Aiden Solo

[Shava]

Choosing a quiet corner of the dungeons which had a small fountain there, Aiden sat down with the box and reformed his legs into a lotus, the box between his calves. Closing his eyes for a moment, he cleared his min of the weeks events and tried to remain only in this time for now, achieving the patience and center he desired easier then last year. Then again, he had spent a lot more time working his head through some tricky places and complexities then before as well. One of these days he hoped to be able to maintain that center without so much effort, but for now it was elusive considering the challenges he surrounded himself with. And not just his dorm mates he meant by that, but Ally.

Who could keep calm around her? Really?

A shake of his head for the thought and he focused more. After another moment he opened the box with long familiar fingers without opening his eyes. The tiles his father had helped him to make felt cool to the touch, but he knew not for long. Swiftly the box was emptied into his lap, his shirt bottom rapidly taking the load like a made-to-order-bowl. Once emptied, the box was closed and set aside, Aiden opening his eyes only briefly to do so. Running his hands across the tiles in his lap (there were a hundred and forty four of them he knew so it made quite a full lap), he began dipping them into the bottom, shuffling them slowly, becoming closer in his mind to their energy.

While not strictly necessary, he felt better for the imagery in his mind and his teacher had told him it was just as well this way. Of course, while the Hogwarts teacher knew of this method, she was not familiar with it and remained derisive about it's importance so his classes had to come during the summer in it. As the tiles slipped between his fingers and over his palms, he tried to keep his mind focused on them. When he had shuffled them for several minutes, he began selecting them slowly from his lap, laying them face down (one could feel the carvings on the faces easily) in a pattern which most would not have recognized. Three in front, three to the right, three farther forward, and three to the left. One placed in the center, carefully.

Mahjong, though considered by many just a game and in the east the largest gambling game in the world (costing some men their homes and wives actually), was believed to have started out in the temples. Instead of cards, some said like tarot, it was believed they were made into tiles to keep the wind from blowing them over during readings. Aiden, like most Chinese commoners, believed more that the tiles were both a game and life which were interchangeable. As Aiden set them out, his fingers he purposefully didn't let stay in the carved sides; his fingers had long remembered many of the patterns having painstakingly cut them out under his father's watchful eyes. There was much of satisfaction and happy memories attached to those days and efforts and the rare moment of openness with his father remained with him when he touched them again.

Unknowingly, his breathing slowed and his heart rate settled as these memories non-the-less surfaced in his unconscious.

Done with the pattern, Aiden opened his eyes slowly, seeing the blank backs of the tiles with a feeling of deep contentment before he leaned over to lay a finger on each one in order from first to last, feeling for what touched and connected them all together. Mahjong was not so much a fortune telling device as so many people sought out with divination as it was a self-knowing device allowing one to learn not the future, but where one was headed and needed to concentrate on. Westerners were often not as interested in self-knowledge but Aiden craved it and sought it with all his efforts. He consciously kept his 'soul' out of such; maybe he wasn't superstitious, but saying such always seemed to him to be asking for a chance at losing what he didn't truly believe in. But why risk it?

His finger lasting the longest on the center tile, Aiden thought about his recent efforts, his gains, his skills, the small progress he counted as worthwhile before his fingers slid down the sides of the wooden tile. Turning it over smoothly, he saw it was the second flower, the orchid which brought an involuntary smile to his features. Lan he knew was an encouragement to aim for refinement, to reach for the rare and unusual. However since it was a flower, he needed an expansion on it's meaning so he reached at random for a tile from his lap without hesitation, choosing one without looking and setting it beside and slightly closer to him then the first. His eyebrow went up slightly as he saw it was the autumn season, or Geng. As a modifier tile that meant it's meaning of hard work was less the main meaning and more expansive. Through hard work at refinement he would gain success...possibly in three months time? It was also known as the Farmer which said much about the hard work needed to achieve his goals.

So. This reading would focus on his efforts of the next few months and how well he worked towards refining himself into who he wanted to be. With the main part of the reading started, the question itself to be revealed, Aiden looked forward to the rest. Taking a quill out he wrote down the two tiles and his interpretation on a page before he continued.

[Shava]

With the question sort of outlined by the center, Aiden turned his mind to the first part of the telling. The first position contained three different tiles, some describing self like the first one and other describing his current focus or life. These were not to tell the future, but to explain who he was at this moment. Taking the first tile he turned it over showing a Chinese branch-like drawing. Unlike in tarot where a card reversed meant something, in this reading it was merely a reverse of the general meaning, nothing negative in it's own way. Some in China even ignored the direction, but Aiden had listened to the beliefs spoken about and read about it a lot.

This was the plum blossom (Li, the first of the flowers) upside down. Normally it spoke about how inexperience and innocence could be assets; as Aiden saw it, this meant his youth was not going to help him so much and he needed experience. He tried not to think about the innocence part knowing how Ally would have kidded him. Still, it made sense to him. He was, after all, fifteen, virgin, and trying to gain the knowledge to make himself better. It fit. And since position one was supposed to be about his mind set, it also matched up rather well. Not having any compunction about being frank about himself, he turned over a tile from his lap for clarification after he wrote down the first tile the same as the center.

This was the Jun, or fungus tile also commonly called the eight bamboo which in it's meaning called virtue into question and often meant a surprise had entered into his life. One image of Ally and he knew again this fit, the virtue echoing the innocence part of the first. He placed it upon the first tile and wrote it down as well. The second tile was the sixth circle and only a glance brought a slight smile to his face. Oh yes, this one spoke of Ally more then the first did and her influence in his life for sure! The Peach often meant a young lady had become important, but as well in this case it spoke about striving for beauty, not extravagance or indolence. Both of those fit, though he had not thought about the beauty part being what he strove to turn himself into however.

Aiden did not see himself as worthy of the word Beauty, seeing himself as not attractive at all which hampered indeed his concepts about the way he related to others.

Finally he turned to the third tile and revealed a character this time in Chinese. The two crack (or Wan as it was pronounced in China) was called Jian the sword and it spoke of balance. Often associated with twins, this particular tile spoke of a decision to be made and that no further progress could be made till that was done. But what decision? Unable to comprehend a decision about whether to believe in himself and be happy as he was, his mind sought an answer to a different meaning and finally decided after a few it could mean his decision to make a change, to turn himself into someone better. Thus he started down a new path, putting himself into a mindset on purpose in an effort to turn himself into what he thought of as better, important, good.

Never understanding as many did not that who he was then was as important as who he would become in the future. The two were not separate.

""