driftfleet | Magic Lessons et al!

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Magic Lessons et al!

Who: Axel and Anybody, really
Broadcast: None planned
Action: On the Tourist
When: The week of April 5-11

[Axel is actually pretty stoked about giving magic lessons. Even if he's not certain Hiro and Steven will be able to produce magic, it'll be kind of nice to do this again. Showing Roxas the ropes and helping him grow and learn had been a really important part of his life, and he hadn't even fully realized it until Roxas was gone. Roxas had given him a purpose beyond just being the Organization's go-to guy when they needed a job done quick and clean, and that's something he misses. He misses purpose. Well, if a Nobody can miss such things. If a Nobody can miss anything.

[~~No, he's certain he misses it. He's certain he misses Roxas, too.~~

[He gave Steven and Hiro open invitations to drop in whenever they had time, so whenever they show up, the lesson can begin! He also gave Kaneis an invitation to pop in to try an orange, since he needs to be educated on such things. Basically, the Tourist is too quiet a lot of the time, so Axel doesn't mind visitors. Wanna hang out? Come on by!]

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[It's fantastic to be able to jump around from ship to ship, meeting new people-- way, way better than just being stuck on one and only being able to talk. And so many new and interesting people! He's never met anyone else with magic (besides, of course, the Crystal Gems), never mind so many varied types.

He doesn't know if he'll be able to produce fire magic-- but heck, who cares? It'll be fun to try, and even more fun to hang out with someone! So Steven is full of enthusiasm as he warps over, practically jumping as he emerges.]

Axel?

[He's waiting in the cargo bay, leaning against the wall and playing that game on his communicator. He's a little surprised when Steven just appears, though. It seems he and Chris aren't the only ones with unexpected means of transportation. Closing the game and sliding his communicator into his pocket, he waves with a grin.]

Hey, Steven, you're punctual. [He looks pretty excited, too, so Axel can't help but be a little excited, himself. He rubs his palms together.] You ready to get started? I think Hiro's planning to come by, too, so... why don't we start off with you showing me what you can do, first? We can work from there.

Oh, yeah, okay!

[Shield is still touch and go, but he's all but mastered bubble right now. Steven takes a deep breath. The gem on his stomach glows, emitting through his t-shirt-- and then, instantly, he's surrounded by a pink bubble, thick and large, taking up quite a bit of room.]

See?

[His voice sounds as though it's coming through a thin wall-- audible, but muffled.]

[The glowing stomach thing is new. Axel sort of stares at it a moment, then takes a step back when a huge pink bubble pops up around the boy.]

Huh, well I'll be.

[He reaches out to touch it, pressing his finger against it. It gives a little, like hard plastic, but he thinks it would take quite a blow to break it. He gives Steven an impressed look.]

That's pretty impressive. It looks like... bubblegum, but way less messy. [A laugh and he pokes it again.] What was that glow?

Axel?

[hey that's a familiar voice! hiro is less punctual than steven is apparently. he enters the room he hears voices coming from, and... that is an awfully pink bubble.]

... Whoa. What is this?

My gem! It glows whenever I do magic.

[He glances over as someone else arrives-- Hiro, presumably, and Steven gives a friendly wave. The bubble rocks as he steps forward; with a little huff he waves his hands and it disappears.]

Hi! I'm Steven! And that was, uh, my bubble.

[Axel looks up when he hears Hiro's voice, then waves him over.]

Hey, Hiro, you're just in time to get started. [He looks at Steven through the bubble and gestures at Hiro.] Steven, Hiro; Hiro, Steven.

[He turns back to Steven then, looking curious.]

You have a gem... on your stomach? [That's different.] And it's how you do magic?

[eyebrows up, wave.]

Yeah, I'm... Hiro. Right.

[ok but you have a big gemstone in your stomach why.]

Yeah . . . I dunno, it was just how I was born.

[He pats his stomach fondly once or twice-- pat, pat-- before glancing between them.]

Hey, Hiro, can you do magic?

Uhh, I'm... learning some from Riku, slowly. I'm getting discipline training first, though.

[he looks over at the wall.]

I've been learning how to do ninja stuff, though.

