middaeg | Take a seat, and catch your breath [july catch-all]

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Take a seat, and catch your breath [july catch-all]

Who: Sansa Stark
When: Late July
Where: About
What: Monthly Catch-All
Warnings: None at the moment

( parliament )

[Since the meeting, Sansa has been requested more often than not. The mirrorbound like her want more answers, and it seems like some things are coming to light. She's tasked to do certain things from Lady Denholm, and she sees to them. Her biggest project currently is setting up a team so that if more mirrorbound arrive, they can be greeted by those that are like them.

She doesn't have her own office, but she can be seen flitting about, heading from some of the book rooms or moving through the halls. She likes to stay busy, but can be caught if anyone needs her or wishes to speak with her.]

( practicing magic )

[Being unbound herself, Sansa takes time out every day to practice. She's moved on to some basic spell work and can summon objects to her. She's sitting beside a fountain in Haven proper with her hand outstretched. Clearly muttering an incantation, something flies through the air until she catches it in her bare hands.

When she opens it, it's a small loaf of bread-- mayhaps someone's dinner.]

My apologies.

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[The evening sun starts to slip down past the row of buildings and houses. This part of town, Sansa feels safest in. It seems almost strange for her to be able to walk so freely, no guards and no bannermen beside her. She's reading over a book while another one is laid out on the stonewall next to her. Sansa looks concentrated before the ball of energy in front of her turns into a clear shield that stands over her. It's something she learned easily when she first arrived her, and it was easy to manipulate.

It's only after a moment that she sees Han across from the courtyard. Indeed he did look like someone looking for someone else.]

Han? [She calls out, assuming it's him.]

You must be Sansa.

[ At this point in his ‘stay’, a month in or so, Han has adopted some of the clothing that was available here. He keeps it utilitarian — white shirt and solid color pants — but his brown jacket does stand out as something that must have come with him from home.

He looks a little to tired to strike her as handsome, initially. The length of his hair probably doesn’t read to her as long, since she came from a place where many men have longer hair than he does, but something about the way it’s cut might strike her as ‘scruffy’.

He holds out his hand to shake it in greeting. ]

Thanks for letting me tag along during your practice session.

I am. [She stands straighter and bows lightly toward him, something that is just natural for her despite where she is. Her smile is gentle as she looks him over. He's a few years older than her, she would guess, but not many.]

It is not a problem. And you are welcome to practice at well. I am trying to grow the strength of the-- the light. [She says as her hand flexes to make the orb of light move a little.]

It is not hard to create it if you think hard enough. [And the amount of pent up magic Han has, it probably won't be hard to manipulate it.]

[ He probably is, but Han isn’t exactly old by anyone’s definition. In fact the roguish look in his eyes and the faint smiles make him seem fairly young by most people’s standards. ]

Grow the light. [ Han repeats, as if that might help him somehow. ] Is it something you’re mostly visualizing and the magic just does what it’s supposed to do?

There are a few different types of magic, but this is the easiest for me. You feel it within you-- and then make it manifest. Safely. [Because she's heard that sometimes things can get explosive.]

So you stop, think, and focus on what you wish it to do. [And she does so to demonstrate before the orb of light glows a bit.]

I have managed to turn it to a shield if I need it.

[ There’s certainly no shortage of magic inside of Han ready to be turned loose and yet, the idea of trying to do something that should be impossible is just ... weird. He just has to make himself try.

So he takes a deep breath and closes his eyes — because it seems easier to block everything out for him if he does that — and he starts trying to focus the pent up energy inside of him.

He tries to form into something benign. A ball of light seems like a good thing to start with. Han doesn’t open his eyes until he feels some of the magic energy dissipate and he can see that he has made a light of sorts in front of him. It looks like a heatless flame, jagged and flickering, rather smooth and rounded like Sansa’s, glowing really bright and then dim then bright when he reminds himself that he’s supposed to be concentrating still ... ]

[She watches with interest, hoping he doesn't ignite anything as he tries to work with his own magic. She still has her own light, working with it as his starts to manifest. It's not the most refined, but neither was hers the first few times.]

