fifthofthecovenant | The Last Voyages: IC Contact

[Tea is calming for Zichen; he is hoping it will have the same effect on Chase. Nodding at the choices, he stands.]

I will be right back.

[When he returns, he will have a sandwich for Chase - along with some cake.]

Tell me something important about yourself and I will return the favor.

[Is Zichen kidding right now? Really? Chase stares at him for a beat at the question, not yet touching his lunch. Zichen hasn't earned anything important yet. He can't be bought with food.

He settles for important but also common knowledge by now:]

I'm a witch.

[Chase can choose why the piece of information is important. It could be his favorite color or his favorite scent. Zichen never set up any parameters.]

So am I apparently. [The flattest of flat deliveries. He isn't sure about the classification.]

[Chase'll take it. If given the option, he'd always rather talk shop.]

Yeah? What kind of stuff do you do?

I'm a Cultivator. That includes using my Golden Core to perform spells, create talismans and use my sword, Fuxue. Part of what we do aligns with what Exorcists do; we can banish spirits or put them to rest. But we can also fight demons and monsters.

Oh. Hey, Ye Zun talked about golden cores. He couldn't really explain what it was, though.

A core either forms or it doesn't after a certain amount of Cultivation. If one doesn't form, the Cultivator can only manage low level spells. However if one does form, it can be strengthened quickly - especially while the owner is young.

Edited 2024-03-18 12:23 (UTC)

Okay, and what exactly is Cultivation?

[There's a capital letter there, he can hear it.]

It involves strengthening one's spiritual and physical core. Some can Cultivate to immortality. Others can only manage simple spells. It all depends on one's potential.

Uh-huh.

[Which still doesn't actually tell him anything.]

Well, we're born with magic where I come from. You either have it or you don't. You can train it, sure, but you can't build it up from nothing.

[But that is Cultivation. Think of it like growing a crop. It needs certain nutrients to be at its best. A Golden Core is really no different.]

The same applies to our cores. Some could train for several lifetimes and never develop a Golden Core. Others come by them easily, awakening them in childhood.

[Chase looks interested, though more abstractly now, since that's definitely different from how his kind of magic works.]

Our magic just kind of shows up when we hit thirteen, if we have it. No nurturing required. Hell, I didn't even know what it was. Thought I was possessed at first.

I'm sorry you discovered it abruptly. You must have been frightened. [What child wouldn't be?] When did you learn the truth? Did a teacher find you?

[Chase definitely does not comment about whether he'd been frightened or not. Instead, he scoffs:]

Are you kidding? No. I taught myself everything I know now. I didn't meet anybody else with power until I was eighteen.

Your bravery and ability are admirable. [He smiles a little.] Do you consult scrolls or books?

[Bravery? Seriously? He'll accept compliments to his ability, he is justly proud of his magic, but he's not brave, Jesus. Chase decides to roll right past that, because he has no idea how to respond.]

Not before I came here. Magic isn't a thing in my world. Almost nobody has it. If there are any books about it, they're fiction. But I spend a lot of time here in the library.

[Isn't it brave to pursue the unknown and become proficient in it? Zichen thinks so, at least.]

Then you learned through experimentation? That can be exceptionally dangerous, but I can't see what other choice you had besides ignoring your powers completely.

[Sometimes Chase wonders what would've happened if he had ignored them. If the whole... ascending thing never would've happened. Maybe it would have either way, and he'd just be even less prepared for it.

He has some more of his lunch, shrugging.]

What can I say. I worked hard and now I'm the best at what I do.

[He would have beat that stupid Caleb, if that whole... lightning bolt from the sky hadn't happened. He has to believe that.]

There is always room for improvement. [Even (and especially) if said improvement isn't power-based. Zichen watches Chase and wonders over him silently.]

How old are you? We might be around the same age.

Doesn't mean I'm not the best even if I can still get better. And I'm eighteen.

[He pauses.]

Maybe nineteen by now, technically. Adding up time on the Barge. Why, how old are you?

We're not far apart. I was...twenty. [When he technically stopped aging.] It has been ten years since then. I would be close to thirty.

Sooooo you're thirty.

[Because if you lived all that time (or sort of lived; experienced all that time, maybe) Chase figured you ought to be able to claim the age.]

Unless you weren't awake for ten years or something.

Maybe? I haven't kept count. [Time has been...strange. It felt like it stopped while he was under the control of another.] I wasn't. I had no control over myself.

[Well. Okay, then.]

You can be twenty still, then, I guess. If you didn't actually live that time, or anything.

[If Chase can look closer to twenty-two than eighteen or nineteen, somebody can be thirty and look and feel twenty.]

When life is returned to me, my years will count. Until then, I am perpetually the same age.

[As unnerving a thought as that is, it's actually more comforting than acknowledging he literally has no idea how many years have passed since he died.]

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