four ¬ voice

[enterpainment]

[filtered away from alan and mae | so hackable it's barely even a filter]

So... magic. I've heard a lot about it here, and I was wondering... what's magic in everyone else's world like? Dangerous, or common, or... er, not so common? It's a universal word, but it seems to mean a lot of different things.

I was just... curious.

[/filtered]

... I think I'm cursed.

Well, not the kind of curse that usually goes on here, but actually cursed. I swear three toasters this week have disappeared! One minute they were in the kitchen, and the next they'd just gone. Either I'm living in a sentient apartment that eats toasters, or I have an... an anti-toaster curse on me. Or maybe the toasters are alive. It's all probably possible, in a place like this.

All I want is toasted bread in the morning! Apparently that is too much to ask for.

Comments

a WORKING filter;

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

Did Alan do something?

a WORKING filter;

[enterpainment]

... No. [Well, the knife thing had freaked him out. But.] I mean, it's not anything he did, he just... acts like... he's got a magician in the house.

[And so obviously Jamie's solution to this was to ask about magic over the Network-- to be fair, he thought he'd filtered it properly-- but... well. He had magic, whether he liked it or not. Where was the harm in finding out about magic from other places? It didn't mean he had to give people to demons. And it didn't mean Alan had to watch his every move.]

a WORKING filter;

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

Oh. [Is that what it is about. Alan probably expect Jamie to - to turn against them or something like - it makes Mae angry.]

I'll talk to him.

a WORKING filter;

[enterpainment]

... Okay. [Sigh.] Maybe he's right to act that way.

a WORKING filter;

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

He isn't. We shared living quarters with him and Nick, and yet I didn't treat his brother as if he were a menace, so he should extend that courtesy.

a WORKING filter;

[enterpainment]

[There's a long pause. Bawww Mae why are you so awesome.]

You really should've. Nick openly admits to menacing people. [Lame attempts at humour: go!] ... But I don't think I'm very menacing. I'm soft and cuddly.

a WORKING filter;

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

Nick...[She pauses, too.] Nick can be not menacing when he tries. He's been trying...

[Her voice hardens again.] But this isn't about how Nick is, it's about how you are - or what you are. And that's not evil.

a WORKING filter;

[enterpainment]

I know he has. He didn't actually kill me that time I went to go to the bathroom and he thought I was an assassin sneaking in.

[But, Jamie grows serious again after that latter comment.] ... I don't know. I can use magic, can't I? I can't get away from that. What if... I end up hurting someone? Or...

[Or worse. Jamie wants to believe Mae on a lot of levels, wants to think Alan's overreacting. But there's a part of him that knows he can't just ignore what he can do.]

a WORKING filter; if they're in the same apartment this is going to be action << >>

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

Jamie...[She doesn't like it when Jamie grows serious, because then she's forced to do the same. To think of mum, and the battle, and what Jamie did - her brother, growing up strong and ballsy.]

You know most magicians end up linking themselves to Circles because their families shun them out of fear. You can be the exception, Jamie.

action; LOL YEAH that would make more sense 8|b

[enterpainment]

... I just don't want to hurt anyone. [He remembered thinking that Seb must've had things rough at home, if he'd moved in with the magicians so quickly. And Gerald didn't hide the fact that he'd had problems, too. But Jamie was different, right? He had Mae, and apparently Annabel, too. But he'd always had Mae.]

I guess it's not really about Alan. Maybe I'm being paranoid. [Was he being unfair as well? Probably. Pretty much. Alan had helped save his life that one time and all.] He just... knows what I am, and what that means.

[And Alan had been on the run from magicians his whole life, so perhaps he knew what they were like better than anyone. Jamie trails off uncertainly. And then, meekly:] Nick said that the Goblin Market would never have taken me. That I'm too powerful. I would've already been a magician to them.

action; derp

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

I'll change that. [It came out instantly. I'll change it. She'd change the whole world for Jamie, if she could. Maybe few could understand this sort of bond, but it would still be her and him against the world. If the Goblin Market would not accept her brother, maybe she'd have to be a different sort of leader. But for now - for when she returned there - she'd be competing to get a position which would make it easier for all that discrimination to stop.

She pulled Jamie closer in a hug.] Alan was the first one to help us, and still helped us even after we knew. Maybe he's...got his twisted methods of being subtle and hasn't been taught how to share his plans with others, but...

[The thing is - she wants to say that Alan has their backs. But the moment Jamie and Nick cross paths as adversaries, if that ever happens, will be the moment Alan's focus on their backs will change.

Friends. Who needs enemies, like this.] I can talk to him, but so should you. Banter will only get you so far, and - most magicians turn it into an art. Maybe Alan needs to be reassured... [That Jamie's a good guys. She continues, strongly:]

If not, we'll move out. You and me, right?

action; derpier

[enterpainment]

[Jamie rests his head on her shoulder, hugging her back. Above all else, Mae's still got his back-- he knows that. It's always been him and her, toughing things out. Gerald hadn't understood that. He'd said that everyone ended up hating magicians for what they were, but Jamie couldn't imagine Mae hating him. It was what had kept him away from the Circle, away from Gerald, in the end. Maybe families didn't always have to be broken apart just because one of its members happened to be a little magical.]

Thanks, Mae. [He mumbles that quietly. It's for a lot of things-- for protecting him, for killing a magician for him, for being possibly the most awesome sister in the universe.] But I'll be okay. I mean, we don't have to move out. I can be a mature and responsible adult, after all. And I can manage serious banter, too, I'm sure.

[He figures it's a pretty good start for a sixteen year old who only very rarely remembers to bring the right books to school. But he puts on a half-smile, going for the humour again.] At least I haven't been drowning my sorrows lately. No more unfriendly stairs.

action; derpiest

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

You don't have to grow up so fast...[Even if it's what they've done - both of them - Mae wishes she could have kept Jamie (and herself) in that state of careless teenager. But things change when you canoodle with demons, she guesses.]

Although I'm sure your knees welcome the respite...[She grows quiet for a moment, pondering still on the fact that their lives have changed so much - and will keep changing for Jamie, until he too will cry and she'll wish to keep it from happening all over again - and how many things she's missing here that she never thought she'd miss.]

We should hold a pijama party.

action; derpie...rest

[enterpainment]

I wouldn't say it's fast. Just... a bit more accelerated than a normal pace. [Which is basically a roundabout way of saying fast. But.

If Jamie knew what the future held-- any of it-- he'd probably be even gladder for his time in the City. It's a place where he doesn't have to hide who he is, because there's so many people with similar abilities. It's a place where people wouldn't hate him for it, would understand.

And it's a place where no magicians are sending demons after humans. Where Jamie's feelings are less complicated because the source of them is very, very far away.]

Can it also be a junk food and movie party?

action; derpierestestest!

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

Still. [She gives him one last squeeze and pulls away with a surprised blink.]

There are movies here? [She welcomes the news - and the distraction.] Oh, wonderful - I thought we'd be living in a cosmopolite void. I think the City just redeemed itself.

action; derpierestestestestestestetestest! ... 8|

[enterpainment]

It's not quite a void. They have regular mobile phones and everything, too. And luckily, the movies they have aren't all costume dramas.

[... because then Jamie would die of boredom. He prefers sword-fighting movies with shirtless men.]

action; fffffffffINE YOU CAN WIN

[brobeforehos.livejournal.com]

Great. Then we'll raid the stores for chips and junk food, and rent some movies - we can rent them, right? I'm not sure how much money I've got on me...