eachdraidh | second trial. | voice (unlocked)

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second trial. | voice (unlocked)

[ thomas has not been a common presence on the network since his arrival to the drabwurld; gaining the ability to talk telepathically with the people who've been close to him have made it fairly easy for him to communicate without it. but this time, thomas addresses the network at large, although only with a (perhaps semi-familiar) voice.

he sounds uneasy. tired. ]

Do any of you have nightmares? How do you deal with them?

[ it's a stab at anonymity, mostly because he doesn't want to show his face, but the storms currently raging over head have not made his life any easier. thomas sleeps fitfully, twenty minutes at a time, wakes up screaming. no one's going to see his face as an effect of that. eventually, he tacks on a soft--]

Thanks. [ --and the line goes dead. ]

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[ he sort of. blinks, a little slowly on his end, like he's trying to process all of that (vampire hunter? marriage?) and scrubs a hand over his face. thomas's nightmares are all about the exact same thing.

kind of wryly: ] I already came to the Drabwurld. It's pretty far off from where I'm from.

[ but, throwing himself into danger sounds exactly like something thomas would do, to be honest. he considers it for a moment, considers the drabwurld at large...and how badly it ended the last time he went to do something for the kingdom. thomas really has no interest in working for morla again, period, so that rules that out.

eventually, his curiosity takes hold of him because thomas is thomas and he has to ask questions. ] You got married to run away from a dream?

[Lusiphur grumps a little, but it did seem like a really stupid fucking idea in hindsight] I got married because I thought I loved her and it seemed like something better to go than keep running all the past shit through my head over and over. It worked for a little while, but the real nightmare was getting married to that traitorous cow, so it was back to the dreams that wake you up screaming.

My point is that distraction, really throwing yourself into something that requires a lot of mental focus-- if you think you can manage that much-- is a good way to keep your subconscious from having enough free time to produce nightmares.

I hear there's a hunt going on. Go try to kill a bear or some wild animal that'll try and eat you. That's running away while your mind's focused on some real shit that matters in the present... not jogging along, idly stewing in some shit that's happened in the past and that's keeping you up at night.

[ traitorous cow. wow. thomas winces, recalling similar (okay, well, cow wasn't involved) not so nice words directed at teresa. ] Sorry about that.

[ now that the "shitfaced drunk" (shitfaced?) advice is over, thomas is actually figuring out that this guy's got a pretty good point. thomas does need more distractions. he needs things to do beside the map, things that will keep him from dreaming of all of the bad things he's ever done. this seems to tie unfortunately in with the fact that he's been doing something similar to avoid sleeping at all, but, hey. thomas is allowed to be irresponsible every now and then now that he's not ~the final candidate~ (the real leader) anymore. ]

My friend went out to go hunt the White Hart and got turned into a fox. [ he chuckles, idly. ] I've been pretty distracted taking care of him, so I think that'll help.

[ the last time he really slept was at samhain, anyway, so hopefully being around minho and teresa might soothe the pain. ] Thanks, [ he says, eventually. ] That was...weirdly helpful.

[They were having a serious conversation (in it's own way, at least) but before he can even think to respond to "thank you"-- words he's not used to hearing very often-- he has to ask...]

Going out to hunt got him turned into a fox? A real fox? By what?

[No matter if it was fairy tricks or something the Hart did itself, Lusiphur really disliked magic users and extended distrust to all of them equally. His previously mentioned ex wife had something to do with that.]

I don't know. Something the White Hart did? He must have seen it. [ thomas shrugs his shoulders, though it's not visible. he's given up on trying to understand the drabwurld--which is a balls out lie, because thomas wishes everything would just make sense. this is why he hates magic. science is explainable. ]

It's not the first time something like that happened. A while ago, I... [ he pauses. "was eating my lunch too fast and inhaled a feather" is the decidedly uncool version of this tale. ] ...came into contact with one of the bird king's feathers and it did something similar to me. [ distastefully: ] Except with a deer.

So let me get this straight? The Hart turned your friend into a fox, and a bird turned you into a deer? You'd think they'd at least turn you into something closer to what they are themselves. How'd you manage to turn back to normal?

[Oh but Lusiphur hated transformation spells. And the most important thing to learn about them is how to break the enchantment. He never wanted to be stuck in not his own shape ever again]

If it makes you feel any better, I got turned into a woman once. As it turns out, killing the thing that cast the spell did not reverse the spell.

It just wore off after a while. [ thomas makes a sour face, even if its not visual. that was a humiliation that thomas would literally never live down--although minho getting turned into a fox helps it a little. ] We're hoping the same thing will happen to Min.

[ but. hey. camaraderie. he pauses, a little surprised, and thomas has to smother a bit of a laugh that threatens to startle out of him. mostly he's full of questions (are you from a place like here that works with magic? why a woman?) but the one that comes out is-- ] You thought that would work?

[ it's not meanly, considering you can hear the edge of a laugh in his tone, a grin. hey, you made him feel better! ]

What did this Min person ever do to you? [Luse isn't really sure that he cares what the answer is, but this has turned into an interesting enough conversation to continue it.

He can hear that laugh, but so long as he doesn't make any wise cracks or ask certain questions, they'll be okay.]

Not really, but it was worth a shot. [Literally.] It made me feel a little better about the whole situation though.

[He grumbles a little. He can't say that those were the worst few days of his life, but they were way up there.] Turns out, the spell didn't have a time duration but a range. Just had to get far enough away from where the spell was cast for it to wear off. But all magic's different.

[ thomas laughs--and then yelps an ow! which would be the sound of minho biting him. he's warmed up considerably since his first message to the network; perhaps a little tired hope'll do that to a person. ] He's my best friend, and he made fun of me for a month after I got turned into a deer.

[ yeah serves you right minho doesn't it. he listens to lusiphur's story curiously, and he can definitely get that. killing rat man really didn't do anything in the end, but it made thomas feel a combination of better and horrifically guilty, so. absently petting at the big fox in his lap, he contributes- ] I've never ever dealt with magic until I came here. I don't really like it - [ team science for the win ] - but I can see where it has its advantages. I'm not sure if turning people into things they aren't counts as one of them, though.

Better for your friend to make fun of your antlers than your great ass. I'll take being a deer any day of the week over going through that again. [The Elf's best friend Jace also made comments for at least a month... which was 5 weeks longer than Lusiphur had the patience for]

I've unfortunately dealt with magic a lot. If you're not the one wielding it, it pretty much always turns out bad. Sure it has its advantages, but that means getting all friendly with the magic user, and four times out of five that part's not worth the risk. [he could count with two fingers and an obscene gesture the number of magic users who hadn't screwed him over ~~yet~~ out of the many he'd encountered. Elves were fabled to be "magical creatures" but give him steel and gunpowder over that crap any day.] Sorcerers turning people into things they're not must be some kind of universally cruel joke. I'm sure it's pretty advantageous... for them. Not for the poor saps who fall victim to it. [someone's a little bitter]

Magic's common where you're from. [ it's not a question so much as a guess, and one thomas knows is pretty common sense. it's still weird to get used to the idea of the drabwurld being sort of commonplace to everyone else around him, because this whole casual sorcery thing really does nothing more than irritate tommy. it's hard to understand everything when some things just refuse to be explained. ]

It's a good practical joke, I guess. [ faintly humorous ] I just wish I hadn't been the butt of it. I don't think I've heard of anything quite as bad as your situation here, though, so you're probably okay...for now, anyway.

Where I'm from, it's more common that I'm comfortable with. More common in the Elvin cities than in human ones... and all of it combined is less magic than what's in the air around here. [He grumps.] It makes my skin crawl.

[Lusiphur actually has a lot of complaining to do about magic and magic users, but he wanted a beer before launching into that rant. It didn't really matter what the Elf thought of magic... it's everywhere, and apparently it would just continue to taunt him] The only reason my situation isn't as bad is because I haven't found the right people to piss off yet. Give it time.

So. What's it like not having magic around where you're from?

...Different. [ well the world is pretty much ending, so. his first knee jerk response was "disease ridden" so different is probably better. ] The place I'm from is pretty bleak compared to here--magic might have done us some good. I thought I had magic for a little while, but it turned out even that was just a chip in my brain.

It's weird, though, because some of the stuff crosses over. Like the fairy rings in the Drabwurld, we'd call those a flat-trans. They do the same thing in theory--I'm kind of interested in trying to see if we can't make them more portable like the flat-trans are, but I don't exactly have the magical knowledge to replicate it. [ uh oh you brought out thomas the nerd. this has sort of been his pet project since he got to the drabwurld. ] But it's interesting, that magic and science sort of coincide.

Edited 2015-01-04 23:21 (UTC)

.... Nerd. [He doesn't know Thomas beyond this first conversation, but it's pretty clear he's just teasing. He sighs audibly before continuing.]

I have to admit, I don't know how magic or science works, but I would definitely prefer this place to be a little more bleak than it is. [There's really no point in complaining, and there's something a bit defeated in his voice. Annoyed, but defeated.]

I don't know anything about these "fairy rings" you're talking about. Teleportation?

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second trial. | voice (unlocked)

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