group
Azami had been wandering the area, ramen in hand. She gazed up at the clock, a confused expression on her face.
"What time's that s'possed to say?" The woman held up a finger, silently counting the numbers. "Yeah, I still have no clue," she admitted, turning around and continuing to wander. "The red house is nice," she decided, ambling off in the direction of the building.
"I get the feeling that most of them are magical in some way or another," Mia agreed. "I may not know how they're magical, exactly, but I definitely know an ordinary human when I see one, and they ain't that. We should ask them later, if they're open to sharing." Walking forward a few more feet, she began to see daylight coming through the trees up ahead. "So tell me, both of you, what other kinds of magics are there in your worlds?"
“Interesting how you can tell,” she replied, tilting her head slightly. She thought over Mia’s question, unsure how she should phrase it.
“Well, for me you have individual-based abilities and environmental-based abilities. At least, that’s what we’ve been calling them. These abilities usually come more naturally and instinctually to your average witch, but learning is still involved.”
The familiar words rolled off her tongue like she was reading from a book. It was almost like she was speaking to another witch who wasn’t aware of their power with the coven again. Boy, when was the last time she had done that?
She had to do a double take when they entered the villas. Well, I guess it’s literally all made out of gems. How do they have the money for this??
Her gaze drifted to the clock, and she blinked in surprise. Okay…. now all I need is a date.
(Boop)
(So sorry to keep you waiting so long! I didn't realize it's kinda my turn, oof)
"Individual and environment-based, huh?" Mia mulled that over. "Interesting. I guess a lot of magic in my world is individual-based, but only because the users belong to different magical races that are closely tied to specific magical energies—so in that sense it's all environment-based." She smiled. "And yeah, we still gotta learn a lot before we're good at it." She was about to add more when her eyes fell on the villas as well, distracting her. "Oooh, snazzy. This place just keeps getting weirder and weirder."
After a quick glance around, she started forward to keep up with Azami. "Wonder where everybody is? I mean, if I lived in a place as crazy-looking as this, I might not show my face either, but still. I thought the guide dude said there were plenty of people here."
(Bump? Also happy holidays all ^^)
(Happy holidays! I’m so sorry I’ll get something up when I can)
(no worries!)
Arabelle still stared at the villas, and it took her a moment to respond with a shrug. “I didn’t even tell you what individual and environmental-based means, but okay. So you’re saying that the magic of these different races comes from external sources?”
She skipped a little as she walked alongside Mia, keeping her eyes on their surroundings. “Mmm, beats me. I mean, I usually keep myself holed up inside anyway, but still.” She smirked at her unintentional echo of Mia’s words. Then she sighed. “Can really trust anything that guy says?”
"Who knows," Mia shrugged. "If you want my opinion, he doesn't seem very powerful or dangerous, but I could be wrong. For now I guess we can take him at face value and assume he's being honest until proven otherwise." After a minute, she added, "And yeah, there are five kinds of magical energy in my world, and all of them have at least one magical race associated with them. We get our power from the energy as it ebbs and flows through our environment—although actually, some races are made of their patron energy instead of flesh and bone, and they only draw from the reserves of energy they were born with. I honestly can't tell you much more than that, I never studied up on the subject much." She returned Arabelle's grin, lengthening her stride to keep up. "So is that anything like how your world works? I guess you're right, I didn't let you finish."
Arabelle muttered something about taking nothing at face value and sighed. “Whatever.”
She listened to Mia’s elaboration with interest, looking down at her honey-brown locks. “That’s really cool. Five kinds of magical energy? Yeah, that’s not really how my… my world works.” She supposed it was possible that she was in another world, but she wasn’t really in the headspace to process or verify that, so she just pushed it to the back of her mind. “It’s fine, I tend to be a woman of few words. Individual-based abilities just means that you can’t affect anyone or anything except yourself when you’re using them, and environmental-based is the opposite. You can affect anything except yourself. Like how manipulating that branch’s temperature was environmental, so I can’t manipulate my own temperature. Another witch might be able to do that, but not be able to manipulate the branch.”
Mia raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Yeah, that's totally different from what I assumed you meant, heh. Interesting!" She frowned, thinking. "I guess my world's magic doesn't really work like that. Like, I have healing magic that I can use on others, but it also helps me heal faster when I get hurt. Then again," she amended, "It does take lots more energy to heal myself." Her face relaxed back into a smile. "Hey, out of curiosity, what kind of magic-user in your world is the most powerful?"
She giggled at the look Mia gave her and said, “That’s very interesting. Sometimes I wish I could affect my own temperature, haha. Um…” Arabelle pursed her lips. “I’m actually not sure, but if I had to guess… I would say dragons, and maybe witches who can absorb magic, which theoretically, technically, could exist, but I haven’t met one and I hope I never do.”
