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Rituals
Nov 6, 2019 20:33:26 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Nov 6, 2019 20:33:26 GMT -6
"I am well aware of that. It was a power move for the gala, to assert or cement my position as his heir and proxy these first few weeks." Catherine commented. It had worked too, no one had dared question who she was or what she was doing there. It had been a strange turn of events from the fae court, where she so seldom made an appearance that often people forgot her. Instead, Grigore had gone around with her, introducing her to various parties and individuals; making sure they knew who she was.
Biting her lower lip and thinking about what she knew of the previous court that Tyrus had been raised in. "He likely won't, at least that's my guess. Besides, I barely pass as human without one... at least not anymore." South America had been a turning point for everyone involved, and some people managed to get out unscathed. Catherine however, had ended up loosing her family, her sanity, and control. Tapping into the power the veil held and truly welding it, instead of playing at it, at left it's mark; turning her once golden hair stark white. "Glamours do have their uses, that is true though. It's like any other tool, to be used appropriately and perhaps judiciously."
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Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 8:55:47 GMT -6
"I doubt I'll pass now. I haven't checked yet. It's not like he ever dropped his glamour. Curious, he dropped it now, revealing significantly more scars than he had, including one that spanned the length of his face diagonally. He touched it self conscious. "Well, do I pass?" He didn't like the glamour down, didn't like seeing his battle hardened body. Usually he kept it up, softening his features, making him look physically weaker. With it down it was fairly obvious that he was solid muscle, built for speed more than anything else. He looked like an actual battle mage now, and not like an academic. He preferred looking like an academic.
It made him seem friendlier. It softened how others viewed him.
There was something uncanny about him now, something that said not quite human, but it wasn't nearly as obvious as it was with Catherine.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 10:15:34 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2019 10:15:34 GMT -6
"Not really." Catherine said flatly. Humans healed with scars and while her own body had been subjected to similar traumas in different situations, it had healed quickly without scaring. A benefit her status as dhampir had provided.
She wasn't sure what to say that wouldn't be construed as either impolite or unkind.
"It's... well... not that bad?" She faltered. It would certainly cause most people to think twice about crossing him. But passing was something that most of the unseen worried about, it made life infinitely easier and limited the questions asked.
"You could probably get away without it?" Catherine ventured. She hadn't really yet tried herself outside of the court and only then it had been mostly with a few persons she trusted.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 18:28:36 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 18:28:36 GMT -6
Tyrus recast his glamour and went back to looking like a fairly soft academic. "It's different." He admitted. "It'd scare the kids." He snorted. "My one condition for your father was to let me teach the kids, and then I go and become his grandchild. Brilliant." What did the condition even matter at this point? At least the line was old enough that he should still be able to go out in the sun, though covered up, no doubt. And probably with sunscreen lotion.
He closed his eyes and sipped his hot chocolate. It was nice to have. "What else is there to share?" He wasn't quite sure what to say now.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 18:44:52 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2019 18:44:52 GMT -6
'Yes well, I'm not the idiot who didn't keep his runework tidy..' She thought to herself, careful as always to keep her own mental shields up. There would be no claiming Tyrus as a child, regardless of whatever tradition dictated. Catherine found the rules outdated, archaic, and distasteful at times. While she may technically have been old enough in both human and fae reckoning, there was also the fact that she did not make the choice to turn Tyrus. She would been more than happy to allow him to keep his status as human, but it seemed that the magic had sensed some unfulfilled desire of his possibly. More than likely something left over from his parents promising it eventually, and eventually the other growing to accept and even look forward to it.
"What do you want to know?" Catherine asked keeping her snide comments to herself and giving the mage a rare opportunity to ask anything. She knew his nature was to be curious, but the unseen in many ways discouraged that. Someone always had something that they didn't want to share, and it wasn't always some deep dark secret either. Many were just private individuals preferring to keep to themselves. "Whatever it is ask, there are no restrictions."
