[Undeniable Interests] One in the Hand (Venser)

by **Wanda Endust** on February 5th, 2014, 12:41 am

Undeniable Interests
9 Spring, 507 AV
Around Noon

OOCLet me know if the date doesn't work for you.

It occurred to Wanda, as she ran a tiny finger across a particularly dusty shelf, that she had too much free time on her hands.

Her mother always seemed to be far too absorbed in her own work for her own good. The girl didn't quite understand why. Mrs. Endust always complained about the patients and the workers and the people in general, yet poured oil on the fire by volunteering for extra shifts.

Of course, Wanda did have the sneaking suspicion that her mother was simply looking for any excuse to spend as little time with Mr. Endust as possible lately. The girl wasn't completely unobservant, and it ate at her. There were arguments in the middle of the night, and the bitter words in the morning. She could never quite fully catch what the fuss was about, though every now and again she would glean something about her dad's work.

Her dad was usually pretty busy too, oftentimes just as much as his wife. The difference between the two was that Dad always made time to spend with Wanda, whereas Mother usually... didn't.

Either way, the girl was left with too much time to herself, which didn't sit well with her. Wanda was a little social creature, yet here she was, breathing in a bunch of smelly dust off of a bunch of smelly books. And things. She would've much preferred to run around the city with her friends, but they all had normal families with mothers and fathers who actually spent a decent amount of time with their kids everyday -- or, at the very least, they had hired a tutor or a nanny.

Wanda could've run around the city on her own, but that's exactly what she'd been doing for the last good number of days. There were plenty of roads and alleys to explore and peek around in but, believe it or not, it did get pretty boring when all you really find are more alleys and more stone walls.

So she'd made her way to the little shop of curiosities. And, as much as she liked to complain about it, the place really wasn't all that bad. It might've been a bit stuffy, but there were a number of interesting little trinkets and papers for Wanda to poke around in, and Mr. Ariva didn't seem to mind too much. So long as she didn't break anything, didn't kill herself, and didn't scare off the real customers.

What's more, her dad had encouraged her to drop by the little hole-in-the-wall of a store. He'd been trying to instruct her lately about a bunch of magic-y nonsense, and insisted that she do a smidgen of research sometime. She was, after all, old enough to handle her own learning.

But all his recent talk of Djed and spheres of influence and meditation and Hypnotism were beginning to make her head reel. Still, maybe she could find something useful among the stacks.

A few legitimate customers milled about here and there, and Wanda had to resist the urge to spy on the person on the other side of the book shelf she had found herself perusing. Instead, with some kind of lazy interest, she slid the closest book that looked vaguely intriguing -- some red canvas-bound volume, no title -- and thumbed through to a page.

by **Venser Rush** on February 11th, 2014, 4:27 am

Thrust into an unfamiliar environment with nothing but a place to be at a certain time, Vilkas Rush had essentially left his youngest son to toil in the confusion of the ever-confounding mass that was Syliras. In his youth, the place had been terrifying, the sounds of chafing armour in the streets as frenzied Knights marched along in order to stamp out even the slightest unrest. It was, in his memory, a place of nightmares.

The boy, in his few months living in the city, had not come to understand the inner workings of the city, and certainly had not gained insight in the time he lived in Ravok since, but he knew well enough that Syliras was a place where dreams went to die. Syliras was a cage, towering walls literally incarcerating its citizens in its dark hold. His old apartment here didn't even have windows. Hot, dry, dead. That was the life of a Sylirian.

Venser had been ecstatic to return to Ravok, where fresh air and the bounty of lake-bound life was plentiful, and his desire to return to this shykehole was non-existent, but Vilkas insisted that he come with him and his brother. At least there's the trinket shop, right? It was his only thought that granted him reprieve from the anxiety of being in the walled city, his feet taking him along a pathway.

Earlier, he had asked for directions, grateful for the merchant... or he thought the man to be a merchant, there weren't any wares at his stall... for the hospitality and decency, and was glad to be rid of the world when he entered Undeniable Interests. The place was certainly true to its name, littered with trinkets and small gadgets, books of varying subjects cast into dusty shelves, waiting to be rescued from the shop where a doddering old man hoarded items to be sold, a lifetime of pursuit for... whatever it was the man was searching for, yielding him nothing more than a small space in the oppressive city to live out the rest of his days. It was tragic, to be sure. But, Venser felt little pity for the man, inclined instead to make his time in Syliras worth it.

