Magius (magius) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2013-06-21 09:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, magius, yuna |
About ready for dinner?
Who: Magius and Yuna
Where: Sunburst Medical Clinic and then a close-by eatery
What: explaining some of the oddness of the OC to a newb.
When: The evening of June Seventh
Warnings/Rating: PG-13, I think, for discussion of serious subjects
Status complete
It was nearing the end of the workday for Yuna and Magius, though it was hard to tell that by looking at Yuna, at least. She was camped out in the file room with a cup of takeout coffee in one hand and a stack of records next to her. A few files were in her lap, as well, and she'd spent the last twenty minutes paging through the one that was currently open.
There were some very strange phenomena happening to the patients that were seen here, and Yuna was trying to make sense of it. It was hard to do, really. If she was right it was all stemming from some very odd kind of dreams, ones she herself had never experienced.
She put that file off to the side and leaned against the stacks, wondering if she needed to start asking the doctor some questions.
Magius smirked as he wandered in, wondering, now, if she was ready to talk. Sooner or later, he expected questions, possible accusations, and possibly running and screaming. But for now he smiled as he saw her. “About ready for dinner? The last case went home and it looks like the clinic is ready to go to night hours smoothly.”
His voice almost startled her, and she steadied the coffee in her hand. It was in a take out cup so it wouldn't spill too badly, but she still took a great deal of care as she set it down and started picking the records up, "Yes, I hope you didn't need me for anything. I was catching up on the rest of your files so I could be of more use."
Maybe she could ask her questions over dinner, "I wanted to talk to you, actually, so dinner sounds ... good."
Magius nodded. “Good. I just had a drop in, a routine visit from an old friend. No dreams involved, nothing engaging. I’ll introduce you two someday.” He nodded.
“Good. I was hoping you might. Meet me out front in say, fifteen?” He smiled to her. He was ready. It was time to answer questions.
"Yes," Yuna replied, with an obedient nod. She rose to her feet and began the task of putting everything away carefully, before going to change out of her scrubs and into her regular clothing.
Nearly fifteen minutes to the second, she was waiting out front for him. Dinner with the older man was a thing she didn't expect, but when he offered she never passed it up. For one thing, it made sure she ate better than when she fended for herself. For another thing, he was friendly and easy to talk to.
Magius smiled as he slipped out to join her, leather jacket on, not of some silly style, but an older, fuller one. “Want to drive and follow me, or come along in my car?” He offered both options since it seemed nice to do so. “It’s just down the street.”
Yuna pondered that. She could go in his car and walk back, though he was just as likely to drop her back off at her own car later on if she did that. She didn't want to be any extra trouble, so she shook her head, "I'll follow you in my car, if that's okay."
“Of course. It’s down the street at 1523 Darkholme Street. at the corner.” He nodded and headed for his car, smiling, and with a bounce in his step. This was going to be interesting. Soon he was pulling into that parking lot, and then stepping in and getting them a table. Then he waited. Magius figured she would be right on his heels.
He wasn't waiting long before she walked up to the table and joined him, taking the seat across from him. She made herself comfortable and settled her hands on the table, smiling at him while trying to decide how polite it was to get right into things. It probably wasn't.
"I want to talk to you, but I'm not sure that it's... exactly polite dinner conversation."
Viewing her, he nodded, then Magius smiled and chuckled. “Yuna, just say it. What is said here will go no further.” He nodded to her. She was smart, and she must have noticed something.
"The people you see, then." Yuna started, with a bit of a nod, "They aren't... normal, are they? Not like some other people that the clinic sees."
“If by normal you mean every day people, no. Most of those I see are what are called Dreamers, here in the O.C. I still help a lot of non-Dreamers, but those are the majority of my clients.” He viewed her across steepled fingers. “And does that bother you?”
"No, of course not," Yuna shook her head and waved one of her hands off to the side. Her voice was its usual soft-spoken tone. Magius was a figure of authority, and she respected him, "I... Bother is not the word I would use. I am more concerned... well, I just wish that you had mentioned it the day I came on. I would have had a little more time to research on my own."
“There are some things, it is best to approach from an immersive point of view. The cases I deal with sometimes, are not normal in ways that, if they were taken wrongly, could end up badly for those involved. What you find out while on duty stays in the clinic, by law and by ethics, and by custom. I believe you are a good person, but in this case, I have more than just my life in hand. I must be cautious for people’s very freedoms could be threatened.” He spoke softly, passionately, leaning forward slightly.
