childrenofbahamutlogs | in order to eat your feelings, you have to make them first

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in order to eat your feelings, you have to make them first

WHO: Avan and Popp
WHAT: If you're 16 and I'm 16, then who's driving the mentorship???
WHERE: The kitchen of their shared cottage
WHEN: A day or two after arrival
WARNINGS: Allusions to death

SUMMARY:

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Avan is stress-baking. If he were alone in the cottage, he'd be dedicating more active brainpower to processing his apparent eventual demise, but Popp's been kind of... clingy. Understandably so, really, given the aforementioned apparent demise. But it does mean he has to make sure to keep his apparent mood cheery, and so, baking. Cookies, specifically, though he's only just started the dough at this point. Maybe a cake or two later.

Ahh, maybe more information would help him come to grips with the existentiality of it all. Popp's hanging around anyway, might as well take advantage of it.

"Say, Popp, how did you meet your Master?"

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Split off on their own, huh, is that what we're going with? Sure, bud.

Avan slides his cookie sheet to the side so he can lean over the counter and look Popp in the face. "You're a nice guy, Popp." The offer's a bit meaningless to him, as a person who approaches risks with reckless abandon rather than worry, but the sentiment's nice anyway.

"But hopefully this place remains nice and peaceful!"

"Well, thanks." He scratches the side of his face, a little embarrassed. He's only like this because he had a good role model!!

"But I don't think the gods or whoever made a couple dozen second-rate Dragon Knights because they were expecting a bake sale, Avan."

"Maybe we were brought here to help deal with that calamity Mr. Charlie put a stop to, but he took care of it before we arrived!" Optimism!

"Though..." he taps his fingers on the counter thoughtfully. "If there was that much intent behind it, you'd think they would summon me from closer to your time! It sounds like your Master would be a lot more useful than I am if we're going to have to fight anything!"

He doesn't sound like being behind his full potential bothers him. Popp can't relate to that, but does know a whole lot about putting on a bold front.

"Well, outside of Zoom and Levizoom, my spells are all for combat. If they wanted someone all-purpose, they'd have done better going another few decades back and picking up old Matoriv in his prime."

He definitely does not appreciate how hard it must be to mess about with time and space. He does remember to not call Matoriv his teacher, at least.

"Kind of a difficult guy to deal with, though. I don't think anyone would summon him on purpose unless they were desperate."

This is extremely mean and extremely accurate. Popp has been glad to see the old coot on a number of desperate occasions.

"Maybe the dragons are into particular personalities?"

He does not sound like he believes this.

"Master Avan could be really difficult himself when he felt like it."

He does sound like he believes this part, though.

Avan gives a cheeky grin, because he knows perfectly well that he can be difficult sometimes. He does it on purpose.

"Who's Matoriv? You haven't mentioned him before."

"Matoriv? He's a grumpy old dirtbag who lives in a secret cave in Papnica and hates to be bothered - but he showed me his house before he ditched me off in the middle of Romos, so I can bother him whenever I dare, heh heh."

His tone is both laid back and fond despite what he's actually saying. Talking shit is Matoriv's love language. As well as his hate language and his neutral language-

"He likes you and Maam and Roka, though, so I can't fault his taste, and he's strong enough to take on Hadlar one on one."

He's not the same kind of comforting as Master Avan by a long shot, but he's really cool in his own way, and deserves to be talked up, especially when there's no risk of him overhearing.

"If he had fought one on one, he might have taken him out on the spot. He doesn't have the raw magic power of a demon lord, but he can cast two or three spells at once, which is really hard."

He puts away his insignia and stretches his hands out with the fingers laced together. Matoriv isn't up to dualcasting any more and he knows whose fault that is. Aside from Hadlar's, that is. Hadlar doesn't count he doesn't want to share a category with him.

"I've been trying to do that myself, but... it's really hard."

Matoriv knows him and Roka, that's another one of those little nuggets of information to store away without bringing up directly. It's not the thing that's most caught his attention.

"Multiple spells at once? That's not just 'really hard,' that's incredible!" Avan leans over the counter to stare at Popp in awe. "Most people would even say it's impossible! A mage that can pull that off is a rare talent!"

Still halfway over the counter, Avan brings his hands up to rest his chin on them and grins. "It sounds like I'm going to make some really interesting friends in the future! How exciting!"

All right, that's got Avan interested in going out and having adventures! To make friends rather than to get stronger and save the world, but there are worse motivations.

"I'll get the hang of it eventually."

Popp rolls up to a crouch - he's great at rolling around, that being a useful way to dodge and run at the same time - and calls up a handful of Frizz.

"Matoriv also keeps saying it's my job as a mage to keep a cool head and support my companions with useful spells. How hot do you need that oven?"

"If this is the current temperature, and this is boiling water, then it should be around here," Avan answers, accompanied by the obvious hand gestures.

Popp could just light the wood and let Avan use the oven normally, but magic fire means no smoke, so Avan's not going to complain.

He wants to be visibly helpful... This Avan doesn't have the social leverage or seemingly the inclination to make him do various menial tasks, which on one hand is great but on the other hand he feels? Bad? About? Just lazing around and griping...

"Got it, like this?"

Heating something up gently instead of just chucking a bunch of fire at it is difficult. Sizz might be better suited for pure heat, but it's a slightly stronger and more tiring spell and Popp is more confident in his ability to control this one.

It's good training for controlling your magic output. Avan's done it before himself, not that he's about to tell Popp as much. He kneels in front of the oven and holds his hand out to check the temperature. Hmmm....

"A little more." He makes an up gesture with his free hand. This is... probably the most focused Popp has seen Avan this entire time. Go figure.

They're both focused. They're ~collaborating on a project~, just like professionals. Only one of them can conjure fire and only one of them can make cookie dough. Just like Master Avan himself wrote, it's all about surrounding yourself with people who can do what you can't.

Popp pours a little more magic in and kicks it up. It's not particularly hard to make it hotter, but it is a little harder to control. Fire likes being fire. Deep, even breaths. Just like meditating.

"Very good!" Once Avan's satisfied that the temperature is at the right level and staying there, he pops up to grab his sheet of cookies and slide it into the oven.

"Now hold it there for twenty minutes!"

"No problem!"

Twenty minutes?! Oh no!

Avan smiles brightly and gets started on bustling about cleaning up, leaving Popp to it. Ganbatte, Popp.

This is pretty similar to meditation after all, just with a constant expense of active magical power. Not even that much, now that it's hot! All he has to do is keep the magic balanced and steady. And hey, he does have the magic reserves to back it up these days. Twenty minutes proves to be legitimately easy.

Plus, it feels pretty good being next to a warm oven that smells of cookies on a cold day. The scent's less of a distraction and more of an additional focus, being tied directly into the task at hand.

Twenty minutes pass and the cottage doesn't burn down, grand success. Avan gets his cookies back out of the oven and they are, naturally, perfect.

"Great work! They'll need some time to cool down, but once they do, you can have as many as you like!"

Floor time and magic time at an end, Popp gets up and stretches. He feels a little tired, but not as tired as he was expecting? He claps Avan on the shoulder as he observes the cookies. If he did not know exactly how hot they are right now, he'd go for it on the spot...

"All right! It's no high-stakes battle, but that was some good teamwork!"

victory theme plays faintly in the distance

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in order to eat your feelings, you have to make them first

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Concentration Check: NAT 20

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