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 Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 8:14 am
**I have gotten GM approval to use training mechanics outside of class.** The TaskCybele has asked all students to take part in a meditation exercise to center themselves before battle. You will roll 4d6 to discover your skill in meditation - the results of each individual dice determines one 'stage' of the meditation exercise. After rolling, edit your post according to your results, roleplaying out your meditative state. Feel free to be introspective, confronting your fears or worries, if any! Meditation: Dice Rolls First Dice:1 - Your butt itches. Oh Jack, it itches. You squirm about in temporary agony until Cybele walks by and taps you with a stick. It hurts a little, but it takes your mind off the itch. 2-3 - You close your eyes and do your best to focus, but you're really aware of the small movements the people around you are making. It doesn't seem very calming... 4-5 - You close your eyes and do your best to focus. It is pretty peaceful here, isn't it? The rustle of the leaves in the wind is kind of nice... 6 - You close your eyes and feel the calm of the forest envelop you almost immediately. You can feel the faint sway of the tree under the platform. It's soothing... Second Dice:1 - Okay, so maybe this meditation thing isn't so bad. You're getting kind of sleepy... until your impromptu nap is interrupted by a gentle thwack of the stick. Ow. 2-3 - It seems to be working? You feel less distracted, at least, but your mind is still full of a hundred different thoughts and they're a lot harder to block out. 4-5 - The peace of the forest soothes you, and you slowly push out the thoughts distracting you one by one. It's not perfect, but you're getting there. 6 - You manage to slip into a deeper meditative state, soothed by the distant rhythm of the waves. Your body feels distant, but not in a bad way - it's as if your mind is able to focus cleanly on the task at hand without distractions to worry it. Third Dice:1 - The thought of potential battle ahead fills you with fear/anxiety/intense self-doubt (choose an appropriate negative reaction for your character). You tense up and lose some of your focus. 2-3 - You remember a past conflict in your life (can be prior to Amityville if you haven't done battle at Amity yet or if you are a visiting quest student) with some trepidation; you doubt your own capability, but this is only practice, isn't it? You're not really going to have to fight right after this... are you? The worry erodes some of your focus, but you're still keeping it together for the most part. 4-5 - You remember a past conflict in your life (can be prior to Amityville if you haven't done battle at Amity yet or if you are a visiting quest student) and wonder what the future will be like. The meditation has calmed you, and you're able to consider your own ability and potential more positively than usual. 6 - You ponder the idea of battle with supreme detachment and calm. You've got this - no matter what's happened in your past, things are going to be different from now on. Fourth Dice:1 - As you end the meditation, you realize your legs have fallen asleep under you. Pins and needles ow, jack, oww.2-3 - You end the meditation feeling a bit stiff and achy - maybe there was something off in your posture? Still, it's nothing a bit of moving around won't cure. 4-5 - You end the meditation feeling okay, physically - not amazing, but not horrible. Better than you usually feel after a class, at least. 6 - You rise to your feet feeling pretty good about yourself, overall - despite everything that may have happened during the meditation, you feel great, physically speaking.
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MoonKitsune rolled 4 6-sided dice:
4, 5, 2, 6
Total: 17 (4-24)
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Posted: Wed Apr 04, 2012 1:15 pm
Enter
He couldn't sleep. The dorms were quiet with gentle resting, but the place was far too new and strange for him to sleep. Every part of him felt tense and restless, and not being able to take a swim or to run meant he was without an outlet. Turning in his sleep, he nuzzled his pillow, but even the musk on Barth's pillow that reminded him of home did nothing to put him at ease.
Releasing his grip around Amrita, he turned on his back, turned on his side, and curled in again, closing his eyes. His mind turned, turning and tumbling about like waves against his mind, and he sighed out, sitting up to rub his eyes. There was no use in laying here and waiting for sleep that wouldn't be coming.
Slipping away from the undead beside him, he slowly stepped out of the dorms and walked the platforms, his eyes looking up at the moon that cut through the canopy. High up, above the trees....
The rustling of leaves moved around him, animating the dark as they swayed, bringing the smell of the ocean far off and the trees below.
His mind had been buzzing and full as of late. Each event stacking on the other without time to digest, and his plate was overflowing with concern, worry, recycled doubt from playbacks of past events. What he had done, what would happen, and what he would do was left in a torrent of insecurity and concern. For his friends, for himself, and a preset judgment on how he would react.