Yuna nodded her head slightly, "I absolutely do not mean to bring up any of those details here, or anywhere else. I understand that there's more at stake here for all of us... or at least, I think I do. I think I more meant... on the most basic level. I wish I'd been reading that network more."
“Just take time to do it slowly, take it in slowly. It doesn’t need to be absorbed and consumed quickly. Information is much like food. If consumed too fast, it will make you sick.” Magius tapped his nose. “But yes, I wanted you to find it and to learn of it. I already suspected you would, and that you will someday Dream, as the others do.”
"... You sound so certain of that..." Yuna wrinkled her brow. Some of the things she'd read on the net made her wary of the dreams, other things sounded so fantastical that she thought being a Dreamer might be fun. Either way it was fascinating from a medical standpoint.
She tucked some hair behind her ear, "Do you Dream?"
“I am. And I do.” Magius sighed as he sat back. He rubbed his face as he considered her but his voice went on as he did so. “I have lived in this county for some sixty five years, almost sixty six. With a few wanderings along the way. I have treated a lot of Dreamers and seen things I could not define or explain. And yet, it was not until I signed on to the Valarnet that I started dreaming. “
He nodded. “Years of no dream, until then, and within weeks, I was Dreaming memories of another life.” He smiled softly, faintly to her.
"Do you think it's actually linked to the..." Yuna wrinkled her brow. That seemed kind of... well, it seemed like a childish concept, really. The idea that simply accessing a specific network would suddenly create such life-changing phenomena. Could the supernatural be ruled out, though, when people dreamed of other lives and gained things from it?
"Such physical things, too..." She whispered, to herself, then shook her head, "It seems... unscientific to believe that such a thing is happening simply because one accesses a site on a computer. And I can't believe that I never noticed any of this before now."
“No. Not directly. I think... really, that it is simply... when someone accesses that network, somehow they are ready. Whether coincidence or something deeper, I do not know.” Magius had not yet found the basis behind the dreams at all.
“I think it is something else, something more, but I do not know what it is. Simply that those who access the network are those who have such things happen, sooner or later.” He chuckled. “Of course, that may not be the case.”
"Like opening a door... Between some other realm and your own," Yuna pondered. She took a sip of water and flexed her fingers, which had clasped together so tightly that the knuckles were starting to whiten. Had Ben had dreams? He'd never mentioned them at all... maybe he hadn't wanted to scare her.
"There is plenty of folklore about such things. The situation is not exactly the same, of course, but I think I could understand the concept. And you think... the physical manifestations of these dreams, is that a question of belief, or something more? I know you can only hypothesize, but I'm... interested in what you think."
“Or two alternate universes touching, briefly.” He smiled as he watched her, hoping she would be okay. She was facing it with a tenseness that worried him, even as she worked it logically.
“I think the changes are a result of two versions of one being trying to exist in the same place. Sometimes the one in this universe wins, sometimes the other. Sometimes there are changes, sometimes, not.”
Magius nodded.
The entire concept that Magius was suggesting shook her somewhere deep inside, but in a way she couldn't explain. She didn't want to look away from bad or unpleasant things, and this was certainly one of them. It was scary. What would change about her, if anything? What would she dream of, if she dreamed?
She didn't want to become something that wasn't herself. Maybe that wasn't as great a fear as she thought, "Can I ask you..."
Yuna wrinkled her brow and trailed off, then shook her head, "No, that's probably too personal."
“Ask, please.” Magius watched her, feeling something like a father in this. Despite the tragedy in his past, he often felt so with his patients and the ones he had practically raised, seen born, and growing older. And of a recent time, with Yuna. And now he hoped she was up to the task of facing this.
"Have you... changed, since the dreams? Did they make you different? I only just met you, so I have nothing to compare it to." Yuna's bravery tended to wax and wane, but now that she had his permission to speak plainly, her tone was more bold.
Magius sat back stroking one hand with the other as he considered it and nodded.“Yes and no. I’ve found myself becoming more.... forthright, more ready to speak truth no matter what. Still compassionate, but... I suppose with an edge now. And, there is magic.”
