lostcarnival | [ota] have to believe we are magic

Entry tags:

[ota] have to believe we are magic

WHO: Jonathan Strange & you!
WHERE: various points around the carnival
WHEN: Days 33/34
WHAT: actually doing his job + failing a bit at magic + accidentally succeeding a bit at magic
WARNINGS: n/a!

in the main tent: showing off some
To the surprise of everybody, Strange is actually doing his damn job. Granted, his damn job of a magician instead of his damn job as a mercenary with the Nightrunners, but he's staying in the carnival for now, trying to keep an eye on Childermass as best he can. After all, Strange knew in theory that Childermass knew how to rest, but he wasn't entirely sure if he knew in practice.

So here he is, in the main tent, actually practicing. Sometimes you can find him just staring at a candelabra, as if staring will magically make it do something. Other times, Strange is actually working magic, as a giant top made out of the dirt floor of the tent spins around the stage, or animals made of straw prance around the area.

The most notable thing about all this? Strange looks downright relaxed as he works his magic, possibly the most relaxed he's been since he first arrived.

anywhere: like the one thing childermass is better at than him
Something's weird about that patch of shadows out of the corner of your eye. It almost seems like it's trying too hard to be shadows. The stillness is unnatural and you can't shake the feeling you're being watched. It's not changing with the light, instead the shadows remain just shadows, no matter what. Occasionally, facial features can be made out in the shadows, that of a tall, wild-haired man, concentrating very hard on not being seen.

And then the shadows sneeze. Whoops.

"Damn," Strange can't help but swear to himself as he suddenly becomes visible, peeling himself off the shadows of whatever building he's up against. He sniffles a bit as he carefully rubs at his nose with clawed hands. "I still don't entirely understand how he manages to do it so well."

trailer 29: sorry y'all his bad
Strange is in his trailer (which honestly, is a bit of a mess, with stacks of paper on too many surfaces, this is what you get when you give the eccentric a closed space.) He sits at the table, a candelabra in front of him. Match lit, Strange mutters something under his breath before he lights the candle.

What he muttered was a summoning spell, something to summon a faerie. After all, it worked back home, why not see if it works here, while they're in faerie. The worst that could happen was that it didn't work, after all (Strange has very low standards for 'the worst that can happen') So, as the candle is lit, you find yourself randomly in this guy's trailer...and wow, is Strange a bit confused at your arrival.

"Hmm. It wasn't supposed to bring in workers."

( ooc: so because I thought it's hilarious, I kept Strange's ability to summon fairies except, surprise, it's weird in the carnival and he's equally likely to have summoned someone tainted with faerie magic aka characters in the game. This'll default more to veteran characters/characters with more changes but if you want your character to have been pulled out of what they were doing to appear in some rando's trailer, I am all for that! drop me a pm or plurk @allikateor if you have any questions! )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Strange lets out a small laugh at that, grinning still as he talks. "A marvelous idea! But where shall we find all those feathers? I haven't met anyone with wings here to ask them!"

Just gonna yank feathers off the coworkers, no biggie.

"What am I, a procurer?" Ash said with a broad shrug. "Ask the chief, he probably has an idea. There's gotta be some way, they get all sorts of other resources. They get straw, don't they?"

"If he doesn't have an idea, I could ask the chef. This is Faerie, after all, I'm sure that there are some...ah, unique birds that get sent to the kitchen."

After all, it was already obvious that some people had...unique dietary restrictions. And if this carnival pulled in people from different worlds, then who's to say it didn't pull in rations from different worlds also?

"Of course, with that, I might end up with a flock of chickens emerging from the audience."

"I meant Joker. The chief. But the chef is actually a really good idea too. I mean, you can get different birds out of the look than the ones the feathers come from, I'm sure." Lions didn't eat straw, but he'd made lions out of straw on the general 'animal' association -- so it stood to reason.

Ash slid back to sit on the straw cat's back, crossing her legs to get comfortable. "What about feathers created by magic, could you use them?"

"Possibly," Strange remarked, with a little frown. Creating feathers...he hasn't thought of that. He's lost in thought for a moment as he ponders the possibilities.

"It would be easier to use actual feathers, though. To start with, I wouldn't have to recreate them at the start of every show."

Of course, then he would have a big bucket of feathers to haul around, but that hasn't really occurred to Strange yet. The details would get figured out in the end!

"Oh sure, but I'm always looking for ways I can help out performances!"

Ash whipped the guitar she had slung over back around into her lap, popped out her claws in lieu of a pick, and flickered her fingers over the strings. As the distorted hum of a chord hung in the air, a feather drifted out of nowhere to land right on Strange's head.

"Bam."

Well hello now, that is interesting. Strange watches with rapt interest as Ash seemingly made a feather out of music.

"Fascinating," he can't help but mutter, as he takes the feather from his head, feeling it over. Yep, it feels like a feather. He knew that faeries had different magic than humans (after all, he's never seen faeries use invocations the same sort of precise way he has), maybe...whatever Ash was used an entirely different set of magic all together?

"And you created the feather from the music?" Again, he's just downright surprised and impressed by that.