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 18:51:08 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 18:51:08 GMT -6
He hesitated and swallowed, then thought of how to word it. "What's it like? Not growing old while the people around you do?" It was something he had never dared ask before, of any of his long lived friends. But it was something he was going to have to face now, since he screwed up. He was lucky to be alive and he knew it. Right now, that was what he was focused on. Something occurred to him and he said it all at once, like if he said it slow it wouldn't get said at all. "Will I get the same berserker rages as you and Scottlynn?" He hadn't wanted to say that and hid his mouth shortly afterwards as if in disbelief.
"Never mind. That was. That was inappropriate."
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 19:13:33 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2019 19:13:33 GMT -6
"Well..." She began considering the question for a moment. Catherine wasn't dismissing him this time, but instead was thinking and considering her words. "It is a bit strange... your become acutely aware of how small their perspective is, there is often the tendency to give up trying to explain certain things, and the persistent feeling of being out of place. It's also easy to push people away and avoid forming attachments, because to us they're ultimately just a blink in the span of time. But there is also almost an amniotic tranquility to it, time isn't a pressing issue." Attachments other than what was needed for work, or the occasional one-night engagement just weren't something she'd felt necessary; at least outside of similarly long lived individuals, which were few and far between. It explained why she was hesitant to get to know Tyrus or really anyone.
"Berserker rages? Inappropriate?" Catherine replied confused. "Explain, please... because I don't think I follow."
She was practically giving the mage permission to ask any matter of questions that he might have deemed inappropriate. It was better to ask them here, instead of another time where he might not have such a luxury to himself.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 19:22:59 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 19:22:59 GMT -6
"When you were...When you were sent to broadmoor, you file mentioned you had been in a berserker rage. Just attacking without awareness. Scottlynn's said the same." He hesitated. "I assumed it was common to the bloodline, when I read it." The problem with being the administrator was he had the ability to read all the patient files. He had only looked the once before feeling a deep shame and never doing it again. "I shouldn't have brought it up. I know you don't like speaking of then."
He tried not to push her at least. But he supposed her comment on time were something he'd get used to also. It was something he had to look forward too now, he supposed. Gods, it was no wonder she was standoffish. He was to her as his class was to him. Somehow it hadn't occurred to him before this. And now they were stuck together until one of them got killed, more than likely.
Somehow, he suspected it would be him and his magic experiments.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 19:39:48 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2019 19:39:48 GMT -6
Catherine's expression darkened briefly, but it wasn't one of anger. Instead it was one of weariness and unease at having to think about her time in Broadmoore. "You may be lucky and go a very long time without it happening, or not. I don't remember much except a drug induced haze and stupor." She said quietly. The triggers were different in each individual, but they all resulted in the same near uncontrollable rage. "I do know that Scottlyn's sentence was short, and her crimes were minor. She had a good defense and didn't end up bound." Catherine explained slowly, as she tried to piece together the hazy memories from her time in the institute. "But... she also appears to have absolutely no magic beyond minor psionics." In many ways, Catherine considered the girl lucky, but the grass always looked greener on the other side to many.
"Mine was longer and with it came a plea bargain when the Council couldn't find out what why Dallas was so fucked up. That isn't in the files by the way." She added. "The rage is... something I hear can be controlled, but I have doubts given what I've been told about last time."
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 19:50:36 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 19:50:36 GMT -6
"Dallas is fucked up because they send fucked up people to it." He pointed out, un-amused. "You screw up, they send you to Dallas." It was known as the punishment office. He knew it as that and was a contractor. He was so glad he was just a contractor. "I think I'm going to stop contracting with MCU. It wasn't part of my plea deal." He had been doing it as something out of the ordinary to do. It was interesting and he didn't do it constantly. "The council likes plea deals." The rage could be controlled. He just had to figure out how.
