terribly sorry, officer (baelfiery) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-04-13 16:30:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: kady orlaff-diaz, ₴ inactive: neal cassidy |
WHO: Neal & Kady
WHAT: Neal makes a friend, Kady throws a bench (well, they both make a friend)
WHERE: City park
WHEN: Today
WARNINGS: Nothing requiring anything above a PG rating
STATUS: Complete
For something man made, the city park was pretty nice - or one of the parks, anyway, since in a city this big (kind of reminded him of New York) there were a few to choose from. The trees were so, so tall with roots that went deep and took in the rain that would bloom more green foliage. Parks were also good at telling the stories of the season and now it was spring - warmer winds and mud, flowers springing forth. Blooming anew, that kind of thing - Neal sort of appreciated it because he felt similarly. A lot of this (all of this) was a second chance for him too, and he intended to embrace every second of it. He didn’t have to work until later so he decided to go to the park and get some fresh air - there was a black bench that was warmed by the rays of the sun but he didn’t sit, just kind of meandered for a little bit, taking in the sights. With him he had a bag of birdseed, planning to see if he could get lucky with spotting some ducks - lo and behold, there was a pond where those very birds moved through the water like motors were attached to them. Neal stood at the edge and scattered feed for the ones who were waddling on land; he wasn’t a bird expert but he knew enough not to bring bread. Eventually he decided he’d get some pictures - because it was a pleasant scene and the phone cameras seemed pretty decent. So he went around, snapping a few photos - unfortunately bumping into someone near the pond. Not like he knocked them into the pond, but he was definitely apologetic. “Sorry,” he grimaced. “Amateur photographer. Ducks are really fascinating, I guess.” The great thing about cities was the anonymity. One could get lost in the crowds, hide in plane sight or simply disappear altogether if they wanted. There was also the downside to it, blocks becoming their own little towns, everyone knowing everyone on it. People liked to watch one another whether it was a small town or an endless city landscape. They liked seeing others’ routines, noticing when something different happened, and being endlessly nosy about their lives when possible. There were others who didn’t, who tried to know as little as possible about those around them aside from the bits and pieces to ensure their safety. Kady fell into the latter, carefully ending up somewhere in the middle once she felt a little more comfortable in her own skin. While she had the mirror dimension to practice in that required Stephen being around and there were enough things to accidentally set off in the Sanctum, that she preferred practicing her magic outside. It wasn’t looked at weirdly, barely given a glance over considering how much of it ran through the place. Part of her was convinced it was the very backbone of Vallo. The jolt as she was bumped into had her breaking her concentration, causing the bench she’d been working to lift and keep up in the air careeing toward the pond and the very ducks that the guy was talking about. The water fowl took off into the sky, fleeing the pond and looking for somewhere else to settle for a bit. “Think you’re going to need something else to photograph.” Kady shrugged. Not her fault. Oh. Neal hadn’t anticipated bumping into anyone (total accident, he was just distracted) but he also hadn’t anticipated a flying bench being a result of that. Now he felt extra bad. Because yikes - if he’d been responsible for the destruction of the serene duck pond, that would have really put a damper on his day. “Yeah, no problem - it’s a nice park, I’m sure I can find...something. Cool trick,” he added, truthfully, because it was cool. Looked like some fancy telekinesis or something - he remembered his dad used to know that trick, once upon a time. Of course, Rumple knew a lot of tricks. Potentially too many. Asking ‘are you a good witch or a bad witch?’ seemed inappropriate. Or maybe it was a superpower situation, like in those comics Henry enjoyed reading. He had, before - Neal wasn’t sure if that was still the case; he was still learning what his kid, a few years grown, was now into. “You’re a magic person?” There, that seemed safe. Kady arched a brow at the question. It seemed innocent enough and he’d called what she did a cool trick. She didn’t think there would be a lot of anti-magic sentiment in Vallo, but life had taught her that it was best to be wary. People were good at hiding their prejudices when they knew it wouldn’t be well received. She nodded, her focus heading toward the pond. “Magician. At least that’s what we’re called in my world,” she told him. That would let him know Vallo wasn’t her usual residence. She couldn’t tell yet if the guy in front of her was from there or not just yet. Kady moved her hands, bringing the bench back out of the water and setting it back where it had been. It wouldn’t bring the ducks back right away, but probably by the next day or later that afternoon. “You not a magic person?” Neal chuckled a little, a gravelly sound, like stone breaking apart. “Nope, not really,” he shook his head. “I mean - I’ve used it before. I know a lot about it, or at least, the kind that you’d run into where I’m from. But it’s not an everyday thing.” Even as much as he knew about it - all the little hints and tricks and hidden objects tucked away in his father’s