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Post by Linyü on Mar 12, 2021 23:59:48 GMT -6
Sure enough, the next time Seveth looked in the journal, he found a single, angry line from San telling Seveth to stay away from his things. At least, he imagined it was angry. Tone was hard to convey on paper. “Oh boo, you spoilsport,” Seveth said, even as he admired the bandage work on his hands that definitely hadn’t been there last time he was aware. San must have done these himself. Seveth had done his own first aid, more to stop the bleeding than anything else, but he remembered his own attempt as having been distinctly… lumpier.
And even though his hands didn’t really sting any less, San’s most recent entry in the journal had the same neat, contained penmanship that marked all his other entries. Of course it did. He probably had some crazy ninja mental exercises for blocking out all sensation, including physical pain.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 0:02:02 GMT -6
Too bad Seveth didn’t know how to invoke those either.
San had also shot down Seveth’s entreaties for lessons on the proper use of his knives, but Seveth wasn’t going to let a single rejection discourage him. He wrote a repeat of his request… And then another… And then another. Writing the same thing over and over again was boring, so he switched it up, trying a different tactic with each entry he wrote. He came at San with logic, with cajoling, and even the occasional threat, though that last one felt a little desperate, even by his own standards.
Truth be told, he hadn’t actually been sure that he would be able to talk San into it - or, as was more likely the case, wear him down. But eventually his efforts paid off, and he opened the journal one morning to the following entry:
Teach me how to use magic.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 0:02:54 GMT -6
Okay, so it wasn’t exactly an agreement to teach Seveth how to work with the knives, but it was implied! … Probably. Or at the very least, it was a doorway into negotiation, now that Seveth finally had something to negotiate with.
sure thing! but then you gotta teach me knives :P
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I’ll think about it.
Seveth read San’s response and sighed, which was starting to feel like his standard response to San’s entries lately. Or in general, actually, considering what San was like even when injury to their person wasn’t involved. Seveth would have liked something more binding in writing, but this was probably the best he was going to get out of San.
And the prospect of teaching San magic was such a fun idea in its own right that he would have agreed anyway, even if he didn’t need something to hold over San’s head.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 0:03:16 GMT -6
Seveth could feel a smile spreading over his features just at the thought of it. Oh, he had so many things he could do, so many books he could recommend… “Gods, I wish I still had access to Uncle’s library!” he said to himself. “I wonder if they have a copy of the Maleficarum Annals here…” He was getting a little ahead of himself there though. As far as he understood, the state of magical knowledge in San’s country of origin was… Well, their views on magic in general were dim at best. He didn’t know much of Xinzhou, but if they didn’t have a way of creating nodes without killing people in the process, it was understandable that magical development wasn’t exactly encouraged there. But it meant that he was going to have to start from square one with San. And if that was the case, then there was really only one book he would want San to start with. Oh, well, maybe that wasn’t the whole truth. But he did want to have fun with this. Oh, he only wished he could be around to see the face San made when he saw this! -----
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 0:03:46 GMT -6
“... That guy is screwing with me.”
San hadn’t expected much from Seveth to begin with when he had written his request for magical tutelage in the journal. In retrospect, he probably should have expected this. Still, he had thought that perhaps if this was indeed Seveth’s area of expertise, there was a chance that he might be prevailed upon to take it seriously.
Needless to say, he was finding this wasn’t the case.
The journal sat open to its latest entry:
heres some spells you might like! and here are their incantations. if you get really good you might be able to cast without them!
Beneath those words, Seveth had annotated guides for several minor spells, all of them singularly frivolous in nature, with inane incantations that would have mortified San to speak aloud. San’s face darkened with each successive line he read, until at last he reached the end.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 15:01:44 GMT -6
San sighed, rubbing at his face with both hands. He didn’t know why he had bothered trying to entertain this farce of an idea. No, it had been Roku's suggestion; he would blame the cat for this, and the facts would support his conclusion. He closed the journal and put it away, shoving it roughly into its place among the books on the desk. He was about to head out for more physical training when something caught his eye. There had been another book resting beneath the journal, and now he could see a square of paper on top of it, with another note written in Seveth’s signature scrawl. if you cant figure it out, this will help ;) San lifted the square of paper, and the title of the book was revealed: Magic for Morons! Learn how to master the mystical arts! No brain cells required! … The deal is off.-----
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 19:56:08 GMT -6
Seveth probably laughed for five minute straight when he read the single line that San had left for him in the journal. Oh, he really wished he could have been there when San had seen the book! He was surprised to find it still intact on the desk. He had half expected to see it thrown out the window, or maybe shredded to smithereens. That would have been funnier, since San really didn’t seem the type for fits of pique.
Had he tried the incantations? Had he managed to cast any spells? Truly, he felt the limitations of their arrangement now more than he had ever felt them before. What a shame that they had to share their time like this, rather than being able to face one another properly.
… But then, he supposed that if they had been two separate, ordinary strangers, San would never even have given Seveth the time of day.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 19:56:18 GMT -6
They probably wouldn’t even have met. Or maybe Seveth would have encountered San only in his daytime persona, a friendly barista or store clerk or part-timer at some shop in the city, friendly and unassuming.
Funny how San was nicer to people he didn’t know. But the thought made Seveth a little sad too, for some reason he couldn’t place.
