A Modern Magic

[Anosas]

There she was minding her own business, sipping her coffee minding her own business when movement on the table catches the corner of her eyes.   A gasp spills from her lips and she barely manages to keep from dropping her cup.

Her cutlery spelling out "Black eyes"

Who knew....was this some dirty trick, it couldn't be cause how else had the cutlery just reformed like that.

Glancing up to see  the waitress returning, the red head hurriedly would throw her homework back into her back pack.  Hidding the now malformed silver wear,  she throws money onto the table and darts out past her waitress who looks startled after her.

Breaking out of the Denny's as she shoves her back pack on, her eyes dart right and left, nobody in the diner had those eyes.  So it had to be someone out here close by,  and then she spots him. Standing beside the window that would have been near her booth,  also the same man who had helped her get to her feet.

She cant remember whether or not he had black eyes too,  he must have other wise how would he have known.  Hooking her thumbs into the straps of her backpack she moves towards him,  scowling slightly.

Standing a little out of reaching distance, she  casts her glance about the area, last thing she needed was for this to be a trick.

" nice trick..."

She finally says to him and waits for his response.  " what do you want"

[Mist]

I finish the last drag of my cigarette and crush it into the pavement as I watch her come out of the resturant.  As she makes her way towards me, I look to see  her face, read her expressions, make sure im right.  Her eyes are black, no two ways about it.

She came across to me as a little stuck up, but not full of herself.  She had an underlying confidence somehow.  When she asked me what I wanted, I took a step back.  She was intimidating to say the least.  He had never looked into another set of black eyes. 

"I want to know what it means.  Can you do anything like that?" I ask pointing to the window where she had been sitting.  "No can ever see my eyes.  They always say I have green eyes. But all I see in the mirror is black.  I just want to know what it means, and I was hoping you would know."

[Anosas]

Tori would stare up at this strange man with furrowed brows,  her arms folded across her chest in that closed off way. 

Her dark eyes would flicker over towards the window as he pointed, and nibbled upon her lower lip as she considered him for a moment. Sighing she would reach a hand up to fiddle with her fiery pony tail, perhaps a nervous twitch as she would come to stand closer to him.

"  It means your a spell caster,"   she would say softly, carefully watching those who were walking around or by them.  She kept her tone low like she didn't want anyone to hear,  like she was afraid of being found out.

" You should research more,  spell casters eyes always appear green to normal people.....black to other spell casters"  She would look up at him, jeez adults could be so clueless sometimes. 

" I can do things, yes...not like that...mines different"  she would answer his question about whether she could do anything like he could.

[NotoriusBEN]

Ben went to the restroom at Denny's to get the stain out of his shirt the best he could. A futile effort that left the cloth a dingy brown. Muttering to himself he zipped up his jacket and stepped to the counter to order a coffee to go. No where near as good as a Starbucks, but he didn't have the cash to just buy another one from that store. He just started to walk out the door again, when the teenage girl sped past him, making him spill his coffee... *AGAIN*!!

"Gah-! Dammit!" Once would have been tolerable, but twice? Nope... She's getting a piece of Ben's mind now. He stormed over to her and the guy she was talking with, getting ready to tell her what for... and he froze.

"Black eyes..." He knew there were others, there had to be, but meeting two at the same time gave Ben pause. The fact that they were younger than him sent a myriad of thoughts through his mind about a possible reemergence of magic in the known world, to sheer coincidence, and the possibilities of 2012.

"You two, come with me..." He ordered them with the practiced voice of a Sergeant, and walked past them and waited slightly for them follow, if they would. His mind warred within and at himself. Why should he take them under his wing? He didn't have to, but there was a lot that they probably didn't know about. Pitfalls that could consume them if they weren't careful. Hell, HE didn't know what to look for, but talking with a couple other magi might corroborate certain truths and dispel other myths. It was incredibly presumptuous to assume that they would follow him, but maybe curiosity would tempt them.

When they ask, "We are going to my place because one, I need a new shirt. Two, I have some reference material about our... condition. And three, we need some place without prying eyes and ears."

((hehe, Tori is probably used to 'willing' normal people out of her way. It's the only way I can explain all the times she bumped Ben so far))

[Anosas]

It seemed luck was not with Ben as Tori made him spill yet another coffee,  though she had been so intent upon meeting up with Mist she hadn't realised  that it was him she had jarred.  She hadn't even really clued in that he was the only she seemed to bump into either.

The fiery red head would turn to gaze at Ben when his voice met their ears.....HE HAD BLACK EYES TOO?!

Fear was starting to grip the teenage girls mind and body,  panic flickering within her...it was one thing to run into one person of magick...but two?  Slowly she began to back up,  her hands lifted in front of her in a motion that would remind someone of warding off another.

