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It has been an interesting past 24 hours. "Interesting" being code for "fucked the hell up."
It started the night before last when I woke up in a sweat from a dream I couldn't remember. In two hours it'd be sunrise. The burning sensation I'd been having in my fingertips these past few days had spread up through my fingers, into my arms, and contaminated the inside of my skull. I used some magick to self-diagnose myself again, but turned up nothing other than my brain being seriously worked up about that dream.
Too wired to go back to bed, mind racing, I decided I would just get a headstart on chores. Today I needed to do some maintenance on the houseboat's wardings. I shifted my perception over to the astral plane to do some minor repairs and reweavings. That's when I noticed an unusual spirit passing by: a blend of lion, goat, and snake. A chimera from Greek legend. Interesting. It stopped and turned to look at me. Or, probably not me (because I was in the realm and didn't have an astral presence) but my protective warding. (It's not much, it just sets off an alarm in my head if there's an uninvited guest--spirit or physical--that trespasses without an invitation.) But it *felt* like it was looking at me. I decided to use a little Mind magic to coax it to move along and not mess with my home. I reached out to touch its mind and instead of merely touching it, something seemed to snap into place. We linked minds. Suddenly, I had all the alien thought processes and mentality of this bizarre spirit.
I've done my fair share of psychedelic drugs in my misspent youth, so believe me when I tell you this was like LSD to the Nth power. It felt like my mind melted. Words? No way to describe it. It gave me an instant appreciation for Lovecraft and his "unnameable," "unspeakable," "un-fucking-believable" word choices.
Skirting back and forth over the line of insanity, I suddenly found myself standing inside a familiar 19th century one-room schoolhouse. Mr Abernathy, my persnickety avatar, behind his desk at the front of the room, gestured for me to take a seat on a wooden bench. Again, I was the only student in the classroom. Why does this always feels like I've been unjustly given detention.
After confirming I was not dead, and this was an accidental Seeking triggered by current events, we settled in to our usual roles: student and schoolmaster. I've noticed that we're actually getting along better these days. Initially, Abernathy and I butted heads fiercely. This time, Abernathy was fairly complimentary of how I've used magic for good and refrained from using it for nefarious and destructive purposes--even though I certainly have the capability to do so. I still got chastised for not fully applying myself, though.
Work harder. Don't dabble and screw around with magic just to play with it.
He seems very concerned that I stay away from "the Dark Side" so to speak. It makes me wonder if Abernathy got blamed or punished for something in the past and he's still on trial for it. Is he innocent, or was the mage linked to him in the past innocent? Maybe that's why the Euthanatos tradition seems to be interested in me and has made occasional appeals to recruit me? Are they trying to clear their name and besmirch Abernathy? I'd have asked him about this, but I didn't think of it until it was too late. Something, however, is definitely going on--and I've been involved these past 16 years and never knew it.
So the lesson. Abernathy dropped 20 ancient and dusty tomes on my table, told me to read them, and then there would be a quiz. I fired up some Mind magick to speed up the reading process and aid in retention, then got cracking. Time is distorted in the schoolroom: I usually measure its passing by how much the hard wooden bench pains my ass. So it felt like a good chunk of time passed before I finished all the books and announced I was done. I was a little nervous because I was trying to find a unifying theme linking the texts together, but I wasn't able to. The subject matter ranged from ancient medicine to meditation techniques to celestial mechanics to philosophy and art. Random. Abernathy questioned me on the basic contents of each book. Nothing hard. Nothing linking them together. I apparently answered his questions satisfactorily, proving that I had read each of the books and had a good grasp on the contents.
He then placed the 1st book in front of me and asked me what language it was in. "English."
What about the 2nd book? "French." (Had two years of that in high school. Huh. Hadn't even noticed it wasn't in English when I read it.)
3rd book. "Latin." (What self-respecting mage doesn't know Latin? Hadn't noticed the book was in Latin, either. Hmmmmm.)
4th book. "Spanish." (It's a Romance language like French and I picked it up easily while working as a police officer. I can't believe I didn't notice the book was in Spanish.)
5th book. "German." (Another Romance language, but one I've not studied really and... maybe I'd Dreamed it subconsciously?)
