#ch: eilonwy llyr

[veevacious]

generic 'round up' alternative (aka the weed killers)

Spotify | Document

feat. @halfawitch-willow @eilonwy-notjustgirl @edward-andalasia @ianthedisastrous @tonyrydinger @blight-magic @thegcldenguard

note: this is not canonically from vee, so much as, I wanted to post on her blog

[menodoramoon]

Danish Pastries dropped off for Eilonwy.

Dear Light, Have a happy birthday! May it be as bright as you. Best, Moon

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

[cruzzramirez]

Sidelined || Eilonz

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Cruz was absolutely out of her mind with excitement! And stress! But mostly excitement! Because she and the PrideU Magick Grand Prix racers (those that could come, anyway) had been invited to a pre-season event! It wasn't like a full on race for standings or anything, it was more like a scrimmage. Somewhere for racers to get their feet wet, practice for the season, and to network.

Of course Cruz had said yes, wanting everyone in the program to get as much experience and exposure to the world as they could.

The stress came with traveling with a group and making sure everyone had all the credentials needed to actually get into the event. But they'd managed to get everyone checked in without much of a hitch, and inside the stadium. She had finished warming everyone up together and left them to their own devices before the events to go join Eilonwy in the stands.

Poor Eilonwy. Cruz had no doubt that, had she not been hurt due to demon injuries, she would have knocked everyone out of this arena.

"How're you doing?" she asked as she sat down, looking out across all the racers and various staff members. "Staking out the competition?"

[gabriella-marino]

See Right Through It || Gaeil

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

It had been all anyone had been able to talk about during dance rehearsals and chem lab for the past week. Gabriella felt like she was reading along to one of those reddit threads, each reply getting more and more insane as she scrolled down. Her interpreter at the university was very good with conveying how out of their minds everyone was with the rumor. 

The stories only seemed to get more and more outrageous as the situation spread among the student body. One kid said their class had to be canceled because the ghost was being so loud. Another one said it had interfered with the power, making the lights flicker and computer shut down several times due to connectivity errors. There was stories about the walls oozing blood and threatening messages being written on the white board. Someone said that they saw the ghost and that it was an old janitor. No, wait, it was professor who fell down the stairs. NO WAIT it was an old knight who used to live in the castle! 

Gabriella was not immune to gossip. She certainly enjoyed it when it wasn’t her own! And this topic was harmless, really, as it wasn’t about anyone in particular or messy. It was just interesting. 

Which was why she brought it up to Eilonwy while they were sitting in the common area of the dorms, wanting to get her opinions on the whole thing. 

[cruzzramirez]

Spring Training || Eilonz

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Cruz had been making the rounds throughout practice! A bit of one-on-one time with all the trainees because, ultimately, this was a sport where it was you against everyone and everything else. They were all different, both as athletes and as magicks, so Cruz always liked to give them some time during the week to work on their own thing.

She'd gotten Marsh to finally relax enough to get the hang of walking on water at the pool even if had only been a few steps, managed to talk Tanner through his homesickness so he stopped eating from anxiety instead of training or, like, an actual need to eat, and helped Brit on her ability to stop multiple things coming at her at once.

"Hi Eilonwy!" she said, having just run from the other side of the pitch to get to where the light sorceress was. Not that she looked winded or tired at all. Cruz was very excited to have Eilonwy there and it probably always showed by just how enthusiastic she was to see her. Sometimes she worried she was coming off to strong but she couldn't help it.

"What've you been up to?" she asked.

[cruzzramirez]

On Your Left || Eilonz

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

School may have only just started but wooooow was it already stressful! The first week had been like a freaking mad dash to get everything in order while simultaneously learning all the differences between secondary, the thing she had gotten used to after all these years, and uni itself. Mostly it was getting to be the master of her own domain because the classes were too big for the professor to be down your neck and her mum wasn’t there to ask her if she’d done all her revising. It was weird, but it was nice. That first taste of...adulthood? Was that what this was considered?

...anyway, all that to say she needed to blow off some steam. Which, for Cruz, meant going for a run.

Normally she would have popped out to the trails, go at her preferred speed, but just as she was about to head that way she watched as someone went jogging by where she was coming out of the dorms.

And, well, if that wasn’t the universe telling her something then she was just going to be a very annoying stranger!

“Hey!” she called, quickly zipping down the stairs until she was matching the girl’s pace at her side. “Need a buddy?”

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Oooooooooh, so it wasn't like a physical thing, it was a mental thing that needed to then transfer into the physical thing. Gosh, sorcery seemed so complicated. She was forever thankful she had not been a sorcerer because heaven knew she would have been about the most useless witch the Earth had ever seen. What with the studying and the science and all the stuff you had to learn. It made her head spin, and she was just standing there listening to someone else try to figure their stuff out.

