Summer 1, 120
Makt was still just a teen at this point in time and his responsibilities were few. So long as he went to his schooling and did what his parents wanted… he had a fairly carefree life.
It was a warmer than usual morning when Makt woke up and fell out of bed. The headache from the night before had subsided, which was a good sign. He had recently started to dabble in the art of fathom and simply visualizing the emotions had made him quite tired. Makt hadn't planned on doing anything special today so he began to lazily prepare for his day. In some ways the magic within him hadn't changed anything. He was still poor, still had no influence, and would in all likeliness die before ever getting a taste of the good life. That was his mindset as he put on his boots and headed out the door.
The young man stretched in the fresh air outside his home and was quickly caught up in the hustle and bustle of the town. He followed the flow of foot traffic, simply taking in the sights and thinking about whatever came to mind. It wasn't until he accidentally bumped into an elderly fellow that he actually paid attention to his surroundings. The old man had fallen down and his belongings were strewn across the ground. Not only that, the inconsiderate masses just walked all over his stuff. Makt would have done the same, had he not been the one to cause the accident. In fact, Makt kept on walking until guilt overtook him and he begrudgingly turned back around.
"Sorry," he said as he held out a hand to help the old man to his feet, "I didn't notice you. You have to keep up your speed or you'll get trampled around here!"
The old man slapped the hand away and got to his feet on his own. "You darned kids never taking any consideration for those around you! No discipline I tell you!"
Makt gave the man an apologetic look and started gathering the books and papers that littered the floor. Perhaps this old guy was a scholar of sorts? "Don't read that, don't you have any respect for privacy," the old man continued as he snatched away his belongings. Makt truly felt guilty and could even sense his emotions shifting without even needing to see it. "Well what do you want from me," Makt asked hot headedly, "I offer to help and you're just using this situation to yell at me."
The old man sighed and finally stepped out of the flow of traffic and into an alleyway. Makt followed close behind, against his gut feeling that he would be so much better off ignoring this geezer and continuing on his way. After the old man caught his breath and reorganized his belongings he looked Makt in the eyes. The emotions, Makt could see them shifting as the man shifted from anger to something more calm. "Tell you what sonny, if you want to make it up to me just learn some discipline okay? One day you'll be just like me and if you don't pass on discipline to your kids then nobody's going to look after you when you need help."
Makt thought that was a fair request. After all, he did think of himself as rather childlike when it came to most things in life. He didn't enjoy working all that much, he got easily distracted, and he rarely regarded others' needs to name just a few of his flaws. "Okay then," the teen would respond, "what do I have to do to be more disciplined?" Just acknowledging to himself his shortcomings only fueled his sassy attitude.
"Well for one thing," the old man snapped back, "get up at a reasonable hour! By the looks of you, you rolled out of bed and just went on your merry way. A disciplined man does not get up when he feels like it's time to get up. He gets up because it's time to get up. Do you know how many romantics have gone their whole lives without a single partner because they waited for the right feeling? You have to motivate yourself to become anything worth bragging about. And stop following me, you've given me a big enough headache today."
The old man left Makt to fume on his own. It was one thing to be insulted by himself, but to be insulted by some geezer was on another level entirely. "Fine, limp on then all by yourself," Makt would shout back, "See if I care!" The old man would merely wave his hand dismissively as he kept on heading towards his destination. Makt had half a mind to just leave, but he hesitated. Against every one of his gut instincts the boy proceeded to follow the old man at a distance.
As the distanced pair wove through the town, things started to get pretty strange. People murmured in languages that Makt had never heard before. He was starting to feel very out of place and uncomfortable. But still the old man carried on slowly but surely. Makt was having difficulty trying to fit in since he was walking so slowly to match the geezer's pace. At long last Makt saw a pathway that he recognized to lead to one of the main roads. He would have taken it home if it weren't that the old man had just fallen down again. He had been pushed to the ground, in fact, by a pair of burly armed men.
"This doesn't look good, Makt thought as his heartrate rose. He was a couple minutes of walking away from the confrontation and he certainly didn't want to get caught up in anything dangerous, especially without a weapon. "You fool, you don't even know how to hold a weapon let alone fight with one."
"Young immature idiots always causing problems for others. You two should be ashamed!" The old man was at it again, except his incessant insults didn't work so well against these sorts of folk. One man held the geezer down with a single foot as the other went through the books. "We can't sell these," one of the bullies said in a gruff voice, "you wouldn't happen to have anything worth stealing, would you?"
"Let me go! And is that the best you lot can come up with? Back in my day thieves didn't have to ask that kind of question!"
Makt had finally gotten within a couple yards of the men but they largely ignored him. He was thin and unarmed, after all. Makt stood tall and asked, "what's going on here? This man clearly has nothing of value, are you really going to harm him for sport?" He waited for the men to look at him and when they did, he could finally see their emotions. "Oh boy, I hope this works," he would think as he sent an imaginative hand out towards the one holding the geezer down. He linked to him and pulled on his emotions, hoping to induce sadness. He had no idea exactly which shade to pull so he picked one at random.
A couple seconds of furious pulling of the blue strand told Makt that this was definitely not the right shade. That being said, something was indeed happening. Makt was pulling the thread slowly but surely so that it vibrated quite steadily throughout the man's emotions. The target of his efforts shifted uncomfortably and shouted, "mind your business kid. Be quick and get out of here before we do you like we did this old man here. Anyways, let's get a move on brother. I'm a bit disappointed that this bloke only had a couple of worthless books. Better luck next time." Then the thug miraculously lifted his leg off the old man and walked away. His partner looked like he was ready to give Makt a good beating for interrupting them but he decided against it and went away.
"Huh," Makt would think, "I guess I made him disappointed? Or perhaps that shade makes people lose interest. I'll have to look deeper into this later." In any case, it was time to help the old man to his feet and collect the books and papers that had scattered the alley. The old man offered no thanks but it was quite clear by his silence that he was grateful. The geezer nodded to the brawler and the two went their separate ways. Makt shouted, "you're welcome!" and continued on his way home.
Unlike previous times that he had pulled at emotions he wasn't experiencing a headache. He supposed he was developing a sort of mental muscle memory for tugging the right amount to trigger some emotional response without harming himself. He was just glad that the old man really didn't have anything of value; he was quite certain that pulling a couple of emotional strings wouldn't be enough to keep two thugs away from a payday. In fact, he was now more eager than ever to see what else his magic could do.
