Amanda Sefton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
xp_daytripper) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
xp_logs2024-05-21 06:05 pm
xp_daytripper) wrote in xp_logs2024-05-21 06:05 pm
Entry tags:
Amanda and Sooraya - Shop Talk
Sooraya drops by after one of Amanda's classes to ask how Emily is doing, and things expand from there. Backdated to May 21.
Sooraya waited till the last person had slipped from the room before slowly entering, quickly taking in the room around her. "This place always tends to give me the heebie-jeebies." She admitted honestly to the woman clearing her stuff away at the desk. "I don't know why..."
Amanda glanced up at the voice and gave Sooraya a brief smile. "I'd take that personally, only having a healthy fear of magic is a good thing, in my book," she replied. "What brings you to my Den of Heebie-Jeebies?"
"Kinda wanted to check in... Marie mentioned they ended up calling you in to help with Emily's power consultation?" Sooraya leaned back against a table, though not before giving it a suspicious glance. "I was wondering what the end result was."
"Oh, right, you brought her to the mansion, didn't you?" It was a rhetorical question and Amanda continued. "Yeah, so it turns out she's another mutant-magic user hybrid. Except that her mutant power doesn't have anything to do with magic. It's the magic that makes her shapeshifting do more."
"Magic?" Sooraya shook her head. "The whole shift from minor shapeshifting to fire hair makes a whole lot more sense. The sunburn... any idea what that means though? Clarice said it wasn't bad, but it's one of the things that made me go 'there is more going on here'."
"Yeah, she seems to have some kind of elemental magic, which is why fire hair and rock fingernails, so far." Amanda considered the second question with a grimace. "So, here's the thing about magic. It always has a price. For most of us, it's energy depletion - you've seen me sleep for days after a major casting, or Clea eat her weight in burgers? For Emily, it's a bit more immediate - she uses magical energy and she has a physical reaction. So with fire, she gets burnt. When she changes her skin to stone, she gets a rash. Sucks for the poor kid, but we're working on making it less intense."
A wince stole over Sooraya's face. "Yeah, that doesn't sound very nice. And risky. Because if she really does too much... how far does the physical reaction go?"
"We're still working on that. I'm hoping the more training she gets, the less the reaction, but we can't exactly test how much is too much. Not without landing her in the medlab, anyway."
"I'd say that is one to avoid." Sooraya's eyes narrowed her a little as a thought occurred to her. "So... we've like several kids around here who are what you called a 'magic-mutant hybrid'? Is that just us or are they more common than we think?"
Amanda spread her hands a little helplessly. "A bit of both?" she replied. "I mean, back when I got here, I thought I was the only magical mutant in existence, but that was basically me wanting to be a special snowflake teenager." A wry twist lifted the corner of her mouth. "But I think it's really a combination of there being better ways to assess magic-using kids to see if they're mutants and there being an actual network that can direct those kids to places like this so they have training that factors in the mutant powers part. Not that Topaz and I are the only ones teaching them," she added quickly. "The occult network has been doing more to find and train kids in Europe and Asia too."
Sooraya nodded thoughtfully. "It's needed then, to treat the kids as magic users primarily? I mean, like Topaz and Emily also have a very clear mutant element to their powers that needs training." She mused out loud before refocusing. "Sorry, I'm just kinda thinking about my power training manual. I know I can't exactly put magic in there, but this powerset is prevalent enough..."
"I wouldn't say prevalent, but I get what you're about. For the most part, we're energy converters, mutation-wise. Energy in, magic out. So it makes sense to focus on the magic side, since there's not a lot to actually train in terms of the mutation." Amanda grinned, "For the manual, I'd just put an asterisk and refer any possible magic users to me or Topaz. Actually, better to go to Topaz. She needs more ducklings in her life."
"You know most of the information from the training manual is actively being spread around in the mutant community and online? That is why I started gathering the various exercises, so folks could find help with learning to control their powers, even if they have no one else." Sooraya raised her eyebrow, just a note of teasing in her voice. "I didn't think you'd want anything that links directly to you and Topaz floating out there."
The witch grimaced. "Yeah, not so much. But seriously..." and her tone changed. "Magic's still something that's not widely known. And to be honest, the magic community would prefer it that way. Not because we're special snowflakes who have to keep our 'status'..." She made the inverted commas with her fingers. "But because it's safer for us that way. Mutants are a target already, but at least there's scientific explanation of why they exist. Magic's a bridge too far for most, and magic users have already survived attempts to wipe us out. And even in the mutant communities, there's a lot of push back about the idea of magic. We're kind of a minority in a minority."
"Yeah, I can see the issue." Sooraya nodded thoughtfully. "We definitely don't need another witch hunt." Tilting her head the other direction, she added: "Even looking at this room I can see parts of the training of a magic user are very different. But there must be areas where they overlap as well, skills that they must have in common. There are a lot of different types of meditation and visualisations exercises in the manual for one..."
