[PRP] dream a dream (Jordan & Jeremiah)

[azuredreams]

"Early in the year was when the teenagers were kidnapped." Jordan would know of Adoelle, at least, and the others if only because it had been all over the news. "In March, my son and myself were trapped over there as well. The fog set in soon after and no one was able to go anywhere. Something pulled a large group there but we never have found out what."

His eyes glowed brighter for a moment, Jeremiah giving Jordan a wry smirk. "More often than my husband would like but I tend to find it more than it finds me." A shift on his feet and he was letting out a huff of breath, a near chuckle. "Don't worry about being a bother, it's better you have some knowledge of what's going on. There isn't really any place that you should out and out avoid- You just need to be aware that there are other beings here and to keep a look out for them. Not all are friendly."

In fact, most had ulterior motives.

Prolixity

 

[prolixity]

Jordan nodded, thoughts moving flutter-quick behind his eyes. "I remember that. That was ... " He trailed off, his eyes widening as he made a belated connection with an almost-audible click. "That was her," he said, very softly, recalling the end of the ball with helpless horror, awful events now given an edge of fresh meaning with information that he hadn't previously had cause to put together.

He shook his head slightly, shaking off memory to return to the conversation. "You talk about it kind of like it's self-aware," he ventured.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It was," Jeremiah replied quietly, once he saw realization dawn across Jordan's face. "I'll have to visit her family once more." Except that there was no way for him to tell him the fate of their daughter but-

Well, he was close to the families regardless.

"In a way, it is," Jeremiah replied with a shake of his head. His hand was flicked out in front of him, fire flaring to life around it but carefully controlled. "Especially when you want to work with it to do something. Some people ask, others coax, and there's other avenues as well ..."

Prolixity

 

[prolixity]

"I'm sorry," Jordan said quietly, feeling that it was inadequate, somehow, but not knowing what else to say. He was sure that Jeremiah would be unable to tell the family what had really happened, and he couldn't imagine bearing that weight of secret knowledge, of pain and silence alone. Or, perhaps, not alone, but still having to hold that secret away from the people who needed it most.

They'd been unable to save Adoelle, and maybe nobody yet knew what that meant.

Jordan's eyes focused on the flare of controlled fire, avid and fascinated. Curious, he held out his hand and tried to will fire into being likewise; nothing happened, and he lowered his hand, vaguely embarrassed. "Other avenues?" he asked. "Is it something that's individual, or are there set ways to do it?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah gave Jordan a small smile and a nod at the sorry, a touch of some emotion truly visible before it slipped back away behind his mask.

His fingers bounced the fire around above his hand before he simply let it fizzle out. "It's individual," he offered, "and how each person comes to use magic is the way that works for them. My husband prefers to use written word to give him a focus for magic, another used mantras, and I simply exert my will over the magic here for it to what I want."

Prolixity

i am the worst! hopefully you're okay with finishing this up!

 

[prolixity]

The subject was let alone rather than being pried into further. Jordan could respect emotions held private, and would not inquire after something that was, really, none of his business.

"I think I'd feel silly chanting spells," Jordan said, with a quirk of a smile. "I mean, if it'll work for me at all." He hesitated. "You really think it'll start pulling me over more?" he asked, his tone less disbelief and more interested hope. Though his experience with magic so far had not been all positive, he was still fascinated by the mystery of it all, intrigued by the possibility of more.

azuredreams

quite okay! ty for patience <3

 

[azuredreams]

"It will, yes." Jeremiah flicked his fingers and the fire dispersed in a puff of cold air. "With the mindset of 'if it'll work for me at all', it likely will not be that responsive. You've likely already got some kind of magic now anyway. Something that works on both sides of the veil.

"Ashdown proper," he said with a small frown, "is not entirely receptive of magic."

Prolixity

 

[prolixity]

Jordan ducked his head a little, chastened. "It's linked into how you think of it, then?" he asked curiously. "Whether you know strongly enough that you can tell it what to do?" If that was the case, it was no wonder that what he'd tried hadn't worked at all, with little more than curiosity driving it. He wondered briefly if his brother would be better at this than he was, whether the mysterious forces would bend more easily to Andy's stubborn determination. But Andy was back home, working toward his mechanic's certification, and it was Jordan who was here, being pulled into things beyond natural explanation.