I need to calm down.
Even being here, a rare event in itself and great honor, put him on edge. They were surrounded by horsemen, and yet he didn't feel safe. Hunters had made him paranoid and insecure in even familiar settings that foreign ones put him on high alert. Every dark shadow made him wonder if he'd see a glowing weapon appear from the shadows.
He was afraid.
Breathing deep, he sat down on the platform and took a breather, exhausted from restless nights ant the dreams that came with it. Everything felt like an overwhelming pressure and each time he felt powerless against it. He had the bravery to be present to face each account, but not enough to change it's outcome.
Eyes closed, he tried to clear his head. Just a moment where his mind wasn't filled full to spilling with these thoughts.
Just...focus on letting them dissolve.. If only for a moment. It wasn't an escape plan, but a temporary moment to give him some peace.
Settled on the ground, he lowered his chin and let his hair fall beside his face, taking deep breathes. The commotion of daily life was gone now, exchanged for the silence of sleep, and the night was humming with the sound of passing insects, the rustles of trees who lived far longer than him yet were not bearing no more than they weight of the homes the clan put on their shoulders. The moon shimmered on, far off and distant, watching but not acting.
It was quiet, and he took sanctuary in the silence.
It was easier to concentrate on something as simple and present as sounds and smells and the general presence of the present than all the things of the past and maybes of the future. This, here and now, became what filled him mind, and everything else became white noise that soon faded as the picture of the scene around him became clearer.
But the thoughts bubbled up, and a memory came to the surface.
Sitting here in the quiet night, in the clan of War, was surreal, but would it help him? He was weak. Despite what others said, he felt powerful most times when the Hunters marched their way to cause destruction. Did being here matter and was he putting too much faith in that anything would change?
He'd seen the vision of what would happen if Amitville was taken. The Hunters would destroy it to rubble and capture all those around him. Just like they had Barth.
Back in the Haunted House, he had lost Barth, and if it wasn't for luck, the demon could have been thrown in the weapon's conversation chamber and been gone for good. Gone, like the end result would be if the school was taken and the Hunters had their way.
Each time he fought, they had thrown their weapons. He'd been beaten down and worn though all vairiety of weapon, and back there on the field, he had gotten in the way of saving Barth before he was captured. It all turned out into a big mess. If he hadn't been there, Christof could have protected the demon and kept him from being taken.
...but who would have protected Christof.
When one person protected another, someone else needed to protect them.
But what use was someone who couldn't help and protect others?
His fingers curled as he closed his eyes tightly.
How was he supposed to make his family proud when he was always got in the way? He wasn't good at fighting. He kept trying, but it felt as if he wasn't getting anywhere. All he was good for was chasing and chasing, and hoping that something would turn out, but in the end it always felt like ti was luck more than him being there that decided the outcome. He died so many times, and he always felt weak and powerless against it.
When the Hunters came and took his friends, he even thought it might have been better if he had left when the option was given and let those more capable go and save everyone.
But he stayed. He stayed, even though when the time came, all he could think of was to pretend to be captured, and in the end he actually did. He might have become a weapon when they threw him in that chamber, but once again it seemed like luck was on his side.
Luck wasn't going to keep saving him.
And then what? At some point, he could wind up like Red.
What other option do I have?
Just like at the Haunted House, there was the question. Stay and take your leave, but home wouldn't be to Amityville. It would be home. To walk away and leave Amityville and everyone else to the Hunters.
Would they do better without him?
It would be as if he never went to Amityville.
"You're growing up into a young man, Calder, and we know you need to get out and find some friends of your own."
His mother's words stung as he curled his hands into his kilt, bowing his head down as white mist trickled from his eyes.
He went to school to be a stronger kelpie. To be a stallion and make them proud. He went to make friends, and now he had meet so many wonderful people that it hurt to think that they could be destroyed. To know that the Hunters had driven their weapons as many times into them as they had into him.
Could he go home?
He breathed deep. "I can't..."
He couldn't do much else, but leaving was one thing that he knew he wasn't able to do.
Then what will you do?
Breathing out, he opened his eyes, looking up through the canopy at the moon. He wasn't sure, but at least knowing he couldn't leave was one thing he could be sure of. Things were changing, and he had to change if he wanted to stay.
