lostcarnival | OPEN: New Beginnings In Stranger Places

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OPEN: New Beginnings In Stranger Places

Who: Dr. Helen Magnus and [You]
When: Day 92
Where: Roaming around, a little lost
What: Arrival, getting her bearings, etc. etc.

Adventure was something Helen Magnus never shied from and exploring the vastness of the underground Sanctuary, far beyond those walls was something she couldn't deny herself. So it was that she found herself here, under contract to the Ringmaster with her eyes wide with wonder at it all. The lights and colours, the excitement, the darker elements shining through here and there. It was as familiar as it was alien and she drank it in with an eagerness she had long felt lacking. It stirred her as she moved through tents, passed people much like her who had joined perhaps years before her. A bright flash of a tail there, wings, glowing skin, all of these people becoming Abnormals or were in the beginning. The sheer fascination would have been enough, really.

"Excuse me?" she asked, reaching out to catch the attention of one of the people she had fallen into step with, "I seem to have found myself a bit lost. I was looking for the medical tent and I seem to have completely gotten myself turned around. If you could point me in the right direction, I'd be most grateful."

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She can't help her returning smile because his mode of dress is if anything, incredibly nostalgic. When one has watched fashion's debatable progress during the long years more than once, his is a return to her own childhood and indeed at least some of her adulthood.

"It would be a pleasure," she says. "It seems that I've been assigned to aid your resident doctor in helping others to adjust to their changes. Helen Magnus, also a doctor. Medical among other degrees."

"Jonathan Strange, magician." He gives Helen a smile and a polite, courteous little half-bow. "Pleasure to meet you, Doctor Magnus. And may I say, I'm happy to see that we've someone else on the medical team. I think it's just poor Zecora who's working there now."

Strange leaves out the relevant information (Zecora's totally a horse), mostly because he kind of wants to see Helen's response to said horse doctor. She certainly seems to be taking all of this in stride, so he can't help but wonder what her breaking point is.

"I'm always willing to lend my services where needed, Mr. Strange," she says with a slight smile. "I confess, half the reason I find myself here is curiosity. I have seen a great many things in my life but this? Quite new and absolutely wonderful so far. How has your own stay been?"

"It's been wonderful," Strange can't help but admit, with a small smile of his own. Yes, he got shot that one time. And yes, they literally went to hell that other time. But to be here, in faerie, surrounded by magic of all sorts and learning about faerie and fae magic is just something he never thought he'd actually do.

"As a magician for the carnival, I'm able to stretch my magic and craft it into entirely new and different forms that I never could have managed back in England. When you add in the fact that we regularly travel and I can see strange new realms...well, what's not to like about that?"

"I can't even begin to argue with that," Helen says warmly. "It sounds honestly delightful. I think I would honestly love to learn magic myself if it's possible. After all, what is magic but a kind of science one can't comprehend? I have seen many absolutely stunning creatures in my own world and here, I suppose I will see many more. A chance to study and understand them was among the foremost reasons I'm here. Also, to help others with their own changes, which seem to be very much a part of being here."

She tilts her head as they walk and offers a smile.

"Well, if you wish to study my magic, I'd happily give a demonstration." Showing off? Doing cool things with his magic? Showing people just how amazing magic is in the first place? Hell yeah, Strange is 100% up for that.

"And if you wish to study magic yourself, I'll happily serve as a tutor. I know that's possible here." After all, Tamaki managed to somehow pick up healing magic, despite coming from a world that was decidedly un-magical. Perhaps it would be the same with Helen?

"Mr. Strange," Helen said with absolute and utter conviction, "I would be more than delighted to become your pupil. I see no better way to start my year here than by the study of another world's magic. That is most definitely my cup of tea."

She gestured for him to continue and her expression was the sort that came from someone who loved the thrill of discovery and the wonder of learning itself. Magic was another puzzle for her to unravel, certainly.

"I have to warn you, I'm well versed in English magic, not faerie. There's a bit of a difference." Though, considering just how happy and excited Strange looks to be talking about magic, that difference doesn't mean all that much to him.

"Still, it should be easier to learn faerie magic than my sort of English magic, partly due to the fact that we're in faerie itself. Fae magic is part of this realm's bones just as English magic is an inherent part of my England."

They've only been talking for a minute or so and it's already obviously apparent that a: he's a goddamn nerd and b: given the chance, Strange will blather about magic forever. He's animated as he talks, and his like of the subject is written all over his face.

"I would imagine that faery magic itself is like an ancient language that one must take the time to learn as it has any manner of twists and turns with its meaning. At least that is what I've read on that particular subject." Helen was settling into it now, falling back into the pleasantness of learning, of questioning, of reaching for answers.

