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

[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. ]

[succored]

[ He's got very low self-esteem!! The magic isn't helping. At least he's unfazed by rudeness, because he's pretty rude himself most of the time. ]

No. Is that like a mage? [ It has the word "witch" in it. ]

[niespodzianka]

It's like a monster hunter.

[ And a mutant, he doesn't say; still deciding whether or not to blurt that out. Though it's obvious he's not completely human, anyway. The eyes give it away, and make him look like he should have a monster designation. ]

We learn little spells. Not unlike the basic shit here. It's always a pain to figure out something new.

[succored]

[ Another monster hunter... Sora's eyes flick aside for just a second; he doesn't know how he feels about that, but clearly no one has made big moves to disrupt the relatively peaceful society just yet. He and Tora will be safe for now. ]

You seem like you know... how to learn it. [ At least, based on his instructions. But Sora hasn't seen him do his own magic, and he asks the question on his mind after only a brief pause. ] Are you hunting monsters, or are you a monster here?

[niespodzianka]

Yeah, it's just like learning how to take a piss.

[ GERALT.. ]

They've decided I'm a 'witch'. [ Even with his rough voice, it's evident he's adding another layer of dryness, there. A definite lack of innate respect for this whole system, even though it seems to be necessary, given the dangers. ] And even at home, sentient beings aren't on the table for murder. It's not applicable here.

[ Other witchers may disagree, and he's had his hand forced on his principles before, but overall: Geralt doesn't hunt thinking monsters. Just the mindless killers. (And asshole humans who deserve it.) ]

[succored]

[ Okay, semi-success, that actually makes Sora snort a bit. ]

But I heard that the Monsters here can end up going crazy. [ Admittedly, he heard it from a self-proclaimed monster hunter, and he doesn't know how much he should trust her opinions. ]

What would you do if that happened? Kill them?

[niespodzianka]

Maybe if one went crazy a few inches from my face, [ he says with a shrug. ] Witchers aren't selfless moralizers roaming the countryside looking for evil to slay. I have to be hired. I don't work for free, and I'm not an assassin. What I do is as much investigation as it is anything else. I can't tell you how many times the 'monster' turns out to be someone's neighbor who nailed his wife and now someone's framing him as a werewolf or some other nonsense like that.

[ Humans. 9_9 ]

[succored]

That makes sense. [ Plus the Witches and Monsters here are coexisting well enough. Adding antagonism to the mix would be rather excessive. ]

Does the framing work? You know what monsters look like, right? Do they just—pay you and lie to you?

[niespodzianka]

Monsters are more diverse than people. By a lot. But that's why witchers are as trained as we are.

[ He makes a low noise that implies a laugh. ]

Once in a while, somebody'll be that dumb, yeah.