[ march / open ] you left me, you left me no choice but to stay here forever

[princessvegas]

Who: Julie + others + open
When: March
What: this month is A Lot (this post is a catchall)
Where: Cadens + the Horizon

[ bitchcraft or bitchcraft#2753 for a starter ]

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[sorser]

[There’s a reticence, here, to speak about Nott — at least, Stephen thinks he senses as much. But she’s still more open and less guarded than she’d be at the so-called peace summit, and Stephen doesn’t care to beat around the bush now that they don’t have to worry about the wrong people listening in.]

What you saw at the summit was all for flash and show. Thorne focuses on one style above all, and that’s mostly academic magic.

[Books, study. Repetition and practice. It meshes well with Stephen’s preferred approach, too.]

They highly encourage its study. The rest is seen as outdated or frowned upon. But it is acknowledged if only to contrast against the efficacy of academic magic.

[Here, a sip of his tea.]

So. Not exactly perpetuating the wider-scope on the whole.

[princessvegas]

[ She rolls her eyes at the mention of efficacy, as if it's the only important thing about magic. From the very basic understanding she has of all the various types of magic, they each function to use the power as only a means to an end -- to commune with the gods or further technology. Academic magic, at least from her impression, seems to want the magic to remain a stable, unchanging material, warped only by the intention of the mage, like clay.

But, at least based on her experience, the magic isn't a material or an ingredient in a mix. It's a being, much more akin to a horse or a dog, it has a mind of its own. The academic mages only know the commands, not how to actually train the animal, teach it from scratch.

She nods, takes another drink from her glass. ]

Right. Frowned upon. Now, I don't know all that much about how they do it in Solvunn, and the magic they do have in Cadens is kinda [ She pauses, searches for the word, then settles on: ] stupid. It does the same shit as technology, they just... don't want to use magic? I don't know, honestly, when it comes to them. But they all have this idea that you need lots of rules and restrictions, that you have to follow a guide to it. They're afraid to go without the guide, 'cause then they might see somethin' new or maybe a little ugly, somethin' not quite perfect. But perfect ain't what magic's for, is it?

[ There's some slight stiltedness to her speech, as if she's trying to work out how to explain something that doesn't quite translate into words. And she is, she supposes, because her only experience with magic has not been something so easily described. It is something she has felt almost constantly since she left the dungeon, since she first came to the Horizon, and she only learned how to decipher it a few months ago. ]

Magic, the Singularity, they're alive. They can talk back. But you can't hear 'em or have a conversation if you're just yellin' instructions over 'em. That's what Academic magic is. Wild magic is about reachin' out to the magic instead, takin' it outta the air and askin' it to do what you want. It can fight back, it can get twisted, but if you keep your head right, keep yourself in check, it does more than just spit out cookie-cutter results.

[ Her brow furrows, and she's not entirely happy with her own explanation. This is not something she's ever spent much time talking about, because her world did not have magic, and because most of the people she knows do not seem to feel it like she does. ]

It's the difference between followin' a recipe and writin' your own, if that makes more sense. Basically everyone can follow instructions from a book, get somethin' pretty close to the picture. But you gotta understand how the ingredients actually work if you wanna make your own shit. Magic works from your emotions, your thoughts. If you're angry, frustrated, sad, the magic uses that. It'll lash out if you ain't careful, don't know how to keep it calm. So they took all the thinkin' outta the equation. Like paint-by-numbers, 'stead of just paint and a canvas.

[sorser]

[Again, he listens, even if there are moments where it seems like Julie is grasping for the right words, the exact way to put thoughts into explanation. He isn’t surprised about Caden’s perspective on magic — he had gotten that impression quickly enough from his time spent at the summit.

The recipe analogy is one he can inherently understand, though, and once more his thoughts trickle back to Wanda — magic that runs on emotion, dangerous if running purely on impulsivity and a lack of control. But without restrictions, without even so much as a spell book, an incantation, or a few wayward hand gestures to cast. Powerful and malleable; likely more than anything he could conjure up himself with all of Kamar-Taj’s resources.

Stephen’s lips purse, nodding. He wonders…]

There’s someone from my world whose magic functions in a similar way — driven by emotion, willing what she wants into existence not through study and adhering to proven theory, but by instinct.

[How to word this without making Wanda seem— ah. Volatile? It isn’t his intention, this thought that’s occurred to him in the breadth of this conversation; but Stephen will offer that little nudge when it comes to aiding those from his world, whether or not they asked for it.]

You’d have to run into each other on this plane, but she’d probably appreciate someone to practice with. If you’re willing, someday.

[princessvegas]

[ It's not what she was expecting to hear. Julie's only ever met one other person who seemed to actually understand what she was talking about, how it felt. She already lacked the vocabulary, the context, to explain so much of what she experiences. It's too new, too foreign still. It's isolating enough to not be able to describe it, let alone know that, even when she could put it in words, the other person almost certainly won't have a clue what she means.

Her eyes light up, big and bright, shining in the flashy lighting. She's never considered that there might be someone that could help her. ]

For real, no foolin'? Does she come to the Horizon?

[ Julie is here daily, even if she only stays for a hour, but over the past few months, she's gone out less and less. The new domains rise and fall like tides, built up only to disappear not so much later. Some are created and then stand empty as their owners decide to not visit this plane. It's hard to know who she doesn't know. ]

[sorser]

[The interest is immediate, bright in her eyes. Stephen thinks this is a good sign on her side, at least; now one needs to only hope he isn’t being presumptuous where Wanda is concerned, though he’s going to make the executive decision that it would be good for her to connect with someone who wields magic in a similar way.

