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Post by Noa on May 18, 2020 20:45:41 GMT -6
“Not bad,” Aster said. “I think you’ve got this one under your belt. But let’s try Aurelius too, just to be sure.”
{Right,} said Rhys. Together they went to the other side of the stables, and repeated the exercise with Aurelius as their target. It played out in a surprisingly similar manner, despite the otherwise different personalities of the two drakes, but Rhys was able to calm Aurelius down as easily as he had done for Albion.
“That’s that, I think,” Aster said. “If you can handle their drake fury, I’m sure you can handle my nightmares.” He smiled a little, wryly. “Come on. Let’s head back in.”
As fortune would have it though, they had one last opportunity to test the effectiveness of Rhys's new skill. Some of the Hara were napping when they reached the house, and one was clearly in the throes of a nightmare.
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Post by Noa on May 18, 2020 20:48:57 GMT -6
Rhys glanced at Aster, apparently already thinking along the same lines. Aster nodded. "Try to soothe her," he said. Rhys complied, stepping a little closer and closing his eyes. The timing worked out pretty well; Rhys ought to practice with someone that wasn't a psychically resistant drake. This time, perhaps because of the lack of such a resistance, the pricess took hardly any time at all. One moment, the Hara was tossing fitfully and making small unhappy whimpers, and the next moment her breathing had evened. By the time Rhys opened his eyes, it was as though she hadn't had a bad dream at all.
"Nice work," Aster said.
{She was a lot easier than those two,} said Rhys. {I almost used too much force. Oh, but only almost! Don't worry, I didn't hurt her.}
"I didn't think you would," Aster said. He looked at the sleeping Hara a moment longer, satisfied that she seemed to be in good shape, before leading the both of them out of the room.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:40:01 GMT -6
It had started with a trip into town.
Aster had gone out to buy some Injections. It was a big purchase, and so he had reluctantly decided to go personally rather than leaving Rabbit to do it herself. That in itself was an irregular occurrence; usually Aster didn’t go into the heart of the city for anything other than trips to the Pit, or the occasional visit to the Quest Board. And so Rhys had opted to come along, and then asked a bunch of questions about all the things he saw in the city.
One of them had been a poster for a contest. Rhys couldn’t read yet - they’d work on that soon - but he could still badger Aster into reading it for him, and Aster did. {A magic show?} said Rhys. {Could we enter?}
“It’s not the kind of show where people do magic,” Aster explained.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:40:17 GMT -6
If it were, he supposed he could enter, though what interest he had in doing something like that… Well, the short answer would be that he wouldn’t be caught dead doing anything like that without a good excuse.
But that didn’t deter Rhys at all. {Oh, it’s for us creatures then. That’s great! I can do magic too, can’t I?}
Aster sighed. He should probably have been expecting that outcome. And it was true that he had entered a couple of these things before, with Grunty and Avander, and had come out fairly well for them. The prizes, too, were not too bad, so there was that. But it was frankly a bit too much ‘show’, and Aster, grim and morbid as it might be, really did prefer the straightforward brutality of the Pit. Putting on a routine felt more like a con than he was comfortable with.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:40:53 GMT -6
Still… He supposed there was no harm in it, especially if he left the task of coming up with a routine to Rhys, rather than having to do it himself. Which he could do, since Rhys had the mental faculties to manage something like that. “Sure, why not,” he said, and despite his obvious reluctance, Rhys only brightened.
{Great! Then, let’s work on it when we get home!}
That part, at least, Aster could help him with. He knew full well what ‘work on’ probably entailed. Rhys did have a plethora of magical abilities, or abilities that looked enough like magic anyway, and there was no doubt that that was what he intended to show off at this ‘magic show’. Whether this was actually what the contest was looking for… Aster didn’t know, having never participated in one of those contests himself, but if Rhys wanted to try it…
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:41:20 GMT -6
It was a good excuse to work on some of those abilities in question, especially the ones Rhys hadn’t really mastered yet.
Thus, they headed straight to a clearing to train when the errands of the day were done, and Aster’s new injections were all put away.
{So? So? What are we working on?} Rhys said, when they arrived at the clearing.
Aster, who knew this was coming, had given the matter some thought. “How about some illusions?” he said. That was the most blatantly ‘magical’ looking thing Rhys could do, though Aster hadn’t really seen him make much use of it. They knew he had the ability because he had managed to manifest it before in little fits and starts, mostly by accident, but they were occasional and obviously fake enough that refining the ability hadn’t been a priority the way they had been for Avander's more dangerous new skills.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:41:32 GMT -6
If they had been more disruptive or unsettling, maybe Aster would have mandated that Rhys learned to control them sooner, but as it was, it had been put on the backburner until now.
{Oh, that’s a good one! Yes, let’s,} Rhys replied, brimming with obvious enthusiasm.
“Okay, okay, take it easy,” Aster said, a little amused despite himself. “Let’s start small for now, since you’re not used to doing it yet. Try to imagine… a bird, say.” Doves were something of a staple in conventional magic shows, the kind where there was no real magic but a great deal of misdirection. For flavor, if nothing else, it seemed like a good illusion to incorporate into a routine.
Rhys fell silent, and his eyes fell closed. For now Aster let this slide, though later, when he had grown more proficient at it, they would have him practice with his eyes open. {A bird,} Rhys echoed.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:41:46 GMT -6
“Right. Imagine the size, the color, the way it moves… Can you picture it?” Aster had never created illusions himself, but there had been a little guidance on such techniques in the books for magic that he had been studying. They hadn’t been applicable to himself, but he thought it was a good place to start for Rhys.
