[PRP] Real Magic (Algernon/Kaleb)

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well I thought mine was luck until it became uncanny.. and sort of screwed with me a bit." Pulling poignant books out when he knew they had no reason to be within reach.. especially when it seemed like the joke was on him.

"But it sounds like you are trying to nitpick down into parts what there may not be any reasonable explanation for.." Magic wasn't science. Not in the way they knew it anyway.. He was sure there was magic performed in a such a way but there may not be a formula to how a visitors newly awakened powers shifts the world around them.

Alg smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry I can't give you more understandable reasons or answers but.. so far the only way I've seen to even try to figure things out is to throw yourself into them."

Violetta mewed and seemed to become restless and Algie recognized that she may be feeling the pull of the other world. They probably had a door around somewhere.

"Do you want to try and go?"

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb was not deterred from his pursuit of logic in the face of inexplicable magic circumstances, he merely filed away the information for later. Probability and statistics were a good thing to consider then. The concept of luck could only be relied on for so long before the cause of a noticeable pattern should be sought out, and that probably applied to magic too.

"If it was messing with you, that means magic isn't necessarily helpful- Wait, right now?" Kaleb asked suddenly, jumping out of his chair with haste when he realized Algernon was offering to go there with him at that moment. He was already hastily shoving books back into his bag as he awaited the answer, an expression of rapt attention on his face.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Why would magic definitively be helpful?" Alg tilted his head a bit quizzically. "This isn't Harry Potter. And even that should teach us magic is both good and bad. In this case it merely exists and it is what it is."

The young man's sudden scramble to leave was rather endearing and Alg chuckled lightly as he stood, "Violetta can find us a door. If you're ready?"

And he moved from the table, giving things a once over to see if Kaleb had everything.

GREY DRAGON

 

[Grey Dragon]

All the books were packed away and the bag was slung over Kaleb's shoulder in record time. He nodded, signalling his readiness to go.

Alas, he had never read Harry Potter, nor had he seen the movies, so the reference was completely lost on him. The information however, was enough to get the point across.

"So magic might not just be uncanny luck, but uncanny bad luck?" He asked curiously. When there was so much to learn, Kaleb wasn't even going to let travel time go to waste.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg scratched at his hair a moment looking a bit, well puzzled.

"It's not definitely anything.." He motioned with an arm for Kaleb to follow and with Violetta leaning this way and that he followed her direction until stepping through an archway of the store had them stepping into the other ashdown version of Bibliophile.

The store on this side was dilapidated, the books either crumbling or empty, and every dark space seemed to teem with the movement of living shadows. The owner seemed completely unbothered by it.

His hands slipped into his pockets and he turned to Kaleb to make sure he had his bearings.

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb followed eagerly, and for once he didn't pepper the older gentleman with questions. He would have to remember to ask Jeremiah if Hellbine could also detect portals into the other side, and whether the cats themselves were from the other side.

Crossing the threshold into the magical realm, Kaleb let out a surprised squeak at the sight of all the writhing shadows. It had been awhile since he had encountered anything dark and spooky, but he had also avoided going inside most of the run down buildings and heavily shaded areas. He clutched the strap of his bag nervously at his chest.

"Are those dark things always here?" He asked, trying to sound more calm and collected than he really was. If they were a danger of any sort, surely Algernon would have already reacted to them, so there was no point in getting worked up.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Yes, usually.." Alg nodded, though he reached for the nearset group of them and offered his fingers. They seemed to reach for him, curl around his hand and then retract. "But I would be careful. I've some minor experience with them. I'm learning to communicate with them in some limited manner."

He walked comfortable through the bookshop though one would think the ruin would bother him, to see his store in this state. He was used to it now and knew there was nothing to be done about it.

"The most important thing to learn about magic and magical things is simply that they ARE." He moved out the door and into the street because if magic was going to be used it was better to do so outside in his opinion.

"There is no good or bad. There simply IS." He pointed at Kaleb and then himself, "Like people."

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb needed no advice on that topic, he wasn't interested in trying to touch them like Algernon did. Neither was he surprised to learn they were capable of some communication, even if it required learning on the part of the humans. Everything seemed fairly intelligent over here.

"Like a tool," the freckled teen replied, glancing over his shoulder as he followed the bookstore proprietor outside. "It's just there, until it's used with intent?"

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Yes.. like a tool. Which also means its always there whether you know how to use it or not," A wrench was a wrench was a wrench whether or not you were a mechanic. But even the basics could be figured out by someone who simply picked it up.

