"I need to look into the connection with the candle more but I've only arrived recently and have spent an inordinate amount of my time here cooking fish for my cat," he said, dryly. Of course he had been doing more than just cooking for Spark, he'd been learning from him. But that was neither here nor there.
"If she can actually direct her healing like that, there are a great many healers on my world who would love to learn from her, honestly. Most healers can either only fix one small thing at a time, and that small fix is costly, or they heal you fully if they can heal you at all. Case in point with my lungs. Gregory was trying to heal the stab wound. He had no intention of making me incapable of smoking my pipe without choking half to death. He has been nonstop smug about it ever since, however."
"If you had told her while she was upset that you saw her in front of the broken home... yes. Had you waited until the next day and told her that you had seen a vision in which she will have the chance to save the home, and the family? Even though you didn't yet know how? That could be empowering. It comes back to communication," he said with a small nod. "You're a theater kid like me, Bruno," he said leaning back. "You know from theater that how a story is told, how it is framed, shapes how the audience perceives it. As I said, I can teach you that. You have the background for it, you're just out of practice when it comes to dealing with people. You let them frame a narrative that paints you as to blame for all the ill in their lives." Frankly, Dominic thought that Bruno's mother should never have allowed that to happen and had been in a position to stop it... but that wasn't his battle. It was, however, a battle he intended to hand over to his own mother. Alma wouldn't stand a chance against Miranda's evil eye death glare. Though the thought of the two of them joining forces on any topic was almost worrying enough to make a coward of him.
He pushed the thought aside for the moment and shoved some of his hair back from his face. "Sand is a good base, but glass, at its core, is super heated sand. We'll have to experiment to see if you can See without generating a tablet. if not, then we will find ways to ensure you always have ample sand, without requiring a ritual that you had to admit is more than 75% superstition." He lifted his brows and leaned back.
"Choosing paths is more advanced, and it isn't for everyone. There is no shame in not wanting to hone that skill. But I suggest you learn more about it before dismissing it out of hand. Let's take Isabella and Delores as an example. Once your visions become more expansive, once you see more, you can see paths. And you can act as a guide. With them, for example, had you seen who Delores would fall in love with and who he would be promised to, and that Isabella had no care for him... you could have guided them differently. What you saw in the vision was immutable. It was what is called a stable vision. One of the kinds that cannot be changed. But what you can change is how you get there, and with forewarning, how you handle it. So had you seen more, and this is not a criticism of your abilities or choices, just a hypothetical example using concrete events, you could have given Delores the same Information, but waited until she was besotted to talk to your mother. If you could have guided her - and again this is part of why communication skills are vital to a Seer - that Isabella wasn't happy, but that you had a way in which the families could still be joined, then Isabella could have been free of an impending marriage she did not want and Delores could be happy. The same thing that did happen, but it could have happened sooner, with less anxiety for all involved. Which, incidentally, could have bought Mirabel more time."
He leaned forward again. "One thing you will discover for yourself as your visions become more expansive, and as you see more visions with multiple paths, is that everything is connected. Choosing paths is only making bad things happen if you either choose to make bad things happen, or if you make a mistake. Which is why we practice on small things of less consequence. Why anyone who does choose paths, if they are ethical, studies several visions before making choices, studies the situation around those visions. If communication is key for helping others with visions, knowledge is the basic fundament upon which understanding visions is built. And even then you will get it wrong sometimes."
A small self depreciating smile. "For example, soon after I lost my leg... there was a conspiracy afoot." He stopped and glared at the fourth wall as he realized what he had just said. Ugh. He refused to turn into his father, blast it all. "Rather, there were people conspiring to claim the town of Barthis, where my baby brother was living. Where I currently live, though I hadn't ever wanted to go back there at the time. To make an excessively long story somewhat shorter, though a combination of reading the news and visions, I learned that a slimy lawyer was using an obscure law to try and claim the land the town was on, to build a memorial to a rather horrid individual who faced humiliation there when people stood up against his small minded bigotry." Oh look, Dominic still had pent up anger over this whole mess. Go figure. He soothed himself with a memory of Pam's revenge, which helped.
