( video | unlocked | post-feast )

[noirant]

[ Politics and wars are one thing, but magic is quite another; some thirsts aren't slaked so easily by squabbling imps and gaudy fabric. Knowledge is power, and power is every wizard's disease.

Felix is far more rumpled than he'd like, and that hair won't unfrizz any time soon, but the words come calm as day: ]

It seems we've all been busy, so I suppose I ought to be brief.

Magic. If you'll indulge the melodramatic imagery, it's as myriad as a hydra's necks, and almost twice as difficult to pin down. Any sort of rigorous survey seems better left for days without a pounding headache. Perhaps instead, we might just speak. 

Tell me what you know about magic. Stories, facts, vicious gossip if you're so disposed. Magic brought us each here, so let us be kind guests and oblige it the conversation.

[ He flashes a wide, tired smile. ]

Unfamiliarity is quite acceptable. I'd just like to hear it from you.

Comments

audio

[caditquaestio]

Magic is the suspension of reason for as long as fear and superstition gain ground over plainly sighted truth.

[ A pause. ]

And the Pope and his Church will burn you for it.

[ And another. ]

If you're poor.

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[noirant]

How utterly charming.

[ Droll. He's no stranger to pyres -- that is, after all, the point of heresy -- but fuck every seventh saint if he has the first idea what a pope is. ]

Fear, I'll grant you, and superstition's the watch-word of any well-oiled imagination. Do you find all fact in coin?

[caditquaestio]

I find history.

[noirant]

A practical man. But have you studied from the tail or the head?

[ What's your bank like, bro? ]

[Video]

[scramasax]

[Swallows on his end of the line.

Doesn't sound as if it's what the gentleman wants to hear, and it wasn't specified as to whether it's Drabwurld magic or magic in general that's got his interest, but in case the latter, ah-ha he's staunch about his developed experience with and relevant to it...

Picks up dryly, softly, quickly, and sounding barely-teenage, but serious and earnest.]

Unholy. Corruptive, corrosive. Can be, but was not meant to be, wielded by man; drawn -- from pagan deities from other realms...

-- That's magic as I am familiar with its presence in the world I know. [Shaking his head perhaps a tad fidgetish.] -- I still know little about this world's magic, and -- I don't intend to know any more than I have to.

[ Video ]

[noirant]

[ It's not the stupidest thing that he's ever heard. Powers know that magic can be dangerous -- though Felix is far more like to fear its users. Pagan deities are little without pagan worshipers. ]

Then you have my respect for speaking of it here. [ No he doesn't. Felix might recognize the bravery in broaching a difficult experience, but lack of curiousity remains a cardinal sin. Still, it's enough to spark his interest, and that's enough to fold the affectation of sympathy over his fascination. ] And my hopes that this realm's spells show you wide berth. Can the magic of your home be ignored?

[ Video ]

[scramasax]

Thank you, my lord. [Somewhat obligatory, and he takes the supposed expression of respect as possibly the same. Not backhanded, but obligatory.

And oh-ho, lack of curiosity isn't the issue here, at all - "as much as I have to" is a rather deliberately flexible and easy to loosely-define restriction.]

-- Perhaps not ignored, but it's only very few who've knowledge. Of it.

Its practitioners -- who I am sure still exist -- and by that I mean the cults of the Ancients, as there are those not among them who have used magic - including myself...

[He's taken a decided detour there - pauses, pulls himself back on track.] -- Pardon me. The followers of the Ancients do not practice it openly.

If one outside of them is allowed to know it, to ignore it would be -- iniquitous, if not dangerous.

[ Video ]

[noirant]

[ Obligatory or not, he's pleased as punch to finally receive a proper honorific around here. Of course, he could remedy that by flaunting his titles a bit more, but what good is attention if you have to ask for it? ]

Wise of them -- for as short a length as that will stretch; 'unholy and corrosive' make for rather more pyres than dinner invitations. [ Why yes, he is still a bit vexed with Cesare. ] You embraced it, I take?