Djed. It was the single greatest word in the Ancient Tongue, its meaning twisting and shaping according to the context, as all words, but it was also likely the only one that was universally known. Magic was not the norm in this world, feared and hated (Such vicious hypocrisy... given the accepted notion of magical items due to their preeminence over their mundane counterparts.), yet the word djed was known by all. A faint whisper carried the word through the wind, bringing chills, fear, intrigue and perhaps even pleasure to the ears of the world. For Venser, it was the latter. The concept was one he was intimately familiar with, the knowledge of Zapatl giving him insight into how it worked, but outside of his own body. Perhaps the old man, I forget his name... has a book which can teach me how to use internalized djed for a transcendent purpose. The thought brought a smile to his lips, the boy perusing the dusty stacks in search of something that would assist him.

Pit pat. Pit pat.

Quiet, small footsteps sounded nearby, from what Venser could tell, on the other side of the stacks, the boy arching his eyebrows as he realized the sound was that of a child. Then, the faint rustling of pages could be heard, curiosity arising in the boy as he looked through the webbing of the stacks. At eye level, nothing of the child could be seen, but that was to be expected. He lowered, crouching to get a better view. The form of a little girl could be seen at the level of his rib cage, Much younger than expected. But, these books look like they're focused on magic... Could she be a learner, as well? That was... astonishing, if true.

He decided to remain silent, instead looking at the girl for a moment longer before his attention returned to the stacks, his hopes waxing as the titles came to mind. One in particular seemed to be of interest, his finger caressing the purple binding of a particularly dusted looking book. Along the binding, faded words in silver print could be seen.

Astral Pathways: Awakening the Flux.

by **Wanda Endust** on February 15th, 2014, 10:39 pm

Wanda would be lying if she said she particularly liked books. Or, rather, she did like books for the knowledge within, even if she could rarely make heads or tail of what they were about. But she didn't like the smell of books at all. Truly. They stank like they'd been exposed to too many grimy hands over the years, and sometimes they had unidentifiable stains on the pages.

Still, she braved the yellowed pages in search of anything that might catch her fleeting attention. She couldn't tell the age of the book she held, but she guessed it couldn't be too old, since its smell wasn't so bad as many of the others.

The page she had thumbed to was nothing more than row upon row of various sayings and mantras. In fact, that seemed to be all the book was -- a quick flip to the very first page revealed 4,108 Words inscribed in tiny script. The title? Probably. From there, the pages were simply a compilation of... words. Or groups of words that formed sentences, but each sentence was written on a different line and none seemed to actually be related to one another.

Wanda snorted, pawing to another page. At least it was interesting enough. There were a few words she couldn't read, though she couldn't tell whether that was because her the author's sloppy, slanting handwriting or if it was actually because her vocabulary was small. Either way, she glanced up and down the page.

The truth is relative.
Never mention the worst -- drop it from your consciousness.
Drink enough, but never too much.
Tact is making a point without making an enemy.
Try really hard.
Panic can be used for energy.

And it went on and on, stretching to somewhere between one-hundred and two-hundred pages. What would anyone want this for? It didn't have any real useful information as far as Wanda could tell. Just a bunch of statements and mottos, as far as she could see. Well, it was certainly true to its name.

On a whim, she flipped to the back cover. Here, to her surprise, she found something that stood out from the rest of the book simply because it was made of complete, related sentences. The handwriting was different from the rest, some of the words were given abbreviations or symbols that were unknown to her, as if someone had been using the extra space on the page just to take notes:

Djed, within everything. "Backbone." Not created or destroyed, but can be transformed, essntl. in magic. Prsnl magic ~~see void~~ lose djed = lose spirit+existence+energy, if we use too much at 1 time djed will be taken from the soul, will lead to overgiving. With void, overgiving can be usual (see sweet whispers) or can include various void-related phenom. (inner-self-voids, void hallucin., etc.).

It went on, but Wanda didn't understand most of it anyway. Her father had touched on djed minimally, but it was still a bit of a mystery to her. She recognized the phrase "overgiving" as well, but only had a rough idea of what it meant in this case.

So, from what she could tell from the scrawling, Djed was in everything, it was referred to as a "backbone", and it couldn't be created or destroyed. It could, however, be transformed, but if it was used too much at one time it could lead to overgiving.