That was the part he wasn't sure of. "How do you handle people thinking so loudly all the time?" They had only been there a short time before the donors had been killed, but they had been so loud. He knew part of it was a lack of shields, but he had to know. She was a powerful psionic and frankly the most powerful psionic he had ever heard of. People had to loud.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 20:12:59 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2019 20:12:59 GMT -6
At this point Catherine sighed either out of frustration or exhaustion, either one was difficult to tell with her, if only because there were times when it was one in the same. "MCU means well.. and at one point the Council meant well. Just... special interests have taken over it by and large." She hated to admit that she was one of those special interests, though she convinced herself that it was in the best interests of others than she do such. "That's reason one why Dallas is fucked up, the other reason is it sits near a nexus of leylines. The number of people finding weird shit, that's weird even for me, to do is absolutely insane." The nexus mostly powered the mirror system, and a few other things, but mostly what people did with it was rituals that got them or someone else killed. Then there was the occasional cult that sprang up, looking to do gods knew what with archaic texts that were more than likely someone's grocery list or aunt Margaret's cookie recipe from a thousand years ago. Frankly, she had gotten tired of it too.
Looking at Tyrus for a moment, and considered the next question he had posed. "As for the thinking.. selective hearing and shielding. I mean that in the most literal sense, I choose what I want to hear. Think of it like hm... well it's difficult to explain. But a lot of it boils down to this; imagine you're in a room, it's still and silent. Now imagine that you're the only one who can enter it. There's still noise outside of course, but it can't reach you in the room. That's the most basic of shielding."
Attacks and the other intricacies would be easier to show than explain. "Then there are people like Bronson who just by their nature disrupt every bit of stillness and silence."
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 20:26:54 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 20:26:54 GMT -6
He could try that. It didn't sound too difficult to manage at least, though he had a feeling it was harder than he thought. He closed his eyes and tried it, imagining he was in his childhood bedroom with the door closed. He could see Molly being disruptive. She was before he was a telepath and would likely be doubly so now. "Like that?"Special interests had taken over MCU to be sure, and at this point, he wondered if he was one of them. If as the administrator of Broadmoor, he was now a third arm to MCU.
He ran where their criminals were sent. He had a personal stake in how people were punished and dealt with.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 20:39:18 GMT -6
Post by Circe on Nov 7, 2019 20:39:18 GMT -6
Sending out a delicate tendril of thought, Catherine ascertained that he had managed to build himself a weak but serviceable shield. Herself or Grigore could likely tear through it in an instant, but for now it would do as step one of many to teaching the mage the ins and outs of telepathy. "Yes." She confirmed, her expression distant and unreadable. Teaching him was a task that was either going drive her insane or very close to it. Catherine had never had to explain how telepathy worked to anyone or how they should shield themselves.
Telepathy was rare in families in the unseen, and even rarer for it to be much stronger than communication of feelings, emotions, or vague thoughts. Many of the telepaths worked on the premise of empathy, able to open their minds up to perceive more than others around them; a sixth sense. "But you'll have to learn to keep that and communicate while in a running fight." She added, thinking back to their encounter with the unseelie winter court's scouts.
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Rituals
Nov 7, 2019 20:51:20 GMT -6
Post by demikara on Nov 7, 2019 20:51:20 GMT -6
"Practice, in other words." Until it became second nature. He could do that. "A lot of practice. I suppose the first step would be being able to actually handle a crowd. Or you know, a single person." He considered a moment, then visualized himself opening the door to the room and knocking on Catherine's door, very gently. Is communicating like this? He seemed the next logical leap at least. He'd have to do it without the visualization at some point, but for now it seemed to work alright. If he was doing it right.
Keeping the walls up and communicating. This seemed to be about right, if nothing else.
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Rituals
Nov 8, 2019 11:13:43 GMT -6
via mobile
Post by Circe on Nov 8, 2019 11:13:43 GMT -6
"Do you remember the discussion we had? When I found myself asking you for help the first time?" Catherine asked. She had explained briefly about the telepathy, but Tyrus had seemed more eager to have a student he could really push in the magic department. "That you will go mad if you do not meditate or maintain yourself?"
She didn't know what category or classification he was yet. But her initial guess was if the psionics had been inherited through her family line, it was likely he would at least be ranked at a category 3. While not everyone outside of MCU and the Unseen Council used such classifications, they did have their uses. "Practice is to enable you to not go insane."
Even then though, some psionics did. They never quite managed to master the fine control necessary to keep themselves safe.
Sensing Tyrus knocking on her own shields, she allowed them to part just enough to communicate. 'Exactly.' Catherine confirmed. Her voice came across as warm and rich through the connection, colored by experience.
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