bubble bubble toil and

[scotch_egg]

Who: Alec Hardy and You
What: General Catchall
Where: In town, in class, in the cafeteria, outside
When: First week or so
Warnings: none atm





Town

Alec is wandering around town, looking lost, if only because he is. Also looking exceedingly disgruntled for reasons to be seen above. His strange whip made grim is padding along at his heels and occasionally going off to chase someone. Upon seeing you, the grim immediately charges toward you, a hundred pounds of not!dog gallumping toward you at mad speed and joy. There is the overall impression of a tongue hanging out even though the creature lacks evidence of a mouth. Brace yourself.


Teammates

Alec looks dubious about the magical equivalent of a trust fall. He is supposed to trust his partner, someone as green as himself, to keep him aloft in the air? Or trust himself to do the same? He had tried to ask if this was too advanced, but all he'd gotten was a smile and a patronizing pat and told to try it. He felt seventeen again and hated it. He was pushing fifty, not a bloody teenager.

"Right. Let's try not to break each other." He cleared his throat and pulled unconsciously at his tie. "You want to go first or should I?"


Dining in

Or not dining as the case may be. Alec has a plate of food in front of him, largely untouched. He is mostly involved with reading a tome or magical arcana. Others books were stacked up by him. There has been some evidence of eating judging by the corner being nibbled off the toast, but the tea has grown cold and steam is a memory and he has been there for a few hours, since breakfast or lunch depending on whatever time of day it is. It may be there is only one seat left opposite him. Be prepared for riveting conversation.


Beautiful? Disaster?

Alec is practicing a spell on the grounds. Does it go wonderfully? Terribly? Or you caught up in it or the witness to something...indescribable. Maybe it's better to sit this one out, just in case.

Comments

[whose_son_am_i]

Hmm, now there was a question. Did Loki trust the other man enough to let himself be levitated? How likely was it for the spell to mess up or backfire, and if so, in what way? Were it not Loki himself who would be the target, he'd have been less concerned.

"Are you sure you know how?"

[scotch_egg]

He hesitated. After a moment he shrugged and looked away.

"Maybe it's a bad idea. I'll try levitating something else. I don't know why we have to trust one another anyway. It's learning magic so we won't explode not..." He didn't have anything to end the sentence with so just gestured vaguely.

[whose_son_am_i]

Loki crossed his arms, considering, before he huffed a bit. "With that attitude you'll never learn." He didn't sound happy about what he'd decided. "Our assignment is to levitate each other. Let's make sure you have the factors right."

[scotch_egg]

He didn't want to have to learn it. He didn't want to have anyone's lives in his hands. He barely trusted himself with his own.

But he might as well try-- With his luck he'll need it.

"Go over it with me then." And then. "Please." Not that he would practice on this man. He'd rather do it on himself.

[whose_son_am_i]

"Alright, so the sound factor is in high Osmarian." Loki started, then intoned the words. Being sure to be clear and enunciate. "They pair with both hands rotating in a circle at the wrist, like so." Demonstrating, and again being sure to be clear. He'd go over it with Alec. "That's if you're not using a wand."

[scotch_egg]

That didn't look complicated at all. Alec tried to memorize the words that they had only just learned but felt them slipping from his grasp like panicked fish. He waved his hands in an awkward approximation and then felt heat singe his ears.

"Maybe I should use a wand. Don't think I'd be any better at that. Or practice on something inanimate first." He made a face. "Maybe that chair?" He tried, reciting the words and stuttering a bit as he waved his hands at the chair.

It shot six feet into the air and smashed into the ceiling, shedding bits of wood over everyone and Alec winced.

"Shit."

[whose_son_am_i]

Loki looked unsurprised; watching the chair fly up, and then shatter. A shift of his shoulders, yellow-green magic flowing over him with the motion, and no more bits of wood on him. "Well now you know how to use it offensively should you need to."

[scotch_egg]

"Yes, that makes me feel better. Christ. I could have killed someone if I'd done that. Exploded them like a bloody potato. And minors are learning this?" He shook his head. "No child should have this much responsibility. I don't want to have this responsibility." But he had it.

"What did I do wrong?" He didn't want to do it again. He did not want to do anything of the sort again. But he also couldn't let it go if it could possibly help.

[whose_son_am_i]

"Better they learn it under controlled circumstances where there's supervision, and have someone to teach them, than letting it control them instead." Don't get him wrong, Loki was a fan of mischief. But Frigga had trained him well, and if you didn't control your magic--it very well could control you. The latter was far more dangerous.

"And you stuttered."

[scotch_egg]

"Fair enough..." He still didn't want to see an adolescent running around with magic, but he felt the same with adolescents behind the wheels of cars He shook his head and rolled his shoulders. "Let's try it again." He focused on the other chair, pronounced the words slowly and clearly. The chair wobbled a bit as if it was made of jelly and then fell over.

Alec stared at it a moment.

"Maybe I need to look into a wand."

[whose_son_am_i]

"At least how I am used to magic, it is as much believing and knowing you can do it, as gestures or intonations. I can't say that the same rule applies here, but it's likely." Magic was based on force of will in so many ways, and Loki would bet quite a lot that that facet of it was universal.