"Huh. I wonder what it'd be," he mused, and smiled. "I guess I"ll have to keep an eye out. Not that I wouldn't anyway." Now that he knew that it was possible, he'd certainly be watching for it.

"So it works there, but only sometimes, or only small things, or specific circumstances?" he asked, thoughtful.

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"It really is," Jeremiah agreed. "If, for example, you believed you would work best with a wand? Like in Harry Potter?" Nothing quite like someone with an English accent saying that. "Then you would be able to cast magic like they do. In fact, there is something about the popularity of a series like that that makes it's magic a bit easier and more potent to work with."

He nodded at Jordan keeping an eye out. It was for the best because sometimes the abilities were innocuous but other times they were something else entirely.

"Those of us that are able to come here seem to have a set of powers, abilities if you want to call them that," or whatever he wanted to call them, "that work regardless of what side we are on. While I can summon this," coldfire flared to life in his hand, all around it, "here, I cannot do so on the other side, at least not yet anyway. Likewise, things like making magic poultices and other similar items can be made in Ashdown if you know how to do so but it will hurt you. If you do so here? It's easier and they tend to be far more potent."

Pro1ixity

 

[prolixity]

The combination of the accent and the subject made Jordan smile. He nodded, listening avidly. "The pressure of multiple people believing in the same thing, maybe?" he hazarded. That would seem to make sense within the structure what he'd gleaned so far from the conversation. He'd never really been deeply into the Potterverse himself, but he could see how someone who was might find it an easier paradigm to work with.

"So this side is friendlier to the supernatural. I know that sometimes magical creatures can go to the other side -- the cat, right," he said, nodding to Jeremiah as though Jeremiah should know what he was talking about, "although I haven't seen it since. Do they have to come back here after a while, or can they just live there?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"Yes," Jeremiah replied, "exactly that. Have you ever read American Gods by Neil Gaiman? It's a little like that but with more people believing in something giving a type of magic more power."

Thankfully while Jeremiah did not know what cat Jordan was talking about, he did have a cat all of his own that crossed back and forth. "Are you aware of that saying? How cats have one foot in and one foot out?" The living world and the dead world. "It's a bit like that. For some reason both cats and birds are quite able to cross back and forth. Not intentionally in the case of normal cats but othercats? They have more of a knack for finding their way over."

He let out a breath, shifting on his feet. "They can live on whichever side they want but would not be as magical as they are here. There's an othercreature named Gloom? Here he is made of shadows and darkness but in Ashdown he's simply a marten-like animal that's black as pitch."

Prolixity

 

[prolixity]

Jordan nodded. "That ... makes sense. I see, yeah." If he was going to be stumbling into magic, and it certainly looked like he might be, having an understanding of its rules and function would definitely help.

"I always figured cats were up to something." It was only about half a joke. Cats sometimes had something about them that was both fascinating and unnerving, and it wasn't at all difficult to believe that they could cross over.

"Oh, I've met Gloom," he said, with a smile. "He was very friendly. He's more solid over there?"

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"I've only seen him in passing." At the fairy ball. "My husband is the one who has seen him more than once and has told me that his shape is different depending on which side he is on." Lips twitched up just slightly into a small smile.

"He's a creature of shadows and magic essentially. Without the magic of this side, he's simply a marten." He paused, as if realizing something. "Which reminds me that should you leave Ashdown for an extended period of time, any magic that you have will fade away until you come back."

Prolixity

 

[prolixity]

Jordan nodded, absorbing the information. "Are there a lot of creatures that have humanlike intelligence?" he asked. "Or am I more likely to encounter things more like animals?"

"So if I go home for a visit, I won't have any kind of magic there? It's only Ashdown?" He made a mental note, mused aloud, "I wonder what it is about Ashdown that makes it happen."

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"There are at least a handful that I have met personally and likely more that I've only seen in passing or not dealt with." Jeremiah was thinking about the otherbeings and othercreatures he had met. "There are, of course, a larger amount of creatures than there are beings but I will tell you that some of them are far beyond what you would consider average intelligence."

His shoulders rolled, trying to ease the ache between them, and he nodded. "This is the location of the cage and it contains the magic here, no proximity to it and ... we lose our abilities. So, yes, if you go home and visit they'll be gone until you come back." Jeremiah's lips twitched. "I learned that the hard way. Though them fading was not so bad, it was the whammy from coming back that put me down for the count."

Prolixity