[Magnus shifts back up onto his knees, on his sleeping bag, a bit closer to Archie]
Basically, we're gonna have a low-key conversation with lot of intense eye contact, and it would help if I could like, put a hand on your arm or something. [a pause] If you're uncomfortable with that, I don't have to, but it'll be harder for me and maybe take longer.
[he tucks some blond hair back behind his ear; it seems like this is information he's given out before, because he sounds assured in a way he usually doesn't, all anxious hesitance. Magnus is a good healer, and he's learning more about this kind of healing every week he's here, which is -- depressing, but helpful, as he develops his demigod powers]
As for what we're gonna talk about, um, content's not that important, but it helps if it's sort of like, on brand with what we're trying to fix. You don't have to unload on me like your therapist. Maybe talk a little bit about the house, what you're struggling with. I'll talk you through it, but it's the seidr, not the words.
No, it's fine. Um... if I get too emotional and do something you're uncomfortable with just tell me? I know you're not too keen on touch and stuff but sometimes I get carried away.
[he's at peace with his Hugger status.]
I know what parts of it bothered me more than others. I'll, uh, spare you the gory details.
Um. I've never done this with a hugger before. I had one guy hold my hand too much I guess, so it's possible.
[reminds Archie, with a wry quirk of his lips]
But I'm a billion times stronger than you, I can just move your arms if I don't like what's happening? Don't worry about it, okay?
[it's just sort of how it is; Magnus is descended from the god of fertility and wealth, and he's a romantic disaster and poor. Magnus is a healer through touch, but he doesn't actually like to touch people. that's his cool cool ironic gig in life]
Ready?
[his voice is quiet, not rushing. he's taking some slower breaths, sort of centering his energies. it feels so much easier out here than in the city]
[it's not. Magnus simply reaches out, locking those empty grey eyes onto Archie. and he'll find it, suddenly, harder to look away from them, as Magnus begins to call on Frey and weave his seidr]
So... what do you wanna let go of, Archie?
[and Magnus' voice, usually monotone or sly, is different, too; it gains a warm depth, a sense of being inviting and non-judgmental. a slow wave of peace will start rolling over Archie, gently, gently urging him to calm his racing thoughts, respond to the questions asked by this person who means no harm. his guard can be let down here, is what Magnus' seidr thrums up along his skin, like sunshine (and difficult to see in the bright midday light, the ends of his hair start to glow golden, appropriately enough)]
It's just me and you. It'll stay between me and you, dude.
[he can't look away; it's almost alarming, but where he might be panicked about what he would perceive as a psychic forcing him to do something, he only feels like it's what he should do, and it's... fine. it's what he wants to do.
for the first time in a while, his mind stops trying to fling five different lines of thought to the forefront at the same time, letting him have some form of clarity over what he wants to talk about. he didn't need to slow his breathing, sure, but it helps him concentrate over the shallow quick ones he takes when he's touched by the perpetual tense anxiety of his trauma.]
Kyogre, [he starts, but frowns for a moment as he thinks about how to phrase his thoughts.] but not the one back home. Not the one I woke up thinking I could use it to save the world. The fake one here. The construct of fear that was created with no other purpose than to murder my friend. I want to move beyond my own fear of the leviathan so I can help Maxie come to terms with what happened to him.
[and like when he healed Jesse, when Magnus reaches out to try and "feel" the shape of Archie's mental and emotional pain -- it's like touching something so cold it's hot, like the primordial frost of Niflheim (ice pelted across his face hard enough to cut long slices open in his cheeks, opening a wrong door in the Hotel). he keeps his face impassive (not that Archie would likely notice), and weaves a heavier strand of seidr between them. then another, and another, and another, until it's like a rope, tied firmly around Archie's waist; if he feels like he's sinking into dark and deep oceans, it's pulling him out. it's time to come to the surface and breathe the air; and he pulls the "rope" upwards, towards the light, away from the depths in which a leviathan could swim]
[and like he'd said earlier: it's not the content, really, the words Magnus actually says -- but the feeling that gets pressed into Archie with each slow sentence, of safety and belonging and freedom. he can't drown with Magnus here, and there's no house of horror]
Maxie's safe. You're safe. That shit was illusions, and you're both back in the real world.
