video; username: julius

[viscontree]

Hello everyone. My name is Julius Visconti.

Allow me to take this opportunity to formally thank all of you. I was held in prison for some time along with some others. I understand how much trouble you went through just to aid us.

There isn't a lot I can do to repay the favor. For that I apologize.

[He bows his head down in apology.]

I promise that I'll work even harder from now. [It's the least he can do around here. Julius isn't going to waste his time.]

On another note, I'd like to ask you all a question.

What do you know about magic? I've been intrigued by its concept and origins for some time, yet I hardly know anything. Magic is a difficult thing for me to grasp. I'd appreciate it if we could sit down and discuss it in detail.

Comments

[viscontree]

I understand. Well, at any rate it wouldn't do us any good to keep standing out here like this.

Should we head in and find a place to eat? Choose our destination, Rin.

[It's normal to like money! You can do so much with it. ]

[defenceless]

[ain't that the truth.]

—Naturally. Please follow me.

[she can accept the responsibility of leading them to a nice spot to hang out. it helps that she's equally familiar with the restaurants and such in the city limits. with a casual wave, rin begins walking and assumes they're off; a short distance away, they'll be crowding up to what seems to be a makeshift coffee shop/gathering place of sorts.

the interior of the building is warm, at least, and there are plenty of tables.]

[viscontree]

[What a comfortable place. Once they step inside Julius relaxes somewhat. The place is fairly clean and people are moving about. It's a nice change from sitting inside of a dirty cell. As long as they're in here he doesn't have to worry about getting cold either. He follows behind Rin quietly until she settles down.]

This is a good location. Have you been here before?

[defenceless]

[that's right. he just spent a long, long time in jail, didn't he? (maybe rin could remember that and be a little kinder.)]

Once or twice,

[she admits, perching her chin upon her hand when she's comfortably seated and eyeing him lazily.]

If you can believe it, I have a giant magic familiar that prepares me his own tea.

(( ooc: i was going to have rin show him some magic in this thread! if you'd like me to avoid that in light of your tag to her on the recent event log, where it says he hasn't seen her magic before, lmk! c: ))

[viscontree]

[OOC: went around to editing it! thank you for letting me know!]

A giant magic familiar? Doesn't it require a great deal of training to control something so massive?

[He sounds well...a little concerned. Sure, some mages are more talented than others. Still, Julius doesn't understand how Rin manages to maintain it.]

[defenceless]

(( ooc: np! thanks! i'll try to get back to this thread a bit faster so we can continue with new cr things :,) i was really bogged down with holidays stuff for a while. ))

Oh, of course. [rin leans back in her chair.] It especially takes a lot of training when you have one with such a hard-to-handle attitude as he does. But I've been prepared to summon him all my life, and he owes his existence to me, so that's that.

[viscontree]

[ooc: don't worry about it! take it easy :D]

You're highly dedicated to your work. I assume that ALASTAIR intends to exploit your efforts and use them for the mission.

[It makes him feel terrible. Rin spent her whole life working towards improving magic and she got thrown here as her reward. Julius frowns slightly.]

I'm sorry that things have come to this, Rin. I wish that we could meet under better circumstances.

[defenceless]

(( ooc: ty! c: ))

[it's okay, julius. she was only ever fated to help solve other people's problems with her magic, and she's long since accepted it. her eyes narrow, slightly disbelieving.]

What do you need to be sorry about? Neither you or any of the rest of us ever asked for this. Sometimes you have to make do with what you've got.

ALASTAIR is exploiting all of us. They'll receive their just desserts in due time.

[viscontree]

You're right. I have a firm belief that we'll make it out of here so as long as we cooperate with each other.

Shall we start with the basics of magic then? [It feels like he's going to be here for a while, but that's fine. Julius can't remain ignorant about things like magic forever. Rin will be able to help with that.]

[defenceless]

[she will. a waitress comes over to jot down their orders, and for some reason, rin is very particular about asking for a plain glass of water. once the waitress is gone—]

Yes, the basics are very simple.

[rin adopts the mannerisms of a teacher, right then and there.]

To begin, I have something called magic circuits inside me. They're like nerves or blood vessels. They're a part of my body you can't remove, and they generate magical energy.

[viscontree]

Magic circuits?

[Julius is just echoing what Rin said. There's some hits of curiosity in his tone as he learns this new information.]

