abraxaslogs | Now that you're actually not cool, I kinda like you better. (Open/Closed)

"Not really. Plenty of nobles send others to fight their fights for them and remain away from any battlefields, and that was certainly true of the older lords I ruled with. But I've never been a fan of asking others to do something I wouldn't do myself."

That's the least anyone can do in his opinion, given it involves asking soldiers to step away from their lives - or lose them. There's probably plenty of valid reasons to not have been out there, too, but Claude shrugs again. It'd worked out as well as war can.

The knives, on the other hand, seem to not be working out quite so much and after turning back from the magic-related stall he studies Abby carefully again for a moment until the formation of the clouds catches his eye. There's no eyebrow raised outwardly, but there certainly is internally since that's impressive in its own right. A mention of Julie teaching her magic gets a nod from him. Though he's more familiar with Julie in passing after they'd talked for a while from his arrival, he knows she's been here for quite a while. She'll make an excellent tutor when it comes to magic.

"Fire is rather dangerous, even before we add in being in the middle of a desert in a dry season on top of that." He's more than a little amused, partially at Abby's sake for being seemingly distraught over that and also because it's not unlike the reaction of another mage he knows well from the days of learning magic. "Luckily for you, I wasn't necessarily talking about that."

Mostly because he doesn't know any himself, but - "How would you feel about learning wind magic? Think of it as being doubly useful now that we're in the summer months as mentioned."

"Adrenaline junkie?"

Abby was looking into 'how not to die' which seemed perfectly reasonable with all the potentially lethal things in this world, three nations summoning people for- something. Two other nations with dicey connections to the other three. Monsters, criminals, mushroom cults, elder gods. Learning how not to die just seemed smart.

She was not planning to rush into danger if she could avoid it.

While Abby was still looking at the knives, they didn't feel right. She might want one anyway, and training to use it. Just- she's small, it's small. People bleed out super fast if you stab them the right way. Of course, her powers don't work if she causes too much of a ruckus. Which stabbing a person in the neck probably qualifies as. And people are tall.

But they are small and pretty and good for stabbing.

"Wind magic?" She rolls the idea around in her head. Perking up a little as she works the problem. "I don't- know how to picture wind." She'd figured out three things. She needed to touch the source of magic in the world to cast. She had to direct it into an object to get a result. And she needed to form the magic in her mind. Clouds and glitter were pictured, she could do water. Fire the few times she tried in the Horizon.

But Wind isn't really visible to picture.

There's a slight smile from him at that, considering - there's probably some truth in there. Risks are something Claude's fond of, though prior to the war most of them had been ones that were all but guaranteed to work in his favor thanks to some very careful planning for an ideal outcome and then all others. That applies less to being in battle where there's even more variables despite deliberate strategy being put into motion.

It's not relevant to here either as Abby considers wind magic from what she knows, or so he assumes. There's a subtle brightening there from moments ago which seems like a good sign on top of the magic practice she's already been doing with Julie to give a sort of base understanding even if Abraxan magic differs in many ways from the kind he knows.

"What about picturing it less specifically, like rather than wind itself to move on to what wind can do?" If that's even a decent substitute for what he's hearing as the possible place to stumble, and if so: for that he has a solution.

Fortunately for Abby, it's not any of the academy textbooks in the Horizon (for now), as he nods again in a different direction to lead the way towards different stalls. This row of them specializes in fabrics of all kinds. They also include different weights that'll both help with the demonstration and make it - hopefully - less obvious that there's magic at play.

Without any fanfare, Claude casually lifts a couple fingers and sends a gentle breeze ruffling along the hanging items for sale to mimic the occasional breeze coasting through the market before he turns to Abby with a raised eyebrow. "That's the less impressive version since I found out the hard way locals don't always like it when you use magic right in front of them. The stronger spell I know was able to send Steve Rogers across a broken down building." A mutual sending, but this is the scale he's chosen to use.

Not picturing wind can, maybe, work. Or it could just make something else happen. She hasn't fucked up her spellwork too badly. Except that one accidental glitterbomb when the spell kind of exploded in a way she totally didn't want it to and we're just- going to focus better next time and not end up having to wash glitter off of everything.

