Magic 101 - backdated to January 10
Jan. 10th, 2014 02:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsA peek into Amanda's magic class; Amanda does a review for newest member, Megan, as well as some practical work.
"Okay," said Amanda, swinging her legs. "Let's do a bit of revision of the basics first before we get to the actual magic stuff. " The blonde witch was sitting on one of the deep window sills in the large ballroom, looking at her students expectantly. Behind her, snow fell thickly, like an explosion of feathers, covering the grounds. "Topaz, what is magic?"
Topaz was sitting on the ground, her legs curled up under herself, elbow on her knee and cheek against her hand as her fingers threaded through her hair. At Amanda's question she lifted her head, fingers still in her hair as she recited the answer that had been drilled into her head. "Magic is the conversion of energy - drawn from one of many sources - into very limited changes in reality." She sounded like a textbook. "The energy is channeled through the user, who creates a framework for the change with the use of spells, rituals, and sigils."
Amanda nodded, although she rolled her eyes slightly at the mechanical recitation. Oh bollocks, she was turning into fucking Strange at his worst. "So basically, magic's energy conversion. You take energy from somewhere - and where is different for each of us - and use it to change things." She looked over at Billy. "Three sources of magical energy, Billy-boy."
"People, places, and things," Billy replied, a snarky counterpoint to Topaz' textbook description. Then not expecting he'd get away with that, he elaborated. "A lot of magic comes from a person's energy. Either their own or someone else's. Like Topaz and emotions. Other people like you can use energy from the places around them or like nature. Then there's magic in other things, sometimes items or more intangible--like chaos."
"And the type of power influences the magic," Amanda agreed. "Mine is based on city energy, so my spells show that." She clapped her hands, bringing up the neon bubble of her shielding spell for a moment. Then she clapped her hands again and the glowing sphere around her winked out. "Billy's source is chaos energy, so that's why he occasionally ends up with spells going out of control."
“Chaos energy?” Pixie sat far forward, her chin resting on her hands as she listened intently. She didn’t feel like any of this was sinking in yet. “What kind of magic do I have?”
Amanda hesitated, then went on, her voice softening a little. "You're a bit different, in that you've had magic dumped on you, so to speak. So it's not tied into your mutation at all." She dug in her book bag beside her and pulled out a slim black volume. 'Magic: Theories and Practice' read the gold lettering on the cover, followed by, in smaller letters: 'Research by C. Plunder; edited by Dr. S. Strange'. "There's a chapter on demonic magic in here," she continued, tossing the book gently to Megan. "And an interview with Illyana, the other girl Belasco nabbed. Belasco replaced a piece of your soul with demonic energy, so your magic is most likely generated by some kind of dark energy. BUT," and here she paused for emphasis. "That doesn't mean that you will necessarily be evil if you use magic. Like Nico and Illyana, you'll have to be careful what you use it for, but you're not doomed or anything."
Pixie grabbed the book, letting Amanda’s words sink in as the book’s weight settled into her grasp. Not doomed or anything. They were actually quite reassuring, and Pixie nodded hopefully. Her mentor seemed to sense exactly what she was feeling since the whole Belasco ordeal, even though Amanda wasn’t an empath like Topaz.
Topaz could sense the emotions, and decided to chip in with her own two cents. "The type of magic isn't a guarantee of what you'll be. I knew someone, perfectly normal magic user, practiced perfectly normal magic, but he made the choice to use it for the wrong reasons." No need to mention who it was. She was just trying to reassure Pixie, after all. "And it warped him. It didn't have anything to do with the magic though. It was the choices he made."
"And me, I'm like the very example of order and..." Billy broke off in a snicker. "Sorry, I thought I could pull it off. Ok, sometimes magic DOES match your personality. But it doesn't define you. It CHANGES everything for sure, but it doesn't make you good or bad. Even if you screw up a lot."
Amanda chuckled a little. "And that's the other part. You'll fu-- er, screw up. Everyone here, including me, has done something stupid and potentially really bad. But the important thing is that you can't let one mistake make you think you're a hopeless case. And no matter what it is..." Amanda turned her focus to all three of them now. "...Better to tell me about it early, than let it fester and get worse. Yeah, I'm your teacher, but I'm also on your side. I've been there already."
