Active Magic (TatlTails and othyrworld)

"They'll do something." Madi replied, willing to be a bit more callous while she was trying to reassure someone. "Whether it'll bring the dead back to life or not really doesn't matter right now. It's got enough magic to have some kind of effect. The whole point of doing this today is to teach you all the steps, so I don't have to talk you through everything every single time you try nonverbal magic. As long as you manage to make a potion that isn't the equivalent of toxic sludge, then I'll be happy with the outcome."
 
"Great," Sequoia replied shortly, carrying the ingredients to a counter beside the pot. She tossed in the fennel and then set to work bruising her mint leaves. Hopefully. She was just kind of gently crushing them and hoping for the best. It wasn't like she was being tested on this though, so that was a plus. One she felt like her mint as sufficiently bruised, she tossed it into the pot. Had the fennel had enough time to steep? Who cared. Time for ingredient three.

She held the eucalyptus leaves over the cauldron. After a few minutes, her hands got all smoky and the leaves were only beginning to singe. That wasn't ideal. She had been half hoping she could finish with this whole potion thing and get to trying - and possibly failing, not that she'd admit it- at some other strange art. She did have to see this too the end though. Madi had burned a potion on her, so se had to make however much time was left count.
 
"Don't be gentle with it." Was the first piece of advice Madi felt she had to dish out by this point, referring solely to the eucalyptus leaves. Up until then, Sequoia had been doing just fine, even though the witch was clearly apprehensive about doing well at her task. "Just burn 'em, doesn't have to be perfect. But start opening back up to the auras now, this potion's gonna need your magic pretty soon. You've got this."

There really wasn't any more she needed to do or say right now, which yeah kind of sucked in this situation, but it really could be a lot worse in Madi's eyes. She'd still said a lot under this potion, so whether she was using every minute of its effects or not wasn't really the biggest issue. And not needing every minute really just meant she had a competent witch on her hands, which would be an absolutely great thing if said witch was going to stick around a while. Madi'd been lacking and kind of wishing for a witch around her age to hang out with, so having someone like Sequoia around was kind of like getting that wish granted. It was fun, even with the circumstances.
 
Sequoia shrugged, muttering a few words under her breath and shifting the eucalyptus to ashes with the flames that burst from her fingertips. Hopefully, that would be fine. It was all magic after all. She tried to open herself up to the auras of the potion, pushing her energy out into it. It already had a bit of magic in it from the ingredients, so that was a good sign. Maybe. She hoped so. This time, instead of steeping her aura into the potion in a slow drip, she decided to shove into it like she was trying to knock over a weird, psychic door. Maybe she'd put in more magic before her inevitable distraction.
 
Madi felt that shift like an ocean wave pulling back for a tsunami. She snapped out of her own thoughts to latch onto the transfer of magic, getting a solid hold of it while she blurted out "Whoa! No, you can't do it all at once! You want the whole thing to overflow on you and slap you in the face for it? No. Calm down."

She didn't dare let go until she felt Sequoia's magic lessen its pressure on its own, but she still continued speaking while she waited to slowly start releasing her grip. "Doing what you just did's like trying to bake cookies in 30 seconds at 4000 degrees. It doesn't work, it just burns your house down. You have to give the mix time to cook, and time to actually absorb the magic you're putting in it. If you have to do it in small bursts instead of continuously, that's fine, but never overload something like that unless you want major backlash."
 
Sequoia pulled back immediately, skin crawling at Madi's sudden shout and subsequently hold on her magic, letting the pulse trickle down to the smallest inkling of magic seeping into the potion. "Sorry, Jesus, I swear to god I wasn't trying to break your house or anything!" She was speaking mostly to Dagger. Who knew how mad he would get about her breaking things. Again. She took a few seconds to calm herself down, rubbed her arms and tried to ground herself again. "Did I put in enough magic all at once, or do I need to keep up the stream now?"
 
"You gotta keep up the stream, so it can soak in while it cooks." Madi replied as she pulled her magic back, a half-relieved and half-guilty sigh resting on her lips. That was the most stressful the lesson had gotten so far, for both of them probably. "Sorry for snapping, I didn't mean to scare you. It's just that bending magic until it breaks can cause some serious damage. To you, more than anything else. I have the history of migraines to prove it. So I swear I was just trying to keep you safe, but I'm sorry if I went too far."

