_magichands (_magichands) wrote in newalliance, @ 2016-11-14 18:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | doctor strange |
Who: Stephen (+OPEN)
When: 11/9 (backdate)
Where: NYC, streets
What: Stephen does something strange and goes outside - and without a demon attacking!
On his birthday, Stephen woke up and did something he rarely had in the past few years; he went out. A coffeeshop around the corner provided him with his morning tea, and the only odd part was that his hand didn't shake as he dropped in change for a tip. He would not need to worry he would spill this one over himself, or anyone else. It was such a small thing, but one that humbled him as he walked out onto street and into the park.
A mage - even one in relatively normal clothes, trousers and a sweater - was never without entertainment for long; it did not take much more than a crook of his fingers to blow a newspaper over to him, to give him something to set on his knee as a show of activity. He didn't really want it, but in this day and age, if someone didn't have a smartphone, they needed something they appeared to be reading, even if they weren't reading it at that exact moment. He'd carried around a clipboard when he was a surgeon just for that reason; no one interrupted a doctor carrying a clipboard.
He hadn't had a chance to do this. It wasn't just sitting on a bench on a brisk autumn morning, sipping tea and watching people waking up and hurrying to their jobs or out on errands. He'd been one of them, always rushing from work to pleasure and back, carrying too many things and running on caffeine - worse than some, though arguably not as bad as others. Even recently, he was more inclined to bury himself in his books, chasing a spell, teaching a mageling who'd wormed his way into the Sanctum's good graces; more like a chief resident than an attending physician, but not entirely different as far as careers were continued.
Birthdays were days of transition; not like one of the greater holidays when the lei lines were in flux, but full of personal significance. He didn't mind the life he had now, but he didn't mind this morning, either, sipping tea and watching practitioners of varying abilities go through the slow, graceful movements of gathering and releasing energy. He'd learned a similar practice, but as his involved actual energy in the form of magical lights collected around his hands, he would have to pass. But the rest of the day - the rest of the year - he wasn't as sure about. He would have a demon to fight, Loki had assured him of that, but the alternative would have been fighting a demon he had summoned that had taken over at least part of the world, so it wasn't nearly as bad as it could be.
He wasn't sure he could atone for what he'd done, but living a better life seemed the most just action, and days like this were undoubtedly 'better'.