“Yes, Miss Amanda,” Pixie agreed respectfully - and a little fearfully. She thought back to Nico, once her roommate, and all the trouble the Staff of One had caused.
Topaz gave a small nod at Amanda's words. She'd already learned the hard way that handling things on her own was nothing short of a disaster. It wasn't a mistake she was eager to repeat. "Besides, not much any of us can do that's worse than turning another student into a frog," she pointed out dryly.
"I don't usually have much choice," Billy said wryly. "It's kinda hard to hide it snowing in the mansion. If I don't call for help, someone else is gonna pretty quickly."
Amanda laughed, half-affectionately. Despite the alleged grey hairs he was giving her, she actually liked Billy and his down-to-earthiness and sense of humour about his mistakes. "All right, so that's the lecture about 'don't mess with the natural order of things without supervision' and that includes turning guidance counsellors into frogs," she continued, acknowledging Topaz' dig with a face. "Megan, you're a bit behind on the theory stuff, so rather than have Punch and Judy here bore you silly quoting out of the book, read it in your own time and we can talk about it. Now, let's get into the hocus pocus part." Her grin widened. "Werelight summoning review. Topaz, let's see how yours looks."
Topaz lifted her head, closing her eyes for a moment as she thought - then summoned up the energy she needed for the spell. After a moment, a little ball of light flickered to life right in front of her, bobbling along as it danced around her head.
The light was reflected in Pixie’s all-black eyes as she watched, entranced. “Oh, um, here we go,” she said after a long moment, rubbing her hands together briefly and closing her eyes. She felt like she could see a green light behind her eyelids as she performed the spell. She felt like it was pricking her in the forehead. But when she opened her eyes, she couldn’t see anything. Her shoulders slumped slightly and she looked to Billy.
Billy leaned forward, clearing his throat. "EXPECTO PATRONUM," he said loudly, waving an air wand with one hand and muttering behind the other. "I want a light monkey. I want a light monkey." For a moment nothing happened, but then a bluish white glow vaguely resembling a monkey flashed in front of them before fading.
Their teacher looked torn between laughing herself sick and facepalming. Instead, she swallowed the laughter and kept a straight face. "Right. First thing is, don't try to get fancy." She snapped her fingers and a small ball of light the dull yellow of streetlight lamps appeared in front of her. "Hold in your mind what you're trying to summon. See it in your head. And while your powers teachers will say gestures are a crutch and all that, magic's another kettle of fish. We need something - a word, a gesture, a spell or a magic bleeding wand to wave around - to give the whole thing structure." She turned her attention to Megan. "I could feel magical energy from you while you were trying, so let's give it another go. But this time, when you want to let the energy go, say or do whatever springs to mind."
Pixie nodded and took a deep breath, closing her eyes again. Just let it go… “Any gesture or word? Whatever comes to mind?” she asked softly before beginning the spell anew. The green light appeared again in her mind. It slowly grew more detailed. Was it an eye? No, a face? It was squirming away from her, and she remembered to let the energy go just in time. Oh! It’s a… “Will o’ wisp,” she finished the thought aloud. Her eyes popped open in time to see the tiny, ephemeral green ball of light burst into being and fade away.
"Good job!" Amanda beamed at her newest student. "That's exactly what I meant. Now, Billy, how about you try again without the fancy shapes? You just need to see where you're going, not scare away Dementors."
"Can't I do both at once?" Billy grinned, but then focused on the task as instructed. "I want a light. I want a light," he began to chant, staring at the space among them. The blue glow reappeared as he continued, in simpler form this time, and hovered there a moment before fading.
"Much better." Amanda nodded, before turning back to Topaz. "Okay, your turn again. Let's see what you have."
Topaz nodded, pressing her lips thin as she thought. She'd never been much for gestures, no matter how much Alice had tried to teach her, but she still remembered a few of the woman's favorites. After a moment she straightened up, raising her hand, palm flat out, as she imagined the light in her mind - bright white and glowing. She felt the energy begin to swirl around just above her hand, invisible, and she cupped her hand slightly, as if trying to hold water. After a few seconds the light glowed dimly, brightening the more she tightened her fingers until she finally closed her fist on it, and it faded.