"It also stands to reason that English magic has its own. Perhaps the best thing is that we are both British, therefore, magic ought to be in our bones, as amusing as it might sound. Could we not be an anchor of sorts?" There's a gleam of joy in her eye as well because Helen Magnus is probably just as big of a nerd. She's learning magic and it's English besides, why not be absolutely, ridiculously happy about that fact?

"I know the Ringmaster can help people learn faerie magic. There's a young man here from a world that isn't magical in the slightest, but thanks to the Ringmaster's help has started to slowly learn the basics of fae magic."

Strange could say many things about Tamaki but 'magically inclined' wouldn't be one of them, poor kid. Still, as Helen adds in her input, Strange can't help but nod. It does make sense. He's got no idea if she's from his specific world to begin with (probably not) but would that even matter in the first place?

"English magic already has a slight foothold in the carnival--there's another magician from my world here as well. And, at least in my experience, the more people you have practicing something, the stronger it becomes."

Edited (I hit enter way too fast!) 2017-05-04 14:32 (UTC)

"Agreed," Helen said with a slight nod. "Besides, we English already have enough ritual in our lives to count as a spark." She gestured a little. "In a place of faerie magic, you would think the two magics would support each other for the working of it. One a theoretical level, our English blood and bone aside. The English people as a whole already have one magic they can agree on, Mr Strange."

Helen's grin was bright.

"And that would be tea."

Strange can't help but laugh a little at that as he gives Helen a grin. "I'm afraid I've developed a taste for coffee since my time in Venice."

In Strange's defense, Italian coffee is amazing. And, he's acting properly sheepish about the fact that he (god forbid) actually likes coffee. All in good fun, of course, and that sheepish grin soon fades to a teasing one. "Still, I can't say no to a good cup of tea! I believe there's still some in the cookhouse should we want to have a cup or two."

And, considering that they're currently without a head cook, it would be much easier just to nip in and make the tea nowadays than it would be when Koel was around.

"As long as you can still appreciate the comfort of tea and decent company," Helen says with a laugh, "I highly doubt we will have a problem." She nods to his suggestion. "Tea does sound like an excellent idea. Perhaps you may continue with your demonstration? I find myself, for the first time in a great while, with an excess of time."

It's a fact that might not last too long given the fact that Helen is forever giving herself a thousand projects to do but since one of them is now learning English magic from Mr. Strange, this is time well spent.

"Applying that excess to tea and magic, Mr. Strange," she says with a great deal of seriousness, "sounds like a perfectly wonderfull use of it."

"My most impressive magic involves mirrors. And it would get us to the cookhouse faster than if we actually walked there." There's a pause as Strange spins around, inspecting their surroundings as if searching for something. If they were in the trailer area then he could easily find a mirror, just by breaking into someone's trailer. But as they were in the game area....

Then, with a wild grin, Strange turns back towards Helen. "Follow me. There's one of those funhouse mirrors set up not too far from here, near one of the stands. That should do for the magic."

He is straight up not explaining how he'll actually use said mirror to get to the cookhouse. Where's the fun in telling Helen about the magic when he can show off and surprise her instead?

"Translocation via mirror, perhaps?" Helen asks with a tilt of her head. Obviously inferred from his words, of course. Her eyes sparkle with humour. "Curiouser and curiouser."

She followed Mr. Strange all the more charmed by his eccentricities the more time she spent with him, even if that time has been brief. Perhaps it was the sense of mad discovery and the need she had to plunge herself into it after so much in her life had been upended.

When she had so much loss to deal with, only discovery would seem to balance it out somehow. So, yes. She would indeed follow a man with mirrored eyes to a funhouse mirror to get from one point in space to another.

"Not entirely translocation. Back home, the mirrors opened onto the king's roads, roads built in the realm of faerie by the Raven King. I could use them to go from place to place. Here, I can't access the roads, but I can travel directly mirror to mirror. A fine compromise, if you ask me!"

And one that he's taken advantage of far too much during his time here. Strange has too much fun popping in and out, bothering people via the mirrors. And look, there's the funhouse mirror. With a grin, Strange runs up towards it, stopping as he faces the mirror.

"Take my hand while I cast the spell," he says, holding one hand to the mirror and the other hand out towards Helen.

"I suppose that is a rather good compromise," Helen says and she takes his hand. "I can't say I wouldn't have found the roads wonderful to travel." He gets a gentle squeeze and if Helen gives him a bright smile it's because this is exactly the sort of thing she ought to be excited about.

Magic.

"Perhaps if the carnival ever visits my world, I'll take you there myself!" It's said innocently enough, with Strange entirely unaware of any connotations that Helen could read into his words—though the fact that they're holding hands now and Helen can feel his wedding ring is a strong sign that Strange is hella taken.

Putting one hand up on the glass, he mutters a spell under his breath. A moment later, he walks into the mirror, leading Helen beside him. The sensation is almost nonexistent. There's a brief second of power, of magic as the two walk through the mirror but that lasts for only a moment as they exit to the other side.

