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voidtreckerooc2022-01-17 06:02 am
voidtreckermods) wrote in voidtreckerooc2022-01-17 06:02 am
Entry tags:
Test Drive 032
Welcome to the Test Drive Meme! Here is the place to see how your character might fit the setting, grab samples and have fun!
1. Post with your character, including their name and series in the subject. We’ve written out some prompts but feel free to make up your own, you have a whole train to play with!
2. Assume they've been around long enough for threads to jump right into the action.
3. Have lots of fun.
Happy testing!
Culinary Containment
Every month, the train's stores are filled with crates of ingredients for use by its passengers. And every month, one ingredient is the focal point of all recipes. Potatoes, cinnamon, seaweed… but as the train pulls away from the station this month, there seems to have been a blip in the system when it comes to deciding on a biologically-appropriate foodstuff.
Spilling out from the storage carriage and into the kitchen are hundreds of live frogs. They're in the sinks, they're in the ovens, they're hopping alarmingly close to the transgates that link the area up to the sleepers...
Vote-Rigging
At the behest of its passengers, the train has instituted a voting system to allow for more carriage options and upgrades. Passengers are able to submit new ideas, or crowdfund those already suggested...
It's the night before platform, and all through the train, no one was stirring... Apart from your group, with your stockpile of a thousand points and the luminous voting panel you're all currently pouring them into. Bouncy castle carriage? Funded! Fishing carriage? Funded! Clocks? Eh... You have the points. Funded!
Then it's simply a matter of waiting for the morning, and seeing the chaos you've caused to the layout of the Voidtrecker Express. What new delights have you discovered?
Repo Train
The Void Ministry have another task for the Express: locating and repossessing the contents of a number of minor storage craft in an old mercantile zone. The coordinates are given, a small fleet of space-worthy craft and sufficient hazmat gear has been deposited at the meeting site for Voidtrecker use.
The main area is cushy enough, a round communal area surrounded by living pods renovated for basic Voidtrecker requirements. The hangar above allows for groups to head to the next assigned storage location, or to return with their piles of lawfully impounded gains.Team One
High-risk storage locations are this team's priority. Potentially explosive material, artifacts or experiments without the requisite paperwork explaining how or why they were made, sometimes living creatures, the kind that shouldn't have been left in a large metal crate habitat for a decade. Opening these areas is a study in initiative and dealing with unpleasant surprises!Team Two
This team are the back-up for the first group - once the artifacts, creatures or hazardous material has been made safe and brought back, they have to be recorded. Scanned. Studied, and compared to the extensive lists of potential contraband or lost goods. Sometimes, they're not quite as safe as you'd like.Team Three
Some locations, rather than being used for the storage for which they were intended, have been repurposed by sapients who have developed within the system since the depot was created. Short, furred people with clever, webbed hands and high voices, they've turned crates and ships into cramped, partially-submerged warrens. This team is cleared to assess the damage done, and, if the current official owners of the stores will agree, process the change in ownership to the Su Samuru. Not all owners are happy with their squatters, however...
Re: Wildcard
"Dominic Deegan. Former oracle for hire. More recently a teacher of oracular studies." He removed his small glasses and polished them on his scarf. "It isn't my powers that gave me problems," he said, gesturing subtly with the now cleaned glasses before settling them on his nose again. "Our powers we can learn to live with, learn to control. We can train and grow. It was the people. And controlling other people... well...."
He will leave it at the implication that they shouldn't or wouldn't or couldn't. As for he himself? He did. With regularity.
"One town where I set up for a while I received the usual idiocy that nearly drove me up a wall. The people would ask for visions about if they were going to lose their hair, or win a duel, or one time I recall... a young man who asked me, rather than a doctor or a healer, why he hurt whenever he touched his face, but also whenever he touched his leg. He had a broken finger."
See how impressed Dominic isn't.
"As long as people know you will produce visions for them, they will flock to you for answers they could have found for themselves. I stayed in it a while, for the few who genuinely needed me. But when I was chased from the town, I'll be honest... it was freeing for a time."
He wished he had his pipe. This was a pipe moment for sure. He still hadn't quite forgiven his brother for healing his blackened smoker's lungs.
Re: Wildcard
"I didn't know that magic like ours was something you could teach," he said. "Everyone in my family has different gifts, so none of us could really teach the others. Not that way, anyway. Our madre always taught us to use our gifts to help our family and our community though." He looked down at the candy Dominic had given him, toying with it between his fingers. "That was... easier for some of us than others."
