Solo The Magic of Hypnotism

[Rosela]

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Timestamp: 43rd of Autumn, 513AV

Rosela had found mediation an interesting subject, and one that seemed to have benefits beyond delving deeper into Hypnotism. She’d memorized the shape of her face, and found herself more in tune with the way the light moved over her skin. She was considering getting a moisturizer. Her mind also felt calmer as of late, though she maintained an internal debate as to whether that was a good thing.

On one hand, she seemed to be visibly benefiting from the reduced stress on her mind. A peaceful smile looked good on her face, and her skin felt healthier and less lined. Her inventory and the perpetually looming specter of the Sanctuary Project did not bother her much anymore, and she had a firm amount of faith in her ability to stay on top of everything.

On another hand, it was getting to easy to be complacent. Whatever she had in front of her, she could handle, but she felt she was losing her…hunger. The need that had built up when she’d planned her empire was hard to maintain when she was settling into the comforting darkness of her meditation. Hypnotism would be a powerful tool in advancing not only herself but her shop in Riverfall’s society, and she couldn’t afford to forget that.

As she watched her latest satisfied customer walk out the door, and tilted her head slightly in thought. If she could simply change her meditation mindset… A hungry darkness, instead of a soothing one? Settling back into her chair, she turned her eyes down to her lap, where she had a long sleeved women’s shirt half assembled. She’d discovered the hard way that sewing was too complicated an action to undertake while meditating, so she was instead trying to sink into meditation for just a few minutes at a time. It had been difficult to transition away from using the mirror, but she couldn’t limit herself to a physical location that could be arranged with a mirror.

She descended fairly quickly, as she’d gotten used to finding the empty place, but instead of diving into the still fog, she hovered just above it. Willing the fog to obey her, to fulfill her whims, she felt it stir slowly in her mind. It seemed to fill her mind, making her feel powerful, and just brimming with potential.

The door to her shop opened, and her head snapped up, smile immediately plastered on her face. It was a young Konti, and Rosela ached to reach her influence out to her, to move her to buy the tooled gray leather belt that would look just lovely with her black cotton dress. She didn’t however, remembering her promise to herself regarding Hypnotism in the shop. Behind her smile, the fog banked, and she rose from her chair to assist her customer with sizing.

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[Rosela]

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The Novice Hypnotist may find sentient subjects of some difficulty at first. Beings with their own thoughts and emotions are more difficult to influence, even more so to do it discreetly. The sentient being is, by definition, self-aware and inserting thoughts into a being that ultimately knows its own thoughts better than the Hypnotist can be quite difficult. Due to the secretive nature of the discipline, Hypnotists rarely find opportunities to fully practice their abilities, and are usually unable to acquire safe feedback on their suggestion techniques.

Enter: The animal.

Provided the Hypnotist in question stays away from Kelvics, the animal kingdom provides an open canvas on which to practice their art. Animals that are unable to perceive their own thoughts are much more open to suggestion, and often a failed attempt will result in nothing more than a confused animal. Simple animals, such as ones able to solve only the simplest of puzzles, and, most telling, do not recognize themselves in mirror, are among the easiest to influence. Thinking creatures, such as those who are able to pass a mirror recognition test (includes many apes, select species of large sea and land mammals, and peculiarly, the Syliran Magpie), are more difficult to Hypnotize, but not impossible.

For the safest avenue of practicing Hypnotism, influencing animals is a recommended starting place.

Rosela ran through the passages on Hypnotizing animals before leaving the shop for the night. She didn’t have any animals of her own, the fiasco with the ocelot kitten in the Spring firmly scratching that idea in her mind, so she needed to go where the animals would be. It was getting late, and the Menagerie would be closing in a couple bells, but there was no easier place she’d find a variety of animals in one place.

Pushing through the doors, she briefly inspected the map pamphlet, unsure of where to go first. She hadn’t planned out exactly which animals she’d start with, assuming it would come to her once she arrived. Trotting up to the counter, she waved for the attention of the Akalak behind the counter, a lean young man, but roped with tight muscles.

”Excuse me? Hi, I’m trying to find some…birds …?”

He seemed delighted to see her and jumped up from fiddling with the bottom of his chair. “Well you came to the right place! We have a fantastic bird exhibit right-“ He reached over the counter to gently turn over the map in her hands. “Right here. You can walk right through their habitat. It’s one of our most popular exhibits actually.”

”That sounds just lovely. Thank you.” The thumbs of her two middle hands began to slowly stroke the paper in front of her as she met his eyes. She wasn’t sure what she wanted from him, but imagined the red fog surrounding him, willing him to want to help her, want to do something for her. She's pretty; she’ll like me so much if I helped her…

“Do you,” he said abruptly. “Want some birdseed?”

