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[reshapes]

action + written + crystal

Comments

[reshapes]

[???????????? No it absolutely is not???? Sure, you might stand on the sidelines and get some good heckling in, but helping? Don't be absurd.]

Nevermind that. Is there something you need, or is this just a particularly ill-timed version of twenty questions?

[rathercommon]

A perfectly well-timed twenty questions. It's not my fault you decided to get violent while I wanted to learn things.

[reshapes]

Decided? Decided! You make it sound like I'm wandering about the city with my fist held straight out in front of me, punching whoever happens to get within arm's reach! I'll have you know I was minding my own business, unlike some people.

[rathercommon]

Then how'd you get into this fight.

[reshapes]

Look do you want to ask questions two through 20, or not? Because otherwise I'm about to put you in my pocket and ignore you while I do this next part.

[rathercommon]

[ Urgh. ]

Fine. But if being distracted means you lose this fight, don't get sour at me. So - you were telling me about your home.

[reshapes]

Kitty, you're in conversation with a being of higher intelligence. I assure you that I-- oh, hello. Pardon me, if you just step in one direction or another and I'll be on my--

[A few more muffled noises, shouting from two voices-- Somewhere, he's mid-duck and weave.]

What was I saying? Oh right. That you simply can't imagine it. You humans with all your fleshy parts and dripping noses and waxy ears don't have the capacity to understand being so unformed. Not really.

[The sound of running now.]

[rathercommon]

[ Kitty grunts, rather displeased by that. (And trying very hard to ignore the rather alarming noises there.) ]

Well, then...how did you form?

[reshapes]

I-- what? It's part of being here in your world. Or, a world, I suppose. This one's not exactly what you're used to either, now is it? Usually, the summoning binds my Essence and forces me to take some shape here. It's more complicated here but-- oof!

[A fantastic grunt of effort. A whistling of air. A thump. A horrible wet sound followed by a cry and the repeated bump-bump of something falling and tumbling away.]

[rathercommon]

No, not that. More -

[ She wrinkles her nose. ]

I was born. I know I was born. How did you come into being? Have you got a...spirit mum and a spirit dad?

[reshapes]

[If he weren't so out of breath, he might laugh. As it is, he keeps most of what's in his lungs and focuses at least in part on skedaddling up-- well, wherever. It's not important.]

But I've already told you, Kitty. The summoning does it. Or did all the way back to the very first time it happened, if you prefer to look at it that way. But don't. I don't much care for what that implies about the dusty old bag of bones who first plucked me from the Other Place.

[rathercommon]

Then - before that first summoning - what were you?

[reshapes]

Nothing. Everything. I wasn't a you or an I then. I just was.

[rathercommon]

Is that...what it's like when you're back there now?

[reshapes]

[You know, he'd been having fun with this a few seconds ago. But now-- the patter of his feet has slowed. The background noise across the sending crystal has faded to an inconsequential murmur. He's breathing harder than he'd like and he has a stitch in his side and a cut on his arm (copper; nothing to worry about), and the whole thing seems a little...

Lightly, all good temper and cheer:]

That's right. Technically I still have a name there. Or rather, there are pieces of Essence that are are still bound to that like a fish on a hook. But in the Other Place, it's so much less clear which parts it actually belongs to. It's all rather liberating really. Literally and figuratively, as it just so happens.

[rathercommon]

Mm.

[ It's all so weird and foreign. ]

Could you ever just - change your name?

[ She feels silly as soon as she asks the question, like it's something that's obviously stupid, and she just doesn't get that it's obviously stupid. But - she's Kitty and not Kathleen any longer; why can't he change his name, too? Make it so he doesn't have to answer any longer? ]

[reshapes]

[It's so stupid a question that it gives him actual pause.]

It's not something I choise, Kitty. I can't just say Actually, it's Albert now and put my fingers in my ears whenever a summoning comes looking for some chap called Bartimaeus.

[Or its variations. But that's clearly a complication that Kitty isn't ready to juggle yet.]

[rathercommon]

Well -

[ She feels very silly. ]

Why not?

[reshapes]

Because when I say it's my name, I mean that I belong to it and not the other way around. Mind you, there are worse options. I knew a djinni in Samaria whose name sounded an awful lot like--

[A very rude word here, but let's not record that. There might be children reading.]

I don't know if you've noticed, but what I want doesn't have much to do with my existence in worlds like yours. I can't just pick and choose. But honestly, neither can you. Your birth name has power. It's why you shouldn't just go around telling it to everyone.

[rathercommon]

What d'you mean, power? What sort of power?

[reshapes]

[Of for the love of--]

I could show you, but I don't think you'd like it. Just trust me when I say that it makes you vulnerable and that you can't just wriggle out of it by sheer force of will.

[rathercommon]

Or you could tell me. No need to show anything.

[reshapes]

Or you could just trust me. [He'll admit to being a little peevish on the delivery there. But who could blame him?] Anyway, you're not a magician. It matters less if you're not having magic slung at you or trying to poke spirits in sensitive places.

[rathercommon]

I have magic flung at me plenty.

[reshapes]

Then I suppose it's a good thing you've such a sporty nickname, eh?

[An exaggerated huff.]

Your birth name is like a magnet. Magic is drawn to it. Invoking it makes an attack that much more potent. The semantics of it would all be far too complicated for someone like yourself, but the long and the short of it is that anyone who knows it can beat your more easily and can defend themselves from anything you can do more handily. It's why magicians go to such pains to hide theirs. It's why they can bind spirits whose names they know, and why we're compelled to follow their charge.