[hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/FaCzAxe.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/1Hvat1r.png[/img][/center] [right][code]Monday, Very Early Morning Linqian’s House[/code][/right][hr] Linqian once again dragged herself home in the early morning, with even less sleep than she'd had on Friday night (basically none). Last night had been really fucking good, and she was covered in the marks to prove it, but it had also been fucking exhausting. She had pretty fucking good stamina, but she was pushing herself to her limit right now. After three nights of little sleep... It was starting to take its toll. And she didn't even have time to nap. Thankfully, this time, Henri was still asleep... Or not home, it seemed, judging by his open door as she went past into his own room. Hopefully he'd just slept at Louis' or something. He was an adult. She had to trust him a little bit. The bed in her tiny room was so tempting, but all she did was get changed out of the clothes she’d been wearing since yesterday, pulling on some comfortable leggings and a baggy hoodie. Then back out of her room and down the corridor, to the door past Henri’s room. The master bedroom - originally her parents, but it had been a long time since they’d used it. Since the house had been rented out and it had seen a couple of people, before returning to a state of disuse. It was where she'd put all of Jinhai's things - unable to bear going through them when she moved so close to his death. Instead, everything was thrown into boxes to transport in her car, and shoved in here to go through when she was ready. She wasn't ready. But she needed to clear the room for Aryin to be able to move in. Going through Jinhai’s belongings meant facing the reality that he wasn’t there to use them anymore. Each piece was some kind of memory. A reminder of him. It was difficult enough seeing him in her brother’s face, in all the memories the coven brought back up, his face smiling back at her from her phone lock screen. But these weren’t things she had to sort out and possibly throw away. They weren’t clutter taking up a room she could no longer store them in. She could hold onto them. But she couldn’t hold onto all of his belongings, as much as she wanted to. Linqian took a deep breath, and pushed open the door to what was once her parents bedroom, many years ago. The bed itself was neat, stripped down after the last tenant they had moved out. The floor was covered in stacked boxes. Linqian bit her lip, and stepped around them. She stopped in front of the wardrobe against the far wall, hand hovering over the handle. She didn't want to open it. She really didn't want to. She had to. The door was pulled open, revealing a mostly empty inside. A couple of Jinhai's jackets were hung up, but it wasn't what she was looking for. She squatted down, reaching out to touch the simple wood box at the bottom. 韩进海 was burnt into the top messily. It was all she had left of Jinhai. It was difficult to look at. With a shaky breath she carefully lifted it up, backing out of the room. She couldn't leave it right next to where Aryin was going to sleep. She needed to... Treat him as well as she could before he could be buried. Before the funeral was paid for. Down the hall, she went into her own bedroom. It was the smallest room in the house, cramped with a small desk at one end and a single bed at the other. The rest of the space, what little there was, was taken up by a wardrobe and cupboards. She opened up the wardrobe, grimacing as she placed Jinhai on the bottom. She gently covered the box with a looser skirt he'd gotten her for a birthday one year that she could no longer bring herself to wear. Now, she just had to start going through his things. Some of the boxes could be moved into Henri's bedroom, or downstairs, but there wasn't enough room for all of them. She'd decide what to keep and what she could throw away, donate, or possibly sell. She really didn't want to get rid of any of it. But what use did she have for all of his clothes when Henri was taller than him, and she was much shorter? Perhaps she could keep some of the jackets... The process of opening the first box was more difficult than going through it. Soon it became very methodical. Everything was sorted into piles, some reboxed to donate as soon as she had time. What she decided to keep was minimal. If she let herself get sentimental, she'd keep everything. But she couldn't. There wasn't the space, and what would she do with it all? It was easier to fall back into that state of emotional numbness and remain detached from what were generally just material goods. Only items she felt genuine attachment to, things that reminded her of Jinhai, were kept. She paused as she opened one of the last boxes. It was smaller and heavy - containing books that she knew Jinhai had cherished. They had always been too much for someone like her. Law books that she could sell were put in a pile, until half way through she paused. Her breath hitched and she bit down on her lip at the emotions trying to push through the numb veil she cast over herself. It was an old leather bound book. Linqian knew that Jinhai had written down his spells in it - those he'd developed and was developing - because he was a fucking nerd. There were a few more underneath it, spellbooks he'd collected and other tomes on magic, but she knew this one was his. She'd seen him writing in it so often. Teased him about it, too. She’d never bothered with something like this. Even if she’d had time to develop more spells, writing them down wouldn’t help her. She probably wouldn’t be able to understand half the stuff in here but… She didn’t care. She just wanted to see what Jinhai had written. It was like a little piece of him left. Words from him she hadn’t heard before, even if they weren’t from her. It was all she’d get now. She quickly flipped through it. The spells she knew he had, some she hadn't heard about, ones he'd been actively developing. It was all there, written in incredible detail, going through all the steps he went through to develop each one. Her finger ran across the delicately written words. It