trans_9 | Roaming, restless [After Dungeon Keeper]

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Roaming, restless [After Dungeon Keeper]

Morgan was restless.

When restless, he tended to roam the ship, checking on things he knew of, or seeking out places he didn't out of curiosity. Today was a little of both. After the pitched battle in Hydroponics, he felt a particular obligation towards one plant in particular: the apple tree he'd helped Applejack grow from a seed. For all that he'd done his best to contain Hydroponic in the fight, he hadn't been able to do anything specific to protect that plant.

Done there, he headed back down in the City, off to one particular place that had caught his interest when he had heard about it: an 'air temple'. Not on the map, not listed in the directory, or he'd have wandered over just to take a look a long time ago. Now that he'd heard about it, well...

Time to investigate.

[OOC: Just say where you find him; it can be pretty much anywhere, since his trip covers a lot of ground across the ship.]

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"Oh yeah," Mindy said, shaking her head. "I don't know why, but I was expecting you to tell me they were mystical tattoos or something."

Wait wait, what was he doing? Was he going to look through her eyes somehow to repair the damn tattoo? Could he DO that?

Only one way to find out, and honestly? Mindy was curious to find out.

"They were inspired by a magical tattoo, but these don't have any power besides looking good."

The sensation was not so much him entering her mind, but rather the feeling that there was no longer some artificial, meaningless distinction between her mind and his. Morgan kept his thoughts quite to himself, however, leaving her privacy undamaged and focusing instead on her senses. Yes, he was pretty much looking through her eyes, as his body reached out to pull some needles out of the case.

This is trippy, and at the very least, something that Mindy should have objected to. Then again, Ruffnut had been in her mind before, so at the very least it didn't freak her out, knowing he was in her head. It did slightly bother her to think he might see her lingering thoughts on Ruffnut though. They weren't perverse, but they were still private.

How are you able to do this?

That's why he'd asked first. And also why he was completely minding his own business in there. Morgan couldn't really have pried even if he wanted to; as he began quite carefully placing the acupuncture needles -- in front, which meant she couldn't see -- his mind had a simple, pure, singleminded focus with a level of raw will and determination adequate to rewrite reality itself to his desires, in the most literal sense.

Do you want the simple answer or the complicated one?

Before her eyes, the skin on his back began to adjust minutely, bringing the tattoo into far sharper definition.

Well she was glad that he had asked, and knowing that he wasn't about to start prying into her thoughts put her at ease. She hadn't really thought he would anyway, but it was still something to be legitimately worried about.

The simple one. Gotta wrap my mind around it.

Magic.

That was the simple and matter-of-fact answer. The tattoo snapped sharply back into place, now perfectly matching the rest of the ink on his back; a moment later, he left her alone in her mind.

Well shit. That was brief.

And she was back again, shaking her head. "Hey man, you totally have to give me a list of the shit you;re able to do. Every day you surprise me with something."

"Not possible," he said, as he carefully withdrew the needles from his skin. He turned to face Mindy as he pulled a cloth out of his little case to wipe them down. "Willworking is associative, not linear. I can do anything I believe I can do, within the general definitions of what I know how to do."

He tossed the needles back into the case, snapped it shut, then finally sank deeper into the water. "For example, I can create, change, or manipulate forces on a small scale."

OK, this was still something that was beyond her scope of understanding. As far as she knew, if you worked for something and trained, you got better. What he was talking about just didn't make sense to her, and anyway, how did you JUST know he to do things like that?

"But how can what you talk about even exist? If it did, wouldn't everyone be able to willwork?"

He leaned against the pool wall, stretching his arms out along the side. "Yes, actually, provided you're not in some way, shape, or form either partially Awakened or unable to. Any human being can do it. They just have to learn to believe in what they can do more strongly than the entire rest of the universe and everything and everyone in it believes they can't."

OK, what?

"What do you men partially Awakened, and how would you know if you're one of those people that aren't able to do it anyway? I can sort of understand the whole believing in it or whatever, but how does somebody know if they're even capable without killing themselves? And if you can do THAT, why not make it so you're not on the ship anymore?"

