[OPENING] magical training log

[spellslash]

Who: Brie, whichever newbies want to show up.
Where: The beach.
When: Day 4
Open/Closed: OTA

[It's about noon on the island, based on the position of the sun. The newbies have had a few days to settle in, but that doesn't mean they've fully mastered their newfound abilities.

As much stock as Genette puts into telepathy, Brie is more concerned about their other newfound gifts. She's aggressively tried to wrangle as many newbies as possible onto the sandy shores of the beachfront area for some magic practice.

She's got a list of everyone's magic -- only a few vague notes, limitations are for you to discover -- and she's handing out missions for magic training. If you want to participate? Feel free. If you don't? Suit yourself.

But understanding your magic isn't just an activity that benefits the group. Learning your magic's abilities may be what stands between you and survival, which is something she makes perfectly clear.]

Comments

[andsobelow]

ooc; willing to fishbowl this one, pick any stage to come in on.

DENIAL
[ She'd killed the boar in the night while patrolling. They were nuisance creatures with nasty, disease-ridden tusks, she didn't think much of it at all-- Until the little witch told her to bring it back to life again.

The instructions made Carla livid. It was something more than just the idea of practicing magic -- a taboo in her culture, a taboo in her own personal moral code as well -- it was also the insult of undoing the death she had already wrought, it was the skin-crawling concept of toying with death.

She had cursed Brie. Long, loud, colorfully, until the woman had walked away from her, disgusted with the abuse. ]

ANGER
[ For a while, she is simply stalking around the camp insulting the efforts of others... Cruel and snappish for little to no reason at all, and assuredly if anyone approaches her with their own missions. ]

BARGAINING
[ She standing next to the fallen boar, arms folded over her chest as she stares down at the boar's lifeless husk. Her face is stormy with thought.

If anyone can control this, it's her? Isn't it? She'd never fall into the pathetic trap of dependence and illusion that the weak little witches she has murdered for years now.... ]

Fuck.

[ She mutters venomously, kicking the dead boar, frustrated with her own temptation to know-- ]

DEPRESSION
[ Her boot touches the boar's body, exchanging energy from her to it. Breath starts to fill its body again and she backs up, legitimately startled, her eyes huge like a cat's. ]

No.

ACCEPTANCE
[ The newly awoken creature struggles to its feet, eyes rolling, starting to right itself--

No. She knocks it back to the ground with a swift movement, throwing her whole body at it and slitting its throat anew.

She gets back to her feet, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand and leaving a smear of blood. She spits once, and walks away from it.

Shaken, her shoulders are tight, eyes impossibly dark, dilated huge. ]

welp lmk if this works at all! | acceptance

[genice]

( Frankly, Victor isn't sure about anything he just saw. Then again, he's currently seeing things from a much higher angle than usual, keeping the massive expanse of his great, silver wings tucked tight against his body. Being a dragon doesn't lend himself to being inconspicuous.

Then again, killing a boar twice also isn't precisely inconspicuous. Considering his assigned task is talking to people as a dragon, he's had to be in dragon form. He doesn't know anything about being a dragon. He's learning how to move, deliberate in how he places his legs, where he holds his neck, his head, his wings, his damnable tail that seems to want to be everywhere at once. Right now he's holding it just above the level of the ground, walking almost daintily, if anything so large as he was could walk daintily. )

That whole things with the... pig... wouldn't have anything to do with training, would it?

( Canting his giant, scaled and horned head to the side, Victor's brilliant blue eyes startling against the silver, he looked politely curious in the way that a dog looks politely curious watching a human being do something Mysterious and Strange. )

[andsobelow]

[ The dragon startles her, her whole body jerking, confusion and anger flashing across her face without a shred of restraint. She hates that. She feels out of control, at the whims of things she doesn't understand. Magic. That is the price of magic: to lose her hard earned agency. She growls, not necessarily at him but at the situation, her teeth grit, the muscle in her jaw flexing. ]

Keep your mouth shut.

[ An answer of its own... She doesn't want anyone to know what she can do. ]

[genice]

( Victor doesn't appear to much care or notice, giving a twitch of his tail as an extension of the shoulder shrug he might have given in human form. )

Difficult to do when I've been tasked with talking. Everything sounds more rumbly this way. It's fascinating!

( So is whatever she did, in a sick, twisted sort of way. Victor considers how he needs to pay attention to the gifts of those around him, if only to be prepared. He has no real intention of doing anything with that knowledge. It's not how he operates, by and large. )

I wonder if any of the pigs on island are feral stock from the last time it was settled.

[andsobelow]

[ Her eyes narrow at him, confused by his whimsical rambling. Why had he come down here if not to blackmail her? To threaten to tell every mewling child in this caravan that she can be the one to resurrect her loved ones. She wants none of that, she doesn't want their need and sorrow upon her, and she doesn't want to toy with death>. That was a hideous ill-omen. ]

You're one of the captives...

[genice]

Much like you are, I suppose.

( His tail settles onto the ground behind him with a muffled thump. His apparent interests continued to lay elsewhere; no small part because she seemed to have no interest in talking about what it is she'd done. Victor didn't see a great deal to love in the ability to undo the work of death and life in its own way. It upset a balance he thought he understood.

But so did turning into a dragon when he wasn't even two meters tall normally. "Balance" is difficult to find the last few weeks. )

Seems like a haphazard way of pulling people into your cause, all this taking precious things and throwing us into rustic island environments before promising we'll be off elsewhere before long.

[andsobelow]

[ Her frown deepens, not sure she wants to talk about this at the moment, but neither does she feel comfortable turning her back on a dragon, so she stands her ground. ]

Some people are swayed with the promise of power, but magic is untrustworthy business. I know better.

[genice]

( all of this ends up meeting his fairly arbitrary objectives, so for the time being, he likewise holds her attention. )

Then you had magic on your own world. This wasn't your first experience.

[andsobelow]

My world was destroyed by magic. Foolish cultists released a power they should not have done. Magic took over the surface world. The environment itself is sentient with it, and will kill and devour. The rays of the sun drive those who live below it mad.

[ This is the story of her world, the story that defines the ethos of her people: those who fled underground to make their own way free of this corruption. There is a kind of chain there, a promise, not to repeat the mistakes of the past, not to give in. She's so terribly serious and steely relaying this to the dragon. ]

That is what I know of magic. I see it is not the same here, but that potential is always there should magic go awry.