OPEN

[deceivingly]

WHO: Yevdokiya an Waslyna O Bearhold, Tiffany Hart, Matthias, maybe my other characters + YOU
WHAT: a humble open log
WHEN: Fantasy March
WHERE: the Gallows, Kirkwall, the Wounded Coast
NOTES: bath nudity, butchering a seagull, nothing worse atm

Comments

[sulahnan]

"Yeah, flowers that symbolize hope. Keep up."

She tosses the dead flower back onto the ground and looks over at the ones still alive and blooming.

"It's 'cos they're the first sign of spring, innit? Most flowers don't show their faces until it's warmer out but snowdrops turn up and it's like they're saying hey, winter's almost over."

[inkindled]

"Oh."

Matthias also looks over the field of wilted carnage to the crop of living flowers nodding their heads in the chilly breeze.

"I s'ppose they are among the first up. I dunno that I noticed that. I'm only practicing, I haven't got anything personal against them. I reckon there's spells to make plants feel like growing as well, I'll learn those next. Make it up to 'em."

[sulahnan]

"Practicing what, exactly?"

[inkindled]

"Entropy." Matthias picks up one of the dead flowers once more. He twirls its stem between his thumb and index finger, then back again. Its wilted petals feel almost leathery. "Life-drain. I'm trying to see what I'd be best at, besides just setting things on fire. I'm not half bad at this but I dunno if it's really for me, y'know? Think I'm better at elemental sorts. If I could do fire and then, like, earthquakes and things, split apart the bloody ground and pull lava up out of it--like Enchanter Rowantree--that'd be brilliant."

[sulahnan]

It's hard to keep the trepidation off her face when he mentions life-drain so cavalierly.

"Still haven't just asked Marcus to teach you, eh?" She asks, trying for levity despite everything. "Wait, is Leander making you learn this?"

[inkindled]

Matthias gives a sheepish sort-of-nearly-grin, sort-of-nearly-grimace--go on with that, Marcus, like it's nothing--and turns his attention back to the flower.

"He isn't making me learn. I asked him to teach me. But Enchanter Leander's been off," he says, steadily, "so I'm doing my best to, y'know. Learn." He twirls the flower back in the other direction, two times around.

[sulahnan]

"I know it's not my place to say what you should and shouldn't be learning," she says, grappling with her protective instinct and the knowledge that in his place, she'd resent anyone trying to control her. "But just...be careful, yeah? I don't much like the idea of you—of anyone, really—draining the life outta things."

[inkindled]

"Nah, it's all right."

Hearing her words, digesting them, and invalidating them as not-applicable-to-this-situation (but in a friendly way, like), Matthias holds the flower out to her to look at.

"Think of it like--say we were going to lay siege, right? So we'd go out first--mages, I mean--to do this sort of thing to all the crops, like before we even got there. Take the life clean out of 'em. Then when they heard we were coming and tried to lay down stores, there'd be nothing to harvest. Plus, if I drained the life out of grass, like, it'd be all dry and brittle and then I could set it aflame easy. It'd spread like mad and do half the work of the battle for us."

hides the timestamp with my thumb

[sulahnan]

He's got a point. She hates that he has a point. Athessa shrugs, still making a bit of a face because war or not, the idea of having the ability to drain the life from something is just...squicky.

"Yeah, I guess."

whats time

[inkindled]

"Anyway, that's not all I can do--" Matthias chatters on, too excited by possibilities to notice any nearby feelings of discomfort. "I was thinking, what if you could use healing magic for flowers and crops and plants and things? Not me, probably, I'm not that good at it--better'n I used to be, at least. Derrica said I could help, officially, but I dunno if I'm ready for that. I healed my mate once and I did it wrong, she went all terrible before the proper healers could get to her. So I s'ppose I've got a, what's it, misgiving, like. I dunno. I think it's better if the person healing you is really confident that they can manage it, y'know?"

[sulahnan]

"Pretty sure that'd be a different kinda magic," she says, tentative enough for it to be a suggestion, rather than a dismissal. "I remember my nan doing stuff with plants and whatever, but it wasn't like what Derrica does. Definitely not what Isaac does, either."

[inkindled]

That, at least, breaks through the wall of Matthias' monologue. He has picked another flower and has been twirling it between his fingers. He gives it another twirl as he looks over at her, attention caught.

"Stuff with plants like what?"

[sulahnan]

Athessa shrugs, putting her hands into her pockets. "Making 'em grow and whatever, moving roots around so we could dig in the ground without severing 'em, making sure the rowan trees stayed healthy and free of rot. That kind of stuff."

[inkindled]

"Oh." Matthias twists the flower again, then lifts it up so he can squint at its broken off end. "I dunno that much about roots and things like that. Or about growing things, really. Me, I'm better at destroying things."

He grins at her, proud of this.

[sulahnan]

The smirk she sends his way says yeah, that's for sure. Matthias Doll-Smasher, wasn't it?

"Or maybe you're really good at creating fires." Fires that destroy other things, maybe, but it's still a form of creation.