entranceway | 02 [accidental video]

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02 [accidental video]

[There's no warning what's going on before the video starts, just a flash of bright light and violent motion as the recording device shoots across the room and bounces off a wall, landing to give a tilted view of Jowan's room. It's not a particularly interesting room, nearly as stark and empty as they all start out when claimed, although it does now feature a small fire burning merrily in the corner. Not in a fireplace, which is probably why it's starting to spread quite alarmingly, but it definitely brightens the place up.

It's also probably the reason why Jowan is panicking just a little.] That wasn't supposed to happen!

[He stands at the edge of what the device is recording of the room and looks largely uncertain, glancing around the room for an idea of what to do before swallowing hard and taking a step forward, brow furrowing as he extends his hands and frost leaves his fingertips. The flames crackle loudly at the ice and Jowan closes his eyes, pushing more power into the spell until a sheet of ice surges forward suddenly, dousing the flames and leaving a good chunk of the room covered in ice. But at least there's no fire any more, right?]

I don't understand what went wrong! It shouldn't be this difficult. [He wanders over to nudge the ice with a toe and sigh heavily.] Why does this always end up happening to me?

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[Well, that's certainly a way to grab people's attention, intentionally or otherwise.]

Having some trouble, are we?

[Dorian raises an eyebrow, his amusement otherwise thinly veiled. Fire happens to be one of his areas of expertise; watching someone else struggle with it is-- well. He wouldn't go so far as to call it entertaining, but there's at least some of that.]

_{[Is Cullen Jowan's favorite person on Planet Wonderland now? With a suppressed roll of his eyes, Anders is on the verge of telling Jowan to quit prefacing everything that comes out of his mouth with Cullen says or Cullen thinks or Cullen blinked when the other mage abruptly changes track.

Wait... What does he mean, what happened to Uldred? Going crackers, starting an uprising, and getting half the Circle slaughtered is a rather hard thing to miss even for someone as seemingly oblivious as Jowan.]}

Is this you playing coy? I meant the trouble Uldred caused for the Circle. You must have heard about it on the run.

[Ma'am? Maker, how old did he think she was?

She manages a small smile, mindful of the fact that he's likely telling the truth.]

Any practice is helpful, but perhaps -- until you get things a bit more under control -- consider practicing outside?

I'd be happy to assist, provided you never call me ma'am again.

[ squints... hang on, she recognizes that voice. give her a second to place it. ]

You're the mage from the Redcliffe.

[ no, this has absolutely nothing to do with the mess jowan's made of his room, but whatever. ]

Wha- How did you do that?

[Sarah laughs just softly, not at him, just the situation.]

So, you're going to think this is ridiculous, but, in my world, magic isn't...magic. It's just a clever slight of hand, usually. Or distracting someone away from what you're doing long enough to make them think you did something impossible.

Your room was on fire! Of course I'm worried. Did you burn yourself? I've read about first aid, I can help--

[that's an impressive amount of fire and ice. he's going to have to remember not to piss him off (also, knowing that it's unlikely he won't at some point). people who use magic tend to not like him. ...hell, most people tend to not like damon.

he's a dick.]

That was a... who-o-o-o-ole lot of fire. [damon's leaning back on his bed, eating from a bag of popcorn.] Color me impressed.

No? [The news is shocking, even if Anders hasn't filled in the gaps really and Jowan thinks he should have guessed it would happen. Uldred was a blood mage as well, even if he'd claimed it could be controlled and was simply a tool to make them stronger. Surely it would only have been a matter of time before he also met a bad end.

Jowan swallows and slowly moves back to sit on his bed, the ice currently forgotten.]

I didn't hear anything about any problems in the Circle while I was in Redcliffe, and then Lady Isolde had me locked up in the dungeon and I don't know how long I was in there for before I came here. I thought I was going to die there.

It was just a mistake! [Jowan protests, feeling his face heat as he glances back at the ice as well, as if seeing it for the first time again. It does look bad and he can only imagine what Cullen is thinking now. He doesn't quite manage to meet the other man's eyes as he turns back.]

I let my magic get away from me while I was practising, that's all. It won't happen again, Ser.

I'm all right, really! I didn't burn myself or anything I just... got a little frustrated while I was trying a spell and it got out of hand. I put it out!

[No harm, right? Just a lot of ice that's going to melt eventually but... details.]

[ That wasn't what he-- Could this have happened on a more inconvenient day? Probably, he thinks to himself, because somehow he doubts that it truly will not happen again.

