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I can't get no.....; tag: other apprentice
Topic Started: Sep 24 2017, 02:21 AM (68 Views)
Magik
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Stepping Discs/ Armor Manifestation/ Magical Weirdness
21:07
09/01/2017
A nondescript empty warehouse in the exact middle of Hell’s Kitchen.

Illyana let out an irritated sigh as her ethereal connection to William fizzled out yet again. They had been here an hour, endlessly repeating the same incantations in an attempt to alter her arcane connection to the earth realm. Billy had the raw power, Yana the raw knowledge to make this a simple matter. It was a twining of energies, a twisting of flows, a pinching of arcane points, a meshing of talents and so far a complete bust.

The young woman sat back to back with her fellow apprentice in the middle of a four fold circle, drawn from pure silver dust and warded with the essence of enth. Set at each of the five breach points were the fingers of a neverborn cythine and the ceiling held a mirror circle writ in crimson dust. The circuit was complete, the drawings perfect, the words correct. Yet each time Magik made progress, each time her life force drew close to Wiccan’s, the line grew taunt and the spell works faded from view. That had been attempt number seven.

“William, you are the lead apprentice, a battery of arcane might, and the soulspawn of a nexus being, what is it I am doing wrong here? If I press the weave any harder it will start scourging your flesh. While that would be no deterrent were it my substance, I have no desire to harm you. Earth magic should not be this difficult.”

This was the way of things for Illyana Rasputina, spells that a child could do in Limbo with no training were all but impossible for her here. She had spent days obtaining components, harvesting resources, cleaning Jet’s room. She was not going to leave this circle without result.
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All of the things we're taking
'Cause we are young and we're ashamed
Send us to perfect places
All of our heroes fading
Now I can't stand to be alone
Let's go to perfect places
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Wiccan
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Reality Warping/ Nice Pashmina
"You are trying to put a square peg in a round hole," William stated, his voice was not chiding or scalding, quite the opposite. William felt sorry for Yana, she wanted to be more than what the multiverse had gifted her. Billy's magic was very much of Earth, his connection open and raw - his problem had been controlling. From the very first time, he had tapped into the mystical energies of the world he had struggled to control it and it had taken all his time working with Stephen to finally be able to control the gifts that he had, to avoid the risk of losing himself to his powers in the way that his mother did.

Yana was powerful, Billy did not deny that her problem was that she was not of this realm. She might have been born here, but her magical gifts did not belong here and now that she wanted to flex her muscles she was struggling with adapting the rules that she knew from Limbo to the rules of magic here on Earth.

"You are also trying to force it Yana." Billy was arguably the more patient apprentice, Yana was a fan of instant gratification, and Billy the more tempered student who had learned from experience that it was better to wait and be patient rather than trying to force magic to submit to your rule. "Power is good yes, and I have no doubt that with the power you are used to backing at your fingertips you would be an asset." There was a but coming, but Billy did not mean to hurt or offend the less experienced apprentice. "Do you really wish to be able to control the same spells that you could in Limbo? We have seen that the beasts of Limbo are still looking for you." A topic that was still something of a sore point for Billy.

"Have you thought that perhaps you need to unlearn everything you once knew before you could learn what you need to know to be able to use the magics of this realm?" Billy offered as floated a few feet off the ground with his legs crossed. "Stephen would be better for helping you with this, but I think you know this and would rather find a way around it."
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Magik
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Stepping Discs/ Armor Manifestation/ Magical Weirdness
“I fear I am the square peg, William. Strange pushed me towards this realm, claims it is my home, yet it endlessly rejects me.”

Owing Billy a life-debt after putting him blatantly, carelessly, in actual life threatening danger while turning to help her, Yana had decided to fulfill that debt by trusting him and not hiding anything from him to the best of her ability. This meant she was more honest with the young father then she was with most anyone. It was a weird honor system that most others would never understand, however Illyana hated owing others. She put a bit of her will into the circles and they glowed a deep crimson as she released the excess eldritch energy. William wanted to talk, best they do so uninterrupted.

“Force is the only way I know the arcane to be, a torrent that must be harnessed and directed to your will then spun away from before the inevitable backlash. I know how you and our mentor cast, however your power sources are vastly different from mine own. You are magic, he has gained his through exemplars. I seek serve none outside myself. My gift comes from Limbo, regardless of which realm’s child I truly am. If I am to cast like either of you, my gift must first be repurposed to be of Earth.”

It was an old argument that seemed to have no winning side, a constant loop with no victor. Her powers were almost nothing here, massive in Limbo. She should learn to cast like they did, to direct and work with the energies of magic itself and in general be less intense. How to tell them that she had tried? That the arcane of Earth were like wet tissue paper to her grasp? Casting as they did was even harder for her then the few things her ways trickled out, she didn’t feel this realm’s magic, could not touch the flows. It was maddening.

