{OPEN} The Troubles with Magic

[el_tybs]

WHO: Samouel Gareth and OPEN
WHAT: The strange blue sickness is gone, and so is a certain Rifter. If things weren't bad enough, Sam is experiencing some bad magic
WHEN: Mid-Guardian
WHERE: Kirkwall
NOTES: OOC notes. Injuries, depression, people get caught in magic gone wrong. Etc.

There is a long sigh of relief as the quarantine ends and a cure for the blue sickness is administered. Everyone can go home. He and Jim can go back home, and put this crazy experience behind them, get some much needed rest. Things go back to normal, or at least what has been considered 'normal' to this point.

Relief and contentment only last so long though.

{Disorientation and Blizzards: Home in Lowtown}
He was missing.

Sam was frantic since the moment he woke. Furs and blankets were tossed across the room, the mattress haphazardly leaning at an angle against the bed frame from which it had been shoved off. He seemed as if he knew where he was, but at the same time completely lost.

Kirk was missing.

And Sam... recognized their room, but seemed completely lost. It was after a few more minutes of frantic searching - mostly turning in a circle - before his senses seemed to catch up to him, his eyes less frenzied, more focused. His breath caught as he finally saw the state his bedroom was now in. His body lost it's previous energy from moments before, back finding a wall and slowly sinking to the floor.

That's right, his room, not their room.

Jim had simply disappeared. Sam had only momentarily looked away from his lover, heard his name being said, but when he had turned back, Kirk was gone. Logically, maybe because of the shard or maybe the cure for the sickness, Jim had been sent back home. Course there was relief that he had went home, but at the same time it was a heavy and sharp pain to his heart.

That happened days ago, however, with Sam having mostly secluded himself in the bedroom since. As much it hurt, it didn't make sense why he had become so disorientated and had forgotten how Jim was suddenly not here. Maybe he just needed to get out of the bedroom? To just not be here at this time?

Eyes still red and puffy, with some dark circles, Sam slowly made his way down the stairs to the kitchen. At reaching the bottom step he shivers, a wave of cold suddenly hitting him. He blinks at that, eyes turning towards the fireplace to see that the hearth was alight. That didn't make sense- Then there is a knock at the door. Even though he isn't really feeling up for visitors he still goes to open it.

Before he can reach the door though, Sam makes a noise as suddenly the entirety of his home is swept up in a blizzard, knocking things off the walls and counters, and everything becoming covered in a sheet of snow and frost. It lasts for several long seconds, biting at exposed skin, and it ends just as quickly as it starts, leaving the mage rather startled and extremely cold.

{Stonefists at the Infirmary}
It perhaps a week after the blizzard incident that Sam finally decides to get back to work. He's not seeing as many patients as before, taking the much milder cases at the moment, deciding he needs something to focus on. And mostly to get out of the house.

"Be with you in a second," he says, back turned to the tent flap as he finishes organizing his supplies when he hears someone at the opening. He's just about done, starting to say something else when a large stone appears somewhere over the cot before rocketing right into the mage. It hits him squarely in the side and with enough force that it sends him flying into the side of the tent, which in turn tears the cloth from its poles, making everything crumble down to the ground in a heap.

Sam makes a noise, more of a wheeze, from somewhere under the cloth, making no signs of getting up.

{wildcard}
Other spells Sam is experiencing are Paralyze, Mind Blast (AOE), Fireball (AOE), Chain Lightning (AOE), Earthquake (AOE), and Entropic Cloud (AOE). Feel free to start with one yourself, or hit me up via PM, or plurk (Tybs)

Comments

[nadasharillen]

'Ow,' he said, 'Ow' is good. Satisfied that Sam's heart hasn't stopped, Nari ceases her crawling struggle toward him and changes direction to push herself back against the nearby wall where she lets her head loll to one side, the surface dutifully holding her up.

"Ow," she agrees. She'd heard something was going on with the mages, but this was the first she'd actually seen it. And definitely the first she'd been caught in it.

Actually, it was the first she'd ever been hit by a spell, save by Sina in practice, and Sina's magic had been of a gentler variety. This is probably why people were scared of mages. The elf rolls her head the other way so she can look at Sam.

"We have to stop meeting like this," she says with a small, strained, but still cheeky grin.

[el_tybs]

Sam doesn't have the energy to move so he cannot see the grin, but at this point he can hear the cheekiness in Nari's voice. He can appreciate the joking tone, glad that she can still joke, but at the moment he doesn't find it very funny. Course all he can manage in response at the moment is a low groan.

It's after a few minutes that Sam finally shifts, mostly to turn his head to the side and open an eye to where he thinks Nari is. "You ok?"

[nadasharillen]

From where he's lying, Sam can see her outstretched legs. They seem fine, at least.

"I'm... something," she replies wryly with a cough. "How about you? What in Ghilan'nain's green grove is going on?"

[el_tybs]

He's pretty sure Nari has a fine set of legs, yes, but he's a gentleman and not checking her out- oh wait. Yes, they're doing just fine.

"Gilannane?" He's not meaning to butcher the name, but with his current hearing it's a bit harder to make out the pronunciations. "I'm... something also. Feeling numb in some places and pain in others. ...not completely sure, but apparently myself and several other mages are having issues with spells just going off."

[nadasharillen]

Spells just going off. Nari's mind (still buzzing with the shock) conjured images of fire and ice, eruptions of branches and thorns, force, and rock, and all the elemental fury of magic and she shuddered, the horrified clench of her muscles briefly doubling the ache left in her body. "Creators." She thinks of pulling her legs to her chest, but the idea of moving was a strong deterrent.

"Are they your spells, or are they coming from somewhere else?"