Rosela’s surprise was apparent. ”I…um…”

“For the birds,” he continued awkwardly. “To feed them. We normally charge a couple silvers for a bag, but I already counted out the till…”

”Oh, yes, thank you!” Rosela grinned and took the offered cloth bag. Was this his way of doing something for her?

He smiled back shyly and looked down. “Just uh, don’t throw it all out at once, or you might find yourself mobbed.”

”I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again!”

OOCI renamed the European Magpie, the Syliran Magpie, for obvious reasons. It was too cool a factoid to not include.

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[Rosela]

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The path to the bird dome led through another section of the Menagerie, and Rosela perused the exhibits with mild interest. She’d visit Kadda, her little ocelot friend, before she left, but the big cats area was out of the way she was going. She passed goats, some manner of ground monkeys, and what appeared to be an empty exhibit of grass. Next to that, she slowed as she read the sign: Nabato Cattle.

They were ugly beasts, and it was hard to believe her pretty stiletto handle was made of one of their bones. There was a calf grazing close to the glass, and Rosela leaned in close to get as good a look at its face as she could. Even the babies were ugly.

Licking her lips, Rosela focused in on the dull and tapped her fingernail on the glass. When the calf showed no signs of hearing her, she made a fist and knocked firmly. There was still no reaction and she frowned irritably. How dare this dumb beast ignore her? The book had said she didn’t need eye contact, just some manner of contact, like her voice. Maybe for simple beasts, she could just do it through force of will though?

Looking around to make sure she was alone, Rosela knelt down to put herself on eye level with the creature. Four hands on the cool glass, two thumbs rubbing against it gently, she pulled in the darkness and focused her mental fog around the calf. It remained dully focused on the grass in front of it. Rosela narrowed her focus, pushing the dark circle closer until her entire vision consisted of the single black eye she could see. ‘I should look up, I should look up... There's something rustling in the bushes, I should look to see if its a predator...’ She repeated the mantra in her head over and over, growing angrier and less focused at the calf’s only motion was to continue chewing.

‘There’s a predator here – better look up, something’s coming - something’s going to get me if I don’t look up – look up or it's going going to eat you-‘

She was losing her focus in her anger, and in a fit of fury, banged the heel of her hand abruptly on the glass. The resulting bang reverberated lowly through the hallway and the calf finally looked up. There was a moment of connection where all Rosela had behind her force was anger that the creature hadn’t listened sooner. The heartbeat passed and the calf bleated in shock and took off in an awkward bowlegged run towards a cow.

Sighing deeply, Rosela let her head fall against the glass in defeat. The stupid calf hadn’t heard her without some kind of connection, and she’d let herself get worked up for nothing. Looking around again to make sure no one had seen her outburst, she trotted quickly to another exhibit.

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[Rosela]

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Rosela’s heart rate was still returning to normal as she moved down the hallway. She passed several rodent displays, with signs about elaborate tunnel structures and family groups. Unwilling to waste her talent on something so small, she spared them no more than a passing glance. She could distantly hear the birds chirping and a quick check of the map showed she was getting close.

However, between the rodents and the birds, ironically, there was a snake exhibit. She paused at the largest display, easily spotting the massive orange snake hung from the branches. In a stroke of luck, it appeared to be moving, and a little more interesting-looking than she thought snakes were. Leaning over so her eyes were at the level of the slightly bobbing head, she tilted her head to make eye contact and gathered the fog of her mind. ’A big juicy mouse, right by the window, reach out and grab it, I should stretch my head out and get it, there’s a big fat mouse…’

Instead of obeying, the snake pushed its head out from the leaves and licked several times at the air. The eye contact stayed though, and once again warning herself not to lose her temper, Rosela continued pushing thoughts into the creature. ’I’m hungry, I should eat while I have the chance, it’s going to get away…’ The small flat head moved back and forth, tongue still darting out every few seconds, and Rosela wondered if he was trying to find the mouse.

Could she trick him to the point where he’d convince himself he saw a mouse? It seemed in the area of hallucination, something firmly in the realm of the more advanced. So she probably wasn’t going to get him to strike, but if she could get him to do something else, it’d prove her influence.

’There’s something moving behind you, there’s something in the leaves, I’m so hungry that I should turn and look, there might be a mouse in the leaves behind me, if I don’t catch it, it might get away and I could go hungry… Rosela let out a squeal of delight as the snake slowly, but clearly, turned in on itself and moved back into the leaves. She did it! Clearly and no question about it, she’d told the snake to look back in the leaves, and it had done so.

