It's not my fault if I live and breathe; Eat, drink, sleep and put on clothes.

[heardmermaids]

Who: Sebastian LeMat, a collection of people from his cohort, and a few NPCs.
What: Podder gets a cake that a giant sat on?
Where: The Ankh
When: Givdi night.
Notes: Feel free to make your own threads, hop about, threadjack, etc.
Warnings: None. Yet.

As far as Sebastian is concerned, The Ankh is one of the better places to go in Baedal - accommodating staff, good food, nice ambiance, they're comfortable with Velcro and don't mind that he likes to sit at a table with clear lines of sight. While it's nothing he'll admit to, Sebastian knows that Christmas doesn't make him miss his friends and Britain quite as much as his birthday does. If pressed, he would likely say that the holidays are a celebration and a tradition, but his birthday has always been the sign of things to come, of the promise of a better year, and a reminder that change is always possible.

Comments

[byrightsinhell]

Lucius, at home, had something of a talent for small talk. He'd been doing it for most of his life, and it was hardly that he had forgotten how. However, people usually already knew who he was before they'd even met him. As a result, he's rubbish at introductions.

While he's happy to talk to Sebastian himself, everyone present wants some of Sebastian's time. He's going to have to speak to someone else eventually. If they can just get started, perhaps it will work.

[wandandsickle]

Jones doesn't know many of the others at the party; she has never precisely kept a wide circle of friends, and isn't terribly social. But it's just uncomfortable to stand around not speaking to anyone, and she thinks maybe Anna's mentioned working with someone looking a great deal like the blond gentleman over there at Hellsing; she might as well introduce herself.

"Hello," she says. "You're—" She was about to ask a friend of Sebastian's?, before realizing that of course he was, why else would he be here. "You're with Hellsing, right? My name's Jones; I'm Anna Demirovna's roommate, if you know her."

[byrightsinhell]

"Yes - I'm Lucius Malfoy." He's probably not made enough small talk with Anna to have heard of Jones through her, but he mainly looks mildly relieved to be speaking with someone. "I mostly do ward services, for Hellsing. I'm afraid I don't recall if I've done yours - in the early days, I was doing quite a few."

[wandandsickle]

"Oh, are you a mage, then? I've been doing my own—I actually didn't think to ask, actually, although I think someone told me once that it was a service that could be purchased around here." She laughs. "You know, I've been here more than a year, and it's still strange to see magic out in the open?"

[byrightsinhell]

"It is," he agrees, relaxing almost imperceptibly. "I prefer 'wizard,' but the difference is mainly cultural, rather than practical, as far as I can tell. But yes, at home, it's not something that people are generally aware of unless they can do magic themselves."

[wandandsickle]

"Are you a wizard like Sebastian, then? That was the same term he used.

"Although—I used to think that maybe if we could bring magic back to be for everyone, close the Abyss, things would be better, maybe, but even here they have a lot of the same problems..." Worse ones, in some ways, though not others.

[byrightsinhell]

"Much like," he says with a nod. "He and I are from... different versions of the same world, I suppose, a bit apart in time. That's a daft-sounding sentence," he adds with a small laugh, after a pause.

"I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the Abyss, though - what do you mean, for everyone?"

[wandandsickle]

"There really isn't an adequate vocabulary for time and space travel, is there?" She laughs.

"And about the Abyss, well, I suppose magic works differently cross-universe—well, I'm not entirely sure how your kind of magic works, but for us... at one time, it's told, magic was much more common and everyone had the potential to learn it."

She looks up, thoughtfully. "I don't know if it's exactly like the myths say, but I can sort of believe that at some point some people decided that they wanted more power but didn't want anyone else to have it, and so did something to weaken the connection humanity had with magic and created the Abyss in its place. They couldn't break it completely, I guess, since mages still Awaken to this day, but it's a war that mages still fight today, to reinstate it."

[byrightsinhell]

It's a bit of a startling thought, for Lucius - a world with no muggles at all, or no true muggles as he knows them.

"In our world, there's no potential. One is either a wizard or witch, or one isn't." He doesn't go into things like squibs; the principle still holds. "One can receive a variety of training, but in all but the most extreme situations, I could no more stop being a wizard than stop breathing. And I would have about as much desire to." Potential was only applicable to young children, and even then some manifested early enough it was clear.

