public channel; forward-dated a hair to day 67

[kingsroads]

[ There's a bit of a pause before Strange starts talking, as if he's not entirely certain what he's going to say. He sounds a bit tired, but awake enough to hold a conversation. ]

For those of you who didn't already know, I'm not dead anymore. [ pause. ] Which, I suppose, is obvious as I'm talking to the radio, but the point stands.

I'd like to speak directly to the Ringmaster, Syrlya, and Zangetsu, if possible. As for everybody else, can you please fill me in on what happened from the time I left with Ignatius to now? Don't spare any details, this will be written down for posterity's sake.

[ fun fact: Strange has ABSOLUTELY ZERO CLUE about the various levels of trainwreck that the fae party in the library + rescue missions + torture session were. ]

Finally, odd question, but did anyone bring any flameproof fabric?

Comments

[atouts]

The Miracles have been missing for eons. They always knew who stole the Blue Rose and apparently never considered picking a book or two up at an infinite magical library, of all things, and the Red Beast is liable to be smarter than all of them combined.

[ Childermass has a very low opinion of the Courts, shocking no one ever. ]

So no, I don't think they'll be waiting for us. They'd rather let us to all the footwork and threaten them out of us.

[ As for Lambert? Well, what about Lambert? ]

And my greater concern is the Ringmaster sending him away, not him having to be patient. [ He isn't much for teasing, sorry Strange. It's just full on serious mode, forever. ] She doesn't have to offer a contract if she doesn't care to.

[kingsroads]

[ yeah, guess who isn't up to date on the whole 'RM's the one who knocked Lambert across a room' sort of thing. Strange frowns at Childermass's explanation. ]

They get along fine. Why wouldn't she offer him a contract? [ However, there's a big obvious answer right in front of Strange and his face shifts from confused to annoyed as he figures it out right as he phrases the question. ] She's pissed about that Ignatius business, isn't she. And I suspect the idiot's too stubborn to consider apologizing.

[ says the other resident stubborn idiot. ]

[atouts]

He will... [ How and when Childermass just doesn't know, and if the Ringmaster will accept such an apology? He shrugs. ] Somehow. They can't avoid one another forever, though I hope it doesn't end with her knocking him around again.

[ And there you go, Lambert's injured because of their big boss, at least the non-burned parts of it. ]

[kingsroads]

[ Information that Strange will accidentally forget when he straight up tries to kick Lambert in the ribs a day from now. ]

They can't, [ Strange agrees. And then he sighs, in a bit of a dramatic fashion. ] I'll try to knock some sense into him myself, though I wonder how much of it will stick.

[atouts]

[ Wow, that sounds awfully like something he could say about Strange himself, isn't that hilarious? Not that Childermass will bring it up, unwilling to start another argument at this point. ]

He may listen without the knocking part. I think he just needs to realize the possibility.

[kingsroads]

We'll have to remind him of it.

[ because Strange is pretty dang confident that Lambert needs some reminding.

As it seems like this conversation's reached a halfway decent stopping point (though Strange is perfectly fine dragging Lambert until the end of time,) Strange looks over at Childermass, moves a bit of flaming hair out of his face...then realizes wait, there's something he probably should show Childermass before he encounters it in a public context. ]

I picked up a new change from Ignatius, by the way—a few new tricks as well, though I'll probably show you them later.

[ And, with just a thought, three vaguely eye-shaped burn scars on Strange's forehead, arm, and forearm light up with magical flame. Look, he's being smart, he's telling Childermass that he magically sets himself on fire ahead of time! Strange's expression shows that he's a bit conflicted about it. On the one hand, he doesn't mind instant fire...but on the other hand, rip ever wearing long sleeves again. ]

[atouts]

[ Strange can join the no sleeves club, although Childermass only has to roll his own up past his elbow. Anyway, that does have him looking over and raising his eyebrows. ]

Are those eyes? I thought they were only scars.

[ Or perhaps just scars that light on fire, which seems vastly more annoying than his own glowing ones, hidden away under his shirt. ]

[kingsroads]

They are eyes, [ Strange explains. ] But they can only see magic. Before, when I used that magical sight I picked up from Portland, it simply overlaid my field of vision. Now, I view magic through these.

[ Which is intensely weird but Strange doesn't seem to mind the weirdness of it all. Of note is that his hair occasionally falls in the fire of the eye on his forehead, but it doesn't get burned ]

[atouts]

Seems inconvenient to me. [ Using your actual eyes to see just makes so much more sense. He pauses a tic then, thinking for a second, then asks, ] What does it even look like? Magic, I mean.

[ It's wildly off-topic from 'horrible things fae do', but that isn't always a bad thing. ]

[kingsroads]

It's like looking inside a kaleidoscope. The way I see it, every person has their own color of magic—both of ours are blue, by the way, though mine is more greyish and yours is a lighter, less saturated blue. But places have colors as well. Portland's magic is a certain color, Greysol's magic is a certain color, and so on. And if someone helps teach you the magic or grants you the ability to use the magic, then a little bit of their color seeps in as well.

[ based on the way Strange describes it, he finds it intensely beautiful. He's only ever gotten this starstuck about Arabella before. ]

At the same time, spells have their own visible structure and pattern. I can't explain this part very well, it's most likely something you have to see for yourself, but it's how I can try to piece out that someone's casting a shield spell or trying to dispell something.

[atouts]

So basically just reading magic as it's cast. Useful.

[ Childermass does find himself a touch envious of the skill, just from how Strange talks about it, but overall? He probably doesn't need to look at magic so directly. Too much of it gives him a bad time already, so why tempt worse effects? ]

Though we're both blue... I wonder, does that make our England's magic blue? The Raven King's?

[ There's too small a sample to know for sure but the odds they'd have similarly colored magic seem odd to him. Of course, he also isn't aware his used to be a different color. Not a drastically different color, but still. ]

[kingsroads]

[ And at that, Strange shrugs! ]

Unless other English magicians or the Raven King himself shows up, I've no way of telling. [ well, either that or wait until they both get back to England. But as the conversation previously established, that might be a while. ]

Portland is green, though. [ and based on Strange's little 'hell if I know' expression, he has no idea why Portland magic is green. ]