"Very good." Amanda gave her silent student a smile. "It might not seem much to summon light like that, but what you're doing is reshaping reality, just a tiny bit. Making there be a light where there wasn't one before, created out of nothing but your willpower and the magical energy inside you. If you think about it like that, it's pretty bloody amazing."
"And aren't you proud of me for not reshaping reality with a second sun?" Billy asked. Regular practice was definitely helping, especially in the smaller magics, but the results were often still...unpredictable, at best.
"Very. I figure the Prof wouldn't appreciate us burning his nice house down, let alone the whole world turning into a cinder." Amanda deadpanned, before chuckling. "All right, apprentice-types, homework." She ignored the resulting groan. "I want you to practice the werelight spell, until you can call it consistently and keep it the same size and shape. And if you've got that down, I want you to practice moving it around. That takes a bit more concentration." George was still bobbing around her own head, and with a finger flick, she sent the small blob of light whizzing around the group of teens. "You'll also notice the more you call up the spell, the more... personality it develops. I've had George the werelight with me since I was a little tyke, so he's not your average light source." As if hearing her, the werelight paused over Megan's head and then rolled down her forehead and nose, like it was a ramp.
Pixie’s eyes crossed as the watched George land and roll down her face. “He’s very charming,” she said, taking a dizzy half-step backwards. “A little spark of reshaped reality.”
Topaz tilted her head, her gaze following George's progress. He was a very playful little thing.
"Do you think it's actually alive?" Billy asked curiously as he followed the light. "Or just acting sort of...what you're unconsciously telling it to be?"
"Not actually alive, no," Amanda replied, although George, zooming back to her and buzzing rather impatiently around her head seemed to have other opinions on that. "But werelights - any spell, really - do tend to take on elements of your personality the more you use them. My shielding spell is, according to Strange, as stubborn as I am, for example." She gave them a wry grin. "It all feeds back into magic being an expression of yourself and your power source, instead of a straight energy exchange like a mutation. 'Tho, you can argue that with the way energy projectors have issues with control when they're upset is kind of the same thing."
“Not alive. That’s good to keep in mind,” Pixie mused aloud. “I mean, considering my magic’s source.” Her mind gradually caught up to the new topic. “Oh yeah… mutations. How do you think this will effect my dust?”
"That I don't know, Megan," Amanda admitted. "But I would suggest you go to the X-folks and ask about specialised training to see if things have changed at all - that's one of their things they do, after all."
Pixie nodded, getting lost in a mental picture for a moment of people wearing masks, scraping dust off her wings into beakers and running tests on it. It probably wouldn't be that easy though. When she snapped back to attention, Topaz was speaking.
"I'm not an expert," nor would she ever claim to be, "but it might not effect it at all, where the two aren't related directly. Still ask, I just kinda make things up as I go along, the people here would know better, but...it might just be that you have these two completely separate powers that don't interact at all and don't effect one another."
"Moira helped me sort out things with my mutation," Amanda added. "'M sure I can get some advice from her on things for you. And if Nico ever gets back from her magical research tour, she'd be good to talk to - she was the other way 'round, magic first then her mutation." Having her first student to help her with things would be a relief, Amanda had to admit. "And there's always Strange if we need even more boring lectures about magic and how to use it responsibly."
"Why do you always look at me when you talk about responsible magic?" Billy said in mock protest.
"Why do you always look guilty when I do?" Amanda replied, in similar spirit. "All right, then, padawans, that's it for the day. Keep up your reading, work on your werelights and any questions, email me in case I'm on the other side of the planet or something."
Pixie stood up, wavering slightly. "Class dismissed? OK good, because I don't feel like my brain can absorb any more right now. Or maybe it's just that magic is flexing mental muscles that I didn't know I had. It was a good lesson though. Thanks, teach!" she added cheerfully.
"Maybe I'll someday be able to join you there," Billy grinned at Amanda, and he started packing up his bags. "Not that I'm going to try anytime soon! Lots of practice before then."
Topaz stretched as she stood, hooking her bag over her shoulder. "Have a good night, then."
