i got the maaaagic in meee [OPEN]

[livesarock]

WHO: Zelgadis, people, ~*magic*~
WHERE: That poor, abused vacant lot where all the magic and fighting happens when it's not the type bent on destroying everything forever
WHEN: Saturday and Sunday afternoons
WARNINGS: Idk you tell me
SUMMARY: Guess who got his magic back finally? Time to make sure none of his spells will like be horribly mangled like last time.
FORMAT: No I do not care



He's got his notebook – a tattered, overused mess of clumped-up pages stuffed in with the spiral-bound pages still barely clinging on after so much wear and tear. It's all from memory, everything scratched and scrawled down (with a few architectural doodles here or there of no real importance); the power words for spells big and small within his capacity – or just slightly out of his reach. He's always learning, after all. Or trying to. Living in a world so empty in magic makes it a challenge. Not to mention the conventions of other people's magic being different in ways he hasn't managed to bridge...yet.

The walls of the buildings surrounding the lot light up now and then with the flashes of fire and light; smoke billows and the ground gives a shake or two at times. It's controlled chaos with no victims but a few jutted rocks and the air around him.

He's got a long list to get through, and he feels a little pressed for time. The City does like piling on the crises, after all...

Comments

[trueltning_fury]

The lightning felt familiar; the True Rune did not react to it, but then, it spent a lot of time more or less ignoring everything. Geddoe lowered his arms to his sides and began to stalk across the ground toward Zelgadis.

"Practicing," he noted. "How is it going?"

[livesarock]

He nodded, then shrugged before looking down at his casting hand, flexing the fingers a couple times slowly.

"Nothing's backfired," he said, looking back up with a crooked frown. "So far, at least. But I can't get some of this stuff to work without the words now. It's all backwards."

[trueltning_fury]

"Hm." Geddoe was very interested to see that his magic was back, though nothing else about him seemed to have changed. It was curious. "I still don't know fully how the machine works, when bringing people back. This may be normal, or not - there's no way to tell."

He cocked an eyebrow up, then. "You need full incantations now?"

[livesarock]

"Not for everything." It seemed pretty important to note that; he wasn't completely inept. Even so...He sighs, dragging his fingers through his bangs and giving his notebook another glance. "A lot of the more technical stuff does. Nearly all of the spirit shamanism, too. But the simple things are still just that. I guess...it's because I had a different constitution until now. Everything's gotta adjust."

[trueltning_fury]

Geddoe tilted his head to one side, a sort of shrug. "A reasonable theory. Even I still need time to prepare and chant the highest-level spells in my arsenal." He felt free to admit it since, should they enter another battle together, Zelgadis would have to cover for Geddoe while he built up another Hammer of Raijin. The time it took to cast that might have been what cost him the battle against Illidan.

"What of your stamina? How many spells can you manage?"

[livesarock]

Geddoe's remark took a little bit of the sting out of his already bruised pride. Yeah, yeah...not even close to being the best, Zelgadis still wanted to be on decent footing with his peers (and enemies) power-wise. He shook his head, taking the notebook in both hands and flipping through a couple pages to find his tally.

"I had to stop earlier...I did six high-level black magic spells in succession." And that was why there was a tiny little wasteland of crumpled-up wrappers shoved unceremoniously against an overturned stone. Magic is hungry work.

"Since then...I've just been starting small and working up. Air shamanism, right now."

[trueltning_fury]

The twitching of an eyebrow was enough to show how impressed Geddoe was. He hadn't fully tested his own upper limits, but he was pretty sure he couldn't pull off that many high-level spells. "Then. Lightning is a relative of air in your elemental hierarchy?" He was more interested in the elements than anything else, given his background. Combining with Water or Fire was old hat for him; an opening where he could also extend to Wind would be interesting.

[livesarock]

He made a sound to confirm, stepping backward until his heel hit one of the higher rocks and sat down. Explaining things was a decent excuse to take a break; he was starting to get hungry and tired again.

"Yeah...Air shamanism uses wind and lightning. Five groups of shamanism – four elements and the spirit. Being able to access one usually gives you a chance to wheedle into the others to some extent." He scratches at the back of his neck as he thinks of a decent example. "Like...Like how if you can use the Valve Howl in earth shamanism to pull magma out from the ground...you might be able to do a lot of fire shamanism, if by association to the quality of heated spirits. Stuff like that."

[trueltning_fury]

Geddoe blinked a bit, actually fascinated. It hardly showed, except that his expression eased and none of the stoniness could be seen at all. "Interesting," he murmured. "That requires a high level of aptitude. And a brain, to make the connections."