"Eh," Ash teetered a hand in midair. "Technically? Music's the medium through which I perform my magic. So it isn't exactly that I created the feather directly from music, but for all intents and purpose there really isn't much of a difference."

If anything, she was probably closest to being a warlock, but she'd learned people took that term as something veeeeeery different than how it was meant, so best to skip the misunderstandings.

The medium for her magic...so she performed magic through music like Strange performed magic via incantations and study. He grasps the concept fairly quickly, and gives her a little nod. How interesting. This place really did pull people from all sorts.

"I suppose it's a blessing that you didn't turn out tone deaf!" It's said with a wide grin. It's a joke! Granted, not a funny one, but points for attempts.

It got a little snicker out of Ash, anyway. "Honestly, I don't think it's possible. It's like being a person means you have to have skin -- being a music mage means I have perfect pitch and all that sort of stuff.

"How interesting," Strange can't help but muse, with a little smile. "Where I'm from, magicians are as varied as they come! Aside from us all being human, I doubt there's a unifying factor like that."

Of course, Strange knows a sample size of three (possibly four) magicians. It's a large, over-sweeping statement for an incredibly small sample size and he is seemingly unaware of that fact.

"Oh, I just meant for music magic. I've seen all sorts of magic in my time. Most catpeople tend to be witches or warlocks, for example." Hopefully neither of those two terms had some horrible connotation in Strange's mind -- they occasionally were loaded terms.

There's no evidence that the terms have horrible connotations. Instead, he laughs. "Where I'm from, no serious user of magic would call themselves a witch. It's all a bit too children's story."

Hansel and Gretel, Snow White, there were plenty of children's stories with evil witches harming innocent people via dark magic.

"The preferred term is magician."

"Hey, children's story or not, it's a legitimate branch of magic, characterized by a predilection for enchantments, charms, transformations, and illusions." She might not be one herself, but the potential was in her blood -- she had a cousin or two who'd taken up the path. "'Magician' is a real generic term where I'm from. Could mean all sorts of different magic."

"So your world's magic specialized by the type of spell one is best at. How does the study of magic work? Are there texts? Schools?"

To his credit, Strange is legitimately interested as he asks every question under the sun. After all, it had been hundreds of years since the England he knew had enough magic for there to be specializations.

"Eh," Ash said again, with the same degree of semi-agreement. "Me, I was born with it strong enough that it came out naturally, so I learned as I went -- but mine's also real simple to use, because whatever I'm playing determines the effect. Total straight line from intent to result. But there are schools for witches and warlocks. There's other magic done with traditional master-apprentice system. Technomagic just seems to require being really crazy in a way that SCIENCE!" One upthrust finger punctuated that all-caps word -- "results. Some people know it naturally, especially if they have a strong magical legacy like dragon heritage..."

Ash understood curiosity, and had no problems sating it.

Man, how he wishes he had a pencil to write this down. Strange is just listening with rapt attention. Technomagic? Magical legacy? Dragon heritage? This is all just so amazing and so interesting and he can't help but think that his world's only scratched the surface of magic.

"How interesting. Where I'm from, if you're properly inclined, you can feel the magic, but bending it to do what you want takes study and practice."

She was a terrible example to learn from, when her world was a little like the carnival in macrocosm: people wandering in constantly, all from different walks of life. "Some people are like that. I knew a guy once who basically said it was like an itch -- he HAD to study or it would have driven him crazy, always feeling it and never being able to do anything with it."

Strange can't help but laugh at that, grinning at her example. Yeah. That's totally him. "It's like hearing a tune playing in the back of your head. You can't help but finish the notes."

Once he discovered he could do magic, he never really stopped.

Ash giggled into the back of one hand. "Not a bad analogy to use on a music mage. Yeah, especially if it has a little bit of a literal physical effect on you."

"I wonder...do all magicians feel this way? That sort of compulsion to perform magic, no matter what the type." Strange pauses, giving Ash a little shrug.

"After discovering my magic, I can't imagine life without it."

Ash tilted her head back and tucked a hand beneath her chin to think about that, her tail curled behind her. "I don't think so. There are kinds of magic you can learn without needing special talent or a natural gift, so no one would have the physical need to learn them."

"But people would still learn them. They still have that impulse to learn magic, even if it's purely mental instead of physical." He's having a grand time talking with her, keeping things light and airy as he does so. It's been ages since he could debate magic with someone who could hold her own.

Ash was enjoying the conversation enough that she had totally forgotten to flirt -- which was saying something, because she was used to most conversation being dominated by her physical attributes and playing off that fact. A real intellectual discussion... that was rare. "I think that's not any different than anyone else who has a desire to learn something, though. So really magic wouldn't be much different from any other art or science in that respect."

"If we extend the art analogy further, then it makes even more sense. Some people are born talented, others gain their talent through years of work. Likewise, if you told two different people to paint a tree, the results would be as different as if you told two magicians to hide an object. The base result is the same, but the details would greatly differ."

Strange talks with his hands as he talks, as if weighing the two choices on his hands.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject