Solo Of Body & Spirit Pt I

[Alric Lysane]

40th Winter 521 AV – Alric & Taz’s Apartment He had held off on practising with Flux, because the last time he had tried it he had all but jumped himself into a dust nap, yet the magic called to him, even more than the feeling of greatness it brought gave him. He knew that that was a false idol, something to be wary of. He knew he wasn’t a strong man, was prone to caving to base desires more often than he liked to admit to others, and so had put it off longer than he should have. He had a natural proclivity Taz had said, but the truth was that using Flux scared him in those part of him that fought the dark places inside, the ones that wanted to be empowered. Now, however, he was in the wide-open space of the second floor of their shared space, shirtless and breathing in deeply, slowly, in preparation for what he was about to attempt. Centering himself, making sure his mind was as solid as was possible, he was spending a long time simply being, letting thoughts drift this way and that, appearing and then vanishing, his mind concentrated upon an internal flame with a void of calm surrounding it. He had yet to touch his Djed, to summon it, but he was in no rush. He started to move as Taz had suggested, no real routine in mind but going through the motions of his unarmed skills. Slow, gentle movements that were purposeful and more meant to be contemplative than combative. A job followed by a cross, feet and arms moving in ways he hadn’t noticed before as he hadn’t really truly concentrated upon fighting rather than surviving. A series of kicks, changing legs with each, followed wand walked him down towards the other end of the room. He smiled slightly, even as his eyes were half-closed, enjoying the feeling out of his technique. Even as it exposed weaknesses, imbalances, he enjoyed it and felt that it would help him perfect his skill in the long run. That, however, was for another time and once he had completed two crossings of the room he relaxed and retreated inwards to touch his ‘well’ pulling upon his Djed and letting it flow into the energy pathways of his body as he had before. Remembering that he had to keep moving he let the energy bounce around within, crackling and jerking like lightning, as his feet alternately shifted as he half-jogged upon the spot. He trimmed the connection with his well to a mere trickle, only enough to provide a small boost to his exertions judging from how much he had held the last time. With that he began the routine he truly had planned – the physical routine, one which had been a long time coming and was only truly possible because he had been fed up properly for a while by his beloved Sykan Innkeeper. He tilted forwards, catching his fall to the floor with braced hands and began completing the first exercise, as many press ups as he could manage. It was less about building muscle, though that was a desire also, but more about learning the limits of what Flux could achieve whilst keeping to things that were reasonably simple. Once he felt the strain becoming too much he pushed himself up, but pushed too hard and came up quicker than expected, coming straight to his feet and circling his arms to maintain balance. Keeping moving he went into a slow jog around the room, concentrating upon the mechanics and how the energy shifted, moved and crackled.

[Alric Lysane]

Now that he was trying to feel it out more deeply, trying various things to see its reaction, the Djed crackling through him took on an almost mystical aura. The whispers of power and probability had already started, though he knew they were more to do with his internal ego than any Overgiving symptoms as he was using such a small amount, even less than the first time, and there were no other signs present. No, this was apparently going to be just as much about mental conditioning as the physical. As he jogged, he felt the pathways in his legs and hips surges and flow, occasionally a few flashes swept up through his chest and arms as they moved in time with the rhythm of his feet. As he jogged around the outside of the room, speeding up slightly until sweat started to bead upon his skin, he concentrated on emptying his mind of anything but the energy crackling and flowing, a different kind of meditation that started to make the whispers ease off and quieten a bit after a few laps. He sped up further, wondering how much the small amount of Djed might ever speed up his running but not trying it just yet. Sweat stained his back and his breathing started to become laboured as he slowed, changed activities and jumped up to one of the wooden beams above, there to repeat a series of pull ups that got him to grunting and groaning with the effort and strain, his muscles burning as they were unused to the activity. As he started to feel his muscles weaken he let his Djed flow and increase, directing it to where he was burning – his back muscles in general – and managed to continue onwards for longer than expected before his grip gave out and his feet slammed back into the floor, there to shift as he moved on the spot, breathing hard and raking his hair back, continuing to sense out the energy flows. He had learned one thing, at least, already and that was that there were definitely different muscle groups in this energy network. It was one thing to see them drawn out but entirely another to feel them out as they worked, sensing them and trying to direct them. He was already becoming slightly more aware of his body, more in tune with it though he still felt strange thinking about it that way. He took a little while to recover, feeling the burn in his back increase slightly before then numbing a little and easing off. He turned his Djed link up ever so slightly, fine tuning it so that the energy flowing within him was kept at a consistent level even as he used it up. It was a balancing act that was starting to become difficult and he didn’t enjoy the idea of either losing it completely or grabbing too much and jumping his skull into the ceiling. He moved back into his Tai Chi style meditation once more, seeking a balance again before moving onto the next series of physical exertions. He chose the same series of motions to repeat, fidning them both simple to do but also feeling them fill all of his muscles with the crackling Djed by the end of its acting out. Slow, purposeful movements lulling his mind back into a calm, steady rhythm of thoughtlessness and the heightened awareness of his body. Breathing went from deep and harsh to deep and slow after a time, then to a more normal breathing pattern as his routine repeated, three times this time, and he finally found himself back to where he wanted - calm and centered.