Anything besides those facts were gibberish to her, and she had no way of knowing whether the information she had gleaned was true, but it was a start. Unfortunately, that was about as useful as the book would be to her.

Wanda was about to toss the small volume back onto the shelf when she felt... eyes. That feeling of being watched, if only for a moment, and that prickling sensation at the back of her neck. Or maybe she just had to sneeze.

Either way, Wanda glanced about, blonde locks whirling, until she caught sight of a person through the book shelves. Probably the same person she'd resisted harassing earlier, or perhaps a different person. She could see very little of them besides the hem of his or her shirt, but Wanda now did not suppress the urge to spy on them, especially if they'd been doing the same to her.

Setting her features into a serious-looking frown, Wanda clutched the small red volume to her side and scooted some books out of the way on the shelf. Dust gently floated into the surrounding air as she crouched and cleared a window on the shelf of books and trinkets, craning her neck to peer upwards. At this angle, she had a better view of the person (A guy, by the looks of it. Girls didn't usually have those kinds of forearms.), but could still only see to about the level of the book he held in his hands.

Of course, she'd never been a very good spy. She had trouble keeping quiet in general, and she had a very loose grip on her curiosity. So, "What's that?" she whispered loudly.

by **Venser Rush** on February 17th, 2014, 6:08 am

The girl noticed him, and had decided to strike a conversation through the stacks? The concept of speaking to a disembodied voice was not one that appealed to him. Even his lord Harameus, if Venser ever had the blessed chance to communicate with him, would not... speak. From what he gathered, the God communicated in a much more discrete way, choosing to limit his pool of worshipers to strictly those who had the intelligent design to interpret the signs that he placed in their path. He was a God that was forsaken, simply because he was misunderstood. This girl, on the other hand, was easily understood. And, in front of him. Unwilling to answer her without being able to see her, Venser turned on his heel and exited the stacks, turning to the left and onwards to the other side of the stacks.

The Rush twin took the book he had been looking at with him. He had no idea what it was about just yet, but he had a premonition, a feeling of sorts, that it was relevant to his pursuit. He held it at his side, glad to have brought the coin he had saved. Despite Vilkas Rush's disdain for his child, he did not lack an allowance of sorts. Yes, he was left alone for vast periods of time, the privilege of an education not granted to him as it was Verin. But, at the least, his father's 'generosity' provided him with sufficient funds to purchase his meals and provide for himself. Any books he had tried to buy in the past were confiscated, but he was allowed trinkets and clothing. This book, though, he was going to put into Verin's collection. His brother never bothered with the bottom shelf.

A soft smile graced his features as he listened, reading the book's title again before allowing his fingers to traverse the faded silver text, the colour slightly faded. Flipping through pages, he looked them over before he answered, "It's a book about the... the Flux. I don't know anything about it, but it seems interesting." His words breathed his lack of knowledge on the subject, the boy wishing he could say more... know more, but he needed to read the text before doing so. Rather than do so and ignore the girl altogether, he took a look at the book she held, instead, arching his eyebrows as he attempted to read words from the page she was on. Only one stuck in his mind.

pǝɾp

The words were confusing when upside down, difficult to accomplish, but he managed to understand the single most important word in all of existence. Djed. The word was existence. It was everything that was and everything that could ever be. The origin. The spine. Djed was all of life. and all that wasn't life. Venser allowed a moment to consider his thought before he tilted his head slightly, allowing curiosity to fill his mind, the question on his lips. He paused for a single moment before deciding to ask it, "I think, though, that the question is what's that? Djed?"

Venser hoped that his ability to lie was present, for he wished to test the girl's knowledge. It was purposefully done, as well. Her answer dictated what her purpose with the book was. Purely academic study of djed, as Venser figured from his brother's education, which was passed down from Verin to him, was that djed was in all things. But, to others, djed was that, and more. It was a tool to be manipulated, a power to be reckoned with. Which was she? Venser knew his own standing, but it was intriguing to see if this girl was a learner, as well. Curiosity demanded it.

by **Radiant** on June 20th, 2014, 3:28 pm

Wanda :

Venser :

Notes :

My radiance is not bright enough?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your grade, beam me a PM and we can work it out.

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+2 XP
Socialization	+1 XP
Reading	+1 XP

Skill	XP Earned
Observation	+2 XP
Socialization	+1 XP

Completed [Undeniable Interests] One in the Hand (Venser)