[el_tybs]

Sam shakes his head, or at least he does something which he thinks is shaking his head. Other then that he doesn't move. "I don't know how to conjure primal magic of this level. One of the others who also came from the Circle," he says, not voicing Christine's name just because he wasn't sure how familiar Nari was of her, "says they believe someone is casting these spells on us from far away."

[nadasharillen]

Nari frowns curiously at the prostrate Sam (which manages to give her a brief throbbing headache).

"...How?"

[el_tybs]

"Apparently our phylacteries were not destroyed like we believed they were. And the people who have them are able to cast spells specifically targeting us, or focused on us that affects the surrounding area." Since he's not able to lift his arms yet he makes a vague motion with his head in reference to 'surrounding area'. Least he tries; might just look like him rolling his head.

[nadasharillen]

This is the first she's heard of phylacteries, and she says as much.

"Why would anyone make such a thing that could be used for this?"

[el_tybs]

"Every mage that was brought into the Circle was required/forced to make one. It was to insure they could track a mage down if they became a fugitive. Guess it's true that someone can cast spells through it... I thought mine was destroyed with Ostwick, but suppose the rumor that they are moved after our Harrowings was true, too."

[nadasharillen]

Nari was beginning to understand why Anders nearly spit every time he mentioned the Circles. "That's... awful." Yes, magic was dangerous, terrifying, destructive. Yes, she remembered that the Chant taught those who had led the Circles that magic was meant to serve man, but that didn't mean that mages were meant to serve.

What else did you do? Become like Tevinter? Mages either shackled and bound or ruling over all? Was there no middle ground?

Her brief throbbing headache got infinitely worse, and she made a noise that rose from the pit of her stomach, which was threatening to rebel.

"I think ...I got up too fast."

[el_tybs]

Sam certainly had an idea how Anders felt, though his experience in the Circle was far more pleasant, and while they had become friends, he still couldn't accept the choices the other mage had made; they did need change, but his drastic decisions didn't necessarily help them.

"Glad you're okay..." At least Nari sounds alright, for the most part despite being hit by lightning. As for him, he wasn't getting anywhere quickly. "How close were you to the blast?"

[nadasharillen]

"Not too," she says, her words sounding strained as she fights off nausea. "Were you the center?"

[el_tybs]

"You should probably not move for a bit." He can at least make out that she isn't feeling well. Thankfully she hadn't been closer. "Safe to say I was since the spell was cast on me... think I prefer the blizzard."

[nadasharillen]

Nari swallows thickly, her face scrunching in concentration until the headache and its accompanying sickness ebb a bit, "Prefer the...How many times has this happened, Sam?"

[el_tybs]

How many times has it happened? Sam is quiet for a moment.

"First time getting hit by lightning. Been hit with other stuff... it was about every other day, but now it's daily for... a week now?"

[nadasharillen]

Nari is suddenly struck by the fact that she and Sam must make a comical pair, both lying flattened by rogue magic and yet trying to have a coherent conversation as if it were a normal occurrence.

Which apparently it was, for him.

"...you're hardier than I am," Nari replies with a thin whistle. Getting hit by something like this every day? "...tell me someone's trying to do something about this. They must be."

[el_tybs]

"I've taken to wearing more clothes at all times," that at least helped with the blizzards, " and it helps that I can heal up most of the bumps and bruises afterward." For now at least. "I don't think I'd last long if I took a lightning bolt everyday." And the people casting the spells probably knew that.

"Last I heard we just know someone is doing it and we're looking into the culprits. It won't be easy and probably will take time."

[nadasharillen]

Take time. It sounds injurious at the least, and potentially fatal at the worst, and if the frequency of these attacks were increasing, how long could it be before the affected mages took damage that couldn't be repaired?

So often these days there was nothing to be done but whether whatever came and hope to get through another wave of it.

"...Well. I can understand if you don't want to go to the Hanged Man like this, but it sounds like I should bring you a pint sometime. Play some cards. Live while you can, right?"

[el_tybs]

That was the question wasn't it? One that Sam is trying not to focus on too heavily at the moment otherwise he'll never get any sleep, which was hard enough these past couple months for other reasons.

"There are other reasons why I don't want to go to the Hanged Man, but-" Sam gives a slightly disappointed groan and manages to tip his head to look at Nari a bit better. "Really? That last part?" he asks, not seeming actually upset by her choice of words. He knew what she meant, but considering the circumstances, they could have been better. "I wouldn't mind having more company though. You are more then welcome to come to the house, preferably in the evening when lightning isn't a thing. Well, on days that I'm not catching up on work of course."

[nadasharillen]

"Really? That last part?"

Nari raises an eyebrow and tries for whatever manner of disarming smile she can muster to make a light-hearted joke of her words, although she had in fact meant them that way. Recent circumstances haven't given her all too much hope in the future, rather all too much faith in the capacity of the world to be cruel.

"Well, tell me when the lightning is scheduled and we'll try to work around it," she says. She then considers getting up, but finds the idea unpalatable.

[el_tybs]

Sam has no illusions that any day could be the last, especially now with these magical attacks going on daily. Despite recent developments he still has things to live for though, he doesn't want to think of any of them actually being his last. Not yet.

"I never know what kind of spell it's going to be. It's always during the day time though... so far." He doesn't say it, but it's clear that he suspects that they could change it up at any point.

[Sorry for being late. Can definitely wrap it up.]

[nadasharillen]

[np! I know you're busy ♥, let's close it here]

"In that case," Nari says, preparing to leverage herself to her feet, "we're probably safe for the Hanged Man." She manages to get to one knee before deciding that it perhaps wasn't the best idea after all. And Sam looked worse off than she felt.

"...Or we could stay here for a minute," she sighs, leaning back against the wall again. "...Then the pub."