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Together
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 1:48 am
by Thomas
62nd Frost, 4621
When he was finished tending to Maladan's wounds, Thomas knew what he had to attempt to do next. In theory, he could already do it. In theory, he was unknowingly doing it in minute ways all the time, nudging the emotions of the people around him to make them believe him, like him, not be angry at him. This would be just like that, but deliberate. Thomas put a hand on Maladan's shoulder, the one that didn't have any nasty looking cuts, and gave it a gentle squeeze.
He thought about what he knew about Maladan. He was a healer, an elf so presumably from Sil'Elaine originally. A principled man, skilled with both medicines and necromancy, but with a sincerely held belief to do no harm. His psyche was under immense pressure from imprisonment and periodic torture, but so far, he had not snapped. That seemed like it should be enough.
With no small amount of effort, Thomas imagined a connection forming from his brain to Maladan's. The books referred to it as a tether, but he saw it almost like a meteor, originating in his mind, streaking through the emotional distance between them before making an impact in the target's. There was a better way to think about it, he could tell. Something more intuitive, easier to grasp, and easier to use. So far, though, it had not come to him, so he thought of tying a rope to a meteorite and throwing it at Maladan's head.
The first few didn't work. He was too focused on the tether itself, and not on its intended recipient. It was like giving a soliloquy, almost; focusing on getting the words pitch perfect was tempting, but it was a pitfall, a rat-trap that befell passionate amateurs. To be a proper actor, the words had to be memorized to the point where they flowed naturally, so that acting wasn't a facade or a performance, but just an extension of the self. This was the same, but in reverse. Rather than focus on the mental motions of forming and placing a tether, he focused on Maladan: what he knew of the man, what he knew of his mental state. In that way, he let the rest of his mind form the tether without conscious help from him.
He felt the corresponding drain of energy he'd experienced time and time again, but on a much more dramatic scale, before a glowing purple cord formed between him and the unfortunate elf.
"Ah, there it is." He supposed he should compliment his Mark for its success, so he briefly looked down at his thighs. "Good show, Blobby." He made a mental note to consider if Blobby was the best name for the mark, or if it had just been convenient.
The second part he had a much easier time with. Maladan's mural was apparent to Thomas without any arcane effort. A lifetime of his particular set of occupations made reading people an occupational necessity, so he accomplished it with ease. Once what he knew of Maladan's mural appeared before him, he imagined sending happiness and an easing of pain through the purple cord. He struggled a bit with getting it to flow properly; it would go too fast one minute and too slow the next. With a bit of effort he evened out the consistency, though. And voila! A crude, ethereal intravenous transfer of happiness from some kind of plane where infinite emotional energy existed to Maladan's troubled mind.
He had to maintain his concentration to keep it steady and even, but he could talk to the man, with some effort. "I am hoping this will help make you feel a bit better, my friend. Will you tell me if it's working?"
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 9:11 am
by Maladan
The nap was more of a psychological need, than physical one. This place was sucking the energy out of him, it took two hours of very intensive activity to get him sleepy, tired. Maybe it’s just depression. He knew that when people feel miserable, their body reflects.
He had most… interesting dreams, as a purple cord connected Thomas’s head with his spine, giving him access to his mural. It looked like a monolithic broken mirror; shards showed places, scenes and emotions like aesthetic tarot deck, everything in its place, full of symbols both hidden and apparent. All his perceptions of the world. There were a scenes representing his hope for the ability to change its cruel nature, growing gray as if dying of no sustenance that would feed them. There were a couple of figures, wearing masks. One black, other gold. One, almost demonic, glowed with various colors: red, blue, yellow. Ever so shifting and powerful. It had a hold over him. Choked him, so he couldn’t breathe. Maladan was so little, so small there, powerless. And behind it, like a mirror behind the mirror, all the images of little Maladan, trying to keep up, were holding… something made of crimson shadow. Gargantuan creature in chains of his own blood and tears. Anger and hate so great, that it could tear a soul apart, break a heart into a million pieces. Pure force of destruction forced mad from feelings of helplessness. Maladan seemed to know, but didn’t answer. He just anxiously maintained chains, like it was all that mattered. Nothing outside wasn’t so important as a focus to don’t let go. All the figures he was kneeling to, all the figures he healed, it all only channeled power towards the single goal: be better than everyone else, morally. Be kinder than any elf, human, even a god. Will doomed to fail, but fighting anyway.
