They were constantly putting themselves down. Despite Master Twii's best efforts, and that of therapists, they held a very poor view of themselves. Then they met another like them, a person Twii introduced them to. And the two began the fight to convince each other, that they were better than how they viewed themselves. -- Fighting Fit
Confidence is a cunning beast that runs and hides when it is needed most. Either you had it on a leash, or were forever chasing it down to try and tame it. The Immortal Master Twii thought about adding those metaphors to their book of thoughts and introspections.
How to teach someone to grow and nurture their confidence -when it was barely detectable- was the problem that had Twii's priority. Thoughts and introspections could wait.
Aurl had come so far, yet ze kept comparing hirself to much more advanced students and, of course, Master Twii. Ze kept hir past self with hir at all times, never acknowledging how much ze'd grown as a person. Part of hir was always just emerging from the not-so-secret hold of the freighter ze'd stowed away on. A rather large part, in fact.
Aurl was so self-effacing that ze apologised to inanimate objects when ze collided with them. Every joke ze told was self-deprecating. If asked to do anything new or unfamiliar, hir first reaction was, "I don't know if I can."
Something had to be done to awaken Aurl's confidence in hirself.
Twii could not do it. They were Aurl's pedestalled ideal. They needed someone who was... a mirror.
Enter Naut. A Deregger expatriate from a different Deregulation than Aurl. He had survived by being industrious and unobservable. He could not easily give up the same habits that Aurl also possessed.
Twii gave Aurl the task of training Naut in the basics. Ze could easily get Naut up to the fifteenth dan. Aurl only needed Twii's trust to get hir to try hir best.
Naut immediately idolised Aurl. Aurl was, as his teacher, obligated to encourage him into a better state of mind.
At least ze began to understood how difficult Twii's time in the task.
[Photo by Elegance Nairobi on Unsplash]
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