Xavier Lundstrom
December 17, 2022 4:52 AM
It's me, your best student (tag Professor Duell) by Xavier Lundstrom
Xavier made his way through the halls, tingling with anticipation for his session of the new year with Professor Duell. It was strange casting his mind back to the same time last year, where she had asked him to start Listening to his Powers and making choices that Spoke to him. He’d had no idea what that was even supposed to mean. And yet… it still had made a sort of sense. He’d ended up with a crystal ball in his hands, and that now felt like such an extension of himself that he couldn’t imagine being without it. A lot of the touchy, feely side of divination still sounded painfully weird and awkward to him. He wasn’t sure he was ready to start talking in a floaty voice about The Fates, or to forgive them for their ridiculous levels of vaguery, but… he got this.He waited to be called in, having learnt early on that knocking was a foolish thing to do. And like, also he had an appointment, so it wasn’t even like it was that impressive, but Professor Duell did seem to like the little party trick, so he let her have it.
“Hey,” he beamed, the enthusiasm evident in his voice as he greeted her. “I worked really hard on my crystal gazing over the summer—I did everything you told me to.” Well, more or less. She said a lot of stuff about taking it easy, and inner balance and finding a flow. He’d found his flow. It was a rapidly rushing river. It always had been, and added to that was the fact that he had started from behind in this and it was the one thing he could actually do easily and with confidence. Why wouldn’t he take every second of it that he could get? Sure, sometimes after a long session of crystal gazing, his eyelids were heavy, and he found it hard to focus back on the real world—but it was the good kind of tired, like how you felt after a long hike or a day out skating. He ended up tired because he’d been doing something productive and challenging. “It’s becoming way clearer.” At first, the mist had been an overwhelming swell, like seventeen different TV channels all playing at once and all on fast forward—he could tell there was information there, so much information, but the chaos of it all had cancelled itself out. “I can always pick out symbols and images now. Sometimes I still feel like I’m getting more than one thread at once, but I’m starting to be able to tell what goes together now, even when it’s cluttered. And I’ve been having more recurring dreams, so it’s like… Even if I can’t process it at the time, it lodges in there, and then my subconscious gets to work on it later. Hey, any idea what a burning boat might symbolise?” he asked. “Except for, y’know, caution against taking boat trips. That’s been coming up a lot…”
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Xavier Lundstrom
It's me, your best student (tag Professor Duell)
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Giselle Duell
December 17, 2022 9:46 AM
Most enthusiasts without a doubt. by Giselle Duell
Giselle was dealing with abandonment issues and separation anxiety again. She had something of a stable life now, and did not want to continue to be a burden on Marissa and Andrew. However, whenever she thought about finding her own place to live, she just couldn't actually do it.She had thought she had dealt with this. It hadn't been Andrew or Marissa's fault. She knew that, and she accepted that. It had been much easier to do once she had been able to firmly assign that blame on Lia. She thought she had dealt with all of that, but here it was rearing its ugly head again. Whenever she thought seriously about moving out, she was nearly overwhelmed with an irrational fear of being cut off, alone and helpless again.
She also thought that it would be nice to meet a nice wizard and have someone else in her life other than her family and coworkers. But… that stirred up all sorts of trust issues that she still was working through as well. Someday perhaps.
In the meantime, she was back at school and needed to focus on school things now. School things were safe and stable. Well, most of them. Xavier had an appointment. Giselle had nothing against the boy, and she had taken responsibility for his extra education. The main problem that she had with him was that he was entirely infatuated with crystal gazing and that was something that she just couldn't help him with other than what she had learned or read. The crystal balls were completely unresponsive to her sightless eyes.
Giselle instructed him to enter as he approached the door as was the custom by this point. He was as enthusiastic as always. She imagined most teachers would welcome a boundless enthusiasm in their pupils, and she was certainly glad that he was excited about the subject. However, divinations needed to be tempered with some prudence and careful thought lest one jumped to the wrong conclusions. It was easy enough to do without racing ahead.
"Welcome back Mr. Lundstrom." She responded with a smile. Then she let his summer updates wash over her, unconvinced that he had followed all of her instructions to the letter. "Clarity is very good, but don't be afraid of intertwining threads. Many times they are inherently linked to one another, things are rarely so simple as to exist all alone."
"A burning boat?" She considered the image, and a few clarifying questions. "Are there any other common aspects to it? For instance, are you usually in the boat or just watching it? What is the state of the waters it is on, calm or rough?"
Tge line of questioning reminded her once more of her own reoccurring symbol. That little bird that had flitted about last year had changed. There was a shadow that now loomed over it, and where it hadn't paid much attention to her before, now it seemed to occasionally look her way.
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Giselle Duell
Most enthusiasts without a doubt.