As Thomas used his power the pulse of gold ran through the mural, like the sunset of a new day, hiding things below and under the surface. New images appeared, images of what happened when he succeeded. It was giving him strength and much joy, these acts of kindness without asking for anything other than a place to sleep and some food. He was winning and he felt it, no matter how many setbacks and pains came, he kept going; staying true and pure.
With a low exhale, he opened eyes. Normally he would flick, seeing Thomas so close and with a shifting purple energy connecting them; but not now. He felt good, relaxed… even forced himself to smile. No, he didn’t need to force that smile. He was actually smiling. The Sickness had no longer a hold over him; he was free.
All the bad was still there, but it was his nature to jump over to anything good that occurred, quickly trying to forget anything that was too dark to be pleasing.
“Yes. I feel… a lot better. And sorry for your coat also. Thank you, Thomas… I won't forget this.”
Re: Together
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 12:23 pm
by Thomas
As Maladan's mural shifted, Thomas saw much and understood little. Some sort of terrifying monster dominated his childhood, which Thomas assumed had something to do with the Dranoch in Sil'Elaine. Impossible to tell if it was just a nightmare that had a hold on the man like the bedtime stories in Lady Ryan's Home for Wayward Children that were intended to keep them quiet at night or if it reflected an actual experience. Then, something else, or someone else, more properly: a woman who held great power. Thomas assumed that part, at least, was literal: Maladan had to have learned his craft from someone, and this person was a dominant figure in his mural, so it seemed a reasonable hypothesis.
As the happiness washed away some of the despair, his mural grew more colorful, and showed scenes that seemed almost pleasant: childhood and adolescent depictions of some form of forest and a cozy house in the woods. To Thomas it seemed more like a fairytale than an actual life, but in Maladan's mind it was real enough.
"I can keep this up a while longer, Maladan, before I will get tired. Um, I think. This is honestly the first time I've done something like this. I just read about it in this stupid book from Daravin that took itself very seriously, and practiced the techniques in my head over the last few weeks."
Engaging the services of the blob still made him queasy, but this seemed like maybe the best possible use of it: soothing the mind of a troubled soul.
"Oh, the book did say that if we keep this connection up for too long, the connection could get more intense, and you could end up becoming too elated. I'm just mentioning this to be sure that does not happen, ah -- fuck."
He'd been talking too much, and channeling the happiness to Maladan faltered. He took in a frustrated breath, and concentrated on restarting it, feeding it through the stupid tether a bit at a time.
"Anyhow, I don't think there is much danger of this happening, since I can barely do it at all. I just hope it helps, a bit."
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 2:59 pm
by Maladan
”I think that Daravin book doesn’t sound stupid at all.” He suggested. This was Thomas’s old magic-suspicious self talking no doubt.
“Mother would have told you something like: train on defenseless victims and satisfy your wildest curiosity, pupil! Then I am gonna teach you how to eat brains.” Maladan imitated the voice of an old hag.
“Too… eleted? It does sound a little like a drug.” But then, Thomas’s concentration faded, only to be restored. Maladan felt a flicker of anger as the bliss shaked itself, as if it’d collapse. Looking at Thomas, he recognized the man was tired, not much but enough for him to give up on happiness. More so when he realized that he could quickly get used to that thing, artificial happiness. He could have been looking forward to it, even demanding it. That’s… not who he was, who he wanted to be. Better to be depressed than controlled.