In other words, if Alec believed he could do it better with a wand, he'd likely succeed better with a wand.

[scotch_egg]

"So it's all in your head. That makes sense." It also meant that he was going to be absolute shit. "So all this is just...what... window dressing? Does it really matter if I say anything? Course it doesn't bloody matter if I can't do anything about it to begin with." He mostly muttered to himself as he spoke.

"Can you do it just with your mind?"

[whose_son_am_i]

"It is not 'all in your head', as you put it." Loki said, an eyebrow arching in annoyance. "Your mind and will are a tool. The 'window dressing' as you refer to it helps you focus that tool and shape the energy."

Loki had doubts Alec would ever be able to do it. If the man had ever been able to do it, to begin with.

"At home--yes. Here?" Loki, that eyebrow staying raised, he looked at the chair. Holding out a hand at his side, and pulling the chair to him with telekinesis. It was much weaker than what he could do in his own world, but he could still do it. Would he be able to lift the chair off the ground with just his mind, therefore? It was a definite maybe.

[scotch_egg]

Loki wasn't the only one who had doubts. He was also well aware that it was a vicious cycle and that he would never get it until he decided he could get it. This was probably an exercise in futility, but he couldn't help but try.

"Do it again, with something else. Not me. Let me see what you do."

[whose_son_am_i]

Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes--be proud of him. And took a few steps away from the chair and his partner, with that same hand still held out at his side. In a shimmer of greenish-yellow his wand manifested.

Moving to repeat the same motion he'd done with his hands, wand pointed at the chair. Same intonation--he actually made himself speak a bit slower and clearer. The chair on the floor flipped upright, and started to levitate.

[scotch_egg]

It didn't matter, he could tell that his partner wasn't happy with it but appreciated him not saying so and actually demonstrated like Alec was an idiot. In this case Alec was an idiot so he was fine with it.

He took a deep breath.

"Right."

He didn't have a wand himself, but he let out the breath through his nose and gestured with one stiff hand, muttering the words under his breath. He was too self conscious to say it louder. A book nearby wobbles and lifts a little off the table before flopping over, pages only slightly torn.

"Christ." He wiped his sleeve against his forehead. "I prefer blood magic."

[whose_son_am_i]

That had Loki's attention, and brought a sly smile. "Do you now? And what is blood magic like in your world?" How was the other familiar with it, too...

Truthfully the Asgardians rarely paid attention to Midgard, but Loki knew (and had experienced) their being worshipped as Gods. And sometimes that worship took the form of sacrifices as a type of blood magic to try and sway their chosen 'god' to a petitioner's goals. In its way, blood was power...

[scotch_egg]

"Not my world." He caught that smile, registered it, didn't react to it. "A different world, but I learned it. It was much more intuitive. It was part of me and I was part of it. It drew from me directly. None of these words or wands or...whatever. I don't feel it any more so I suppose it's gone."

[whose_son_am_i]

"Now I am intrigued. What made it intuitive, that makes here different?" Loki seemed unperturbed by the turn this conversation had taken. "And you've been to a different world than your own before. Now do you mean a different planet or universe, or something like what we've experienced being brought here?"

[scotch_egg]

"I don't know. This is outside. This is... tricks and... words and..." He made a vague gesture. "Things like that. It's not the same. It's outside of me."

He sighed, hands in pockets. "Something like that, yes. It keeps happening to me. I want to make it stop."

[whose_son_am_i]

"It's not outside of you, as the energy has to come from inside you. But how you're used to manipulating it is the difference. The other likely felt instinctive because you weren't aware of how you were manipulating magic unconsciously." At least that was what Loki thought was likeliest. "Give me an example of some of the ways you used your blood magic."

[scotch_egg]

"Mostly defensively, offensively, like a shield, anything I needed." He pulled back his sleeve to where a faint scar can be seen crossing his arm over the vein. "It's not anything that I need to go to therapy for but first you have to draw it out, and then think of where you want it to go."

[whose_son_am_i]

"This isn't that different. You have to think of how and what and where you want the energy to go." Loki pointed out, resisting the urge to rub at his temples. "Instead of literal blood. It's still just a means of focusing your will to get the energy to do what you want. You were just doing so unconsciously before. Likely wasting energy too, in exchange for forcing it through by power of your will alone."

[scotch_egg]

"Focusing my will..." He looked at his hand. His will. His energy. If it was just an extension of his blood then-- it couldn't be that difficult. If it was just him-- then it had to listen.

He stepped back and focused on the book, lying on the table. It was just him. His voice, his words, his power. Granted to him maybe, but it was still his.

He murmured the words, letting them flow from his tongue and moved his hands in the sequence, precise and without flamboyance but a certain raw energy tracing through his limbs. The book rose easily into the air, closed even, he could feel the drain of it, minimal that it was. Another gesture and the book spun before landing gently and easily on the still floating chair and he dropped his hands to his sides.

"Well, then..."

[whose_son_am_i]

Loki didn't clap, or praise him. To be fair, he also didn't roll his eyes or deride his partner. Other than a simple I told you so-esque look in his eyes. Truthfully, he felt some pride in having gotten the other through the barest of basics, as far as he was concerned. Perhaps Frigga would've been proud...