She rubbed her temple, then took a long drink of coffee. “And how about you? Out of curiosity.”
Mia shrugged. "Usually, the amount of power you have depends on your heritage and how much training you've done. But the beings with the most power, hands down, are the entities that govern the five kinds of magic. They've been around forever, and they created the magical races to help keep magic flowing on Earth. And also to mess with each other, I guess. They don't always get along well." She made a face. "Frankly, I think I'd rather have dragons."
“Okay,” Arabelle said, inhaling. She exhaled, “What are the five kinds of magic? And the magical races? How do these entities govern magic? I’ve never heard of such a thing. I mean, you said they created the magical races so the magic can flow, but you made it sound like that wasn’t the only thing they did. What exactly do you mean by entities, anyway? Why don’t they get along? I have to know now.”
She wasn’t even sure why she was asking. She knew this couldn’t possibly correlate with her studies, but Mia made it sound so interesting.
(This probably doesn't need to be said, but all this info is from a personal project of mine, so please don't use it ^^ )
Mia was amused by Arabelle's interest and led them down to the edge of the lake, flopping down on a patch of warm ground. "Well….I'll try to be brief. The five magics are positive magic, negative magic, life and nature, chaos and death, and order. Order covers the stuff most people don't think is magic, like physics and math and knowledge and stuff. The entity governing order is Nattra. Dunno much about her, she's not a meddler like the others. The entities of life and death are twin brothers, Urth and 'A. They're also pretty quiet, and neither of them are totally good or bad. Then there's Ennienwin, she governs positive magic. My people are her creation. Aaaand then there's the Dust, who's in charge of negative magic. I wouldn't say he's evil, exactly, but definitely annoying and way too powerful. his creations, the Intunera, are kinda sworn enemies of my kind." She put her hands behind her head. "Without the entities, I think magic would dry up, or get all mixed in a bad way. Especially life and death. But the trouble is, they don't seem to agree on the final factor: humans. All the entities want humans to be part of their magical domain, so they subtly fight and tweak at the edges of things. The dumbest part is, humans aren't even allowed to know about magic….not yet anyway. Some kinda cosmic law." Mia snorted. "Any other questions?"
(Hah, of course, I’m just as curious as Arabelle. It’s some sweet world building my dude)
As they approached the lake, Arabelle had found a trash can and tossed the now empty cup of coffee in it. She put her hands in her pockets and stayed standing next to Mia, listening with her eyes wide.
“Wow. Now I’m wondering if I should’ve asked,” she chuckled. “And it is kind of a lot, so I’m not sure what to say. Or if I would be able to completely understand if I asked further. So no, no questions.” She chuckled again. “But now I feel I have to return the favor. Do you have any questions for me?”
(Thank-you! I like what I'm hearing of your lore too so far xD)
"Welp, let's see……I guess I'd like to know where your world's magic comes from, if it doesn't have any entities governing it. Is there only one kind of magic? Do humans know about it? Can anyone learn to use it, or do you have to be born with it? Also please tell me more about dragons, we honestly don't have those where I'm from."
(Dang it I wrote something and it went away T-T)
(big oof T.T)
(Ty ty haha)
“No dragons? That’s sad,” Arabelle chuckled, running a hand over her braid. “Well anyway, magic is just something that manifests in your DNA, it doesn’t have an external source. It can vary between species, like a human’s magic will be different from an animal’s, but humans specifically can have what we think of as sets of abilities that pop up in one’s genetic code. And blood magic, which is different, in a way. So really, you have to be born with it, but you won’t get very far if you don’t learn how to use it well. To learn it, you have to be born with it, basically. And yeah, non-witches know about it… but, uh, they don’t like it that much. There was a period in history where witch-hunting was a huge thing. Was not a good time. Not fun. Still happens sometimes, too.”
Huh, this really does remind her of working with someone in the coven again. She let out a small sigh, relaxing her shoulders which she hadn’t realized had been tensed up.
"Um, dragons. I’m not really an expert on those… but I’m assuming you don’t know what they are anyway? Like, lizard-like creatures that come in all shapes and sizes? Ah well, I’ve heard that the word ‘dragon’ really describes a family of creatures, and some are more powerful than others. I know someone who has a really small dragon as her familiar, a green-throated lindwurm, if I remember correctly. Oh, and on the news last week, there was a story about a huge ink-backed wyvern with an injured wing blocking the highway.”
Mia laughed. "Wow, your world sounds a lot more quirky than mine, in a way. I wish we had magical pets and magic-related news reports. Too bad about the witch-hunts, though–our world has a history of those too, but as far as I know it had nothing to do with real magic-users." She thought for a minute, coming up with more questions. "Do you have any laws or authorities that regulate the use of magic? Also, what's so special about blood magic?"
“Quirky?” Arabelle snorted. “Interesting choice of words there.”