“No. Stop.” He asked, maybe too harshly. He needed little push to force himself to say that words, because no matter his protest, this was the best thing that happened to him since he got there. He felt amazing and part of him was starting to become desperately addicted to the feeling, worrying that after this… there will be just Sickness. Just the dark and pain.
“You did great, for the first time. I think. I don’t really understand how raw magic works, but it’s draining you… and I won’t be happy at the expense of your well being.” he explained, giving him a cheerful smile. The fact Thomas wanted to help him, even when there’s like nothing Maladan could have give him in exchange, should be enough to make him happy, no mind intoxicating magic needed.
“You’ve done so much for me. Now, you should harness your own resources and strength for your own needs, and trust me… you’ll need it.”
He still hoped he’ll succeed at focusing Lord’s attention on himself only. But that was it, a hope. He didn’t really know what to do to protect Thomas from that sick person.
Re: Together
Posted: Wed Feb 02, 2022 10:24 pm
by Thomas
Thomas wanted to protest that he was fine, that it was nothing, but listening to Maladan disrupted his concentration and caused him to falter once again. Then, while he was feeling frustrated, he lost his grip on the tether and it fractured before evaporating. In an instant, it went from being a stable connection that seemed almost tangible to being nothing at all. At that moment, the exhaustion hit, and he sagged against the other man's shoulder.
The combination of being imprisoned and working with Blobby had taxed him more than he perhaps realized. He mopped his brow, surprised to discover he'd been sweating. Once he felt recovered enough to sit up straight, he stretched, and realized his lower back was tied into knots like he'd been doing hard labor. Maybe Maladan had a point.
"I hadn't expected magic to be tiring," he admitted to the other man with a bit of a laugh. "Or -- or difficult. I expected that there would be some chanting, maybe a sacrifice of some kind, and then the effect would just, you know, happen. Like a chemical reaction. It sounds silly now, to say that. If it were really that easy, I suppose everyone in the world would be a mage and we would use magic for everything."
He took a few more deep breaths. He wondered if Latham had felt tired after he'd made the portal, or had been fatigued from keeping him warm when he'd insisted on using his wagon to get from place to place, when when that meant trekking through Lorien's dangerous tundra. If he had, he'd never mentioned it. It made him feel a bit ashamed that he'd never asked, too uncomfortable with the subject matter to care for the man he loved. Which was more proof that he had been right to do what he'd done: Latham did not care for him, and on the off-chance that he did, he shouldn't.
These thoughts had nothing to do with his cellmate, however, so Thomas did his best to shove them into a dark corner of his mind, to be examined later. He wondered if he could tether himself and put his own mind at ease, but was all but certain that was a dangerous idea.
"So, any ideas about how we should pass the time, Maladan?"
Re: Together
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 12:28 pm
by Maladan
Purple chain faltered, fading into thin air. Weight on his shoulders was back again . All suddenly seemed more gra, but it was a fight Maladan needed to struggle on his own, without magic. He didn't feel easy about touching, but he held still anyway, so Thomas could lean on him in his exhaustion. Although, his view of entering personal space has changed dramatically during his stay here.
No matter how uneasy contact was for him, he must have laughed too; he didn't expect Thomas to be… well, naive in any way. He looked so handy all the time,rather practical, surely knowing that naivety isn’t well rewarded in this world. But he could figure out why Thomas felt like magic was just dangerous plaything for psychopaths. Of course it was more to it: it took himself a pretty long time to gain his current skills in necromancy and if he knew anything with certainty, it would be a fact that he is just on the surface of a great sea of hidden knowledge.
“Well, you just sacrificed your energy ~ you were right at this one. Maybe it gets better when you work on that chanting part and add some cool theatrical moves.” he pokes him, partly guiding him to rely on his own strength of posture again.