So. One more time then, slowly and very calmly, from the beginning: ]

Jowan, are you hurt?

What about the furniture? Is anything ruined?

[She's really not good at not worrying.]

It's less impressive when you're not trying to do that. [Jowan points out, because it's one thing to be a mage who wants to cast a fire-based spell and another to be the mage who was trying to cast something entirely different and ended up engulfing something in flames. One is a lot more trustworthy than the other.]

I was trying to cast a spell from the Creation school, but I've never really learned any of it and this isn't like the Circle so there's no classes or anything...

Er, what are you eating there? It looks strange.

It was an accident, the spell just... got away from me, that's all! [Maker, he'd wanted to work on convincing people he wasn't a danger, but if anything this is probably doing the opposite. Who'd trust a mage who makes mistakes and sets their room on fire?]

No one was hurt, I swear.

[So far everyone who's recognised him is someone Jowan recognises in return, but this time the face in the video doesn't seem familiar at all and all he can think of is that she must have been at Redcliffe, maybe snatched away from all the madness happening there.]

I am, and I'm sorry for everything, but I swear it's not me that summoned all those demons and created those walking corpses. I know that what I did isn't much better, but you have to believe me, I didn't do everything else!

I did get it under control. [Jowan protests, under control in this case clearly meaning 'smothered in ice that's going to melt and cause puddles in his room'. Maker, he's going to have to hide that device next time he practises, the embarrassment of everyone seeing this is something he doesn't think he'll ever live down.]

I was just... I don't think I'm very good at Creation magic but I wanted to try and get better but when I got upset it sort of... got away from me. And turned into fire.

[Jowan's brow furrows at that explanation, utterly confused about pretty much all of what she's saying. Not that he hasn't heard of charlatans existing before but...]

Why would they claim to be magic? That's just going to get them locked up, isn't it? Although... if you don't have magic in your world then that wouldn't happen I suppose. But that also means everyone would know that they're lying, wouldn't they?

Sorry, it's just that you sound like my teachers from the Circle... Are you an apostate mage then?

I mean, I'd like some help either way but I don't remember you from Kinloch Hold.

There wasn't really anything to ruin really. My bed is fine and so's the drawers with my things in them. [In the top drawer anyway. Might wanna think about how many robes he's been seen wearing.]

It was mostly just the wall and floor, magical fire burns just about anything I'm afraid. But I can mop up the water later and Anders said the castle would fix itself too.

I hope that's a compliment and not an insult.

[She smiles, ducking her head.]

I was an apostate, once. I'm from the Kirkwall Circle now -- or what's left of it.

[Every time Jowan feels like he knows where he stands with Cullen, it's like the other man changes it on him. He'd thought that he had it understood that Cullen was going to treat him like a templar treats any mage that they're suspicious and not entirely friendly towards: wanting to know what he's up to and that he's not doing anything wrong. It's not the best way to be but it's what he's used to with templars, what all the Circle mages he knows are used to, more or less. But now here's Cullen concerned if he's actually hurt when he looks set to collapse himself and Jowan has no idea why.]

No, I'm fine. [He offers uncertainly, wondering if Cullen means if he'd used blood magic or something other than concern that would make more sense.] But, uh... why do you care?

I mean- [He adds hurriedly, afraid of how it might sound.] -I don't mind that you do but... I'm a mage, a blood mage even, and you're a templar. Why don't you just throw the door open instead of knocking and... I don't know, go through all my things and make sure I'm not using blood magic? Why are you being nice?

Mm, no. Still impressive. [Damon doesn't think it hurts to compliment the magic user who could set him on fire... accidentally. He gathers more popcorn into his hand as he looks at the video, and then lifts an eyebrow]

Creation? Don't know what the Circle is.

[Damon stares for a long, long time.]

Popcorn. ...where are you?

It's a complicated relationship, my people and illusions. Most people know that it's a trick somehow, but they can't figure out how it's down. That's what makes it popular. Like...this. Watch.

[She goes to the closet and gets what she needs before coming back.] Now, I'm going to make this coin go right through my hand. On the count of three.

[She counts down and voila, the coin is on the table.]

It's super popular with nine year olds.

It's not! Not an insult I mean. It's just... you know what's wrong immediately and you have ideas of what to do to help fix it and that's nice.

Did the templars catch you? They caught me after I escaped the Ferelden Circle, I can't imagine how running all your life would be. At least in the Circle you don't have to worry as much about being caught.

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