Solo Practice makes perfect [Training]

[Kassius Selacs]

5th of Winter, 512 AV

Like many of the other street performers in Alvadas, Kassius knew that presentation was just as important as content. It didn’t matter how hard or easy an act actually was. What mattered was how impressive both the performance and the performer were. Sometimes simple tricks, when done well, could look just as good as harder one. Of course, the difficult part was figuring out how to look good without being too complicated.

Which was why the dhani was standing in front of his mirror, trying out different combinations of the basic juggling tricks. Alternating between a normal cascade and a reverse cascade normally had fairly good looking results, but there were quite a few patterns that just looked plain goofy, at least when he did them. For instance, he decided, grimacing at the mirror, having one hand normal and the other reverse was fairly unwieldy, and really just made him look a little lopsided. But this trick, the half shower, had been a favorite of his father’s, and could be done well, he knew. Just not by him, it seemed.

It didn’t stop him from trying. He started again slowly, both hands arcing down from right to left. Sort of reverse of the sun’s direction over the day. Heh. Anti-sunwise. The first problem he encountered was that his hands didn’t want to juggle different patterns. He was clumsy with this pattern and, to his immense frustration, Kassius found himself switching back into a cascade each time his focus drifting. It was easy to switch into this trick. The problem was maintaining it. Most of the tricks he was good at had his hands moving in opposite directions, mirroring each other. And it wasn’t that easy to have both hands doing different things at the same time.

Maybe what he needed was a different perspective. He was trying so hard to put a cascade and a reverse cascade together, and it obviously wasn’t working. Perhaps... it would be easier if he approached this like it was an entirely new kind of move. Which meant starting from the beginning. Dropping one ball back into his pouch, he tried again with just two. Inward, outwards, catch. Outwards, inwards, catch. The problem, he realized, was that he was reverting to a transition between cascades. His body knew how to do these moves, but unfortunately, it also thought it knew what came after it. Bells of practicing and perfecting his transitions were now hindering his ability to learn this new move. Kassius sighed to himself at the irony, rolling his eyes.

In, out, catch. Out, in, catch. In, out- no, that was the wrong way to think, wasn’t it. They didn’t have to be in and out. They were just going in the same direction. He tried again. Right, left, catch. Left, right, catch. Over and over and over again, until he began to slip up more, dropping the balls over and over again out of weariness. Slipping the balls back into pouch, he tossed it onto the table, yawning. Raising his arms out over his head, he began to stretch, working on his flexibility. As a snake, he had never really had that problem, but these human joints apparently needed to be broken in. How some humans managed such flexibility in their tiny lifespan, he had no idea.

[Kassius Selacs]

Clasping his hands together behind his back, he lifted them as high as he could, and leaned forwards. He held that pose for several moments, before returning to a standing pose. He always warmed up. He had learned that lesson a long, long time ago. Sitting down, he brought his bare feet together, and pulled them closer to his body. His hands rested on his knees, pushing them until they touched the floor. Keeping his back straightened, he leaned forwards, until the ache in his leg grew almost too much to bear, and held that position, counting to ten, before relaxing. Stretching his legs out in front of him, he leaned forwards again, gripping his heels and pulling himself forwards, again, until the count of ten. Rolling his shoulders, he stood, and grabbed his clothes from the bed. Pulling them on, he pocketed his keys, and headed out the door.

He wandered the city streets lazily, eyeing the bright orbs of light floating among the trees. They’d popped up several days back, and he assumed it was another one of Ionu’s whims. Funny, how people seemed to be trying to catch them. He dismissed it as insignificant, sure they would fade away soon.

Picking his way through the ever changing city, Kassius found his way to a plain iron gate, easily overlooked, nestled between two building. Resting his hand on the cool metal, he smiled. He had stumbled upon this place entirely by accident, and thus far, he’d had it all to himself. He slipped through the gate, and made his way into a small garden. It was never the same size, but for the most part, everything else stayed more or less the same. Only one entrance, a single tree, surrounded on all sides with smooth stone wall. It was a quiet, peaceful place, a sharp contrast to the bustling, ever changing city.