[livesarock]

Zelgadis nodded, idly trying to smooth out a bent corner of one of the pages. "It's not common to be able to have a hand in all of it...most people specialize. Fire, water...that kind of thing." He looked up before quickly sending his gaze down and away. He wasn't trying to brag – not really. It's as much a point of pride as...well, folly.

"I got into it all because Rezo did. I went where he did, needed to get stronger..."

[trueltning_fury]

Geddoe's expression remained placid as he started to slowly pace, just so he wasn't standing there staring down at Zelgadis like some kind of teacher. Heavens forbid. "Friend, or mentor?" he wondered, trying to remember if the kid had mentioned someone named Rezo before. Possibly.

[livesarock]

"My grandfather," Zelgadis said, eyes still fixed on the paper in his hands. "Rezo the Red Priest. He was famous for healing the blind..." his voice started flattening out, "...before he used the Philosopher's Stone to open his own eyes and resurrected a portion of a demon god. But I'm not sure how many people realize it was him, so maybe he's still famous for that other part."

He huffed, shaking his head. "He traveled around the continent studying all forms of magic, trying to cure his blindness...I picked up a lot along the way, even after what he did to me. It's not like I had any better leads than to just keep following him and use what he found to fix myself."

[trueltning_fury]

"What he did..." Geddoe turned to him with a frown. "Your grandfather is responsible for your stone state?" Not that family ties mattered a hell of a lot to him, but that sort of close connection was always a little more disturbing than some random stranger.

[livesarock]

Zelgadis nodded, scratching at the back of his hand idly – more for the sensation than anything. Thanks to his grandfather, it would've just remained unfeeling rock, yet...a lot of the anger toward Rezo had cooled in the face of efforts made to stop the demon he'd accidentally revived. There was really no use in being pissed off at a dead guy, anyway.

"He visited me one day while I was training," he explained, pressing his hand flat against the pages during a faint breeze. "He asked me if I wanted to be stronger. I said yes, and the next thing I knew..."

He sighed, sitting up straighter and looking over at Geddoe. "I still don't really understand why he did it. I mean, besides getting a stronger lackey out of me. But I guess if that's all I was at the end of it..." He shrugged, looking back at the notebook.

"He used to be kind of my hero."

[trueltning_fury]

Geddoe couldn't help but say it out loud. "You have a pretty bad record of looking up to the wrong kind of people." He shook his head, then, as if to soften the accusation. "It's a damn shame. Taking advantage of people's trust...is always the first step on a dark road."

[livesarock]

Zelgadis couldn't help but flush with humiliation and agitation, grimacing downward. "My record's not that bad," he contested, managing to look up with a bit of defiance. "Unless you or Terra or Lina plan on being evil overlords sometime soon..."

He blinked, then winced inwardly as he reflected. Maybe I should've kept Lina out of it; she's too likely...

[trueltning_fury]

Geddoe bit back a reaction to that. It wasn't every day people told him outright that they looked up to him. He took a deep breath to cover any flicker of change in his expression and paced back closer to where Zelgadis sat. "No. Ruling the world is too much work. I look after only one man."

[livesarock]

Which meant Zelgadis won, in a sense, which was enough to satisfy him and the defiant tilt of his head. He nodded, casting his gaze back down at his notebook.

"In any case, it still means I've got a lot to work through. There's still a lot I haven't mastered yet, too..."

[trueltning_fury]

"And being in this world won't hamper your studies?" Geddoe shrugged. "By all means. Do whatever you wish." A pause, and then something else entirely occurred to him. "I may be taking a short trip. To get away for a while. Zatanna offered to teleport me."

[livesarock]

That brought Zelgadis' head back up (boy, he was doing a lot of looking up and down in that moment). Away? Not that he could blame him, but...

"Where to?"

[trueltning_fury]

"Some place called Belize. It's supposed to be warm there, with lots of uncharted land to get lost in." Geddoe hemmed a little and then added, "I'm waiting until two weeks are up, to verify whether that damn Illidan is coming back this time."

[livesarock]

Just the notion of him was enough to sour Zelgadis' mood. He frowned, looking skeptical, which happened to be way more affective with eyebrows. "You really think that'll make a difference? You know the second you leave, he'll show up just to spite your good intentions. You might as well just go and take what time you can get before the next stupid thing happens, Illidan or no."

[trueltning_fury]

"I had thought of that." Geddoe shook his head once. "I mean to be as sure as I can. One way or another. Of course." There was the slightest of smirks. "If it snows tomorrow, I'm out of here."

[livesarock]

That got a dry snort out of him. "Flying south for the winter?"

[trueltning_fury]

"Something like that," Geddoe harrumphed. "Not more than a week or two, though."