Again.

Still, she follows, and watches, and thinks about how to picture wind without picturing wind. She's just- turning her feelings into a picture, and telling the source of magic to do that. So she just has to figure out a feeling of wind that isn't a picture, right? Maybe practicing this in public, in the markets, is a bad plan that could cause trouble. But she is curious to see if it works, and the fabrics are a good test target.

So if it goes wrong she'll just run away and it'll be Claude's problem.

Abby picks a wall of the stall aimed at the fabrics. Her magic needing to come from somewhere. Begins tapping her fingers against her leg, a steady increasing drum as she works. And the feeling of a breeze whipping through her hair, the winds cutting into the sweltering heat of a summer day. Then presses her hand into the side of the stall.

The spell surges through the stall wall essentially turning the entire side into an invisible fan, forcing a surge of air through the hanging fabrics. It's a little stronger than she anticipated and a few of the lighter fabrics are whipped right off their hangs and some medium weight fabrics awkwardly snag and wrap around themselves.

Shit. "Um, I guess that works right?"

As Abby prepares to cast the spell, Claude watches curiously to see what the difference might be between her own magic and what he'd learned what feels like in another lifetime and then some ago. At first it doesn't seem to be visibly different since to him it looks like she's calling upon something. With success, because the sudden burst of wind sends the fabrics askew and there's a second where he blinks while the rest of the market looks around puzzled, and then he thinks: whoops.

Though Claude's not one to be in someone's personal space without considerable warning or far more friendship involved, as the fabrics rustle up to create enough minor chaos for them to slip away, he takes the chance to do just that after throwing an arm around Abby's shoulders to bring her along with.

"It totally works. Just pretend like we're browsing things and have no idea what happened," he says while making their way to the end of that aisle to duck into another one before letting her go. He might also be doing a poor job of not laughing as he says it though it's not at Abby's expense - it's something more like delight even if the merchants and vendors they left behind are still grumbling away over having to clean up after that sudden gust of wind. "That was good! Far better than the first time I tried casting it myself considering I think I barely even got a leaf on the ground to blow away."

Not idle flattery since magic never has been his forte, and not even having the Singularity as a boost (or whatever it is that's helping them) seems to have made much of a difference for him. "Something tells me you'll be up for also sending Steve flying in no time if you'd like to learn that particular spell. Otherwise this wouldn't be a half bad option for making an escape either even if it's not fire."

Abby's not much of one for physical contact, and had Claude been a little slower there wouldn't be an Abby for him to steer off. Letting her shadows hide her from the world which- well, ghosting friends is rude but also she was pretty well told to avoid this.

Doing this. Doing this bad.

"I wanted smaller," Abby answered, dismissing the praise outright. As she was aware of how to do big, big wasn't easy but it was something she could do. She sagged a little because she did overdo it, she'll need to eat soon. Although she wasn't quite aware of how hard she pushed at the moment, "When I picture clouds or water, the amount gets created by my head. I had to- feel winds? Fucking shouldn't have tried in public."

Okay, so figuring out the limits on her magic would definitely be a thing to do elsewhere. Probably the Horizon. Her magic was hers, so this was really on her to figure out the finer points of. If the size of the stall wall mattered for how big the wind was. She didn't intend to grab so much power, or maybe part of her did? Magic was fucking confusing. "I still probably need to learn some sort of weapon. If nothing else it'll mean I have something to direct my magic through. But I think I need food, and we probably need to get out of here if we're the only Summoned in the Markets."

Abby is trying to avoid fame and infamy if she can, thank you very much.

There's a moment where he's tempted to raise an eyebrow. This isn't the first time they've talked and he's thought of Lysithea, though this time it's the self-reprimand Abby gives herself for not doing what she'd aimed to do with magic. And he knows how he'd respond if it was Lysithea before him, what with years of friendship and teasing to pave the way for it, but he thinks better of that here.

