Solo Man in the Mirror

[Verin Rush]

2nd Day of Fall, 509AV There was only so much that one could learn from books. After years of his father forcing him to sit at a table and chair all day and read from a tattered book, or make notes based on what someone said to him. For Verin, at least, that sort of learning only went so deep. By no stretch of the imagination was the Rush scion slow-witted, or adverse to his education. To the contrary, he knew just how lucky he was, and relished any chance he got to learn, especially when it was about the things he loved. But he was also keenly aware that to ‘learn’ was to ‘do’, for him, at least. When sitting in front of the written word, he never had the opportunity to truly understand the mechanics of what was in front of him. Whether it be poisons, or a language. Given the chance, Verin would fiddle with plants all day, and learn through trial and error. He couldn’t do that with the Ancient Tongue, as very few people spoke it, and no one spoke it fluently. Yet the value of books was not lost on the young man, and he prized and cared for any that came into his possession, even for the shortest of times. He would devour them and, half way through reading them, itched to begin practicing the contents of the books himself. That was what had happened last night, when he had the chance to read a book on the basics of Hypnotism. The blond Ravokian had been trying for years to learn this particular art, though only last night had he been given an overview of the sheer power he might gain. And the concept intrigued him. First, however, came the basics. And the basics were something that Verin had continued to practice in the years since he had first started. So Verin found himself staring at himself in the only mirror in the room, as he had been for the last bell or so, and would probably continue to do so for more bells today, and possibly he would continue into tomorrow. “Focus, Verin.” He spoke softly to himself; a quiet, calm command that had no other effect than to try to centre himself. In order to hypnotise another, and to control another, he had read, Verin must first be a master over his own body. Maybe he was reading too far into it and completely misunderstanding, but to him that meant that he had to have control over every single movement in his body. Every twitch of his fingers, every flicker of his eyes, every spasm in his legs. “First...” he whispered, once again to himself, “I will control myself.” And he smiled at the thought.

[Verin Rush]

Patience. Patience was the key to everything, Verin decided. With patience, anything could be learnt or achieved. Frustration and intolerance, however, led to mistakes being made. A word could be transcribed wrongly, or mispronounced. A painting could be ruined in a single brush stroke, or a building could collapse under poorly built foundations. Civilisations could fall and rise, if their leaders were impatient. Simple mistakes could be avoided, should he maintain his composure. Not just in his growing art but in all things, patience could mean the difference between success and failure. Which was why, after all this time, he still spent time centering himself. For a few more bells, he stared at himself, watching each movement and twitch that his body and face made. Though he wasn’t standing too close to the looking glass, and the glass itself was not particularly clean, he imagined that he could see the stubbles of a beard growing on his regularly shaven chin and cheeks. He picked out the imperfections, the pores that were not clean, the unkempt eyebrows which were, for some reason, a few shades darker than his natural hair colour. His eyes, he noticed, were less blue than he had originally thought. In some ways, Verin had a very good idea of what he looked like, having an identical twin brother. Having spent much time around his younger sibling, looking at him, he knew how he looked himself. But only now was he noticing the specific differences. Differences that he had originally taken for granted. His eyes, for example, were the same shape as Venser’s, but Verin’s were not as deep set. They were also more pale, and more grey, and the ring that separated the iris from the white wasn’t as dark as it was in Venser’s eyes. By choice, his hair was longer, but he only now realised that it was a slightly lighter shade than his brother’s. His face as a whole too, wasn’t as thin as Venser’s. Eventually, though, his eyes lost their focus, and his view of himself in the mirror became blurry, colours all merging to become large blobs, all detail was lost. It was at that time that he decided he was ready to try to hypnotise himself.