Dagger hadn't done or said anything about the situation, other than cautiously approach Madi once the tension started to die down. She gave him a quick pat to reassure him that everything was fine, then told Sequoia "The best rule of thumb is just to not send out what you aren't prepared to get sent back to you. Magic is sentient, to a degree, and it can only handle so much pressure before it retaliates. Don't make it retaliate."
 
Sequoia picked up the flow a bit more, still keeping it as light as she felt she could. "Nah, It's fine. You had my best interests at heart. That's what really matters, right?" The question was rhetorical and not at the same time. She didn't like being yelled at by someone she wasn't couldn't yell at in return. It pushed her just a little too far into the past. The past where she couldn't yell or sing or even really speak much. Apparently, her voice was too brash. She felt a little woozy, so she walked over to the stool and sat down. Heavily. At least her magic was still flowing. Count your blessings, right?
 
Madi's lips went into a thin line as she noticed the weight laying itself on Sequoia's shoulders. It wasn't just fatigue from the magic, she'd dealt with far too much PTSD to mistake it for a physical weight. She also knew that pressing these issues only made them worse (just like magic), so the only thing she said in response to Sequoia's question was "If it upset you, you can say so."

She hoped, even if it wasn't right away, that Sequoia would be able to do so. She didn't want anyone to be scared of her like that, even though it was a constant given in her line of work. But that meant people recovering enough to be open with themselves was the best part of her line of work. And it seemed especially unfair for someone like Sequoia to brush off her pain the way she was...
 
Sequoia stared lovingly at Flora. Flora who felt safe enough to fall asleep here and stay asleep for longer than 30 minutes. If Flora felt good here, then Sequoia wouldn't be the one to ruin it for her. She swallowed the past as well as she could, pushed it all the way into the farthest corner of her mind, and snapped back into the present. At least, she tried to. She could still feel pain biting into her back, it was just fainter. She could still hear scolding and feel her stupid, stupid brain forcing her to speak. "No, It's fine! Totally fine! So, how long to I have to put in magic? Am I done now?"
 
"It's... gonna be a while longer." Madi admitted, trying desperately to keep any semblance of emotion-that-Sequoia-could-take-the-wrong-way behind her teeth. The last thing either of them needed was Sequoia thinking Madi was pitying her or upset in any way. But god this girl clearly was not okay right now...

"We can cut the lesson now, though, if you want. You've already learned all the steps, so it'd just be waiting around and draining energy by this point. We both have plenty of time to come back here another day."
 
Sequoia plastered on a fake smile that held decently well, although she knew it wouldn't fool Madi. She just had to fake happiness until the bad stuff went away. It worked in the past and it should work now. For the sake of Sequoia's sanity. "Nah, gotta finish up the lesson. You chugged that potion for me, so now I have to go until your voice is gone. It wouldn't be fair to you if I didn't" She kept up as steady a flow of magic as she could.

After a few tense minutes, she began to feel herself losing focus. "Hey, can you, like talk to me?" She asked, tugging at her hair to keep her hands occupied. Talking to Madi would distract her, let her use her magic without even thinking about it.
 
Last edited:
Madi did not like how much Sequoia was pushing herself emotionally. It wasn't healthy, and it'd rubberband back to her sooner rather than later. But she knew more than anything else that she couldn't tell people how to cope with trauma. If Sequoia wanted to fake it 'til she made it, then that was her decision to make. If she didn't want to take Madi's outs, then Madi had to let her make that choice. As much as it troubled her deep down, and as guilty as it made her feel that part of it was for her sake.

She was snapped put of her thoughts when Sequoia asked her to talk. Right, she still had some time before the potion wore off...

"Uhh, sure." She replied, trying (and probably failing) not to make it too awkward, before asking "About what? I'm not much of a conversation starter."
 
Sequoia let out a brief laugh, gritting her teeth when the scolding in the back of her head got louder. "Hobbies, stories, this house, plants, anything really," She said, pushing out more magic when the flow weakened to more of a trickle. It was hard, and she couldn't focus, and she was sure it wasn't going anywhere near where she wanted it, but it was as close to the potion as she could manage. She began pacing again, trying to force her magic back to her intended target.
 