“I do not want power, William, at least not in and of itself, I want freedom. Those spells and beasts you mention, they are part of who I am, regardless of my feelings of the matter. If I could perform Limbo magic here, I could ensure they never trouble another innocent soul. I could shut off all connections from there to here forever, damn what that might do to me.”

There it was, the truth of the matter, the scared little girl still running from that which pursued her. Illyana Rasputina was a craven coward and knew it. She was grateful her back was to her fellow apprentice as she could feel tears of frustration, anger, and guilt form in her eyes.

“Strange might be a better choice, however I can not be like him and it hurts to be reminded of that in his presence. He learned the right way, the kind way, the way that builds people up. With you it is better. You are magic, you have no need to judge those who use it simply by constantly living as an example of what they are not.”
Posted Image
All of the things we're taking
'Cause we are young and we're ashamed
Send us to perfect places
All of our heroes fading
Now I can't stand to be alone
Let's go to perfect places
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Wiccan
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Reality Warping/ Nice Pashmina
"You are a round peg that is rough around the edges," Billy said bluntly, though even when he was speaking bluntly he spoke with affection for the younger apprentice. "You are just as much of this realm as you are of Limbo." Billy looked at her in a way that said he would not take any more arguing on that matter. "You were born here and raised in a magical dimension. I was born using the magic of my mother in a constructed realm created to allow her to hide from her pain. If I can learn the magic of this world and not succumb to the wanderings of my mother then so can you." Perhaps this was one of those moments where it showed just how much Stephen had rubbed off on Billy, but Billy could not tell.

They were similar in so many ways it was strange, at first Billy was not happy with the notion of a second apprentice - he would gladly admit it was because he saw it as a threat to his own learning, that he might lose out because there was a second. In truth, though Yana brought a new face to his learning, while Strange had taught him much, Billy had a chance here to help teach Yana, to aid Stephen in the training of the second apprentice and to grow through helping others rather than just learning about the world of magic around them.

"Then perhaps it is time to sever your connection to Limbo entirely? Yes, you might lose your connection the arcane forever, but if you want to be of this world then you need to give up the old world." Whether such a thing was possible, Billy did not know, his magic was instinctive, raw and despite knowing many of the spells that Stephen had taught him. When Billy cast his own spells, they were instinctive, crafted from his own mind and given form rather than learned directly from a book.

"I will help you Yana, you know I will. I would tear open the dimensional walls of Limbo and throw holy light into it myself if I thought that would help you." Billy was pretty sympathetic when it came to others, "I do try not to judge and I think you are underselling our teacher. He may be the Sorcerer Supreme but you have done nothing to make him turn you away. I could talk to him for you if that is what you want?" Billy patted her on the shoulder, "Now please stop beating yourself up. That is my gig."
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Magik
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Stepping Discs/ Armor Manifestation/ Magical Weirdness
“It is of course possible, though most likely closing the gate between Limbo and Earth realm would result in my death, perhaps also my rebirth.”

This was a subject Illyana had thought about often and at length during her years back on Earth. The young woman wanted freedom, to have no strings on her at all and was willing to do far worse things than risk death for it. Every moment, in the core of her being she could feel the tiny tug towards Limbo, the gnawing touch of the place’s corruption and cruelty. That constant reminder was why she so recently worked so hard to do good, to BE good, though she didn’t understand really what that meant. She could see it in people like Strange, like Billy, like Boss Alex, however she didn’t understand it. She mirrored them, asked herself what they would do and attempted to do it. Yet this was, like a parrot talking, reflex and imitation, she did not fathom why they did good things at risk to themselves.

Letting her face shift and become a careful mask over her emotions Illyana tugged at the threads of the circle they were in and shifted space using William’s energies. The circle flexed, leaving deep scorch marks in floor and ceiling and now the apprentices were sitting face to face in a sphere of emerald light. This was a powerful, reckless spell, like most of Yana’s castings. If she were to discuss her plans and what might be, they needed to be in a place that did not exist so none could overhear them. This sphere was built of William’s arcane energies and her life force, it literally only existed within the exact moment it was cast.

“Fine then William of the ordered chaos, you wish to discuss my plight and what might be done towards it, we shall do so. This conversation goes no further than you and I as the things which must be done are of the dark mysteries and outer planes.”