Pulling off his cloak, he hung it off a branch, noting with amusement a single orb of dull yellow light perched on the tip of the tree. He came to this little private corner of his for various different reasons. Sometimes he just needed to get away from the city and the people, sometimes he came to feel like a snake again. Today, though, he was just here to practice. Taking a few steps towards the middle of the garden, he raised his hands above his head, and tumbled forwards. One leg was already rising as his palms pressed against the grass, and he kicked up with his other leg, letting his momentum carry him forwards. He overshot a little, and wobbled precariously for a moment before he toppled over, knocking the breath out of him.

“Oww”

Picking himself up, he tried again, controlling his push more. Now successfully upside down, though still a trifle unsteady, he held it for a few moments before carefully letting himself down. Taking a few steps back, he threw his arms up, and flipped again. This time, though, he didn’t stop, pushing off with his arms and letting his momentum carry him forwards. He landed in a standing position, head tilted up a little. Front handspring. Then back. Bending his knees, Kass launched himself backwards, arms swinging up (or was that down?) to the ground and pushing off. He landed in a half crouch, his hands immediately coming down to steady himself.

Satisfied that he could still do handsprings, Kassius moved on. Turning to face one wall, he took a deep breath, and ran. Just before he thought he would hit the wall, he jumped up, and took one, two steps up the wall before launching himself off the wall, over his head. He had a moment of complete disorientation, lacking any reference point as to what was up or down, and forced himself not to panic. His head snapped up as he landed, and he toppled backwards onto his rear. Undeterred, he shook his head to reorient himself, and bounced up to try again.

[Kassius Selacs]

Fifteen chimes later, Kassius was facedown in the grass, wondering if his ribs and face were broken. Rolling over, he gingerly touched his nose. Was he.. was he bleeding? No? Ah well. His ribs were probably fine as well. Closing his eyes, he winced. Maybe he should take a break. He was about to doze off when he noticed a strange yellow glow through his eyelids. Opening his eyes, he hissed in surprise, eyes crossing to focus on the yellow orb perched on his nose. He batted at it on instinct, and, to his surprise, it floated out of the way. Reaching out, he grabbed at it, and found the light dissolving. Instead, he found a small bead resting in the palm of his hand.

How curious. The bead was also glowing slightly, the same shade of yellow as the orb. In fact... He’d seen these beads before. The bizarre had been starting to fill up will stalls selling these beads, or similar.

Would certainly explain why people were trying to catch them. They were probably worth a few copper, almost not worth the effort. Although that did give him an idea.

One of Kass’s self admitted faults was his rather unfortunate attention span. It was, to be perfectly honest, the reason that he was still only a mediocre performer, even after thirteen decades. Practices like this, while invigoration, were, quite frankly, boring when repeated over and over and over again. Simply bouncing off a wall earned him money, but grew stale over time. Perhaps what he needed was a bit of bait to dangle just out of reach. He would be exercising, earning a bit of coin, and satisfying his urge to chase shiny things, all at the same time.

Pulling on his cloak, he pushed pass the gate, only to find himself on the roof of some building somewhere around the city. Lucky him. Looked like he wasn’t going to have to embarrass himself trying to climb up a tree in public. He turned around, and was nearly hit in the face by a glowing red ball. Whipping his head around, he grinned, keeping his eyes on the orb. That, he supposed, was as good a start as any. Setting off after it, he leaped down to a lower roof, rolled to absorb the impact, and bounced right back up again, retaining his balance quickly.

He followed the orb across several rooftops, and almost had it it in his grasp when it suddenly veered off to the side, disappearing into a nearby tree. Skidding to a halt, he jumped unthinkingly into the tree, barely catching himself as he crashed through the branches. Hanging from a branch, he spotted his orb in the branches below, and sighed. He probably was going to regret this. Letting go, he snatched the orb out of the air as he dropped, and felt a brief moment of satisfaction before he landed on cobblestone, stunning him for a moment. He tried getting up, and saw stars from sitting up too fast.

Maybe he should just stay down for a bit.