After all, though he’s entrenched in magic, too—and from the same world to boot—there’s a distance lodged between them, not something easily discarded, either. He’s still not entirely sure Wanda doesn’t seem him as some kind of Magic Police, here to descend upon her the moment she looks at someone wrong.

This disconnect is evident in his reply, which is not all that helpful.]

I’ve never visited her domain, and I don’t know her schedule, but she’s bound to visit the Horizon on and off. Just to get away.

[It seems like a very Wanda thing to do.]

Her name’s Wanda Maximoff.

[princessvegas]

Wanda Maximoff. [ She repeats the name to commit to memory, nodding to herself. It's usually not particularly difficult to find any one person's domain, if not through process of elimination, then by just concentrating and following her instinct. It is, again, not something she has ever considered whether others can do, but in the Horizon, she usually doesn't have to try very hard to find anything she's looking for. Normally, she can just walk in the direction that feels right and she'll get to whatever it is she wants.

It does strike her that, for a friend, he seems to not know all that much about how to reach her, but then again, he could just feel protective over her. It wouldn't surprise Julie if he's uncomfortable disclosing that information to someone he doesn't know. They may all be in the same boat here in Abraxas, but there's still plenty of reason to be cautious.

Her head cocked to one side, she looks thoughtful for a moment. ]

Do you know Kylo? He's the only other person I met who seems to understand it like me. I'm not sure that his version of it is exactly the same, but he knows how it feels.

[ Kylo is also overwhelmingly intense and makes her nervous, so she's not exactly chomping at the bit to hang out with him, but he gets it. ]

[sorser]

[Friend is definitely using the term liberally. But Julie's not wrong about the protective streak, either. His priorities (or personality) may not always mesh with those hailing from his Earth, but in the end, he only wants what's best for them. They're his allies, even if he isn't close with all of them. (Or most of them.)

Well. Anyway.]

Kylo's one of the first Summoned I met when I first arrived in Thorne. [He doesn't know him know him, so much as he is aware of his reputation. It's hard not to, with the clout he holds in the castle.] He guided me to the Horizon for the first time.

[He seemed like a... dour young man, but Stephen cannot deny that he was helpful. He owes him for that, if nothing else.] We didn't really talk magic, though. I guess that's an oversight I should fix next time I run into him.

Not that he ever looks ready to chat anyone up, but. You know.

[princessvegas]

Yeah, I know, he's got shades of "Have the lambs stopped screaming, Clarice?" to him, but I'm pretty sure he's mostly just a Hot Topic teen on the inside. And it's totally not a phase, Mom.

[ Is he weird and does he come off a little Dylan Klebold-y? Yeah. But Julie has met true darkness in human form, and it's much, much more pleasant on the surface than Kylo is. It smiles and invites you in, holds its hands out for you. It doesn't behave like an edgy preteen with anger issues. She isn't afraid of him. ]

Anyway, he said it's like bein' born with a sense of touch when everyone else is numb. And that was the first time anyone ever seemed to know what it's like. He calls it the Force, but I know other people who call it Chaos. It seems like mostly the same thing all around, to me. But most people don't seem to feel it all the time, they just use it.

[sorser]

[Oh look, he isn't the one making references for a change, and they aren't flying over his head, either. Julie may not be from his version of Earth (a brash assumption, maybe, but most would recognize his name upon introduction) but Stephen can appreciate familiarity that apparently strings them together, all the same. The sameness that some realities share.

His smile quirks a little more pointedly. That sure is a way to describe Kylo, and maybe accurately enough. He can't claim to know the young man all that well, but he does have a very... Hot Topic-y air about him.]

That's interesting. [Should he consider directing Wanda to Kylo, too? ...Hm, maybe, but he'd like to know how she and Julie get on, first.] I didn't know he was another who intuited magic [the Force? Chaos?] naturally. Because that's what it sounds like it comes down to: innate versus learned talent.

[Though...] Not that the two can't intersect. I've gotten the impression that you're not all that interested in learning out of a book, but you could still find it helpful someday. Stop by my domain if you ever feel like it; it's hard to miss, a tall townhouse. You can see the Himalayas in the distance. I'm already teaching a few people, and I've got time [usually] for another.

[princessvegas]

[ Julie has learned that it's easiest to just make the references and assume that other people will get them. Especially if it's funny. Other people can ask questions if they want, but it gets difficult to constantly weed out every instance of modern culture from one's thought process.

She nods a little and takes a sip of her drink. For someone like her, who came from a world where this inborn gift was meaningless, she can only guess. What she does now know is why she always felt lost, adrift. Empty. The thing that was supposed to carry her, fill the hole in her soul, was something she had no access to. ]

It's not that I have a problem with book learnin'. I read all the books they had in Nott about Wild magic, but there are only a couple, and they're meant for kids. For them, it's the same as learnin' letters and shapes and colors. Things adults ain't supposed to need explanation for. But I'm no good at academic stuff anyway. I don't want to waste your time.

[ It is said with the casual acceptance of someone who was told many, many times, at a very young age, that her dreams were too big. That she wasn't smart enough for the things she wanted, that she should stop trying because it was a waste of energy. The kind of thing that becomes deeply ingrained in children, until it is a part of their understanding of themselves. ]

But thanks for the offer. Really.