"My father and brother came up with a truly inspired way to save the town, as it happens, but their plan involved a lot of moving parts, and there were many things that could go wrong. The lawyer in question wasn't acting alone, for example, and was using a combination of connections, scare tactics, and obscure laws to try and get his way. While may dad, and Greg, and their new band were being the big heroes upfront running a benefit concert to raise the money needed to save the town, the rest of us were working behind the scenes. My best friend's father, who happens to be my father's best friend" say that ten times fast, backwards, and in Latin; "Was filing the paperwork they needed filed. But he came into the situation late. The lawyer after my brother had contingency plans prepared. And that was where I came in."
He sat back once more, but there was tension in his frame, not relaxation. "I was researching back into his history and the history of his partner. Who happened to be the sister of my then girlfriend, Luna." The girlfriend, and according to Spark, soon to be wife. "I was researching his plans. I was scrying as he came up with new ones to stay one step ahead. I was researching every obscure law he was planning to use to have a countermeasure in place. When I discovered he planned to have one of the world's greatest duelists challenge my father, I arranged a proper champion. When he planned to have the land deemed corrupted so that the knights of the realm could stop the concert and arrest all who attended, I had to make sure that I had one of the churches involved, consecrating the land and officially supporting the concert. He had Knights coming in planning to take one of the musicians apart to search for illegal magics. I made sure another knight was present who would stop them."
He took a deep breath. "It was like playing nine dimensional chess, and in all of that, and admittedly because I was distracted when I discovered that the plot Luna's mother used to try and get Luna to kill herself had been his idea..." His hands closed into fists that would have snapped anything he might have been holding, "I missed two key things. The first became clear soon after the concert. Spark, my cat, kept trying to show me the treasure he'd found. He plays games sometimes, and I didn't have the attention to spare him. Had I, I would have realized that what he found was the super valuable star sapphire ring that I had seen in one of my earliest visions about the lawyer and Luna. A ring that once sold, could have raised all the money needed. I... might have gotten my but kicked verbally for my pity party after I realized that one," he said a bit wryly. "Sometimes you need to be kicked when you're down to get yourself back up," he added with a rough chuckle.
He ran a hand through his hair. "All in all, having missed the ring turned out to not be so bad. After all, everyone in the town got to feel like part of the solution with the concert. People discovered skills they never knew they had. The show was sold out with people not only from all around the kingdom but from other lands as well. In fact had Stonewater and his group not shown up to hear the Chandrak drummer advertised in the fliers, we wouldn't have had advanced warning about the War in **** that was killing people associated with demons." Which shouldn't have been his problem and yet had very much become his problem.
"The other thing I missed did not become clear until much later." All amusement left his face. When I called in the Lunarian Church, I specifically contacted Luna's good friend Jayden who had actually lost her healing gifts in that town some time before. I had thought it would be healing for her to help the town recover, even if she herself could not. I didn't think much of it that Milov did not come with her. They might have been together, but they each had their own lives. The knight I contacted was a friend of theirs that I.... have not seen eye to eye with. In fact the first time we met he beat the ***** out of me for telling him a fortune he didn't want to hear. The next time we met, he beat the **** out of e again, then started beating my baby brother with his own walking stick," His eyes narrowed behind his small glasses. "I had reasons not to like the man. I still do. But Jayden said he was getting better, and I had seen evidence that he was trying to be less of a... well... less of a knight of our kingdom, if I'm being honest," he said with a heavy sigh.
"What I missed, and would have planned for if I had been able to spot it, was that Jayden was drawn to Sigfried's attempts to change and become a better person. And frankly their relationship generally would not have been my business. Except that it was. Because Milov was considered progressive and odd among his people for consorting with, for trusting, people from Callian, our kingdom. His people felt ours were and are untrustworthy, disloyal, scheming, and cruel. He had been working to change those perceptions. He and Jayden were a symbol of unity between our peoples. One of my mother's students was set to transfer to a school in their lands. We were finding small ways to make peace."
He sighed heavily.
"When I learned, too late to change anything, that Jayden and Sigfried had betrayed Milov... I could see no path that didn't end badly. So I took no path at all. I kept my own council and told no one. The only way I could see that would have any glimmer of hope would have been if Jayden had ended it with either of them and was completely honest. But only if she chose it for herself. There was no way I could nudge her towards that without starting a war. So I did nothing. I watched. I waited. And when Sigfried died, I foolishly allowed myself to think that it was over. Except the War in **** happed. And Sigfried returned to us as a demon himself. And as a demon he tortured Milov with the truth. And all trust was broken." He shook his head. "Damage was done that may never be repaired."
