Who: Julia Wicker & Eliot Waugh What: First Meetings When: Late June [backdated] Where: A Park Rating: Low
Eliot was fairly confident that Julia would be able to see him on the bench he was sitting on when she showed up for their meeting. He’d brought some of the items that had shown up from his Dreams, chiefly the mated books that were at this moment in a bag beside him taking a break from their normal activity, and he’d been up practicing some of the spells that he didn’t use more often. Somehow he didn’t think his spells with alcohol would go very far to proving to her that he hadn’t completely lost his mind and actually could do magic.
***
Julia only knew about Eliot because Quentin had mentioned him. That he was in his Dreams, but also that he’d met him here, in Orange County. She hadn’t quite known what to expect, but having had a few dreams herself - mostly the same one, over and over, about failing a test to get into a magic college - she was a little more open to the idea that there might be something.
Pushing her hair back behind her ear, she approached the meeting place and realised that there was absolutely no way she would have been able to miss Eliot, which was something she’d worried about. He stood out, for the right reasons of course, but he still stood out.
“Eliot,” she started, holding out a hand. “Nice to put a name to the network user.”
***
Eliot knew what Julia looked like thanks to the Dreams so he knew who it was the second she held out her hand to him and he gave her a quick smile as he shook her hand, standing up from the bench and looking her in the eye. “Julia. Nice to meet you face to face.” He said, making the same decision he had with Quentin on an impulse to not say anything about having dreamt about her. It wouldn’t make any sense to her if she hadn’t started dreaming and might come off creepy if she hadn’t seen him yet.
“I just hope that I can live up to the expectations.” He joked. “I’d offer you a drink but I didn’t bring any glasses.” He said reaching for his bag as he sat back down on the bench. “When I first suggested this place for our meeting I was expecting there to be more people here. There normally are when the weather’s nice but I guess there’s a fair or certain going on nearby.”
***
Julia sat down as Eliot did, knees together and keeping a definite person-sized distance between the two of them. She knew Q had met Eliot, and she knew that Q had been dreaming about the tall, eccentric man, so she was aware that - even if it was just in dreams - there was some tenuous connection between her and Eliot. She still didn’t understand what these Dreams were, but honestly, from looking at the Network it seemed that nobody really did.
“I hope you can too,” she told him with an arch of her eyebrow, leaning against the back of the bench and watching him carefully. “Do you really need a packed area for whatever magic trick you’re gonna show me or do you just like an audience?”
***
Eliot laughed at her question and shook his head. “Well I did promise you that it wouldn’t be isolated if you agreed to meet me.” He said giving her a quick grin as he felt movement in the bag beside him. They were stirring. This would either be good or bad for him. He pulled his flask out of his coat packet and took a swig. “Want a drink before I show you?” He asked holding it out to her.
***
“From your flask?” Julia asked, her eyebrows arching. “No, thank you.” She wasn’t quite desperate enough because of her dreams to turn to drink but it was pretty close some days. She pressed her lips together and she crossed her legs at the ankle, linking her fingers together. “Show me what, exactly, Eliot? If this is just a cheap magic trick,” she warned.
***
"Fair enough." Eliot said drinking again before putting it back in his pocket. "Not a cheap trick. I promise." He grabbed one of the bags and handed it to her, feeling the books inside starting to stir again. "Take a peak in there. That's one of the gifts I had show up."
***
Julia eyed Eliot for a moment, clearly suspicious. “Books,” she deadpanned, looking up at him. “You’re showing me… books?”
Of course, then she felt the bag shift a little and she looked inside again just as one of the books… mounted the other, covers splayed. She stared for a moment before she quickly closed the top of the bag, folding it over to give the books their privacy. She wasn’t sure how that proved that Eliot could do magic.
She had another peek, just to prove to herself that she wasn’t insane.
Nope, the books were definitely getting it on inside the bag.
She closed it again and passed it back to Eliot, feeling oddly dirty.
“Well, fuck,” she muttered, “those books are- uh-” she waved her hand, “fucking?” It was a question because she wasn’t entirely sure that was what she’d actually seen.
***
Eliot was almost numb to the books actions by this point, they’d lived under his bed for a few months so he’d gotten used to them going at it at all hours of the day and night. And from going by The Magic Guild he knew they still tended to go at it pretty regularly in the case Magnus had them displayed in. He set the bag down beside him as he took another drink from his flask.
“It’s what happens in my Dreams when you have books that are part of a set or a matching pair. They do that.” He said with a shrug. He knew that she probably wasn’t exactly convinced that he hadn’t been lying to her. The Julia he knew from his dreams wouldn’t have been anyway so he reached into his coat pocket to pull out a small marble he’d picked up on the way to meet her. “And just so you know it’s not only items that have some type of magic.” He said holding it out to her. “Roll it around or whatever you need to do to reassure yourself that it’s not a trick marble that I’m going to use.”
***
Julia narrowed her eyes at him a little, still disturbed that he’d just carried around books that were in a… ‘mated set’. She wet her lower lip and felt her eyebrow arching again, taking the marble and rolling it between her fingers. She felt like this was the set up to some kind of floating object act, or Eliot was going to make it disappear.