[(and in the back of his mind, not focused on increasing the sense of peace in Archie's chest and mind, Magnus wonders: save the world?)]
You're not in danger of something that's just an echo of something else you're always moving forward from. You're both gonna be okay.
[it doesn't have to be true, his seidr, to work, even if he prefers to weave it true when he can. it doesn't have to be true, or some gift of Vanir insight, or anything; it just needs to communicate the sense of it's safe to rest, finally, finally -- which it does, wrapping Archie up in a feeling of protection]
[another time he'd argue, say it was real enough. kyogre was real enough to devour maxie, groudon was real enough to impale him. they were tangible, the pain was all too real but he knows magnus is right. they weren't real, just some weird fucked up manifestation of their regrets. they didn't exist before they entered the room and didn't exist as one of them left.
archie can almost see the sunbeams shining through the water, and he's taken back to playing in the currents near pacifidlog with shelly when they were kids. back to tanabata.]
Jirachi...
[said slowly as he blinks dumbly, mind wandering slightly but not resisting magnus's magic.]
[what Archie will feel is his mind getting right with itself -- so it's not Magnus' magic imposing meaning on what happened, but Archie's own thoughts made easier, simpler. he'll be able to reach peaceable conclusions, about what happened in the house; the illusions were just that. his friends are safe. no one has died, and everything is going to be okay]
[and the beams of light through the surf only get stronger, warmer; the sense that place and that time, Jirachi, bring him will be increasingly he can feel, swathing around him like a familiar blanket. speaking of -- Magnus reaches out, and when his hand falls on Archie's forearm, it's like the seidr slots perfectly into place. the currents wash around Archie like they did when he played as a kid, kind and welcoming, and dependable, like the sea can be. he gives a gentle tug to his wrist]
Hey, why don't you take a rest, Archie? I'll be right here.
[what exists is not terrifying phantoms of regret, but this: a beautiful day, out in nature, with the summer sun (in October, yes) curling around Archie. Magnus shifts to make room for Archie on the sleeping bag, relocating himself to sit crosslegged in the grass. the aura of peace around them pervades, and Magnus will keep weaving it to do so, as long as Archie needs]
[archie blinks a few times as he - for lack of a better phrase - comes to. he looks a little confused, almost like he was so lost in the simplicity of everything going through his mind.
he nods, heavy-lidded, without the mental burden he puts on himself his body is finally reacting the way someone with bone-deep exhaustion would.
he, uh, just flops forward onto the grass, gives magnus a thumbs up, then passes out. rip.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
[Magnus shifts back up onto his knees, on his sleeping bag, a bit closer to Archie]
Basically, we're gonna have a low-key conversation with lot of intense eye contact, and it would help if I could like, put a hand on your arm or something. [a pause] If you're uncomfortable with that, I don't have to, but it'll be harder for me and maybe take longer.
[he tucks some blond hair back behind his ear; it seems like this is information he's given out before, because he sounds assured in a way he usually doesn't, all anxious hesitance. Magnus is a good healer, and he's learning more about this kind of healing every week he's here, which is -- depressing, but helpful, as he develops his demigod powers]
As for what we're gonna talk about, um, content's not that important, but it helps if it's sort of like, on brand with what we're trying to fix. You don't have to unload on me like your therapist. Maybe talk a little bit about the house, what you're struggling with. I'll talk you through it, but it's the seidr, not the words.
-- How's that sound?
no subject
No, it's fine. Um... if I get too emotional and do something you're uncomfortable with just tell me? I know you're not too keen on touch and stuff but sometimes I get carried away.
[he's at peace with his Hugger status.]