"And I wouldn't call what those people wanted idiotic. Well, except for maybe the last one; for something like that you definitely want to talk to a healer, since they might actually be able to do something about it. But the rest of it... well even if it seems like it's not much to you, it's probably important to them, you know? It's not fair to judge people like that if you don't want them to do it to you too." He'd always tried to live by the golden rule, after all, even if he hadn't always been successful.
"I didn't get chased out though." He wasn't sure anyone could be chased out of the Encanto. He looked down at the candy in his hands again, fiddling with it awkwardly. "It was my niece, Mirabel, see. When she was five, she was all set to get her own magic gift, just like all the other kids in the family. Except for her the ceremony didn't work. My mom- Abuela, by then- was worried, and begged me to look into the future and see what it meant. And I saw our magic in danger; our house, breaking. And Mirabel in the center of it all. The vision kept changing though, and there was no solid answer, no clear fate... But I knew how it was gonna look, cause I'm Bruno and everyone always assumed the worst. So I just... left. Kinda."
And also didn't, kinda. He'd never been good at making big decisions like that. He finally popped the candy into his mouth, in part to have an excuse not to talk for a moment. It was... interesting. Sweet obviously, but not a flavor he'd ever had before. There weren't any maple trees in the Encanto, after all. Finally he continued. "I just... I didn't want her to get hurt because of me, you know? And I didn't want to make things any harder for my family than I already had."
Sneaking a tag in between sleepsRe: Wildcard
"Not all of your family has powers that could be. Yours, I could teach. There are weather mages who could help your sister Pepá. Your other sister is more difficult. There are a great many healers out there who can teach her at least some, but the way in which she heals is one I've not seen before. My brother Gregory, for example, is a healer - among other things - but he would have little to offer her because the way in which their magic is channeled differs greatly. Honestly, would I be able to meet her and were she amenable, there are number of experiments I would like to perform." a small thin smile. "None that would hurt her or anyone else. But for example, my brother could not heal my leg or my missing teeth, I would like to see if she could. Where as my brother healed a chronic condition of mine that I'd as soon have not had healed, but your sister's daughter still requires glasses. It is interesting on an academic level as well as a practical one. I could go case by case for the rest, but the one that I think fascinates me most is Luisa, because I was ready to dismiss her gift when I first saw it as being as common as Isabella's, until I watched more closely. The fact that she had that gift but could lose it... That I plan to look into more."
He really wished he still smoked. His pipe gave him something to do with his hands, a physical anchor.
"The point of all of that, and I appologize for the rambling, is that while I would need to study more to see how your gifts work in the particular, there are only so many forms magic can take across all the worlds. It may well be that there is no one on your world who could teach you. But teaching oracular gifts is my current profession, and on mine I am far from the only Seer. There are countless methods for seeing, and having studied as many as I have, I am in a position to help. There are those in your family I could send to people from my world if they wanted help or to further their understanding of their powers. even if I could not help them directly. And there are some in your family I would have to seek outside my own world, should they ask me for teaching."
"Thankfully for us both, some power has seen fit to place you and I together."
A deep breath, which again would have been more rewarding with pipe smoke, and he leaned forward to continue.
"The vision changing is exactly why I know that I can help you learn, if you wish to, Bruno," he said, leaning forward, arms on his knees. "Because that means that your power started to grow. To change. I know how to help you work through that. But let me make one thing perfectly clear," he said, sitting upright, "Even had you shared that vision, sharing it would not have meant she was hurt because of you. If you hit her over the head with the manifestation of it, that would have been your fault. But had others chosen to see only the worst in it and had they hurt her because of it, that would have been the fault of those who hurt her. Not your fault."
"This is important," he added, seriously. "As a Seer, you will learn to see many possible fates and outcomes. Most of the time, one path or another will lead to someone getting hurt. If you convince yourself or let yourself believe that it is your fault then you will be paralyzed forever. Further along in your studies you may be at the point where you are choosing paths, not just seeing them. But one of the things I teach with that branch of the skill, is the ethics that goes with it. Which does not mean that I feel that you are unethical, it is part of the curriculum for all oracular studies students where I teach and not a part that I would even consider changing." Especially not after Celesto.
"There are also lessons in how to share what you have seen, and how to see in different ways. By the time I'm done with you," he added with a wry smile, "you won't need wide open spaces or sand to see a vision. To be honest... I don't even need this," he nodded to the crystal ball. "It helps, but is not needed."
He leaned back a bit again. "What people presume based on what you tell them is, unfortunately, not under your control. You can ease things some, when you learn how to communicate more efficiently. Explaining a vision, especially a complex one, is nothing like having a conversation - no matter how similar it might seem. But ultimately how they choose to take what you tell them and what they do with it... that is on them. Not on you. You would no more be to blame if they had done something to hurt Mirabel based on what you told them than I was to blame for the customer who decided to beat me to a bloody pulp when he asked me to see who would win his duel and it was not him." The words came more easily now than they would have just a short time ago. He would never like Siggy, but he was making his peace with his own emotions.
