scarabwings | IC Inbox

They're always aware of where Layla is. That's the first thing they recognize as consistent: even when she's across town, they always know at least which direction she's in, and some estimation of how far. Predictably, Marc is more accurate in his guesses, which annoys Steven for no good reason at all.

The rest is... well, they're still working on it. Steven's been trying to keep quiet, honestly, when he's not driving the body around, just like he can tell Marc's trying to be quiet when Steven's in charge. They're not sure what Layla can overhear, since there isn't a lot of precedent for body-sharing with tethers that isn't Sylphid-related.

But she hasn't gone anywhere. There's no disgust or annoyance on the other side of that tether, that Steven can tell. He knew there wouldn't be, he trusts Layla. (He will resolutely deny that bit of relief that lingers, blame it on Marc, if anyone notices it.) But Marc continues to seem amazed by it, which is a little sad when you think about it.

He looks up from his books when Layla comes in-- well, he looks up a little before she comes in, because he felt her coming. So he can smile at her, and try very hard not to think about wanting to get up and hug her the way Marc would. "Hi, Layla. Good practice today?"

She can sense the presence on the other side of the door. That's something Layla thinks she'll never get tired of, the knowledge that Marc or Steven or both of them is there, that she could find them if she needed to, follow that warm pulse of presence. It's occasionally distracting - she has found herself, once or twice, trying to map where they're headed when she feels the tether stretch - but it's welcome.

She can also sense that flicker of alertness that says her approach has been noticed. She's already smiling when she opens the door and ducks inside.

"Hi, Steven," she says. The books and the body language would give it away, even if the accent didn't. (The feel of his mind where it brushes against hers is different too, she thinks, but the feel of someone's mind brushing against hers at all is still new enough that she hasn't yet been able to map those cues, not the way she has with more familiar stimuli.) "Asking, or did you pick up something?"

She's genuinely curious. She's still working on filtering damage to the materials she's manipulating. There's little triumph in that; more notable would be the absence today of fear or shock, and she's not sure how notable that is compared to the presence of the same.

"Well, you weren't hurt, I think we probably would have noticed that much," Steven guesses. Then he realizes what that might sound like and hastily holds up his hands, adding, "I wasn't trying to look! But I'm pretty sure pain or fear or something else really big would be impossible to miss even if I was busy."

"It's all right," she says, crouching down to unlace her boots, head tilting so she can peer up at him. "I didn't think you were spying. That's how this thing works - strong emotions seep through. And even the not so strong ones sometimes. We knew that was a possibility going in."

She pulls the boots off and straightens, toes flexing against the floor.

"I was just wondering how clearly things came through. And if I should find a way to turn down the volume before I move on to anything more intense."

"Well. I guess we could try to test it," Steven says, relieved that she's apparently not worried about it. "You know, like try and think about things while in different rooms and see what we can feel about it." Though he's a little reluctant to bring it up, too, because Marc has had the same thought, only in a much more... personal kind of situation with Layla. Which Steven does not like to think about.

Ambivalence about tethers and romance aside, he has to say, "I think it might get stronger if we actually try to use it. That's what the books suggest. Like exercise or practice."

"Is that what you were concentrating on so hard before I came in?" She tips her head slightly towards the books, expression curious. "Figuring out how all this is supposed to work?"

She makes her way towards the kitchen, pulling her hair from the clip she'd been using to keep it out of her eyes and massaging her scalp absently with one hand.

"It'd be a good idea to practice a bit so we know what to expect the next time we're out on a mission. --Are you okay with that, you and Marc? The possibility of it getting stronger?"

"Oh. No, not really, I was trying to memorize the steps of a new spell. You know, I'm not sure how important it really is to follow the exact same steps as someone else. It's all based in a shared cultural knowledge that we don't really have any part in, and it's all probably just mnemonic devices anyway, not actual requirements of the spell. I've already varied a couple simple ones, and it worked fine, and--"

(Steven. Slow down, buddy.)

"--oh, right, sorry." He runs a hand over his loose curls with a sheepish expression. Him rambling on when they're trying to have a conversation about something else is probably not the best idea. (You can ramble later,) Marc promises.

The question makes him tug on one of those curls and frown. "I don't know. I mean, tactically, it might be a good idea, yeah?" Frankly, he kind of understands Marc's reluctance on the subject, though not for the same reasons. Marc's afraid Layla won't love him if she sees his awful he is (Not that you're awful, Marc, you just think you are. Shut up, Steven.), but Steven's going to be afraid of what happens whether she loves him, too, or not. Either one comes with... complications.

Affection flickers at Layla's end of the tether, mothwing-light, and she gives him a quick smile. "Don't be. I'd love to hear all about it. Just in a little bit."

She opens the cupboard and stretches up to pull down a mug, then looks back over her shoulder at Steven, eyebrows raised in clear question: tea?

"Tactically, it's definitely a good idea. We should at least work on refining our ability to find each other. --Do the books say anything about control?"

He nods. He often wants tea. Coffee isn't bad, but tea is better. Even if it doesn't really taste quite right here.

"Control of what, the tether? The feelings we get through it? Sure they do. Mostly it's about strength and communication, but you can block it some, too. But that's really hard and isn't really good for either of us," Steven adds. "And I don't think we should encourage Marc to consider it, because he might."

