i see the hazy sense unfold [ OPEN ]

[succored]

Who: Sora and new acquaintances!
When: Throughout
Where: Around the city, the Coven library.
What: Deliveries for Precogstichin', searching for mysterious animals in the city, and studying.
Warnings: Probably nothing, but will edit if anything comes up.

delivery for—
[ Fortunately, growing up and constantly traveling around a semi-claustrophobia-inducing city means Sora has a decent sense of direction and a good memory for buildings. But to use that memory, he has to learn first.

So he might be knocking on a few wrong doors. ]

Hi. Corset delivery.

in the library—
[ Having a practice only once a week isn't too often, but it does mean Sora has an actual schedule to follow that isn't intermittent shifts at a convenience store. He's trying to study as much as he can outside of class to make sure that he, and by extension Tora, are safe and prepared for whatever other weird stuff this world is going to throw at them.

And that means reading.

After some searching for words he can actually comprehend, Sora finds some books he thinks he can handle and carries them to a table. After only a few practices, he's struggling and visibly so. Magic isn't something he'd ever believed in.

Later, when he goes to return them to their places in the shelf, he's still looking down at the words when he rounds a corner and nearly walks into someone. ]

Oh. Sorry. [ He's just holding a stack almost up to his nose. ]

in the courtyard—
[ Sora's trouble with magic is manifesting in a more noticeable way, later in the Coven courtyard. He wants to protect himself with a barrier in theory. But what actually happens is the small amount of the magic in the barrier being redirected and shoving Sora back.

He falls on his butt with a quiet yelp. Embarrassing, but definitely not the most embarrassing thing that's happened to him. He starts getting up and dusting himself off. ]

Comments

courtyard.

[niespodzianka]

[ You're a Witch.

Well, great. Geralt's first dry thought is no deeper than wondering why some people have the power to make words audibly capitalized. (Hey, maybe it's fucking magic.) But for all his cranky dislike of the situation, he's also very curious; a natural trait and one ground in deep from his years of what boils down to supernatural detective work. So here he is. Scoping the joint out, bit by bit. ]

Not a bad start.

[ He's quiet when he moves. Not on purpose. Hopefully he doesn't give this guy another stumble. ]

[succored]

[ The sudden comment does make Sora's arm jerk up in an aborted defense, not that it would have been very useful if he went through with the motion anyway. At least he stays standing. ]

How long have you been there?

[ Sora also doesn't ask this in an accusing way. He's just a little concerned. ]

[niespodzianka]

Not long.

[ Geralt looks more like an old-fashioned native than a green mirrorbound abductee; his lightweight armor is too well-worn to be something recently acquired to fit in. But he doesn't seem familiar with this place. Gold eyes flick over the young man, considering. His expression is difficult to read. ]

Shield spell?

[succored]

[ All the apparel means the man fits in with what Sora thinks of this place. It's like a fantasy movie that he's part of. It's a weird, unbelievable situation to be in, but he doesn't want to be pulling down anyone around him with his panicking or ineptitude. Even if this man's new too, he seems more put together, and Sora is honest in hopes that eventually he'll be put together too. ]

It was supposed to be. [ After a second he detaches his gaze from the cobblestones he fell on to look at him while he talks. ] They said practicing would help. I still don't really get it. Are you a Witch?

[niespodzianka]

[ He shrugs, baldric and the two swords over his shoulder moving fluidly with him, barely a sound of leather on metal. ] Guess I am, now.

[ Geralt doesn't sound enthusiastic. ]

I knew a bit of magic at home, though.

[succored]

Then do you know how to do it here?

[ Sora asks immediately, because he needs all the help he can get, okay. ]

I don't understand it... but I want to know.

[niespodzianka]

Sort of.

[ .. Possibly unhelpful. Geralt remembers having access to a whole host of magical abilities in the strange shared dream prior to being in this world, and he remembers trying to use his familiar witcher Signs only to have the magic feel different and strange and manifest in extravagant ways. But it doesn't feel alien. Just like a different set of muscles. ]

A shield spell was something I could do. So, like I said, you're not off to a bad start.

[succored]

Thanks. [ With that acceptance said extremely reluctantly, Sora starts trying to dredge up this unfamiliar power again. It's like a shape he can feel but not see, so he also feels like he's getting the wrong ideas. ]

Can you do a shield spell here? The sessions... aren't enough.

[niespodzianka]

[ Geralt considers for a moment. The 'shield spell' he knows has different forms, and it seems like the lowest one, that he uses most in combat, doesn't really jive with the way magic works here. In his head, he's aiming for a bigger tier, which is actually the base, here. ]

Huh.

[ He rolls his shoulders and lifts one hand to make the gesture for Quen, because all this magic is going to be routed through things he knows, of course, and for a second, it seems to work. A bubble of pale light glimmers around him and holds--

But then it shatters in a flash, casting intangible magic shards everywhere. Geralt raises one eyebrow. ]

[succored]

[ Sora flinches from the shatter, raising his hands reflexively, but for a shield that should be tangible, the results are hardly solid. ]

I saw it. [ The shape was there, so that's further than Sora's gotten! He watches the man with even more intent interest now. ]

Did you 'feel' the magic? They said something about that in the practice.