Which!

Did seem to be helping? Kinda? Getting Eilonwy to teach her seemed to get her to start thinking about her options! And that was as good a start as any!

She liked figuring out what helped people learn. It was fun getting to implement it all into their training program. Some kids thrived with getting stuff on a piece of paper to read and cart around with them, others needed her to explain it to them, others needed to physically do it so they could understand. She was hoping she was on the right path to finding Eilonwy's.

"Uh, what's aether?" she ventured to ask, eyebrows raising in open curiosity.

"I don't know that it can't, I'm just not sure how to think about it so it does," she tried to clarify.

As a child, she'd started to read the science books she could get her hands on to try to understand fire and light, what they were and how they worked, because she didn't have anyone else to show her. It had made studying physics when she needed to pick a subject the natural thing because her magic had drawn her to the subject when she'd had nothing else.

After that, her magic had been shaped by necessity, with her studies in physics impacting how she thought to approach it. She hadn't had anyone to question it or push it in new directions until Cruz had started to ask questions like this.

But the thing about light was that it was a combination of fire and aether, it was the breath of the universe infusing the fire and lifting it into something beyond. Separate from all the physics explanations, all of that was also true.

Running her thumb along the crescent moon pendant, she stared slightly up into the air as she contemplated the questions.

"Infusing the light with more aether might make it more flexible..." she muttered, the wheels turning in her mind.

@cruzzramirez

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Sublimation, jfc, that sure was a word that Cruz would be typing into Google in order to get the definition of. Being a sorcerer seemed so complicated. Brit was always talking in words like that too because of physics and aerodynamics of telekinesis or whatever and Cruz was always lost. All these witch girlies were too smart of cookies for her.

But she was going to do her best to help them!

She looked back down at her hands when she felt the difference in the texture. Okay, she could totally admire this later, right now she was in the middle of training.

"So light can't be like a cushion?" Cruz asked. "Because you know memory foam is pretty solid, but it's still soft! I don't think I've ever really thought about why my pillow is different than, like, a plank of wood as far as solids go but they aren't really liquids..."

She hummed. "Or- oh! What about like an air bag? Is that-? Or would the case still be too hard to even feel the cushion of air?"

"Maybe?" This was a little of the problem for her. She'd thought about her light manipulation mainly in one way. She had increased the speed with which she'd accomplished it, she had learned new shapes, she'd learned how to focus so she could do two kinds of magic with different hands. She knew there was a lot she could do and it had served her well.

But this was asking her to think entirely differently, and she wasn't quite sure how to get there.

"The thing is, it's sort of been like sublimation in my mind, you know? Like, there's a solid and a gas form, and it mostly moves between the two and skips the liquid state entirely. Trying to make it soft but stable feels more like trying to find that middle liquid form, but I'm not sure how to get there without taking it too far so it just becomes solid again."

With a wave of her hand, she turned the disc of light in Cruz's hands back to an intangible form before solidifying it again as she spoke, showing the ease with which she moved it between those two states.

@cruzzramirez

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Considering Eilonwy was Cruz's first encounter with a light sorceress, she had no idea. And didn't really like how she seemed to downplay her abilities. Even if these were the basics, they were still really amazing! But instead of shifting into pep talk mode she kept quiet, listening to her requested lesson.

The way that Eilonwy explained it was easy to understand, even for Cruz who had never been quite so hot in the science department and who was very much distracted by the visual aid that was being used. Her eyes were glued to the light Eilonwy was able to change at will. Seriously? She didn't think this shit was amazing???

She grinned, lifting her hands as the brushes of warmth ghosted over her skin. As the weight of it grew heavier she stopped moving, letting it rest there to observe.

"Yeah," she said, looking up. "Yeah, I do."

Then, because it was practically irresistible, she used her other hand to poke at the piece of light. When it didn't explode in her face she did it again, still grinning. Mental!

"So, like you said, you've just gotta hit that sweet spot with it?" Cruz asked for further clarification. "Where it's not fully stopped but not fully bouncing off the walls, either?"

Eilonwy just giggled and laughed. "It's fine, it's not like some trade secret. I'm pretty sure any light sorcerer can do something similar." After all, it was Martin who had guided her this far and he was an animation sorcerer. It was simply a matter of getting her will to shape what was possible.

She called the light down so it shimmered in her hands before tossing it up into the air so it hovered in the air between them.

"See, when we look at light just ourselves, we see sort of a sheet. Or we mostly notice the light when it hits something and we see the shadow behind it. But when you zoom in," she waved her hand and the light expanded again, "what it really is is a bunch of little particles that travel in waves." The little dots of light in front of Eilonwy started to travel up and down across the field, mimicking the wave she was talking about. "If the waves are slow and far apart, that's when it looks red. The more it speeds up and the peaks get closer together, that's when it goes through all the colors to become violet."

