literature

Academy Accounts Ep. I, Part 1

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Accounts at the Academy for Mental Magic, Episode I, Part 1

In the mind of Lukas, present:

“Who’s there? Show yourself! I can feel your presence, intruder!” Lukas yelled out in the darkness.

A girl about his age popped into view. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to alarm you!”

“And yet you are still here. If you have no further business, I would appreciate that you leave,” Lukas shot back.

“What, no introductions? You can call me Mystic.”

“I’d rather call you a trespasser. This is my mind you are intruding upon! Be gone before I kick you out myself!”

Mystic sat down on the floor whose blackness drew no distinction with the rest of the surroundings. “I’m not leaving until you listen to me.”

Lukas sighed. “Fine. What do you have to say?”

“I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you’ve been in a coma for almost a month now.”

“Yes, I am aware.”

“Your friends and family are all worried about you. Why won’t you wake up?”

“That is my decision to make. I rather like it here.”

“Here? It’s all black! No colors or objects except for the two of us.”

“I think I’ve heard enough. Good bye.” He turned to walk away, but felt a hand on his shoulder.

“No, no, sorry. I mean, black is a nice… backdrop.” Mystic paused. “What I meant was, what does this place have that the world outside your mind does not?”

“Simplicity. Calm. Solitude,” he replied, stressing the last word.

“I did a little background reading on you before I came here –”

“I’m sure you did.”

“– and you’re a dream-sculptor, right?”

“I was one,” he corrected.

“What, you lost your gifts?”

“No, on the contrary,” he moved his hands, and a trident appeared, which he used to point at Mystic, “they are still working fine.” He paused. “If you didn’t gather by the weapon pointing at you, I think your time here is up.”

“Just a few more things,” she pleaded, her fingertips brushing aside the trident.

“What now?” He thrust the trident’s blunt end into the ground. “I have no idea why you are so interested in me. People were only interested in me when I was using my gifts for them. Now that I’m out of commission… wait. You’re not here to ask me to sculpt a dream for you, are you?”

He lifted the trident again, but put it down when Mystic assured him that that was not her intention. “I’m only here to try to wake you up so you can keep on living.”

“Well, I can wake up any time I want to. But that won’t happen any time soon. Are you working off some community service or something? I’m sure there are other coma patients you can try your mind-trespassing tricks on.”

“No, I’m not doing this just to win some points or something. Let me explain what’s going on out there.”

At the Academy for Mental Magic, two weeks ago:

“Hello, how can I help you?” a tired receptionist greeted.

“Umm, hi, my name is Mystic Touché, and I’m a transfer student? I just arrived on campus last night, and I was wondering where I would sign up for classes and register and everything.”

The receptionist yawned. “Here, fill out these forms. As soon as the computer accepts the information, you’ll be a registered student and you can sign up for classes online.”

“Okay, thanks.” Mystic took a seat in the lobby and filled out the information.

Hmm, she thought to herself. Name: Mystic Touché… The receptionist yawned again, this time a bit louder than he did a minute ago. She ignored him. Birthdate… Three students walked by, their chatter interrupted by loud yawns. Mental abilities: thought-artist… A couple of professors walked by, greeting each other with weak waves and soft hellos.

She finished the form and handed it to the receptionist, who began to scan the information into the computer. “Umm…” Mystic started.

“Yes?”

“You’re a student, right? Is the workload really hard here? Everyone seems to be really tired.”

“The workload is okay if you’re on top of everything. But as for why everyone is tired, I don’t know. I think the entire campus woke up one day and felt exhausted, no matter how much sleep they got.”

“I see. When did this start happening?”

“Not sure. Heh, I was always tired because I procrastinate a lot. But I think I heard people saying that they started feeling tired around two weeks ago? Anyway, your information is in the computer, so you can go back to your dorm and sign up for classes.”

“Okay, thanks.” As she left the office, she felt a funny feeling in her gut telling her that something wasn’t right. How can everyone on campus feel tired?