" hey, look...I don't know what you two are trying to pull here.....but  whatever it is I don't want any part of it"

Glancing between Ben and Mist, this was getting a little too weird, she had been okay with the knowledge there were others out there but never expected to find any. All she had wanted was breakfast,  that's all...and now it had turned into a meeting of the magi....

She would look at Mist and point after Ben " he seems to know more then me...so bye now!" 

Turning her eyes would dart around the street in waiting to cross, she was just going to go to school, and pretend this never happened.

[Mist]

There I stood between a man telling him to follow him walking away to his house and a girl who thought she was being abducted.

"Wait!" I almost yelled.  Turning to the girl, "I don't know you, and I don't know him," pointing at the man, still walking down the street,"from Adam! Look, you both seem to have answers and that's all I want."

I grab a cigarette out of my pack and light it.  I walk to the girl and talk to her back.  "No offence, but i'm sure you can't know everything about us, neither can he for that matter.  Don't you want to know more? Don't you wonder what a guy his age knows?"

I take another drag and wonder what abilities they had.  How do they control it? Where does it come from? All these questions and more twisted my mind in a knot. I attempt to clear my head with the final drag of my cigarette, hoping to hear one of them answer me.

[Anosas]

Tori would sigh and glance back at Mist, and then to Ben who was disappearing, nibbling upon her lower lip.  Shrugging her backpack upon her shoulders, she grumbles to herself, and starts moving after Ben.

"  alright alright,  let's go....but the minute anything funny happens Im so gone"   She warns mist,  continuing to move after Ben. 

Irritation causes a direct split in those walking on the side walk so always Ben is in full view, and Tori's way is unhindered.

" i cant believe Im doing this"  she mummbles to herself.

[NotoriusBEN]

Ben slowed down and waited for the other two to catch up. They were following him now, so that part of his mind was made up. As they walked down the street, Ben noticed that people were parting the sidewalk before them.

"You need to stop that, if you can." He looked to the boy, then the girl. After a moment he settled with the girl. "It's not wrong to use your talents in computers, but you two need to get a little lesson in ethics before you just start diving in and fiddling with the code." He chose his words carefully, putting a noticable inflections on certain words. Other people might think he was strange for emphasising certain words, but the two who were following him knew what he was talking about.

After a few more minutes walking, they came to Ben's street. "My apartment is up the way here. It's not much, but it's clean. No, it's not full of weird stuff. But first, we should introduce each other." He stopped and held out his hand in greetings. "My name is Ben. Pleased to meet the both of you."

[Mist]

I follow intent on my questions being answered.  The Code? There's a code? Shit, am I gonna be punished for what happened with the train? More quesdtions arose. 
"I'm Mist.  Nice to meet you Ben."  I shake his hand and turn to the girl.  "Mist." I hold my hand out. "So what can you two do?"

[Anosas]

As Ben would ask her to cease the parting of the crowds, she would let out a breath and with great effort the crowds would start swarming the side walks once more.  However whenever one came close to bumping into her they would suddenly veer off,  apparently she just couldn't help herself when it came to her own person...she didn't really like to be touched.

Glancing at Ben and Mist's hands, she would just nod curtly to them both " Tori...pleasure"  she would reply.  It's not that she was stuck up, but she was your typical moody teenager,  who was following two strange men and wondering what in the world she was doing following them.

[NotoriusBEN]

"Pleased to meet the both of you, then." The trio walked up the stairs to Ben's apartment. It was mostly clean, but anyone knew a bachelor pad when they saw it. In the living room were piles and piles of books, some in danger of tipping over. A cursory glance saw books ranging from tarot, to the occult, to new age medicine, biographies on many prominent persons in history, and many thesises about psychology, para-normality, and ESP.  Near the computer desk were piles of stapled papers that ranged much of the same topics.

"Erm... sorry about the mess. Research and all. Oh, there's also some soda in the fridge, if you two are thirsty." Looking at Mist, he added, "Booze is off limits, and if you need a smoke, the awning is over there."

After a few more moments of pleasantries, Ben took a seat in his favorite chair and let the other two take the ends of the couch across from him. "Ok. I guess it's time to talk about who we are and what we do."

Taking a deep breath, Ben continued, "Sorry for the life story, but I grew up in Seattle, and had a run of the mill childhood and time in high school. I joined the military and I served during the invasion of Iraq. I lost a few friends over there, and a few times I probably should have died, but I didnt. I manifested over there, during a firefight, which is probably what attributes to my trigger, more on that later.

