anscm:
“ i know this is UNORTHODOX but trust me. it’s fine. ” there are two bean bag chairs on the floor in his office, everything else having been pushed out of the way. he sinks down into one of them and motions for dominic to join him on the other. they’re sitting across from one another: comfortable, but upright enough not to be too comfortable. “ you had a pretty good handle on what we were doing in class but i’m going to make it more difficult this time. ” that is, after all, the whole point of challenging him. advanced assignments aren’t really for anyone’s benefit beyond IMPROVING your techniques. ( it’s not like the kid needs the extra credit. ) “ it’s easy to manipulate someone’s emotions when they’re open to letting you. when someone’s resisting … that’s the hard part. ” he leans back, tucks his arms behind his head. “ we’ll start simple. i’m calm right now, yeah ? stress me out. ” he pauses, adding with a raised finger. “ by manipulating my emotions, NOT by setting the place on fire or harshing my vibes with videos of sad puppies or raccoons accidentally melting their candy floss. ” he clicks his tongue against his teeth. “ let’s do this. ” @dominicvrsed
the set-up presented before him was a little concerning; only from the fact he was deeply concerned that one of his favourite professors was facing a mid-life crisis. nevertheless, he played along and sank into the beanbag chair, sitting upright and listening to instruction. mental magic was a subject that he enjoyed. dominic simply enjoyed MAGIC.
as he nodded through the instructions, the corners of his lips dragged the rest of his mouth into a small smile. “ so -- you mean a hard pass on the fires? ” a raised eyebrow matched with the smirk confirmed the sarcastic tone underlying in his voice. “ okay, I’ll give the fires a miss -- this time. ”
placing one leg on top of the other, he crossed them over and closed his eyes, grounding himself and clearing his mind -- something that he had worked hard on over his years at arcanas, which now came as simply as breathing to him. he focused his energy towards the male, who was sat there so assuredly. dom had an affinity for reading people -- even without his magic. ansem was easy to read -- he wore his heart on his sleeve. dom guessed that he wanted to be liked, that the people in his life were important to him and he cared about their opinion, that was his in.
he muttered a small incantation to initiate his compulsion and focused on these feelings -- what if those around you didn’t really care for you, what if no one ever really liked you; they were just pretending. dom closed his eyes tighter, clenching his jaw, putting more into the spell; he knew that his professor would be a tough nut to crack. so he amped it up. missed deadlines, leaving the stove on at home, the overwhelming amount of papers he had to mark, did the principal want to fire him?
he knew he was laying it on thick, but he was asked to complete something, and he always like to overachieve. he should’ve been careful for what he wished for. dominic carried on focusing in on the spell; attempting to increase the intensity.
“ how am I doing so far? ”