Back at her dorm room, into which she unpacked all her stuff the night before, Mystic sat down in front of her laptop and looked up the university home page. As the page loaded, she looked out her window. The university hospital was located across the street. As she stared at the glass windows, she felt a prickling on her scalp, meaning that some mental magic was at work. Suddenly, she felt a bit sleepy, and realized that something at the hospital was making everyone on campus tired.

She headed over to the hospital, sketchbook in hand. When the nurse at the front desk refused to give out “personal information”, Mystic left, only to sit outside the hospital lobby window, unseen, and pulled out her sketchbook. Pencil in hand, she closed her eyes and focused on the nurse’s mind. Her hand moved automatically, and when Mystic opened her eyes she saw that she drew an open hospital door, numbered 306. Inside the room was a sleeping boy of Asian descent, about her age, floating in some sort of bed-sized pool, with only a strip of heavy cloth covering his hips and a pair of inflated pillows for his head and ankles. Judging by all the machinery surrounding the pool, she guessed that the liquid inside was not plain water, but had some magical properties.

She pulled the sketchbook closer to see if she had drawn in the patient’s name. She could make out the name “Lukas”, but that was it. Mystic decided to do some more investigating.

After a couple of days of sitting under the tree on the hospital front lawn, she gathered that the boy in 306 had fallen into a coma two weeks ago, right around the time that everyone began to feel tired, due to some magic-related accident. Lukas was a dream-sculptor, with the power to enter people’s dreams and shape them as he wanted. He never abused his powers, but rather marketed them for some extra money. He met with his customers, asked them what they wanted in their ideal dream, and then as they slept he entered their dreams and sculpted the events that they described to him. But the last one that he did before he fell into a coma must have gone awry somehow. Mental healers had tried to wake him up, but he had put very strong mental blocks on himself, so the healers could not even penetrate his mind. They too had noticed that he was somehow causing the exhaustive spell that was plaguing the campus, and had placed him in that pool of magic liquid, to try and dampen any magic he was emitting unconsciously. The pool proved worthless, but the healers did not want to put back his hospital bed, citing expenses, so they left him suspended in the pool for the time being, excusing their laziness as “a precautionary measure”.

No one else over the next two weeks could provide any more information for her, so she devised a plan to ask Lukas himself.

In the mind of Lukas, present:

“And that’s pretty much what’s happened so far,” Mystic concluded.

“So I was right, you weren’t really interested in me, you were trying to save the campus.”

“No, no, don’t get me wrong. I just like doing detective work. But I am concerned about your well-being. Being in a coma for this long isn’t good for any mind.”

“I haven’t noticed any side effects yet. But I knew that something might go wrong, which is why I have all those mental blocks put up, to protect myself from others and vice versa. But wait, how did you get into my head? The university healers couldn’t even penetrate the first layer!” Lukas, suspecting foul play, began to approach Mystic.

Mystic backed up, hands in the air. “No, I just had a friend help me! Honest, I’m trying to help you.” Lukas, although distrustful, put his trident down again.

“So you want to know why I’m in here? If I tell you what happened, will you leave me in peace?” Mystic nodded. “Okay, here goes.” He waved his arms in a circle, and an image formed inside of it. “I’m going to show you a piece of my memory that relates to what happened.”

At the Academy for Mental Magic, four weeks ago:

Lukas was sitting at his computer, typing up his essay for his Mental Imagery class, when someone knocked on his door.

“Hello, can I help you?” Lukas asked when he opened the door.

A very tall muscular guy responded, “Hi, my name is Phil, and I hear you accept commissions for dream-sculpting?”

Lukas sighed. It was rare that someone knocked on his door for a reason other than to commission a dream or to ask a homework question. His closest friends were studying abroad, and he hadn’t been able to make any new friends without strings attached. “Yep, that’s me. Please, come on in.”

Lukas sat back down in his swivel chair as Phil sat at the foot of his bed. Lukas pulled his laptop onto his lap, pulled up the dream request form, and turned to Phil.

“So, Phil, what kind of dream experience were you looking for?”

“Well, anything that has lots of fantasy elements. All my dreams are pretty normal, and I want to experience something that could never happen in the real world.”