former castle - he was well aware that the rules were constantly changing. Nothing seemed set, or concrete, and trying to rely on that seemed damn near impossible. Mostly it was about intent, no matter what - that magic was neither good nor bad (or particularly light or dark) but it was more what you chose to do with it. And everyone had splotches on their hearts, black marks, due to the decisions they made. Because nobody was perfect either. “I’m Neal,” he held out his hand for a shake. “New person, kinda. So what does being a Magician entail, exactly?” Not a magic person but he’d used it before...interesting. She stared at his hand for a moment before offering up her own for a quick shake. Kady never really understood the purpose of that particular greeting. “Kady. Newish too.” “A Magician is just the fancy name for an academically trained magic user in my world. Most of my shit I learned outside of school though.” She hadn’t even made it a semester. “So I guess you could call me a hedgewitch instead--that’s just one without the academic background. Same magic. Just the others are snobbish about it all.” She nodded toward him. “How do you use it though if you’re not a magic person?” Well, that was an intriguing question - and was also attached to a long, sordid story (and that story was his life, go figure) but Neal would try to stick to the basics. He took a few steps toward the pond, bag of birdseed rustling in his hand again - the ducks were long gone, hunkering down after the splish-splash and bench disturbance, but it was possible other feathery friends would show up. Pigeons, maybe - or puffier birds, with bright colors (he didn’t actually know any of their names because he wasn’t an Ornithologist or whatever). “My father was, uh - he was called the Dark One,” Neal said, and he was aware how dumb that sounded. He wouldn’t have chosen the terminology then and he wouldn’t choose it now, but it was what it was. “Literally like a host for all the dark magic ever. So he had a lot of power and he didn’t really do many good things with it but he still taught me some tricks. He had a lot of magic doo-dads in his hoarder castle. I used some of them when I needed to.” He felt damn weird about it too. But desperate times and all that. “Hedgewitch is a cool term though,” he flashed Kady a grin. “Gives it that extra bit of badassery.” The Dark One sounded needlessly dramatic, but it felt like hosts for darker magic seemed to like that kind of flair. It wasn’t like her world was any better with The Beast running around. Someone needed to work on better monikers. “You’re dad was full of magic but none of it went to you?” she asked, because that was also interesting. It always seemed to be a hereditary thing in most worlds so why had it skipped Neal? Or maybe it just didn’t work like that in his. “It’s kind of badass,” Kady agreed as she watched him throw some seed. Definitely better than the bread too many tried giving to the animals. That shit wasn’t good for them at all. “But mostly it means that all of the hoity toity ones like to talk down to you and try to keep you out of magic spaces. Haven’t run into that kind of bullshit here at least.” “Seems like everyone’s pretty open about magic, and no one thinks they’re hot shit because of education or whatever - at least not many of those of us from other worlds. Maybe some of the more local covens are like that,” Neal guessed - he hadn’t really looked into those kinds of politics, because he didn’t plan to join anything. Nope. Not like he was technically magic anyway, he just knew how various artifacts worked and how blood magic worked (not using blood, it was just a way to lock certain things to people in a specific bloodline). Which brought him to the next inquiry. “My father wasn’t born with magic either - I think only fairies are born with it,” he mused, dusting his hands off. Fairies and Emma (who was this super special product of True Love or what have you, but that was just an aside). “His was more like...a curse, I’d say. He took it willingly into himself, because he had some misguided vision of protecting me from being shipped off to war that way. But you know when people do shit like that it just leads to bad things regardless.” Road to Hell was paved with bad intentions, or however that went - should be on a cocktail napkin somewhere. “Visions are always shit. People really need to start realizing that. They can be interpreted in too many ways. Good shit always turns sour though.” Or at least that had been Kady’s experience with most things in life. Good never lasted. It got eaten by all of the bad in the world. “Still sucks though. Kind of impressed you’re not against magic after having the Dark One as your dad though.” Most she knew would have turned their noses up at it, justifiably so. It could cause as much problems as it solved. It really did all come down to one’s intentions. And even having good ones didn’t always mean much. “So why photography? And why birds?” They didn’t seem like that great a choice for subject matter. Neal actually laughed a little, a soft sound - but kind of resigned. Magic had royally screwed him, sure, but shit had been going sideways well before his father got a wild hair up his ass to take on unfathomable power with the idea that he personally could end the Ogre Wars. Who knew what things would have been like if Milah had actually stayed with her family, and didn’t go off to fuck a pirate. “I mean, it would be stupid to be against magic entirely,” he said reasonably. For a long time he’d wanted to do away with it, wished he could wipe it from existence and