Oh, Riku's been teaching you? [He's actually probably a really good teacher, if Axel has to make a guess. Ugh, but discipline is so boring.] Well, we'll see if we can't supplement that a little.

[He looks intrigued then.]

Define 'ninja stuff'.

Can you hide? Or's it more like fighting?

[He looks quite impressed; already Hiro is in high esteem.]

Uh, it's more like...

[he takes a second to breathe, and... runs at the wall. and then he's running up the wall. and then he slowly... very slowly steps onto the ceiling. aaand now he's upside-down.]

This kind of thing, so far.

[Axel watches him run at the wall, then run up the wall, and he's expecting him to just flip over backwards or something. When he slows down and just steps onto the ceiling though, Axel reflexively holds his arms out as if to catch him because oh my Light you're going to fall on your head. But he... doesn't. He's just. Standing on the ceiling. Axel tilts his head and squints up at him, letting his arms fall back to his sides, and then he scratches his head.]

That's... How are you even doing that?

[Magnets? Duct tape? Obscene amounts of chewing gum?]

That's so cool!

[Steven shouts that out, far too excited not to, and stares up at Hiro. Magic, clearly, is how he's doing this; it's the only explanation.]

Ino's been teaching me. You use your own energy as an extension of yourself to do it.

[and since he hasn't even really attempted the whole "moving blood away from his head" thing yet, he's gonna just. flip down and stick the landing as best as he can. he's still a little shaky.]

Pretty sick, right?

[Axel steps back when he flips down for a landing, then looks impressed.]

That's quite a trick. I might wind up taking lessons from you sometime.

[He rolls his shoulders back and cracks his knuckles then.]

So I guess it's my turn to show off now, huh? [He's already shown Steven the basics of Fire, but here in the empty cargo bay he can get a little more creative. He moves about ten feet away from the boys to stand in the middle of the room, then holds his hands out and spreads his fingers. Two balls of flame come to his hands, growing from about the size of a walnut to the size of a soccer ball, and then he drops to one knee in a circular motion, dragging his hands across the floor. Axel is now standing in a ring of fire, and looking pleased with himself.]

[Steven beams, utterly delighted by Axel's power. It looks a little dangerous, yeah, but anything is dangerous if you're not careful.]

That's awesome, Axel! And really useful! How much can you do before you get tired?

["utterly delighted" sounds about right for hiro as well. the danger of it doesn't even register past the holy shit this is awesome.

[he stays silent so that axel can respond to steven, but that also may be contributed to the fact that hiro can't find words for how amazing this is.]

[He waves his hands and the flames dissipate, barely leaving scorchmarks on the floor, and he grins at their impressed faces.]

It is pretty useful, that's for sure. Never have to worry about rubbing sticks together when I wanna make a campfire! [He taps his chin then.] Mm, it depends on what I'm doing, and how much I'm doing at once. I've been practicing with magic for more than ten years, though, so I can do a lot before I get worn out. Stamina's something you pick up with time and practice; it can be pretty draining at first.

Whaddaya say, you guys wanna give it a go?

Er-- yeah, but I mean, how? Do we just . . . think about it? Or is there a move? The Gems told me it's mostly mental . . .

I was thinking it's kind of like the ninja thing, using your energy to manifest the magic.

I think it's a little different for everybody, to be honest, but the way I started out is I was told to imagine what it felt like. Whatever magic I was trying to do, imagine what it felt like. So... for example...

[He sweeps one hand through the air and conjures up a little flame, about the size of a golf ball.]

For something like this, try and think about what a... candle feels like. Just that one little flame, in a dark room, think about what that means. However that feels to you, concentrate on that. And don't worry--a flame you make yourself won't hurt you just holding it like this. [Sure, if you set your shirt on fire it'll hurt, but until you've cast it away the fire won't burn you.]

[He holds his hands out, cupping them and staring down at them. Think of a flame . . . it's not hot. More warm. Warm and loving, connecting, caring, safety, friends, family-- that's what a single flame in the dark is, something good, something hopeful. Something--

(He can't do it-- partially because, once he opens his eyes, he can't help but glance over at Hiro to see if he's done it yet).]

[how fire feels...

[well, this lesson's not going to go well.