[Alric Lysane]

He stopped his martial Tai Chi routine and settled into some basic squats, focusing upon his form and how the Djed moved as his body did. It was an interesting pattern, the Djed crackling mostly in his thighs until he reached the bottom where it shifted to his backside and then, oddly enough, as he pushed up his calves seemed to get a large surge of Djed before the cycle repeated. He was puzzled by that and so focused very intently upon his exercises until he could figure out what precisely was happening. He knew he couldn’t direct to such small things just yet, both the book and his own practises had made that clear, so it wasn’t him doing it and must’ve been natural. It was only when he realised the balls of his feet pressed into the floor through his boots as he pushed up that he realised that – much like jumping – the pushing up of the squat motion generated strength first from his lower legs. He was both delighted that such a thing had been revealed, and bemused, at how much he enjoyed the. Eyris must certainly have left a mark upon him if such random knowledge felt like a small prize these days. He let his Djed focus and pool within his legs now, concentrating upon boosting his muscles as he had done with his back and finding, as expected, that he had to portion it into the entirety of his lower body rather than specific muscles. He didn’t push that too far, not wanting to risk injury or worse, and instead settled for it and tried for as many squats as he could get. His endurance seemed to have been boosted, or the Djed masked pain, as he found that strength flowed through his legs and the aching decreased. It allowed him to get out well over half dozen score before he began to tire, noticing how his sweating had become more profuse and his breathing more ragged despite his legs not feeling like they were about to fail. Letting his Djed return back to general circulation he almost shouted with the ache that almost immediately sprang up in his lower body as it signalled its discomfort and protest. He stopped the squats and returned to a slow, quite jerking, jog around the edge of the room again, hoping that it would give his legs time to ease out and relax with some movement and blood pumping through them. If anything, they ached all the harder and he almost stopped completely until it started to numb and dissipate with the rolling gait, smoothing out and becoming less jerky after a dozen laps or so. He didn’t go for speed this time, instead taking it easy and providing his body with some active rest that tested his endurance rather than speed. He continued until his legs felt as if they would fall off with much more, keeping a close monitor upon his Djed flows and how they changed. He thought that now the strained muscles were getting a bit more Djed, almost as if his body sensed they were weaker and required more energy – or perhaps it was the beginnings of healing already given how far he had pushed them. It was a good thing he had already finished his shift at Ruby’s in the morning as he thought he’d be walking funny until tomorrow and he wasn’t sure he’d survive the type of comments that would no doubt produce. He returned to his Tai Chi meditation when his legs grew too tired to continue without rest, seeking out and finding that calm stillness easier this time, repetition and tiredness coupling together to aid him even as his ragged breathing and sweat soaked torso signalled to him the effort he had expended already.