Re: Sneaking a tag in between sleepsRe: Wildcard
"And I did actually ask Julieta about the glasses thing when she was dating Augustin, since he needs them too. She said that she could undo it, but neither she nor Augustin thought it was a problem that needed fixing. The same's probably true with Mirabel." Plus she'd thought that the glasses made Agustin look extra cute, but Bruno wasn't about to comment on that bit.
"I'm not sure about the leg or the teeth though. I mean, I've seen her heal broken limbs and knocked-out teeth, but that was pretty much right away; maybe the next day, at most. So it was more just healing the teeth and bones back into place. I don't know if she could grow whole new ones to replace ones lost a long time ago."
And his vision about Mirabel had been unclear because his magic was changing? He wasn't sure what he thought about that. He'd always thought it had been unclear because Mirabel's future was undecided, not because of anything he was doing. He wasn't even aware magic gifts could change. Grow, yes, if the person wasn't holding themselves back- Isabella was proof of that-, but not change in any fundamental way.
One thing he was sure of though. "I would've hurt Mirabel if I'd shared the vision," he said. "She was upset enough already; I wasn't going to make her cry again. I'd already made that mistake with Dolores. And I know what it's like to be treated badly for something you can't help; I didn't want everyone thinking she was a jinx too. It's bad enough when you're an adult, but she was just a little girl."
"The rest of it though, I don't know..." He rubbed his arm awkwardly, looking at the crystal ball. "I mean, I'd still need the sand; I can't just make the tablets out of nothing, after all. And I have seen things before without going through the whole ritual, but not big things, just little general stuff, like about telenovelas."
"But all that stuff about choosing people's paths? I don't think I could do anything like that. That'd just give them more reason to think I was making bad things happen, and that's the last thing I need. Plus the whole thing just feels wrong, you know?"
"Maybe we could work on learning to communicate though. I was never really good at the whole... communication thing, even as a kid, so that might help a bit. If you can teach that without doing the other stuff first, I mean."
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."
2/2Re: Sneaking a tag in between sleepsRe: Wildcard
"The moral of all this, Bruno, is that the more you know, the better chance you have of helping people chose the right path. But sometimes there isn't a path they can choose any more that is right. The sooner you see things happening, the more options you have. The more options you can see, the more options you have. But none of us, not even us Seers, are ever going to be perfect, are ver going to be able to keep every single ball in the air at once. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. It means we need to learn more. Be better prepared for next time. It also helps to have a person you can confide in. Because sometimes just talking to someone, even if they don't understand, can help you work things out for yourself. For me, at first, it was my cat. And while he wasn't much help with things like mathematical potentialities, ethics, or basic spell forms... he was good at listening, and sometimes his grounded practical view point was exactly what I needed when I was too convinced that every path was a path of doom. Later, Luna took that role on more and more. She understands more of the fundamental roots of magic, and is frankly brilliant. Just talking to her can help me see other paths. I did not talk to her about Jayden because I was afraid she would push Jayden and that would lead to one of the bad ends I had seen. And because Jayden had been her friend for years. One of her few friends when she was at her lowest. I admit I didn't want to break that. I should have spoken to Spark. I didn't. I probably wouldn't have found a petter path, had I spoken to him, as I said, by that point it was too late. But perhaps I could have been better prepared for the fall out."
"And I am losing the point, for you, I suspect. I appologize. The point is this. All your life you have had, as near as I can tell immutable A and B visions. Starting at point A, ending at point B, with all the in between being vague. Now that your power is growing and evolving, you need to learn and grow with it. And you will come to a point where you will have to choose... to act on your visions, or hide them as you have tried to hide yourself. You've already seen how well that does and does not work. But if you want to use the visions to help people? If you want to actually guide them to positive things, rather than just tell them the inevitable things? You need to expand your horizons. To learn. Not just to practice Seeing, but to devour every bit of knowledge you can come across, no matter how seemingly inconsequential or random. When you go home, if your Encanto has a news publication, read it. Every issue, every day. If not, then talk to Delores regularly. Ask her to repeat things she's heard. Not just what she thinks is important but odd things. Anything that could be of use. Are there issues with the crops? Has someone been complaining that their neighbor's house suddenly seems to be casting more shade over their own home? What kinds of things are people asking Luisa to do for them. And then you need to figure out why. If someone's house is tilting, sure she can fix it. But how much better would it be to understand that the tilting house is caused by erosion because she was asked to shift the river? If you saw the house tilting, Luisa told you that someone asked her to fix their house, you could research a new route for the river that satisfies whatever need caused the request to be made, without it wearing away at the foundations of homes. Or you could have seen it even further back maybe and stopped her from moving the river, or even further back and you could make sure that when the house was built, the foundation was built such that the water won't wear it away so easily. The more you know, and the more you look into seemingly small things in your visions, the more good you can do."
