12255/Magic on the Side Lawn

Magic on the Side Lawn
Date of Scene:	02 August 2022
Location:	Shadowcrest Manor - Bristol Township
Synopsis:	On Shadowcrest Lawn, off to the side, Phoebe Beacon and Charlie Gage (two of Zatana's mentored young mages) have their own training session and heart to heart, and bonding over shared pasts. Phoebe tries to be the person she needed most when those Big Emotions sneak up on Charlie, and Charlie gets a gauge of how much control she may need in the future.
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe

---

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    SHADOWCREST MANOR -- the venerable ancestral home of the Zatara family, home to Zatanna Zatara, once played host to a number of guests and magicians.

    And at the moment, as dusk settles over Gotham, it plays host to young magicians who are beginning on their journies.

    Phoebe has a table set up, with some of her equipment on it, along with a bright blue crystal wrapped with copper wire set off to the side. She's wearing a tank top that shows her scarified left arm and a black silk choker collar around her neck to help hide some of the gauze that's there.

    This was a long, long over-due meetup, and she carefully places two large, flat boxes on the table, and opens with the utmost reverence.

    After all, it's not easy to carry a pizza and breadsticks on a motorcycle to a magical house within the city of Gotham.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie is a frequent visitor at Shadowcrest. To be honest she is a frequent visitor at a lot of places. This though is one of her favorites.

    Said teenager is bouncing a bit, hyperactive energy, which is unsurprising on someone who probably has severe ADHD. She just bounce, rocks onto her heels and repeats as she watches the ceremony with the pizza on the table.

    "Oo breadsticks. Have you ever been to that restaraunt that has unlimited soup and breadsticks?" there is totally awe in her voice at the sheer concept of unlimited soup and breadsticks.

    Which is kinda funny considering she could bounce to italy in back with fresh breadsticks in a heartbeat but Olive Garden seems amazing to her. Blame her childhood.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe holds up one hand to Charlie, and she points to her throat, with its wrapping, and then she motions for Charlie to help herself.

    She shifts her attention to the blye crystal with the copper wiring, and she holds it in her hands a moment before it begins to glow cheerily -- it then hangs in the air, lazily circling Phoebe's head about two feet up in a semi-regular orbit.

    <Sorry about that -- there should be enough ambient magic at Shadowcrest to keep that active.> she explains, her voice echoing from the crystal. <I've been to Olive Garden, but there's not a lot I can eat there -- breadsticks not withstanding. They're vegetarian.> she gives a slight grin to Charlie. <There is an Italian place I like downtown -- I should take you sometime.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    "Oh shoot.. I forgot you were veggie" veggie not vegan, questionable if she even knows the difference. "I mean.. if I knew... not sure I knew that...." she considers which is a moment of quiet.

    She then gestures happily at the floating blue crystal. "That is super cool. How long do you think until your voice heals Phoebes?" concern in her voice, yes the magic is super cool, but she is worried about her friend too.

    She snags a breadstick meanwhile "I would love to go eat italian with you." she is a bottomless pit, not as bad as a speedster but the teleports seem to demand calories.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Teleporting does demand calories. As does Heals. Phoebe gets HANGRY after a lot of healing.

    Phoebe looks up at the crystal a moment, and she gives a small shrug.

    <Six Months, maybe.> she replies, trying to hide the unsure answer as she breathes out through her nose. <There's some research I have to finish on the subject first.> she adds, and gives a wry smile. <Don't you worry about me. I've already got Zatanna fretting over me.> she replies, and looks over at Charlie. <And it's OK. There's someone who's known me for YEARS who keeps on offering me lamb. It's just like 'bruh you know I can't eat that'.> she waves a breadstick around in the air a moment before dipping it in cheese sauce and noming. Mm. Cheese.

    <So. From what I remember, you use sort of this wild chaos-y magic and channel it into perfect teleportation? I remember having to Tether off you before -- oof did that make me sick.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Cheese sauce! Dip Dip Dip.

    Nom Nom Nom

    "Six months is forever" she expounds gravely. Which too her attention span probably does absolutely feel or sound like forever.