You're doing it, [She tries to encourage him.]

Producing it is not so much the hard part, but manipulating it takes focus. I think about home, the good things about it. Returning to the castle, the walls that protected us, my brothers in the courtyard when I was young.

[They're personal memories, things she doesn't often talk about, but it gives her strength, being a Northman.]

[ Han’s light disappears. He can’t help it, he’s listening to what she’s sharing and he knows that it’s something significant to her. Something important.

He swallows while he struggles to find what he’s proud of himself for having done. It wasn’t being a White Worm or a stormtrooper, that was for sure. He didn’t feel that strong of a connection to his parents or a loyalty toward Corellia, so that wasn’t it either. ]

So, finding something that drives you can help.

[The second his light disappears, she immediately feels back. Her face drops as she looks back at him almost apologetically.]

I find it's easiest, yes. To think of something that means the most to you. [Of course she deals mostly in protection spells, so protecting something close to her heart is what comes to mind. But she would imagine any intense emotion could evoke a magical reaction in witches here.]

Anger can be powerful, too.

[She doesn't like to think about it, but she's had a rise in power when she thought on Ramsay during one of their practices. She mayhaps shouldn't encourage it in others, but if it's something that can arm him, can keep him safe, then it's worth mentioning. Emotions are tools here, too.]

[ He hadn’t thought to make the connection before, but it seemed pretty reasonable that magic could be both positive and negative feelings — since you can have both positive and negative motivation in everything else in your life. ]

That figures.

[ Though, it does make him wonder if there’s difference in the result if you favor one over the other. Something to try later. Maybe. Han goes back to concentrating on his spell. The light seems to come back just as bright as before, but equally as volatile as the first time he attempted the spell. ]

There are a few different types of magic. It is easiest for me to use spells, but there are also ruins, potions, and the like.

[Her hand outstretches to create her own light.] This is was the easiest for me to start with. To manipulate the light. Just think about containing it for now.

[Sansa doesn't want to break his attention again though so she works on her own before the light seemingly grows and stretches upward. She's been using it as a shield for the last month or two.]

[ He almost asks if she means containing it or controlling it, but she doesn’t want the spell to burn out again. Instead he thinks about the things that he had to hard for that made him feel good to accomplish — learning how to bypass the ignition lock on a parked landspeeder, palming stolen goods in his hands so that people couldn’t see it, the first time he had made Qi’ra smile — and the light stopped flickering so wildly,

It still lacked the smoothness of Sansa’s light, but it seemed under control in a way that it wasn’t before. Han began to manipulate the light with his gestures from his hands, willing it to brighten when he opened his fist and to dim when he closed his hand, then making it appear to float from the left side to the right side. ]

[He seems to be catching on well enough, at least getting the principles. It’s very basic, but it is exactly how Sansa had started out. She feels a little pride that she knows enough to teach someone else.]

See. You are already doing better. It helps to practice, to see what kind of magic you wish to learn. I am learning mostly defense, though a friend of mine thinks ruins would do well for me. I was never much of a book learner, but I can recite well enough.

[It was expected of a high born lady after all. She knew each of the Great Houses, their families, their words, their lesser houses. If she can learn that, she can learn ruins and spells.]

I dunno, you strike me as someone that’s gonna be good at this magic stuff with enough time.

[ It’s not like he knows her all that well and it’s not like anything scientific went into that guess, but he’s got a feeling about it. She has a presence that seemed a natural fit for authority and power. ]

I suppose I should learn more about the different kinds. Figure out what fits me best.

[Her head dips for a moment, smiling mostly to herself at his compliment. It’s not often she gets them, but she does try.]

I am a slow learner, but I do learn. I know that becoming better at this well protect me and to help in Parliament. There are stronger witches than I, but I hope to represent the mirrorbound.

[It’s a pretty natural fit, too. His guess about her is not wrong.

She lets her hand drop, the light fading.]

Once you learn the feel of magic, it is easier to enchant things and use spells, too. But I would practice first.