He sighed and leaned back. "I never used to give such big speeches before I became a teacher. Sorry about that. It is just... Some of the things you saw for people, that they blamed you for... those things are inevitable. You saw the progression of time. If the villagers had bothered to use the half a braincell they seem to share, they would have realized that goldfish have short life spans, that someone whose father and grand father and uncles are all bald is likely to go bald, and while bullying your little niece Mirabelle isn't the cause of that one guy growing a gut, I frankly wouldn't have told him that he wa going to get one because of his eating habits, just out of petty revenge for how he treats that poor girl." He shook his head. "You don't need visions for any of that. So if, in the future, you see a vision of someone's goldfish dying... you can just tell them the obvious thing that you now have confirmation of... or you could, in the words of your niece, see more. Look further. Because nothing happens in a vacuum. If you want to give happier fortunes, then find silver linings. Maybe the girl who lost her goldfish was able to get a cat after that, when she never did before because she was afraid the cat would eat the fish, and maybe that cat becomes her new best friend. Then you can frame it that way. "Not all will be lost, when your friend the fish is. For on the other side of that pain, one will find you who will need you as much as you will need him, and you'll never be able to imagine your life without him again. Or something like that. For the man who lost his hair, instead of telling him he will lose his hair, talk about how good he is going to look in a wig, and talk up all the interesting things he can do with a wig that are better than being halfway to balding. For the man worried about growing a gut... you could always tell him to pick on people his own size, and that that size is only going to get larger."
Look, someone has an issue with bullies, okay?
no subject
"As for Julieta, I don't know if her gift is something she could teach to others. I'm sure she could show them what she does, like the cooking process and everything, but I don't know how much of it is actually part of that and how much is just her unique gift. Though even if they didn't learn to heal, they'd at least become really good cooks; her arepas are the best. And there's nothing like a big bowl of her ajiaco after a long day too." Bruno would always be glad to sing the praises of his sister's cooking if an opportunity arose.
He'd never really heard the term 'theater kid' before, but it fit somehow. There was a great deal of difference between telling a made up story and talking to someone about things that would happen in their real life, at least for him, but he understood the principle at least. "Theater is one thing, but having conversations with people is different," he said. "Or at least, it feels different to me. If you're putting on a show or telling a story, then it's not really you you know? And everybody knows that. But when I'm having a conversation, I'm just... me. Talking to the other person. And even when I think it's fine, a lot of the time it comes out wrong or the other person misinterprets it. I mean, look what happened with Pepa's wedding." They'd gotten past that particular incident, thankfully, but it was still a good example of how even a comment made with the best of intentions could go horribly wrong.
And if he was being completely honest with himself, Bruno knew that much of the ritual probably wasn't strictly necessary. But it did help him get into the right mindset for a vision, and that was necessary. Plus the circle let him include others in the vision as well, which had proved important with Mirabel. So he held off commenting on that for now, just giving a small nod and a noncommittal sound of acknowledgement.
And then Dominic launched into his story. Bruno had to wonder if the wording was deliberate at the beginning- a conspiracy was afoot after Dominic has lost his leg- but didn't want to interrupt. Though as the story went on, he privately wondered if maybe he should have gotten a snack first. It was all very exciting, what with knights, treasures, demons, intrigue, and betrayal all involved, but he didn't really see what any of it had to do with him. It really made it sound like Dominic deserved the title of 'oracle' though, being involved in all those big, far-reaching events. And made him even more certain that such a title would never really fit him.
All in all he was glad when Dominic got back to the point. Bruno nodded thoughtfully as he talked about learning different sorts of things. "I guess that makes sense," he said. "Honestly I was kind of doing the opposite though, before I went into hiding. I'd kinda learned that most people didn't want to talk to me, so it was easier to just.... not talk to people that much rather than trying to force thing, you know? And my rats might be my friends, but they can't really tell me thing like they can Antonio." Though that was another thought; animals might have information that humans wouldn't be aware of. Though he should probably wait til Antonio was a little older before trying anything with that; animal perceptions filtered through the understanding of a five year old might not be the most reliable.