"Off you go, you lot. Have a good week." Amanda waved them away. "And don't blow the place up before next class."
"Okay," said Amanda, swinging her legs. "Let's do a bit of revision of the basics first before we get to the actual magic stuff. " The blonde witch was sitting on one of the deep window sills in the large ballroom, looking at her students expectantly. Behind her, snow fell thickly, like an explosion of feathers, covering the grounds. "Topaz, what is magic?"
Topaz was sitting on the ground, her legs curled up under herself, elbow on her knee and cheek against her hand as her fingers threaded through her hair. At Amanda's question she lifted her head, fingers still in her hair as she recited the answer that had been drilled into her head. "Magic is the conversion of energy - drawn from one of many sources - into very limited changes in reality." She sounded like a textbook. "The energy is channeled through the user, who creates a framework for the change with the use of spells, rituals, and sigils."
Amanda nodded, although she rolled her eyes slightly at the mechanical recitation. Oh bollocks, she was turning into fucking Strange at his worst. "So basically, magic's energy conversion. You take energy from somewhere - and where is different for each of us - and use it to change things." She looked over at Billy. "Three sources of magical energy, Billy-boy."
"People, places, and things," Billy replied, a snarky counterpoint to Topaz' textbook description. Then not expecting he'd get away with that, he elaborated. "A lot of magic comes from a person's energy. Either their own or someone else's. Like Topaz and emotions. Other people like you can use energy from the places around them or like nature. Then there's magic in other things, sometimes items or more intangible--like chaos."
"And the type of power influences the magic," Amanda agreed. "Mine is based on city energy, so my spells show that." She clapped her hands, bringing up the neon bubble of her shielding spell for a moment. Then she clapped her hands again and the glowing sphere around her winked out. "Billy's source is chaos energy, so that's why he occasionally ends up with spells going out of control."
“Chaos energy?” Pixie sat far forward, her chin resting on her hands as she listened intently. She didn’t feel like any of this was sinking in yet. “What kind of magic do I have?”
Amanda hesitated, then went on, her voice softening a little. "You're a bit different, in that you've had magic dumped on you, so to speak. So it's not tied into your mutation at all." She dug in her book bag beside her and pulled out a slim black volume. 'Magic: Theories and Practice' read the gold lettering on the cover, followed by, in smaller letters: 'Research by C. Plunder; edited by Dr. S. Strange'. "There's a chapter on demonic magic in here," she continued, tossing the book gently to Megan. "And an interview with Illyana, the other girl Belasco nabbed. Belasco replaced a piece of your soul with demonic energy, so your magic is most likely generated by some kind of dark energy. BUT," and here she paused for emphasis. "That doesn't mean that you will necessarily be evil if you use magic. Like Nico and Illyana, you'll have to be careful what you use it for, but you're not doomed or anything."
Pixie grabbed the book, letting Amanda’s words sink in as the book’s weight settled into her grasp. Not doomed or anything. They were actually quite reassuring, and Pixie nodded hopefully. Her mentor seemed to sense exactly what she was feeling since the whole Belasco ordeal, even though Amanda wasn’t an empath like Topaz.
Topaz could sense the emotions, and decided to chip in with her own two cents. "The type of magic isn't a guarantee of what you'll be. I knew someone, perfectly normal magic user, practiced perfectly normal magic, but he made the choice to use it for the wrong reasons." No need to mention who it was. She was just trying to reassure Pixie, after all. "And it warped him. It didn't have anything to do with the magic though. It was the choices he made."
"And me, I'm like the very example of order and..." Billy broke off in a snicker. "Sorry, I thought I could pull it off. Ok, sometimes magic DOES match your personality. But it doesn't define you. It CHANGES everything for sure, but it doesn't make you good or bad. Even if you screw up a lot."
Amanda chuckled a little. "And that's the other part. You'll fu-- er, screw up. Everyone here, including me, has done something stupid and potentially really bad. But the important thing is that you can't let one mistake make you think you're a hopeless case. And no matter what it is..." Amanda turned her focus to all three of them now. "...Better to tell me about it early, than let it fester and get worse. Yeah, I'm your teacher, but I'm also on your side. I've been there already."
