Richard was stood alone in Skylight, with a tool he had retrieved for this Major Mission and this Major Mission alone. The sun was high in the sky, there was a slight wind but no real clouds above... just passing white wisps. It was a tool he used rarely but knew that with time and his need to expand his dust use he'd have to use it more often. What Richard held in his hand was a crystal of raw fire dust, in the other a crystal of water dust. These were two types he did not use so commonly, water far more often than he'd ever even consider using fire. He still had that lingering fear of the flames, a shyness toward heat ever since his home village had burnt down. It'd been fire dust that did it, or rather the ineptitude of an elder using it to cook. They had left the embers glowing in their furnace and they had relighted, three quarters of the village was devastated and with it most of the surrounding woodland was burned. There wasn't anything he could do, he was young and could hardly use his semblance... let alone dust. He had been weaker then than he was now, he had to learn to better utilise this dust type. It existed in the explosive dust that he still refused to touch, but to use it on its own was the first step. He figured that utilising it with water would ease his tensions, he could snuff the flames just as easily as he could start them, besides a major mission was giving him reason to overcome his fear.
Richard began by retrieving a rock, around a foot in radius or two in diameter, and began to etch pentagrams onto it with the very dust in his hands. A series of diamonds and crosses followed it, simple shapes of alternating dust type. This was a test more than anything, he'd never used fire dust alone let alone with other types. Finishing his drawing Richard cracked his arms and rolled his neck, reaching beneath the rock and flipping it fully. The result was incredible. A jet of scalding steam shot up from the flat rock face and thusly launched the rock itself high into the treetops! This did though give Richard two key problems, firstly avoiding getting scalded... secondly avoiding the rock as it hurled back to earth; sticking in the ground and creating a crater. Earth shot up, made hot from the steamed rock.
That test complete Richard was feeling a might more confident in his skills with Fire dust he held the crystal in his right hand, raising the water dust in his left, he held the pair toward one another and cracked them. A jet of fire launched one way, a jet launched into the other and created a cloud of steam in the centre. It expanded outward and, naturally, upward thus making it both difficult to see and incredibly humid in the immediate radius. Angling the crystals he found himself able to both make steam clouds directed in set locations as well as to launch scalding water toward targets albeit in a stream rather than individual bursts. The trees were being scalded which, in truth, did relatively little to them when compared to the potential fire hazard. The bark seemed thick enough not to burn, it'd probably not do any good but it certainly wasn't killing the tree. Maybe whatever's in it, but hopefully that was nothing significant.
Richard stopped the cracking and sighed, understanding the next test he had to do; it was incredibly simple to do... but equally painful and dangerous. Richard, with baited and sharp breaths, stuck the crystals into his left forearm. It hurt but he was using a relatively small and low dosage. Focusing, tensing his arm, he set forth a jet of scalding water. Completely controllable but incredibly painful. Not only was he feeling the pain of dust entering his system through his right arm but he was also feeling the boiling water as it left his hand and scalded him party. Removing the crystals he set about first aid, first creating a pocket of water before cooling his hand within it. Soon his arm had mostly recovered, just a matter of time for the crystal holes to heal, less than normal with his aura. Taking a deep breath and the crystals in his hand oncemore he drew forth an old and withered looking tome, the cover partly overcome by mould while other areas looked to be burnt by electricity and frozen. Opening the book it had different pages corresponding to different dust types, pages of brown and blue and yellow. Eventually he flicked to the clear pages, pages that were seemingly uncoloured.
