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[sorserer]

call; text

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[allyourfeels]

[ caleb's wearing jeans and a t-shirt because he only owns that and sports wear. he's confident enough to approach though he's a little awkward about introductions.

mostly because it feels like he should be calling this guy 'Mister' or something. ]

Stephen Strange?

[sorserer]

[ he’s not hand-correcting the ads: magic is doing it for him, the fine-tipped pen on its own circling ads and making corrections. but his hand itself is close enough that it wouldn’t be a difficult mistake to make.

when caleb approaches he glances up and--smiles. an oddly neutral smile, neither rude nor especially empathic. a transactional but polite man down to his core. ]

Caleb Michaels, I presume.

[allyourfeels]

[ caleb holds out a hand because he's also a polite young man. he does look sleep-deprived and stressed, but not dangerously so. ]

So, head's up, my empathy doesn't have an off button. So I can feel what everyone in the room is feeling all of the time.

[sorserer]

Must be a blast. [ said with wry amusement, raised eyebrows and all. ]

I injured my hands in an accident some time ago, so firm handshakes are off the table. [ he gestures: the chair opposite him pulls itself out, again politely. ] But well met, anyway.

[allyourfeels]

[ he smiles at the magic, it's still very exciting for him and he doesn't see it used casually often. ]

I mean, it's easy now. But it's been like five years.

[ he drops his hand and sits down. ]

You could probably get your hands fixed here, if you wanted.

[sorserer]

[ stephen shrugs, lackadaisical. ]

Probably. But probably not for free.

[ though he can’t remember why he hadn’t tried that hard to have them fixed during his previous stays in duplicity. he hadn’t met too many healers back then, he can guess that much, and - wryly - he thinks his time might have been otherwise preoccupied. ]

So the empathy is a recent development?

[allyourfeels]

Honestly? Nate would help anyone for free. Charging's just what's expected here, I think? People feel safer when it's an upfront transaction.

[ he likes the witches he knows a lot, and he knows they wouldn't take advantage of anyone, but he gets why other people would be wary. ]

... I guess... I mean, it doesn't feel recent to me, but it started when I was fifteen. It gave me anger issues, I went to therapy and my doctor knew what it was, she taught me meditation and anger management and mindfulness stuff.

[sorserer]

Maybe at some point I wouldn’t mind an introduction. I’m not in a hurry, though.

[ he sounds more pragmatic about it than he feels: there’s the usual flicker of uncertainty about anything having to do directly with his handicap, followed by irritation at that very uncertainty. you think you’re over something ...

all in all, though, it’s nothing too jarring or extraordinary. stephen isn’t really in touch with his feelings, but at least he knows it; and knowing is half the battle, probably. ]

And it’s keeping you up now?

[allyourfeels]

[ caleb doesn't typically comment on people's feelings unless they're really big or clearly contradicting what the person's saying.

plus stephen isn't a patient and hasn't asked for help. ]

The city forced me to... force someone. A friend, a couple months ago. And like— it could've been worse, I guess. There were no drugs involved, we talked about it ahead of time. But it's one of those things that haunts you after.

[sorserer]

I’m sorry to hear that.

[ it’s sincere but not weighted. ]

[allyourfeels]

[ the lack of weight is nice and encouraging. caleb doesn't want to be a burden, so talking to someone who's not particularly invested is very nice. ]

A lot of people were forced into... this tour thing? And you got a task to do with your partner, so it's like shared trauma, I guess. And it's just kinda mixing weird with my fears of like, becoming a controlling asshole, I guess?

I can manipulate people's feelings. I've been trying to figure it out so I don't do it without meaning to, but there was this dickhead back home with a similar power and I'm just really afraid of being like him.

[sorserer]

[ stephen makes a considering sound in his throat. ]

It sounds like you’re thinking about all this the right way, at least. Having power, using it responsibly.

[allyourfeels]

[ caleb leans back on his chair and sighs. ]

I'm a therapist here. I think the only therapist? I think about everything.

