No Filter (EA, D11)

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

Ryoko had made her way out to the river, her good mood of previous days having melted away as the land grew foul.

Now, with basically nothing to do except train, she did just that.

Standing on the river bank, focusing intensely, her body began to attune to the element of water. She'd felt a name, perhaps created it, or perhaps remembered a lost word, for the strange new flow that now rushed through her body. As the chakra aligned, her left horn began to shimmer with the glistening reflections of hoarfrost.

Kneeling by the river bank, she held one hand over the water, drawing up a fist sized orb of water, studying it silently, and then, both hands before her, began trying to pull every bit of filth, of corruption, of dirt and slime, out of the water. Not touching it, just reaching through the elements.

It didn't seem to be working, but it was something to do.

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"Good afternoon. Have you had lunch yet? I've seen you around, even been in the same area before, but I'm not sure if I've ever been introduced. I'm Kyosei, of the Isawa tribe, Spiritspeaker."

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

Her control had improved markedly, the distraction did not break the chakra, and she turned, keeping the orb floating idly to the side, pausing her efforts to purify it.

"Oh, I'm Ongaku no Ryoko. Nice to meet you... I hadn't gotten lunch, no."

She shrugged, adding, curiously, "I have never met an Isawa, where is your tribe from?"

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"The far north. In the mountains, not far from the ocean edge. Very cold, 5 months of snow each year." He holds out a stick of something brown. "Dried meat stick? Not terribly much, but it's pretty filling. I believe this one is deer."

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"Oh, thank you."

She took it with a nod, and added, curiously, "How do you live in the mountains, there isn't much to grow there, and no room for herds... do you trade? Maybe you can mine lava from the volcanoes?"

There was some of that newfound geography knowledge at work, and she was strangely proud looking about it.

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"We do trade. And there are animals up there. Goats are common, as are some of the hardier sheep. Lots of birds. We also have mines and trade. And there are more areas that can have food grown on them than you might expect."

He looks at the water globe. "So, are you also a spirit caller?"

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"A spirit caller? Oh... no. I'm a... well I don't know what I am."

Ryoko laughed. "It only manifested recently... but when I talked to Agasha, she said I was touching the elements directly. It's coming out of me, not from a spirit, so I don't know what to call it."

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"Interesting. I'll have to talk to this... Agasha, you said her name was? She seems to know a lot about the elements, then, and I love to learn. Can you do that with any element?"

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"So far, yes?"

Ryoko shrugged, pulling the water up, splitting it into multiple smaller orbs to examine. "I can... feel it. If that makes sense. Like if I had an arm which reached out and touched the water... without touching it. That's what it feels like."

She sighed. "I wish I had better words for it."

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"I... have something similar, at least a little, to earth. I can communicate with it. Others require blood to be paid to the earth spirits, but they will listen to me without that. Only the earth, and only to commune with them. But not the other elements. Have you tried to commune with the elements, each one individually? Whether while you are doing that, or not?"

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

Ryoko shook her head. "No... I've never heard the spirits, or anything like that. Whatever this is... it feels like it comes from inside, reaching out."

She shrugged, and let the water sluice back into the river, though her horn did not stop shimmering with the strange, thin layer of ice.

"I don't know exactly how to put it... but it feels like I'm attuning my own body to the elements- not that I'm speaking with any other creature."

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"And you are aware that your... horn, there, is changing in appearance as you do this?"

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"It's what?"

She blinked.

"Why hasn't anyone said something!? What's it doing?"

Rushing back to the river, she looked for her reflection, but unfortunately the rushing water yielding back no hints. Feeling at her horns, she gasped in surpise. "It's cold! Why's it cold!?"

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"I was trained by a master. I'm no where near there yet, but one of the things he has trained me in is to make sure and make note of anything that is different. You are different from most people, having horns. But, another thing of note, is that one of them is coated with ice. And, on the trail, I've never noted either to be covered in ice before. It seems to be doing this while you attune to water. Could you try attuning to another element? Then we can see if it changes by element, or just becomes cold while you do this."

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"Uh... uh right."

Ryoko still looked a bit rattled.

"Do you, uh... you have a light?"

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"Uh..." Kyosei pats his various pouches, then pulls a candle out of one. It is half melted, but still very usable. It takes him a few moments to get it lit with his stone and flint.

"Will that do?" Carefully, he drips some of the wax out onto a nearby rock, and then balances the candle in the wax, to hold it up.

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"Yes, thank you."

Ryoko closed her eyes, beginning to center herself, feeling the coursing fire in her veins taking ascendancy. An itch, not painful, but fierce, rushed through her, and without warning, her right horn surged a deep magma red, glowing with blue will-o-wisp flame.

The flame of the candle flickered as she reached toward it, and then it began to trail away from the candle, being siphoned away in a steady stream until a full handful of flickering red flames hovered a few inches over her outstretched palm.

Opening her eyes, she glanced at Kyosei, "Anything?"

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"It is an odd, pulsing red/orange color, with a blue light sort of above and around it." He carefully reaches out. "And it's definitely hot, particularly at the tip." He hadn't touched it, just felt the air near it.

[Ongaku no Ryoko]

"Interesting... I had no idea."

Grasping the ball of flame, she added, "Perhaps because when I'm channeling it, the elements no longer hurt me? I know fire becomes cool, and rushing waters become gentle. Even the mud becomes easy to walk on."

A shrug. "I wish I knew why this has all come rushing in... it's like something that had been... bottled up, is all coming loose at once. Like a dam breaking."

[Kyosei of the Isawa]

"Often, dark times seem to open us to new abilities, or seeing things in new ways. For instance, my own abilities as a spirit-talker appeared when I was trapped in a cave in, in the mine I was working. Until then, no-one, not I, not my family, no-one, knew I had such a power. And this expedition has surely brought you to new means of stress."