50th Resurrection

[sanctus_dei]

It's Theo's 21st birthday! But unlike most guys his age, he won't be out partying. When does Theo ever party? Instead, he's trying to go about a normal day without interruptions. He's not that lucky though.

a) You'll find him storming out of the bank, as his drone coworkers has approached him with a balloon and a cake. They stand around in confusion as he marches off and makes a bee-line towards home, grumbling.

b) He'll be hiding out in the library, trying to get some peace. Anyone there might notice the man reading books that clearly aren't from the library itself. They're old and well-worn, and any titles rubbed off long ago. He occasionally makes notes in a small notebook as well. Care to bug him?

c) At home, Theo's glad that the house no longer has drones in it, so they won't bring up this birthday crap. Little does he know, though, that the former drone wife has marked the calendar. He'll be sitting outside on the porch, his crows and cat close by. Head is titled back, cigarette dangling from his mouth, and eyes closed, Theo is attempting to enjoy the cooling fall weather. He occasionally takes a sip from a flask in his jacket pocket as well. He's been even more miserable that usual lately and it's even starting to get to him, so he's trying to unwind.

Comments

C

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Guess who sees you drinking there, Theo? It's your now former underage alcoholic buddy-slash-neighborhood demon brat. He drops out of the nearby tree he's been watching from; Lyn travels above eye level at every possible opportunity.]

'Sup.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

[He gives a little start at that, and the crows caw hello at Lyn.]

Wh-- Damnnit, don't sneak up on me like that.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Lyn shrugs at this.] Don't take it too personally. I sneak up on everybody. [He cracks a grin at this.]

So what've you been up to, anyway? Haven't seen you around much.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Hnn. Not much. What else is there to do around here? Had some fun with the zombies until I got stopped. And now here I am, wasting time.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Lyn's eyes darken a bit at the mention of the zombies.] Having fun with them? Unless you had a new chainsaw to break in or something, dunno what's so fun about 'em. I almost got fucking eaten.

...wait. You like dead shit, don't you. [It's been a long time since he first poked at Theo's dead crows - back when they were in fact dead - but the memory hasn't totally faded.] Guess I shouldn't be surprised.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

It's not that I like them. I'm just good at controlling them. Damn good.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

So what do you even fucking do with them? Kill people? [Lyn does not look like he'd approve of an affirmative answer here.] What'd even be the point? You can't want that many people dead, and it just gets a lot of fuckers trying to kill you.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Mostly what interested me was the fact that it was banned. And then it turned out I was really good at it.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Lyn considers this for a moment, then nods; he knows the allure of the forbidden. He is, after all, a thief - and beyond the necessity of stealing things, he takes some pleasure in stealing things simply because he's not supposed to, and there's always a little charge from getting away with it. At being good at something most people wouldn't dare attempt.] Guess that makes sense. But I still don't get how much it really fucking accomplishes for you. I mean, it's not gonna get you money, or friends, or sex, or anything - and if you want power, you could go in for something less...I dunno, specialized? Necromancy's kinda a limited field. Zombies can't get a whole fucking lot done.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Make the right kind of zombies, and you can get shit done. But it's not ,my only specialty, anyway. Mayfield lacks in the cadaver department so I've been training in other fields.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

You've never showed me a whole lot of what you can do. [Lyn eyes Theo; his curiosity is nowhere near subtle, so the next question shouldn't take Theo by surprise at all.] What else have you got?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Gravity and force spells are something I've been practicing for over a year now. I also have a solid foundation in alchemy. I know quite a bit of warding as well.

[His magical knowledge and expertise is a huge source of his pride. It's almost unparallelled for someone of his age and social status back home to be so well-educated in spell casting.]

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

Alchemy? Like turning lead into gold and shit? Is that actually a thing in your world? I mean, they had alchemy in my world too, but from what I'd heard it was basically chemistry before anyone knew how the fuck any of it actually worked.

Also, what the hell kind of spells are those? [Lyn is more curious than skeptical, but he's also clever - and he suspects skepticism might get him a demonstration where asking nicely won't.

Of course, he has to be careful; if he sounds too skeptical, Theo might decide to demonstrate on him.]

fff LJ I ANSWERED THIS TAG WTF

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

It is, though people don't exactly like you turning lead into gold. You need to know chemisty to do real alchemy though.

Just like it sounds. Manipulating gravitational forces. Though I've been coming up with my own variations since I have nothing else to do around here.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

Really? I thought that was exactly the sort of thing people liked.

Well, yeah, I figured that, but what do you do with those kinda spells?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Mages, yes. The authorities, no.

Fine, you want a demonstration? [Theo loves to show off. He stands, looking around for a target. The mailbox will do. Reciting a spell in Latin under his breath, he points his finger at the box, mimicking a gun. When he pulls the "trigger", the spell finishes. The box suddenly dents violently, crumpling in upon itself. Theo just smirks and lights a cigarette before sitting down.]

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Lyn shrugs; his response is both extremely characteristic and remarkably telling.] Eh, fuck 'em.

[Oh, yes, Theo, now we're talking. Lyn is immediately and obviously interested, all but visibly perking up. He may not use his own powers much, but he still finds supernatural abilities fascinating - maybe all the more so precisely for that reason.] What was that? What else can you do?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Gravity spell of my making. I can levitate things, implode things, create force fields. With necromancy I can do several different levels of controls and two different types of zombies. I also know a lot of alchemical shit, like I said. It's the basis of almost all types of magic.

[Guess who's looking like a smug asshole now!]

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Wait when did Theo stop looking like a smug asshole?? Don't worry, Theo, Lyn has plenty of smug asshole tendencies himself so he doesn't find this particularly off-putting. Besides, as far as he's concerned, skill with magic justifies a certain level of smugness.] You can implode things? [Yeah, he picked that detail out specifically.] Holy shit. How much can you do? Like, could you implode a house? What happens?

Also, two kinds of zombies? Since when do zombies come in flavors? That sounds like some Left For Dead shit.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Hnn. I've exploded a whole house before, but haven't tried imploding. I might. [Though he'd probably pass out from energy expenditure.]

"Left for Dead"? All you have to do is be creative, you know. Open mind, some studying and research, and practice. That's all it takes. [It doesn't help being a magical genius prodigy either...]

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

If you do, I will never fucking forgive you if you don't let me watch. [Lyn grins broadly. That sounds like the coolest thing to witness ever.]

And I dunno about studying magic and shit. Everything I can do I was kinda born into...and even that shit I do so little that I'm pretty fucking rusty. My fireballs are probably about as threatening as another demon's dry fart on a hot day.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

There's nothing you can do to become more powerful? That sounds like complete bullshit. A mage's talent is inborn too, but there's things you can do to increase your power.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Lyn shrugs at this.] Probably, I guess. But honestly, I'm a weak runt of a demon right outta the gate. Even if I get stronger, it's still not gonna hold much of a candle to any other demons, and all of my powers'd just make it easier for me to be found if I used any of 'em in the human world, so why the fuck bother?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

I guess once I learned I had these powers available to me, I wanted to learn as much as possible. To use them to their full extent, weak or powerful.

[kleptophile.livejournal.com]

[Lyn considers this.] Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Demons kinda take the powers for granted, though, since they come standard. And since mine can't be used like 99% of the time, their potential doesn't really mean shit to me.

So...you've got all these gravity and implosion and necromantic powers and shit. What did you even use 'em for back home? I'm trying to think of the whole range of practical applications that kinda shit must have but I'm sorta drawing a blank.