"Imagining the feeling of wind might not've been the best instruction I could've offered there," he acknowledges with a shrug of his shoulders. Claude also spares a glance the direction they'd come from while pretending to squint at a stall they'd walked by like it has his interest and it's totally not a cover for seeing what the scene looks like behind them before he turns back around. "Probably for the best I never ended up as a professor of Faith or Reason magic since my students would've suffered. Wind's got a whole scale to it though, right? So maybe you didn't generate the end of it you were hoping for, but now you also know you can create something much stronger. That's still useful on the subject of weapons and defense, and all the more reason to keep trying it."

He can rationalize this into being a good time in no time flat if she'll let him or if given a few more seconds. Something that can happen when he nods to a cafe nearby next with a table free in the large windows looking out into the streets. "C'mon. The tea at this place leaves a lot to be desired, but their food's rather good. Considering no one's following us we can just take a seat inside to pretend like we were here all along and minding our own business, and in the meantime you can tell me about your magic."

Results on that might vary if they're actually asked about it, but he's willing to figure that out if it happens.

It did work, in spite of it working too well. They also escaped without being caught. Given the city was wary enough of wild magic. A barely trained Summoned causing havoc might not be a good time for all. She wants to choose when and where she makes a scene, if it's an accident there won't be any good story to it. "You said a bunch of shit that does not mean anything to someone who didn't go to your weird church-cult school. But I didn't intend to stop just because I accidentally made a mess."

"Food good, coffee better." She does not care about tea enough to worry about if the tea is just warm leaf water or not. She wants food and the raw energy that coffee provides. So she'll just let him lead the way and if they get stopped let herself fade into the background. It'll help separate them from what happened in the markets if only he's seen and she's there-ish. "If you get stopped and I disappear, I haven't gone anywhere."

There's immediate laughter from Claude at that description of Garreg Mach, if not only because Abby's description formed after their visit at the very place in the Horizon is entirely apt and because it's a thought he'd had as a student plenty of times. "Hey, you're not going to get any arguments from me on what it was like. Fortunately, weird church-cult is likely to be something of the past since back home it's being rebuilt with new everything behind it."

If he sounds unfazed, it's because he is entirely. There's a lot of improvements to be made to the Academy, but having Teach behind them certainly helps. New directions all around, and all that.

The far more important part of that is that Abby doesn't plan on stopping in figuring out her magic, whether that's what she knows or adding wind spells to it after all, so he nods as he reaches for the door to hold it open for her. Only to furrow his brow briefly a second later in thought as he absorbs that last statement, because: "I- okay, you can't just say something like that and then expect me to not ask about how you'll be disappearing but you'll still be here. That's a little different than the Warp spell I know from home."

Abby rolled her eyes as she walked past him into the tea house... and she didn't vanish, exactly. Certainly anyone who looked up to the sound of the door opening was looking at Claude, not her. If Claude isn't paying attention, which is unlikely, he won't even see anyone move past him. Otherwise it's definitely shaped like a person... but determining anything about them is just about impossible. Hair color- do they have hair? Maybe. Probably has skin, but who can say what tone it is. Or their exact height. Certainly has to be wearing clothes.

But the cut? The style? How it fits? What color is it? Not something that can be told. They weave a zig zagging path through the tea house to a small empty table in the corner, weaving path making it even harder to keep track of them, especially as the cross paths with other patrons and servers.

Only for Abby to fall into one of the chairs entirely normal like she didn't just do something really fucking weird in broad daylight for the second time. With an ever so smug look on her face as she draws her legs up into the chair with her. Then waves at Claude.

Claude walks through the entry, though he means to keep Abby in the corner of his gaze the whole time after that somewhat foreboding statement, there's something - not quite right that happens.

Mostly in that when he turns to glance her way, she really isn't there. But when he looks back forward, she is. Or she's there enough he can kind of, sort of recognize there's someone there he should know but can't quite from this partial sight alone. Standing in the doorway for even this brief pause has someone behind him waiting to enter loudly clearing their throat, so Claude takes the hint and steps inside.