The wire mesh top of the cage was abruptly pulled off and she gasped in surprise. Craning her head, she could see an Akalak inside, with what was clearly a bag of…mice. He waved awkwardly at her, but she could only turn and walk swiftly away, lip trembling in horror. If she had come a few chimes later, she might have come upon the snake, a Riverfall Constrictor, according to the side she sped past, actually eating. The thought was too gut-churning to consider and she attempted to focus on the victory of a successful hypnosis instead. The door to the bird dome appeared around the next corner, and she comforted herself with the knowledge that at least she wouldn’t be coming across any birds eating small, furry creatures.

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[Rosela]

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Rosela hadn’t realized a headache was building until she stepped into the large, and very noisy, bird enclosure. Despite it approaching dusk outside, numerous lanterns extended the daylight just a little longer here. Rosela knew the Menagerie would be closing soon, but hoped to extend her stay as long as she could. She couldn’t see many birds, save a few that fluttered by overhead.

The surrounding gardens were beautiful, and Rosela suddenly wondered why she didn’t come more often. It seemed like a nice place to have lunch, though after thinking on it for a moment, she realized most of her lunches, even on her days off, were spent at the shop. Sighing shortly, she pulled out the bag of birdseed with one hand and rubbed her temple with another. Somewhere in the dome was a particular bird making a high-pitched screech, which went straight through her ears to pierce the area just above her eyes. Hand still rubbing the side of her head, she did her best to block it out. She came here for a purpose, and a silly little headache wasn’t going to keep her.

She heard a slight instead in fluttering as she poured the birdseed into her hand, and assumed that the birds were somewhat used to the motion. No sooner has she spread it on the ground than over half a dozen birds swooped down to peck at it. They were a festival of color, and for a moment, the keening migraine was easily ignored in favor of the flurry of feathers hopping about on the ground in front of her. Various feather-themed outfits floated through her mind, from formal dresses with feather trails to leather vests with black feather trim.

A small, fat bird pecked at a large seed closest to her, and she slowly knelt down and poured more seed into her hand. At first it didn’t notice the seed-laden hand inching its way closer to it, but it was apparently too fast and as soon as it noticed her, it took off. Rosela made a small growl in the back of her throat, and pushed a heel against her forehead just above her left eye. It had been a long day thus far, and she was probably just the victim of a stress migraine. They didn’t seem to happen often, but it was looking like she was unlucky.

Scooting forward, she slowly extended a hand to the general group of birds, trying to discreetly catch the eye of one. Unexpectedly, a rather large red bird took notice of her hand and began plucking seeds experimentally from it. Bending down as far as she could without fully sitting, Rosela drew in a breath and pulled the fog from the depths of her mind. Staring into the bird’s beady eye, she began drawing back her hand with the seed, painstakingly slow. ’The seed is safe, the seed is safe, follow it, follow it, I’m hungry and need to eat, hungry, hungry…’

The bird hesitated, then hopped forward once, and then once more to peck again at the seed. ’I need to get closer, I need to be closer to the seed, others will get it if I’m not closer, others will eat it all-‘ She seemed to have hit a competitive nerve, as the bird hopped immediately into her hand. In her shock, she almost lost the thread of hypnosis, but narrowed her eyes at the bird and continued steadily, the pain above her eye becoming heavier. ’I should stay here, this is safe, this has food, stay in the safe place near the food, stay here and eat…’

She slowly raised her hand to chest level, wavering slightly with the bird’s weight, and stood as slowly as she was able. ’This is moving, but I should stay here, it is still safe, and there is food…’ Another hand tremblingly rose next to the bird, trying to keep the flighty creature calm as she did it. ’I need to ignore that, it is safe, there is food here and this will not hurt me…’ A single fingertip met the bird’s back and stroked the soft feathers. They were surprisingly soft.

The bird moved slightly under her hand, backing up as its claws pressed into the finger they grasped. Rosela frowned, wondering if it was trying to arch back into her hand. It squatted suddenly and she realized just in time what was happening. The glob of white did not land on her dress, luckily, but she flung out her hand in disgust and the birdseed, and the bird, went flying.

”Ewwww! Stupid birds!”

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[Rosela]

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Huffing and stepping back, Rosela glared up at the tree where the offending red bird had disappeared. There was the small grace that it hadn’t messed on her, but it only allowed her to be angry instead of outright furious. Tossing the rest of the birdseed onto the ground, bag and all, she turned and stomped from the room, through the doors that indicated the section for the big cats.

