all we need is a magic formula, a whole new backbone

[whattaprick]

Who: Lambert & Jonathan Strange
When: Day 161+, after Strange returns from London.
Where: Hot springs to start, maybe Lambert's trailer afterwards?
What: Magic practice gets interrupted by a certain magician's return.
Warnings: References to shitty events in Strange's canon and end of series spoilers, I guess?

Lambert hasn't seen Strange for a couple of days, but he doesn't think much of it -- with performance week coming up, he imagines the magician's using their last few days of free time to explore Greysol's magic as much as he's able.

Today, Lambert's taking advantage of the early morning hours and a lack of anyone else around to practice a new spell. Iritatingly, Celandine's gotten the hang of it a lot more quickly than he has, and his daemon's not hesitating to take the opportunity to offer commentary as he tries to work through it himself.

"You look like you're about to shit yourself," she comments, floating lazily in the air. The damp heat has flattened her fur, but it doesn't bother her. "You need to stop thinking about it so hard."

"I wouldn't have to think so hard if you'd shut up," Lambert retorts, with no real malice to it, cracking open an eye from where he's (unsuccessfully) attempting to meditate in the middle of one of the hot spring pools. Hard to say if he's wearing anything or not -- the water covers up to his waist -- but his clothes, at least, are stacked in a pile on one of the rocks nearby.

Comments

[whattaprick]

Strange never shuts up about his wife, magic, or the peninsula: he can handle an occasional 'hey, so you're fucking cursed you idiot' reminder thrown at him every so often, considering how eager he seems to be to act like it isn't a thing for something Lambert's only had all of an hour or so to even accept.

Along the same vein, the witcher doesn't miss Siobhan speaking up, and Celandine certainly doesn't. She looks up at the larger daemon before nosing gently at her bulk. Lambert's less subtle.

"Hopefully before a few centuries pass." Because yeah, he read your damn book Strange -- or at least enough of it to know that's what happens to people who stay in a realm not their own. "How'd you end up stuck with Norrell, of all people? I thought you had a fight."

[kingsroads]

"We did," Strange answers, with a little nod. "And in all likelihood, when I return home our fight shall resume. But I was dying, my wife was trapped, and I needed all the help I could get to free her."

One doesn't just forget the fact that someone else tried to utterly destroy their book, after all. Strange is confident that once things become relatively stabilized, now that Arabella's free and he isn't dying, Norrell and he shall resume their normal habits of finding the other utterly intolerable while at the same time wishing the company of no other.

"I asked the help of so many people and things," Strange mused, leaning back in his chair slightly. "I count myself lucky that the requests were answered."