Only for in that same instant Abby to appear at a table as he pauses again, though this time with a large grin as he catches sight of her properly this time and heads towards the table when she waves.

"I don't know what I expected, but that was far better than whatever I'd imagined." A truth as he pulls out a chair to be seated, then hands her a menu placard before looking at the remaining one. "Something you also learned from studying magic?"

She's looking oh so pleased with herself and her antics and please don't feed her with praise, it'll just encourage more of this.

"The Singularity gave me that one. The power to be not worth noticing. My magic isn't that good." She's not sure where to begin with magic to create that. She isn't invisible, and she isn't sure how to visualize that. Too many chances it might just transform her into a weird transparent plastic human model with visible organs and shit. Cool but not a good look for having a dating life. "It isn't foolproof, and I have to be careful with it. As it works best when nobody knows what I can do."

"Besides, I thought it was my magic we'd be talking about. Not how I planned to ditch you if the law showed up." Abby just because that was your plan you don't have to say it like that.

"Ah, one of those things none of us had before coming here. I have one of those." That makes sense, and while Claude's been pretty pleased with it - saying it comes being anywhere near as useful as what Abby's just shown him wouldn't be accurate. There's a lot of ways to use that even if she claims it'd be to get away from him to let him take the blame for whatever'd happened which gets a snort of amusement from him.

"Look, it's always good to have an escape plan. Even better now that you've told me about it beyond just saying it'd be fine if you disappeared, considering if things had gone wrong that would've been more than a little concerning." The menu in his hands ends up being more of something for him to tap his fingers against than anything to consider in terms of what to order while he thinks about that. "I've talked to a few others who also found they had powers, abilities, whatever you want to call them that wouldn't have been possible at home.

"But alright, since it's not part of you've learned then we can focus on your magic instead. How long have you been studying with Julie?"

"Magic also is a new thing that I only have here, but that's a lot more- everywhere, in a city full of magic robots to sew dresses and wipe peoples asses." She assumes on that second one, she wouldn't be surprised. This was what they were here for, that and food. She'll use the menu to buy herself some time. Explaining herself is a lot of shit and some of it is stuff that isn't totally okay to say in public.

"It's been about two months? I practice harmless shit here, in my room or at Julie's. And dangerous magics on the Horizon." Abby decides to omit that her magic is wild, in public, right now. She figures it doesn't matter enough to make mention of here. She can tell him later. "She says the weird shit about my magic is- like, a mental block? But I dunno, fixing my head isn't really possible. I can't just- conjure things, it always comes out of something I touch? I think about what I want, gather that power, and it'll happen once I put my hand on something."

The other weird thing wasn't so weird, movement helped her focus. She never studied or did anything sitting perfectly still. She ran around, tapped, fiddled, and moved.

As he listens, Claude idly props his jaw on a fist while leaning that elbow against the table, mostly pretending to look at the menu as he listens to her explanations. Coming from somewhere without magic before here is something he's heard from other Summoned, and he feels like he vaguely remembers Julie saying as much about her world from their talk so long ago that'd left an impression both for its explanation of Abraxas and the difference in worlds.

"The Horizon's useful for that, what with being able to just... leave if it gets too chaotic." He's grinning slightly, having caused plenty of said chaos himself in both his domain and the monastery while experimenting with something, which is far preferable to having to deal with any of the reality of whatever mess it might leave behind. Also for not having to clean up any mess on top of the ones he leaves around in his day to day, but he nods slightly.

"Mental blocks happen for the magic learned in Fodlan, too. Some of it's because it's based in theories that can be difficult to understand - the reason I gave up on learning much past what I did - but also because of that visualizing problem in a different way. Conjuring things out of nothing is totally beyond me, so as someone with zero knowledge on that front, needing to draw something out of whatever it is makes complete sense. The same goes for why wind doesn't exactly fit into something like that neatly, considering we can't reach out and grab it unless one of our resident scientists comes up with something for that."

It's only near the end that becomes particularly relevant to Abby, if he had to guess, and there's more he was going to add, but. Hold that thought as a server comes over to their table and he puts in an order then gestures to Abby for hers, since though she might've voiced it before he's not one to order for someone else.

