maskormenacelogs | OCTOBER CATCH-ALL

[He's not telling him anything new, of course.]

I know. And I have. I've left it open for him, because it's not my place to force my apology on him. I can only set it in front of him, and whether he takes it or not is his right.

[He looks away again, and he looks a little frustrated. All of this... because he opened his stupid mouth again.]

If something happens between us now, it'll be because he wanted it to happen. I have to be happy with that. There are details I've left out of the story I told you now, because whether he wants anyone to know more than that is up to him.

[He's thought about this a lot in the last year or so. Even if he didn't respect Roxas then, he can certainly do it now. And he'd understand if Jaime thought he should back off with Minato, after this -- he's certainly not the best option out there.]

[So it's on Roxas then, isn't it? Jaime's not certain what that implies, but it sure sounds like Roxas decided independently that he didn't want all that much to do with Riku. And really, could anyone blame the kid?

Satisfied, he leans back in his chair, cupping his mug close to his chest as he takes it all in. This complicates matters more than he'd like, but nothing's really changed, not unless Riku does something bad in the here and now. It's like he said; forgiveness is up to Roxas to give.]

Then that's all you can do, [he says, simply enough.] I'll be talking to him. Not necessarily to find out more, but he deserves to know how much I know.

[Of course it's on Roxas, because Riku's not going to try to reach out when he feels like he needs to back off.

He certainly doesn't consider himself a hero, but he can't see himself doing something legitimately bad again, either. Certainly not like when he and Sora clashed, and even something more recent like the stuff with Roxas (which honestly is starting to feel like a long time ago too) is something that he'd like to avoid.]

Yeah. I... don't know if he'll appreciate that I told you, but... if you're asking about me, then he factors in.

I'll be telling him that I was the one who asked, [Jaime says, voice firm. Perhaps he doesn't agree with what Riku's done, but he can take responsibility for his part in it as well. He knew it could be a violation of Roxas' privacy and he went ahead and did it anyway.

He could say that it was for Minato's sake, to figure out what kind of guy Riku is - as it turns out, a complicated one - but really, he was just nosy.]

So you don't have to worry about at least that much. I just can't not tell him, is all.

Mm.

[He looks down at the table for a moment, then nods.]

Yeah. I can understand that. I don't want to keep things like that from him, either. He deserves that much.

... Here, give me your mug.

[It has to be cold by now, right?]

[Jaime blinks, a little startled by the sudden change of subject, though there isn't much left to say about the whole thing. They're not going to find any resolutions here. After all, Jaime's only peripherally involved in both Riku and Roxas' lives, and he's only just met one of them.

He hands over his mug obediently as he says,] Uh, sure. Why?

[He ignores him for a moment, looking down at Jaime's mug intently for a moment. In his hand, a small flame appears, and he sort of rubs it into the side of the cup. Instantly, it's steaming again, and he hands it back to do the same thing to his own.]

Here.

[He can do this, at least.]

Oh!

[So that's what he was doing. Jaime had forgotten his tea as all but a prop in the last conversation. It's a nice gesture.]

Thank you.

[That said, the next silence drags on just long enough to become awkward. Jaime's just a little lost for words; seldom has a conversation turned this deep this quickly, and knowing so much about Riku's past and so little about the person himself... well, he's not sure what to say.

He winds up shaking himself out of it and clears his throat before saying,] So... you can use magic, then?

Mm.

[Riku has that issue. A lot of his recent life has been very serious, so he ends up there quite fast.

He looks up at Jaime when he speaks again, and he smiles gently -- he can tell he feels weird all of a sudden.]

Yeah. Elemental stuff, and healing. I mean, it's called magic. I don't know if it's got a scientific explanation or not.

[Wally argued over this with him ages ago.]

Well, if it's magic, then it probably just works by its own rules. It doesn't really matter if it's got a scientific explanation or not, does it?

[Jaime, on the other hand, isn't comfortable with magic, but he is comfortable with its existence. His girlfriend has incredibly powerful magic at her disposal, and he tends to see it in the air, smell it like he does all energy. It's not particularly pleasant to him - it's the only thing that can reliably kill him - but there's no denying it.]