6th book. "Chinese." (I've not Dreamed two languages in the same day before, but I suppose it'd be possible.)
7th book. "Russian." (I don't know Russian and there's no way I could have Dreamed 3 languages so close to one another, right?)
8th book. "Arabic." (How did I read Arabic without Dreaming it?)
9th book. "Japanese." (I don't know Japanese at all.)
10th book. "Gaelic." (The hell?)
It continued: Portuguese, Italian, Cherokee, Sanskrit, Norwegian, Sumerian, Lithuanian, Nahuatl(?!?), Harappan(?!?!?), and.... The last book had me stumped. "What's this book written in?"
Abernathy said that the book was called "The Voynich Manuscript." It was discovered in 1912, believed to date back to the 15th Century, and no modern linguist or codebreaker had yet to crack the language--but computer algorithms indicated the syntax of language was present. And I'd just read it. Scholars believe the text to be a treatise on the use of herbal medicines. Boy are they ever off.
Abernathy began explaining more about Mind magic and its potentials, uses, and limitations. We got down into the nitty gritty of theory and application, then the pie-in-the-sky philosophical aspects. It was a good discussion. A *really* good discussion because, this time, I seemed to be actually bonding with Abernathy--and he with me. Weird. If I could go back in time and tell myself, 16 years ago, to work a little harder at getting along with Abernathy because he's trying to help, not trying to control or put down.... Youth truly is wasted on the young.
As we finished our lesson, I opened the double doors to the schoolhouse and stepped outside into the blinding light... And came to on the houseboat's hard linoleum floor in a puddle of my own drool and blood. Apparently, when I touched that spirit's mind, my body passed out and fell. I bit my cheek pretty bad, explaining the blood mixed in with the drool, and must have knocked my head pretty hard on something judging by the size of the knot on my forehead. Ow. I fired up the computer and noticed I'd been out cold for just over 24 hours. The sun was coming up. Symbolism? Who knows.
The burning sensation that'd started a couple days ago in my fingertips? Which spread to my hands, arms, and head 24 hours ago? It's now in my whole body.
It started the night before last when I woke up in a sweat from a dream I couldn't remember. In two hours it'd be sunrise. The burning sensation I'd been having in my fingertips these past few days had spread up through my fingers, into my arms, and contaminated the inside of my skull. I used some magick to self-diagnose myself again, but turned up nothing other than my brain being seriously worked up about that dream.
Too wired to go back to bed, mind racing, I decided I would just get a headstart on chores. Today I needed to do some maintenance on the houseboat's wardings. I shifted my perception over to the astral plane to do some minor repairs and reweavings. That's when I noticed an unusual spirit passing by: a blend of lion, goat, and snake. A chimera from Greek legend. Interesting. It stopped and turned to look at me. Or, probably not me (because I was in the realm and didn't have an astral presence) but my protective warding. (It's not much, it just sets off an alarm in my head if there's an uninvited guest--spirit or physical--that trespasses without an invitation.) But it *felt* like it was looking at me. I decided to use a little Mind magic to coax it to move along and not mess with my home. I reached out to touch its mind and instead of merely touching it, something seemed to snap into place. We linked minds. Suddenly, I had all the alien thought processes and mentality of this bizarre spirit.
I've done my fair share of psychedelic drugs in my misspent youth, so believe me when I tell you this was like LSD to the Nth power. It felt like my mind melted. Words? No way to describe it. It gave me an instant appreciation for Lovecraft and his "unnameable," "unspeakable," "un-fucking-believable" word choices.
Skirting back and forth over the line of insanity, I suddenly found myself standing inside a familiar 19th century one-room schoolhouse. Mr Abernathy, my persnickety avatar, behind his desk at the front of the room, gestured for me to take a seat on a wooden bench. Again, I was the only student in the classroom. Why does this always feels like I've been unjustly given detention.
After confirming I was not dead, and this was an accidental Seeking triggered by current events, we settled in to our usual roles: student and schoolmaster. I've noticed that we're actually getting along better these days. Initially, Abernathy and I butted heads fiercely. This time, Abernathy was fairly complimentary of how I've used magic for good and refrained from using it for nefarious and destructive purposes--even though I certainly have the capability to do so. I still got chastised for not fully applying myself, though.
