[open] For science! ... or something like that.

[itmeanstruth]

Between daily workouts in the holodeck, sparring sessions with Kaylin and teaching chakra classes, Minoru finally resumed his studies on everything snakelike. A handful of very patient ensigns helped him set up his own workstation in one of the astrobiology labs, taught him how to use the instruments and the computer, etc. His 'science' is crude at best, so a lab partner (especially someone who might actually know what they're doing) is always welcome!

[option A - cataloging]

Focusing a particular amount of chakra, pricking his finger and tracing a thin line of blood over the tribal tattoo on his wrist is all that Minoru has to do to summon a snake. He's going through his summons, one at a time, milking them, letting the computer analyze them and their venom. For him, it was a new way of thinking about things, but for the computer, it was one easy match after another. Until he'd summoned something the computer couldn't identify.

The snake is small and white, its scales giving off an almost crystalline appearance. He knows this snake well, remembers its fiery bite fondly and the Sage Mode transformation it produced. But no one here has ever made a record of it before.

Are you the curious sort? What could be learned from this?

[option B - new species]

For all the snakes he'd come in contact with, there were many entries listed for species he'd never worked with. Draxxan cloud vipers, arboreal needle snakes, fire snakes... the list went on and on! When you walk in, Minoru has a living specimen of some kind on the table - a dangerous one at that - and he's handling it without any kind of protection.

Do you dare approach? And if it bites, what will you do?

[Option C - crazy chemistry]

Minoru is used to testing things on himself, on mixing substance A with substance B and observing things with the naked eye. But now, the computer can break venom down to its component parts. It could even simulate what would happen if he mixed and combined those.

He wants to know if he can create a venom that heals tissue rather than destroys it, whether he can breed snakes that produce it, and whether he can use the same serum on himself to boost the healing abilities he can channel through his Sage Mode.

Can you help Minoru answer these questions? Are you there to celebrate a lucky breakthrough? Or are you simply a witness to something going horribly wrong?

Comments

[the_blood]

It was what she always did around males. When it was safe to do so.

She headed out, walking to wards the Arboretum. Theiorn, unhappy, brought up the rear.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru followed in the middle, a little confused at Theiorn's frustrated expression. This was going to be an incredibly exciting demonstration!

"There was only one shinobi ever in the history of my birth village who could use their chakra to affect plants." he added. Despite tremendous amounts of study on the subject, there still wasn't a way to duplicate the technique naturally. That research did, however, provide some of the basis for the seal on Minoru's chest. "Isamu said that wood style was associated with a Sage Mode unlike anything seen from the Toads, the Snakes or the other sacred animals we know of."

[the_blood]

"It is a natural gift of all Queens. It is something we are trained to do from a young age." She couldn't hide the haughty smugness. Nor did she try overly hard to do so.

[itmeanstruth]

"It was natural for him too." Minoru scratched his head. For him, Sage Mode wasn't natural. Not really. He couldn't accumulate it without that seal.

Which is why he found this so fascinating.

[the_blood]

"I have never in the history of the Blood heard of a male with this gift, though there are males attuned to the land who care for it, and have a feel for it," she said firmly.

[itmeanstruth]

"I just find it incredible that something so rare in my world is done by many people in yours. Male or female." He smiled, swinging on an overhead pipe as they walked. "We might see one or two sages in a generation, even in nearby dimensions. You have an entire society built around these roles."

She was, in his mind, a spider sage. Her powers were essentially senjutsu.

[the_blood]

"It is not as though we choose them." She found the acrobatics more than a little distracting. And somewhat irritating. "It is simply the skill set we are born to."

[itmeanstruth]

By that definition, there had only been one Sage in the history of his birth village. Every Sage he ever knew of had chosen their study, and gone to one of the sacred animals to learn senjutsu. It could be argued that those who were successful had the ability to harness natural energy all along, and simply didn't know how. Which might very well make Minoru the only Sage to truly choose his power.

"I was born into my fire affinity."

[the_blood]

"Fire... affinity?" What kind of Craft was that? None she had ever heard of.

[itmeanstruth]

"We call them chakra natures." He tried to explain. "It's like a natural affinity for using your energy to manipulate one of the basic elements. Kind of like you have with plants. Most of my clan is fire. But my twin brother ended up with air and water."

Most shinobi had one or two basic affinities that just came naturally to them, though with enough hard work, they could usually perform techniques from other natures. (To this day, Minoru still could barely get a feel for any element aside from fire, even in Sage Mode.)

[the_blood]

"That.... is nothing like our magic...." she said, eyeing him.

[itmeanstruth]

"Yours, to me anyway, is a lot more like senjutsu, the sage's art, than the ninjusu most of my world can do."

Minoru respected the differences between the styles. Senjutsu required energies that traditional ninjutsu did not. He held no delusions that he would be able to do any of her techniques, but still felt the experience alone would be valuable.

[the_blood]

She shook her head as they walked into the arboretum. He might as well be speaking the old tongue, for all the sense he made.

She strode to her section, her small garden, and sat on the grass, feeling calmer almost instantly from the nearness of the Land.

"I have done this recently, so there might not be much in the way of an obvious difference in plant life. I did hear about one Queen who nearly drained herself giving to land that was parched, and within two hours the plants that had been struggling were green and thriving. A healthy garden should not require that much, however."

[itmeanstruth]

He kneeled down next to her, looking at the plants closely. If the change would be subtle, he didn't want to miss it.