"But if it's long enough ago for it to be a myth, you must be used to it, your way."

[wandandsickle]

"I suppose that's a little like if everyone was like my colleague Vivian—her family has largely been mages for generations, I believe. Genetic, then? Hence the schools for magic. We almost never have Awakened children, actually... I mean, I was pretty young as things go, at sixteen...

"And—yes, it's been that was as long as I've known magic, anyway; as long as anyone can remember, I guess, unless any of the Archmages are that old, I suppose. Everyone's used to it and knows how to work around it, but I think nearly everyone also sort of wishes we didn't have to operate in secret."

[byrightsinhell]

"We've had laws for secrecy ever since the mu- the people without magic started trying to burn us a few centuries ago. The popular conception was that it was best not to let them keep trying until they found something more effective." Cheery!

[wandandsickle]

"I suppose our worlds have a few things in common—I heard America had a series of witch-burnings a couple centuries ago—although I wouldn't be surprised if most of the ones who got burnt weren't mages." Her expression sours. "In fact, I'd suspect some of us were doing the burning. The number of mages who think that magic is a convenient way to keep others down is not insignificant, unfortunately. It's not the Sleepe—er, non-magical people we're hiding from."

[byrightsinhell]

"That isn't unfamiliar. Most of our conflicts tend to be internal as well." Arguably because English wizards did their damndest to pretend muggle society didn't exist, but even so. Though Lucius isn't so much of a hypocrite that he'll comment on "keeping others down," either.

"We call them muggles. People without magic."

[wandandsickle]

"We are all our own worst enemies," she says, with a half-smile. "Oh, we call them Sleepers—that was what I was about to say before—because they haven't Awakened yet, but they might someday, right. 'Muggles'—hah, it's a bit of a funny word, isn't it. I wonder where it comes from?"

[byrightsinhell]

"I'm not entirely certain," he says, almost surprised. "I suppose I never thought much about the etymology. There are squibs, now and then, too - people whose family can do magic, but they can't."

Which is one of the most wretched fates he could imagine, and it shows; some cultural mores fade less quickly than others.

[wandandsickle]

"Ah, I suppose that would be notable if your entire family could do magic, but you couldn't..." How do the genetics work, if it is genetics? It must at least have a genetic component. "I imagine that would be, well, lonely." And sometimes the reverse is true, too; she wishes, often, that magic was something that she could share with her family... but it's something that none of them would understand.

"Although at least then you know by adolescence or so if it's going to happen. We don't have many long-running families of mages, but there's a handful of Sleepwalkers born to them that are getting on in years and still holding out hope, since it can happen at any age as long as the circumstances are right."

[byrightsinhell]

"You're right, I do think that would almost be worse," he says, mildly horrified at the thought. At least squibs knew with certainty, and could choose to carve out a place in the world they were born to or leave - both bad choices, true, but you knew what you had to work with. But that sort of hope...

"So clearly, then, it's more than just knowing magic exists that causes an awakening then?"

[wandandsickle]

"Oh, certainly," she says. "There are a good deal of folk who know about magic who aren't awakened—friends, family, people who've had other contact with the supernatural, for instance—" She pauses to think for a moment. "The Awakening often requires, well... some kind of triggering event. It's different for everyone, of course, but for a lot of people, it's tied to some memorable event. The sort of thing that would change your life all on its own."

Don't ask about mine, don't ask about mine—

[byrightsinhell]

He's tempted, but thinks it's a bit personal for a first meeting. Instead, he says, "So the difference between mages and sleepers, in your world, is the way they react to that event in their own life?"

AND THEN I FELL OFF THE FACE OF THE EARTH aaa sorry

[wandandsickle]

She blinks. "I never really thought of it that way, but that sounds about right. People who Awaken tend to be more, well... proactive in their responses, you could say, which would make sense for those who would attempt to reshape the universe."

No worries <3

[byrightsinhell]

"It's easy to forget, sometimes, that's what magic is." In his world, it's so taken for granted that now and then he forgets that it gives them the ability to remake the world - even if in small, rote ways more often than not.

(It's hard to forget, when he's experimenting.)

[wandandsickle]

"It really is! I suppose I largely think of it that way because I've always been somewhat preoccupied with changing the world in more mundane ways..." She looks a little bit wistful at that.