spellbinders | [OPENING] magical training log

[OPENING] magical training log

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.]

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[Again, silence. He watches the item shatter before he tilts his head, frowning a little in thought. He hasn't tried fusing broken items before, but it's worth a shot. So instead of speaking, he picks up two of the biggest broken pieces and holds them in his hands, concentrating until they fuse back together in a woven metal contraption.

Not long after, he scoops up some of the sand and pours it into the new cylinder, making a sand in a bottle kind of thing. The inside sparkles a little with pieces of broken metal and it's only about the size of Dirk's palm, but he hands it back.]

Are you sure about that? [Of course there are things John knows, things John isn't saying, but at the same time he wonders what it's like on the flipside.]

Edited (im tired and words are dumb) 2017-07-14 01:58 (UTC)

I'm pretty damn sure.

[He takes hold of the new contraption, shattered and fused back together. He could probably break it again. He wonders if John is conscious of the metaphor, like Jake was kicking away the paved sand. Or maybe John just thought it would be nice.]

This is pretty cool. Thanks.

Sure. That is the one thing I like about this power. Even when things break, you can see what kind of new things can be created. [So that is to say that yeah, he's probably conscious even if subconsciously. He hasn't put thought into it, but he does follow the same sort of philosophy. Things that are broken can be fixed. Things that are lost can be found. Things that are taken away can be regained.

That happened with his friends, didn't it? All of it. A world ripped away and he can fix it. People lost and regained. This is a detour but they could all learn something here. Still, he finds it interesting that Dirk, like Dave, is fairly set in his mode of thinking.]

Maybe it is counterproductive. [And then, maybe a little too bluntly:] Why do you like to train?

[There are half a dozen reasons he can't tell John, that he has never told even his closest friends, things that he might have told Dave but Dave scares him too much for him to offer him that confidence. That he likes it because it exhausts him and distracts him, that it gives him something to focus on so he can't focus on his own state of mind. That he likes it because he thinks that maybe if he pushes hard enough, breaks himself often enough, he can deserve the legacy that his Bro left behind. That he likes it because it's simple and easy and safe for his heart—except it wasn't, not with Dave, and not with Jake anymore.

His eyebrows flicker up—yeah, John there isn't totally oblivious, consciously or not, so Dirk will need to be cautious—but he isn't inclined to lie, exactly. It just seems stupid to toss heavy things on this kid who is going to be erasing his own friends to save them and doesn't know it.]

There's a calming simplicity to it, for one. And I like working towards self-improvement. Growing up I trained mostly on robots I programmed and sealife, but when I'm trainin' with someone else I can learn about how they think and act and develop myself by answerin' them. Sort of like a conversation.

Oh. [And now he's imagining Dirk fighting dolphins, but that imagery doesn't last long. Instead, he sifts some sand between his fingers while he thinks. It makes some amount of sense for a kid who's never trained in his life.]

I have known Dave for a really long time, but he has always trained with a real person. [Which isn't anything against Dirk. It just is how things are. He doesn't think to elaborate either. "Where's Dave?" "Probably getting his ass kicked by his bro." Instead, he's picking up other broken shards of metal.] Pretty much every day since I've known him. Maybe longer? I am not really sure. But it's possible that maybe he's just used to fighting against a person and so it looks like disinterest.

[...look he's trying okay.]

[Dirk's a little confused, but he tries to follow with the pieces he has.]

You mean against the alternate version of me. [He's a little confused, but he tries to follow the path.] You mean he isn't into it because it's too much like replacing his dead brother with me.

No? [Yes, but for all the wrong reasons. Still, he manages to look perfectly calm through the conversation while he's idly fusing together two pieces at a time to create some weird sculpture of a sort.] I mean yes, that is who he was training with, but no I do not think it has to do with replacing his bro.

[Except he does wonder...but John is John and John puts his friends first. This is Dave's business and therefore stuff that John himself isn't going to talk about. So instead, he's thinking about something else.] You and Dave are both different from your alternate selves, right? Wouldn't it make more sense to maybe find something to do that isn't a thing your bros did in the other timeline? Like a thing that is just Dave and just Dirk.

[There's a short grin.] Someday when Jade shows up, the four of us are probably going to finally play music together instead of just sharing it online. That's a thing all of us see as an "us" thing. It's sort of exciting to think about? This is the first time and place we really get to spend time together, too. So...I don't know. Maybe think of it like that. Something to keep you both interested or whatever.

Yeah, good idea. I'll think about it.

