Kite Testing (Morph's lesson)

((This is the official thread for Morpheus' lesson, come here to roleplay your character's adventures with the kite he or she makes, or just come here to watch the magic of kite flying.))

Morpheus took both of his classes out to the fields one fine day when the weather was warm but not too warm. When he located a fine spot for the idea he had in mind, he stopped and unloaded the many materials in his arms, and made sure all papers wouldn't fly away in the breeze.

"All right students, I bet you all are probably very confused as to why we're not in the classroom for the first lesson, but I thought I'd make it fun. For our first lesson, we will be learning how to make surveillance objects out of common materials, and we will collect data on the speed and direction of the wind. In other words..." Morpheus opened his briefcase and pulled out an object made out of paper, and finished his sentence: "We're making kites!"

Tahi was excited. Granted she was an excitable person, but today was special. Finally lessons had begun. She would be sick of them in a week - that was for sure - but for now, she hadn't been to class in a long time, and was looking forward to actually doing something for a change.

Battle strategy, with Morpheus the cute little satyr. He was a good guy, and she liked him a lot, even from the time when she was little, and visited the Athenaeum with her brother. But today it seemed like there was going to be trouble. They had combined with the Mathematics class - and that was never a good sign. Tahi didn't like math. Math required too much sitting still for her taste. All the math Tahi needed to know amounted to addition and subtraction. Addition of how much things would cost to buy the latest fashion. Subtraction for the amount of money she knew she could wheedle out of Kal, to get the amount she would have to pay herself. That was it. No more math for Tahi thank you very much.

But maybe Morpheus would make it a little more interesting. She could only hope. She had only been halfway listening to the Satyr as he introduced his lesson. It was a breezy day, and the winds were bringing Tahi all sorts of gossip from the world around her, that was much more interesting that what Morpheus was saying... Something about surveillance objects, and collecting data on the wind.

She caught the last words of what he said though. "We're making kites!"

Kites? What did kites have to do with battle strategy? Besides she was a nephelae. Okay - she was a half nephelae. Why would she need to make a kite?

"Umm... Uncle Morph?" she asked, using the childhood nickname she had for all of the Athenauem's teachers. Since her brother hadn't had the slightest clue how to deal with a little girl, he had taken her to the Athenaeum for a while to get advice from Mnemosyne. She had spent half of her childhood at the Athenaeum, and as such most of the teachers there were her honorary aunts and uncles (with the exception of Amaranth, who insisted on being Tahi's big sister, because calling her Auntie made Amaranth feel old)- though some of them liked her better than others.

But the nicknames weren't as appropriate in class.. "I mean Lord Morpheus... Why would we need kites as part of our battle strategy? Especially those of us with wind magic?"

"Good question, Miss Tahirah, though please just call me Morpheus. I realize that this exercise may seem a bit silly to you with your fancy wind magic, but you do realize there are parts of time and space that exist without magic? In other words, your magic would either be useless because it wouldn't work, or it would cause more trouble than good, such as attracting unnecessary and sometimes harmful attention. Granted, wind magic is less visible than most other magics, but would you like to take the chance of getting caught by the enemy?

In addition to those specific locations and eras where magic is useless and/or harmful to your cause, there exist monsters that actually feed off of any magic that is thrown at or near them, another scenario in which magic is rendered both useless and harmful."

Morpheus paused a moment to untangle some kite tails that had decided to wrap themselves around his leg, and continued his lecture, which he had prepared because he knew one of the students would ask, though he hadn't expected it to be Tahirah. Pfft, can't they just enjoy an easy lesson?

"And that is why you may not sometimes wish to use magic.

Now as to just what kites have to do with battle strategy, I shall explain. If a kite is made large enough, a person can be strapped to and fly on it, making it an semi-effective means of entering a location without being detected, especially under the cover of night. Kites can also be used as weapons, if made in the traditional fighter kite style, or maybe enhanced slightly with magic. Better yet, who would suspect a person with a kite to do that much damage? Because of that factor, kites are relatively simple to sneak in almost anywhere.

In addition, large enough kites can be used to tow a person across various surfaces, such as across water, land, and even snow.

That concludes this lecture for now. Now help uncle Morph untangle these dang tails again..."


((I just wanted to have you all make kites, so all this stuff came to me like right now and/or was researched from wikipedia and other places on the internet xDD

Apparently kites were also used drop leaflets into prisons that caused the prisoners to revolt, they were used to help make bridges across chasms, send orders across the battlefield, etc.

