evocation | ⚡ hadriel

You offered to teach me to zap people. I think that more than counts, especially considering my usual fee here is nothing.

i'll teach you my coolest spells and everything.
what about people who have really bad nightmares?
it's probably another treat the underlying trauma thing, right?

I appreciate it.

It depends, but yes. However, sorting out one's thoughts before sleeping can often help, even if it's just by writing down whatever they're thinking or feeling before they go to sleep. Serious or recurring nightmares that go beyond normal or occasional ones tend to be related to the subconscious making sense of and coping with something that's happened, and so doing that as much as possible while awake can help.

like a journal or something?
idk if he'll go for that but i guess it's worth a shot.

Exactly. It doesn't have to be a paper one though; using the phones is fine, or even just talking out loud to himself when he's alone. Whatever works.

[Lance prefers paper, and there are plenty of empty books at the library to use, but he understands why someone might worry about having their thoughts in a form that someone might be able to find and read.]

or talking to someone else?
what kind of thoughts should he be getting in order?
anything or just what he usually dreams about?

If he's willing to, yes, and that would probably be even more effective.

That depends. If there's a distinct theme in his nightmares, whether in content or even just emotion or feeling, then talking about that might be best. Alternatively, if there's a problem or issue that is on his mind often while he's awake, that could also cause the dreams and so discussing it could work.

okay, i'll talk to him. thanks.
i'll meet you at the clinic in like fifteen minutes?

You're welcome, and I hope it helps. If either of you need anything else, about any of this, feel free to message me at any time.

Sure, I'll see you there.

[And about fifteen minutes later, Kyna shows up at the clinic as promised.]

Hey. What's up?

[Sorry Kyna; Lance misjudged how long it would take to find and eat a snack before she arrived, and so by the time she asks the question he's kind of in the middle of shoving what looks like an uncooked block of ramen noodles in his mouth. That might be because it really is an uncooked block of ramen noodles.

Don't judge him.

So he makes a briefly apologetic expression, taking a moment to finish the bite before responding.]

Hey, sorry. The usual, mostly; making sure we're prepared for any further Null-induced violence.

[It's amazing there hasn't been more than there already has been, really. And he leads the way back toward his office, since it's quieter and there's less chance of any stray magic going somewhere it shouldn't.]

[She's squinting at him and absolutely judging, even as she follows him to his office.]

Is that ramen? Dude, come on. Love yourself.

Why does everyone hate ramen so much?

[Sure, it's not exactly amazing or good for you or anything else positive, but it could be a lot worse.]

I don't hate ramen, but you know you're supposed to cook it, right?

I know, but that would've taken more time and effort.

[He would've had to find a bowl or a mug or something, either boil the water or use the microwave, etc. It would've also taken like, a whole three minutes, and that much functioning is a little beyond him at the moment.

Which is why it's surely the best time to learn magic, right? Speaking of which, he's going to just kind of redirect away from his depressing attempt at a snack, and--]

So... How exactly does this work?

[Kyna grins at him. She'll get to that in a second, but first—]

I was expecting you to be more... I don't know. Stuffy.

[Lance gives her a flat look for that, although he's clearly not actually bothered by the comment.]

I usually get 'I expected you to be older', so I guess I'll take 'stuffy' if just for the novelty.

[But more seriously--]

My job typically requires a certain sense of formality, which can definitely come across as stuffy, but if it isn't necessary then I try to avoid that impression.

[It gets exhausting to pretend you're not a huge dork all the time.]

Cool. I don't like formal.

[Kyna is also a huge dork, so formal makes her squirmy.]

So uh... the easiest spells to learn are called cantrips. They're the stuff you teach kids when they're first learning, you know? That's what we're gonna start with.

[Excellent, they can be dorks together.

Lance nods in interest, suddenly all focus on the matter at hand, and even manages to avoid taking it personally that they're starting with little kids' magic. Any magic is better than none, so he's not about to complain.]

Okay, sure.

Anything stronger than that means we've gotta make you a focus, and that's a whole...

[She waves her hand.]

Thing. We'd have to do it together.

I still don't know what that means, but I'll take your word for it.

[And he will remind himself that he should master the kid-level magic before he even thinks about how cool it might be to have more powerful magic, if that's even possible. One step at a time.]

A focus lets you control your magic. Channel it, if that makes sense. Stronger spells need more magic, you know? It can be anything, like a necklace or a ring or whatever, but you need to perform a ritual to attune it to you.

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

[And doesn't sound too terrible.]

But if it's not necessary for cantrips, how do I control or channel magic for them? We don't have anything like this in my world.

[Aside from fiction, anyway, and only as far as he knows. But he definitely doesn't have any experience with any of this, so he's lost.]

It's just... focus and visualization. I tell you what the spell does, and you believe really hard or whatever.

[She's smiling a little, so it's clear she's teasing him on at least some level.]

It feels different for everyone. For me it's like... I don't know. Like feeding electricity through a circuit. You'll know what I mean.

[He can tell she's teasing, but he's still losing confidence rapidly at that response and it's probably briefly visible on his face. Right, okay, in theory that makes sense, but he's not sure about his ability to believe in using magic that strongly. It's not like Lance can't put a lot of determination and willpower into achieving something, but that's kind of the problem; considering that's never resulted in magic powers--much to his disappointment, especially as a child--he's not sure why it suddenly would now.

But he does his best to put that all out of his mind and remember that he's in another dimension filled with a lot weirder than magic, and so he really shouldn't be overthinking this. He'll figure it out.

He hopes.]

Okay. What spell are we going to try first?

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action!

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