entrancelogs | [open] Is it better to believe?

Entry tags:

[open] Is it better to believe?

Who: Leo Fitz and YOU
Where: Around the Kindergarten
When: 23rd-27th (event catch-all)
Rating: Will edit this if threads move beyond PG13
Summary: When the scientist wakes up wielding magic, the first thing he wants to do is run three thousand tests. Something might accidentally get set on fire. He'll probably need help dealing with it.
The Story:
[ There are a few things Fitz understands about this event. He knows he's supposed to be some sort of wizard -- the word "evoker" springs to mind, even though he's not sure how to place it or what to do with that knowledge. But he does know that it's fascinating. It's a different sort of magic than the kind he'd had when Wonderland had transformed into that magic school. Then, he'd been seamlessly integrated into a society that took magic entirely for granted. He'd been a scholar, but at things that didn't require a frame of reference. None of it translated into anything particularly useful when the event ended and they returned to themselves.

But this is a different sort of magic. He's retained his faculties, and they've been transported to a world where mistakes probably won't end in something catastrophic. He'll spend his days working through the mechanics of what he innately knows, but hasn't yet examined. The trouble is that initiating the spell is more challenging when he's trying to slow down the process gained by forced muscle memory. He knows how to create a fire shield, but in trying to determine where the flames are actually coming from, he might start a few fires.

And as such, the bulk of his days will be entrenched in a different kind of experimentation. Settling in what he thinks is an uninhabited patch of land, he tests every spell he can think to test. It ranges from ice storms to fireballs, with the occasional acid arrow or gust of wind soaring over everyone's heads. He might need some help mitigating the ensuing disasters that come from it.

What he isn't prepared for is how exhausting it all is. Spellcasting is stressful, and a different sort of strain than what he's normally dealing with. (Perhaps it's symptomatic of a low constitution.) Every evening, he's tired enough to have a hard time standing upright for long periods. His notebook is increasingly full of data, but the headaches and nosebleeds are a terrible price to pay.

He knows he should probably stop. But it's all so interesting... Just one more. Just until the event ends. It's important data to compile, even if he thinks he might pass out after the tenth spell in a day (or earlier -- there's something about a freezing sphere that sucks everything out of him). ]

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A viking? [Mental note: harass people for more information about that later. Now isn't the time for it; if there's anyone who can give him a handle on this lawlessness, it's Klaus' witch sister.]

I don't know that fun is entirely the word. It doesn't seem to follow any sort of ruleset even when it's my own. [Or if it does, it's something he's missing entirely in his examination of it.]

It does take practice.

[She offers a small smile.]

It took me years of training to perfect.

You make the process look effortless.

[He'll lower his eyes then.]

What sort of training is involved with directing this properly?

I've had a lot of practice.

[She moves closer to him, before raising her hand.]

You need to focus your intent. Empty everything out of your mind so that all that matters is the spell.

[Just ask for the impossible, why don't you.]

But that isn't everything that matters. The data won't be pure if it isn't recorded concurrently with the experiment.

Well, take it from personal experience - you need to master the skill itself, before you can start multitasking.

[Otherwise, things can go horribly, horribly wrong. Like rings of birds falling dead around you wrong.]

If you're so intent on running an experiment, I can cast spells for you to measure.

[That's kinder than most people have been when he's tried to be logical about this issue.]

No, it's fine -- I want to do it. I won't have indefinite access to the ability.

[He works his jaw, frowning.]

I don't suppose you've any particular techniques for emptying one's mind? It's not something usually asked of me.

[She pauses for a moment as she considers, because intense focus is kind of her jam, and being a scientist can lend itself to that, to a point.]

First, visualize what you would like the spell to do. Try to hone in on as many details as you can. For example if you were going to set those pieces of wood on fire, think of the color and the heat of the flame, the smell of wood burning, the thickness of the smoke. The more complete the image in your mind is, the stronger the spell will be.