Unfortunately, there's a bit of a drop as the mirror isn't flush with the ground. Thankfully, it's only a drop of one or so feet, nothing that will trip Strange or Helen up too much. They exit from a full sized mirror into a bathroom off the side of the cookhouse. Obviously the mirror is for primping and making certain everything looks good, as there are smaller mirrors in front of the bathroom sinks.

"Here we are," Strange explains, with a wild grin, as he gestures to the bathroom's exit. "Through those doors is the carnival cookhouse!"

"I think I would enjoy that trip a great deal," Helen returned, really thinking nothing of it herself. Her own interests are as much elsewhere and extremely in a jumble as that ring ties him to another. And there they are, though the drop is unexpected and she catches his shoulder, it's done with a bright laugh.

"Oh," she said, glancing at the mirror and back at him once more before moving toward the door. "That is absolutely fantastic. And useful, too, though I do have a thought." She squeezed his hand gently in thanks and let go as she passed through the door.

"Any mirrored surface no matter how small?" Helen asked curiously.

Strange shrugs slightly at her question. "I'm not entirely sure. I only have to view my reflection and touch the mirror for the spell to work. So logically, I assume I could travel through a compact or a hand mirror--I simply haven't used anything that small before."

Though, that twinkle in his eye and the thoughtful expression on his face is an obvious tell that Strange will probably try it out later.

As they leave the bathroom, the two enter the more mess hall area of the cookhouse. There are scattered tables and chairs for people to eat at. The kitchen is through a set of doors behind a serving area. Almost instantly, Strange makes a beeline towards the kitchen, expecting Helen to follow.

"The cook left a week or so ago, so I don't expect anyone to actually be in here right now." Perfect time to steal some food.

Helen should probably not stir trouble but it was a fabulous question and if Nikola were here, he would have asked it at least a second before she had. What is magic for, if not to be able to test its boundaries? What if there was a situation and one only had a tiny escape route? How many things would be defined as mirrors? How many of those things would the spell work on?

Dare she even think of Nikola meeting Mr. Strange? No, best not. But part of her wanted it to happen very much. But, until then, Mr. Strange and Mr. Sherlock Holmes both had greatly lightened her mood.

"I'd say that is likely the case just right for some tea and company."

While Strange can't cook, he can at least make a cup of tea. He turns on one of the eyes of the stove as he starts to rummage through the cupboards. Taking out a beat up kettle, Strange moves over to the sink and starts to fill it up with water.

"There's all sorts of tea paraphernalia in that cupboard over there," said as he vaguely gestures towards one of the cupboards. "Pick which one you'd like!"

It really is a random assortment of teas in the cupboard: some loose leaf, some bagged, some straight up from other dimensions. The teacups are all also a random assortment, some absolutely huge and some tiny enough that it wouldn't count.

"Thank God," Helen murmurs half under her breath as she goes to rummage. Other dimensions? Hmmm. That's got to be fascinating. Helen picks a few different loose leaf teas that look positively foreign and quite possibly magical.

Strange's oddness is rubbing off, clearly, as she snags two large cups and sets the teas on the counter.

"I haven't the slightest as to what these are, so, I've narrowed it down. You do the picking." Surely nothing could go wrong with that.

After casting one look back at the kettle to make certain everything was still working and it was heating up, Strange walks over towards Helen's assortment of teas. Leaning over, he sniffs each of them in turn, making a bit of a show out of it. But if something smells a bit too pineappley or a bit too cinnamony then of course he wouldn't want to drink it! Granted, it might not be pineapple or cinnamon flavored but at least there's a higher chance that the tea that smells like cinnamon tasting like cinnamon than the tea that smells like oranges tasting like cinnamon.

Eventually, Strange points at one of the types of tea and pushes it out of the line-up: it's the one that smells like mint. "That one! Hopefully it tastes like it smells because it smells delicious. And don't worry, I haven't the slightest idea as to what these are either."

At that point, the kettle starts to whistle, so Strange walks back towards the oven to take it off the eye and turn off the heat. "Would you mind getting the tea set up?" he asks, over his shoulder.

"Fabulous," Helen says and wonders if she's being entirely too spontaneous. Everything in her life must be planned and now this? A life crisis, perhaps? Good lord.

"I suppose it's just tea, we'll either like it or make another to suit." She's already moving to set the cups up with a spoon each and find the sugar and milk, if wanted, and she warms the teapot with a swirl of hot water before emptying it and measuring out what should be the proper two-teaspoon-per-cup formula. She even manages to locate an actual tea tray, which is some minor miracle.

"All yours, Mr Strange."

Here's to hoping they shan't turn into cats or anything else for that matter. Would something minty be cat-like?

"There we are,

OPEN: New Beginnings In Stranger Places

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living dangerously, Helen

#YOLO

#YOLO indeed

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