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[oursavinggrace]

It's a thing where I come from, if that's what you're asking. But yeah, I'm pretty sure you can blame all magic on the gods, one way or another.

[even the non-gods that can use it all seem to be godspawn or end up as gods or something. some myths talk about sorceresses and all that, but he's never heard of anyone using some sort of magic that wasn't somehow related to some god.]

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[noirant]

It's certainly one question.

[ Felix isn't religious, but he won't put that beyond the realm of possibility. His own magic is tied strongly enough to observation and belief; who can begin to guess at that of other worlds? ]

I take it's not particularly common?

video

[oursavinggrace]

Depends on how you'd define "common", I guess. Most of the world probably has no idea the gods are even real, but they still have influence over pretty much everything and I don't know how much of all that should count as "magic".

[he doesn't even really get the whole "science and gods are both legit" thing, to be honest. apollo is the sun, but the big ball of gas in space is also the sun? and both these things are truth? who knows, leave that stuff to the athena kids.]

It's pretty standard for some people, though.

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[noirant]

[ This reminds him more and more of some elabourate mystery cult conspiracy. Felix nods attentively, feeling a slow resignation creep through the gesture. Count down the minutes until someone mentions death and labyrinths. ]

Magic certainly can't exist in vacuum, but for the sake of clarity, we can limit our discussion to its active use. Which god do you patron?

[ Because clearly, he's either a worshipper or a priest. Right? R..r...ight? ]

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[invernale]

It's not as complicated as you think. [ At the basic level, but Harry looks amused because he's always hearing this sort of thing from people who are unaware of magic's true nature. ]

You collect energy and you apply your will to it to get a result.

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[noirant]

[ Oh, good. There's the arrogance he's been missing. ]

Quite. However, smashing my way through the basic rhetoric of an introduction to spell mechanics won't tell me anything particularly interesting, here or in any realm. When we all sell the same lines, technique counts.

[ Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed -- or, well. Multiverse. Felix's mind finally seems to catch up with his mouth, and quite visibly he settles once more. Tipping his head to the left (the better to put Harry in view), he peers with plain curiousity. ]

Suppose you had to do something so simple as make a light. It doesn't have to last, but conventional means like a candle or lantern won't do, it must be magical. How would you go about it?

[ Felix may be trying rather badly to illustrate a point, but that doesn't mean he isn't interested in the answer. ]

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[invernale]

[ Well, Harry can certainly appreciate the attitude. At least this guy doesn't come off as totally condescending like some of the folk he normally has to deal with. For right now, that is. ]

Really? Am I gonna be doing show-and-tell? I think being here might not be so bad if people actually want to know about magic at this point.

[ And then, without further ado, he reaches into his shirt for his silver pentacle necklace. Holding it out, he focuses his energy through the silver til it begins to shine with a blue-white light. ]

Like this. It all depends on your personality and well. How bright you are. [ Resisting puns? Not in his rulebook. ]

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[noirant]

[ Finally, someone to talk to. He eyes the pentacle, amused, then flutters a dismissive hand. It's only half gesture; gaudy garnet rings encrust each garishly-tattooed finger, and light briefly in turn. He's smiling again now. ]

Precisely. The oldest trick in the book, correct? The first thing that any apprenctice learns. Raw energy is easy, all the more so with grounding channels. [ The light flickers out and Felix blinks, a little green flame dancing beside his propped chin. ] But conjured half a hundred ways, from a dozen different metaphors.

[ Red, now, then blue. The flame drifts into petals, a diamond, then a rough cariacture of -- uh. Is that supposed to be a bird? It's a bit more like a bat -- Felix seems to notice this. A pinched look steals over his face, and the light blinks out. He looks evenly to Harry. ]

We mediate magic through our own understanding of its use. I can think of little more valuable to its practice than exchanges of theory.

voice.

[masterofmystery]

Why do you want to know about magic?

[ It's said roughly, just a bit. He's been good about avoiding his own magic here. Even with knowing magic was abound here, he figured it was better to try not letting Muggles know. ]

This place's magic is gonna be different then what other people might have, you know.

voice.

