endlessflask | [ the village inbox ]

"Yes."

Eliot's used to people not believing magic is real. He more or less shrugs it off, because he's not sure he could manage a demonstration right now (at least, not without a few tries).

"Not like, pulling a rabbit from a hat bullshit. But it's also given me the ability to believe a lot of crazy shit that seems impossible."

He's matter-of-fact about it. She wouldn't believe him for a second if she'd just showed up here, or if she hadn't met John Constantine, or if she hadn't had a crazy nightmare that somehow summoned a knife out of nowhere. This whole place is batshit, so one more dude being like yes I do magic isn't that weird anymore.

It's funny how like a week can change your perspective.

So she shrugs and accepts it.

"This place is too fucking much," is all she says in response.

She doesn't sit down or anything, because she's wound too tight just as a thing, but she'll get there.

"That's a shame, though, because summoning pigeons outta thin air would be pretty sweet to see," she goes on, managing a tiny smile. "Or throwing fireballs at some freaky nightmare creature in the woods. Wait, is that off the table? Because if you can do that, it would be fucking awesome."

She actually doesn't expect there to be any nightmare creatures in the woods. Well, there probably aren't the kind she's used to, at any rate. But she feels like if there was shit like that, it would have wandered into town by now, right?

"Of course I can throw fireballs. Any good magician worth his shit can do that."

And manipulating fire is physical magic, which means Eliot has a more natural affinity towards it than others. Not that Mathias seems to care. Eliot can't really say when or where his magic will decide to work.

"This town does something to it. When I do manage to cast, it's weaker than it should be. And it's not just me it's happening to."

Ellie laughs at all of it, because it's so absurd. She can't even imagine it. She doesn't even know if Eliot is fucking with her. He might be. In this place, who even knows.

"Man, we don't have magic where I'm from. We just have bullshit and more bullshit. I've heard like a handful of people here say they know magic but the most I've seen is some dude bleeding flowers." But Eliot is the first one who's told her that the towns fucks with what he can do, or apparently what other people can do, too.

So that's...interesting.

"You think the town has some anti-magic field to keep you from poofing somewhere else or something?" Can magic do that? She doesn't know, of course. She just imagines that magic can do literally anything.

"I don't know. With the sun being fucked it's probably messing with the circumstances and I don't know the work around for it."

Yet. Or maybe never, which would be the worst, but Eliot has to assume that some day his magic will just click back into place.

"But let me tell you, even when you're from somewhere with magic, it's still bullshit and more bullshit. That's one universal truth."

"Magic has to do with the sun?" she asks. "I thought you just, I dunno, waved your hand and shit happened." It's pretty clear she knows nothing about magic, but like she said, they don't have it where she's from.

She snorts a half-laugh at that last bit. "Yeah, fair enough. I'm not surprised that the whole entire multiverse is just bullshit no matter what. At least I guess it evens it out some, huh? You get magic but it sucks. I get...uh, actually, my whole world just sucks."

She pushes all of that away as best she can.

"So...are you looking for, like, magic plants? Your note said something about plants, right?"

"Yeah. More or less."

What? It's not like he's going to tell her that he's looking for something that might be drugs, but the thought had crossed his mind that there might be more use in the plants than just that. He's not sure how potions might work here. He is sure that potions don't need to be infused with his own magic to work in strange ways, and folk remedies have endured through time for a reason.

Eliot also knows that his strengths aren't in mystery solving. He can put himself to use doing this until someone gives him direction.

"I'd go alone but if shit hits the fan, then no one will know."

She has no idea what kind of magical plants might exist here. She figures none, but things are so weird and sideways that who knows? They might. Or maybe, she thinks, they'll find bodies in the woods, some clue as to what the fuck is going on in this place. There aren't old cars or any animals or any trace of bodies, infected or otherwise. There's got to be something in the woods, right?

"I don't think anyone should go out there alone. This place is weird as hell. Sometimes you hear voices or you get so sick you can't walk forward alone. You're smart to take someone with you, I guess."

"Oh. Thank you."

People never really call Eliot smart for anything, so it's sort of a treat to hear it. Like someone's validating the fact that he's making a rational decision for once in his life.

"I mean, as long as there's not like ... A murderous clown lurking in the woods or something, I think it'll be mostly fine."

She laughs, because the murder clown thing seems absolutely ridiculous to her. Of course she doesn't think he meant it literally, but it's just an absurd image. She's seen some old movies, but she avoids the horror kind, so that's a pop culture reference that isn't in her databank.

"Come on. You and I could totally take a clown," she says. "I got a knife, you got some unreliable fireballs or something. No biggie."

"And telekinesis. Technically."

Which, honestly, Eliot doesn't think is that impressive. He's been around people with way cooler disciplines and talents that are significantly less traumatizing. At least, as far as he's concerned.

"Okay. Great. I'll ... Wait and see if anyone else wants to come along, then we can figure out when to go. My schedule's pretty wide open, so."

Ellie's eyes go a little wide at that mention.

"Telekinesis? Whoa, really? But, right, it doesn't work right so you can't even show me, is that how it goes?" That surprise settles into cynicism; it's easy enough to say you can do magic, but she's never seen magic in real life. She can't quite believe him.

"Either way, um...I'm at 1304 Phillips. There's a phone, but honestly I don't know the number. Phones don't work where I'm from. But it's easy to find."

"1304 Phillips."

Eliot nods, but he knows himself well enough to know he probably won't remember that. He excuses himself for a second and goes to the phone, where an address book is sitting, and promptly scribbles down her name and the address.

"If you're not around I'll slip a note under the door or something. Why this place couldn't give us cellphones is beyond me."

She watches him go. Writing it down makes sense to her. She's only seen busted up phones, never a working one.

"Yeah, okay. Just sign your name or whatever. Wait, you got magic and cellphones? That's not even fucking fair," she says. She wonders if magic cellphones are cooler than the regular ones. But then, the regular ones seem pretty magical to her in theory. The whole internet thing, which she's only heard of, sounds impossible. Maybe even cooler than fireballs.

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