She sat down, stretching her arms and legs a bit. “Well… using magic is basically banned. Or at least, you can’t use it in public. But ya know… not many witches are actually as educated or in control of their powers as I am, so things happen, incidents occur…” she paused. “When something generally strange or supernatural happens and authorities believe it’s you who could be the cause, they will come up to you, question you, ask you for a confession that you are a witch. And when that happens, you have to change your name, it’s harder for you to get a job, people generally don’t trust you or like you anymore, all that fun stuff. When something strange happens and the authorities link it back to an already classified witch, it usually leads to an arrest. Or that witch goes missing. Or they become the target of some underground witch-hunting groups. Fun times.”
She rubbed the bridge of her nose, trying move her thoughts around.
“Blood magic… eh, nothing really special, per se, you just asked if there was only one type of magic, and I’d say blood magic is technically it’s own category. It’s a practice, not really an inborn ability. Though, it can only be practiced with your own magical blood, so it’s not like anyone can do it. Really, it’s not that blood magic itself is special, but how it can be used and it’s versatility.”
Mia quieted and became more serious as she listened. Arabelle's story reminded her all-too-clearly of the dangers her own kind had faced—the dangers of suspicious neighbors, news reporters, fame-hungry scientists, and of course the government. It wasn't a fate she'd wish on anyone. "Jeez…..it's too bad you guys gotta deal with those kinds of laws, and people. I hope someday things get better for ya." She paused, not entirely sure what else to say. "Um….little off-topic, and I guess you might call this a personal question, but….do you have friends or family back home that use magic? You must be wanting to get back to 'em pretty soon, huh?"
She nodded. “Yeah…”
She thought about her studies. All her hard work. She’ll write a paper on her findings one day- maybe that will change people’s minds. Some people will to listen to science. They have to. All that work just couldn’t be for nothing.
She pulled herself out of her thoughts. “Oh, I grew up in a witch town. There are plenty where I live. I’m the leader of one of the educational covens, and there are definitely some people in there I want to go back to,” she shrugged. Her mind drifted back to Victoria, the young mother who’d recently joined the coven; Bimala, one of her oldest friends and the best therapist she knew; and Danni, who still somehow puts up with her these days, even when their learning styles don’t match up.
She sighed. “Family? Eh, family shmamily, I guess. And you?”
Mia shrugged as well as she could while lying on her back. "I'm away from my family most of the time anyway. I love them, but I won't start missing them for another few weeks….or until I start worrying that I'll never see them again. And they're used to me disappearing, so….they won't wonder where I am for months. I figure I'll be outta this place well before then." Her expression turned wry. "I've already gone through an "everyone-thinks-I'm-dead" experience once, and I'd rather not torture my bros with another round of that. They clearly don't have the emotional fortitude."
(I feel like this has just turned into Mia and Arabelle just vibing while the story takes a break for a while-)
Arabelle burst out laughing, a surprisingly loud sound, but she quickly quieted her volume. “Wow, really? I almost want you to torture them again with that and tell me how it goes. Of course, you probably wouldn’t be able to, but still.”
A smirk lingered on her face, and her arm rested on her knee while the other was planted on the ground next to her. “Well, you’ve told me about family. Any friends?”
(lol very true. Still fun tho XD)
Mia chuckled too at Arabelle's suggestion, then paused to consider the question. "Friends?….Eh. Like I said, I move around too much. Sure, I have buddies in every state, and I can make new ones pretty easily, but…..yeah." She made a face, not seeming quite as cheery about this topic. "I don't know any of 'em very well, and it's tough to stay in touch. I won't lie and say I'm never lonely." She thought about that for a moment longer, then shook herself and put the smile back on. "Anyway. It's not a big deal. I mean hey, we're kinda friends now, right? I might as well be grateful for that while it lasts."
(Yeah XD)
She nodded. “Ah yeah, I guess I can relate to that, although I’m not much of a traveler, at least, not anymore. I have friends, but I guess I don’t consider myself to be a social person.” She shrugged.
She blinked. “Huh, I guess we are friends.”
Joining Mia, she let herself lie down in the grass, groaning slightly as she did so. She stared up at the sky, the colors seeming to deepen as the day wore on. Words left her, and she almost wanted to believe that if she fell asleep now, she might wake in her own bedroom again.
(sorry for the wait)
Mia sighed contentedly, watching the sky and listening to the gentle sloshing of the lake. Whatever the reason they'd been brought to this strange place, it was still very nice here. She decided it couldn't hurt to sit and relax a bit, as long as she kept one eye open for surprises. Let the master of Ravenmire Gardens come to them if he or she wanted to torment them so badly. She was done wasting energy on other people's games.
She would just lay there for thirty minutes. Maybe an hour. Then she'd see about rounding up the others and making a plan.
(I'm sorry, I'm not sure what to say… unless Pyro or Cloudy could jump in…)
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