"Well..." Madi tried to think fast, because she could feel the magic in the air weakening and she knew it was because Sequoia was getting lost in her thoughts so she had to say something to snap her out of it without closing herself off again and GOD why was she so socially awkward?!

Okay, not helping, just think of something. Something easy, something you're proud of, something you feel smart enough to talk about for more than half a second.

"You know, I was pretty young when I moved in here." She decided to settle on, since she did love her home and it wasn't too hard to talk about how she came to live here. "It wasn't my house at the time, it belonged to an older witch. Older than me, anyway, she was still pretty young when I met her. She taught me most of what I know about potions, and looked after me and Dagger way better than I probably have for you guys. But about two years ago, she went on a pilgrimage to try and master elemental magic before humans wrecked the environment any further. Left me in charge, I'm still not sure why, and she hasn't returned."

Oh god that got dark fast. Probably should try to fix that. "I don't think she's dead though, I'm pretty sure she's doing alright. Either way, I'm really just happy to keep the legacy going. You know?"
 
Sequoia listened avidly to Madi's story, clinging to it like a rat clinks to the topmost timbers of a sinking ship. She wondered what happened to the witch. Was she okay? Had she been killed? Would she ever come back? Sequoia half hoped she wouldn't. She's just gotten the smallest bit familiar with this place and the people inside it. A new person would be another person to get to know. A new person to have to adapt around and greet. A new person who might hate her.

Sequoia pulled herself out of her thoughts and gave Madi an answer to what was probably a rhetorical question now that she thought about it. "I don't, really. Staying in one place seems like such a drag. I'd rather travel the world. See the sights, meet the people. Y'know?"
 
Madi gave Sequoia a sympathetic nod in response to the responding rhetorical question. About half the people who came here wanted freedom, while the rest mostly wanted safety. It was a fine balance trying to get everyone what they wanted, while also making sure they got all the help they needed first. She could tell Sequoia would be a challenge in that regard, but it was one she was willing to take.

"Yeah, I get that." She agreed with Sequoia's statement, before adding "I do that a bit, but probably not as much as you'd want to. I go on missions to try and find people who need help, like when I found you and Flora. I don't do it that much, but I've been across the country a couple times. That's about as far as I need to go, though maybe I'd like to take Dageru back to Japan someday. I just don't know if going and leaving again would be crueler than staying here until the bond breaks."

Dagger's only response to that was to curl up and lay down next to her chair in a contemplative sort of pout. It seemed like he didn't know the answer either.
 
Last edited:
Sequoia shrugged. "Whose place is it to say, really? Life is full of hard choices." She scratched her arm and, at a loss for what to do, shrugged again. The feelings of the past were almost gone now. They were still present- of course, they were, when had her life ever been easy- but she could ignore them easily. She felt the urge to check her back, just to make sure she didn't have any new scars. She wondered if it would be weird to ask, and then immediately realized it would be. Asking someone to check your scars was never normal.
 
"You could say that again." Madi couldn't help but mutter, a bitter smirk pulling at her lips. She'd seen and made far too many hard choices in her life, and she knew there would only be more and more in her future. And she knew every person she helped had the same choices to make.

Speaking of which, Sequoia probably still needed some more distraction than one more sentence. So Madi went to speak again, but before she could get a word out, a harsh cough took hold of her throat. Welp, there goes the potion. Here comes the slow, annoying deevolution into temporary mutism.
 
When Madi stopped talking in a sudden, kind of scary cough, Sequoia jolted in her seat. Her magic stopped abruptly as she rushed forward to help Madi, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Was Madi okay? What happened? Why had she stopped talking?

It took her a few minutes to realize that the potion must've worn off. By that time, she was already beside Madi, trying to figure out what was wrong. She had grabbed Madi's hand, something she did when Flora was freaking out. It was the most solid method of comfort she knew. Hand holding was very important to her in every meaningful way, and she felt strange when she noticed she was trying to use it to help Madi. "Are you okay!? Are you good?!"
 
Back
Top