[noirant]

[ Why does he want to know about anything? Because it's there and it might rip his arms off. The answer's drawn out, as though Felix is explaining to someone a bit dim: ]

If it wasn't, there would be little point to asking, would there?

[ Sorry Ron. Felix pushes out a breath, then drops the nasty tone. He sounds calm, but it's a little too heavy. Like someone who knows irritation was uncalled-for, but are just too reluctant to let it go. ]

I'd like to know about magic because I use it, and because it doesn't seem to conflict with this realm's own spellwork, nor that of other arrivals. Which implies a possible hybridity of method.

Should I mark you down for a 'might', or 'might not'?

voice.

[masterofmystery]

Maybe not, but there's plenty of reasons people'd ask about that.

[ Like using it for the wrong things or to your benefit. Or hunting out witches. He knew muggles did that. That wasn't something he didn't learn about after all. And it's why he'd being good and not saying anything about his own magic-- laws and all that. ]

I don't think they'd make it so easy for any of us to figure out.

And s'a might not. I don't have any opinion on it.

[showmeyourwreath]

We could talk for years about it.

[Not that she seems very daunted by the prospect, quite the contrary, actually.]

Magic is myriad as you've said, but it's a force that can exist on its own, or be harnessed in someway to realise one's will.

What is it you're looking for, though?

[noirant]

Then, mademoiselle, it is my fond hope you'll at some point indulge me so.

[ Felix inclines his head graciously to the locket. ]

Each of us here is a piece -- like it or not -- [ His tone drawls briefly before skipping back to form. It's pretty clear that Felix side with 'not'. ] -- Of this world's magical, ah, environment. Our presence ought to be an interruption in the existing flow, like tossing a rock into a stream.

But have there been ripples? And what of the other stones there? If what they say of the gems is true, then even the annemer among us now pose a portion of the magical environment.

If we're to be present here for very long, then all the better to understand how each of us thinks about a force now common to us.

I suppose -- [ A rueful smile. ] -- I'd just like to hear your story.

sorry, she's a bit of a nerd

[showmeyourwreath]

I would be delighted to, sir.

[She smiles quite pleasantly, before her expression takes a thoughtful cant.]

It could be that this environment is very forgiving, but then perhaps the stones could be lessening or normalising our collective impact? Our comings--and very rare goings--could be seen as regular traffic, so that what happens isn't so much the tossing of rocks into streams, but instead water being added to it.

[She frowns mildly.]

Which you could say might present a problem of whether or not the "stream" expands to accommodate us or whether or not it will overflow.

[Which could be very Bad, but anyway.]

You know, it also makes me wonder what would happen if someone who didn't have a shard tried to come to this world, if that would even be possible. There might be some sort of gate that we can't see. Wouldn't be the first time.

[She shrugs, still smiling especially when he says he wants to hear her story, but she's caught by something he's said.]

Oh, but pardon me, but what is an annemer?

(video)

[enthraller]

[that's certainly as worthwhile a topic to research as anything else here. rest assured, he's definitely stalking every conversation here.]

It's not the sort of thing I have any personal experience with [lies] but I do know people who can use it. But how it works really depends on the person using it.

oh holy crow i'm so sorry i somehow missed this entirely???

[noirant]

[ A laugh at that, a small, light thing. ]

Oh, but please don't demur -- you do yourself far too little credit. What of this life can we call more personal than our friends?

[ His voice and lips lift in his best impression of warm interest, but the smile doesn't quite reach his right eye. Saralegui looks, if Felix is feeling honest, more than a touch like Shannon. There's a wariness there that has nothing to do with the bespectacled young man before him. ]

How have you seen it worked?

no problem bro o7

[enthraller]

My personal guard had a bit of skill with fire magic. [not really sure how he does it, but more than a decade of loyal service allows belias to get away with his secrets.] And I'm friends with the king of the Demon race, so I've seen his abilities at work, too.