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Xavier Lundstrom
December 17, 2022 4:15 PM
I'm literally a Seer. How am I not the best? by Xavier Lundstrom
“Yeah, sometimes they are,” he agreed, when she talked about the possibility of intertwining threads. “But sometimes it’s just… cluttered and noisy and too much.” He didn’t mean too much for him, that made it sound like he was failing but like… he was sure it would be too much for anyone. The Fates had, after all, taken to dumping information into his head in such mega amounts that it fried his brains and gave him migraines. It was unprocessable, their fault, not his, but he was working through that and getting it down to a manageable flow of information.“Watching,” he answered, promptly and with absolute certainty. “And… calm?” The second answer was much more obviously a guess. “I dunno… I don’t think there really is an ocean,it’s just the ship… It’s like it’s grounded in the crystal ball mist, I guess? Or like there’s more moving beyond it that I can’t see. But yeah, I’m definitely only watching, not participating. It’s for someone else, not for me,” he said, the same confidence with which he’d first spoken back in his voice—this was something he just Knew. “And I usually feel a sense of danger but like… obviously, there’s something on fire.
“Are there any arts you wanted to practise together?” he asked. “Maybe we could investigate?” Yes, he favoured the crystal ball, but other than vague meditation advice (which he ignored), there wasn’t a lot Professor Duell could do for him in that area. But it was important to be well rounded and stretch his powers and whatever, so they often worked on trying out other methods during his lessons with her, as well as discussing his ongoing visions and doing stupid breathing exercises.
OOC: I'm making vague guesses about what would be logical ways for their lessons to usually go. Lemme know if any of it doesn't sound right and am happy to amend.
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Xavier Lundstrom
I'm literally a Seer. How am I not the best?
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Giselle Duell
December 23, 2022 10:18 AM
What you do with what you have is more important than what it is that you have. by Giselle Duell
The concept of nodding along with someone's speech to show attention and agreement was not something that Giselle practiced. Most purely visual based actions fell into that category. As such she simply faced him, listened and waited for him to complete his thoughts. "That is not uncommon," she stated once he had finished. "It takes a lot of practice and discipline to consciously focus and filter out." At least so she had heard, it was more of a crystal gazing problem than most of the other techniques. Dream analysis she was much better with, and there was some correlation there.She skipped over his boat observations for the moment since this connected with some of his other questions. "One of the best ways to pull apart or to focus on one bit of information specifically, is to ply the same question to other forms of reading. So as you suggested, we should try to investigate with another method." She gently waved her wand about, "Since you have mainly been using the crystal and the cards, let's see what my next method of choice might reveal." The teapot, cups, saucers and such floated from her shelves to her desk. "Tea?" She asked, "Unless you would rather skip to haruspicy?" There was just a hint of a joke in her voice, but if he really wanted to look at animal entrails, they could do it.
"As for your boat on fire," she continued once they were ready. "A boat has a few meanings, most commonly, it is about advancement or a journey. However, that doesn't necessarily mean it is an external thing. The water upon which it rides is often a symbol for an internal or emotional state." She paused a moment to let this sink in so far, "Now since you were only watching, as you said, it is most likely not your journey, but someone else's. The lack of water or movement could be that the journey has stalled out, run aground. The fire..." she paused again more to think before continuing. "Fire can be good or bad, fire can symbolize illumination and transformation. But, it can also just be destruction."
"You also said that there might be something more moving beyond what you could see? Any of these things we could focus on to try and see what other methods have to say. They may clarify things, they may make things more confusing. Where would you like to begin?"
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Giselle Duell
What you do with what you have is more important than what it is that you have.
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Xavier Lundstrom
December 26, 2022 6:25 PM
*snicker* by Xavier Lundstrom
Urgh. Tea. Why were Seers obsessed with the gross, soggy leaf water? Could there not have been signs in hot chocolate? As Professor Duell pointed out, it was somewhat less gross than some alternatives—though as Xavier wouldn’t have to put the animal entrails in his mouth, the competition was a lot closer than she might have realised.As she prepared the tea, she pretended to give some insights into the boat, though as usual none of them really moved anything further forward. A boat could mean a journey. Well, duh, he’d worked that out. And she only said ‘could,’ nothing more definite, because of course it could be something utterly different and symbolic. He already knew it wasn’t his own journey. The thing about stalling… Okay, that was new. But fire could be good or bad. Wow. How much vaguer could this stupid subject get?
She then turned it back to him, asking where they should begin. Which was tricky, because the fates were vague at the best of times, so it was hard to tell when taking a stab in the dark… If he got back only vague, confusing non-answers, did that mean he’d chosen the wrong question, or they were just doing what they always did and being all WoooOOOooooo about things?
“I guess… maybe asking who it relates to?” he suggested. The things moving beyond his vision… He couldn’t even take an intelligent guess at what they might be, or what he was supposed to ask about them. But he knew this vision connected to someone other than himself, so that was at least a solid question to start with.
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Xavier Lundstrom
*snicker*
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