One hand stayed perpetually at her temple now, and the pain magnified her anger. Why did her migraine have to swoop in on today of all-

She stopped in her tracks, in front of a large desert cat exhibit. Was it really unhappy coincidence that the migraine had appeared today? Or was this a consequence of her Hypnotism, the ‘overgiving’ she’d read about? For some reason, she hadn’t paid much attention to that section, and now that she thought about it, she’d somehow assumed that she’d be smart enough to avoid overgiving. Leaning her head back, she pressed the heels of two hands to her forehead, careful to avoid her eye makeup. There was no sense in leaving before she saw Kadda at least.

It took some walking before she found the ocelot exhibit, a wide expanse of trees and grass, with a small cave to one side. There was no movement in any of the trees, and Rosela wondered sadly if Kadda had gone in for the night already. Just as she started to shift her weight to leave, an ocelot padded smoothly out of the dark cave, licking blood from around its mouth. It was much bigger than Kadda had been, though still clearly young.

Making a split decision, Rosela thought hard through the pain in her forehead and pulled in the red fog around her mind. Two hands were placed against the glass, and the ocelot stopped and looked up at the movement. ’I remember this woman, she gave me food once, she fed me and played with me, she kept me for a day, she was kind to me…’ She clearly had the ocelot’s attention, but she imagined the thoughts would only have an effect on an ocelot who actually remembered her. ’She fed me then, she’ll feed me now, I should go over there and she’ll feed me, she had food then so she’ll have food now…’

The ocelot was standing still, much like the snake had, regarding her. One paw lifted slowly. 'I remember this woman, I remember her...' She trailed off in her mind, hoping that it was enough to convince Kadda, if it was indeed her, to come forward. She’d had a good time in Rosela’s care, hadn’t she? She’d been fed properly, and got to sleep in the sun, and had gotten a new toy… Except for the smell of her…messes, and the scratch marks on her bedpost, and the colossal bruise she’d gotten saving her from jumping out the window, it had gone fairly well, in Rosela’s opinion.

“Hey there! Sorry, but I’m afraid we’re-“

Gasping violently, Rosela jumped away from the window, startling the ocelot back into the cave. It was the Akalak from the front, looking very apologetic.

“I’m really sorry ma’am. …Whoa. Are you – are you okay?”

Rosela blinked in confusion, her headache now pounding. ”I’m, um, yes?”

“Oh, okay. It’s just, your eyes are… Sorry, we’re actually closing for the night.”

Immediately assuming her makeup was smudged, a hand flew to the side of her face. ”Is it? Are you?” Her voice took on a slightly manic tone. There was little more humiliating than walking around with bad makeup. ”Thanks-I’ll-just-go.” Blurting out the words, she turned on heel and nearly ran the length of the corridor, only stopping when she reached outside. The outside windows would be reflective in the twilight, and she’d be able to use one as a mirror.

Jumping through the bushes, she did indeed find a window-mirror, but saw with shock that while her makeup was perfect, her eyes were bloodshot red. She leaned closer, certain that the light from the faded sun was creating an illusion. She turned her way this way and that before concluding that she’d managed to give herself eyes that looked like she’d been up for days. She looked terrible.

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That night, and for three nights after, she would wake up every morning with tears of blood on her pillows and eyelashes. The morning of the fourth night, waking up without her bloody tears was the only thing that stopped her from going to the medical center in terror that she’d damaged her eyes.

Her eyes were red for most of those three days, and while regular cold compresses helped greatly, making frequent trips to the Bluevein to re-cool her cloth was taxing and she was restricted to minimal makeup that could be called ‘intentionally’ smudged. She hated the smoky-eye look, but it was the best she could do for the time being. A book from the library suggested cucumbers, but her hopes were dashed to find they were out of season. Rosewater drops were discovered to work, albeit briefly, and became her workday solution, with ‘seasonal allergies’ as her excuse. She purchased a small pocket mirror to carry with her, to avoid the embarrassment in the future. It had the added benefit of behind able to monitor her makeup on the fly, but she stayed away from any Hypnotism for several days even after the redness went away.


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[Gossamer]

The Fates Have Spoken...

Player: Rosela
XP: Hypnotism +5, Observation +5
Lores: Hypnotism: Requires some sort of contact., Hypnotism: It’s difficult to determine if its working or not. Hypnotism: Practicing on Inhuman Subjects, Hypnotism: Migraines Happen When Practicing, Hynotism: Overgiving Results In Bloodshot Eyes And Tears Of Blood

Notes: As always, your stuff is a delight to read. You are getting close to your observational limits.  I enjoyed the read. I was thinking that Rosela’s overgiving was a bit much, but then again you were straining a lot in the thread and I could tangibly feel her frustration. I think it was a great and clever choice to practice at the menagerie on animals. I wish others would get as creative with their threads. It also never fails me that your regal character gets socially awkward at the weirdest times.

As always PM me if you have issues.