“Fair enough. Anything you want in particular?”

“Hmm, well I’ve always wanted to be an armored knight, fighting a fire-breathing dragon, protecting the city from its rampage…” Phil continued to relate his ideal dream as Lukas jotted notes down and did some quick sketches to make sure his ideas matched Phil’s.

Once the describing process was finished, Lukas discussed payment and liability. “You don’t have any mental powers that I should be concerned about, do you?”

“No, I’m pretty normal.”

“But you do have powers right? Why else would you attend this university?”

Phil twitched, unnoticed by Lukas, who hadn’t looked up from his laptop screen. “I’m studying artificial and enhanced mental powers. The only thing I can do is see the future sometimes. I have no way of controlling it.”

“Hmm, a seer, haven’t worked with any of those before… I should probably make a few calls first to see if it’s okay.”

“Don’t bother. Here,” he took out a few sheets of folded wrinkled paper from the pocket of his jeans. “These documents are signed by my professor saying that any dream-sculpting won’t affect anyone’s health.” Lukas perused it skeptically, but shrugged and said it was fine.

Later that night, Phil appeared again, this time in his pajamas. Lukas had pulled out the air mattress, on which Phil would be sleeping that night.

“What’s that lump under your shirt, Phil?”

“It’s nothing!” Phil said hurriedly. But Lukas poked Phil in the side, making him laugh and drop the teddy bear that was hiding in his shirt. Phil turned red, but Lukas just laughed and gestured to the teddy bear that was resting beside his own pillow. “I won’t tell anyone, I promise,” Lukas said with a wink.

Phil lifted the smaller Lukas into the air by his armpits and wiggled his fingers, making Lukas wiggle and laugh. “You better not,” Phil growled, smiling.

Phil made himself comfortable on the bed and soon fell asleep, and Lukas had just finished his essay. By only the glow of the computer screen, Lukas looked at the sleeping giant in his room. Lukas changed into his own pajamas, and crawled into his bed. He planned to just fall asleep as soon as he was done with Phil’s dream. He closed his eyes and projected himself into Phil’s mind.

Lukas opened his eyes to find that he was on the Academy campus. He felt something different about this dream that other dreams, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Shrugging off his perpetual worry, he walked around and tried to find Phil. Because he was a visitor to this dream, he had no physical ties to the dream and could walk through people and objects as if he were an ethereal spirit. He finally found Phil, reading in the library. “Show time,” he muttered under his breath.

Lukas waved his hands to conjure up some armor around Phil, but he got a sharp pain in his head as the move failed. He didn’t understand what happened, so he tried again, but got another sharp pain. He tried something simple, like making Phil’s book close, but the pain stung him again, making him fall to his knees. “What’s going on here?” he wondered, clutching his temples. He was about to just give up and not accept Phil’s money, but the thought of that fun minute of horsing around made Lukas want to try to make a new friend, and so he kept on trying.

He concentrated very hard, and finally he got a page to turn on its own, but the pain struck him again and he fell to the floor. “Something isn’t right here,” he thought, and suspected Phil was keeping something from him. He decided to break his normal protocol and turn Phil’s dream into a lucid one, where Phil would be aware he was dreaming. He waved his arms in a giant circle and then thrust his palms towards the sitting Phil, and then unexpectedly he felt the air change around him.

“Lukas? When did you get here?” Phil got up and reached out a hand to Lukas, who found himself sprawled on the floor. As soon as Phil and Lukas made contact, Lukas’ head began to throb. He clutched his head, yelling, “Phil! What’s going on?”

“I don’t know! You just suddenly appeared in my dream!”

“What have you been keeping from me?” Lukas screamed, his head pounding even harder. “Ow! The truth!”

“Okay! I’m a seer, but I see future events in my dreams. I think that this one isn’t a normal dream, but rather an event that is going to happen.”

“Ahh!” Lukas groaned. “Why didn’t you tell me this before?” His vision became blurry.

“I was afraid you wouldn’t take the risk!”

“And do you see why, now?? Are your visions always sequential?” Lukas asked, his words beginning to slur together.