“I think I like magic being hard to gain and harness, that’s why it’s so worthwhile. Well, again I must say, I don't know much about this stuff; necromancy is more of a craft than art like what your own magic. It’s in the tools I use. For example, Sinew Foam can melt biological material into a… paste that can be applied on a desirable place. I once healed this man who fell off the cliff with a pretty nasty fractured femur. We opened it, picked up the fragments of a bone and put it back by Foam remodeling into a normal form, filling the holes. It was a delicate job, it took some precision.” he looked at his right hand, lifting it to the air in a posture as if he was holding some invisible tool. Even if his forearm was with minimum body fat, full of lean muscles gained by instant use of fine motor skills, it began slightly shaking after a while. He sighed. “Whatever.”
Maladan rather focused himself back on Thomas.
“I talked with a wall before you came by. I stopped when it started answering, so I’d not recommend that.” he said, trying to lift Thomas’s mood a little.
“But you must have traveled a lot with your business. Tell me where you have been. Or you could tell me about your man, if you want. More distanced the topic from this” he gestured towards their surroundings “the better.”
Re: Together
Posted: Thu Feb 03, 2022 7:30 pm
by Thomas
He understood instantly what Maladan was after. He wanted to be transported from this place, and to lose himself in imagining that he was somewhere else. To close his eyes and escape the awful reality of this place that was putting so much strain on his mind. This was both understandable and concerning: understandable because who wouldn't want a bit of escapism from this awful place, yet concerning because it meant Maladan was nearing a point of no return with regards to despair. Thomas had known he was faltering, but he had not yet known how close the man was to a breaking point.
Thomas knew that stories from his actual life might not help, however. The temptation was just to lie, but the pull of Maladan's need made that difficult. This was not a casual request to fill an idle evening with flights of fancy. Maladan needed this, and if Thomas lied to him and he found out while he was in prison, it could crush him. The thought of that on his conscience was simply too much to bear. So instead, he opted to tell a version of the truth.
"I am from the Grisithian Empire, Maladan. I do not know who my parents were or where I came from. I don't know my date or even year of birth. I grew up in the capital city, which is called Starkwayte, in an orphanage there. It's overseen by the government with funds from local charitable aristocrats and businesses, and although money always did seem short for things like clothes or food, we were housed and not starving, which puts me ahead of what would have happened to me in many other places. I left Starkwayte when I was about eighteen, and have been many places since then: Lorien, Daravin, all four kingdoms in Radenor, Khadai, which I do not recommend, and Tyrclaid. I'm happy to tell you about any of them, if you wish, or just about the natural beauties I've seen: mountain chains so massive they pierce the horizon, harsh deserts with bright oases like jewels on white silk, even the great ocean teeming with fish and odd underwater creatures the likes of which are simply mind-boggling. Have you ever seen an octopus, for instance? Very curious creatures."
Thomas had noticed that Maladan seemed uncomfortable with being touched, so he didn't move to take the man's hand in his own. Instead, he placed his right hand to his chest.
"You need only tell me to talk about something, my friend, and I will."
Re: Together
Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:34 pm
by Maladan
Even if Maladan was no longer under the effects of Thomas’s spell, he felt better. Maybe the raw experience of euphoria was only for cheering up a little, instead of solving a problem entirely. It was strange how easy he fell for the idea of magic solving all, doing all work for him. He never pictured himself being so… lazy?
As Thomas talked he was more and more fascinated. While he was running from Sil’Elaine though Daravin to Lorien, with a group of refugees hiding in the landscape, fighting for survival… he experienced things. He didn’t run, he lived. Maladan’s admiration for the man only grew stronger; from his point of view the world was a cruel place, but Thomas’s words gave it pure beauty and poetry. The names of realms he only heard of and heard nothing about, pictures of lands so strange and catching, waiting there somewhere, over the cold Lorien.
“I never saw one! What does octopus look like? Does it live in cold water of warm? Did you ever bathe in the sea?” He shot one question after another like a child, supplied with limitness curiosity.
“You know… I wanted to be a great healer someday; and then travel, as you did. Make a difference in the world, sharing what I have learned, helping those who need it from all realms of the world. Just… tell me everything! How would you describe the Empire? And others? And Daravin! I remember only a little, passing by after escaping from Sil’Elaine with my mother, the real one I mean.”
