Solo It Is Never Too Late To Learn

Especially so when you're a nocturnal Kelvic

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The westernmost tip of Kalea, Wind Reach is home to an amazing group of people and their giant eagle mounts. [Lore]

It Is Never Too Late To Learn

Postby Brandon Blackwing on August 11th, 2015, 9:07 pm

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For the mentioned parts, Brandon used the same technique he’d used to memorize the knee; pressing the locations on his own arm, and committing them to memory that way. That had always been the most effective method for him; others might disagree on the success of it, but Bran liked it. The Kelvic repeated the process of testing his skills of recalling, and looking the locations up in the book, failing more than succeeding. Often if he got some points right one time, he had forgotten them the next. But that was just the shoulder, and the wrist and elbow would follow only after he’d been able to touch all the right pressure points. It would take a while.

Nevertheless, Brandon would not just give up easily. In order to grow stronger, to be able to beat everyone he needed to –including monstrous abominations- he would have to broaden his view. Of course, magic was still something he’d stay away from; he’d rather not use his soul for some fancy tricks. No, he’d have to use other things; mundane things. Or not? What could he do with this mark of his anyway? Brandon hadn’t quite figured out how it worked yet, though he had noticed some odd things here and there. It would have been a whole lot easier if Dira had told him how it worked, or if she had included a manual. It would have saved him a lot of surprises… though truth to be told, Bran liked surprises, as long as they were pleasant.

He sighed, and focused once more, starting to test himself again, trying to locate the pressure points on his shoulder and knee accurately, but only succeeding partially on the latter. Oh well, he had a lot of time, no worries there. If he had to he’d stay up all night. Hm… but wouldn’t it be a waste of time if it turned out those pressure points were useless? Perhaps he should test them first, but not here. So, the bat got up and dismissed the dek, who asked him again about the meals, then headed to the counter, where a sleepy librarian was present. After a quick discussion the bat was allowed to take the book with him, and he headed to his own room, where he would be safe from prying eyes and curious glances. And he could crawl into his bed whenever he wanted.

Within the confines of his barely furnished room, the bat got to work once more, starting an experiment, deciding to test it on his wrist first, just in case. But what if the effects –if he could even generate them- were permanent? He’d lose a hand. Although… a masseuse could perhaps reverse it then, they were capable of those feats, right? But hey, who said it wasn’t temporary? Still, the bat wished he’d tried it on the dek first…. He sighed. What would he do? Let a chance slip away? Or just risk it and try it on his own body? Oh the dilemma; things never could be easy for once. The Kelvic let out a sigh, and then started to think. Wouldn’t his body heal? If he thought about it, wounds usually were not permanent. Cuts healed, bruises disappeared. Surely this kind of thing would pass too? A wound was a wound after all. But to be sure it would be best to start with just manipulating one pressure point. Just one wouldn’t be too harmful, right? Especially so since there were a whole lot of them just in once part of the body already.

Brandon nodded to himself, looked at the picture in the book and readied his finger. Just touching the points had had no effect, so maybe pressing them had? Upon trying he discovered that it did not, no matter how hard he pressed. It required technique indeed, but what kind? Think Bran, Think. Massage. It’s massage. How do you do massage? You press and twist. You rub in circles. You don’t just poke, you rub while applying pressure. He nodded, that was indeed true. Massage takes time, so it’s possible the correct way of manipulating the points does too, and they probably need to be careful. As such wouldn’t doing it quickly and violently, like combat tends to be, give some results? Well, he could at least try.

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It Is Never Too Late To Learn

Postby Brandon Blackwing on August 13th, 2015, 8:21 pm

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As decided, the bat proceeded to press and twist, first practicing the gesture a couple times in the air, before placing his finger on one of the points on his wrist. He took a deep breath in, held it, and let it escape, trying to calm down a little. He didn’t really like what he was about to do, but if he didn’t he’d never know. So he kept up his breathing technique, doing his best to get the calming effect his sighing usually had. It did work, but only a little. With a sharp motion, the bat increased the pressure, and twisted.

There was a sharp pain, as if someone had just hammered a nail into his wrist, but of course there was no wound whatsoever. Brandon frowned, stroking the area he’d just pressed with his thumb. He wasn’t quite sure what he’d thought he’d find, but he found nothing at all. It felt normal, it looked normal. Apart from being a little red from the attack, there was nothing wrong with his wrist. The bat stared at the picture in the book for a couple ticks, comparing it with the real life counterpart and sighed deeply. The pain was already gone, but that didn’t mean he wanted to feel it again… it wasn’t exactly pleasant. However, there was no choice but to continue experimenting, not if he’d like to grow stronger, that is.

Nodding to himself, Brandon placed his finger on the pressure point close to the previous one, and repeated the technique he’d used before. Press and twist. Once again, a jab of immense pain shot through his wrist for a split-tick, and the Kelvic’s face twisted. He grunted, not allowing himself to scream. People would get curious, he couldn’t have that. Still, he could always use the “I stubbed my toe against the bed” excuse… though then there would be questions as to why he was holding his wrist. Now that he thought about it, the pain was indeed similar to stubbing your toe, only it faded quicker. And it was more intense. The Kelvic took a chime to ready himself for the next test, targeting another point close to the others. Once again he met the same results. Or did he?

