fifthofthecovenant | The Last Voyages: IC Contact

What kind of spells do they carry?

I've never heard of anything like this - that's cool.

Any kind of spell I give them. Usually stuff that's more delicate, that took a while to cook up, you know? Something I can't just lob at somebody and have it work. They've delivered dreams for me. Put somebody to sleep. I've used them as a target for a ghosting.

[A quick, incredulous laugh:] Delivered dreams is one of the most outlandish things I've heard here, I think - that's amazing.

Yeah? Um, thanks, I guess.

[He sounds surprised. He kind of is. She'd probably be less amazed if she knew the dreams were mostly nightmares, but still. It's nice to be appreciated.]

I worked out just about everything by myself. I'm probably not doing anything the "right" way, or whatever, but it works, at least.

Is there a right way? Like, a community of those types, or is it just people popping up and trying to make it work out for themselves?

I mean, technically? Yeah. There's a whole little club of 'em out in Massachusetts. I grew up in Pennsylvania, though, didn't know about them.

Only in Massachusetts? Huh.

Are they in charge of things, or just happened to be a handful that were close enough together to group up?

Well, that's where the ones I got told about are. I don't know about in charge, I'm not sure there's, I don't know, a grand high witch or something. There's four families in Ipswich that all have a thing, where they work together and hide from normal people and raise their magic kids together.

[Some of the bitterness is leaking out, there. It always does when he thinks about Caleb's description of them being "like brothers". A thing he's never had, and never will have.

He gets a lid on it, has a breath, and says,]

That's all I know about. There's probably more out there somewhere, but I don't know where they are, and they probably hide as much as that bunch does.

[ She is, herself, riding out a bitter flash of envy. Gone as soon as it comes; practiced. Easy when she isn't intimately familiar. ]

Interesting. And sad - lonely.

I'm so sorry, I can't imagine having to work through something like that so young. You must be stressed, huh?

[ ... huh. Sympathy is not really what he'd been expecting, not for working out his magic. For a moment he's speechless, swallowing a lump of emotion. When he manages to speak, it's with a tone that's probably a shade too flippant, but he thinks that might work in his favor, too.]

It's not so bad. It's fun, kind of. A puzzle to work out. And then you really feel like it's yours, in the end, when you get the right result.

[ ... but yeah, he was stressed. Really stressed. And sad and lonely. Jesus Christ, that's not fair, that she pegged all of that so easy.]

Hm. You must be talented then, I'm glad you could put such a positive spin on it.

[ Sincerely. ]

Were there other versions of those people, in that world? Out of curiosity. At school, or whatever.

Other versions?

[He's not connecting this part of the conversation to the breach just yet. It hasn't occurred to him just how much breach lives might connect to his own-- his dead breach mother wasn't really a whole lot like his real mom.]

Equivalents. People with awful parents will have basically the same ones in some breaches, even though they're not on the Barge. Stuff like that. Important figures crop up.

Oh. No shit, really?

[He takes a moment to think.]

Well. The mom who died wasn't really a lot like. My mom. Way more brutal at business stuff.

[Still loved Chase, though. Which sticks uncomfortably under his ribs when he thinks it. He hurries on.]

And I guess-- damn, I guess actually one of my friends at school was a lot like Caleb. Ugh. Gross.

The Last Voyages: IC Contact

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