[It is his dinner, actually. He's been doing his best to save money so eating just bread seems like a good idea. Probably not healthy though. He is walking past when it goes flying out of his hand and into hers.]

O-Oh, it's fine! But if you wanted a piece of it, you only needed to ask!

[The young harpy boy let out a lighthearted laugh.]

Are you working on your magic skills?

I'm sorry, truly. [She shakes her head before offering the loaf back.]

It was just a spell gone awry. I hadn't meant to summon it at all.

[She nods lightly at his question, having answered it.]

Oliver smiles as he steps to the room she is in. He is nervous, and has been nervous, thinking about this, and yet... he is less so because of her. It is his past failings that make him nervous. But he is here, and he is ready. And he wants to try this.

This person who makes him hope.

He smiles as he comes in, and is reminded of the past, of his family, and of his loves, and in this moment, mostly, he is reminded of when he formed Team Arrow, and there was that connection. Looking at Sansa, he can feel himself both nervous and hopeful.

"So, are you ready?"

She had said she had a way for them to try the temporary bond, to see how it would go, and Oliver, both wanting to help her, and be steadied himself, found himself ready for this.

She looked relieved to see him, not sure how he felt about the idea, but it seemed like a good one to try. It was expensive to get the small vial she had on the counter, but it was worth it to at least know what it would be like to be bonded with someone. He seemed hopeful though, as hopeful as she was.

So with a gentle nod at his question, she reached forward to show him the small vial. "It will only last the night, they said. And we will feel an extreme emotion toward one another-- to reveal more, mayhaps. It may relieve some aggression or exhaustion that the moon may have caused either one of us," Sansa told him, explaining what she had been told.

[Justine smiles when she spots the familiar red head sitting at the edge of the fountain. She recognizes what Sansa's doing instantly and waits until she's finished before stepping closer. Justine also needs to practice more and while she usually asks Harry for his assistance, she's been trying to distance herself from her dependence on him.]

It's alright.

How is practice?

[She sweeps her dark hair over a slender shoulder as she comes to a stop in front of Sansa. This area is at least cleared of snow but Justine still feels the bite of cold against her nose and cheeks. She has a basket under her arm which had suddenly gotten a little lighter.]

[The cold doesn't seem to bother her, making her red hair stand out even more against her pale skin. Her hand drops from being outstretched before looking up at Justine.]

Admittedly I am struggling. [She knows it takes focus to do this, and she has that, but it's still hard.]

Perhaps I can help?

I struggled a lot. I still do. [Harry helps her a lot.] I knew magic existed but it was never a talent of mine. It's still a little odd. [Justine closes the distance between them and takes a seat next to Sansa.]

That's why I began to focus on rune magic. I've always like reading and I thought writing might be easiest.

What does it do? [She's interested now. Sansa knows there are different types, but she's only been slowly reading up on the things she can already do. All of this is a lot to take in for her, so she's going at a steady pace herself.]

Can you protect yourself?

It can do whatever you want it to do.

[Justine replies with a small smile.]

It can protect you or make you stronger or faster. First you perfect the writing. [She lightly drags the pad of her finger over a black rune stitched into the black fabric of her corset. As she does so, she activates its magic and it begins to glow softly.] This one lets me move silently. All I have to do is sew it, fill it with magic and then activate it to use it.

The shape must be perfect for the magic to work. If it tears, it will not.

Oh!

[Alright well that happened.]

Don't worry about it. I wasn't hit or anything. But I think we should, um, probably return that before someone gets mad!

Of course. I hadn't meant to take it.

[She stands with the small loaf in her hand, ready to find the person missing it. There are a few stands around, likely to be where she accidentally summoned it from.]

That's fine! Uh...

Did you happen to see where it came from? Because I don't think I did.

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Take a seat, and catch your breath [july catch-all]

closed to Han

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practicing magic

sorry for slow -- rl and internet issues killed me

Sansa and Oliver - trial runs and attempts

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Practicing Magic

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Practicing Magic

sorry for slow! new job + internet issues!!

np, and congrats on JOB