Is it possible to distinguish how many magic circuits a single mage has?

If it's like blood vessels I assume you have plenty of them.

[A single person has many blood vessels. Julius is imagining magic circuit to be similar to the flow inside of a vein.]

[defenceless]

Technically, yes. And actually, some magi have few circuits or only one. When I was born, as a baby my family had the number of circuits appraised. That's the case in most families of magi.

[viscontree]

Intriguing. [Julius tries to imagine seeing things from Rin's perspective. He's still not completely certain of how magic works in his world, but what he does understand is that it's something people get involved with at birth. Children are given a difficult task and they must study magic.]

Thank you for sharing this with me. Although, I'm puzzled by a few matters in particular.

Is it better to have more magic circuits? And what happens if you only have a single circuit?

[It doesn't seem useful to him if there's just one.]

[defenceless]

[that's not so different from rin's life. magic is her inheritance, her "difficult task" for as long as she exists, and there are plenty of mysteries she's expected to unravel or insights to gain.]

Sure. Of course it's better to have more magic circuits than one. It's like having more batteries, and stronger batteries, at that. If you only have one, I guess you just use it the best you can. You won't become a skilled magus, but you may be able to do a lot if you set your mind to it.

[like archer.]

[viscontree]

I understand. Your aptitude for magic is decide by how many magic circuits you posses.

[He thinks he has it. Julius sounds a little more sure than before. Still trying to process how it all works, this is new to him. Let's blame nasu for making this complicated.]

What does it mean to be a "magus"?

[In Rin's terms, he isn't sure what that means either. Asking her would be his best bet.]

[defenceless]

[yes, let's blame nasu for everything. because even if magic circuits are a thing in her world, they're still not very easy to see, or explain.]

... For the most part, yes.

A magus is essentially what it sounds like. A mage, a magic user, a witch. Whatever humankind wants to call us. To me, it means I have a duty to my forefathers. I'll work hard to advance my family's knowledge and increase the number of achievements others associate with our name. That should be easy to understand, right? Any magical pursuit you can think of, a magus is out there studying it.

Naturally, this implies I'll be having my own child and training him or her to become a magus in the same way, someday.

[viscontree]

I think I understand. A magus has the duty to continue studying magic. It's not something to be easily obtained but passed down from generation to generation.

[Kind of like passing over a heirloom throughout a family for years. Julius expression lightens up at that. It'd be nice to have your own family and children.]

You'll raise a fine family some day.

[defenceless]

I don't doubt it.

[maybe she's got an inflated ego, but it's her obligation and it's practically assured, for rin.]

Now that you have the background, what's next is to give you a glimpse of how my magecraft actually operates.

[viscontree]

I'll keep an open mind.

Magic isn't so simply understood. [Julius isn't overly familiar with everything in the magical verse, but he's slowly starting to understand its rules thanks to Rin.]

[defenceless]

[as luck would have it, their "order" arrives just in time, in the next moment. taking that as her cue to begin, she picks up the glass of water—]

As long as you won't scream or freak out, you're already ahead of lots of people.

[drains it, and drops the glass from a high height into the hard table, shattering it to pieces instantly.

—yep. that happened.

better hope they don't get kicked out, julius. rin stares at the shattered glass fragments like they're as ordinary as snow.]

[viscontree]

[Julius stares at the shards of fallen glass in disbelief. This isn't what he was expecting either. Rin on the other hand seems to accept this as normal.]

That can't be fixed, can it?

[Glass is kind of irreparable from a normal person perspective. What are they going to do now?? ]

[defenceless]

[it can.]

Just watch.

[she selects a sharp shard of glass and holds it between her fingers, poising the tip of her index finger against a point with enough pressure to pierce the skin and draw a fat, red drop of blood.

after that, the glass fragment is returned to the surface of the table in a pile of the others. rin holds out her hand, mutters a nonsensical spell in german, and—before his very eyes—

the glass will reconstruct itself, almost until it's impossible to distinguish it'd been broken at all. the reconstruction is led by the light glow of magic, but it's nothing that would call undue attention to their table, and it's as though just rin's blood is mainly responsible.]

[viscontree]

Incredible.

[ Julius isn't even sure what he just witnessed. One thing's for certain though--Magic's not for normal people or to be used casually. It's convenient to have but not something that should be taken for granted either.]

How did you do that?

[ There's some complicated process in the works here.]