"Now, we all know that light is there and it feels like something. We know how hot it feels on a sunny day, or how much it burns if we forget to protect ourselves, or how blinding it can be. So we do feel it a little bit, but we don't really think about feeling it since the particles are all moving so fast that no one particle is touching us for very long."

Her hand swirled and she sent the light waves drifting around Cruz's hand so she could feel the gentle bounces of light as it continues its waves.

"So, to make it solid, I just make it all - stop." This time there was a stronger shove of her hand and a solid plate of light dropped onto Cruz's hand. "Do you see?"

@cruzzramirez

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Cruz was going to totally pretend she knew exactly what Eilonwy was talking about. She...kind of...got it? Like, uh...like the light was water and she needed to get it to be ice. Except ice wasn't soft. Snow was, though! So at least there was some hope in the concept that they could get there!

If she was...understanding correctly anyway...

"Alright, well, can you do something right here?" Cruz asked, motioning to where they were. Safely on the ground. She probably should have suggested that first and foremost instead of throwing Eilonwy at the wall to see if she'd stick. Or bounce back.

"Walk me through it! Pretend I'm your little apprentice. Give me the play by play," she smiled. Then held up her hands, "Unless that's a trade secret or something! But I promise I won't say. I mean, I don't even think I'd understand well enough to be able to relay it on."

She could already feel the ache in her arms beginning to fade (it was about on par with how she felt after a particularly hard hit from Laurel) so she didn't worry about it too much. She easily had a few more runs in her.

It was harder to articulate the response to Cruz's question.

"Well, see, light normally doesn't feel like anything to most people. It's just particles, intangible. When I want to shape it into something solid, I sort of conceptualize it was freezing the particle into the place it's at on its wave, and by stopping it, it gives it enough mass to create sensation and hold weight."

Absently she ran her arm across her forehead to wipe away the sweat. "But in trying to make it something softer, I was sort of trying to get in between the nothingness and the frozen in place solid, but it still went too solid."

@cruzzramirez

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Cruz had watched on in awe but also with a critical eye. While it was! so! freaking! cool! to watch Eilonwy and her magic working together in tandem, she was there to help not just go 'Ooo!' and 'Aaah!' like she was a peanut gallery.

Like she'd known earlier, the sorceress seemed to have a pretty good grasp on her magic. Cruz didn't know much about it of course but it seemed like it listened and reacted in the way Eilonwy wanted it to. She trusted it enough to step on, going higher and higher, and know that it wouldn't let her fall.

At least, it all seemed to be working out until the end. The harsh landing had Cruz shutting one eye tight, feeling a sort of sympathy pain in her own hands. She quickly composed herself and walked over.

"Okay! Nice! The going up was great! The going down was, too," she smiled. "Just like you said, the landing. So...what was the difference between the stuff you were stepping on versus the thing that was supposed to catch you?"

Eilonwy took another few moments to try and adjust her thoughts to bring this new idea into play, trying to think through how she could adjust the waves and particles of light so they settled halfway in between their natural state of intangibility and the solid state she had practiced.

Finally, she nodded to herself and backed up slightly taking a deep breath.

She ran forward, hands out stretched as she pushed off to leap into the air, a solid platform of light coming into being where her foot landed, and the next and the next until she was 6 feet up.

With a swirl of her hand, a ramp spread out below her and she leapt forward, beginning to slide down looking like a surfer riding a wave. Keeping the ramp in her right hand, she reached out with her left and grabbed hold of a sheet of light and yanked it up, trying to imagine it as softer, cushioning, warm instead of fierce. She slid down and -

Slammed into it. Hard. "Ow," she muttered, shaking out her arms.

@cruzzramirez

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

To Cruz, that for suuuure spoke to the person that Eilonwy was! Which was different to the perception she had of the sorceress in her head. The whole light thing fit because, to Cruz, Eilonwy was bright! She was nice and fun and had this...was magnetism the right word? Probably! She'd pulled Cruz to her on that run, hadn't she?

But the fact that she worked with it in ways that were shields? Walls? Seemed to be a bit of an insight! Protective? Maybe, maybe...Or maybe that's just how light sorcerers worked! They used solid lines, like how they got kids to draw their shapes in the beginning of primary.

"Okay!" she smiled, then took a step back and waved a hand to motion for Eilonwy to go ahead. Cruz folded her arms over her middle, settling in to observe.

"I'm not sure. I've never tried to make the light into anything, sort of, soft before. Most of the time it's extra hard walls and shields and things like that which seems like I would just bruise myself on."

But again, the question had her thinking. Absently, she ran her thumb along the curve of the crescent moon pendant as she tried to work out the angles and the possibilities of this. After all, she'd mostly thought of shifting light into a solid state as being a form change. Trying to make it soft would require thinking of it differently.