"And magical creatures should be treated the same. Perhaps they are good but they may be evil and there is no way to tell initially.." That counted for shadows as much as for magical cats. Not that Alg had ever met a cat he didn't like.

"I've seen people use magic all sorts of different ways. There's not right way or wrong way." Out on the street he stopped at a bus bench and leaned on it lightly, "So what have you tried?"

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb felt better outside in the open, forever thankful it wasn't raining, and let his book bag rest on the bench. He didn't let go of the strap though, it remained clutched in his nervous fingers like the corner of a security blanket.

"Jeremiah showed me how to make a shield, and I can sort of write with light, but I'm still working on those... Aside from that, I can feel magic if I'm close to it. That's helped me find a way back a couple times, now that I know what a portal feels like." He looked around the area then, simultaneously feeling for anything different or unusual.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Well that's something-" Alg gestured vaguely but he seemed to be the type to talk with his hands if they weren't tucked away into a pocket. "-Feeling the magic. Not something that comes for everyone. That's you."

Alg then, with seemingly no effort at all, rose off the ground and crossed his feet at the ankles, legs crooked as if he were sitting but he was simply floating.

"Like this, this is me. I can do it at home and it happens without much thought." He then rested an elbow on his knee and rested his chin on it, "How do you manifest the shield?"

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb blinked as Algernon rose into the air, both seeing it and also feeling the magic as it accumulated around him. Light and airy, with a texture that was almost too fine for Kaleb to quite grasp what it was really like.

"Wow. I..." For a second Kaleb almost forgot what he was being asked, just amazed at how simply and gracefully the magic came into effect. And Algernon could do that on the other side as well? The teen finally stumbled a bit through his reply. "I have to think about it, and... want it to appear."

He raised one hand in a halt gesture, and the magic took shape in front of him to form a concave shield structure in the air, clear like glass. "I... I started with a bubble at first, and I had to really focus on keeping it solid, but now at least it stays for awhile. It's still not big enough to surround anyone yet, so... maybe for now a barrier might be better..."

Kaleb timidly glanced at Algernon, and then down at his feet before he could really evaluate the older man's response. Showing someone else an incomplete project was always nerve wracking.

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I've always found that focusing on my need for the magic helped more than.. what the magic would look like." It wasn't a criticism in the least, just offering another perspective. "When Jeremiah and I first learned to make barriers, it used to rain here all the time." Alg nodded, "All the time. So i just needed something to keep off rain.."

Alg gestured over his head and his barrier appeared, see through but shaped very much like an undetailed umbrella, "I had no intention besides keeping the rain off. It just sort of came that shape. And once I'd used it enough it became more easy to manipulate."

The barrier, with no use and Alg's lack of attention, simply shimmered out of existence.

grey dragon

 

[Grey Dragon]

Kaleb nodded, watching intently as Algernon demonstrated his own translucent barrier. If it was only for the rain, it wouldn't have to be as strong as something created for protection. But Algernon seemed able to work with the magic much more intuitively, having it respond to what he needed without having to think it over.

He glanced at his own magic, still hanging in the air. "The first time, I imagined a bubble. Jeremiah told me to use what I knew... And the magic popped like a bubble. When I wanted it to be stronger, I thought about the structure of diamonds. But I still really had to maintain my focus or it would go back to being a bubble."

"It started doing this," Kaleb said, gesturing to the shield, " staying put on it's own like this, when I remembered the strength of a diamond's covalent bonds are stronger than surface tension. But I don't know if that is how magic is supposed to work, or if it makes any sense at all..."

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg chuckled, rubbing his face a bit under his glasses before he rested his head on his hand again, "There is no 'how it works' in the capacity you are asking about. You need to abandon your thoughts of what is right and wrong when it comes to magic."

The older man uncrossed his legs and seemed to stand, feet simply sinking back down to earth, "If that helps you, to think of things that way, then it simply does. But you may find it slower to develop if you can't think outside of what is scientifically plausible." It also limited him to only what he knew.

"The fact it's staying on it's own is not the magic. It's you being used to the magic, accustomed to the usage. The more you use things the easier they become." Alg rubbed his jaw a moment, his light stubble making an audible sound.

"Hand me one of those books on magic," His fingers crooked for it to be handed to him, "The Idiot's Guide to Magic preferably." It was soft cover and he'd seen it in Kaleb's pile. It would be perfect for what he showed him next.

grey dxragon