Illyana’s face, body, tone, and movements were completely without emotion of any kind, eerily still and precise. Her magic, unlike most casters was powered by her own life energies and deep anger and fear. It was primal, almost alive, and almost impossible for others to duplicate. She knew much, far more then her young age or feeble might on Earth would suggest, however most of it was of the left handed path. Strange knew more, Mordo knew more, however few who were still mortal knew deeper of self-inflicted magic then Magik herself.

“We can sever Limbo from I and I from Limbo, however the spell would be massive and unpredictable. We would need reach through time to cast it and no one could predict when it would mature and fulfill the weave required. Furthermore there is no way to know the effects this would have on Earth Realm. We could predict, we could limit exposure, we could even build safeguards, however we can not KNOW what will happen.”

Magik held up a hand and closed it into a fist. As she did so her ethereal armor flared up around her, silvery, strange, almost translucent liquid like metal of unknown materials. As this place they were in was untainted by both Limbo and Earth the armor stayed in it’s dormant state, silver and ready for whatever was required.

“This…. Armor of mine, it is both gift of Limbo and a memory of Earth. It protects me from my own efforts and keeps Limbo from touching me when I needs must slide through the membrane of that realm. We would need to shatter it and go to Limbo itself, where I would no longer have any protections.”

Illyana, her emotionless mask beging to crack as she revealed things she had never told another living soul tapped her throat where a choker and locket of basalt and ruby appeared. It opened at another touch, revealing two stones set within with space for 3 more. The stones were so dark and black as to defy the very concepts of blackness and darkness. The blonde could not help but run her fingers over them with a smile that was also somehow a grimace.

“Once in Limbo we would need to find the equivalent of mine soul stones. The ones I wear, the ones Limbo holds, all four must be destroyed at the same time. What happens after that I know not, I believe no one knows truly. I could teach you the spells, share with you the deep other gods knowledge, instruct you in the things Strange may not know or if he does dares not utilize. Would you do this, could you risk madness, death, enslavement, torture and the unknown merely to perhaps save a small girl who no one came for so long ago?”

Her mask now shattered, Yana’s face was less her own and more the 10 year old fearless girl of her youth. The student at her brother's school who had the whole world before her and merely sought to be a good daughter, sister, learner, and friend. The Illyana who had no clue what the world was like or what world’s lay in wait for her. The Illyana who still knew what good and right were.
Posted Image
All of the things we're taking
'Cause we are young and we're ashamed
Send us to perfect places
All of our heroes fading
Now I can't stand to be alone
Let's go to perfect places
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Wiccan
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Reality Warping/ Nice Pashmina
Death was always a risk when it came to delving into adventures in alternate realms that were not their own. So far, Billy had yet to find a realm that was the fluffy rabbit land of cuddles and dreams, it most likely existed, but it wasn't like it was a realm that would be high up on the important factor to beings that wanted power and or control of the rest of the multiverse. That didn't mean that Billy was going to blindly jump into a plan that could lead to the death of a friend.

Yana had a habit of tapping into Billy's own magical energies, it was something that Billy was quickly getting used to with the other apprentice. While it wasn't necessarily a good thing, Billy could understand why she used a combination of their powers to seal them off from time and space, it allowed them to speak without the risk of being listened in on by anyone else. Of course, Yana wished for Billy's total and utter discretion. "I think Strange needs to know what we are going to do, he is our mentor for a reason." Billy tried to reason though he knew better than to try and argue, "Though I will keep quiet until I think it will become an issue." It was a compromise, and perhaps one that Yana would not like but it was something that they were going to need to agree upon before they started.

Billy's body language remained open as he allowed Yana to do the talking, she was, of course, the expert on all things Limbo and Billy's idea for solving a problem like Limbo was perhaps not one that Yana would like in the long term.

"Safeguards will need to be put into place that's for sure," Billy had been learning from the Sorcerer Supreme for considerably longer than Stephen and while it had been bandied about that Billy may, or may not replace him when the time came. The elder apprentice couldn't help but think about the consequences of magic, for good or for ill. "We don't want to end up with Limbo here, or here in Limbo." There were lines that Billy would not willingly cross and this was one of them. "I can put fail safes into the spell, ones that would stop the spell before it could become dangerous to our realm." It would take preparation, but it was definitely something that Billy could do with his own powers.

As Yana continued to explain what was needed, Billy observed the stones, they strangely reminded the sorcerer of the Palantir from Tolkien's stories, and these smaller versions were most likely just as dangerous as those that Billy's mind drew similarities with. "I risk insanity every day, Yana. My existence is a constant battle against losing my mind to the power that I wield. I'll risk much for those I consider being my friends."

That was not the biggest obstacle that Billy thought they would come across though.

"Are you prepared to lose your connection to Limbo, however?"
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