video; un: youradhere

[buildingcastles]

Hi, guys.

[The man on the other end of the network smiles awkwardly. He's gearing up for a conversation, but drawing attention to himself is a new experience. The way he draws a breath and fidgets makes it obvious that he's still feeling out the network.]

So, this is definitely on the list of moments that make you think you might be dreaming. It sounds like we have people from just about everywhere here. Someone tell me this isn't the weirdest thing you've ever had happen to you. It'll make me feel better.

Before you got here, did any of you have strange things happen? You know, things out of fantasy movies or fever dreams for everyone else? What's the weirdest thing that you've ever seen?

[He laughs, mixing an exhale into it as he ducks his head.]

Sorry, I'm trying out the whole coaching thing. My name's Christian. Apparently I'm working with the Gramarye Magic Research people as a life coach, so if anyone wants to get a drink sometime and discuss tragic life choices, I have a really open schedule. I'd say we can do lunch too, but is that weird? I don't want to be weird.

Comments

[franciscoramon]

[ That's a way more ambiguous answer than Cisco had been expecting; he's not really used to thinking of magic as something nebulous. Then again, he's not used to magic being real. And even when it comes to things from his own world that he knows and is familiar with, his ideas have shifted of late. He used to think that of course, all metas knew they were metas. That it would be impossible not to be aware of it definitively. And then he had found out, painfully and confusingly, that he is one, has been one all this time, and never even knew. So maybe it was his own way of thinking that had been wrong. ]

what kind of 'things'?

is there story-related magic? is that like a thing?

[buildingcastles]

[He has to fight back a smile. The questions are generous and more interested in his sad state than most people that are familiar with magic back home. Compared to them, the Hunters and Psychics, Christian is an amateur, unique only in the way he acts so closely with demons--and that is not a well-received talent.]

I can- [Saying it out loud to a human is harder than he'd like. Admitting to his knowledge still seems like a one way ticket to isolation as a crazy man.]

Stories come from somewhere, right? Technically, you could say that a lot of stories are magic in their own way.

[He has to actually give an answer, though. Christian takes a breath, bracing himself as he tries again.]

I can enchant things. Sort of.

[franciscoramon]

[ Cisco frowns as he considers it; he's not used to thinking of stories as some kind of fixed, tangible thing. If they came from anywhere it was people's imaginations, and perhaps on a deeper level, from their culture. Stories have power, sure - his DVD collection back home is a testament to that. But he's always thought of that power as strictly one of communication, and emotion and ideas. Not magic.

So he tries to follow along, but in the end has to admit: ]

you kinda lost me, there.

[ Perhaps it was always a doomed exercise, asking for rational and coherent explanations for something that is probably, by its very nature, not explicable or quantifiable. Still... ]

enchant objects? people? can you make them do things, or change them? i don't mean to go all inquisition on you, i've just got no clue. the world i come from hasn't got magic at all, soooo...

[buildingcastles]

It's okay.

[ Christian is used to people thinking that magic and myth aren't living in any sense. Telling someone that stories are living and their own magic is bound to sound strange. He doesn't expect Cisco to really follow that crazy logic. ]

Sort of. I mean, I can't change them much, but sometimes other people can. Magic comes from the Subtle Realm. It's a sort of living power and some of us can push that power into objects or even other people to cause different reactions. Part of that ability is based on visualizing, so even stories can change you in a way. You can make things happen that seem impossible.

Like moving chairs or writing without ink. That kind of thing.