{I think so,} Rhys replied.
“Okay. Now imagine that it’s out here, with us. Imagine where it is in space. Really focus on it.” As he spoke, Aster began looking around for any sign of the bird that Rhys was trying to imagine. He figured he would probably be seeing something appear around them soon. Rhys was generally a quick study, and this was an ability that he had accessed before, so Aster didn’t imagine he’d have too much trouble with activating it once he put his mind to it.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:42:04 GMT -6
Instead, he saw Summer wheeling toward him. He frowned; she didn’t often interrupt his training sessions, so there must have been some emergency. Curiously, he didn’t sense any alarm from her, but he held out his arm for her to land on anyway…
… And watched her pass right through him.
Ah.
“Interesting choice of subject,” Aster said.
{Ah, sorry!} Rhys’s eyes snapped open, and the apparition of Summer disappeared. {You said ‘bird’, and she was the first thing that came to mind.}
“Yeah, I guess I have myself to blame for that one too,” Aster said. The tension drained out of him, leaving him feeling more tired in its wake, but he wasn’t really upset. And it was true, if he thought about it, that the bird that Rhys would best be able to imagine in clear and familiar detail would be the one he lived with and saw every day: Summer.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:42:16 GMT -6
Though whether she was really a bird as one might classify them… No, that was a question for some other occasion.
“So that’s it,” Aster said. “I guess you didn’t see it, but that’s an illusion. How did it feel?”
{A little prickly in the tail, but not in a bad way,} Rhys said. That part Aster really didn’t understand, but the important part, he supposed, was that Rhys didn’t seem to mind it. He didn’t seem tired either, which was promising.
“Let’s try again, then. Make an illusion. This time it can be anything you want, though let’s try to keep it small at first.” Aster gave him the cue, and Rhys closed his eyes once again. It took a little time, probably because he had to visualize what he was trying to create, but after some time, a book from Aster’s home library appeared.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:42:26 GMT -6
“Not bad,” Aster said. The book was floating in mid air, which obviously marked it as fake, but in all other aspects it looked exactly like the real thing. If Rhys was focusing on it, his illusions were much more detailed and stable than the half formed, translucent starts that Aster had seen from him in the past.
Rhys let the illusion fall away, after a while, and they tried again. “Make an illusion,” Aster prompted. This time, Rhys manifested some kitchenwares. The next attempt saw the appearance of a pillow from the couch. One by one, a series of small housewares appeared and vanished as Rhys tried again and again to make an illusion.
Aster hadn’t prompted him to do so, but Rhys began working his way up to bigger and bigger illusions too. That seemed to tire him out more, but the quality didn’t seem to decrease, and he only needed more recovery time between attempts.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 12:43:06 GMT -6
Eventually - and Aster should have expected this too, in retrospect - Rhys manifested a reflection of Aster himself. It was accurate, but the expression… “Are you trying to tell me something?” Aster said, feigning more displeasure than he felt. But rather than an apology, Rhys simply huffed in laughter. The illusory Aster disappeared when Rhys opened his eyes, and for once Rhys seemed a little disappointed by it.
{I wanted to see it too… Ah well.} They would work on that once Rhys felt more comfortable creating illusions in general.
Rhys let Aster’s question go unanswered, but Aster let it go. That did mark the end of that session though. There was a limit to how much could be done in a day, and they left the clearing, to pick things back up tomorrow.
The next day, at the start of their session, Rhys started with some small illusions to warm up.
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 13:20:49 GMT -6
And then Aster asked Rhys to try to make bigger things, and was treated to several of his creatures in succession: Avander, then Grunty, and then one of the drakes from the stables. They were all pretty vivid, and only Grunty seemed a bit fuzzy around the edges, though when Rhys tried him a second time, the illusion was as stable as the rest.
The illusory Aster didn’t make a reappearance, fortunately. Aster was glad not to have to confront it again. More than its commentary on what Rhys thought of him, it was just plain unsettling to see himself walking around as though he were having some sort of out of body experience.
After that, it was time to move on to a new challenge. “Make an illusion,” Aster said again, “but this time try to come up with it yourself. Something from your imagination, rather than something you know.”
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 13:21:12 GMT -6
Rhys seemed eager to try it, rather than daunted, but his first attempt was definitely a lot less stable than his other illusions had been thus far. Aster told him as much, sharing with Rhys what it was he had seen. “Focus on making it as detailed as you can,” Aster said. That was probably what was tripping Rhys up for the moment.
{I’ll try,} Rhys said. His next attempt was the same illusion, but more solid this time: a sea of violet flames. From there, he called forth a variety of things: shooting stars, a flurry of butterflies, a bloom of flowers that weren’t real. Pretty, harmless things that would have been perfectly at home in a magic show.
In a way, it heartened Aster to see that this was the sort of thing that occupied Rhys’s mind, even now. His own thoughts were a lot less…
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Post by Noa on Aug 23, 2020 13:21:56 GMT -6
‘Clean’ wasn’t the word he was looking for, but he didn’t know what was. Dark, maybe, or just... unpleasant. Even so many years after the lowest points in his life had passed, it was sometimes hard not to dwell on them; and he knew that Rhys was privy to some of his nightmares, at least. That Rhys seemed to have the strength to hold against what he saw and remain fundamentally himself was reassuring.
It was hard work to perfect Rhys’s illusions though. They only managed to work through a few in that session, and had to come back the next day to practice it further… And then the next day, and the next. The improvement was more gradual than Rhys had hoped, but he got there, and as he became more proficient with it, it became easier and faster for him to conjure up illusions on the fly.
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