fifthofthecovenant | The Last Voyages: IC Contact

My cabin's just my bedroom, it's fine, comfy even.

[A little sad, but he can deal with it. Reminders of what he's here for are important.]

But, uh, maybe we can talk about my magic?

Sure. You wanna do that over the prison spaceship phone, or in person?

Uh, in person is probably better.

[He mutters, mostly to himself, sounding amused:]

Prison spaceship phone...

[Then, back to normal volume:]

I can meet you wherever.

Let's do the cafeteria.

[Cabins could be weird. Well, could be. He and Ren were in and out of each other's all the time, but Renfield was not a teenager and frankly he's not sure that was a good idea even at the time.]

Better with snacks.

Everything's better with snacks.

[Which is what an average teenage boy would say. Chase is way, way more interested in the magic talk.]

See you there.

[And he goes pretty much straight there. At a brisk walk.]

[Ben, who apparently cannot help but skulk, has somehow found himself a corner in which to dunk improbable things in frosting. He waves without breaking stride.]

Chase hesitates briefly, but in the end doesn't even bother getting snacks. He does grab a spoon on his way past, because he sees your frosting and he's just going to eat it right out of the can, but otherwise? He doesn't much care. He's here to talk about magic.

"Hi," he says, dropping down with no ceremony whatsoever. "So what do I need to do?"

"With your magic? I guess tell me a little more about it. All I really know is it can move things." Which on the one hand is dangerous, but on the other, plenty of inmates with no more powers than owning a sharp thing have caused a lot of trouble. "I'm not gonna have you pinky promise to only do prosocial, responsible things with it, but I do need some background."

Dipping his spoon into the frosting, Chase says, "Well, moving things is the biggest. I can ghost around-- teleport, kind of, only it's more like turning into a ghost and gliding around really fast. I can do some illusions, though I'm not great at those yet. I'm better at dreams, something about the unconscious mind being more likely to believe it I guess. I can summon little spiders. I can summon ghosts-- uh, not quite like your brother did I guess, I haven't had any that could talk or who lasted more than a few minutes yet. I guess that's most of the big stuff?"

Well, he can kill people, and cast curses, but he's still trying to be friendly, here. And also he has no real reason to do either of those things here. That's a lot of effort for little reward, and also his only plan is to learn and get out of here. Nothing to steal. He pops the frosting into his mouth and waits.

The variety is interesting, since Chase was apparently born with this. It's definitely not like the powers he and the rest of his family has, not with so many different options. He does assume Chase isn't telling him anything, because the kid is an inmate and you have to do some shit to earn that. Even just the list he gets is a pretty solid selection of potentially scary effects. But you can't always head off trouble. "That is, gotta say, extremely aesthetic. So, ok, you just... this will sound reductive, but you just do it? You don't need special books and newt eyes and junk?"

"No, it's all energy-based. Tied to my life force," Chase shrugs. "Those spiders are technically little... demon things? Called imps? So some of it can come from some other plane, but that's only for complicated spells. Even for the most difficult spells mostly I don't use stuff, just like a diagram and chalk to help me concentrate." He has another spoonful of frosting and adds, maybe a little bitterly, "I made pretty much all of it up, to be honest. Maybe there's some kind of magic I can do that needs books and ingredients, but nobody ever taught me."

"So you're the, what, the battery for all the magic Halloween decorations?" That sounds dangerous. He's already told himself not to compare this to the Hargreeves family issues, but he can't help thinking of Vanya, where her power comes from and where it goes. "I know there are people here who do magic. Might be worth checking out, in case they can point you in the right direction?"

"Yeah, I've met a few of them. Two pretty much blew me off." And he's still kind of bitter about that, too. Stupid Misty. "The third did tell me to come find him if I got my magic back. Guy named Loki?" Any insight into the god of mischief, Ben?

Too bad, since he does know Misty. "Don't really know him. I'll keep an ear out." Ben is perhaps being insufficiently cynical, but there's probably some way around the bullshit the poor kid had to put up with.

Chase did promise Misty he wouldn't tell her secret. Maybe at some point he'll be mad enough to spill it even then, but he's not quite going to burn that bridge yet. She might come around if he pouts enough in her direction.

"Thanks." He sucks on the spoon for a second, then asks, "So will you let me have it back? I can promise not to, like, throw people into walls or toss spiders at them or something. Whatever you need."

"We can get a little more precise than that, actually." Ben doesn't like loose ends. "I know you haven't been here long, but sometimes we get, I don't know, violence waves, so I don't wanna say no to spiders as much as... situational spiders."

Chase's brows go up a little. "Situational spiders. What, we can limit what my power can do in certain situations?" He's torn between the idea of liking that, and really not liking that. Mostly because of how much control it shows the Admiral really has, maybe even over their thoughts.

"I'm thinking more based on what you intend them to do. So if they're used to start a fight, they don't work, but if someone else starts the fight, you get a fair chance." Considering all the ways inmates have found to make interesting violence happen, he wouldn't want to leave the kid without any options.

"Done. If that's a thing you can do, I agree, do it," Chase says without an instant of hesitation. He can still protect himself, he can't kill someone by accident, and he has no need to plan to kill anyone here anyway. If he does, he'll find some way to do it without magic. (Ugh.)

"I'll call it in." He's sort of relieved the kid isn't trying to negotiate over it. Not because he's unwilling to budge, but because he's noticed a very strong trend in inmates for not believing he'd ever make a no-strings offer. It's tiring, having to cope with that particular malfunction. "Since I'm your temp, remember, I don't have say for more than a couple weeks. They can definitely take those back. So, y'know, magic smart."

"I'll stay on my best behavior," he says with such earnest honesty that he has to stop and laugh at himself. "Sorry, that sounded really dumb, didn't it? But I'll be good. Worst you'll see out of me is maybe making things fly that shouldn't fly." He grabs another spoonful of frosting. "I did tell one of the other kids around here I'd look into a glass-magic problem he's got, but if it's going to be messy I'll let you know."

Ben takes a moment to try and imagine how bad a glass magic problem could get. Bad? He feels like... bad. But. Benefit of the doubt. "If you're giving somebody a hand that's probably graduation... points, or whatever."

"Maybe. It's knowledge, anyway, if I can figure it out. Apparently he's got magic glass in his hand? Fae glass? And he thinks only the witch who put it there can take it out again, but I'm pretty sure that's bullshit," Chase says, waving the spoon of frosting around. "I bet I can figure it out. I've figured out everything else on my own, and here I've got a whole library and a bunch of other magic people I can ask questions of."

The Last Voyages: IC Contact

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