I want to draw said magic eating monster now >:3 ))

Despite the quite long lecture on why they were making kites, Jane was still a little confused as to why people would want to use a kite in a battle. Sneaking in somewhere? Like there weren't tons of security scans anyway. Holding a kite in your hand didn't make the gun in your bag any less real. And what about the many prototypes of jetpacks that were being built? They were almost ready, the military had already been testing a few out...but people here didn't use guns, or get news on the latest technology. They probably didn't have any sophisticated security scans either. Jane had to force herself to get into the mindset...this place was one where people ran around talking about Greek gods and magic, where the science that she depended on wasn't used. So she might as well go along with it...

She reached out, grabbing a handful of strings and untangling them a little, wrapping them neatly around two fingers of her left hand as she did so. Jane took this class for a reason, and it certainly wasn't to make kites. Hopefully they'd be getting to real strategy soon...

Adonia felt exceedingly nervous about the beginning of classes. With her less-than-exceptional reading skills, she worried that she might fall behind. She was pleasantly surprised to hear Lord Morpheus say that they would be making kites for their first lesson. Now building things was something she could manage! After hearing Morpheus's speech, she timidly put her hand up and asked, "M'lord... Is it really possible to use a kite to fly?" She had always wondered what it would be like to fly.

That was another thing, Jane thought as she untangled the handful of strings that she'd grabbed. Everyone here was so formal, with a bunch of titles that hadn't been used for centuries...and again with the flying on kites. Idly, she wondered how many people had been on a plane. Probably very, very few, if any.

Ainia wasn't sure what she'd make out of this first lesson. Using the kites for communication sounds good, but the idea of flying on it sounded crazy! However much it can help in sneaking, she'd prefer staying close to the ground, thank you.

Adonia had asked the question, so she waited for the Mentor's answer.

Meanwhile, she took out her materials and prepared them.

((Holy cow guys, what's with the activity all of the sudden? xD))

"Yes Miss Adonia, it is possible. In fact, I have a few kites that can hold an average person somewhere in closet in the classroom. If you would like to see it, maybe after the lesson we can get someone accustomed to flying, such as a Charis or a Pegasus, to help us launch someone into the sky?"

Morpheus managed to untangle most of the kites with help from his students, and then arranged the materials for the rest of the students to start making their own.

"Really?" the siren gaped. "Yes please!" She stopped suddenly, a bit embarrassed at her outburst but still smiling. "I-if that would be alright sir" she stammered.

Okay, she'd have to see this, even if she didn't believe it. Jane set the strings down, keeping ahold of one and also picking up some other materials. A form of regular printer paper, string, straws....materials that you'd expect to find in the average first grade class. She tried very hard not to feel extremely foolish as she looked expectantly at the teacher for instruction. Might as well go through with it...

((Lol Morph's class is popular XD))

What a surprise!

Ainia wasn't even expecting that the Mentor would have the kites for flying prepared with him. She'd want to see if it's actually possible (although she'd still refuse to ride on one). So she might as well come along after this.

A magic sucking monster? Now that Tahi just had to see. But Uncle Morph had a point, and so she nodded, and after helping untangle the strings, set out to make her own kite.

As she worked she remembered the last time she had tried using wind magic to do something similar. She was playing with Ilios when he - just growing into his wings himself - had asked to see how the wind magic gliders worked. So Tahi had showed him one - soaring over the Athenaeum. They played with the glider all day - and Tahi really should have known that her magic wasn't that consistent, and that she shouldn't push past her opal's limits, but she was having so much fun. And then her magic gave out. And she didn't have any more opals to supplement it. So she fell.

Several serious injuries and four different lectures from different authority figures later - Tahi was back to her old self.

But this is different she decided, folding the paper neatly.

Deciding it was too quiet, she looked around to her fellow classmates. "Soooo..." she began "what's new with all of you?" There were a few people in the class she hadn't seen before. Maybe they would introduce themselves.

((Drawing the magic eating monster...um... it's scary looking so far e3e ))
((Edit: I don't think I'll be sleeping tonight. Gah. I'm so smart, I doodle up a scary monster in the middle of the night =3=; ))

She started making the kite, wondering if they were ever going to do anything interesting. Maybe she should try talking, just to distract herself a little...

"I'm pretty new to the Athenaeum," she said in reply to Tahi's question. "So everything here's new with me." Not so much new as really, really old and outdated, but she'd never tried any of it before, so it could count as new.

[ Sorry to take so long to reply, I realized that I've been pretty much inactive on here and so now I'm going around trying to get more active o3o;; ]