She was reminded sharply of Quentin, when he was younger and standing in front of her bright eyed and excited with a trick coin telling her this time it’ll work, it’s a totally normal coin, look, you can see for yourself!
“So you’ve got magical items and, I’m guessing since you told me on the network that you can do magic, you’re about to show me?”
Skeptic? No, of course not.
She handed the marble back.
***
Eliot gave her a brief flash of a smile at that question. "I promised I would didn't I?" He set the marble down on top of his flask between them so it would have a slightly flat surface as he cracked his knuckles before starting in on the intricate finger motions that the spell called for.
The marble lost its solid form as he went, turning into a small glass puppy that if anyone that knew him and Gerald would recognize as being identical to his immortal puppy. It moved around slowly, balance a little precarious on the metal so Eliot set his hand down beside it and gently guided the glass dog over to stand on it and then lifted it for Julia to see better. "Magic."
***
Julia watched the way Eliot’s fingers moved. It looked like tutting, just without the same kind of rhythm. The movements were clearly practised, though, with Eliot moving through them effortlessly, with only a little concentration on his face.
The results, however, did make her gasp in astonishment. The marble twisted, glowed bright and then assumed the delicate shape of a glass dog. It shook, a fully body shake, as it stood on Eliot’s hand and wagged its tail.
She wasn’t completely sure what to say, and when she breathed out it was with a half laugh, lifting her fingers and putting her palm flat. Magic was real. She couldn’t wait to tell Quentin what she’d seen; he’d love this. Maybe Brakebills would-
“Can I hold it?” she asked, ignoring the unhappy clench in her stomach at the thought of her own experience so far in the Dreams
***
Eliot was glad that the dog had turned out so well, moving around on his hand and sniffing in Julia's direction and at her hand. "Just be careful. It's pretty fragile. And active. I'm thinking I'll name it Gerald Jr." Yeah. He had no plans of turning the little dog back into a marble. Maybe Felix could take it to work to play with. Or if he didn't want it Minako's desk might be a good playground for it.
He carefully moved his hand so the glass dog could move into Julia's.
***
Julia stretched her hand out carefully, letting the tiny glass puppy wander across her fingers and onto her palm. She smiled a little, lifting her hand to look at him before lowering her palm to her lap so there was something steady for the puppy to wander across. Her hands were a little shaky.
“Gerald Jr?” she asked, wondering where the name had come from. A grandparent, maybe. “It’s adorable. And you- how did you do that? What was the hand movement?” She tipped her head, “If you do it again, slowly, to show me, it won’t hurt Gerald Jr, will it?”
As if on cue, the glass puppy rolled onto its back on her palm, legs wiggling in the air. She carefully rubbed its belly with the pinky finger of her other hand.
***
Eliot smiled as he watched the little puppy walking around her hand. He’d modeled it after his immortal puppy from the dreams. Everybody there had called him Cancer Puppy but Eliot knew his actual name and used it - Gerald. “It’s a simple spell. They teach it to the first years. The movement is to help with focusing the power so it doesn’t just...explode out of you.” He explained quietly.
“It won’t hurt him as long as I don’t direct it at him. Or at least I don’t think it will.” He said, showing her the movements again, slower this time.
***
Julia watched, eyes tracking his movements and her fingers twitched, desperate to copy them but not wanting to do so while she had the tiny puppy who was bumping its nose against her thumb for attention since she’d decided not to watch it anymore. Eliot’s hands were more important.
“Okay,” it didn’t look too hard. She filed the movements away to practise when she was at home. “That- that’s amazing,” she admitted. “And how much of magic is in form versus intent?”
***
“I’m actually not sure. That’s a question that Alice would probably be better at answering if she was here.” Eliot said as he reached for his flask again, taking a swig before setting it down. He for one was glad that the blonde from the Dreams didn’t seem to be around anywhere. “I know that for me I need the movements for major changes to things. Minor things I can just...make them happen with a simple move of my hand or a thought it seems.”
***
Julia nodded again, wetting her lower lip and watching the tiny glass puppy roll onto its back, tail wagging against her palm. She nudged its belly gently and it wriggled happily in response. She didn’t know Alice, didn’t recognise the name, but then her own dreams had been limited.
“Here,” she said after a moment, lifting her palm and offering the puppy back to Eliot. “I should probably… I mean I should get going, you’ve given me a lot to think about but I might be in touch if - or maybe when - I dream a little more?”
***
Eliot took the small glass puppy back, cradling it carefully as he moved his hand toward his leg so the animal could walk around there. "I'll be around. Q has my number if you want to talk more about things. It's...I won't lie. It's a lot from my point of view in them. Having Margo to help put it into context has helped. Help fill in the blanks when I need." He gave her a slight smile.
***
Julia smiled and nodded, getting to her feet once the puppy was settled. She shouldered her bag and tipped her head.
“It was nice to meet you, Eliot,” she said honestly, “I’ll be in touch if I have more questions.”
Which, she undoubtedly would.
“Take care of Gerald Jr,” Julia added as a parting gesture before she turned and started walking away. “See you around.”