Something had changed. His wrist was starting to feel weird. It was feint, but it was there. A slight numbness spread across the area he’d targeted. Every other part of his wrist was fine, it seemed. If this was what he thought it was, then the effects were starting to show. Effects he’d been waiting for. Brandon continued his experiments, starting to work quicker, knowing the pain was just brief. BY the time he’d hit about one fourth of all points on his wrist, the whole joint was starting to feel numb. The pain he’d experienced had lessened with each point he’d manipulated, as did his sense of touch. Even though he was now pinching the skin pretty hard, the bat barely felt it. Now this were results, however, they were not even close to what he thought they could do. This was only one quarter of the points on his wrist; just what would happen if he pressed half? Or all of them? Just how numb could one’s limbs get?

He’d find out soon enough. It took a bit longer to position his wrist due to the numbness, and every extra point he pressed did not make things easier, but eventually he got to the point where he’d manipulated about half of the listed points. The numbness had increased many times, his wrist now feeling like a bag filled with sand. It felt foreign, strange. Not his at all. He didn’t feel anything anymore, with his wrist that is, everything else still functioned fine. The fingers of his hand still felt his, were still sensitive, and that was the truly strange part. That would mean anyone hit by the technique would still have control of their forearms and upper arms, but not of their shoulder, elbow and wrist. Brandon could already imagine the confusion his foes would feel, the terror. The fact that the technique worked slowly, and only hurt for a moment seemingly made it worthless, but, what if one could get multiple hits in a short time? Someone who had excellent technical skills, and speed and precision to boot? Someone like Bran? It would be devastating. There were not that many points on any one part of the body. The whole body, yes, but not one part. Besides, if only hitting half of them had this effect –which already made it hard to control his own wrist- there was no real need to hit all of them, now was there. Maybe for safety reasons, or if he wanted to make sure his opponent was disabled.

Speaking of which, Brandon decided it was time to go manipulate all of the pressure points on his wrist. It did take a while, mainly due to his wrist not working as he wanted it to, but he managed, and he was not quite sure if he liked the result. It scared him, to be honest; his wrist was limp. It didn’t feel anything, and nor could he control it. It couldn’t rotate, or bend on its own anymore. He needed to move it with his other hand. Just like before though, his hand, fingers, and forearm were not affected. But what good was a hand when you couldn’t move the wrist? For a chime Brandon panicked, holding his wrist, trying to massage it, hoping it would help. It didn’t. He should have known, the book had said it took the right technique to manipulate the pressure points in a positive way. So, did that mean he had lost his wrist forever? Was his hand doomed to be like the only of the dek from before? Oh Gods no! Oh Hai no! Not in a million years would he live with a disability! He needed that wrist to fly, to do other things! He couldn’t and wouldn’t lose it! He refused to lose it!

x

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Brandon Blackwing
The master thief Incognito
 
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It Is Never Too Late To Learn

Postby Brandon Blackwing on August 15th, 2015, 8:21 pm

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Brandon franticly leafed through the book, hoping to find something; a page, a small bit of text. At least one line. But he did not find anything. Enraged he slammed the fist of his fully functional arm into the table, everything on it jumping up an inch. “PETCH!” he growled through his teeth, face twisted. “GODS PETCHING DAMNIT!” Again his fist crashed down, doing nothing but throwing oil on the flames. Another string of curses was spat out, echoing through his room. It helped nothing at all though, and Brandon realized it too. With a deep series of sighs he managed to calm down a bit, staring at his wrist.

“Damn,” he muttered, still not really having snapped out of it. Now that the panic inspired rage was gone, the bat was only left with the fear. However, that too was starting to fade, as his mind had decided to bring up some memories that did not make his wrist seem doomed. It were flashes of the day before, fragments of what he’d felt back then, what he’d heard. Experiences still fresh in his memory. The effects of the massage he’d received had not lasted forever, on the contrary, they’d faded after a bell or so. Maybe even sooner. Those things did not last. Why wouldn’t this be the same? True, it was combat, but its roots lied in massage, did they not?

Besides, Brandon hadn’t done actual damage. He hadn’t punched, nor broken any bones. He’d just … tricked his body. He’d made it think he’d hurt it. The stabs of pain that faded quickly, the pressure points that had numbed his wrist… there hadn’t been any damage, had there? He’d just –how did the book put it?- forced information into his own … astral body. The body within his body. He’d just tricked it. In general, people who were tricked found out after a while; surely his body would too, and then he’d regain control of his wrist. Yes, that sounded logical. That seemed plausible, no, it was! All that rested him was to wait, wait for his body to realize it had been deceived.