[Witches where she's from normally use chanting to focus the mind, generating the proper intent and what have you, but the magic here doesn't seem to be quite as complicated.]

[In his case, it's an issue of semantics. She's asked him to empty a place that he understands to be packed full at all times.]

Seems silly to be imagining instead of doing.

[But he'll try. She's being patient enough to explain her ridiculous nonsense, and so he'll do his best to be open to it. Even though it shouldn't work.]

Well, imagining is part of the process.

[She tips her head to the side for a moment as she watches him.]

When you're inventing something, do you not visualize it first, before you begin building?

[He stiffens at that. Magic and science are wholly disparate.]

Perhaps during the drafting stages, but the magic's already been committed to paper.

[Yes, they are different, but the way his brain will process it is ultimately the same.]

It has, but every witch or caster is different. So while the basics are in the spell you have, you still have the bend that power to your will in your own way. The paper isn't going to do it for you.

[Learning another witch's magic is always a complicated balance of mixing your own style with someone else's. Sometimes Freya will rewrite the spells entirely, and sometimes she'll simply modify a thing here or there, depending on who wrote it.]

What may be more intuitive for some is less so for others, so it takes practice and honing that focus.

So you're essentially saying that magic is in a perpetual state of redesign.

[Which could explain why it's got so much ruddy lore surrounding it.]

In a way, yes.

[Because it's true. There's a reason why witches pass down their grimmoires.]

There are some witches who push the limits of what they know capable by magic and some who don't. There are also different types of practitioners, from those that channel nature to those that channel the communal power of their ancestors.

Given what I've seen thus far, I'm inclined to think that these particular abilities are natural. I'm -- particularly aware of the elements. I imagine it's an affinity that could become distracting if I let it.

[He shifts, struggling to find a way to describe the impulses from being a class with a declared favorite.] Particularly fire. It's entirely unacademic.

[She smirks a bit at that.]

Earth is of course the strongest element to channel in nature, but fire is more of a ... passionate force. It's easier to channel because it feeds on anger or excitement.

Wouldn't that make it dangerous if I took your suggestion of clearheadedness? Academic understanding is necessary to keep it at bay, is it not?

Well, no one is saying fire isn't dangerous. But one would assume that if you are focusing on your spell with a clear mind, then you'll be able to have a controlled focus, rather than letting your emotions feed the spell.

[She's certainly put a lot of thought into this. It's a wonder they haven't had this talk sooner.]

It's more like piloting what's already present rather than constructing it from nothing.

[Well, you were all dismissing her actually having magic at first, so she didn't think he wanted to talk about it. She was waiting for you, Fitz.]

In a sense, yes. It's not something from nothing, it's taking one thing's energy, or your own energy, and turning it into something else.

The energy transference matches my findings. It's been draining to keep pace with the larger commands.

[He's done a lot of dismissing. It certainly didn't seem this complicated from the outside.]

D'you think you could sit with me while I try something small? If you wouldn't mind, of course. I understand how busy you lot can be.

[She shakes her head.]

No, I don't mind at all. I'm happy to help.

[She doesn't really care as much about hunting crystal creatures.]

There's a spell -- it doesn't seem like much at all. [He'll usher her to a small collection of straw and scraps, the start of a campfire setup.] It ought to produce a flame -- My understanding is that it sets a radius aflame -- but that seems dangerous. I've been trying to narrow its scope into something more manageable -- but nothing's worked.

Well, some spells are intended to be dangerous. They're not simply for creating things, some are for defense.

[Like, you know, her ability to melt vampire brains. She moves to sit next to the fire pit and closes her eyes to focus on a smaller spell. As one hand extends on front of her, flames begin to lick her fingers and forms a safe, tame ball of flame.]

[But he squints at that, analyzing her motions and the subtleties in her expression.]

It's a different spell than the one I was using. Could that have something to do with the skillset we were given for this event?

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deathlessness - 2017-07-28 11:38 (UTC) - Expand

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