[IC] Tributary Continuations

[twicebonded]

♥

Comments

[twicebonded]

[grimly]

You heard what he said, Stef. About—damage, and . . .

[abardacttofollow]

And you won't have to rediscover that alone. I swear that.

[twicebonded]

You hardly know me—

[he knows that rings thin and hollow though]

[twicebonded]

Yes—I only just remembered it. I was going by Lyric.

[twicebonded]

[he was warned!! but he seems interested rather than overwhelmed, eyes widening with interest at the show of magic]

Your "Axiom?" I understand the concept of . . . handling essence or energy in certain ways, but how what exactly is being . . . provided with "instructions?"

[axiomystic]

The instructions are for our cosmic shards -- our Axiom is imprinted into them when we awaken, I think, so we're stuck with whatever we've derived. An individual spell tells me what kind of converted arcane energy I'll need and how to release it as a useful effect, but the Axiom is what tells my shards how to handle that conversion and execute the spell's instructions.

[prideofplace]

If you're more comfortable with that for now, you can keep going by it.

[abardacttofollow]

I'm ready to change that.

[twicebonded]

[licks his lips, breath hitching. he really has no resistance here, just . . . leaning closer to him, pressing their foreheads together. visibly scared, breathing a bit fast, hands cold.]

[twicebonded]

Is it . . . instinctive?

[twicebonded]

No, no, it's fine. It's just an adjustment, isn't it?

[axiomystic]

....no, not at all. Think of my shards like a very complex machine; in that metaphor, deriving an Axiom is working out techniques for using the machine effectively.

[prideofplace]

It suppose can be. I'll confess, I was one of the few lucky ones to remember my name right away.

But what you're comfortable with is paramount, so Vanyel it is.

[abardacttofollow]

[chafes his hands, closing his own eyes] I wish you didn't have to be afraid of your memories. But I'll be with you the whole time. I promise.

[twicebonded]

. . .

[tilts his head, leaning in and catching Stef's mouth in a kiss]

[abardacttofollow]

[smiles into the kiss, holding on]

[twicebonded]

I'm afraid my world does not have much in the way of complex machinery.

[axiomystic]

...hmm. All right, what about...

[thinks for a moment]

...I'm going to mangle this metaphor awfully, but imagine if there was a musical instrument that was enchanted to play itself, if it was given the right score. The enchantment can reproduce all the fingerings and techniques a musician would need, but it needs the actual instrument to play and the musical score to tell it how to turn those techniques into a song. My Axiom is like that enchantment, my cosmic shards are like the instrument, and each spell is a different song.

Does that make it any clearer, or am I just digging myself a deeper hole?

[twicebonded]

[he wrinkles his nose slightly, but relaxes into a little grin]

That is clearer, actually. Though . . . I take it that you yourself are not a musician?

[axiomystic]

Not at all. Any claim I could make to musical knowledge is distinctly secondhand.