[the_blood]

"There are multiple ways for this to be done. During every planting, there is a ceremonial ritual where the Queens add their blood to the water that is spread over the plants. Their blood and their magic. It is quite the event, with music and dancing after." Mostly to keep the males from fussing, she was sure. Show them that they could still dance, that a few drops of blood didn't turn them into invalids.

"Whenever a Queen wishes, she can simply drain some of her power into the Land." She pushed her hands into the soil, gently, careful of roots, until she was in to her wrists, and she closed her eyes, letting out just a bit of power. "Done regularly, this keeps the plants healthy, yields improved crops."

She drew her hands out and called in a basin of water and a towel. She used it to carefully wash her hands.

"The most effective way, however," she said, ignoring Theiorn who was now snarling, "is this." She used craft to sharpen her fingernails, then used those to make a small cut at the center of each of her palms. She then held her palms over the dirt, letting the blood fall, a drop at a time, into the soil. Theiorns snarls only grew as she lowered her hands and pressed them atop the dirt. "Queens are the Land's heart, and Blood shall sing to Blood." Those last words were said with the weight of ritual understood.

[itmeanstruth]

Minoru watched the demonstration of her ritual with the reverence it was due. The realization that she could give her energy to the land so freely was inspiring.

The first demonstration required no more than a thought. It reminded him of what it felt like to breathe fire, and he wondered if she felt her energy moving through her body out her hands in the same way he felt it rise through his chest and out his mouth.

He didn't flinch when she slit her palm. He simply watched her movements, listened to her words and felt the connection she had with the land. With a soft smile, he bit into his own finger, also drawing blood. He traced a thin line of blood over the tribal snake tattoo on his left wrist, and a small snake appeared in the dirt in front of him. This was his connection, and it was just as sacred to him as Aiylisha's was to her.

The snake wasn't afraid. It wouldn't attack. It trusted Minoru, and his thoughts were clear. Sun yourself. This is sacred space. Hopefully, Aiylisha wasn't afraid of snakes...

"What does your energy feel like when you do that? Do you feel it moving through you?"

[the_blood]

She eyed the snake with some caution, even as she nodded. "It comes from the abyss, as does all of my magic. I merely channel it where it is to go."

[itmeanstruth]

The snake slithered next to one of the plants, where the artificial sun was peeking through the leaves.

"From the abyss?" Minoru wasn't sure what that meant. "Is that an actual place? Or a symbol for something on the inside?"

He unconsciously gestured to his seal.

[the_blood]

"Both," she said simply, still watching the snake. "It is in the abyss that our power rests, it is our darkest place, and in some ways the most comfortable."

[itmeanstruth]

The snake was content to simply rest there. Minoru, however, still had so many questions.

Natural energy came from the world around him. Chakra came from within. It was his own life force. Neither would he have ever considered an abyss. A spark, perhaps, or a blinding light. "What makes it dark?"

[the_blood]

"The depth of out power. The darker our magic, the deeper into the Abyss we can safely descend, and the more power we can bring back with us at need," she said simply, because in her world it was that simple. "If I tried to take someone down to the depth of Purple Dusk, and they were lighter in power, their mind and Jewels would shatter. It is not often done. Often life goes with the mind in those cases, and it is said to be an unpleasant death."

[itmeanstruth]

He wondered if jewels, too, was both literal and metaphorical.

"The Great Snake Lord Elders told me that if you draw in too much natural energy than your body can handle, it can petrify you. Turn you to stone. But usually, the venom they use to force the initial transformations kills people before they get to the part where they do it to themselves."

In other words, if Isamu were any less skilled of a seal maker, he probably would have turned Minoru into a statue instead of helping him fulfill his dream of becoming a Dragon. (Because it was only later that Minoru learned the relationship between natural energy and chakra and he's still trying to understand exactly what natural energy really is.)

[the_blood]

"Better that than to become a shattered chalice. What a Black Widow can do with visions for a short time, a shattered chalice must always endure without escape. Those who can lead someone back from the Twisted Kingdom are few, and of those few none are here." Perhaps she could, maybe. Maybe. But she wouldn't risk someone to find out, and even of she could lead them back, she couldn't make them whole, she did not have the skill to go deep enough into the Abyss to full repair the chalice of another. And of it was her own, she doubted she'd maintain the knowledge or the focus.

[itmeanstruth]

Shattered chalice? Twisted kingdom? The abyss that was the source of her power...

Minoru suddenly found himself thinking about the World Between Worlds, the place between lives where the chakra inside the dying rejoins the universe and the energy of the universe goes into those being born. He'd been there, briefly. He'd seen, firsthand, the immortal circle which was life, death and rebirth. And he'd broken it.

He was younger then, more impulsive and more emotional. He did what he felt was right and paid the price. He'd made penance to the universe, but the memories surrounding those experiences still haunted him from time to time.

The snake seemed to sense Minoru's pain, because it turned to him, flicking its tongue. The snake sage tried to focus instead on the lesson at hand.

"What's a shattered chalice?" He asked, a bit unsure if he wanted to know.

[the_blood]

"A shattered mind," Theiorn said softly from behind them.

She nodded, staring off into nothingness. "The inner web is our power. The Chalice is the rest of what we are, our mind. For a Black Widow, it is said to be perhaps less bad than for others, and perhaps worse. Both because we can step across the boarder of the Twisted Kingdom. But when the chalice is shattered, that ability is gone, and you are trapped in the madness. Seeing the world both as it is, and as it isn't at the same time, unable to differentiate."