    After the question and exposition of her magic. "I mean... that is what Zee says. My natural magic is chaos. I didn't even know I was doing magic when I was bouncing... but evidently it is super loud to other people. I can go just about anywhere but I can't directly take living people with me or..." she pales but pivots instantly. "I can take pretty big things... I took a truck once... was starving. It also kinda heals me when I do it for some reason." yeah she has an amazing lack of understanding of the scary magic she is actually doing.

    "Zee has been teaching me more traditinal magic though. I can open portals for others now. I also learned how to enchant things to harm supernatural things... the demons and angel stuff was motivating.... and uh some basic warding too. Been a bit hard to fit in lessons with school and training and patrols." sheepish.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe sits down in the grass on the side lawn as she considers, pulling down a piece of pizza loaded with peppers, onions and broccoli with her. The other half of the pizza was pepperoni, traditional af for Charlie's enjoyment. She gives a slight smile as she looks up to Charlie, and agrees with a nod. <Six months can be a lifetime.> she reflects thoughtfully. <Yeah, back in London I was able to feel the amount of magic you have, even when I wasn't as experienced as I am now.> she reflects with a small smile. <I can make portals -- Zee taught me how. It's been pretty handy. I deposited someone on a train in the middle of a field to get them out of the way, and swooned a little before I went to the next car. You're Crazy Powerful.> she explains, and she points her piece of pizza at Charlie <But I'm really good at wards, healing, containment. That's my bread and butter, as it were. With a little fireball and water creation on the side.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie gets two slices of pepperoni makes a sammich out of it. Pizza sammich. Folded on each other and sits in the grass as well now.

    "Huh.... I mean that totes tracks. When I bounce people who can sense stuff seem.. kinda sketched out." yeah it is has happened enough for her to notice. The situation is her innate magic is basically convincing the universe she is really somewhere else. Always has been. It's fundemental and rule breaking and scary. Especially to order mages.

    There is no good reason an orphan from Suicide Slums should have that kind of juice.

    "The portals and other stuff Zee has been trying to teach me is really hard and tiring in a way my bounce isn't. It is all costs and balance and paying for it... which is just exhausting.... but I am really trying to learn it and be a good student." bright smile. Bite of pizza. More smile.

    "How does containtment work?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Magic is all about getting the universe to believe a lie. And Phoebe knows people who have told some major corkers.

    <Same here. My innate magic? That's The Light. I have this little spark of Creation-with-a-capital-C inside of me.> she finishes her pizza, and then she holds her hands up. Between them floats what looks like a miniature sun, brightly glowing with white-hot light. It lights up Phoebe's face, and brings out the slight red in the cocoa of her eyes.

    <My bio fam were all exorcists and diviners and healers -- for the most part. FRom what I read there have always been medjay in the village who defended it against outside threats with both offensive magic and the tech of the time... but there's no one left to ask about it.> she explains, and she brings her hands down and together, extinguishing the light. <I was told my healing magic broke the rules when I first started learning, and that's why the magic works differently for me. Healing can -- and *should* -- take a lot out of people. It's one of the reasons why this is so weird to Zee.> she motions to her throat, and then gives a small shrug.

    <Containment though...> she reaches for another slice of veggie pizza, and gives a bright grin.

    <Ever see Ghostbusters?>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    "Yeah. I think that is why my bouncing sketches people. I get kinda hungry but... it isn't that big a deal and I can do it rapid fire as fast as I can think if I have to." she grins "Zee also finds me weird... maybe she collects weird."

    She takes another bite of pizza and somehow resists the urge to just bap or bat at the ball of light. It's shiny and tempting and in her eyes but she manages to eat pizza instead.

    "I mean yeah... I liked the one with the ladies in it... the new one was good too with the kids."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <All mages collect weird. It's just something we do... kinda like how some people collect stamps.> Phoebe explains with a small grin, and she looks up. <I am definitely weird.>

    She leans back a moment, and considers her words.