To pass the time, Brandon brought his attention back to the book with a sigh, and he started reading the page it showed. Apparently, the slamming of his fist had caused the book to flip through the pages, now displaying a wall of text that piqued Bran’s interest. One word had caught his eye; magic. The chapter was titled “VII: The Brain”, and the part in particular was named “Lobotomy”. The Kelvic had of course never heard of the latter, but apparently it had something to do with magic, and broadening his knowledge on the subject was always a good idea.

Lobotomy

Lobotomy is a medical practice where the connection between the frontal lobe and the rest of the brain is severed. This is done by a puncture in the skull between the eyebrows, just above the bridge of the nose (or the inner corner of the eye, depending on the surgeon). While the puncturing of the skull itself is painful, removing the frontal lobe through scraping away the relevant part of the brain is not. The same goes for just destroying the frontal lobe. During surgery this is usually done by puncturing the lobe multiple times, destroying it completely.

Lobotomy is considered one of the three commonly known forms of anti-magic, because the subject loses, along with their ability to feel fear, the ability to concentrate for prolonged periods of time. As a result, the subject also becomes unable to use magic, no matter how skilled they were before the surgery, as the practice of magic requires tremendous concentration.

Obviously, this procedure is bound to change the personality of the subject quite dramatically. Not only do they become unable to concentrate, but they also do not seem to feel any fear anymore. Subjects who suffered from chronic nightmares still had the nightmares, but did not perceive them as frightening anymore. Instead those patients were reported to perceive the nightmares as pleasant dreams. Subjects also lose their sense of inhibition, becoming impulsive and do not seem to care about any social norms anymore. What is or is not acceptable does not matter to them anymore.


More did the bat not need to know, with a frown he browsed through the pages, finding the one with the picture of the pressure points immediately. As he had suspected, the exact position of where one would puncture the skull to proceed with the … eh.. Lobothommy; right between the eyebrows, just above the bridge of the nose. Did that mean manipulating that pressure point could take away one’s ability to use magic? If yes, then what about those other effects mentioned? Would it cause those as well, or would the person it was used on just be rendered unable to make use of their magic talents? Another thing that would need testing. Fortunately, he did have a mage available; Zhol. It wouldn’t even be a problem to convince him to help out for a bit; Bran could offer him a couple lessons in combat after all…

For the next half a bell, Brandon just flung his –sheathed- dagger into the air, trying to catch it by its hilt; which he didn’t succeed that much in. About fifty percent of the time. He also threw his blade –unsheathed- at the closet, aiming at a makeshift bullseye he’d carved into the wood. This went a lot better, but only because he managed to cause his blade to stick into the door, within the confines of the outer circle. That he was aiming for the inner one did not make that a great success though, but at least he did hit his target. That was something, right?

Eventually, after what had seemed to be an eternity, but had only been a bell or so –maybe a bit less- the bat regained the feeling in his wrist, and soon after he could move it again. None of the effects seemed to last for longer; making the joint feel exactly as it always did. And Brandon was just glad he could use it again like he could before. He had learned a valuable lesson that night; always experiment on other people, and not on yourself. The Kelvic grinned, rubbing his good old wrist lovingly.

x

credit goes to Euthisa
Image
Fighting Style and Techniques

Credit for this awesome sig goes to Estrellir Konrath
User avatar
Brandon Blackwing
The master thief Incognito
 
Posts: 1305
Words: 1496963
Joined roleplay: September 8th, 2013, 3:24 pm
Location: Lhavit
Race: Kelvic
Character sheet
Storyteller secrets
Scrapbook
Plotnotes
Medals: 5
Featured Character (1) Overlored (1)
One Thousand Posts! (1) One Million Words! (1)
2013 Mizahar NaNo Winner (1)

It Is Never Too Late To Learn

Postby Dove Brown on December 4th, 2015, 1:24 pm

Your Grades!
Brought to you on the wings of a Dove!


Please remember to edit your grading request. If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding your grade, please do not hesitate to send me a PM.

Name: Brandon Blackwing
XP Award:
  • Stealth 1
  • Tracking 1
  • Tactics 2
  • Persuasion 2
  • Massage 4
  • Interrogation 2
  • Negotiation 1
  • Unarmed Combat 5
  • Medicine 3
  • Planning 1
  • Endurance 1
  • Weapon: Dagger 1
Lore:
  • Location: The Enclave, Wind Reach's library
  • Zith: general characteristics
  • Zith: disabled by flashing light in their eyes
  • Anyone can do a basic massage
  • How to restart a heart
  • The heart is a muscle?
  • Ways to stop a heart
  • Persuasion: bribe deks with meals
  • Djed: used in personal magic
  • How to recover Djed
  • The difference between Djed vessals and Djed nerves
  • The basics of pressure points
  • The locations of the arm's pressure points
  • The location of the knee's pressure points
  • Pressure point numbness wears off
  • Always experiment on others, not yourself
Notes: Nicely written.
Very busy at work. May not be around much for a while.
Threads: 3/3

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Dove Brown
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