XOqNI

[tongueamok]

Hello, this is Carlisle. I mean, it's not Carlisle as in I'm actually answering you right now, so if you're trying to reply to me at the second, you should probably save your breath because I'm not really here. This is some kind of a recording of my voice, but this is my communicator. I'm going to assume these devices are as common here as they are in other places — not my world, but others, ones more technologically advanced than where I come from— so if you'd like to leave me a message, then you may do so here, or er... Right. Here is fine. So just leave yo— [beep]

Comments

[aroundthecoroner]

How do you know someone has talent?

[All he's seen of magic from Carlisle's world is the glyphcrafting and that seems like a weird thing for a kid to accidentally show promise in.]

The longer I'm here, and the more people tell me that this stuff is secret in their worlds, the more I wonder if it's just secret in mine.

[tongueamok]

It's no secret in my world by any stretch, but it seems I would be in the minority with that in a place like this. To find if someone has talent in a certain craft, they need only show some capacity for it despite a lack of proper training. Emily, for example—

[His expression falls just a bit. Boy, does thinking about his missing student hurt more than he will ever admit.]

... She, ah. I taught her glyphcrafting, and she immediately began to inscribe glyphs with not only the sigils I taught her, but those of a language from her world, as well. And much to my surprise, they worked. She had a gift for such things.

[Which makes her loss even worse to bear.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[Whoops, accidentally stumbled on a sore subject. Michael makes a mental note of that.]

Sounds like she was pretty smart. I'm, uh, sorry she disappeared. Hopefully that means she went back to her world.

[Wait.]

Unless her world was one of the bad ones. In which case, uh, hopefully she went... somewhere... else?

[Nailed it. A+ comforting.]

[tongueamok]

Her world is a magicless one that is nonetheless host to monstrous abominations. I cannot imagine her return is a pleasant one.

[And this is why no one should ever invite these two to a party.]

[aroundthecoroner]

[Unless it's the Debbie Downer party.

Michael isn't even sure what to say to that.]

Sorry. [He says that a lot, he thinks.] But you said she was resourceful, right? I'm sure she'll make it.

[tongueamok]

[Carlisle's brow knits tighter in a way that says he doubts that very much, but he's never been known for his optimism. He instead dodges the subject; it still hurts.]

Do you believe you'd be good at magic?

[aroundthecoroner]

[Michael's not sure how to answer that, exactly.]

I don't think I'd be bad at it, necessarily? [A glowing review.] I'm pretty good at memorizing stuff.

[And he has attracted at least one (1) ghost, so that probably means something, right?]

[tongueamok]

Memorization is good for some crafts.

[Carlisle looks down to his hands, trying to figure out how to explain the magical ins and outs of his world to someone from a completely different one.]

I didn't realize I'd have any true proclivity for magic until I was a teenager. I already knew well by that age that adventuring, like my father, was not for me.

[aroundthecoroner]

Yeah... Adventuring doesn't sound like it'd be for me, either. I met someone here who does that for a living. Seems like a high-risk occupation.

[Which is not actually the part he takes issue with.]

Did you figure out your talent like Emily did? Like you just picked it up really easily?

[tongueamok]

Ah, no, um. [His hands twitch, eyes darting away.] I was... injured quite badly once, when I was younger.

[Understatements: they have been made.]

It was grievous enough that my father called for healers to attend me. They found through their work that my own energies adapted well to theirs, and suggested I be properly trained.

[aroundthecoroner]

[Michael catches that evasive body language, but he doesn't pry. He wouldn't want anyone prying into his past, so he'll extend the same courtesy to Carlisle.]

Oh. [Hmm.] I'm guessing that's not exactly an easy test.

[tongueamok]

Healing is not an easy craft to learn at all. It requires a certain degree of control the other schools lack, lest you hurt yourself and the person you're attempting to heal.

[And that would be one of the many reasons he doesn't trust other healers.]

[aroundthecoroner]

So, what, you're actually moving stuff around inside the body? I can see how that could, uh, go awry pretty easily.

[Sort of like surgery, except it's hard to hurt yourself performing surgery.]

How long did it take you to learn?

[tongueamok]

Years. That is one reason I only teach basic mending through glyphcrafting to any students I would have here. More complicated crafts could drain them so much that I might run out of students.

[So... like surgery, but the doctor also might die if something goes wrong.]

[aroundthecoroner]

Oh, so that's what happens? They... use too much energy? Is that what magic is made out of?

[This does sound considerably more dangerous, yes. He doesn't sound put off by it, though.]

[tongueamok]

Essentially.

[Much easier than explaining the ins and outs of aural channels and the measure of life tied to them.]

Not that one can't accidentally drain themselves with a glyph as well, but glyphs are more likely to backfire than to kill you in that circumstance.

[aroundthecoroner]

[If he gets into this deep enough, Michael is totally asking about all that stuff. For now he'll settle for something simpler.]

So what happens when it backfires? Does it just not do what you made it for, or are there like, consequences?