"Oh, definitely. There's a bit of overlap with the sorts of mind calming exercises 'paths do - magic needs a similar sort of discipline." A slightly sad smile crossed Amanda's face. "Nate used some of his psi training to help me back when I was a kid here. Visualisation, mediation, that sort of thing."
"I know the ones you mean, I think." A tiny sad smile flashed over her face as memories surged to the forefront. "He taught several of them to me as well when I was learning to control my powers, though they were the more TK focused ones, I think. They are in the manual... you should have a look sometimes, see if there are any I missed."
"That was Nate - a born teacher. He'd be tickled pink to see us now." Amanda took a breath and then went on, a little more business-like. "I can definitely go through the manual for you. I'll work on a section for energy absorption and transference with techniques for not exploding - that ought to cover the magic types that might be around. Do you have any kind of follow up contact info for people using this thing? If they have questions or whatnot?"
A sad smile flashed over Sooraya's face: "That and humanitarian work. I bet he'd love to see some of the things we've built in DX as well." Quickly though she had to refocus herself."There is nothing official... most of it is able to be done as much as possible if you were all alone in the most rabid anti-,mutant town. But I know there are some fora online who use it as a resource and many folks seem to find those."
"Sounds like the weird shite network - nothing official, but lots of word of mouth." Amanda grinned. "If it's okay with you, can you get a couple of my contacts access to those forums? That way they can approach any possible mutant magic users and steer them in a helpful direction."
"Yeah, that I can do." Sooraya frowned a second or two later. "I can't promise what will happen to them afterwards though. I know there've been an incident or two where contacts were abused." She cautioned.
Amanda gave her an almost predatory grin. "I'll take that on board, but if someone does go after one of ours? They're in for a whole lot of trouble. What's that saying? Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if that was a saying." Sooraya shook her head. "But still, people deserve to know what they are getting into beforehand. At least as much as possible. Besides there are people with many different sympathies who frequent forums and groups like that and their info might end up in weird places because of that as well."
"According to Doug, it is. He likes to quote it to Jubes when she's eyeballing my lunch delivery." Amanda grinned briefly, then sobered. "And don't worry, I'll give anyone I get involved a head's up about the need for discretion. Both for themselves and for anyone they contact. Like I said, magic users have survived genocide before - we're very good at taking care of our own these days."
"Alright, I'll set up for you access to the material I've been putting out there, but I'll also have a look at my notes." Sooraya shook her head wryly. "I didn't expect this to become a multi-year project that I'd have to keep updating once I started it."
"And I didn't think I'd wind up with a whole flock of ducklings when I started teaching with Topaz. Funny old thing, life, isn't it?"
Sooraya waited till the last person had slipped from the room before slowly entering, quickly taking in the room around her. "This place always tends to give me the heebie-jeebies." She admitted honestly to the woman clearing her stuff away at the desk. "I don't know why..."
Amanda glanced up at the voice and gave Sooraya a brief smile. "I'd take that personally, only having a healthy fear of magic is a good thing, in my book," she replied. "What brings you to my Den of Heebie-Jeebies?"
"Kinda wanted to check in... Marie mentioned they ended up calling you in to help with Emily's power consultation?" Sooraya leaned back against a table, though not before giving it a suspicious glance. "I was wondering what the end result was."
"Oh, right, you brought her to the mansion, didn't you?" It was a rhetorical question and Amanda continued. "Yeah, so it turns out she's another mutant-magic user hybrid. Except that her mutant power doesn't have anything to do with magic. It's the magic that makes her shapeshifting do more."
"Magic?" Sooraya shook her head. "The whole shift from minor shapeshifting to fire hair makes a whole lot more sense. The sunburn... any idea what that means though? Clarice said it wasn't bad, but it's one of the things that made me go 'there is more going on here'."
"Yeah, she seems to have some kind of elemental magic, which is why fire hair and rock fingernails, so far." Amanda considered the second question with a grimace. "So, here's the thing about magic. It always has a price. For most of us, it's energy depletion - you've seen me sleep for days after a major casting, or Clea eat her weight in burgers? For Emily, it's a bit more immediate - she uses magical energy and she has a physical reaction. So with fire, she gets burnt. When she changes her skin to stone, she gets a rash. Sucks for the poor kid, but we're working on making it less intense."
A wince stole over Sooraya's face. "Yeah, that doesn't sound very nice. And risky. Because if she really does too much... how far does the physical reaction go?"
"We're still working on that. I'm hoping the more training she gets, the less the reaction, but we can't exactly test how much is too much. Not without landing her in the medlab, anyway."
"I'd say that is one to avoid." Sooraya's eyes narrowed her a little as a thought occurred to her. "So... we've like several kids around here who are what you called a 'magic-mutant hybrid'? Is that just us or are they more common than we think?"