[ It made little sense to Sora at the time, and still doesn't now. ]

You looked like you knew what you were doing.

[niespodzianka]

Witchers are taught some basic forms we use when working, [ he says, and there's a verbal shrug in his voice. At home, mages frown on witchers calling their signs 'magic' at all for how rudimentary they are, but there's no other right term. It may be a weak starting point, but it's perhaps better than no starting point. ]

Close your eyes.

[ It's been a good eighty years since Geralt learned these things, but only fifteen or so since he tried teaching his adopted daughter. (Though her godlike powers required someone far more capable.) ]

You feel where your arms and legs are.

[succored]

[ Sora hesitates, uncertain of whether this will help him any more than the class.

But it's a worth a shot. He nods and closes his eyes. ]

I can feel them. Should I—concentrate on something?

[ Like his fingers, maybe... he feels awkward just standing here with his eyes closed. ]

[niespodzianka]

Just yourself.

[ His sedate voice encourages no rush. ]

You can feel your fingers, toes. Your ears. Your heartbeat and your breath. You know where your dick is, you know what it feels like if you have to piss, you understand that blood is moving through your veins even if you can't see it. You know what it feels like if you want to scream, or sit down. Take inventory of all those things, tangible and intangible.

You'll know where it is when you get there: an instinct, like any other.

[succored]

[ "Just yourself" is a hard thing for Sora to tap into, as he's not used to thinking about himself very much, ever.

He's less uncomfortable now than he would have been a year ago, though. After a few more seconds of quiet focusing, almost silent except for his soft breathing, and he can hear his own blood in his ears. He can feel where he is, but he doesn't know if he likes it. Anxiety crawls over his skin like a carpet of ants. ]

I... [ It's too quiet. His eyes crack open and his shoulders hunch upwards. ] I don't know.

[niespodzianka]

[ It doesn't take a telepath to observe signs of discomfort, though Geralt can't know why. Could be anything. Maybe he's got scary pictures painted on the inside of his eyelids. ]

You don't have to.

[ Implied shrug. Nobody has to nail anything right out the gate. ]

I've never subscribed to any philosophical implications of magic. Just using it like I would any other tool, or limb.

[succored]

[ Considering magic a tool makes much more sense, as he can't feel it right now as an extension of his body or not. ]

Is that how people taught you?

[ Nothing is working for him right now, so he's just trying anything that comes up. ]

[niespodzianka]

It is. For the start. You gotta know where your ass is before you-- well, whatever.

[ Swerving away from a pointless, rude joke. But it's easy enough to pick up what he's putting down; being able to get a sense of what you're working with tends to help you actually work. ]

Do you come from a world without magic, or did you just never see yourself as a mage?

[succored]

[ It's a joke that Sora... sort of appreciates, because it feels more normal than all the magic. ]

There isn't magic. [ He shakes his head slightly. ] Or traveling between... worlds.

[ He moves a hand in a half-hearted wave, as if to encompass all of the weirdness he's been through. ]

This doesn't make any sense to me. But I have to learn, or else I won't be able to make it here.

[niespodzianka]

[ Geralt considers that. A world without magic sounds uncomfortably stifled. As much as he prefers to avoid it in broader use, he has a hard time imagining the place he comes from without the highly educated class of people that make up mages. ]

Well, you don't have to learn, probably. But it'd be more fun than not.

[succored]

But if I can do it, I should do it.

[ Based on the diagnosis of the Coven, he isn't going to start transforming any time soon. Which is good, because he doesn't want to, but it also means that if he doesn't learn he'll be as defenseless as he was at home. ]

Or it's a waste. Isn't it? [ He raises his shoulders in a small shrug. ] Not that I want to be here, but if I have to be...

[niespodzianka]

You'll have a rough time learning if you're miserable about it. [ Geralt sounds like he knows from experience - and he does. (Maybe the irony anvil will fall out of the sky onto his fucking head, because he's not about to have an easy time with this at all.) Watching other witchers, and his daughter, try desperately to master skills while resenting the fact that they have to. It always takes ten times longer. ]

You okay? Besides falling on your ass.

[succored]

It's just—hard. [ The difficulty isn't causing him to dislike it. But it is frustrating, like most new skills he's tried to learn. ]

I'm okay. Thanks. [ He chews for a moment on his lower lip, because he is not okay, but not because of his magical mistake. ]

I'll try harder. And try not to hurt any bystanders.

[niespodzianka]

[ Right, Geralt's look seems to say you look very convincingly okay.

But to be fair - abducted to another dimension. Technically Geralt isn't okay, but he's got a lot of years of experience at ignoring that sort of thing. ]

You're doing pretty good. Don't be so hard on yourself. What's your name?

[succored]

Thanks...

[ He's getting quieter because he's not sure if he's actually doing well at all. He doesn't feel like he is. He feels like he's barely getting through every hour. ]

Sora. What's your name?

[ Regretting not asking earlier, which would have been more polite, Sora focuses on his response enough to actually look up at him again. ]

[niespodzianka]

[ Does this old man look like a liar to you, punk, you're doing fine. ]

Geralt of Rivia. Witcher. Which I'm guessing you don't have in your world any more than mages.

[ Unbothered about politeness. ]