There was soo much he wanted to do, so much to accomplish, to feel, to taste, to see. He didn’t done any of it. He got stuck in one place, searching a idyllic home like some sort of sacred relic, and now it was maybe too late. But maybe not. Maybe Thomas’s presence here is an sign. He is a healer as he is, and he came in hour of great need, doing something Maladan wasn’t used to; helping him. Looking at the man before him, ge knew: he can’t give up now! Not after all he’d been trough. He will not kneel, not before deprived men who are afraid to die and love and feel. They are the real monsters, not the mages, or Nameless.
Re: Together
Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 10:02 pm
by Thomas
Thomas felt confident that this was a way he could help out: his cellmate wanted to fill the silence and think of other places, other times. He'd hoped that Maladan would accept his invitation to listen to what he could tell him of the world, because he had plenty to describe. From there, he could go into plays -- he could at least summarize the plots, and maybe do some soliloquys for Maladan of parts he'd played before. While plays were often grim things and concerned death and tragedy, they did so on a scale that was so far removed from the soul-sucking mundane awfulness of their current environs that they may as well take place in another world altogether. If they made it through all of that, he could make some stories up, or tell stories some of the more colorful companions he'd had on the road had told him over campfires.
If it kept his mind off of his current predicament, so much the better.
No time like the present to begin.
"The octopus I saw was not so big, but it was in the shallow water of a tide pool, which is apparently quite unusual. They are usually not shallow water creatures, and are quite shy, but the tide pool -- by the way, a tide pool is a little temporary pond of saltwater that is filled up when the tide rolls in and them remains as it is until the tide returns to retrieve anything, like the octopus, that it lost there by accident -- has one rather large head and eight legs, yet seems to be made almost of jelly. As I watched, it scrunched itself into a cave that I would have sworn would not fit a creature one quarter of its size. It almost seems to possess the ability to shift its shape, but I think it's more proper to say that the shape that it does have is somewhat amorphous...."
As Thomas continued to tell Maladan of the ocean, he felt his breathing deepen and his heartbeat steady. This had been a good idea, even if it would eventually dry out his throat. They passed the afternoon and the evening like that, Thomas mostly talking and Maladan mostly listening, with only a brief break for some horrible gruel and cloudy water. It reminded Thomas of the orphanage. He was unsure how long he would call this cell a home, but he felt lucky to have Maladan as a companion for the duration.
Re: Together
Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 6:21 am
by Salen
Thomas
Lores
Mentalism: Applying a tether
Mentalism: Interpreting a mural
Mentalism: Using the Ministrel ability
Mentalism: Maintaining Concentration
Mentalism: Magic is Tiring
Acting: Telling an Engaging Story
Rhetoric: Using Words to Distract from Pain
Persuasion: Charming Someone to Make Them Happier
Loot: N/A
Injuries: +1 Mageblight (Thomas now has 2 mageblight; he is one off Early Stage Mageblight, bare this in mind.)
Points: 5 Magic Exp, 3 Normal Exp
Comments:
Thomas is really a people pleaser, he tries to make everyone happy even with the darkest of times. Great thread, any questions or anything I've missed please contact me.
Maladan
Lores
Medicine: Mind-Body Connection
Medicine: Positive Psychosomatic Effects
Medicine: Positive attitude Helps Healing
Psychology: Symptoms of Depression
Psychology: Symptoms of Euphoria
Psychology: How to Keep Your Temper in check
Psychology: Artificially caused emotions
Anatomy: All about the Octopus
Loot: N/A
Injuries: N/A
Points: 8 (Non magic, therefore cannot be used on necromancy)
Comments:
The elf has surely been through alot; knowing he wanted to be a healer and now is having his dreams crushed because of his race and his status in Lorien. Thomas' comforts surely help. Great thread, any questions or anything I've missed, please contact me.