[log] Scared of Lonely [closed]

[thewarningafter]

Characters: Stephen, Al, and Sylar
Location: Building 263
Date: Night 219
Summary: A space wizard, a suit of armor, and a serial killer walk into a bar....
Warnings: None yet.

[263: A small office building. It's the sort that looks like it should attach to some larger facility, but whatever it might have connected to is long gone. It's two stories: the first contains a small lobby area, a waiting room, and an area for secretaries. Going upstairs reveals a small honeycomb of eerily empty cubicles. There are desks and chairs in each one, but nothing on any desk or placed on any of the cubicle walls. There's one small one-person office in the back that's similarly empty, and two public bathrooms that work, though the water runs cold.]

Comments

[termineur]

[ His eyes light up when he hears the Cloak can usually fly- well, fly people around, he assumes. But it's not until the later comments that he looks over at Stephen. ]

Magic is energy, too? It's not...unexplainable?

[thewarningafter]

It's not explainable by modern science, but it's explainable, yeah. I didn't just start doing this stuff; I studied it.

[termineur]

I know you can't do any of it here, but would you teach me some of the principles behind it? [ He realizes he's asking a bit too eagerly and pulls back a bit to explain. ] I'm curious whether some of the abilities on my world might be explained the same way. I can understand the genetic and biological end of things, but not the way some of those things defy physics.

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen hesitates. The Ancient One had been cautious when it came to taking on students, for good reason. Teaching magic to a serial killer, even one who appears to be reformed, even in an environment where he couldn't possibly do anything with it, strikes him as the definition of a bad idea.]

...Some of the theory, maybe.

cw: addiction

[termineur]

[ Stephen's right to be wary. Teaching Sylar something like this is like giving an alcoholic a bottle of hard liquor. But Sylar hardly understands that, of course. He just knows it's been forever since he's learned anything unique, so he nods eagerly. ]

The theory is more what I'd be interested in, anyway. I always thought magic was completely unknowable by nature- I didn't even know there was a theory behind it.

[ Thoughts of the pain in his leg could not be further from his mind at this point. So- distraction achieved? ]

cw: addiction

[thewarningafter]

[And yet Stephen can't quite resist the opportunity to lecture, no matter how ill-advised.]

What we call magic is the ways in which we can use our mental and spiritual alignment with aspects of the universe to draw on dimensional energy and shape it to our needs. You could call it spells, or call it rewriting the source code of the universe. It's all applied metaphysics.

[termineur]

Applied metaphysics. [ The term makes him chuckle, even if it sounds a little raw right now. ] So you're basically bending reality to your will. And you're using energy from outside your universe, so you're not violating the conservation of energy. That's an interesting workaround.

[ He's looking off into the distance, mind working as quickly as the Vicodin in his system allows. ]

I'm guessing that's a very delicate balance- you have to be really careful not to throw off parts of reality too much, right?

[thewarningafter]

Basically. There are other kinds of power, too. My world's got all kinds of superheroes.

[While Gabriel is distracted, he'll get to work getting the gauze ready to re-pack the wound. They've done about what they can here.]

There are rules. Things we don't do.

[termineur]

[ It's a good time. Although he's not so distracted that he won't be ready to take the gauze if he needs to. Stephen's shaky hands could prove to be too much for this. The Vicodin's kicked in, at least partially, by now, and he's willing to get dinged a little bit. ]

Oh, yeah? Things to keep the cogs of the universe from falling apart, I'm guessing. What are the rules? You ever broken them?

[ Superheroes, right? Rules get broken in that sort of world. ]

[thewarningafter]

Me? I would never.

[Stephen grins to himself as he shapes the gauze.]

Let's see...we don't bend space on the material plane. Never done that, but I've seen it done. Didn't much care for it. We don't tamper with continuum probabilities -- time, I mean.

[No denial of culpability on that one, just a chuckle instead.]

[termineur]

[ Sylar smiles back as he realized he'd guessed correctly. And Stephen was even giving him the specifics, too. ]

Time manipulation, eh? Never did figure that one out. [ Probably for the best, that. ] Time travelers are a real pain in the ass, though, I did get that much.

So what big, important thing was it that you tempered with the continuum for?

[thewarningafter]

[Stephen can't help it; that gets a proper laugh out of him.]

You have no idea how much of a pain in the ass I can be. Fate of the Earth stuff, you know how it is.