Amanda spread her hands a little helplessly. "A bit of both?" she replied. "I mean, back when I got here, I thought I was the only magical mutant in existence, but that was basically me wanting to be a special snowflake teenager." A wry twist lifted the corner of her mouth. "But I think it's really a combination of there being better ways to assess magic-using kids to see if they're mutants and there being an actual network that can direct those kids to places like this so they have training that factors in the mutant powers part. Not that Topaz and I are the only ones teaching them," she added quickly. "The occult network has been doing more to find and train kids in Europe and Asia too."
Sooraya nodded thoughtfully. "It's needed then, to treat the kids as magic users primarily? I mean, like Topaz and Emily also have a very clear mutant element to their powers that needs training." She mused out loud before refocusing. "Sorry, I'm just kinda thinking about my power training manual. I know I can't exactly put magic in there, but this powerset is prevalent enough..."
"I wouldn't say prevalent, but I get what you're about. For the most part, we're energy converters, mutation-wise. Energy in, magic out. So it makes sense to focus on the magic side, since there's not a lot to actually train in terms of the mutation." Amanda grinned, "For the manual, I'd just put an asterisk and refer any possible magic users to me or Topaz. Actually, better to go to Topaz. She needs more ducklings in her life."
"You know most of the information from the training manual is actively being spread around in the mutant community and online? That is why I started gathering the various exercises, so folks could find help with learning to control their powers, even if they have no one else." Sooraya raised her eyebrow, just a note of teasing in her voice. "I didn't think you'd want anything that links directly to you and Topaz floating out there."
The witch grimaced. "Yeah, not so much. But seriously..." and her tone changed. "Magic's still something that's not widely known. And to be honest, the magic community would prefer it that way. Not because we're special snowflakes who have to keep our 'status'..." She made the inverted commas with her fingers. "But because it's safer for us that way. Mutants are a target already, but at least there's scientific explanation of why they exist. Magic's a bridge too far for most, and magic users have already survived attempts to wipe us out. And even in the mutant communities, there's a lot of push back about the idea of magic. We're kind of a minority in a minority."
"Yeah, I can see the issue." Sooraya nodded thoughtfully. "We definitely don't need another witch hunt." Tilting her head the other direction, she added: "Even looking at this room I can see parts of the training of a magic user are very different. But there must be areas where they overlap as well, skills that they must have in common. There are a lot of different types of meditation and visualisations exercises in the manual for one..."
"Oh, definitely. There's a bit of overlap with the sorts of mind calming exercises 'paths do - magic needs a similar sort of discipline." A slightly sad smile crossed Amanda's face. "Nate used some of his psi training to help me back when I was a kid here. Visualisation, mediation, that sort of thing."
"I know the ones you mean, I think." A tiny sad smile flashed over her face as memories surged to the forefront. "He taught several of them to me as well when I was learning to control my powers, though they were the more TK focused ones, I think. They are in the manual... you should have a look sometimes, see if there are any I missed."
"That was Nate - a born teacher. He'd be tickled pink to see us now." Amanda took a breath and then went on, a little more business-like. "I can definitely go through the manual for you. I'll work on a section for energy absorption and transference with techniques for not exploding - that ought to cover the magic types that might be around. Do you have any kind of follow up contact info for people using this thing? If they have questions or whatnot?"
A sad smile flashed over Sooraya's face: "That and humanitarian work. I bet he'd love to see some of the things we've built in DX as well." Quickly though she had to refocus herself."There is nothing official... most of it is able to be done as much as possible if you were all alone in the most rabid anti-,mutant town. But I know there are some fora online who use it as a resource and many folks seem to find those."
"Sounds like the weird shite network - nothing official, but lots of word of mouth." Amanda grinned. "If it's okay with you, can you get a couple of my contacts access to those forums? That way they can approach any possible mutant magic users and steer them in a helpful direction."
"Yeah, that I can do." Sooraya frowned a second or two later. "I can't promise what will happen to them afterwards though. I know there've been an incident or two where contacts were abused." She cautioned.
Amanda gave her an almost predatory grin. "I'll take that on board, but if someone does go after one of ours? They're in for a whole lot of trouble. What's that saying? Do not meddle in the affairs of wizards?"
"I wouldn't be surprised if that was a saying." Sooraya shook her head. "But still, people deserve to know what they are getting into beforehand. At least as much as possible. Besides there are people with many different sympathies who frequent forums and groups like that and their info might end up in weird places because of that as well."
"According to Doug, it is. He likes to quote it to Jubes when she's eyeballing my lunch delivery." Amanda grinned briefly, then sobered. "And don't worry, I'll give anyone I get involved a head's up about the need for discretion. Both for themselves and for anyone they contact. Like I said, magic users have survived genocide before - we're very good at taking care of our own these days."
"Alright, I'll set up for you access to the material I've been putting out there, but I'll also have a look at my notes." Sooraya shook her head wryly. "I didn't expect this to become a multi-year project that I'd have to keep updating once I started it."
"And I didn't think I'd wind up with a whole flock of ducklings when I started teaching with Topaz. Funny old thing, life, isn't it?"