"Some people try to maximize every small moment, and some find that stressful and don't bother, even with the prospect of System blessings. I don't think I could calculate the Experience you'll gain by taking a moment to do a little bit of aesthetic planning, but it's not zero. It's supposed to be a tiny surprise, but yes, you get to keep it! It should make a decent scarf if you do well. Mundane, but not bad."

"...The optimization problem of how much time and effort to spend on optimization problems strikes again."

...fuckit, Ophelia, I choose you.

"It is not as if I planned to select the warp and weft entirely at random, I should say.  Just that I am going to ensure that I can do something, first, before I attempt to do something fancy."

"As you like. So, let's choose your warp threads and start lining them up-"

And the practical lesson bit begins?

And continues, until it is done, she should hope.

"Does the System do this sort of thing - relatively often, I suppose?  Draw on people's abilities?  I hope you are getting remunerated for your time and effort."

Her teacher is pretty good at explaining the finicky dexterous bits in ways that make sense, and showing how to execute them.

"It does - particularly for new integrations. I'm being compensated to my satisfaction. You meet the most interesting people this way sometimes, too."

And she isn't bad at manual dexterity, more generally speaking.  She's making decent progress.

"...What is the difference between - weaving, and weaving but with magic involved?  Though I daresay that that's leaping several steps ahead in the course, as was."

"The difference is that producing and expending energy is involved. All magic comes, ultimately, from people. Some traditions involve weaving insubstantial threads of energy, and others involve putting energy into fibers and weaving the physical fibers to achieve the appropriate structure. Generating energy is usually a matter of effort, focus, or will, depending on the particular flavor you choose. Meditation, exercise, academic puzzles - it's meditation for me. Early on in the path you might use tiny spells to make parts of the work faster, or produce a superior result - altering the adhesion of certain threads, I'm sure you can feel how that might help with your weft here. Even just infusing energy into thread makes it better than mortal material. Later, you might weave patterns of energy into the threads that have a real magical meaning, sigilwork or knotwork that serve as river-machinery powered by the water of your energy. They can store energy for you, or protect you from hostility, or other such things."

"Wait.  Waitwaitwait.  Can I do magic right now.  Or do I need some soul thing tacked on first?"

"Because if I can do magic right now I am absolutely going to want to give that a try, ADHD permitting."

She already has a Zachtronics game soundtrack suddenly playing in her head, it's clearly fate.

"If you can do magic without the System's aid, you would be a rare talent indeed. I would not terribly mind talking you into a guided meditation as you pass the weft back and forth. That's the best portion of the work to try it."

"...It is an open question how capable I am of going along with arbitrary meditation-like actions, lacking sufficient experimental evidence as I am at the moment, but I can probably get a decent hyperfocus going.  Especially if it's for magic.  Magic is cool."

"So let's try it."

And she will cue the music in her head, in the real - powering her phone back on for this purpose.

(It's soft and unobtrusive - but it has a feeling of forward-motion-ness to it that she thinks will help.)

Valasafrava will speak in a slow and even voice. About the power of the soul to redact reality. About how perspectives can change, and belief is malleable. About the singular ability of intelligence to transform the world with knowledge, with will, with planning, with intent. About how attention and artistry can allow someone to pour a part of themselves into The Work. You CAN perform magic. You WILL infuse this thread, mastered by your fingers and passing back and forth under your hands, a line from left to right to left that can oscillate forever and become more than base matter.

And she will focus, all falling away from her attention but the words and the work.

And-

-There's a ghost of a sensation, possibly imagined, something just on the edge of-

-It's gone.

"I...  I felt something.  And in noticing that I felt something, I lost the flow state that allowed me the feeling, but...  Holy shit, magic is real.  ...Yes, I know, I'm literally saying this from within a hyperbolic time chamber established by at the very least sufficiently advanced technology, but - that's still different from feeling it."

Is she - crying?

Shit, she is.

"...Thank you."

Valasafrava does not bow, or smile, or even really nod at this success. It would be performative.

She does, though, repeat something she said earlier, "One meets the most interesting people during integrations... Forcing it won't aid you. All I can advise is to remember the feeling, the - wonder, the hubris, the dominance of reality, the unity of the weave, the touch of the onesong, there are surely ten thousand and more metaphors to describe it. Perhaps create your own."

"I think I have some ideas," she says, her voice quiet with echoes of reverence.

"And I think I'm almost done with the scarf," she says, looking at her progress, "so, I would like to say that it has been very good to meet you before I do amything that would trigger an exit flag."

"You're not done quite yet and I intend to see this lesson through - keep those hands steady, don't let a bit of chatter stop you! - including tying off the weft and bundling the ends of the warp into stable tassels."

Valasafrava would like to add you as a contact. If you accept, she will appear in your contacts list and you will appear in her contacts list.

Contacts may send each other text messages through the System, up to reasonable good-faith usage limits. Contacts may remove themselves at any time. The System monitors messages that are sent through its services.

[Yes] [No]

[Yes], please.

"Almost, I did say."

And so, hopefully, she finishes her scarf.

Valasafrava maintains the same calm-voiced but nitpicky perfectionistic teaching style. Until it is done, and she has a grey scarf, one where she knows personally where every tiny imperfection came from.

"I don't think your future lies in weaving particularly, you're competent enough for a bare beginner, and the touch of magic was there for a moment, but I do not detect passion. Still, I hope it was good experience."

You may now choose your next Tutorial Challenge. 1/3 Challenges complete before Group Challenge.

[Very Easy Combat] [Easy Traversal] [Easy Academic] [Easy Intellectual] [Hybrid]

Available after 1 non-Crafting challenge: [Easy Crafting]

No, neither does she.  "It was."

And to the System:

"What's the difference between Academic and Intellectual, anyway?  I have my suspicions but I wouldn't want to misunderstand."

Academic challenges focus on information manipulation and management. Research, creation of reports, or optimizing the use of resources are central examples. Intellectual challenges focus on abstract reasoning or understanding of new or complex topics. Design of a new tool or method, solving a complex puzzle, or understanding why something broke or failed are central examples.

"...Well, that seems like a coinflip as to which I'd actually be any good at, but I'll try Intellectual first.  I'd like to hope I'm not horrible at failure analysis even if I'm kind of meh on a lot of the fancier logic puzzle things."