Abby order something as close to a burger as she can get here, with whatever she can get that passes for french fries. It's meat, bread, and potatoes and she'll take it.

"The damage is easier to clean up, and it's easier to just make a giant glass dome to put over a fire. Hypothetically." Which is to say she absolutely starved a fire with a giant airtight sealed glass dome before. Sure there were easier answers, but were there sillier answers? She didn't think so. "I don't like- leave the Horizon on fire after I fuck up."

"I don't know if the wind was that bad because I imagined it wrong, or because of my weird touching stuff thing." See, she could have just pictured a stronger wind than she needed. But it might also just be more wind created out of the side of a merchant stall, than would be created out of the side of a say a coffee table. Just the area it could come out of. "But I have to really feel what I'm doing for it to work at all, that's just how wild magic works."

The patrons at another table defiitely dropped a utensil and started a hushed conversation about leaving. It definitely had nothing to do with the term 'wild magic' and Abby definitely wasn't narrowing a glare over her shoulder at them.

"You could, like as an experiment," is his counteroffer of leaving mild chaos behind to Abby stating she's done no such thing, and he's only half-kidding while putting on a feigned thinking expression to keep from looking too amused. "Or just blink it out of existence, considering I might've done that a time or two with some concoctions I didn't mean to make."

No clarification on what those were (or are) since while he was pretending to be in Deep Thought earlier, now he's actually contemplating the rest of what she's said. It makes sense and especially in extrapolating another world's magic into a known form here.

From the corner of his eye, Claude gazes the alarm at the table over as well as their whispering. It's familiar enough to him, even if it being over magic and likely what they're talking about is a new component, but he doesn't bother sparing a glance at whoever it is or whatever they're doing. "Hey, ignore them," is what he says to Abby with a shrug of one shoulder. "People have that reaction to things they don't understand, and it's their loss."

Among other things, though - and mostly for their own entertainment, Claude does lean forward slightly and with a whisper that's really one at all and plenty of mischief to go with it he adds, "or you could always get some more practice in by clearing their table for them with another go at wind."

"Blink the fire out of existence," Abby holds up one hand, palm up, as if weighing her words, then brings up her other hand. "Dropping the world's largest marshmallow on it?"

Don't give a girl this chaotic the power to reshape reality on her whims, she will pick the silliest answer every time. Her hands shift to the weight clearly being on the fun marshmallow answer.

Which is why she's actually considering clearing the table of those around her, but she's kinda enjoying not being in trouble. And she still isn't sure how easily anyone can get her out of trouble here. This world's rules were still too different from home for her liking, "Nah, I don't know how well I can aim in here, should wait until after we eat."

"See, if you did that, I think you should save it for one of the parties next time someone hosts something in the Horizon. Free desserts then, right? It's practically a service to everyone and a magic experiment all in one at that point."

Or something like that, since he's fairly certain he remembers something involving marshmallows being offered at once of the celebrations. One of said party hosts would know better, but it's an idle thought best left for later.

As is terrifying any of the cafe's patrons, though Claude offers Abby a grin as he sits back up and back in his seat properly. "Further terror and wreaking havoc to come later, noted. If nothing else, you could always practice it by doing the," insert some vague miming here of a tablecloth being yanked out from beneath something, "trick, except with no cloth involved and just the wind with the dishes. Might be the fastest return of them back to the counter this place has ever seen, you know."

Abby honestly can't tell when his suggestions are serious (and a bad idea) or playful (and a great thing to think about). Nobody that clever, so aware of the world at the Fey ball is just a chaotic disaster.

...right?

She is smiling, considering the chaos she could do if she could manage wind that strong and that wide. Shattered plates everywhere. But that question of where the joke ended and actual chaos began kept creeping into her thoughts. It was an annoying itch that she just had to scratch, "Why are you like this?"