[sorserer]

[ the corner of his mouth quirks in a wry half-smile. ]

Don’t they usually recommend therapists for therapists? If so, you really might be SOL.

[ one of the cafe attendants drops off a new latte in front of stephen in a ceramic mug. he wraps his fingers around the handle. ]

Big client base?

[allyourfeels]

When I first came here I started talking to a guy who ended up leaving the city like a month later, and like, it just clicked the guy was from this famous serial killer novels.

[ he sips at his own latte, and shrugs. ]

Not really a big client base, mostly guys about my age. But this place is so much? You'd get some big reveal about someone quiet being a secret sociopath followed by the city doing random punishments, followed by a demon attack. And it never really stops, the quiet weeks are worse in a way because then you're just waiting for the next big thing.

[sorserer]

[ the murder therapist gets a quick snort of laughter out of him. yeah, that sounds about right. ]

People weren’t intended to be tested all the time. Not the way this city does it, anyway.

[ he shrugs. ]

It’s a useful thing you’re doing. Good luck keeping it up. [ not intended to be encouraging, exactly, just a frank well wish. he doesn’t find caleb’s position especially enviable. ] I’m guessing that’s where the need for a good night’s sleep comes in.

[allyourfeels]

Yeah. I don't want to like, grow dependent on magic narcotics, I just wanna give my brain a break.

[ he thinks that's reasonable. just a few nights of good sleep and he can go back to handling shit for another stretch. ]

[sorserer]

Makes sense.

[ the pen that was circling ads disappears altogether; the newspaper is suddenly folded, without any additional movement on stephen’s part. he pretty clearly uses magic for very mundane things, and obviously to multitask: he’s taking a sip from his own latte. ]

How long do you need it for?

[allyourfeels]

[ he gets distracted every time stephen does something with magic, he's a little like a 6 year old at disneyland, though one who tries very hard to act cool. ]

I don't know. Three days?

[sorserer]

[ he nods, businesslike. his fingers drum over the side of his mug once in thought, and then he says, ]

Do you have any other questions for me beforehand?

[allyourfeels]

Just how much to take and when, I guess?

[ he's not worried about stephen being trustworthy or anything like that, both because he's a naturally trusting guy and because his empathy gives him a pretty good read on people. ]

[sorserer]

It’s not something you’ll take, it’s something I’ll do. I cast a spell and whenever you decide to try and turn in for the night, for the next couple of nights, you shouldn’t run into too much trouble.

[ for the most part stephen doesn’t use too many accoutrements for these kinds of spells. it’s just not how he trained. ]

But if you’d be more comfortable with something more medicinal I can probably work something out and send it along tomorrow.

[allyourfeels]

Actually, your way sounds way cooler. So I just go to bed?

[ he doesn't have a lot of personal experience with magic despite knowing a bunch of witches. ]

— wait, I just thought of something. Are you super good at magic? I know how it works is different in each world but there's a thing maybe you could help with.

[sorserer]

[ stephen huffs out a short laugh at the question. there’s a touch of self-deprecation in it: he’s thinking about wong, about having been passed up for sorcerer supreme for perfectly valid reasons, chief among them being - past stephen’s five-year nonexistence - that wong is a very good sorcerer. ]

I serve as one of the primary guardians of my reality. So. [ a beat. ] Pretty good.

[allyourfeels]

Right, okay. So I have a friend who grows plants with magic, but also he like... linked their life force or magic or something to his own. So, if he dies or disappears all of his plants die.

[ nick is great and caleb loves him, but he also lives rent-free in caleb's head and takes a lot of space and makes a lot of noise. ]

So I don't know shit about magic, but that sounded really bad. Like, this guy's maintaining god knows how many fucking plants around the city— sorry, about the language. It's just— [ frustrating, but he just waves a hand and keeps going. ] anyway, is there a spell or something to make the plans self-sustaining? You know, like normal plants are supposed to be.