had a journal where he documented his research on accomplishing the goal - but that wasn’t the answer either, as he’d come to realize. “It can do good things - but it can also be turned into a weapon. Like anything else, I guess.” A lot of it depended on the person who was wielding the power too - and going too far in the ‘fuck magic’ direction just led him down Tamara’s road; she was desperate and crazy and almost fanatical in her obsession to snuff magic out from the world, and Neal still didn’t know why. Not even to this day. Granted, he supposed it didn’t matter much - she had never loved him anyway. Plus she shot him - that sort of annihilated any chance of a potential reconciliation. “And I don’t know - I’m dead, usually. Thought it might be nice to pick up a few hobbies in my second go at it,” he added in amusement, scrolling through the super amateur pictures on his phone. “I think I just like being outdoors too. Is that where you usually do the magic practice thing? I’ll be sure to observe from a distance next time. And rein in the clumsiness.” Dead. That seemed to be a fairly common thing here. Or maybe it wasn’t common, just much more usual than most people ever had to deal with. There was even a group for it. Or so she had heard. She didn’t really fit into that mold. Not exactly. There were other versions of her out there that hadn’t made it considering they were the 40th iteration back in her world. It was a headache to think about. “That’s definitely a reason to try out some new shit,” she agreed, and photography didn’t seem like the worst thing to go for. Kady still didn’t get the bird part though. “Usually I practice at the Sanctum but it seemed like a good idea to start trying it in different places and see if that affects the outcome or not.” So far it didn’t. She seemed to still be at about 80%, which was an improvement from 60%, so she couldn’t complain too much. “I’m working to get mine back to being 100% stable. With the amount of crap that happens here I want to know if it is going to fizz out on me or not.” “A lot of crap happens here, huh?” Neal asked, but it was a rhetorical question - because yeah. Vallo seemed to be rife with opportunity to exercise both defensive and offensive skills - he personally didn’t have superpowers and had to rely on melee weapons and good-old fashioned asskicking if he wanted to jump into the fray, but considering he had Henry to think of? Neal was less apt to want to jump into the fray. His main priority was keeping his son safe - he didn’t need to be out there waving his dick around. Plus if he got himself killed he was pretty sure Regina would resurrect him just to murder him again - so maybe it was best if he didn’t go there. “Seems like a long road, to getting to one-hundred percent. I’m sure you’ll get there though. Don’t forget to take breaks too - recharge and everything. Maybe also next time, we can hang out someplace without the flying benches.” Hey, why not - he was here, in this world, and didn’t want to get into a routine where he just went to work and then came home, avoiding a whole bunch of things. “Random creature attacks in the forest from what I’ve heard. Sometimes they spill out to the city.” So it wasn’t like avoiding the forest helped much either. She’d seen firsthand how crappy being caught out in the forest could be though without full access to her magic. Kady had no intention of letting that happen again. “Also heard the birds here like to turn killer so you might want to change your photography subject.” “Breaks are being had. I know better than to obsess over it. Never ends well.” All Kady had to do was look at the last few weeks back home to know how true that statement was. Penny was dead in part because of their ridiculous obsession with getting magic back. As for meeting up. She shrugged. It couldn’t hurt, right? If she was going to be here for awhile it was probably a good idea to start doing activities with others. “I don’t know if we can top flying benches but yeah, sure. A meetup could be nice.” Obsession killed, it was true. It was what ruined Neal’s father - and maybe Neal himself, to some degree, though he wasn’t sure if he’d call that obsession per se. It definitely fell under the umbrella of desperation, however. Maybe a smidge of being pissed off about the fact that Emma’s mother and father, perpetual believers in hope, told him to go pound sand when they were all cursed back to the Enchanted Forest and their daughter and grandson were living some fake life in New York. “We’ll do our best,” he grinned. “I’m - on that network thing? Just send me a message. Or I’ll find you, either one.” That either sounded ominous (he didn’t mean it that way, really) or like a Snow and Charming-esque promise; he’d rather the second, since giving off creepy vibes wasn’t what he was going for. “I better go find a new photography subject - but good luck with the practicing?” Right, birds weren’t really all that great. He’d used them as messengers in an era where the internet and phones didn’t exist, but - he ought to stick with something else instead. Like pretty buildings. Network thing. Well. She’d see which of them managed to message the other first or if this random meeting ended up being a one off soon enough. Kady could never quite tell how things would manage to go around Vallo. “See you around, Neal.” She nodded toward him once before heading off, intent on finding somewhere else to practice that had a few less benches around. Or maybe she’d just head toward the foodtrucks. She was starting to feel hungry and doing magic on an empty stomach was never a good idea. |