Work harder. Don't dabble and screw around with magic just to play with it.
He seems very concerned that I stay away from "the Dark Side" so to speak. It makes me wonder if Abernathy got blamed or punished for something in the past and he's still on trial for it. Is he innocent, or was the mage linked to him in the past innocent? Maybe that's why the Euthanatos tradition seems to be interested in me and has made occasional appeals to recruit me? Are they trying to clear their name and besmirch Abernathy? I'd have asked him about this, but I didn't think of it until it was too late. Something, however, is definitely going on--and I've been involved these past 16 years and never knew it.
So the lesson. Abernathy dropped 20 ancient and dusty tomes on my table, told me to read them, and then there would be a quiz. I fired up some Mind magick to speed up the reading process and aid in retention, then got cracking. Time is distorted in the schoolroom: I usually measure its passing by how much the hard wooden bench pains my ass. So it felt like a good chunk of time passed before I finished all the books and announced I was done. I was a little nervous because I was trying to find a unifying theme linking the texts together, but I wasn't able to. The subject matter ranged from ancient medicine to meditation techniques to celestial mechanics to philosophy and art. Random. Abernathy questioned me on the basic contents of each book. Nothing hard. Nothing linking them together. I apparently answered his questions satisfactorily, proving that I had read each of the books and had a good grasp on the contents.
He then placed the 1st book in front of me and asked me what language it was in. "English."
What about the 2nd book? "French." (Had two years of that in high school. Huh. Hadn't even noticed it wasn't in English when I read it.)
3rd book. "Latin." (What self-respecting mage doesn't know Latin? Hadn't noticed the book was in Latin, either. Hmmmmm.)
4th book. "Spanish." (It's a Romance language like French and I picked it up easily while working as a police officer. I can't believe I didn't notice the book was in Spanish.)
5th book. "German." (Another Romance language, but one I've not studied really and... maybe I'd Dreamed it subconsciously?)
6th book. "Chinese." (I've not Dreamed two languages in the same day before, but I suppose it'd be possible.)
7th book. "Russian." (I don't know Russian and there's no way I could have Dreamed 3 languages so close to one another, right?)
8th book. "Arabic." (How did I read Arabic without Dreaming it?)
9th book. "Japanese." (I don't know Japanese at all.)
10th book. "Gaelic." (The hell?)
It continued: Portuguese, Italian, Cherokee, Sanskrit, Norwegian, Sumerian, Lithuanian, Nahuatl(?!?), Harappan(?!?!?), and.... The last book had me stumped. "What's this book written in?"
Abernathy said that the book was called "The Voynich Manuscript." It was discovered in 1912, believed to date back to the 15th Century, and no modern linguist or codebreaker had yet to crack the language--but computer algorithms indicated the syntax of language was present. And I'd just read it. Scholars believe the text to be a treatise on the use of herbal medicines. Boy are they ever off.
Abernathy began explaining more about Mind magic and its potentials, uses, and limitations. We got down into the nitty gritty of theory and application, then the pie-in-the-sky philosophical aspects. It was a good discussion. A *really* good discussion because, this time, I seemed to be actually bonding with Abernathy--and he with me. Weird. If I could go back in time and tell myself, 16 years ago, to work a little harder at getting along with Abernathy because he's trying to help, not trying to control or put down.... Youth truly is wasted on the young.
As we finished our lesson, I opened the double doors to the schoolhouse and stepped outside into the blinding light... And came to on the houseboat's hard linoleum floor in a puddle of my own drool and blood. Apparently, when I touched that spirit's mind, my body passed out and fell. I bit my cheek pretty bad, explaining the blood mixed in with the drool, and must have knocked my head pretty hard on something judging by the size of the knot on my forehead. Ow. I fired up the computer and noticed I'd been out cold for just over 24 hours. The sun was coming up. Symbolism? Who knows.
The burning sensation that'd started a couple days ago in my fingertips? Which spread to my hands, arms, and head 24 hours ago? It's now in my whole body.