[It's the same monotone as always, distant and unexpressive. Dirk isn't a good liar, he just never really learned to express himself well. Reading him isn't hard if you learn small print. John's idea is good but Dirk doesn't know that it will ever work. He tried to suggest things. He tried to ask for exchanges of music or just talking about random bullshit. He tried to find some way to connect to Dave.

And it was like reaching out for a shut door and finding that someone took the doorknob off and plastered up the hole. Dave didn't respond to any of it, seemed not to want to respond to any of it. He said he wanted to try but Dirk has a hard time believing that. Dave isn't trying. All he seems to want is to stay away.

It's fair. Dirk is a disaster at his best and a destroyer any other time. He shouldn't push himself onto Dave. He isn't what Dave wants.]

Are you making anything in particular?

[It's all he can do. He won't bring it up to Dave most likely because that's up to Dave and Dave alone. They've never really talked about Dave's bro before. Talking about his teen bro seems a little weird when there's hardly any leverage or knowledge.

It's only the fourth day. Maybe things will change. He looks at his hands and the lopsided creation he's been building like legos.]

Not really. I'm not sure what I would make if I had the tools anyway. This is just practice putting things together and making sure they stick. [Hm.] Just another power I have that I still do not really know how it all works. I don't have the ability to create out of thin air like Rose and Dave, so I work with what I have and create...whatever the fuck this is.

[Actually, it looks like a lumpy, small metal pumpkin.]

[He looks at it in curiosity.]

It's a pumpkin. Man, our universe has a thing for those.

[Well, now that he's looking at it and the way he's fused each bit two by two.]

Yeah. Jade's pumpkins kept going missing, but Roxy was able to create them when I first met her. [Just two more people he misses. He's content, but he wonders. He's happy, but he could be happier.] Why are pumpkins a thing? Like. They're just big vegetables.

Jake had a pumpkin patch problem too. [And not just the ship name! Ha ha i'm hilarious] My only guess is that pumpkins are somehow specifically absurd in a way our universe favors.

How did Roxy make them?

Maybe there is just something wrong with the island. [SHRUG. But he blinks in response because oh, does Dirk...not...know?]

Oh. She said it was part of being a void player? Being able to manifest pumpkins and cubes out of thin air. She was living in a cube pyramid when we met.

[That sounds weird. Her planet was about pyramids but—oh.]

She can steal the nothingness from something.

[That makes sense.]

Does not explain pumpkins and cubes.

I guess so. She said that pumpkins and cubes were freebies for void players, which I guess makes sense since we could create cubes by punching blank cards in the alchemiter. She had an important job to do, too.

To be honest, I wonder how anyone is supposed to know how to really use their powers.

I always assumed that was what the quests and trials set up by the game were for. Not that we ever had the opportunity to take advantage of them.

Yeah. Dave mentioned that Rose sort of knew what happened in your session but I haven't asked her yet. But that explains the skeletons. [...] But you still ascended and learned to use your powers there. Right?

Sort of. I know I can rip out and destroy people's souls. If there's much more to it, then no one has told me.

[He makes a face.] Heart. Soul. Close enough. But that would mean needing to know where a person's soul is and how to read it first so maybe there is more to it? [Shrug.]

You're another component of Captain Planet here, dude.

[In response to the Heart-Soul thing. He gets it though.]

Maybe. Dave told me off for thinking of my abilities as being so damn limited, and maybe he's right. It isn't something I can tell here.

[He's cut off from his game-granted magic. He has to work out things with what he has.]

I know, I know.

[Dave...is actually pretty smart that way and John finds himself nodding in agreement.] I think he probably has a point? That could be part of why you're struggling with your power here, too. Putting your own limitations on and stuff. Just a thought.

In full acknowledgement of the validity of your and his point, it literally says 'destruction.'

[CAN YOU BLAME HIM. IT'S IN THE NAME.]

I am not sure how that changes you potentially being hung up on a word, dude. [A raise of his eyebrows.] Okay, what exactly did the title say? Word for word.

Dude, I get the concept. I'm just saying that 'destructive powers' are traditionally pretty straight-forward. You can't blame a dude for finding healing destruction counter-intuitive.

Yeah, well, combining shit together is pretty straight-forward, too, and I am still learning the rules and limitations and testing my abilities. I didn't think I could combine with other magic and I can. Also isn't that sort of what treating viruses and stuff is? Destroying what's bad in a person and fixing it. It is still destruction but a different kind.

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splinten - 2017-07-17 07:16 (UTC) - Expand

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windeity - 2017-07-17 10:34 (UTC) - Expand

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