"Generally, if you're already a supernatural creature, you're partially Awakened," he said. "Werewolves, for example. They have their own abilities due to their connection with the spirit world, but true magick-with-a-K is impossible for them. Vampires, on the other hand, have been altered so much in their transformation that magic is simply impossible for them, too.

"As for leaving the ship... Well, for one, the Bleed is so foreign to me I have no idea how to manipulate it. For another, where would I go?"

"So that would, say, leave me out, but would include a flying pegasus, for example. Something like that?"

Yes, Mindy was still thinking about Rainbow Dash, the weird but still pretty cool pony.

That was a good point. "Just a question. I mean, where COULD we go, if the Ohm is still destroying shit? But I'm hearing what you say then. An ordinary person with no abilities and no alterations can actually use their strength of will? How did you know you could even do it?"

"As near as I can tell, you're a human girl. It's theoretically possible. As far as I know only humans can do it..." He shrugged. "But then again, Earth WAS mostly humans, so it's not like I have the broad experience to say."

Heh. The subject of his own Awakening... that was always awkward. "It's the same for every Mage, at the very base. At some point, you realize -- you understand, on a fundamental, primal level -- that the world just doesn't work the way you've been told it does. Once you have that Awakening, things are never exactly the same again."

"You can say that again," Mindy said, although she knew by now that being a regular human girl didn't mean she was without her own strengths. She'd proved that more than enough times in her own world that you just needed gadgets and a brain.

"So you basically come to realize the world isn't set in the way most people think it is," Mindy said. "I'm still wrapping my head around that, but obviously I believe it. How does someone who never had to learn it before, like, start?"

"You believe it up here," he said, tapping his head, "but you don't believe it down to the very core of your being. That's what the Awakening is. It comes to everyone differently. For some people, it's a slow realization that comes after hours of work and sweat, or study and knowledge. For others, it's violent and traumatic, desperation."

"Well shit, I've sorta been involved in all those scenarios," Mindy said, and was even more startled to realize that despite her joking, this was actually true: she had worked and studied and learned, yet she'd also been a part of violence and trauma. As for desperation...

"Maybe that was what lead to that new attack," she said, half to herself.

"Just going through them doesn't necessarily mean it will happen, though. It isn't reliable. If there were a guaranteed way to make it happen..."

He shrugged again, confident she could draw her own conclusion.

"But there isn't," she said, and really, she should have figured that out anyway. If that was all it took to be as strong as Morgan, then lots of other people would have done it by now.

"So the only real way to do it is by training," she finished.

"Not even necessarily then. Some people study static magic all their lives and never make the leap to true Awakening." Not that static magic was useless or even inferior, just different.

That certainly sobered her up a bit. The idea that she might try this and it would never happen? But Mindy immediately tossed the idea out of her head. She was a McCready damn it, and she would find a way!

Besides, that she had already gotten as good as she was now was proof plenty that she had what it took to try and find out.

"Ok Morgan, when's our next session? You know, when you feel better and shit."

He honestly didn't foresee it happening. She thought it was about strength and power, obviously, when in fact it was all about belief.

"Oh, I'm feeling fine now, physically anyway. I'm just trying to get my head back in the game. There was a repodding I'm down about. Hell, I was out here roaming just trying to distract myself... training would be a good way to do that too."

Belief she had no problem with. It was more her actually finding the time to actually gather those thoughts together and be fine with herself. Strength and power was just her usual go to solutions.

"Repodding?" Yeah, she knew a little about some repodding all right. Between the robots and finding herself tending to an abandoned cafe, she had her own shit in her head to ponder. "Who was it?"

"A girl I was interested in. Kind of trivial in the grand scheme of things, but it's hard to share someone's body and headspace for several days and then not miss them when they were gone. She isn't dead, though, so that's a nice change of affairs."

He hadn't meant the statement in relation to SHODAN's actions in the pods, didn't realize it might be insensitive.

"Aw man, really? How did I miss you finally liking some girl? At least you could mention her name or something! I even had some really good friends of mine that were podded. Who was she?"

Oh. Yeah, that. "That's...fortunate." She kept her eyes steady, trying not waver, and covered up anything he might have seen by submerging herself a moment.

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Damn, she was starting to get over this too...