• Solo • Of Knots and Tangles

[Devin]

Ymiden 5, Arc 720

On the 5th of Ymiden, Devin Thorn, thief, conman extraordinaire and not entirely clueless incredibly skilled, experienced and talented Becomer walked into the lecture hall with his head held high, a spring in his step and a huge smile on his face (and a most fashionable outfit of royal blue, purple and black on his body) because he was just so very excited about what he would hear that trial. According to the timetable that he had received at the beginning of the season, Professor Jeeve would talk about Empathy!

From what little he knew, Empathy involved manipulating emotions and messing with people’s minds which was totally awesome and one of his favourite activities (he was a professional liar and a conman, after all). Maybe, he thought as he plopped down on a chair in the second row, next to a very nice and proper looking young human girl with brown hair whose eyes widened when she saw him, he would ask his mentor Adeline if she was an Empath and convince her to initiate him so that he could become even better at conning people!

With that thought in mind, he removed his notebook, his pencil case and his golden cigar case from his bag in quick succession and placed them on the table in front of him before he quickly put the cigar case away again. Smoking in class could get you in a whole lot of trouble (he knew that from experience!), and he was not keen on grading more essays of clueless Letter students. Although Professor Jeeve wasn’t quite as strict as Professor Hamilton-Smith who had made him grade the aforementioned (sometimes quite disastrous) essays …

The human girl continued to stare at him, and then she abruptly asked, “Why do you have violet eyes? And why do you have black claws? Are you a Biqaj? Are you part Naerikk?”

Devin looked at his nails for a moment before he smiled brightly and replied, “Sure! I’m half Biqaj and half Naerikk! Actually, no … the nails were originally part of the Dubaebo, a hound that lives in Desnind. A Grafter made it fall asleep, took the spines that were on its back, reshaped them and attached them to my hands!”

“They are sharp!” he boasted and wiggled his fingers a little because he was so proud of them.

“Okay …” the girl replied slowly as if she seriously doubted Devin’s story (that was the truth and nothing but the truth). It seemed as if she wanted to say more regardless, but it was just then Professor Alison Jeeve, a pretty redhaired human woman that wore an eccentric outfit of lime green, medium pink, pale blue and very dark grey that hurt the eyes a little (which was great in Devin’s opinion since her outfit more or less doubled as a weapon; besides, dressing like everybody else was boring) entered the room. She looked at her students and grinned and then she began in a rather enthusiastic tone of voice,

“So, Empathy. What exactly is Empathy?”

[Devin]

“Empathy”, Professor Jeeve said and sat down on her desk rather than on the chair behind it which was something that Devin absolutely approved of since he often did the same. “Is a magic of understanding first and foremost. Someone that does not have any interest in other people is not suited to practicing it and will not do a very good job at it. Empathy manifests as the Tangle which is the word that its practitioners use in order to describe the emotional makeup of another person, a mire of knots and strands – for people usually don’t only feel one emotion at a time.”

“When Empaths use their magic, they Weave”, she explained, and Devin who had been taking notes quite enthusiastically so far (in his very messy and almost illegible handwriting) because Empathy just sounded so awesome and useful, stopped abruptly, put his pen down and furrowed his brow as the word weave reminded him of quite an unpleasant time in his life, a time that he just wanted to forget (Could Empaths make you forget something? That would be great!).

“The two primary techniques that Empaths use are called Sewing and Severing. When you Sew, you introduce a new thread into the Tangle. Severing is the removal of a thread from the Tangle”, Professor Jeeve continued, and Devin started to look practically irritated – which caused the nice and proper looking human girl that sat next to him to look at him in confusion for a moment before she shrugged her shoulders, deciding that it would be best to ignore him, and focused on what Professor Jeeve was saying again.

“To most Empaths, emotions have a certain feel to them, a color. Not every Empath sees the same colors though. People from different cultures and backgrounds see different colors”, Professor Jeeve spoke in quite an excited tone of voice (she obviously enjoyed teaching this class), and Devin who had been irritated before looked kind of curious now because that seemed pretty weird to him, and he loved weird things. He couldn’t help but wonder which colors he would see if he became an Empath!