As for the last bit though... "Nah, I wouldn't say that to Senor Trujillo. He's not a bad guy, honest. He's just... really not much in the tact department sometimes." Which, yes, he should probably work on, but that wasn't Bruno's job to fix. Which was a good thing, because Bruno wasn't always the most tactful either.
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"I for one cannot heal, at least not physical ailments, but I would always be interested to learn new recipes. I am especially looking at more vegetarian dishes these days as I have been having more and more orcish guests." Yes, orcs are real. And vegetarians.
"Even if you aren't comfortable putting on a character to talk to people - and many people do that as a coping mechanism, there is nothing wrong with it if you do - there are still lessons from theater we can use. Rehearsal, for one. Decide how you want to start the conversation and practice it alone. Or with someone you trust. Run lines. Anticipate how the other person might react and prepare lines for multiple reactions. Being prepared is an Oracle's greatest tool, and it lends confidence as you practice with it. Competence breeds confidence which breeds competence. And if you want to know how someone will react to what you are going to say...?"
Dominic grinned and lifted up his crystal ball. "I for one, hate surprises. So before I asked Luna out the first time, I checked to see how she'd react. She said yes," he added with a fond smile. "Big decisions, you can't see like that. When the world goes grey in the way it does when a Seer is close to someone struggling with a choice that could alter their lives forever, that you can't see past. You can see possible paths, but that is a moment when everything is in flux. Other from that, however... with our powers people become predictable. But as you start using your powers to predict people, you learn that they are actually predictable without Seeing. Because the more you know a person, the better you understand how they are likely to respond to something. That is a skill that anyone can learn. We have an advantage, of course, but reading people is not intrinsic to what we do, Bruno."
He set down the crystal ball. "Other habits from theater that you can adapt are things like projecting confidence even when you do not feel it. Modulating your voice. You don't have to fully be in a character to borrow from a character." Do not ask Dominic's thoughts on honesty, you probably wouldn't approve, Bruno. "For example, if you once played the role of a confident young man who always had a glib answer for every scenario... in preparation for that role you probably did a lot of improv as that character with fellow members of the cast, who helped you to brainstorm how that character would react to moments where you were stuck. Put yourself halfway into the mind of that character when talking to people, and then you have his confidence... and you can consider what he would say and choose not to say it, but to use ideas from it for what you do say."
"Which leaves gaps, yes. But Bruno... there is no shame, no harm, in getting into the practice of thinking before you speak. How will they react if I say this? What would this character I want to be more like or this person I admire react to this. And as a Seer, we have an excuse for dramatic pauses when we need them. Work them into your persona and then you can use them for visions as well as for every day interactions. You'll find that just an extra two seconds before you speak can make a world of difference to your social anxiety as well."
"Speaking to people is like any other skill, Bruno. It takes practice. And if you avoid it, you fall further and further out of practice. I will tell you this, you can always practice on me. And on Spark. Spark is blunt and will tell you if you tick him off, but he won't leave forever because of it. He's cutting at times and well... catty...," pause for the pun, "but he is also a good weathervane for how people might take things at their worst or weirdest. And if you can navigate talking to him without devolving into puns or being talked into feeding him, you're ready to talk to nearly anyone. Trust me, I'm a former hermit myself. Or I tried to be. For years I lived alone, just me and Spark. I'd occasionally check my See-mail, but other than clients and the occasional odd thieves, I was more or less alone. And trust me, my clients did not want to speak to me socially and that was very mutual."
He leaned back. "I had been bullied a lot as a child," he said with a shrug to show it no longer bothered him. "Which made it easier to prefer to not talk to anyone outside my family. And then... Well we went our separate ways. Left home. I wound up in Lynnsbrook. Found pretty much one person in the whole town worth talking to, and after friendship became dating, and then we broke up... And then it was just me and Spark. And I was happy. Or so I told myself. Told myself I didn't need anyone but my cat. I stopped checking in with old friends like Szark and Dejah. Stopped contacting home. Just... stopped. I was in my twenties and already becoming a grumpy old man." A small faint smile.
"Then Luna. She was one of the few surprises I don't regret. She wasn't in my visions because every path I had chosen she had already been dead. I actually stopped her from dying when I stumbled upon her by accident. The point isn't how I missed seeing her, the point is that once I had her in my life I saw how empty my life had been before. I had to relearn all my social skills. It was difficult, but worth it. Don't become like I was, Bruno. You've been isolated too long. Use your time here with the train to practice. Be involved with people again."
He let the thing about Trujillo go, because there was little good that would come from arguing. Dominic still had a sore spot when it came to bullies, and should the man ever cross paths with him... well, Dominic could take care of things on his own. And if Bruno wanted to know.. he could get better at scrying.