(no subject)

[magicmoment]

Who: Jasmine
When: Day 1, morning
Where: Jasmine car!!

[We've all got some DOORS TO WRESTLE WITH, huh]

Comments

[magicmoment]

[yeaaah she's catching that his guard is up, but like. honestly? fair.]

It may not be impossible to find something as we investigate, so I'll keep an eye out for you.

[s2g]

[ a slight shrug ] 'preciate it.

[ he gives her a sort of... careful looking over, testing the weight of his theory on her. if this is the afterlife, it's not the afterlife he was in. and if she's dead, she's not as upset about it as a kid should be.

he lets his breath out slow. ]

Sounds like we're all treading water, huh. [ said very dryly for a man literally standing in an aquarium-turned-room. he keeps giving the glass mistrustful looks over her shoulder. ] What a damn pain...

[magicmoment]

[I should clarify that she's 20ish and icons are hard but yeah coping fffairly well?]

That's... certainly a way to put it, yes.

[s2g]

[ everyone is a kid. everyone but him. that's how this works. you're his kid now.

lifting the Chain between two fingers, like one might turn a playing card to his competitor to show off a lucky hand. ]

Seein' as we're brainstorming, [ seems to be sarcastic ] you got any theories on what this is supposed to be?

[ it reminds him uncomfortably of SEEDS ship tech. ]

[magicmoment]

It's... reminiscent of an orbment, but it must not be, since I also found an orbment in my closet...

/2

[s2g]

[s2g]

What.

[magicmoment]

...I'll show you.

[she pulls out a device reminiscent of a clunky flip-phone and opens it, revealing its inner workings, which mostly seem to involve little gems in some arcane pattern.]

This is a combat orbment. It's... pretty advanced, compared to most, I think, but I'm fairly certain it is one.

[s2g]

[ he leans in a bit closer. squinting suspiciously. ]

...

[ it's pretty clear he's restraining himself from asking what an orbment is supposed to do ]

[magicmoment]

[that's... pretty charming, honestly.]

It's for casting arts.

[s2g]

[ how does this keep happening ]

You think I didn't know that?

[ he didn't ]

...Whattaya mean, arts?

[magicmoment]

If you knew that, you wouldn't be asking me what arts are.

[just. gently.]

They're... spells, essentially, making use of orbal technology.

[s2g]

[ bratty kids. he tempers himself with that word: "spells". ]

Oi. Whereabouts are ya from, anyway?

[magicmoment]

I don't remember. I don't remember anything except "common knowledge".

[s2g]

[ eyebrow raise ]

I wouldn't call spells common knowledge.

[ WHAT EVEN DOES "SPELLS" MEAN IN THIS PARTICULAR CONTEXT ]

[magicmoment]

If they aren't...

[hmm]

I could show you?

[s2g]

[ ...a prickle at the base of his neck. he knows better than to ignore a possible threat just because she looks harmless.

but what can she do? kill him? ]

Sure. Let's see what you can do.

[magicmoment]

All right...

[she considers this for a few moments, then closes her eyes, holding her orbment to her chest]

Arcus, activate.

[and a glowing intricate circle appears around her feet. she's casting for a few seconds, but it's really just them in this battle so her turn comes again quickly]

Crescent Mirror!

[then each of them is enveloped in a shining bubble seemingly made of moonlight, the bubbles disappearing from view once fully formed, but leaving him with a sense of... protection, somehow.]

[s2g]

[ instinct has him reaching for a gun he doesn't have, anymore, and will never have again. he manages to disguise the motion as part of the also-instinctive recoil, sliding a foot back and planting his heels wide.

that feeling—he's gotten it before, from similarly inhuman feats. but this girl looks like just a girl, and she sure ain't sprouting feathers.

thank the Lord. ]

Mind explaining what you just did?

[magicmoment]

Ah, sorry for startling you. I gave us both an arts reflect. Basically, if magic is casted on you, the first one will be returned to the caster.

/2

[s2g]

[ sure, it's supposed to feel protective, but in the end it just makes Wolfwood's guts squirm unpleasantly.

feeling things that aren't physically there. things beyond reality, that could bend reality.... ]

[s2g]

...Don't worry about it.

[ yeah, he thinks he's getting it now. to say he didn't know magic was a lie—of course the Hornfreak and that psycho Legato weren't normal humans. of course there'd been something there, and of course he'd thought about what he'd do if they turned their sights on him (and they did turn their sights on him). it's just that nobody on Gunsmoke really knew to call it magic, back then.

resisting the need to tell her not to do it again: ] Seems pretty handy. All of that comes from that thing?

[ and a gesture at her ... device ]

[magicmoment]

It will wear off soon.

[so yeah, she's still worrying.]

It comes from the quartz inside. The device itself is mostly to harness the elemental power of the quartz.

[s2g]

[ you're talking to a guy whose geological knowledge is limited almost entirely to sand, sandstone, and glass. so really, a guy whose only geological knowledge is sand.

and even that's debatable. ]

So that's magic, huh...

[magicmoment]

It's not quite magic, more like technology's best representation of the same idea, but... Close enough?