She pulls down a second mug and sets it beside the first. Filling the kettle and setting it to boil keeps her hands occupied, but she continues the conversation over her shoulder.

"You're probably right," she says, and there's a rueful sort of humour in her voice. "And that's in line with what I'd gathered - from the people who didn't just stare at me like I'd sprouted a second head. So common wisdom and actual study are in agreement."

"That happens more often than you'd think," Steven points out, ignoring Marc's aura of offense. "All right, so. Testing. Like playing hide and seek, yeah? Like kids." One of them go somewhere, the other person try to find them based on tether alone.

"You being right, or common wisdom being in agreement with actual study?" Layla asks, tone gone gently teasing. "'Cause if it's the latter, I might have to disagree."

She leans back against the counter as she waits for the kettle to boil, bracing herself lightly on her hands, enough to prevent the still-healing bruises on her back from pressing against the counter's edge.

"Hide and seek's good practice. We might want to build up a bit of a baseline first, though. Take turns going off to a destination we both know, so we can start building a clearer idea of what the tether feels like over an array of distances. That should make it easier to extrapolate once we're looking at trips further than the edge of the camp."

"Oh, that's funny," Steven says, only a little sarcastic at her teasing. "I'm still waiting for that shirt, you know." The one saying "Steven's right, like usual". (And you're gonna keep waiting, buddy.)

He taps his pencil idly on the edge of the book he'd been reading, listening, thinking over her suggestion. "Maybe. I think we're probably better than that already, just because I think we've been kind of doing that already. But it'd be a good way to test it before we start trying to really practice, I bet."

She gives him a long, considering look at that bit of sarcasm, a slight frown draining away her attempt at being playful.

"Haven't found a place that does decent silk screening yet," she says after a moment. "But I can offer a trip to a bootleg book stall and stuffed mushrooms from that little food cart in the Xin Market tomorrow night. Bit of an 'I'm sorry for you getting caught in the middle like that'."

Don't worry too much, Layla, Steven can in fact be a sarcastic little guy now and then, he doesn't really mean anything by it. He's already handily distracted by the puzzle of their testing and training, and then again by her offering. "What?" He blinks at her, the pencil tapping pausing. "Er, that sounds lovely, but I can't think of anything you'd need to be sorry for."

It's not the fact of the sarcasm so much as its topic that concerns her - not least because she'd already been feeling a little bit guilty over it.

"For my part in delaying tethering for so long," she says. "I didn't mean to make you feel like your opinion was being disregarded. I'm sorry for that."

"Oh." He blinks at her a little, surprised but at least understanding now, then smiles. "Well, all right, apology accepted. I'll let you take me out to lunch for that, then. Marc will have to give me his own, though, this doesn't let him off the hook."

(Oh, I owe you an apology, too, huh?)

"You do," Steven says loftily to Marc's resignedly amused comment. "Any time, now, Marc."

Layla can only hear Steven's end of the exchange. She can imagine Marc's, though, can almost see the expression he'd be wearing (is wearing? she's never asked how physically present they feel inside their head). The corners of her mouth crimp slightly in fond amusement, and she shakes her head, turning again to busy herself with measuring out tea leaves.

"While you're waiting for that," she says, "starting from places we know probably is a step back from what we've already figured out. But consciously gathering the data can give us patterns we might not notice if we're just going on intuition."

"Yeah, we might as well give it a go," Steven agrees, and sits back, closing his book. He flashes an almost impish smile up at her. "I'm not busy tonight if you're not."

"Nothing pressing," she says. "I'm pretty much free for the next day, actually. --You look like you're plotting something." Her own smile skews slightly lopsided in response to the mischievous cast to his.

"Oh, just some places to send us each to, that's all. And I'm holding you to that book shop thing," Steven grins. "Maybe you'll have to guide me there through the tether, yeah?" He can come up with a whole host of places, and tests, and practice tasks.

He just hasn't so far because he doesn't know what Marc and Layla really want, here.

She does laugh at that, brief and quiet. "That would certainly give you incentive to come find me," she says.

"There's a thought, though - d'you think it'll make a difference if I want you to find me, or is that part of the magic independent of intent?"

"Oh, no, it's absolutely dependent of intent!" Steven says cheerfully, not quite getting the wording right, but he's on a roll so good luck correcting him. "That's how you start to block it off, right, you just want it to not show the other person where you are. The more you want to share, the more it will share. So if you're trying to hide from me, I'm not as likely to be able to find you, but if you're trying to get me to find you, it'll be that much easier to kind of follow along. It's all very instinctive, innit, since half of all the pairs don't have magic, and the other half most of the time won't know anything very advanced."

"So what you're saying is we should experiment with both?" she asks, giving him a small, crooked smile. "So we can get a bit of a feel for how to push through a block in case we need to in an emergency."

"Probably. But maybe work on strengthening it first, then worry about pushing through a block," Steven suggests. "I don't want to do it damage so early on, right. Not that I think we'll damage it, really, it's a very solid spell, but it is very new. And any blocks right now would probably be a lot harder to get through than a block when we're better at this."

Tether testing, late Nov

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