"I can try and play around with it and see what I'm able to do."

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Cruz let her hand be picked up, her own fingers gripping back on Eilonwy's since she was comfortable with touch, even from someone she didn't consider to be a close bestie of hers. They were still friends! Cruz was always patting or gripping shoulders, giving high fives, hugging those who accepted them as readily as she was to give them.

The words had Cruz feeling like she probably looked like the pleading emoji, her free hand clutching to her chest. Ugh. She hadn't been fishing for compliments!!! But man, that was so nice to hear, making her chest feel heavy in the best way, like all that niceness was sitting on her the way a weighted blanket would. Comforting and safe.

"Thank you," she said, giving Eilonwy's hand a little squeeze in return. Then she squeezed her eyes shut and sat up straighter. "Ugh! Stop! You're going to make me start bawling and it would totally ruin my cool and calm exterior."

"Racers, please make your way to the starting line if you are in Group 1, we are about to begin!" came the voice over the speakers, followed by the echo of people getting excited. Cruz included as she bounced in her seat.

"Ooo! That'll be Brit and Jae," she said. "I gotta go make sure they're both there. I'll be back!"

She stood and then was gone, zipping across the stadium with her magic to find them.

Sidelined || Eilonz

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Cruz blinked, expression falling for a few seconds as she took all of that in. They were very healing words, honestly, making her heart feel all melty and gooey. She wanted to reach over and hug Eilonwy, but knew it wouldn't be good for the poor girlie's arm.

"Oh, bud, it's okay! I- I was just kidding," she said, ducking her head to look away and over at the rest of the PrideU team. "I know I don't have the experience or the wisdom yet, so I get it. I can tell it's hard for some of the others to, like, take me seriously since we're all pretty much the same age. And it's different since we're all in uni so we're all on the same starting line rather than if I were some prodigy who's already seen it all before everyone. But..."

She looked back to Eilonwy, smile bright, "-I really appreciate you saying all of that. And you are one of the smartest people I know, as well as super great as far as your physicality goes, plus how in sync you are with your magic? When you're all healed up, you'll be whipping these other kids into shape, no question."

Sidelined || Eilonz

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

The truth, the very deep, heavily buried truth, was that Cruz felt the exact same way as Eilonwy. Only, the kind of wounds she had weren't the kind that people could look at her and understand why she wasn't out there competing. She looked around at these kids and felt so much envy.

There was no part of her that thought that she could be doing what they were, she had already proven that she would never be able to compete at this, or any level. Still. She longed to be out there. She wanted to lace up her boots and step onto that track but...

But this was just as good! If not better! Because she was getting to watch the kids she had coached up get out there and represent the program she was trying to turn into something great for them and for all of those that would come after them, too.

"Who? This one here?" she asked, squinting as she peered over in the direction Eilonwy was looking. "I think that's Merrick Fisher. He's supposed to be some prodigy, but I saw his film and think you're right. Total buy in. I don't recognize the girl though...what can she do?"

Eilonwy was at a Magick Grand Prix event! An actual Magick Grand Prix event with people from outside of just their school, all here to compete and to show off what they could do on a real course!

....aaaaaaand here she was. Sitting on the sidelines.

She knew she should be grateful she was here at all. Laurel had been waffling on whether it was a good idea with her ribs still so tender and the school year beginning adding a lot to her schedule. But in the end, Eilonwy's desperate pleading meant that she had folded, along with strict promises to stay seated on the sidelines and dire threats of what would happen if she didn't.

But she couldn't entirely hide the hungry look in her eye as she took a look at the course that everyone else would be testing themselves against.

As Cruz came back, she pulled a brighter smile on her face, not wanting Cruz to know exactly how frustrated she was. "Oh absolutely. That guy seems all mouth and no trousers, but the girl behind him I think is going to kick ass."

@cruzzramirez

[cruzzramirez]

@eilonwy-notjustgirl

Well that hurt!

That was okay, though. Like a lot of people, Cruz knew what it was like to be hurt and to live with the pain. She was pretty sure that was apart of the human condition or whatever. Her particular flavor was not being wanted by her own dad and not being good enough to play the sport she loved with every molecule she was made of. So, yeah, these questions hurt a lot, but what did it matter? They would heal. They had to heal. Maybe a bit of exposure therapy was good for her.

"Alright, owch, girl. You can tell the uni how you really feel in the course survey at the end of the semester," she said, still smiling and joking. "But nah, I'm not a racer. Not like you, or the rest of the squad. I'm a trainer. That's what we need in town, anyway. There's plenty of kids in Swynlake that can be racers! They just need someone to train them and give them a way in to the sport. So, that's what I'm here for."

Sidelined || Eilonz