[Alric Lysane]

Once he was fully centered, if quite tired and aching in various places, he slipped out of his active meditation once more and gathered up a few items he had carried upstairs for if he had managed to be successful with his explorations of Flux. It was a good thing too as it provided a few chimes or so of much needed rest where he was still moving but only with simple movements that involved no exercise. In fact he was simply positioning two chairs so that they were a pace apart and facing each other, and placing a stool between them, and a little way back from their position. Once done he sighed, felt the Djed bouncing and crackling within and frowned in focus as his arms swung to keep it moving. Settle a hand upon the seat of each chair and his heels atop the stool he held himself off of the ground for a moment, took a deep breath, and then began to settle into a steady rhythm of dipping motions. This exercise was the easiest of them for him, he had spent so long now training – or fighting – with either blade or fist, that his arms were becoming quite strong. Still, he wasn’t sure how best to focus his Djed as it flashed around within him, the muscle groups were too small and didn’t want to comply with his connecting the Djed with them. Instead he settled for trying to infuse his upper body in its entirety, the front and the arms, and that seemed to work. Once done he felt the familiar lack of fatigue as he had with his legs but knew better this time. He counted, knowing that he only usually got to about fifty before he started to tire a little. Sweat was pouting off of him now and dripping to stain the floor, breathing laboured and ragged between grunt of effort. He was trying to breathe in through the nose and out through the mouth, knowing that was best, but it was difficult to maintain the further into the exercise he got and instead he started to pant more and more. He managed to get to a hundred with some straining and the immediately dropped his ankles to the ground and started a slow walk towards the edge of the room, letting the Djed go. Pain blossomed, as it had with his legs before, though this was less intense and felt more as if he had pushed himself beyond his normal limits as usual. It was a good ache, deep and satisfying between the odd flash of pain. He stretched his arms as he walked, feeling the blood encouraged into them and then swung them in circles a few times before setting off into the gentle jogging rhythm that had seemed to slot into the end of each exercise phase by now. It was useful, he noted, giving him time for a little rest but still keep warm, and be primed for the next part. There was only one more thing he wanted to try today anyway and so he pushed himself though, keeping his energy pathways in check as his mind clouded and he started going through the motions, settling into his Tai Chi routine after a brief sprint around the room for a few laps, and seeking out the calm spaces between the aches and pains. He had a feeling he would need it to get through the last portion of his explorations.

[Alric Lysane]

He made his way tiredly to the wall nearby, bending down to place his hands a little way away from it and upon the floor, kicking his feet up and over until his ankles rested upon the wall and he was upside down. Letting the Djed bounce around within for a few moments before it started to settle, he willed it into his upper body once more before he started to lower himself until his head was just above the floor, then pushing his arms with all of the strength he had left, aided by his Flux, he returned back to the starting position. He then proceeded to repeat the motion, planning to do so until he was finally spent. It didn’t take as long as he had hoped, even with the magic helping him enhance his abilities somewhat, his endurance fading and energy dying quickly. He managed to get some repetitions out, enough that his muscles ached and complained, but it became quickly apparent that his day of exercise was now over, not even sure if he would have enough energy left to complete the run or the meditation Tai Chi style routine. As his muscles finally started to fail and he felt as if he would simply collapse he knew the danger and pre-empted it, using the last of his Djed to force one last, mighty push that sent him tumbling through the air to try to land upon his feet, releasing his ‘well’ as he did so. He went a bit further than expected, hitting the floor with his heels before rolling backwards a couple of times, head over heels, until he finally came to a slumping stop leaning against the other wall, his momentum having carried him close to it and then he had pulled himself slowly, half-crawling, to rest himself against it with a sigh and a groan. He ached all over, his body having been pushed beyond its normal limits, even more than a usual exercise regime might do. He didn’t know how long he merely lay there, breathing raggedly and then trending towards a more normal rhythm, but he fancied as he finally managed to push himself up with a rippling of aches that it had been a good half-Bell or more. “Well done Alric…proof of concept found…now just need to…not kill yourself doing it going forwards” he muttered to himself, feet shuffling towards the stairs and then carefully, slowly, descending them. With trembling fingers, he found his chair and eased himself into it with winces as his muscles complained and the pressure. He sat there for some time, eventually summoning up the wherewithal to start snacking at the food he had prepared beforehand. He watched as his Mussarana slithered about, snapping up the few scraps of raw meat left from the morning when he had laid them out for it, just in case it had yet to find a recent rodent. He was growing quite fond of the thing, strange as it was.

[Alric Lysane]

Your Grades Alric Lysane Skills Body Building – 5 Endurance – 5 Flux – 5 Meditation - 4 Running – 4 Lores Flux: Body Connection (Basic) Flux: Djed Patterns Flux: Tai Chi Meditation Flux: Targeting – Back Muscles Flux: Targeting – Lower Body Muscles Flux: Targeting – Upper Body Muscles