some people are better at surviving than living

[whattaprick]

Who: Jonathan Strange & Lambert
What: Lambert drops off Strange's book and asks some questions about the Carnival's last visit to a digital world.
When: After the general presentation/intro to Mainframe!
Where: The Big Top
Warnings: Maybe references to previous violence? Anything is possible with these two!

After the meeting disperses, Lambert sees himself off to breakfast, then back to his trailer, Strange's presence having reminded him of the outstanding matter of giving the man back his book before he drops into Mainframe again. In truth, he hasn't read the book very thoroughly, just the parts of most interest -- anything with the Raven King himself, deals with Faerie, and those King's Roads Strange mentioned before. He also might have casually checked if there was anything in it about binding spells and compulsions, not that he'd be able to pull off any such spell himself, but most of what he can find relates to increasingly long winded stories about fairy servants that make his eyes glaze over. It provides some insight into what Strange was trying to do that buried the Carnival in snow, at least.

... Although it is hilarious to imagine Strange trying any of that on, say, the Ringmaster.

In any case, there's no reason to have it taking up any more space in his trailer than it is -- though that's pretty empty and sparse as is. It's not difficult to find the magician: just have to follow the smell of smoke and crazy. He pushes into the big tent, tail waving behind him and book tucked under his arm, calling out:

"Strange?"

Comments

[kingsroads]

"Says the man who wouldn't know what romance is to begin with," Strange grumbles, with a roll of his eyes. Because yup, there's no use having Lambert of all people criticize him on his romantic gestures. Fighting off suitors, accomplishing tasks, those are all aspects of storybook romance, no real romance works that way. Besides, what would the man have him do, slaughter a monster to prove his love? Please.

"And most of my life was ordinary. I didn't discover my magic until I was well into adulthood, after all." It'd be a bit ridiculous trying to accomplish three impossible tasks as an ordinary human.

[whattaprick]

"Who says I want to?" Lambert retorts, all too cheerful. It's true, though: romance is kind of a non-starter when a witcher's involved, and the wryness of his smirk is a testament to that much. He could probably do all the things he just listed off, but what would be the point? Any romance he found would die as soon as the Path demanded he go on his way.

"Did magic change that much about you?" It's ... both a weird concept, and not. Magic did literally change Lambert, after all, made it impossible for him to go back to a normal life, there's no argument about the power it holds there.

[kingsroads]

There's a pause while Strange mulls the answer over. "I suppose it did," he simply responds. "I'd hate to lose everything I've gained since then."

Oh, there wasn't anything wrong with Strange before he was a magician. He'd probably run the estate and be happily married to Arabella all the while. But being a magician has opened so many more doors to him and gotten him knowledge that he never thought existed in the first place. It's given him a goal in life. So yes, magic did change that much about him, so much so that he can't imagine living a world without it.

"I was a bit flighty when I was younger." Still is, but point stands. "Magic's given me a purpose. I think that alone is enough to say that it's changed me."

[whattaprick]

"'A bit flighty'? So what are you now?" Lambert smirks, unconsciously picking up on that train of thought and smirking at Strange as he speaks. After a moment, though, his expression turns more contemplative and distant, something about the phrasing Strange uses striking a chord.

A purpose, huh? Yeah, he guesses magic gave him that too, though not in the same sense Strange means it, probably.

"Do you ever feel like that was your own choice, or that it was chosen for you?" There's a certain cynicism in the way Lambert says the words, a wry tilt to his lips as he looks back at Strange.

[kingsroads]

"Well it certainly wasn't my own choice," Strange explains, as if it's obvious. "I didn't even know it was possible to do magic until the man under the hedge sold me a spell, rambled a story or a prophecy of some sort, and told me I was a magician." The whole situation was odd. A little part of Strange actually wishes he had paid attention to Vinculus's prophecy, but a larger part of him is glad he didn't. Why would he want to govern his life by the words of a madman that may or may not have been true in the first place?

But if it was chosen for him...well, who honestly would choose Strange to do magic to begin with? There were plenty of theoretical magicians back in York, before Norrell dissolved their society. If it was some higher power that gave him the magic, surely it would be more logical to choose someone who's studied magic instead of someone who never gave it a moment's notice until recently. Not that he was complaining, of course. He was simply judging Lambert's hypothetical question.

"I think that the best way of describing how I came across my magic is that I stumbled into it."

[whattaprick]

At the word 'prophecy,' Lambert can only make a face. That kind of talk skirts much too close to 'destiny,' 'fate,' and other things of that nature that rankle, none of which Strange probably needs him to go on about right now. Instead, he'll laugh and shrug at Strange's assessment of the situation.

"As good a way of doing it as any. Besides, no matter how you became a magician in the first place, no one can say you haven't made it your own." He's never met another mage like Jonathan Strange, that much is true. When he returns home, he's sure Geralt and Eskel would laugh themselves sick hearing about the kind of company Lambert's keeping these days.

[kingsroads]

Strange can't help but laugh at that, a bright cheerful laugh. Made it his own? Well that's a nice way of putting it. He's entirely certain that other people would have stronger words about how he's treated the profession of being a magician.

"I'll take that as a compliment," Strange responds, as he gives Lambert a genuine smile. "I'd like to think I've done fairly well for a profession I never thought I'd enter in the first place!" And even then, he knows he's still going to do more impressive things in his time as a magician. After all, he's got to save Arabella. Perhaps he's overthinking it, perhaps solely that was the reason someone chose him to be a magician.