“There is another technique as well though”, Professor Jeeve continued. “Rather than simply severing emotional strings, Empaths can also create new ones by using an ability called Knot”, she explained which caused Devin to grow irritated again and start to fidget slightly. He loved manipulating people and messing with their minds, but his previous experience with sewing and making knots had made him hate his life and want to run away. To him, engaging in such activities had seemed like a fate that was worse than death.

Why did a magic that was so fascinating and useful have to involve such stupid, scary and/or irritating names? Why couldn’t it have nice names? Why couldn’t the techniques be named after activities that had something to do with crime? Removing emotions was kind of like stealing, after all, and stealing was a lot fun, quite unlike tailoring!

He had a tailoring-related trauma!

[Devin]

Devin loved magic. He was incredibly fascinated by it which was why he had decided to stop studying medicine for the time being in order to focus on the arcane (he wanted to focus on freaky mutations once he did his Diploma). Sewing emotions was something that he could do without though. In fact, the things that Professor Jeeve talked about almost made him sick. The only reason why he didn’t simply leave the class prematurely was that he normally liked her and that he was worried that he would be forced to grade essays again.

When Professor Jeeve finally dismissed them, he was the first student to rush out of the classroom though (which caused the nice and proper human girl to just shake her head).

When he returned home, approximately fifteen bits later, he dumped his bag in the hallway, grabbed his cigar case and plopped down on the couch in the living room. Aidan, his roommate and friend with benefits who had already returned from his class a little earlier and was reading a book and relaxing now, looked at him worryingly for a moment before he remarked,

“You are kind of pale. What’s wrong?”

“I need to get high – or drunk – or both”, Devin only muttered before he took one of his cigars, an expensive one from Rharne, lit it and took a deep drag from it and then another one, gradually growing calmer. He knew that Aidan was concerned, and he knew that Aidan was trustworthy, but he just couldn’t bring himself to talk about his miserable childhood. He was deeply ashamed of it. He wanted Aidan to believe that he had already been born rich!

His family had been quite poor though, his mother had been a maid, and his father had been a builder, and when he had finally been old enough, his father had arranged a job with a tailor for him. Now, he loved fashion. There had not been anything fashionable about that job though. The tailor had lived in Lowtown in Andaris, just like he had back then, and his shop had been quite shabby. The work had been monotonous, the clothes that the man had made had been plain, boring and ugly, and when he had done something wrong (or just accidentally pricked his finger with a needle) his master had been mean to him.

On top of that, the pay had been absolutely lousy (he didn’t understand why his father had been so proud of the fact that he had found that stupid job for him). He had felt as if he were being buried alive, and he thanked Delroth every trial that he had managed to escape that life and discovered crime rather than enduring an existence that involved trying to make end’s meet, but never more than that.

That was why he would never become an Empath – unless he could just convince people to rename the techniques so that he wouldn’t constantly be reminded of that terrible shop and its equally terrible owner? He pondered that question for a while as he continued to smoke ...

[Kasoria]

Review Rewards

Name: Ezra... Crap, I Mean Devin!

Points awarded: 10

Knowledge:
Research: Empathy: The Tangle
Research: Empathy: Severing
Research: Empathy: Sewing
Research: Empathy: Knot
Resistance x1
Writing x1

Skill Review: All Skills played within limits

Notes:
Gotta admit, this had me grinning from beginning to end. Such a refreshing change to see... basically a high scool/college dramedy playing out in this Fantasy setting! You really got the tone for Devin down, not to mention his surroundings and the other cast of characters. Keep this going and build on it, I can't wait to see where he ends up. As far as actual critique goes, I really can't give any. Grammar and spelling was neat and tidy, plotting and pace was good, as was the tone and proper use of your Skill Levels.

If you have any questions, comments or concerns in regards to this review, feel free to PM.