Rising from the spot, his mind felt numb, but his body felt strangely better. Tired more than before, he stepped down from the platform and returned to the dorms, ready to sleep and maybe catch a night's rest without any dreams.
Exit
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MoonKitsune rolled 4 6-sided dice:
6, 5, 3, 1
Total: 15 (4-24)
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Posted: Thu Apr 05, 2012 5:13 pm
Enter
Calder waited till everyone was quiet and then longer to ensure they were sleeping. When he felt everyone was resting deeply from a long day, he slowly eased himself up and slipped away, walking slowly out of the dorms and into the night. He was restless since last night, but even more than ever. Was he becoming more distant or coming closer to something else? He was growing up, but he didn't feel different as he felt he should be.
Being around everyone, he hadn't had time to just think. So much had happened and keep happening that he felt himself racing to keep up, but juggling all he heard and felt since he never had time to stop. All of this was wearing him down.
Finding a quiet place on one of the platforms and looking about to make sure all was clear and quiet, he leaned down and sat, looking up through the canopy, to the moon and starts that were cut out like puzzle pieces in the leaves above.
As much as he was nervous to such a high up and foreign place, when it was quiet and alone, he could manage a moment of ease, and he leaned his back and closed his eyes.
The air was spiced with the salt of the ocean, in no way smelling like Death on the Beach. The rustling leaves sounded like rain, and he thought of floods.
I can't.... Pleassseee..... He pleased, gripping his sweater as he stood on the rocks that overlooked the river.
His mother, a fair white stallion, stood in the water, his long mane floating in the current. "Come now, Calder. You must. You can't stay on the land forever."
"YES I CAN!" He cried, glaring back at her. "I can walk the way there. I can find somewhere else to cross."
The stallion shook her head. "This isn't about finding other options. Calder, you need to know how to ride currents. Come now. I'm here. We'll go through together. You've practiced enough."
He continued to stand firm on the rocks, looking from his mother's pleading eyes over to the white waves farther down the river. The stones peeked from the frothing waters that swirls, turned, and crashed about.
"The water is angry here. I don't want to do this." He had to change her mind. He was only being mean to him.
"Ca -"
"Pleasseee. I want to go home. I want to find another way around. Let's walk on the land. It's safe up here!" He voice squeaked as he looked at the soft ground and waving grass that were beyond the rocks.
"Sugar Cube. You need to know these things. You won't get anywhere being afraid. You have to face them. Come here with Mommy." He called, moving a foot away to offer him more room to wade through the water to him.
"NO! I'm walking." He stomped his foot, and he watched his small hoof hit the stone.
"Okay....stay there. I'm leaving." He turned and his body started and he could hear his son's hooves tapping frantically on the stone.
"Don't! Don't leave me here!" Looking down, he crawled down before lowering himself into the water. In minutes, the white filly moved to his mother's side, pressing close. Her wide eyes looked at the current cutting before them.
"Why do we have to go here? Can't we stick to the shore?" Her negotiations were met with a curt shake her the stallion's head.
"Calder, sometimes we have to face scarry things because there are no other options. You can't keep trying to find the easy way around obstacles, because at some point, there won't be any options. This is something you have to do, and soon even these things won't be scary."
"But I'm going to get hurt..." She whined, back up as her mother continued to step forward.
"You might, but without being hurt, you won't learn." He lowered his head to nuzzle the filly.
"It's okay to be afraid, but don't let that stop you. If you stop learning because you are afraid of what might happen, you won't grow up into a strong stallion. Don't you want to grow up big and strong?" His muzzle brushed against her own, and she nuzzled under his chin.
"Do you want to make me proud?"
"Yes." She called back, sure of that fact.
With one last brush of his cheek, her mother moved into the current, and her body started to quickly move down the river. On the edge of the water, she could feel the quick water pulling her in, ready to grab her and toss her down. Alone, she watched her mother move farther away, and with one final look to the shore, dived in.
Eyes parted, and he rubbed the white mist from his eyes. It was late, and he rose up to feel his legs feel weak with the sharp pangs of sitting too longer. Rubbing them, he paused, and then lowered the waistline of his kilt to examine a scar. The rocks had been unforgiving that day, but it had healed.
Turning, he headed back to the dorms.
Exit
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MoonKitsune rolled 4 6-sided dice:
6, 6, 4, 2
Total: 18 (4-24)
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 11:54 am
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