the second book out of the shelf, only to realize that it didn’t have anything to do with Becoming either, it occurred to him that it would be a good idea to check the titles first – which was exactly what he did.

A moment later, he held a thick, blue book with the title “An Introduction to the Arcane” in his hands and checked the table of contents which would hopefully enable him to find what he needed to research faster. Fortunately, the section on Becoming was split into neat subsections so that he found what he was looking for relatively quickly. When he started reading, his eyes widened so much that they nearly dropped out of their sockets. The author of the book claimed that Becomers who used an animal totem could talk to animals of the same type.

The mere thought of turning into something that licked its own behind and ate raw meat (and poop!) made Devin a bit sick, but this here, he decided sounded kind of awesome – and too good to be true, to be honest. If what the author had written was true, why couldn’t he speak perfect Rakahi when he changed into his Biqaj totem? A Becomer in an animal totem could communicate with animals of the same type, so he should be able to communicate with humanoids of the same type - in their own language!

He needed to cross-check the information, he realized, and leafed through a book on Becoming (written for Letter students, so it wasn’t very detailed) that looked obviously used, checked the table of contents, found the section on totems and furrowed his brow because it said the same – Becomers that were in an animal totem could communicate with animals (which didn’t really make him change his mind about animal totems; he still fond the idea disturbing and would rather give his spark back than do that).

He was just about to check a third book, just to be sure (It was titled “Domain Magic for Beginners”) when he heard a voice behind him that sounded half-amused and half-curious,

“Doctor Thorn?”

[Devin]

“I was just appraising the condition of these books here”, Devin claimed as he turned around and flashed the young brown-haired woman in a pretty white lace dress that stood there a brilliant and charming smile. “I’ll see if you can all get new ones sometime. This one especially looks as if it has been in use since my parents’ generation”, he insisted and pointed at the book on Becoming before he stepped away from the shelf and marched towards his desk without further ado, while the brown-haired woman who had been the first student to arrive took a seat in the third row.

Since there was still a bit of time until the class began, Devin pulled out his notes and started to read them again – only in order to look up every time a new student entered the classroom. He wanted to see how many of them admired his wonderful outfit (and his nice eyeliner). A lot of them actually looked his way. Of course, a some of them only did so because he was the teacher, but he preferred to think that they all admired him regardless!

In his opinion, he should be admired, and what more, he deserved it!

Finally, all of the desks were occupied. Devin walked over to the door in order to close it. Having done that, he positioned himself in front of his own desk, leaning slightly against it in a casual manner, and proclaimed, flashing the students, most of whom were not that much younger than he was, a wide smile, “Becoming is, as the name implies, about becoming something. It’s not only a strange and fascinating kind of shapeshifting magic though. There is so much more to it than that, and it’s exceptionally useful”, he pointed out, putting a very, very noticeable emphasis on the penultimate word so that his students would pay more attention to it, because he had realized that the reputation of Becomers in Scalvoris left something to be desired.

Becomers didn’t really have a bad reputation, it was more of a “Oh, you are a shapeshifter?” kind of thing, but “Oh, you are a shapeshifter?” was not good enough for him. He didn’t want to have something that would have made people look at him a little strangely if they had known (He had decided to keep his being a mage to himself – because all those “tricks” were more fun if people didn’t know how you were doing them!). He wanted everyone to admire Becomers, and he wanted everyone to be envious of them, as much as possible.

So, he had decided to convince everybody that Becoming was the best and most useful magic ever (Because it really was in his opinion, apart from the animal thing!), and he’d decided to start with his students.

[Devin]

"Becomers can not only shapeshift", Devin informed his students in an enthusiastic tone of voice. "They can also borrow senses and abilities from a totem."

"Becoming can improve every aspect of your life, and it is helpful in so many different ways. By making use of a technique called Echo, you can gain the ability to see in the dark, jump like a gazelle or gain a cat's sense of smell, for example. Oh, and imagine a Becomer that is blind."