He spoke softly, a word utterly alien, and for a moment, around his hand, there was a glow, before it sparked, popped, and vanished. He chuckled.”Not very good magic, mind you, yet.”
Yuna stared at his hand for a bit, before realising that staring like that would attract as much attention as the magic might have. They'd only just recently spoken about being careful. If she wasn't quite ready to deal with all of this, then 'outsiders' weren't ready, either.
She turned her attention to her menu, like they were still having some casual conversation, "A larger display would have gotten you looks, I think. But it's... comforting to know that the dreams haven't made you someone you regret."
“Yes, it would have.” He nodded. “They have not. I have noted with some worry that... it seems most often and this may seem cruel to say, but those with the most disrupted will, the least amount of self control, are affected the most. Not the weakest, but those who are not happy, not content with their lives find themselves changing more, personality wise. Or so it has seemed to me.”
His smile was lopsided as he spoke for her ears alone. “Physically, people seem to change a lot.”
He sighed and shook his head.”I am somewhat apprehensive of my own future dreams.”
So the idea then, Yuna figured, was to remain strong and only let the dreams affect her as much as she wanted them to. She nodded slightly to herself at that, then raised her eyes from her menu to give Magius a worried look, "Are they... disturbing?"
“Some are. Yes. The world I dream of is war torn, and hate filled. There is religious tyranny with real gods, and dragons led by a dark goddess trying to conquer the world. Distrust of wizards, and by wizards, of others.” He scrubbed his face. “And even dissension in the ranks of wizards.”
Yuna raised her eyebrows, "I think you lost me when you started talking about the real gods and the dragons. I suppose you are one of these wizards, though, in the dreams. You said you had magic. Are you worried that the other you picked the wrong side?"
“Not so much the wrong side as...a selfish side. The wizard society is split into three factions. Those who wear Red, who use magic for magic’s sake. Those who wear black, who use magic for themselves. Those who wear white, who use magic for the good of all. He chose black to start, then red, then went renegade, rebelling against the entire society.”
Magius chuckled. “He is something of an ass. And I am sorry I lost you.”
"Maybe he had a reason to go renegade. It sounds like... well, it sounds like the dream world was experiencing a number of very trying times," Yuna replied. She knew little of it, of course, and he really had lost her with dragons and goddesses and the lot, but it did sound like there was a great deal of turmoil going on there.
"If what you say is true, though. About strength of will, and all of that, then I think that whatever happens to him in that other place... well, you will still be you. A good person."
Magius nodded. “He had reasons, yes. And they are even slightly valid, but mostly, he was a vain and arrogant man.” Magius smiled to her. “I hope you are right. I have always considered myself to be a man of good character and will. I pray it will be enough.”
"It has to be enough," Yuna replied, softly. She wasn't sure what else to say. It had to be, because she had to believe that if she started to dream, she wouldn't change that much, either.
Magius nodded, then smiled to her. “It will be, I am sure. With people like you around me, how would I dare to fail?”
He nodded, not even really partially joking, now. Magic was built on faith, and so was life in many ways.
"Our lives are built on the shoulders of those who carry us when we can't carry ourselves," Yuna agreed, with a nod, "I would be... proud to be any kind of support to you. You have already done so much for me."
“Exactly. When you can’t stand, run, when you can’t run, walk, when you can’t walk, crawl, and when you can’t crawl, find someone who can carry you until you can stand again...” The mangled quote had always meant something to him.
Magius blushed and smiled to her. “And I you. You are a smart, and strong, young nurse, and I think you will go far in your passion and in your professionalism.” He believed she had what it took.
She was actually starting to think that she wanted to be something more than a nurse, but that discussion could wait for another time. She ducked her head a bit, blushing, "Well, thank you. With your help, of course. I couldn't get very far without this position you've offered me."
“And I wouldn’t have offered it to you, if you weren't ready.” He smiled to her. “How are you feeling about all of this, then?”
"It's a slightly scary prospect, the idea that I might dream of a place or a time where another me has done things I might not ever have experienced. That these dreams might give me powers I've never believed existed or... change me somehow. But I believe that I can handle it, if you can. And I want to help these people."
Yuna was determined. She nodded her head, "Yes, I want to help them. Even if my own dreams are nightmares."
Magius held out his hand to her then and nodded. “Then we shall, my dear friend. We shall.” He smiled warmly. Now? Now, she was truly part of his team.
~fin~