    <Phoebe is the best character. I aspire to be more like that Phoebe.> Phoebe gives a silent laugh, her mo uth opening, her body expelling the air, but no sound comes out.

    <So, think of it like a trap. Except instead of being powered by a backpack-sized nuclear reactor, it's powered by words and symbols. Like, I could probably hold you in place for maybe five minutes if I tried to contain you *really* hard.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    "That Phoebe was pretty cool. Though I think my favorite was Dr. Holtzman, Kate McKinnon is amazeballs.

    She eats the rest of her pizza sammich as she listens to the explanation of containment magic. "Huh. Okay so... it's like the books talk about with summoning circles. The whole part that is drawn on the floor to contain what.. hah.. oh right containment. I've never tried that. Do you have to draw or can you really just use words?" eyes wide.

    "... we should try that sometime. I want to see if it works... and if it does.. I want to make sure I can practice wriggling free...."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <It would be difficult for me to use words to do anything at the moment.> Phoebe remarks with a grin, scratching the back of her neck a moment, and then she considers. <I usually do draw the circle out. My first mentor mentioned that you can cheat with magic, but one: magic doesn't like being cheated, and two: using shortcuts can and will catch up with you. Magic's already taken a lot from me... so I try to do things By The Book, as it were.> Phoebe then reaches into her backpack, and pulls out a leather-bound volume. It's very plain looking, and the spine is worn with care.

    <... my dads gave me this. It was my first actual spellbook. I learned how to create water and fire.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie leans reaching, stretching, flailing a little, until she manages to snag another breadstick without standing up.

    "That is really cool." about the book looking it over. She sighs. "I've been mostly using notebooks of my own and copying useful things to practice or ..well Zee's lessons.. out of her library." she just shakes her head.

    "I didn't know my dad, but he was a deadbeat truck driver according to my mom. She worked retail in Metropolis... no one ever talked about anything magical so I definitely didn't end up with any magic books."

    She munches her breadstick. She is a bit sad when talking about her mom, but she isn't really jealous or envious, just the way it is. She def meant it is cool you have that.

    "Everyone wants me to do it by the book. There seems to be so many books though."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <... oh, no not my bio... I've never met my biological father. My bio mom died when I was born.> Phoebe explains, and she frowns a moment. <Chas gave this to me. But he was under the influence of someone else when he did. I'd like to think the picture of my first accidental fireball exists.> she gives a sad smile, looking at the book the way you would at the picture of an old, dear friend. <Neither of them really exist now except in my memories... like I said. Six months can be a lifetime.> she remarks mentally, and Charlie may be able to *feel* the bittersweet of the sentiment.

    <... there are so many books. There's never one single path to magic.> she explains, and then she takes a breath.

    She brings her hands up, and she focuses. She brings her hands together, and there is that rose-gold glow between them, and then she flicks her hands downward.

    Beneath the two, slowly and lazily spinning, are concentric circles surrounding an eight-pointed, square star.

    There are heiroglyphs circling the the star.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie peers at the pizza box next. "I really need to learn like... a telekinisis spell or something... that will let me be.. lazy..."

    She looks back to her friend and then ohs and nods. "My mom died in a fire with my baby brother before I sought out the bats to fight crime and get vengeance... it seems like years ago but it was only a couple now." she sighs. "Time is really funny. It also feels like yestrday I can still smell the smoke.... I couldn't save them." that dirty part about not teleporting people with her flawless trick. "I could save them now though with a portal.... wish I'd known magic then."

    She studies the circle thoughtfully, then makes a little square with her two thumbs and pointer fingers and peers at the circling heiroglyphs. "Huh... whatcha goin to do with it?"

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gives a nod. <My adopted dad -- the first adopted dad. Of three. Was a fireman. He was killed in a fire in the Narrows. The same guy who started that fire tried to kill my adopted mom and me years later. Impulse, Wonder Girl and Arsenal helped that day. I was too scared to try and heal her, afraid she would think of me as a freak.> she admits to Charlie. <... and there are days I wish I had never learned magic because of it. Those days might yet come. Luckily -- you've got a solid support base of people.> she gives a wry smile, and she brings her hands up.

