Log: Rey & Ren Who: Ren and Rey What: Magical colloquium and family chat When: Mid-February, after Atticus' collapse and recovery Where: Ogden lake house Warnings: None.
Ren stared up at the house, and half was tempted to just turn around and go back to his house, and forget this. But he was hoping to help Adrian so he pulled his leg off of his motorcycle and headed towards the house.
The last time he'd been here it had been with Louis, his attempt at being spontaneous and romantic and Ren didn't know if it had been either of those things. He rather thought in general it had been a pleasant evening, but…
Undoing the locks was easy enough, and he did that, and knocked once on the door but nothing beyond that, cause he'd texted her that he was coming. Senses alert, he stepped into the entrance way, and upon not immediately seeing Rey, he made his way towards the library.
Rey was in the library with a no-spill bottle of water and some manuscripts and books laid out. A small pile of books, two or three tall, was set aside on a table with a sticky note for "Ren" attached to the one on top. "Hullo," she told Ren, and gestured to one of the free chairs in the room. "Make yourself at home, since it is your home, really. How are things going?"
He gave her a look because yeah, it was, but it was also really not. But he settled into one of the free chairs and pushed his hair back behind his ears as he considered the manuscripts and books. He caught sight of the sticky note right away, but for a moment he didn't move towards them.
"Yeah, um, we're working on stuff I guess." He reached for the books and pulled the first one off the stack, turning it to look at the spine before opening it and glancing at the table of contents. It felt strange to be looking at them again. Although he hadn't always spent the time he could have maybe. His Uncle had seemed to push him for more practical, but this felt less terrifying in some ways. It was all theory - it was hard to mess up theory. He flipped to the first chapter. "What about you?"
"Long story but to cut to the short version, I rescued Atticus McVickers, who is my grandboss at one of my jobs, when he was knocked out. What happened isn't my story to tell but the injury was clearly metaphysical. So I--I tried something that I hadn't done before, which was some theoretical healing work--and it seems to have done him some good. Knocked me on my arse, though." Rey uncapped the water and took a sip. "Have you ever tried anything like that? I was thinking it might have some applicability, afterwards, when I was lying in bed zoned out from overextending myself."
Ren didn't really know Atticus well although he knew he'd seen him on the network some. He tilted his head at all of this, theoretical healing work sounded… interesting. He shook his head.
"No. Not really. Not healing sorts of things, I mean, I guess I've given myself a healing boost at times, but not… anything specific like that." He leafed a page over and paused with his finger still on it as he looked over at Rey. "Knocked out how?"
"I'm not entirely sure, but he said it was something to do with ghosts and was a vulnerability unique to him." Rey shrugged a little. People, what could you do? "Also he passed on a warning: there's apparently a jail for powered people in the works. I know you're careful but I thought I should mention that. And no, I don't know any more than that the jail is in the works." She made a face. "Anyway, wandering back round to theoretical healing, he looked like he'd had a--like a bite taken out of his life essence, almost. He was weak. So I--I opened up to him, I guess, is the best way to put it. Filled some of his reservoir back up. Do you see how that kind of thing could work with your problem?"
Ren frowned slightly, fingering the edge of a page as he glanced up at her. "There've been rumors at various points," he offered. And there was wherever Adrian had been - whatever that facility had been had definitely kept him locked up for a while, although Ren wasn't certain if had been specifically for the powers. Maybe for powers enough - because Ren had definitely been given the impression that Adrian had been there so he couldn't hurt anyone with the Obscurus.
"A bite out of his life essence," he considered. Attention turned fully to her he tilted his head. "With Adrian there's… I'm not sure. It might help in some cases." He looked at the book. "It's like his magic has been split? Sort of - I think that's the best way to consider describing it? The Obscurus does use his magic, and he can use that with the Obscurus, but it's harder for him to control it himself - and that can weaken him some. But we had some success - I think he's been fighting the Obscurus a lot, and maybe pulling it back to work with it - instead of against it - may help. It's just - not quite how we were taught, or anything that I ran into with my Uncle." Ren's frustration was palpable. "I've only got what I worked to overcome myself, and like, whatever is in these. I feel like I'm just making guesses with it."
"It's not a science; it's an art," Rey reminded Ben. "We're all just making guesses with it. British wand magic is about intellect. We do things by our senses. The books help, but ultimately it's different for each of us. I didn't know entirely what I was doing with Atticus but I knew enough to do the channeling from me to him. The trick with Adrian is going to be finding the way to channel the energy, or teach him to, and where to channel it. Though," she added with a rueful grin, "that makes it sound much simpler than it actually is. Uncle Luke could be really hokey about a lot of it but he was right that we all have to find our own way."
Ren hadn't really thought of it exactly as art, but it made sense sort of. In fact, as he thought about it, it almost felt as if what he'd done with Adrian before might be easier if they'd thought of it as art. And while he'd half known the wand magic intellect piece, he hadn't really thought of it in exactly that context either. He glanced over at Rey, his expression halfway caught between gratitude for the insight and curiosity as to how she knew it. He didn't really say anything about Luke, because he had always felt as if Luke wanted Ren to find his way - but the way Luke wanted him to find it, and that wasn't an argument he wanted to get into right now. "I think you're right about the channeling thing, and also… relearning pathways maybe. Not feeling like you should be doing one thing when another works better for you."
"Yeah, you have to do it your own way. Some things work easier for me and others for you. That was always true, it was just sometimes Uncle Luke had a hard time seeing it." Rey wasn't actually reading his mind, nor even his facial expressions; she was looking down at her own book again. "It's just complicated. I wish we'd had the opportunity to work with some of the teachers Uncle Luke had, or some of their teachers. Just more and different, with a variety of approaches."
He glanced over, but when he saw Rey was looking at the book, he didn't snap. She wasn't wrong about what Luke had been able to see - or not.
"Perhaps one of them would have been able to answer this for us," he muttered. "Or at least have more experience with it." Ren was muddling through. He was trying to anyway, and he thought Adrian was getting slightly better, but still - it was a challenge and he didn't know if he was doing it correctly, really. Maybe there wasn't a correctly here. Maybe it was just - how he figured it out. "I guess we just have to figure it out ourselves."
Rey did stop and look up at Ren then, smiling, an expression that was genuine enough that he could feel it with his other senses. "We have their words, or at least some of them. And we will figure it out for ourselves. You can do it. I believe in you, Ben."