“Yes, Miss Amanda,” Pixie agreed respectfully - and a little fearfully. She thought back to Nico, once her roommate, and all the trouble the Staff of One had caused.
Topaz gave a small nod at Amanda's words. She'd already learned the hard way that handling things on her own was nothing short of a disaster. It wasn't a mistake she was eager to repeat. "Besides, not much any of us can do that's worse than turning another student into a frog," she pointed out dryly.
"I don't usually have much choice," Billy said wryly. "It's kinda hard to hide it snowing in the mansion. If I don't call for help, someone else is gonna pretty quickly."
Amanda laughed, half-affectionately. Despite the alleged grey hairs he was giving her, she actually liked Billy and his down-to-earthiness and sense of humour about his mistakes. "All right, so that's the lecture about 'don't mess with the natural order of things without supervision' and that includes turning guidance counsellors into frogs," she continued, acknowledging Topaz' dig with a face. "Megan, you're a bit behind on the theory stuff, so rather than have Punch and Judy here bore you silly quoting out of the book, read it in your own time and we can talk about it. Now, let's get into the hocus pocus part." Her grin widened. "Werelight summoning review. Topaz, let's see how yours looks."
Topaz lifted her head, closing her eyes for a moment as she thought - then summoned up the energy she needed for the spell. After a moment, a little ball of light flickered to life right in front of her, bobbling along as it danced around her head.
The light was reflected in Pixie’s all-black eyes as she watched, entranced. “Oh, um, here we go,” she said after a long moment, rubbing her hands together briefly and closing her eyes. She felt like she could see a green light behind her eyelids as she performed the spell. She felt like it was pricking her in the forehead. But when she opened her eyes, she couldn’t see anything. Her shoulders slumped slightly and she looked to Billy.
Billy leaned forward, clearing his throat. "EXPECTO PATRONUM," he said loudly, waving an air wand with one hand and muttering behind the other. "I want a light monkey. I want a light monkey." For a moment nothing happened, but then a bluish white glow vaguely resembling a monkey flashed in front of them before fading.
Their teacher looked torn between laughing herself sick and facepalming. Instead, she swallowed the laughter and kept a straight face. "Right. First thing is, don't try to get fancy." She snapped her fingers and a small ball of light the dull yellow of streetlight lamps appeared in front of her. "Hold in your mind what you're trying to summon. See it in your head. And while your powers teachers will say gestures are a crutch and all that, magic's another kettle of fish. We need something - a word, a gesture, a spell or a magic bleeding wand to wave around - to give the whole thing structure." She turned her attention to Megan. "I could feel magical energy from you while you were trying, so let's give it another go. But this time, when you want to let the energy go, say or do whatever springs to mind."
Pixie nodded and took a deep breath, closing her eyes again. Just let it go… “Any gesture or word? Whatever comes to mind?” she asked softly before beginning the spell anew. The green light appeared again in her mind. It slowly grew more detailed. Was it an eye? No, a face? It was squirming away from her, and she remembered to let the energy go just in time. Oh! It’s a… “Will o’ wisp,” she finished the thought aloud. Her eyes popped open in time to see the tiny, ephemeral green ball of light burst into being and fade away.
"Good job!" Amanda beamed at her newest student. "That's exactly what I meant. Now, Billy, how about you try again without the fancy shapes? You just need to see where you're going, not scare away Dementors."
"Can't I do both at once?" Billy grinned, but then focused on the task as instructed. "I want a light. I want a light," he began to chant, staring at the space among them. The blue glow reappeared as he continued, in simpler form this time, and hovered there a moment before fading.
"Much better." Amanda nodded, before turning back to Topaz. "Okay, your turn again. Let's see what you have."
Topaz nodded, pressing her lips thin as she thought. She'd never been much for gestures, no matter how much Alice had tried to teach her, but she still remembered a few of the woman's favorites. After a moment she straightened up, raising her hand, palm flat out, as she imagined the light in her mind - bright white and glowing. She felt the energy begin to swirl around just above her hand, invisible, and she cupped her hand slightly, as if trying to hold water. After a few seconds the light glowed dimly, brightening the more she tightened her fingers until she finally closed her fist on it, and it faded.