    The 'shield' lifts. Charlie floats up at the same level as Phoebe, hovering about three feet above the ground as Phoebe concentrates on holding the circle.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    There is a happy squeek from Charlie. She leans back planting her hands behind her on the glowing circle as they are both lifted up three feet.

    She has a goofy grin. "I love magic." she notes brightly.

    Then she leans and now that they are up farther into the air she snags another pizza sammich of two slices and leans back. Nom.

    "I have you, Zee, JLD, and my batfam. I'm really lucky and I know it."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <Batfam...> Phoebe recounts a moment, and she gives a smile, and a nod to Charlie. <Like I said, a solid support base of people.> she recounts, and she leans back, slooowly lowering them back to the ground.

    Phoebe breathes out.

    <So. Can you do any creation? Like fire? I found that was the easiest.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    The teen blushes at the batfam repeat back. "Uh don't tell Batman I said that. Not sure he would approve or not... but that is how I think about it. We are like family really." she takes a nom of pizza.

    She is Batgirl's ward after all, it is basically family.

    "I haven't tried. I mean I have explosives so I've focused more on really practical things that I can't wing with tech as much. I would love to try creation though."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    <I was adopted into it. It's... really, really weird to think that some of them are now legally my siblings. I only ever had a little sister once before, but... I messed that up. I think I've had enough last names.> she gives a grin, and then she hops up from her seat in the grass. She places her book back into the bag, and then pulls out a ceramic plate, and a candle with a brass holder. Her magic circle is still glowing in the grass, 'allowed' to remain in place by Shadowcrest's own wards and Zatanna's permission.

    <So, like I said, the easiest I found with creation was fire. You might not find it as easy. Some people -- Jon Sims, I think is one -- are more 'watery'. Or wind-y. I've never met someone who was more earthy, though.> she recounts. <My first mentor -- and his creator -- were both fire. And I wanted to impress him.> she explains. She readies herself to catch any stray magics.

    <So. Take a deep breath. Clear your mind. And concentrate very, very hard on the tip of the wick. Just the tip, the very end of it. Feel the energy around you, and through you, and focus it right... on the end... and when you think you have enough? *Whisper* Creare Ignem. That's the Latin for it.> she explains. <It took me about a week to grasp it.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    She knows no one is probably listening in at Shadowcrest's lawn and them doing magic. But she is circumspect about it. "Hey adopted buddies." amusement there. "I do wonder about how they seem to collect driven orphans... at least they adopt us I guess." okay that is pure sass.

    

    Charlie realizes it is going to be a magic lesson, which is when she really focuses in instead of about all the distractions. Sure part of her wants to talk about the family more obliquely but .. magic lesson.

    So she stuffs down the rest of the sammich and licks her fingers clean before wiping them on the leggings that will be painfully washed later.

    She leans in and stares at the wick now and then squints a little bit. She starts to do what Phoebe has suggested and honest she is focusing just on the wick and trying to narrow in on the tip of the wick.

    There is something all around the circle really and in the air. It feels. Chaotic. Hot. Like a swirl of wind that isn't actually there. Hot from a blast furnace.

    Right about when someone sensible might tell her to not say the words Charlie murmurs. "Creare Ignem." and her eyes one would swear are red as rubbies but maybe that is a trick of the light. The light generated as FIRE and CHAOS blaze to life and the candle is probably gone in a flash, the question is how out of control does it get before Phoebe who was ostensiably ready for stray magic can either get it under 'control' or direct it somewhere safe.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Hot from a blast furnace. Well. That can't be good.

    Phoebe is prepared. She had studied this particular working from one of the books penned by an ancestor. The candle is flashed down in a puddle of boiling wax. The wick is flashed out of existence. The ceramic dish breaks, and Phoebe just *BARELY* manages to keep things in control. The skin on her palms bubbles painfully in heat blisters.

