Lord Felix Harrowgate (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
noirant) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
eachdraidh2014-07-29 02:04 pm
noirant) wrote in eachdraidh2014-07-29 02:04 pm
( video | unlocked | post-feast )
[ 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.
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.
no subject
[ 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
[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?
he loves nerds MY INCREDIBLE APOLOGIES about the wait on this!!
A term for those who don't use magic -- 'the general public', as it were. You know, perhaps we're both looking from a skewed view.
[ Felix considers. ]
You make a very salient point about the purpose of the shards. If the Green Heart is truthfully of such substantial magical significance, and if we can accept its origin -- or at least, close ties -- to the Drabwurld, then who is to say those ah, traveler's powers, do not draw upon it?
Less adding water to a full brook, and more returning it to original place. The river fills to capacity slowly, over time.
[ He waves a hand, dismissive of himself. ]
There's probably no good way to test it, unless you could study those without shards -- perhaps even remove one in... [ He trails off, looking either thoughtful or else magnificently stupid, then shakes his head again. ] ...No matter.
[ Oh, but it is. Thank you, Flora, for giving him an idea. The gleam in his sudden smile expects question. ]
NO IT'S OKAY FELIX IS SO VERY AMAZING I'D WAIT FOR FOREVER FOR A TAG THIS MADE MY DAY 8D
[It's something that certainly applies to a lot of people here, but it only makes her curious about where he comes from.
Anyway, she's very attentive as she speaks and it's a good point he makes. If they all have pieces of the world, then it's possible that they are parts of some sort of pre-determined whole, how big it is still remains to be seen, even after all the time that's passed in this war.
It's enough to make her head spin.
But she won't let it. There's a lot to think about and her face is thoughtful, but there is some measure of distaste to it as well.
She's not sure she likes a good deal of those possibilities, not one bit.]
That seems like it would be more sound yes, actually, but then that presents so many more questions and I can't say I like the idea of potentially drawing on a power I don't know much about.
[Felix she's just met you but that's not going to stop her from being hella disappointed in you if you plan on killing someone for study purposes.
Okay, they're in a war, but still.
Yet, she could be mistaken.
Really, she's actually giving him the benefit of the doubt here, but the manner in which he trails off is just so ominous in a way she just can't ignore. Not that he wants her to ignore him by the looks of things. He's an interesting one, isn't he?
She smiles, a little awkwardly at the edges first before she smooths them out.]
No, sir, I'd say this matters. What do you have in mind?
no subject
But that's the real curiousity, isn't it? [ He spreads his hands theatrically wide, pleased as punch to have an audience. ] These are only idle ideas between us, but if we imagined them anywhere near the truth, you'd have known the Heart's power your entire life. And I, the same, though by different means.
[ Felix leans in just slightly, his smile smoothing into almost conspiratorial inquiry; as though he's letting Flora -- and Flora alone -- in on some private plan. ]
Given that we -- [ An assumption, there, but Felix doesn't seem to have noticed. ] -- Can't readily study such things in isolation, why not attempt the opposite route? Observe them in congress; whether additional shardholders can lend additional power to a working, especially annemer.
[ Not that he's given up on getting his hands on a shard. It's just going to take a bit more thinking than his mouth can keep up with at present. ]
no subject
These are curious, potentially dangerous things they're talking about, but danger's par for the course for her, honestly. It's not enough to dampen her spirits to the point that she's not a little charmed when he leans in like that. He's a little dramatic, but she can't say she minds that, not one bit, and she leans in kind, every bit the rapt audience.
She leans back and laces her fingers together before resting her chin on them, and in so doing it becomes apparent that she was never holding or wearing her locket. It could be hovering, but it could just be on a stand of some kind, too.]
What sort of working?
[Flora will absolutely not kill someone for their shard but she'd like to get her hands on one.]
There are a few potential problems with that, though. I don't dispute the existence of the shards, obviously, or the possibility that we could have been using them all this time somehow without knowing, but what if we haven't been? What if whatever usable power they have is still dormant? Perhaps there are certain conditions that must be met first, either just the one time or every time.
There needs to be away to isolate or at least discern that the shard's energy, and not the energies that we've all been used to. Normally, I.... [She breathes, her head dipping and brows knitting lightly together as she looks uncertain. Normally that's something that she should be able to do. That she can't isn't necessarily cause for alarm--she likes a good puzzle, and she will always always seek the truth and to understand things, but this may change or even upend everything she thought she knew about her life and magic.
Ah, but she's still speaking with someone isn't she? She looks up and puts a hand to her mouth before letting it fall to reveal a smile, one that's a little awkward and sheepish around the edges.]
Oh, pardon me. I let my mind wander for a moment.