"Very good." Amanda gave her silent student a smile. "It might not seem much to summon light like that, but what you're doing is reshaping reality, just a tiny bit. Making there be a light where there wasn't one before, created out of nothing but your willpower and the magical energy inside you. If you think about it like that, it's pretty bloody amazing."
"And aren't you proud of me for not reshaping reality with a second sun?" Billy asked. Regular practice was definitely helping, especially in the smaller magics, but the results were often still...unpredictable, at best.
"Very. I figure the Prof wouldn't appreciate us burning his nice house down, let alone the whole world turning into a cinder." Amanda deadpanned, before chuckling. "All right, apprentice-types, homework." She ignored the resulting groan. "I want you to practice the werelight spell, until you can call it consistently and keep it the same size and shape. And if you've got that down, I want you to practice moving it around. That takes a bit more concentration." George was still bobbing around her own head, and with a finger flick, she sent the small blob of light whizzing around the group of teens. "You'll also notice the more you call up the spell, the more... personality it develops. I've had George the werelight with me since I was a little tyke, so he's not your average light source." As if hearing her, the werelight paused over Megan's head and then rolled down her forehead and nose, like it was a ramp.
Pixie’s eyes crossed as the watched George land and roll down her face. “He’s very charming,” she said, taking a dizzy half-step backwards. “A little spark of reshaped reality.”
Topaz tilted her head, her gaze following George's progress. He was a very playful little thing.
"Do you think it's actually alive?" Billy asked curiously as he followed the light. "Or just acting sort of...what you're unconsciously telling it to be?"
"Not actually alive, no," Amanda replied, although George, zooming back to her and buzzing rather impatiently around her head seemed to have other opinions on that. "But werelights - any spell, really - do tend to take on elements of your personality the more you use them. My shielding spell is, according to Strange, as stubborn as I am, for example." She gave them a wry grin. "It all feeds back into magic being an expression of yourself and your power source, instead of a straight energy exchange like a mutation. 'Tho, you can argue that with the way energy projectors have issues with control when they're upset is kind of the same thing."
“Not alive. That’s good to keep in mind,” Pixie mused aloud. “I mean, considering my magic’s source.” Her mind gradually caught up to the new topic. “Oh yeah… mutations. How do you think this will effect my dust?”
"That I don't know, Megan," Amanda admitted. "But I would suggest you go to the X-folks and ask about specialised training to see if things have changed at all - that's one of their things they do, after all."
Pixie nodded, getting lost in a mental picture for a moment of people wearing masks, scraping dust off her wings into beakers and running tests on it. It probably wouldn't be that easy though. When she snapped back to attention, Topaz was speaking.
"I'm not an expert," nor would she ever claim to be, "but it might not effect it at all, where the two aren't related directly. Still ask, I just kinda make things up as I go along, the people here would know better, but...it might just be that you have these two completely separate powers that don't interact at all and don't effect one another."
"Moira helped me sort out things with my mutation," Amanda added. "'M sure I can get some advice from her on things for you. And if Nico ever gets back from her magical research tour, she'd be good to talk to - she was the other way 'round, magic first then her mutation." Having her first student to help her with things would be a relief, Amanda had to admit. "And there's always Strange if we need even more boring lectures about magic and how to use it responsibly."
"Why do you always look at me when you talk about responsible magic?" Billy said in mock protest.
"Why do you always look guilty when I do?" Amanda replied, in similar spirit. "All right, then, padawans, that's it for the day. Keep up your reading, work on your werelights and any questions, email me in case I'm on the other side of the planet or something."
Pixie stood up, wavering slightly. "Class dismissed? OK good, because I don't feel like my brain can absorb any more right now. Or maybe it's just that magic is flexing mental muscles that I didn't know I had. It was a good lesson though. Thanks, teach!" she added cheerfully.
"Maybe I'll someday be able to join you there," Billy grinned at Amanda, and he started packing up his bags. "Not that I'm going to try anytime soon! Lots of practice before then."
Topaz stretched as she stood, hooking her bag over her shoulder. "Have a good night, then."
"Off you go, you lot. Have a good week." Amanda waved them away. "And don't blow the place up before next class."
