thewarningafter | IC inbox for Snowblind

Hi, Flynn Carsen.

[If Stephen sounds tired and shaken despite the attempt at a playful response, it's probably to do with having woken up this morning to realize that he'd lost his goddamn mind in the future he'd imagined. He'd been so alone even with Wilson nearby and the network at hand, so lost. Somehow that version of eternity seems worse than the one he's faced before by choice.

It's not really a good time for that particular topic; he feels the loss of his magic more keenly than ever after remembering literal decades without it. For all that, though, the offer of conversation is almost painfully welcome.]

Yeah. Yeah, it's a good time, I'm not doing anything. Don't have any eavedropppers to worry about, either.

[No House, is what he means. Screw that guy.]

Oh, good. That's good.

I thought it might be a better topic than... the other stuff.

[Because Flynn doesn't want to think about the other stuff. The bitterness that had taken hold of his heart, the anger. Saying hurtful things to his friends to force a reaction. Beating a heavily injured guy – his friend – and breaking his face into a mild concussion, effectively lowering his chances in this hellhole. All the horrible things that had happened to others.

No, magic, that is the much better subject here.]

Do you have a wand?

[Look, he has to start somewhere.]

[Don't even bring up the other stuff, Flynn -- Stephen isn't even going to acknowledge that there's other stuff to talk about. That's relatively easy in the moment, because Flynn's question surprises him into letting out an actual snort of laughter.]

Eleven inches long, holly, phoenix feather core?

No. No wand. Not for me, anyway, there was --

[There was a friend of his, he starts to say, then stops again. Mordo was lost to him even before he came here.]

There are many kinds of relics in my world.

[Flynn chuckles, the reference not lost on him.]

Too bad. But relics, huh?

[That's a familiar word. Too many relics in his life to even count anymore but he's curious what the ones in Stephen's world look like.]

What kind?

The cloak I've been wearing since I got here, for one.

[There's amusement in his voice. Levi tends to be unobtrusive these days; it does a pretty solid impression of an inanimate object most of the time.]

Your cloak?

[He seems to remember something about it in the fog of time diluted memories – something important – but no matter how much he tries to remember, he can't get a hold of the thought.]

What about it?

It's what I've got instead of a wand. The, uh, Cloak of Levitation. We don't do as much levitating as we used to.

[Did he tell Flynn about this before? He can't remember now; it's been years -- no, weeks.]

It's a magic cloak? [Flynn blinks.] What does it do?

... I realize I really put myself out for that one but please don't say levitate.

[Snort.]

Alright, I won't. It hovers.

[The

grumpiest

pause.]

Seriously.

[But it doesn't last, because something about that sounds painfully familiar.]

By itself? Is it, uh.

Alive?

People keep asking that....

[And it's a really awkward question from a technical perspective. Unseen, Stephen smooths a hand over the Cloak's folds.]

Yeah. I'm going to go with yeah, it's alive.

[There is a very long pause.]

I have a frie-- I have a relic like that.

Not here, back... home.

...do you?

[Color him honestly surprised.]

Does that mean you're a sorcerer, or is this more about that whole...keeping things out of the wrong hands gig?

Oh no, nono, no! Definitely not a sorcerer.

More of the latter, really.

Think you could give me a little more emphasis on that no? I'm not sure if you really meant it.

[Stephen, stop trolling him, he's not made for this!]

Not a sorc-... right.

[Ahem.]

... Mine's a sword.

Where'd you get it? I was told that whole, you know. You don't choose the relic, the relic chooses you, thing.

Kind of. He was at the Library already, I pulled him from a stone.

...A stone. Am I speaking to the king of England?

What? Oh, no! Not a king either. No crown.

[He laughs.]

Cal is more of a friend.

...I can relate.

[So he cuddles with the Cloak at night. It's cold here; don't judge him.]

[... To be fair, he probably wouldn't even if it was warm. Relic friends are best friends.]

I had a feeling!

When you said relic, I mean. That's...

I've never met anyone else who had one.

You'd never met a master of the mystic arts. It's a whole thing; members of my order infuse them with powers the human body can't handle on its own.

Can't say I have.

So that's your order? The Order of the Mystic Arts? Do you have a special title?

... Wait, did you make your relic?

What, me? No. Noo.

[His voice drops on that second no because wow, no, he is not capable of making something like this.]

Master Strange, I guess? Don't call me that. I'm also master of the -- of one of the sanctums.

[Best not share locations.]

audio | day 295

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