    She manages to hold everything in the circle, singing her own clothes in the process, and she wraps it up as neat as she can before she condenses, and slings it up into the air where the heat and chaos and her own orderly containment and bindings flash like a dreadful, horrific, horror-themed firework display, likely alerting Zatanna that something was *WRONG* at Shadowcrest.

    And once it is done... Phoebe just... sort of... leans back, her clothes smoking.

    <Babby's first fireball. Control. Control is next. Control should have been first. Holy /shit/.>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    Charlie's eyes are almost utterly back to normal, little red flecks still visible and it isn't just the light, as she stares very wide eyed at the destruction and damage she just wrought.

    At this rate a small nightbug is liable to fly right into her open mouth. She looks up at the sky and then at Phoebe.

    Honestly for a moment she is speechless and it feels a bit like something else is very very wrong.

    Then she looks back down blinking and her eyes, are utterly normal not just almost, no more flecks, was it a trick of the light after all.

    "Oh god Phoebe.. are you okay!?" she is a bit panicked there and then admits "I ... I'm not good with control..." worried.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe lays still for a moment, and then she begins to shudder. She begins to shake, her mouth open -- and it might take Charlie a moment, if she does realize it, to understand that she is *LAUGHING*. She's laughing in *hysterical nature*, with her clothes still smoking a little bit, tears forming in her eyes, her arms crossed over her stomach.

    The crystal flashes a little, unable to translate what she's 'saying', but she sits up, wiping at her eyes with the palms of her hands.

    <I see that you are not good with control yet!> she mirths, and she gives a cough, and turns her head a moment.

    <So. We're going to do some control exersizes next time we meet up. I don't want you to have to learn on the fly like I did. I'll talk to Zee and come up with something.> she gives a bright grin, the blisters on her palms already healing.

    <You're not hurt are you?>

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    ALARM... that is what goes on. God is she having a siezure. Did Charlie cause this. Oh god.

    Oh wait. Laughter. Okay. Thank god.

    "No... not very good..." she admits very sheepish. The smile ..well grin honestly lets her relax and she blinks and looks down at herself. "I seem to be ok.."

    She is too. Like the flame didn't lick back at her despite being contained in the cirlce with her and yourself. Not even light smoking. She blinks and looks up to you. "Feel okay." not even tired, a lot like when she bounces. That was chaos and fire, not proper paid for magic.

    "Control would be good..." she pales at the thought. "I ... I really don't want to burn down anything on accident." suddenly she looks downright ill.

    Like she may lose all the pizza sammiches sweat beading on her skin.

    The reason was talked about earlier really.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe snaps her finger twice.

    <Charlie. Look at me.> she states, and she offers out both her hands to the other misplaced magic girl.

    <You cannot change what happened in the past. And it's OK to feel those big, bad feelings. It's OK to lose control or yourself once in a while. I promise you, though, we'll practice control together. I'll get some practice containing fire. Take a deep breath and center yourself. There's grass below you. There's sky above you.> Phoebe is gentle, and there is the pervasive smell of black pepper, roses, and citrus as she tries to help ground Charlie, because although her first rule of magic is 'puking is okay', she knows what it's like to lose your family.

Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe has posed:
    She lost them to fire. That is really the trouble here. Probably best she not think about how the fire could have started. She was asleep right. But nightmares. Still. She has no idea.

    The grounding and being there helps. Not that she understands that Phoebe is using a tried and true grounding technique. She blinks at her trembling but slowly starts to come back together, eventually her hands slip into those hands.

    Of course when she goes from feeling like she is going to puke she goes right in for crying instead and after another moment a sniffling hug.

    Okay. This is much for the chaosmuppet.

    Not like the batfam actually gets therapy for their trauma.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe ordinarily does not do a lot of touching. She hated hugs. She hated having to shake hands and the way big men would try to impose their size over her.

    But Charlie, right in this moment needed her. She closes her hands over Charlie's.

    And as Charlie comes in for a sniffling hug, Phoebe wraps her arms around Charlie, holding her tightly.

    <You go ahead and cry. I'll be right here when you're ready to continue.> Phoebe replies gently, her hands smoothing down Charlie's back gently.

<I'm here.>