Now came something interesting, the primary method Richard used to utilise his dust. He reached into his scarf and plucked a long thread, reached into his pocket and drew a sewing needle before wrapping the threaded needle around the fire dust crystal initially; leaving a tiny bit of slack at the end up otherwise the entire crystal being bond in blue thread. He pulled on it tightly, the crystal crashing further and further and further under the pressure until its essence was imprinted onto the thread itself. He sighed in relief, having been afraid the flames would burn the thread until nothing remained, and with that he began to weave the thread into the paper. With every loop, under and over and under and over, the paper began to vanish beneath the sea of now red thread that covered the page. Eventually nothing remained and so he repeated the process with his water dust, infusing it into a thread before sewing it through an entire page. Next he had to wait, the process took around an hour for the threads dust to seep into the page, before he would pull on the thread and completely remove it. Two new pages added to his book, two new tools to his arsenal. He sealed the book, opting to nap beneath a tree... trying not to think of flames.
Richard began by retrieving a rock, around a foot in radius or two in diameter, and began to etch pentagrams onto it with the very dust in his hands. A series of diamonds and crosses followed it, simple shapes of alternating dust type. This was a test more than anything, he'd never used fire dust alone let alone with other types. Finishing his drawing Richard cracked his arms and rolled his neck, reaching beneath the rock and flipping it fully. The result was incredible. A jet of scalding steam shot up from the flat rock face and thusly launched the rock itself high into the treetops! This did though give Richard two key problems, firstly avoiding getting scalded... secondly avoiding the rock as it hurled back to earth; sticking in the ground and creating a crater. Earth shot up, made hot from the steamed rock.
That test complete Richard was feeling a might more confident in his skills with Fire dust he held the crystal in his right hand, raising the water dust in his left, he held the pair toward one another and cracked them. A jet of fire launched one way, a jet launched into the other and created a cloud of steam in the centre. It expanded outward and, naturally, upward thus making it both difficult to see and incredibly humid in the immediate radius. Angling the crystals he found himself able to both make steam clouds directed in set locations as well as to launch scalding water toward targets albeit in a stream rather than individual bursts. The trees were being scalded which, in truth, did relatively little to them when compared to the potential fire hazard. The bark seemed thick enough not to burn, it'd probably not do any good but it certainly wasn't killing the tree. Maybe whatever's in it, but hopefully that was nothing significant.
Richard stopped the cracking and sighed, understanding the next test he had to do; it was incredibly simple to do... but equally painful and dangerous. Richard, with baited and sharp breaths, stuck the crystals into his left forearm. It hurt but he was using a relatively small and low dosage. Focusing, tensing his arm, he set forth a jet of scalding water. Completely controllable but incredibly painful. Not only was he feeling the pain of dust entering his system through his right arm but he was also feeling the boiling water as it left his hand and scalded him party. Removing the crystals he set about first aid, first creating a pocket of water before cooling his hand within it. Soon his arm had mostly recovered, just a matter of time for the crystal holes to heal, less than normal with his aura. Taking a deep breath and the crystals in his hand oncemore he drew forth an old and withered looking tome, the cover partly overcome by mould while other areas looked to be burnt by electricity and frozen. Opening the book it had different pages corresponding to different dust types, pages of brown and blue and yellow. Eventually he flicked to the clear pages, pages that were seemingly uncoloured.
Now came something interesting, the primary method Richard used to utilise his dust. He reached into his scarf and plucked a long thread, reached into his pocket and drew a sewing needle before wrapping the threaded needle around the fire dust crystal initially; leaving a tiny bit of slack at the end up otherwise the entire crystal being bond in blue thread. He pulled on it tightly, the crystal crashing further and further and further under the pressure until its essence was imprinted onto the thread itself. He sighed in relief, having been afraid the flames would burn the thread until nothing remained, and with that he began to weave the thread into the paper. With every loop, under and over and under and over, the paper began to vanish beneath the sea of now red thread that covered the page. Eventually nothing remained and so he repeated the process with his water dust, infusing it into a thread before sewing it through an entire page. Next he had to wait, the process took around an hour for the threads dust to seep into the page, before he would pull on the thread and completely remove it. Two new pages added to his book, two new tools to his arsenal. He sealed the book, opting to nap beneath a tree... trying not to think of flames.
