"Wait, I can explain!" You hold your hands up, hopefully signalling your lack of malicious intent. The goose woman, for the most part, declines to raise her deck of cards up further, which you're pretty sure is a good sign.
"Start explaining, then."
"Well, uh," you say, sweating bullets under her gaze. She's certainly more no-nonsense than her apparent fiance, that's for sure. "I'm, I'm miss Torielle's student! Or, well, assigned to be her student. She left suddenly when I..." You falter at that part, balling your hands into fists with a strange expression. The goose lady raises an avian eyebrow, spurring you to continue. "... When she learned I haven't done any magic."
The lady makes a strange trilling sound, which you suppose you can interpret as curiosity. She lets the pack of cards drop back into her dress now, walking towards you slowly. She still keeps that threatening expression though. You may be eternally discomforted by geese after this. "Why'd you apply, then?"
"There were drinks..."
"Ah."
That seemingly sorted out, the goose lady takes her bags once again and walks to the kitchen, leaving you to awkwardly sit and wait. You begin getting up to help her with the bags before she squawks a soft "it's fine, really". You do your best not to stare as she sorts out the boxes of flour, the cups of sugar.
And the apples.
"So," she begins suddenly, hopefully not noticing your apple-ward leer. "First of all, my name is Solissi. It's Avian, you can call me a nickname if you want. Secondly, you got toasted and decided to sign up as an illusionist despite knowing nothing about the craft? And somehow you got accepted?"
"Well," you intone quietly. "I read a picture-book about it..." You scratch your head. "And, um, my name is Bakkla."
She puts both of her wings on her beak in what you assume is an emulation of a double facepalm. "... Okay. Look, it's good that you have the passion for this sort of thing. But..." She joins you in sitting, though in a chair opposite your bench. "But even the most talentless of illusionists develop some kind of magic affinity for this by puberty."
"But the blackjacks..."
"Are foci. Without it, your illusions would be weak, uncontrolled, but... they'd be there. Watch." She stretches out her wings and clenches each individual pinion one at a time, unclenching in the same way. "I'm a fortune teller by trade, also known as an occultist, or a tarotist. My magic comes from the strength of ink, paper and symbols." Suddenly, her wing begins emitting a blurry, grey gas, formless and drifting in all directions. "But even without that, I can still cast the most basic of illusions without a foci -
Conjure Smoke." She flaps her wing firmly, and the gas fades out of view.
"Now, you try. Bend your fingers just like I did, and cast with the intent of obscurity."
You tilt your head at her with a confused expression. She shrugs. "It's a little hard to explain."
You gulp, feeling the pressure as if it was gripping your chest. You really do want to be an illusionist. You hold your hand just so in front of you. Solissi murmurs "a little stiff," but nods comfortingly. You clench and unclench each finger, one after the other in an oscillating motion. You think to yourself rigidly; conjure smoke, conjure smoke, conjure smoke. Obscure, obscure, obscure. Hide, hide, hide. Please, please, please, please, please.
Your hand remains smokeless. When you continue to oscillate your fingers, Solissi holds up a wing. "That's enough. Just as I imagined - you don't have the... capability," she says, looking at you with an expression you think is pity.
You look at your hand.
[ ] No, you can do this. You just didn't think hard enough, that's all. Try again. Cast
Conjure Smoke.[ ] Hold your head in your hand, teeth clenched and eyes slammed shut. You know it's impolite, but the mental breakdown train doesn't stop for nobody.
[ ] Get on your knees and beg the goose lady not to kick you out.
[ ] Drink some tea to help calm your nerves. The feeling of tasting bitter leaf water can't be as bad as how you're feeling right now.
[ ] Perhaps there's something else you can do. (Write-in)
2x bottle of water
Empty mug of ale
Half-finished cup of tea
Dirty clothes (Worn)
Cheap backpack (Worn)