Things were bad in Fallujah, and many wont talk about it, but suffice it to say, there were magi on boths sides, all of them cowboys. They weren't part of a larger group. Hell, the US Armed Forces didnt even know about magi. A lot of the news stories about IEDs werent exploded from munitions, they were about certain individuals who could turn mass into energy. We were all new to this, or there would have been much more weird stuff that wouldnt be explainable.  After that, well, we went home. I havent been keeping in contact with any of my friends from the service, so who knows what's what anymore."

Ben took a gulp from his water glass and continued about magic. "As far as research with magic, sorry kids, I'm learning this stuff as I go as well. I've bought books and spent plenty of time on the net, but there are *no* experts in this field. Well, no one that's respected anyways. Quite a few dubious ones though... A few hundred years of witch hunts, inquisitions, and general apathy towards mysticism has pretty much killed off magic. If I had to peg a recent figure in history as a mage, I'd have to say Rasputin of Russia comes close, but he's either dead, or a hermit in the Russian Steppes.

You can call me over cautious, but look at history if you need proof about magic being ostracised. This is serious stuff and if you dont use it wisely, it will come back at you, whether through public awareness, or even a Magic Burn.

Well... that's what I have to say, for starters. I'd at least like you to tell me about yourselves before choosing if you want to learn more with me, or just walking out."

[Mist]

I sat and listened as Ben layed his story out. As soon as the word mage was uttered, I sprang and walked to the awning with a labored step.  Lighting my cigarette, I finished hearing Ben ask about us.

   "Well, Ben, I'm happy to hear things have not been as much of a struggle as some.  Ill include myself in that category by first telling you that my trigger, as you call it, seems to be connected to some kind of anger in the form of seperation seperation anxiety. 

   I am from a little toen in northern Minnesota called Blackduck.  My mother left my father for a random man on a Harley at a gas station when I was ten.  Dad was paying for gas and she just waled over to him, took him by the balls and jumped on the back.  I haven't seen her to this day since."

I walk to the kitchen and grab a pop. 

   "Dad and I were thick as theives.  He taught me everything he knew about engines.  Gas, diesel, two-stroke, marine, tractors all of it.  High school is where things went south.  Started dating this girl..."  my breath becomes heavier and I take a sip of pop. 

   "We didn't last.  I started working on a classic tractor and was very upset, it didn't help that I was loosing patience with the machine.  I lost my temper, which is not uncommon while im working on cars, and I punched the block.  The engine just popped to life.   I had done nothing on the engine.  What I had done was transmission work, brakes, and the axles.  Some of which was not completed.

   The old thing took off as my dad come into the barn to console me..."  another break for a breath and sip.

   "I was cleared of all those charges at that trial. Made my way south and Chicago is as good a place to start over as any right? 
   I don't know anything about what this is. All I have learned since being here is how angry I have to be to do anything and that my ability is metal manipulation in general.  For some reason I have a strong aptitude for engine work though.  I can fix it even if I don't know what's wrong. 

   That's me.  Fill in the blanks with whatever.  Im broke, homeless, and a freak. "

I sit back down and shake my head and sip on my pop, contemplating another smoke.

[RegularRaskolnikov]

((Whew! Sorry about the absence. Internet troubles over here. I'm up and running again, though))

Victor trudged down the sidewalk with a slightly wavering gait. His worn shoes slapped the pavement awkwardly. It was pretty evident that the mass amount of Gin were beginning to have its effect on his tall, wiry body. Still, it was how he kept himself in check. He had been analyzing the small, telltale signs of what he called "affliction" in himself for the past few months. He briefly wondered if his years of alcoholism had had any adverse effects on the manifestation of his newfound abilities. 

He mopped a clump of damp brown hair from in front of his eyes and looked up. The sky was still the flat, listless shade of gray, deepening now into a somber charcoal color. Shit, it was getting late. Almost time for him to find a place to bunk.

He nudged his way unsteadily through the crowd. His sunken eyes searching drunkenly for an appealing patch of dry cement or a lonely brick wall for him to rest his back against. It was his usual routine. He shrugged inwardly, not getting caught up in the futile derelict monotony that was his present life. In the middle of his introspective stumbling he was interrupted by the sight of three people entering a small appartment building.

That was nothing even worth noting. The two young men and the even younger girl were just more cogs in the clockwork in this city, at least that's what he would have dismissed them as had he not caught a glimpse of their eyes. One of the men, clutching a lit cigarette, had turned his head briefly before entering the building. For a second he caught eyes as black as pitch. Black eyes! Those same onyx almonds that stared at him from the mirror!

Well now. That was interesting. He continued to stumble drunkenly past, not saying a word. They were gone and inside in an instant. Without a thought he turned into the nearest alleyway and slumped against the wall. Perhaps his self induced pilgrimage was coming to some sort of conclusion.He sighed wetly, resting against the wall of the alley, just another piece of the scenery, and waited patiently.