[Verin Rush]

Leaving the mirror, Verin walked over to his bed, where he lies down. The mind, he read, was more susceptible to sleep when one was lying down, or maybe sitting. Verin himself was a little unpredictable in this area; sometimes he could be asleep the instant his head hit the pillow, other nights, he might be tossing and turning for bells into the night. It was the middle of the day, however, and the Rush scion did not want to fall asleep. His only goal was to hypnotise himself, just to see if it was possible. It wasn’t that Verin was ashamed or self-conscious should he not succeed, but his pride was not something that he liked to trifle with. He would not attempt to practise on anyone outside of his family until he was comfortable, and he was not yet prepared to try to hypnotise his brother, given their teasing, competitive relationship. No one was home, but he glanced over to the door to his room anyway, checking that it was closed; he did not want to be disturbed, should he succeed in putting himself into a trance. Satisfied, he put his head back against the headboard. Careful not to cross his legs, he spread his body out over the whole of his bed; he wanted to remain as comfortable as possible. Once ready, he closed his eyes. Trying to clear his mind of all thoughts took longer than he initially thought it would; intruding thoughts kept returning and he tried to force them out. Thinking back to his readings, he remembered what to do… to allow the thoughts to run through his mind. Idly, he watched the images and memories that appeared, but he was distanced from them. And then they disappeared again, each one slipping away after an impartial viewing from Verin, until there was nothing left in his mind except blank nothingness. Beginning with his toes, Verin imagined the tension slowly falling away from his body and vanishing. He squeezed each muscle group for a few moments before releasing the tension, working up from his feet to his calves and thighs, then stomach, then arms, until he finally reached his head. As he did so, he tried to imagine that each of his limbs, as well as his torso, was becoming lighter as the tension dissipated. Each time that he squeezed one of his muscle groups, he took a deep breath and held it until he felt ready to release all of the tension. Eventually, after what felt like a bell had passed, he felt calm and empty enough to continue on in his journey.

[Verin Rush]

This level of relaxation was something that Verin had never experienced before. He had never really tried meditation, though he imagined that something like this would be close to how meditation felt. A small smile comes to his face. He should do this more often. When he was praying to Rhysol, sometimes he felt weightless, like he wasn’t really grounded, but this was very, very different to that experience. Verin was no longer holding his breath with each new one he drag in, but he was taking care to ensure that he was taking deep, long breaths, to try to maintain the calmness he was feeling. He was not as weightless as he thought he would have felt, and he decided to simply lie there longer and breathe deeply before moving on to the next stage. His situation did not really change, however, and after a few more chimes later, he decides to continue. His own room had long since disappeared from his mind; his eyes were closed, and his mind blank. In this state, he was able to imagine a set of steps in front of him, leading downwards. One… he thinks to himself, and allows his weightless body to drift down the first step, though he barely felt his foot touch the step. It really was like he was floating, now, he could almost imagine the complete loss of gravity, nothing anchoring him to the ground. Two… the second step down was not as gentle as the first; it felt much more jarring, much more sudden. The weightlessness, though still there, seemed to dissipate slightly. But Verin decided to continue down, continuing to take the deep, calming breaths. Three… the next step, and… Four- “Verin!” His eyes blinked open, “Verin, are you in?” The young man groaned in irritation and glanced over to the window; the sun was beginning to set, he had been at this for a number of bells now. Next time, he would not spend so long staring at himself in the mirror, he decided. He continued to lie in his bed for a moment before pushing himself up from the bed and clearing his throat. “Yeah, brother. I’m here.” He called out as he walked over to the door and opening it, walks out of the room to meet his twin.

[Abstract]

Grade Awarded!

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Verin

Award :

Skills

~ Observation - 1
~ Meditation - 3
~ Hypnotism - 1

Lores

~ Books: Not Always Useful
~ Meditation: Trying to Fall Asleep
~ Hypnotism: Requires Control Over One's Self

Other

N/A

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Notes

Er... there little actual hypnotism in this thread... it was more your character meditating than anything else (though that succeeded ) The concept of hypnotism is - at basic levels - you need eye contact with the person you're hypnotizing, and concentration. Though there was a period of him staring in the mirror, there was no mention of hypnotizing, or that kind of concentration. I gave you a point for the basic book learning, though.

Otherwise, good solo! Be careful about switching between present and past tense... you mixed it up a few times.