[He quirks a smile, looking down at the hand he cast the spell with, then back to Jaime.] One of the earliest conversations I had here about my magic was Wally telling me how not-magic it was.

[Riku doesn't mind magic -- he can't, really, when he himself has access to it. Though when his energy is depleted, he can't use it, so perhaps it does have a scientific explanation.]

Oh, Wally. He's just dumb about magic; ignore him, [he says with a dismissive wave of his hand.] You can't say that something doesn't exist just because we don't understand it. It's like someone from way back when looking at the stars and deciding they couldn't exist because we couldn't understand them yet.

You can't really fake the results.

[He can understand his atheism. You cannot see God. But magic is everywhere, and is performed by so many that it's difficult to just pretend like it's nothing.]

[He smiles quietly, leaning his chin in his hand.]

He was like, "it's an energy transfer!" or something. I don't know. I'm not a science type, so I ... don't really remember. I'm sure he'd be happy to reiterate.

I don't know what his definition of 'magic' is. I think that's part of the misunderstanding here. It's just something that comes with the Keyblade.

Edited 2015-11-08 07:39 (UTC)

We've got magic in our world - or our worlds - too. I think the whole thing with magic is that it's not really something you can define, y'know? You've got magical things like your Keyblade, I guess, and then there's people who just have magic living inside them.

[Frankly, Jaime's just as happy not to be one of those people. It seems complicated enough having the Scarab without having magic to complicate it.]

Yeah. But without the Keyblade, I can still cast magic. So I feel like it's... almost a focusing tool? Maybe it's just in the way you use the energy, not where it comes from. Hah, I can't really define it, either.

[Riku doesn't mind so much, except for the part where heart magic is also a thing. Having dabbled in it, he's not all that proud.]

Could you cast magic before you got it, though? I dunno much about magical objects, but it seems like the kind of thing that could act like a...

[He snaps his fingers, trying to place the proper word.]

A catalyst.

Um, sort of. Definitely not before I had the potential. But when I left our world for the first time, Maleficent showed me how to do a couple of things. Maybe, even though I couldn't summon it, I had it at the time. It's... hard to say.

[Technically, he only actually received his Keyblade much later than Sora.]

Hmm.

[Jaime may have insatiable curiosity about some things, but the technicalities of magic on another world isn't one of them. He's fine with just saying it's magic and leaving it at that. He doesn't even understand magic on his own world; what's the likelihood of him understanding it on another?]

Well, I guess it doesn't really matter in the end, does it? What matters is that you've got it -- and what you do with it, I guess.

Yeah, that's true. I don't know, really. I don't have much use for it here, besides Cure. Though the others come in handy every now and then, too.

So... what are the others, besides fire and cure? Cure sounds pretty darn self-explanatory to me, though.

Yeah, it is. There's Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Aero, and Cure. That's what I do, anyway. There are more spells than that, naturally. I can vary them in power a little, there are three levels to each spell. I have a few abilities that are magical in nature, but they all come from my ability to use it in the first place.

So no teleporting or turning people into mice or any weird junk like that? Sounds to me like it's just control over the elements, plus being able to cure people.

[He leans back in his chair, sipping at his tea.]

I'm jealous, though; I wish I could cure people too.

Well, there are people that can do that stuff, but I do just elemental stuff, yeah.

[He shrugs, considering his own tea for a moment.] It's... not perfect. If I need to do something big, I'll use up all the magic energy I have, and then I have to figure out a way to replenish it. Fighting will do, something physical, and there are like... I've found some different foods here that'll work.

Wait, hold on. I've heard of people needing energy to cast magic before. Like, they'll have to rest, or get some calories in them or whatever, but fighting to gain it back is a new one. How d'you fight to get energy back?

[Jaime just said that he didn't apply science to magic. Well, look at him now!

He can't help himself.]

[Ah, the science emerges.]

Yeah, I know. I think it's kind of like a trade between my physical energy and my mental energy. When I'm fighting, I don't... it's not the same kind of focus as when I cast a spell.

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in which jaime ignores 'maleficent' for the sake of our future thread WHY THE EVIL WITCH RIKU

lmao did you not expect this after he just confessed to the roxas thing come on

i didn't expect the roxas confession when we started our second thread!

this is true lmao

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