“No, sometimes I’ve dreamt of things that happened many years later, and sometimes they happen as soon as I wake up.”

“Ahh!” The strongest pain yet shot through his skull, as Lukas screamed one last time, Phil’s dream dissolving away.

In the mind of Lukas, present:

Lukas closed his memory circle. “So it turns out that Phil never had a normal dream in his life. All of his ‘dreams’ were visions from the future. Whatever magic governed his powers didn’t like that I was trying to essentially change the future, something that Phil didn’t know or was reluctant to tell me might happen. I was kicked out of Phil’s head so forcefully that my own mind was damaged. When my mind woke up, I fixed up as much of it as I could so that my body wouldn’t die. I don’t know what happened later, but from what you’ve told me I’m now in the hospital where they’re trying to ‘cure’ me.”

Mystic, still absorbing all the information, finally said, “So why won’t you come out to the outside world anymore?”

“I’ve had it with people. All they want is to use me, and I kept letting myself believe that I could make more friends easily. They aren’t concerned about my well-being, they just want some instant gratification.”

“That isn’t true for everybody, and you know it.”

“Well, I’m through getting hurt. I don’t know how to be happy anymore, and because of the damage Phil’s visions did to my mind, my creative powers have been shot. I can only make small things now, and I don’t even know how to create fictitious things anymore. What will I do if I wake? I can’t dream-sculpt properly anymore, and people will still only come to me for homework questions. There isn’t anything anywhere for me anymore. This place, even though nobody is here, or is supposed to be here,” Lukas shot her a glare, “is a good place to just sit and wait.”

“What are you waiting for?”

“I don’t know. I’ll know it when I see it.”

Mystic became thoughtful again. How was she going to shake Lukas out of his funk? Then she knew.

“Well, Lukas, I’ve had a great time here. It was nice speaking with you.”

“Yes, yes, you’re welcome. Now can you please leave me alone?”

“Oh sure, but first I want to properly thank you for having me here.”

Lukas was skeptical again. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I have a secondary power I never told you about. Since I’ve been in contact with you, I’ve been duplicating your dream-sculpting powers.”

“You’ve what?!” Lukas was shocked and grew angry.

“Yep, and now I can do this!” Mystic waved her hands in a seemingly haphazard manner, but suddenly, a dragon appeared.

Lukas took a step back. The serpentine dragon was twice his height, with large ears protruding out the sides of its head like giant wings. It was white with red spots, and the wings and its two horns were also tipped in red. It had two fangs extending out of its mouth, ivory and pointy. It had no limbs to speak of, but at the tip of its tail was a bushy tail, golden and feathery, with a blue band at its base. The dragon opened its mouth, as if to smile, and not only did Lukas get a better picture of its fangs, but also its long tongue, which wiggled around, coated in saliva.

“Meet Aero, the White Dragon.”
Hello, all!

This is my first submission to DA, so bear with me as I get used to things around here (like, can someone give advice on the maturity level, a creative license, etc? I don't want any trouble on my first step out!)

Anyway, please enjoy the first half of this story, which I have broken into two parts so you aren't scared by your shrinking scroll bar. Part 2: [link]

Any and all comments and questions are more than welcome!

All characters, ideas, etc (c) me, except
Mystic, Aero, and shaggy tentacles (c) ~mystic-touch :iconmystic-touch:, who inspired me to write this story =]

(and a nod to ~firtastic, wherever he is, for first giving me a helpful push to be more active on DA. Come back, DA misses you!)

[Edit 07/16/09: This version corrects that Aero's ears are ears and not wings. Sorry for that, Aero!]
© 2009 - 2024 Cuixilfer
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Centro's avatar
A story that evoked images of Cyberspace in my head with a promising mystery to solve! And what a silly head that kid. Asking for a Dreamweaver when realistically, something like that should have been a big red alert symbol in any educated society! Messing with the dreams of a farseer! The fact he managed to turn a page is amazing. But poor guy, I empathize with being lonely. But enough about that! Onto the second half of feathery dragon goodness! Definitely a good opening and I look forward to more!