He really wished gravity would stop moving in so many damn directions!

[Anosas]

With Ben and Mist telling their stories, Tori had found a place to sit and curl up in after grabbing herself a pop. Moody eyes drifted over the mountains of books,  and thinking Ben was probably a looney...he was one of them but a looney. When silence fell she would look up and blink as they looked at her expectantly and sigh would fall from her lips.

"  Moved here from Niagra Falls, because my father got a big break in his job. My parents are oblivious to my...talents....my sister thinks she knows what I can do.  I don't like to be touched."

She looked at them both pointedly, as if to say, so keep your hands away from me.

"  my talents stem from the need for personal space.....but basically I can control anything with a conscious mind. Humans,  animals, insects.....and"

Lifting a finger towards the scrape that marred the flesh of her chin,  concentrating on something particularly pleasant in thought she would touch the fingers of her right hand to the wound. Before their eyes, the wound would seem to lurch into fast forward, scabbing, scarring and then disappearing without a trace.

" healing" Shed reply in case they hadn't caught on to what she could do, even though they had just seen it for themselves.  " that one I can control by pleasant thoughts." 

Leaning back into the seat she had momentarily taken over,  she raised the can of the bubbly beverage and took a long drink from it.  School would be starting about now,  shed have to make something up as to why she wasn't in any of her classes today.

"  so then....what now..." 

[NotoriusBEN]

"Hmm, well that tosses most of my theories out." Ben fumed in the general direction of the other two. "But, it seems that our triggers are emotionally charged. If only I had a real magic tome. This internet drivel is useless. Im chasing red herrings in a discipline that flies in the face of modern thinking..." He begins to rub his eyes in consternation.

"Well, if you want to practice and do research into this, your both welcome to come by. Ive been staring at this stuff for seven years, it would help to have others' perspective... One other thing.." He rose and walked to the awning, looking out over some of suburbia and at the skyscrapers of downtown. "We've found each other by happenstance after years of isolation. I cant believe it's mere co-incidence, it'd be like winning the lotto... twice. There may be others in Chicago that are like us. Others that may Know what magic is and run the gamut of society. I'd like to have each others' cell numbers so that we can check in or have more people to call for help if need be. This stuff aint kid's play and history has shown a LOT of people that have abused power given to them..."

((sorry, ive been having a writer's block in this story >.> ))

[Mist]

I sat there and listened to Ben theorise about what I was and who I am.  It was hard to think that this could be coincidence, yes.  But now what? Do we just start reading and learning about those before us? Do we start fighting evil like superheros?

   "I'd give you my number if I had one.  Hell id give you my address, but I lack one of those too.  I've been staying in shelters in the 'burbs."

I take a smoke out and light it as I join Ben under the awning.

   "What do we practice for? What are we learning for? We ar just freaks and just need to let our, umm, "skills" be part of the background if you ask me.  Why risk drawing attention to ourselves? Hell, I made the front page this morning! For all I know they are already looking for me."

I take another few drags as I think more to myself out loud.

   "I can control it.  Its just an abnormality that I have to deal with."  Looking back at Ben and Tori I ask, "what do you two do? I can twist metal  and manipulate an engine, you obviously have some kind of mind control.  So, what do you posses? What's your "power?"

As I start almost raising my voice I throw my arms up. My cigarette's hot cherry flys into the air and falls on Tori's exposed knee without my notice.

[Anosas]

Listening to Ben, a frown would curve those petal lips, as sigh would push out in slight exasperation and a submission to the cause. Pulling back pack free, the peel of zippers being opened zinging through the air and the sounds of one rummaging through books and papers was heard. 

Fat purple crayola marker that boasted smelling of grapes, and being washable,  would whisk across lined paper.  The lid held between pearly teeth, though incisors seemed to be a little sharper then most peoples, which often got her the nick name fangs or vampire.

Stuffing the lid back over the chubby marker, it would be carelessly tossed within her back, the number she scrawled upon the page would be rudely torn out and thrust in set upon a table before Ben.

" your.....not the only one...who made headlines"  she would stutter out unsure.  Settling back down she had just turned her eyes upon Mist when...

"AHH"  A pained cry would splice the air as pale hand would slam against the knee which had just been burnt by the glowing cherry of his cigarette.  Quickly brushing the burning bits of tobacco and paper from her now painful hand and knee,  the pieces loosing that angry glow before hitting the floor now that they had been smothered by her. 

Tears smarted her eyes,  as blister started to form where the heat had made most contact with her flesh. 

"Gawd..."  she would groan, hissing air through her teeth to breath through pain, lips pressed together as she would punch the arm of the chair she was settled on. "  damn it be more careful"  shed yell at mist in surprised and pained anger.