[for hiro, it doesn't feel like anything good. even a candle's flame turns into something all-encompassing and indiscriminately dangerous when he really gets down to "feeling" it.

[he tries, for a moment, to summon something in front of him, to pool that energy, but he gets nothing with the static his memories with the element cause. eventually, he drops his hands.]

[Axel's not expecting miracles--nobody gets it on the first try--but Hiro... something's not right. Hiro doesn't look excited about this anymore. In fact he looks like somebody popped his balloon and stole his ice cream all in one go.]

Don't worry about it too much, guys; it took me a few days to figure it out, and I'm an old pro now. It just takes practice. [He places a hand over his chest. Not his heart (would that he had one), but dead center.] You'll start to feel it, when you're going in the right direction. It feels kinda like... pressure, but from the inside. It doesn't hurt, but you can definitely feel something there, like energy that's all welled up. You've just gotta figure out how to let it out.

[He furrows his brow a little at Hiro then.]

You all right there, kiddo? This ain't supposed to be homework or anything, you're allowed to have fun...

Hiro?

[He reaches over, touching his arm gently.]

[It's odd. Other than going to the Bishop occasionally to look at their library, Kaneis doesn't really go to other ships all that often. That requires things like you know- friends or a social life. Buuut it's not like he had anything else to do when Axel threw up the invitation- so he'll oblige.]

[So when he comes aboard through the airlock, he'll feel a little bit awkward. He glances around the ship, looking for Axel- rubbing his neck with his hand]

Anyone here?

[That's the thing about being inside a big metal tube in space: voices carry. Axel's in quarters when Kaneis shows up, but he hears his voice from down the hall, and hops up from his bed to poke his head out the door.]

Oh, Kaneis! [He waves and steps out into the hall, shoving his hands into his pockets as he ambles down the corridor.] Glad you could make it. Come on, got your orange in the kitchen. [He's still not entirely sure what he thinks of Kaneis, he's not sure what to say to him. He wants to like him, he seems interesting, and he really does want to know about how exactly Kaneis knows the name Lea. Little steps, though; it's clear Kaneis is a cautious sort.

[He waves a hand over his shoulder and heads for the mess hall, moving to the bowl of fruit on the counter and grabbing one of the oranges. He tosses it toward him.] Bon appetit~.

[Oh, there he is. Time to play cool. Kaneis gives a slight smirk at the greeting and nods.] Yeah well...seemed like a good way to kill time.

[He follows him along to the mess hall, glancing around. It's a bit different from the Wonderduck, but a ship is a ship. When he gets thrown the orange, he catches it easily]

Whoa it's...orange?

[He's not sure what he expected]

We do seem to have a lot of time to kill. [He chuckles.] Maybe we should start a bridge club.

[He actually gives a full laugh when Kaneis notes the color of the orange, though.]

Well, if it was green they probably wouldn't call it an orange, you know? [He points at it, leaning on the counter.] The skin's a bit thick, but it should peel without too much trouble, and then the part you eat is in little sections. It's got seeds, so just watch those. Ah... [He reaches behind him and grabs a little bowl Asteffiel left there.] My lab guy's got a thing for plants, so... if you wouldn't mind saving the seeds, it'd probably make his day.

Isn't Bridge for old people...?

[you don't seem that old Axel. Maybe just a few years older than him, max.]

Peel and save the seeds, got it. [he starts trying to peel it with his finger nails. It takes a bit of digging, but he manages clumsily. But he's startled when some juice comes squirting out] - It sprayed at me!

Don't burn your Bridges before you try them. [Yes that was a combination pun and idiom. YOLO.

[He watches Kaneis attempt to peel the orange, then laughs a little at his reaction.]

Yes, watch out, that's its natural defense mechanism. You have to be quick, before it realizes what you're doing. [Total srsface.]

....Why would anyone set fire to a bridge before they walk across it? [Axel you're talking to a math major, this a combo too advanced]

[...whut]

Natural defense- please tell me you're joking.

[He laughs helplessly.]

It's a turn of phrase, Kaneis. [One he twisted into a bad pun, on top of that.] Never mind.

[And then he bites his lip to keep from laughing more. He just nods, trying to suppress his amusement. Yes, he's joking.]

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Magic Lessons et al!

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