"By Echoing a bat's echolocation, they can find their way around without a cane - and subsequently become much more independent. Blindness would be a bit easier to bear", he pointed out and mentally congratulated himself on his great idea.

At first, he had considered just listing all the cool stuff that you could do with Becoming, such as Echoing voices and singing a duet with yourself (which was one of his big goals as far as magic was concerned) or magically changing your hairstyle by Borrowing someone else's hair.

Mentioning how Becoming could help people that were suffering and make Scalvoris a safer place for everybody, he had realized, was more likely to give Becomers a better name though.

(He'd decided to talk about the fun stuff at least a little regardless though, for those of his students that resembled him at least a bit and didn't want to be serious, responsible and boring adults all the time.)

"Imagine the Elements that are already an incredibly effective and impressive military force as is. The bad guys wouldn't stand a chance at all anymore if some of the Elements could run with the speed of a leopard, or interrogate the animal witnesses", he added and smiled at a student in the first row, a young blonde biqaj male with wonderfully pointed ears that he was kind of envious of.

"Animal witnesses?" the biqaj asked, looking obviously confused.

"Animal witnesses", Devin confirmed in no uncertain terms and nodded. He'd decided to handle the animal totem thing differently, by emphasizing the things that people might find cool or useful and glossing the rest over or just plain ignoring it (and trying not to think about how uncomfortable he would be as an animal too much). "Becomers can not only change into animals, they can also communicate with animals of the same type!"

"What would you do if someone were murdered, and the only witness happened to be a cat, for example?" he wanted to know. He had intended for that to be a purely rhetorical question that would, hopefully, underline what he had said so far further, a question that was just asked for effect, but some of his students tried to guess how such a scenario would be handled regardless.

Since he didn't know much about murder investigations, he quickly continued, "I mentioned Echo and Borrowing. Echo deals with the senses, for the most part. Borrowing which is a more advanced technique can involve physical traits, such as wings."

"Those traits can be either temporary or permanent", he added and reached into bag in order to remove his drink (contained in a very colorful bottle and definitely not alcoholic, but incredibly sweet and delicious) and take a sip because his mouth was starting to get dry, just as another student, a young woman with short black hair and rosy cheeks that was eighteen, at most, raised her hand, blushed a little and shyly asked,

"If I were a Becomer, would I be able to talk to my dog as well? I've always wanted to know what Elly is thinking! She's such a sweet dog!" she told him and sighed dreamily, because she really, really loved her dog.

"Sure", Devin replied in a good-natured tone of voice, put his bottle away again and produced the bag of cookies instead. "You wouldn't even have to become a dog yourself in order to talk to Elly. You could just Echo that particular trait. Of course, she would still have the intelligence of an animal either way", he added which caused the young woman to pout.

"Elly is probably a very intelligent dog regardless", he added for that reason.

"I would advise you against getting a Becoming spark for such reasons though as getting initiated into magic is very dangerous, and this is a purely theoretical class on the different aspects of Becoming on top of it", he continued, in a chipper tone of voice. The professors probably wouldn't like it if someone even suspected him of trying to encourage his students to become mages, and he'd rather not get a warning or suffer some sort of other unpleasant consequence.

He wanted that Charter!

So, he'd pretend to be “reasonable”, even though he totally believed that the risks were worth it and that everybody should give it a try because becoming a mage was a totally reasonable thing to do in his opinion!

[Devin]

“Doctor Thorn”, the girl in the pretty white lace dress that had interrupted his impromptu research session asked and raised a hand. “Do totems age? Normal people age, but do totems grow older even if you don’t use them?” she clarified. A few other students immediately looked at Devin expectantly. It seemed as if they were very curious about that particular topic which was something the Mortalborn hadn’t anticipated.

So far, his class had gone well. All the students had done what they were supposed to do (sit at their desks and not leave). Most of them had even listened and seemed to be receptive to his attempt at persuasion (it had probably helped the topic had been interesting). He had also seen that one girl had drawn something and that two students had flirted, for example, though. He had no problem with such behaviour though – because he was exactly the same. He flirted with his classmates as well!

