Garett Devaro was not an insomniac, though perhaps that night would speak otherwise, for having no residence he took the time to learn a little more of the city. Any direction was good as the next one, any alley as pleasant as the adjacent one. The chill on his face of ivory kept him wide awake and sharp and as the morning came, the sands of sleep had yet to entice him.
Garett Devaro was not an honourable man. Not often, if ever, did he purposefully go out of his way to aid those in need - in fact he wasn't quite able to recall if he had ever done so. And perhaps what happened next was not an act of selflessness on his behalf, but rather an amusing activity, a game which he loved to play with strangers.
Walking somewhat aimlessly though yet another dark alley of the perpetual slum which was Sunberth, the handsome young man's gaze lay upon a young woman and a brute, perhaps twice or three times her age and size. Being of both foul in manner and appearance, he pressed her self on the young lady as if she'd been a slave, not a woman. Though her clothing made it quite apparent that her condition was not so. A blossom in full bloom she was, both exotic and flawless, dressed flamboyantly in so much bright colour as if she was provoking bad luck. If she was a flower, she'd be the single precious bloom in a garden of grey, for her magnificence overshadowed any other creature he had ever laid his eyes upon before. A petite woman, with exquisite curves and velvet dark hair.
The brute however wasn't quite so beautiful. In fact, perhaps, his presence beside her dulled down that exotic radiance of her's.
As previously stated, Garett was no honourable gentleman, nor a chivalrous one. He had little interest in women, though perhaps none had the elegance and magnificence to catch his awfully picky eyes. And perhaps had she been any other woman, he'd turn back on his heel and leave the two to their business. Then again had it been any other brute, he'd probably not have lingered either. But there was a faint aura of stupidity about the burly man - in the way he approached the lady, in the way he spoke so plainly, forming little more than simple sentences.
"Step away from the lady." demanded Garett in a booming voice. One so great and imposing that it was almost surprising that such a young man could conjure up such severity within him self. His facial expression was stern and cold, his eyes sparking with a mad glow on someone not afraid to kill a man; a sparkle closely matching that of a dagger in his hand. And those sparkling grey eyes of his locked with those of the other man, who flinched at the sight of Garett's voice in what seemed like, just moments ago, like an abandoned alley.
That visual contact was all that was needed for his hypnosis to grab hold of the man's senses. The first attack was a sharp surge of surprise, or rather the enhance of the victim's own surprise. The other was doubt. That perhaps seemed like a pointless waste of djed, for any other mage may have probably induced fear in the heart of the victim. But Garett already had a plan, a much subtler use of his djed, and a complete breakdown of the man's defences with the use of both physical threat and hypnosis. Besides he knew not if the brute was armed, nor no the likelihood of fear being so easily conjured up by a man much younger than him, even if there was something so terribly strange about that younger man. That was precisely why Garett chose to induce doubt. A simple feeling which accompanies everyone at all stages of their life, yet a crippling one if strong enough. Doubt in the brute's own ability, own strength. An emotional response to a physical stimulus which was Garett's confident persona. Doubt at the site of the dagger, doubt being able to fight off the dark haired mage.
Garett didn't plough an admirable amount of his djed into this hypnosis. In fact the feelings he erected within the brute's subconscious mind were very fast and simple, no doubt withheld by the victim's own mind once implanted. A simple understanding of human psychology.
Garett strode towards the two purposefully and confidently and seeing that the brute fell back several steps, perhaps little more overwhelmed by the emotional hypnosis than Garett meant for him to be. That wasn't good. If the victim realises he's being manipulated, Garett is as good as dead in this city, so he couldn't make a mistake. His very pose had to radiate confidence to the point of arrogance, his face had to be the physical manifestation of near madness. He had to be as ominous as one could possibly be.
"Do you not know how to properly treat women?" he boomed with revulsion, pretending the man's actions filled him with abhorrence. The key to a successful hypnosis, isn't only the content of it but also the delivery and what Garett often realised that when the attacks come from every direction, such was much less detectable. And if it's to be a truly perfect and undetectable, the magic had to be intertwined with that which could easily be mistaken for such, but was not. A verbal threat, but little more.
The next hypnosis was a gamble. Having so little knowledge of the man's personality or life, he couldn't quite be sure if it worked. But none the less, the technique was both challenging and fun - for it cause no end of enjoyment to the magician - and he wouldn't find another such occasion to try it out. Having established an unbreakable visual connection with the brute, another hypnosis was implanted into his mind, though this one was a sudden thought, spoken in the victim's own voice but generated by the mage. And that thought was precisely: This man is strange. There's something not right about him. He is scary.
Garett allowed a moment for that sudden thought to sing in and truly permeate the man's mind. He now stood directly before the man, standing a little taller than the brute; he towered ominously over him, casting a shadow upon the brute's frightened face. An expression of hate and disgust in his face. Those expressions were much easier to induce within his own features than the meticulously trained smiles he often had to rearrange his features into. Garett's lip twitched into one final scowl before he spat. "Get out of my sight!" before sharply pulling forward with his dagger in a motion that froze in mid air, for the brute stumbled back and legged it.
That very last sentence of Garett's was spiked with djed as a suggestion. A seed planted into the brute's frightened thoughts that caused him to react in such a way. It was done and executed well. Garett realised the majority of the ordeal was due to good luck, for his skill was not yet excellent. But it was done none the less.
Relaxing, the black clad youth exhaled, realising he had forgotten about one, extremely important thing. More important perhaps then the very execution oh his hypnosis and that was the pesky condition of overgiving. A crimson tear fell from his eyes, rolled down the alabaster of his cheek and finally hit the dirty cobbles below. He had exerted him self too much and now was paying the price, mildly yes, but he shouldn't have driven him self into this state in the first place. He'd been trained! He should have more sense!
Quickly wiping his eyes on the fabric of his black cape, he turned to the woman with a soft, pleasant smile, hoping she would not notice the subtle bleeding. It wasn't so terrible yet, but a few red tears were present. "Forgive me my dear. This was truly a terrible display, but at least he'll bother you no longer."
by Zenobia on January 4th, 2013, 5:24 pm 