was a barely existent connection to Jinhai. Written by him so carefully, now with no use. Maybe she could give it to Henri to study from. The pages were packed with dense, but neat, cursive. As expected, she couldn’t understand much, so she went through them quickly. She only paused here or there on a side note that made her laugh - written frustrations about spells he was struggling to develop, the side of Jinhai very few got to see leaking out. The brother she knew and loved, who’d worked so hard to not waste his natural intelligence, and pushed through everything that stood in his way. But he’d gotten frustrated too. Sometimes she’d come home from a night shift to him still awake, studying in the kitchen with tired eyes and a pen cap held between his lips. He would always pull his tight curls in frustration, messing up the perfect style he spent far too much time on in the morning just to put on a show. But there was no show around her. They knew everything about each other, and only she got to see these little moments. And now they were gone. All that was left was the spellbook he’d put so much effort into. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. She raised a hand to wipe away the tears threatening to fall, tears that she couldn't afford to let ruin Jinhai's hard work. Then she kept going. She stopped at a page when she saw her name. [color=5487FF][i]'Spells for Linqian.'[/i][/color] Her chest clenched uncomfortable, breathing becoming more difficult. There was a note in the top right corner, reading [color=5487FF][i]'for when I can support her and she has time to develop her magic again.'[/i][/color] Linqian bit down on her lip, hard, corners of her eyes burning. She didn’t know Jinhai had been doing this. The whole time… he’d been thinking about her magic too? When she’d essentially abandoned it for them, he had plans to help her when she could get back to it? He… Her head tilted back and she took a deep, shaky breath. She missed him so fucking much. But she had to keep reading. He’d written this for her… it would be like shitting on his memory to not even try. [hider=Jinhai’s Spellbook] [table][row][/row] [row][cell] [color=5487FF][i][b][h3]Self-Healing.[/h3][/b] I tried to teach Linqian my self-healing spell during the fight against the Stygian Snake, but she was never able to use it. I think part of the problem is that she doesn’t care about herself as much as she pretends to. Mine came from my own desire to survive for myself, but hers can’t. I think that she needs to channel her desire to protect. Perhaps her want to survive to protect Yi-er. Additionally, she struggles with using her lux separately. Her strongest spell comes from a combination of both. I believe if she combines the self-healing with heat or cold (heat would be best) she’d have an easier time developing the spell. I’m not entirely sure how this would work. Perhaps channelling the temperature for healing rather than damaging? (side note: possible use to heal others? [s]Would likely hurt others before succeeding with it.[/s]) Will work on this one first.[/i][/color] [/cell] [cell][color=Gainsboro][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][/color][/cell] [cell] [color=5487FF][i][b][h3]Temperature Enhancement.[/h3][/b] A spell I believe Linqian could develop to make the most of the unique properties of extreme heat and cold, further enhancing her speciality spell. I have a few thoughts on this… And it would require to have more control over which way she goes, dependent on what she’s wanting to get out from it. At the moment whether she goes hot or cold tends to be influenced by her emotions. [s]Maybe when she’s matured.[/s] We’ll work on it. For heat, she could use it to enhance her speed and flexibility. Heat makes things more malleable, and the atoms vibrate faster. It would be easy to turn what is merely used for damaging into something that also strengthens her, by further combining our two lux types. Perhaps she could even change her own density. For cold, she could make herself stronger or more ‘brittle’. Enhance her skin to be harder, perhaps. This could be used defensively or offensively, I think. There’s a chance the cold would slow her down, as it lowers her thermal energy, but I know she’d find a way to use this to her advantage. A slow, hard hitting attacker compared to the faster, lighter blows of her heat. [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [/i][/color] [/cell][/row] [row][cell][color=5487FF][i][b][h3]Temperature Manipulation - Others[/h3][/b] This is an idea that I doubt will work, but I’m writing it down anyway. Perhaps when working with Linqian we’ll figure it out. The idea is to manipulate the temperature of other people, as opposed to her own. I primarily see this as a way to manipulate their kinetic energy inline with temperature. Emotional Fields would be a problem when it comes to this spell. It would probably only work on Blinds, or consenting people. But there’s still a use with someone who consents. She could use it to increase another person’s body temperature and thus their kinetic energy, allowing them to move faster, or just use the high temperature to hit harder. On the other hand, the cold would be useful against other people. With the right conditions, she could entirely halt someone's movement. Perhaps something we could work on as a joint cast, as- [color=2e2c2c].[/color] [/i][/color] [/cell][cell] [color=Gainsboro][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][sup][h3][sup]█[/sup] [sub]█[/sub][/h3][/sup][/color] [/cell] [cell][/cell][/row] [row][cell][/cell][cell][/cell][cell][/cell][/row] [/table][/hider] An alarm on her phone interrupted her reading, reminding her to get ready to go meet Britney and Aryin. She’d made good enough progress. She put the spellbook back into this box - beneath it were various other magical texts Jinhai had collected over the years, likely useful for [i]someone[/i]. She picked this one up and brought it out of the room with her, to her own. She’d look at it again properly. For now, she had to get ready to train with her friends, and then for the inevitably useless meeting that followed.