I know what parts of it bothered me more than others. I'll, uh, spare you the gory details.
no subject
[reminds Archie, with a wry quirk of his lips]
But I'm a billion times stronger than you, I can just move your arms if I don't like what's happening? Don't worry about it, okay?
[it's just sort of how it is; Magnus is descended from the god of fertility and wealth, and he's a romantic disaster and poor. Magnus is a healer through touch, but he doesn't actually like to touch people. that's his cool cool ironic gig in life]
Ready?
[his voice is quiet, not rushing. he's taking some slower breaths, sort of centering his energies. it feels so much easier out here than in the city]
no subject
Heh. Yeah, okay.
[trying to copy magnus, archie calms his own breathing, wondering if that's Required.]
no subject
So... what do you wanna let go of, Archie?
[and Magnus' voice, usually monotone or sly, is different, too; it gains a warm depth, a sense of being inviting and non-judgmental. a slow wave of peace will start rolling over Archie, gently, gently urging him to calm his racing thoughts, respond to the questions asked by this person who means no harm. his guard can be let down here, is what Magnus' seidr thrums up along his skin, like sunshine (and difficult to see in the bright midday light, the ends of his hair start to glow golden, appropriately enough)]
It's just me and you. It'll stay between me and you, dude.
no subject
for the first time in a while, his mind stops trying to fling five different lines of thought to the forefront at the same time, letting him have some form of clarity over what he wants to talk about. he didn't need to slow his breathing, sure, but it helps him concentrate over the shallow quick ones he takes when he's touched by the perpetual tense anxiety of his trauma.]
Kyogre, [he starts, but frowns for a moment as he thinks about how to phrase his thoughts.] but not the one back home. Not the one I woke up thinking I could use it to save the world. The fake one here. The construct of fear that was created with no other purpose than to murder my friend. I want to move beyond my own fear of the leviathan so I can help Maxie come to terms with what happened to him.
no subject
[and like he'd said earlier: it's not the content, really, the words Magnus actually says -- but the feeling that gets pressed into Archie with each slow sentence, of safety and belonging and freedom. he can't drown with Magnus here, and there's no house of horror]
Maxie's safe. You're safe. That shit was illusions, and you're both back in the real world.
[(and in the back of his mind, not focused on increasing the sense of peace in Archie's chest and mind, Magnus wonders: save the world?)]
You're not in danger of something that's just an echo of something else you're always moving forward from. You're both gonna be okay.
[it doesn't have to be true, his seidr, to work, even if he prefers to weave it true when he can. it doesn't have to be true, or some gift of Vanir insight, or anything; it just needs to communicate the sense of it's safe to rest, finally, finally -- which it does, wrapping Archie up in a feeling of protection]
no subject
archie can almost see the sunbeams shining through the water, and he's taken back to playing in the currents near pacifidlog with shelly when they were kids. back to tanabata.]
Jirachi...
[said slowly as he blinks dumbly, mind wandering slightly but not resisting magnus's magic.]
no subject
[and the beams of light through the surf only get stronger, warmer; the sense that place and that time, Jirachi, bring him will be increasingly he can feel, swathing around him like a familiar blanket. speaking of -- Magnus reaches out, and when his hand falls on Archie's forearm, it's like the seidr slots perfectly into place. the currents wash around Archie like they did when he played as a kid, kind and welcoming, and dependable, like the sea can be. he gives a gentle tug to his wrist]
Hey, why don't you take a rest, Archie? I'll be right here.
[what exists is not terrifying phantoms of regret, but this: a beautiful day, out in nature, with the summer sun (in October, yes) curling around Archie. Magnus shifts to make room for Archie on the sleeping bag, relocating himself to sit crosslegged in the grass. the aura of peace around them pervades, and Magnus will keep weaving it to do so, as long as Archie needs]
Just for a while.
no subject
he nods, heavy-lidded, without the mental burden he puts on himself his body is finally reacting the way someone with bone-deep exhaustion would.
he, uh, just flops forward onto the grass, gives magnus a thumbs up, then passes out. rip.]