1/2Re: Sneaking a tag in between sleepsRe: Wildcard
"If she can actually direct her healing like that, there are a great many healers on my world who would love to learn from her, honestly. Most healers can either only fix one small thing at a time, and that small fix is costly, or they heal you fully if they can heal you at all. Case in point with my lungs. Gregory was trying to heal the stab wound. He had no intention of making me incapable of smoking my pipe without choking half to death. He has been nonstop smug about it ever since, however."
"If you had told her while she was upset that you saw her in front of the broken home... yes. Had you waited until the next day and told her that you had seen a vision in which she will have the chance to save the home, and the family? Even though you didn't yet know how? That could be empowering. It comes back to communication," he said with a small nod. "You're a theater kid like me, Bruno," he said leaning back. "You know from theater that how a story is told, how it is framed, shapes how the audience perceives it. As I said, I can teach you that. You have the background for it, you're just out of practice when it comes to dealing with people. You let them frame a narrative that paints you as to blame for all the ill in their lives." Frankly, Dominic thought that Bruno's mother should never have allowed that to happen and had been in a position to stop it... but that wasn't his battle. It was, however, a battle he intended to hand over to his own mother. Alma wouldn't stand a chance against Miranda's evil eye death glare. Though the thought of the two of them joining forces on any topic was almost worrying enough to make a coward of him.
He pushed the thought aside for the moment and shoved some of his hair back from his face. "Sand is a good base, but glass, at its core, is super heated sand. We'll have to experiment to see if you can See without generating a tablet. if not, then we will find ways to ensure you always have ample sand, without requiring a ritual that you had to admit is more than 75% superstition." He lifted his brows and leaned back.
"Choosing paths is more advanced, and it isn't for everyone. There is no shame in not wanting to hone that skill. But I suggest you learn more about it before dismissing it out of hand. Let's take Isabella and Delores as an example. Once your visions become more expansive, once you see more, you can see paths. And you can act as a guide. With them, for example, had you seen who Delores would fall in love with and who he would be promised to, and that Isabella had no care for him... you could have guided them differently. What you saw in the vision was immutable. It was what is called a stable vision. One of the kinds that cannot be changed. But what you can change is how you get there, and with forewarning, how you handle it. So had you seen more, and this is not a criticism of your abilities or choices, just a hypothetical example using concrete events, you could have given Delores the same Information, but waited until she was besotted to talk to your mother. If you could have guided her - and again this is part of why communication skills are vital to a Seer - that Isabella wasn't happy, but that you had a way in which the families could still be joined, then Isabella could have been free of an impending marriage she did not want and Delores could be happy. The same thing that did happen, but it could have happened sooner, with less anxiety for all involved. Which, incidentally, could have bought Mirabel more time."
He leaned forward again. "One thing you will discover for yourself as your visions become more expansive, and as you see more visions with multiple paths, is that everything is connected. Choosing paths is only making bad things happen if you either choose to make bad things happen, or if you make a mistake. Which is why we practice on small things of less consequence. Why anyone who does choose paths, if they are ethical, studies several visions before making choices, studies the situation around those visions. If communication is key for helping others with visions, knowledge is the basic fundament upon which understanding visions is built. And even then you will get it wrong sometimes."
A small self depreciating smile. "For example, soon after I lost my leg... there was a conspiracy afoot." He stopped and glared at the fourth wall as he realized what he had just said. Ugh. He refused to turn into his father, blast it all. "Rather, there were people conspiring to claim the town of Barthis, where my baby brother was living. Where I currently live, though I hadn't ever wanted to go back there at the time. To make an excessively long story somewhat shorter, though a combination of reading the news and visions, I learned that a slimy lawyer was using an obscure law to try and claim the land the town was on, to build a memorial to a rather horrid individual who faced humiliation there when people stood up against his small minded bigotry." Oh look, Dominic still had pent up anger over this whole mess. Go figure. He soothed himself with a memory of Pam's revenge, which helped.