In the seconds go by where Abby contemplates this, the server drops off their order to which he offers a thanks, and he's mid-tea preparation when Abby asks an all important question. At that he can't help immediately laughing, even if it gets them a suspicious look from yet another nearby table. Worth it.

"My friends say I have a flair for the dramatic, but I just like keeping things interesting. Maybe in another life I would've been a scientist so I'd have an excuse for it or an outlet for a healthy amount of curiosity."

That's an explanation, right? Or something like one; Claude takes a moment to pour himself a cup of tea, followed by a cautious sip and then a small wince when it's still too hot to appreciate. That's coupled with some time to consider what he'd answered with, too. "Or there's always the standby of an active imagination. Take your pick."

Abby, meanwhile ignores the hot leaf water to attack her food. It made sense, magic was an effort, a personal expenditure of energy. So of course you would get hungry. Like after a dance party, or sincerely trying to do your homework. Abby was also mad enough at the patrons whispering she went out of her way to eat more like a wild animal with no table manners than normal.

And normally she was basically a gremlin pretending she was a girl.

Claude's response, 'answer' and 'explanation' feel like the wrong word for what he just gave, made her think of Max. A bottomless well of energy and drama capable of making sure things were 'interesting.' Which Abby realizes, if you gave Max actual magic there's a solid chance that she'd level a city block because she was too sad, or happy, or bored. And she'd definitely do that if she had someone like Claude to 'offer suggestions.' Which gives Abby a pleasant nostalgic smile (made sillier by all the food in her mouth).

Abby swallows more food than she should have tried to at once, with no real detriment to her, "So you're a theater kid who believes he's very charming, and that he can definitely talk his way out of whatever trouble he gets into?"

"Something like that. Though," with a life of one finger off his mug of tea like he's about to bring up a Very Important point, "if you mean 'believe' in the sense of someone being overly confident and 'definitely' as something like will probably get in over their head without knowing what to do next, I'll have to correct both of those. The whole running a country thing would've been difficult without actually having either skill."

And - this is something Claude knows he excels at from all that time spent studying how exactly people work, what sorts of things would get them to concede he was right or which would push them over a metaphorical edge when agreement wasn't what he wanted. All said matter-of-factly, since on this he doesn't see a reason to hide the truth, and as he takes another sip of tea he follows that up with a shrug.

"Useful for that keeping things interesting I've mentioned since some of that wouldn't have worked out quite so well without the dramatic alongside. I like to think of them as being complementary. But the trick to it is finding one part of that you're good at and working upwards from there - well, that and a lot of practice. No time like the present to start with whatever you think is a good idea, sort of like with magic."

"Yeah, keep trying to wrap my head around that and not seeing it." The hints of a smile at the edge of he mouth make it clear she's being a brat on purpose, teasing because she can see how he can lead a country. But also feels like feeding his ego is the opposite of useful here. Or... feeding his ego isn't the more fun option on hand.

This is what you get for feeding teenagers.

"So the show is as much a part of the plan as anything else?" Abby's question comes off sincere and serious. As she is trying to get her mind around how Claude gets away with being like this. That the dramatics and charm are a part of how he maneuvers through events. "It's like a huge grift, keeping control of what's going on?"

No judgments on if that's good or bad. Just trying to determine what he's playing at.

That merely gets a cheerful grin from him. If only she knew how much people back in Fodlan said the same thing, mostly because he refused to do all of the stuffy nobility things they'd insisted on doing for years. Or so he'd avoided as many of them as he could, anyway, aside from the ones truly required and none of which are (immediately) present here in Abraxas. This is more his speed in every way that sentiment can apply, and his grin just grows wider at her question.

"Something like that. It's helpful for keeping attention where you want it focused and not anywhere else, or to steer a conversation towards where you want it to go. The practice is the important part but it gets easier from there." A moment for him to take another drink of tea before he puts it back down on the table and leans back in his chair again, at ease. "Or it's all sincere and I'm making it up that it's an act. Just depends on what you think about it, really."

With the truth once again somewhere in the middle, but maybe that's a conversation for another time.

Now that you're actually not cool, I kinda like you better. (Open/Closed)

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