Actually, he greatly approved of such behaviour, because he didn’t want his students to turn into well-adjusted productive members of society that were quiet and a bit stuffy and sat so straight that they looked as if they had swallowed a stick. He wanted them to be themselves!

He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do now though. Professor Jeeve and Professor Gir, his own teachers, always seemed to know what to say, even if a student posed a totally unexpected question that they could definitely not have prepared for. He wasn’t sure how they did it (although a part of him was aware that it probably had something to do with experience), but …

… his eyes lit up as he just had another most excellent idea - and a most excellent idea that would lead to them learning something, at that!

“Homework!” he remarked and grinned. “That’s actually something that I want you all to research for your homework, and we’ll talk about it next time”, he finished - only in order to belatedly realize that he would have to try and find out the answer now, too, otherwise he wouldn't be able to tell if they had done their homework correctly.

Oh no!

The girl in the lace dress seemed to be satisfied with what he had said though, and the class soon came to a conclusion. The Mortalborn who had definitely not been nervous (okay, he had been, but only a tiny, tiny bit) was just about to pack up his things and had to his next class when a student approached his desk – a student that he definitely didn’t want to talk to.

The very proper-looking brown-haired girl had already been in one of his classes the arc before and she had insisted that he was not a very good teacher. In his opinion, she just didn’t understand his overwhelming genius, but the fact that he didn’t want to talk to her remained.

“I found what you said about Becomers echoing the speed of a leopard and how that could help with catching criminals quite interesting”, she told him in a very firm and clipped tone of voice – which caused the former criminal to look at her incredulously for a moment and wonder if he was dreaming because he had not expected to hear that.

A moment later, he smiled at her because he had never really doubted that she would recognize his genius one day!

“But I was a bit surprised that you didn’t mention Blending which is another way to mix traits of different totems. It's kind of important in my opinion. When I attended Professor Gir's Introduction to Arcana classes last arc, he did mention that word", she continued, as if she wanted to imply that he still wasn't a good teacher, or at least not as good as Professor Gir.

His smile disappeared again quite abruptly because he had forgotten all about that over his excitement about his plan.

A trill or two later, his smile was back again though, and he did what had already worked before, as far as he could tell,

“We’ll discuss that technique next time”, he assured her in a very cheerful tone of voice. She looked at him for a moment before she nodded curtly and left the classroom.

He waved a little to her and smiled again, and then he finally opened his bag of cookies and started to eat.

[Avalon]

Review Rewards

Name: Professor Devin!

Points awarded: 10xp

Knowledge:
Cosmetology: Creating winged eyeliner with an angled brush
Persuasion: If you want to change people's mind about Becoming, mention how it can be used to help!
Research: Becoming: Becomers using an animal totem can communicate with animals of the same type
Rhetoric: Rhetorical Device: Rhetorical question
Rhetoric: Emphasizing a word so that people pay more attention to it
Teaching: If you don’t know the answer, tell your students to research it for their homework!

Skill Review: All Skills used appropriate to level

Notes:
The continuing adventures of Devin! This is the first thread I've reviewed with Devin teaching a class. Thank you for the education on Becoming (a magic I'm not very familiar) with. His decision to talk about all the fun stuff about Becoming was a wise, persuasive tactic. The character seems to innately know how to make people see his way of thinking...without it feeling like he's forcing them. I love that quality about Devin. So much of what happens to him is often by happenstance and just seems to work out for him!

I particularly enjoyed how Devin views teaching class as a play. That is a very Devin-thing to think, in my opinion. It's his stage! All that being said, he seems to take the task seriously because he wants to be viewed a certain way. Again, this is an example of how things work out for Devin, despite how he views himself and the world. Instead of just wanting to be a good teacher for the fulfillment of it, he does it because he wants to be admired....BUT...the end result is the same - he's a good teacher! I love it.

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

Avalon