"My father and brother came up with a truly inspired way to save the town, as it happens, but their plan involved a lot of moving parts, and there were many things that could go wrong. The lawyer in question wasn't acting alone, for example, and was using a combination of connections, scare tactics, and obscure laws to try and get his way. While may dad, and Greg, and their new band were being the big heroes upfront running a benefit concert to raise the money needed to save the town, the rest of us were working behind the scenes. My best friend's father, who happens to be my father's best friend" say that ten times fast, backwards, and in Latin; "Was filing the paperwork they needed filed. But he came into the situation late. The lawyer after my brother had contingency plans prepared. And that was where I came in."
He sat back once more, but there was tension in his frame, not relaxation. "I was researching back into his history and the history of his partner. Who happened to be the sister of my then girlfriend, Luna." The girlfriend, and according to Spark, soon to be wife. "I was researching his plans. I was scrying as he came up with new ones to stay one step ahead. I was researching every obscure law he was planning to use to have a countermeasure in place. When I discovered he planned to have one of the world's greatest duelists challenge my father, I arranged a proper champion. When he planned to have the land deemed corrupted so that the knights of the realm could stop the concert and arrest all who attended, I had to make sure that I had one of the churches involved, consecrating the land and officially supporting the concert. He had Knights coming in planning to take one of the musicians apart to search for illegal magics. I made sure another knight was present who would stop them."
He took a deep breath. "It was like playing nine dimensional chess, and in all of that, and admittedly because I was distracted when I discovered that the plot Luna's mother used to try and get Luna to kill herself had been his idea..." His hands closed into fists that would have snapped anything he might have been holding, "I missed two key things. The first became clear soon after the concert. Spark, my cat, kept trying to show me the treasure he'd found. He plays games sometimes, and I didn't have the attention to spare him. Had I, I would have realized that what he found was the super valuable star sapphire ring that I had seen in one of my earliest visions about the lawyer and Luna. A ring that once sold, could have raised all the money needed. I... might have gotten my but kicked verbally for my pity party after I realized that one," he said a bit wryly. "Sometimes you need to be kicked when you're down to get yourself back up," he added with a rough chuckle.
He ran a hand through his hair. "All in all, having missed the ring turned out to not be so bad. After all, everyone in the town got to feel like part of the solution with the concert. People discovered skills they never knew they had. The show was sold out with people not only from all around the kingdom but from other lands as well. In fact had Stonewater and his group not shown up to hear the Chandrak drummer advertised in the fliers, we wouldn't have had advanced warning about the War in **** that was killing people associated with demons." Which shouldn't have been his problem and yet had very much become his problem.
"The other thing I missed did not become clear until much later." All amusement left his face. When I called in the Lunarian Church, I specifically contacted Luna's good friend Jayden who had actually lost her healing gifts in that town some time before. I had thought it would be healing for her to help the town recover, even if she herself could not. I didn't think much of it that Milov did not come with her. They might have been together, but they each had their own lives. The knight I contacted was a friend of theirs that I.... have not seen eye to eye with. In fact the first time we met he beat the ***** out of me for telling him a fortune he didn't want to hear. The next time we met, he beat the **** out of e again, then started beating my baby brother with his own walking stick," His eyes narrowed behind his small glasses. "I had reasons not to like the man. I still do. But Jayden said he was getting better, and I had seen evidence that he was trying to be less of a... well... less of a knight of our kingdom, if I'm being honest," he said with a heavy sigh.
"What I missed, and would have planned for if I had been able to spot it, was that Jayden was drawn to Sigfried's attempts to change and become a better person. And frankly their relationship generally would not have been my business. Except that it was. Because Milov was considered progressive and odd among his people for consorting with, for trusting, people from Callian, our kingdom. His people felt ours were and are untrustworthy, disloyal, scheming, and cruel. He had been working to change those perceptions. He and Jayden were a symbol of unity between our peoples. One of my mother's students was set to transfer to a school in their lands. We were finding small ways to make peace."
He sighed heavily.
"When I learned, too late to change anything, that Jayden and Sigfried had betrayed Milov... I could see no path that didn't end badly. So I took no path at all. I kept my own council and told no one. The only way I could see that would have any glimmer of hope would have been if Jayden had ended it with either of them and was completely honest. But only if she chose it for herself. There was no way I could nudge her towards that without starting a war. So I did nothing. I watched. I waited. And when Sigfried died, I foolishly allowed myself to think that it was over. Except the War in **** happed. And Sigfried returned to us as a demon himself. And as a demon he tortured Milov with the truth. And all trust was broken." He shook his head. "Damage was done that may never be repaired."