He supposed their current arrangement was the best that they could manage after all. There was no sense dwelling on it, since it couldn’t be changed, only managed. San could no more spit out the node than Seveth could will himself back to his own body, and there were people who loved them both enough to stop them if one of them wanted to try.
Now that his breathing had evened out again, and the last fit of giggles had finally worn off, Seveth did feel a little bad about it.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 19:56:28 GMT -6
San had reached out to him in what had probably been an earnest request for help, after all. Or maybe ‘serious’ was the better word; Seveth couldn’t imagine San being earnest, but San was always serious, all the time.
It had been the first time San had really tried to rely on Seveth at all, beyond the more mundane demands that Seveth wash the dishes once in a while, or run some stupid easy errand - and even these had stopped coming after a while, when Seveth inevitably dropped the ball on them. He hadn’t always meant to, but minutiae had never been Seveth’s strong point, and now he had someone else to take care of them when he left these chores on the wayside.
Maybe he was reading too much into it, but it felt as if San was trying to trust him. If that was the case, then Seveth hoped the damage wasn’t irreparable.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 19:57:44 GMT -6
San certainly sounded like he had meant to shut the door on Seveth's face with that line in his journal. Seveth had a hunch that he could still be talked around, but it was probably only possible if Seveth took things seriously starting now.
Serious. Right. Stone cold serious. Trained killer serious, even.
Truth be told though, Seveth hadn’t offered the book purely to use its title as a punchline - though he would definitely be lying if he said that didn’t factor into his considerations. Having started off on the wrong foot though, he figured he had to explain his reasoning if he wanted San to give the book a shot despite its presentation. Nibbling on the edge of his favorite pen, Seveth thought over what to write for a moment, before putting it to the page.
And wincing. Okay, maybe he could concede that the knives thing had been a stupid idea.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 20:00:10 GMT -6
Okay okay, the title is kind of lame. But it’s a good book, I promise! Just give it a try, alright?
Zinzou frowns on magical practice because of how nodes are made, so you must not have any basic magical education for kids or anything, right? I was learning all of this when I was a kid, so the books I started with would be too juvenile for you, even if I could find them.
This one is for beginners, so it’s reeeeeally easy. I had a look through it, and they actually break down the basic concepts pretty well. Some of it might be a little low-brow, but it’s not like I can just give you advanced-level texts right off the bat and expect you to understand what’s going on. Once you have a better working knowledge of the fundamentals, we'll move on to something else.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 20:00:24 GMT -6
… That was what Seveth wrote, but… Actually, San was an elemental. Seveth was an elemental, just by virtue of occupying this body. And in the time that he had spent awake, Seveth never had any difficulty accessing his abilities, as long as he stayed within the bounds of what a Chaos elemental could do. He was discovering new things that he could do all the time, and spell research helped him learn about the options he had available, but once he set his mind to something, it was just as easy as… as writing a new word with a pen he already knew how to use. It was a part of him, as intuitive an extension of himself as his limbs.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t a good metaphor. Technically the limbs he was using right now weren’t his to begin with. But he could still move them just fine, even if he couldn’t necessarily do the same things that San could.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 20:19:05 GMT -6
And as long as he didn’t think about it too hard or look in any mirrors, he didn’t have to deal with that sick sense of vertigo either, most of the time.
What San was dealing with was most likely a mental block. Seveth just didn’t know where, specifically, the issue lay.
He debated with himself for a moment, before deciding to just bite the bullet. Rising from the chair, he made his way out of the apartment, down the old stairwell, and out to the local park, where Ichaival hid in the little wooded area at the back. It didn’t take long to find Ichaival, but then, Ichaival would have known he was coming.
“Chai,” he said, leaning against the dragon’s flank. “Can I ask you something?”
{You already are,} said Ichaival, but its voice was gentle. Bending its head down to him, it nudged him with the tip of its snout. {What is it, child?}
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 20:21:56 GMT -6
“Did you…” Here he hesitated again. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Ichaival, of course; Chai had been with him for so long, had come through for him even when he had trusted it with the terrible burden of the node containing his soul.
The trouble was that Ichaival was on his side, but even Seveth could tell that it didn’t really care about San. Sure, it would be bad if San’s body was injured, but that was only because he was the host. And as much as Seveth wanted to believe only good things of his old caretaker and friend, he didn’t know if he trusted Ichaival not to… Well, he didn’t know, really. But he did know that it had already taken some psychic interventions for the sake of maintaining the balance between Seveth and San, and from there it was all too easy to make the leap to other, less gracious mental tamperings.
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Post by Linyü on Mar 13, 2021 20:32:23 GMT -6
He could have said nevermind, and changed the topic, and Ichaival would have let him. But he had decided to take the issue of San's magic tutelage seriously... And he had come all the way out here, after all.
"San asked me about magic," he began. Ichaival watched him with one shrewd blue eye, but said nothing, knowing he meant to continue. "He can't use it very well, even though there shouldn't be any real reason why he... can't. I think it must be some sort of mental block, but..." He trailed off, making a vague sort of hand motion.
{You wish to ask what I know on the matter. Or,} Ichaival supplied, that blue eye narrowing, {you wish to know if I have some hand in his impairment.}
It wasn't a question. Seveth could do nothing but nod. He wondered if Ichaival had read his thoughts, or if it had only needed to guess, having known him so long.
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