( office hours & overflow )

[sorserer]

❥ stephen strange has office hours. these are hours during which people can come by his house in the up, the abattoir a magically expanded but still very cramped closet-now-office in the triple m apothecary for a nice cup of tea and some advice or direct support on magical endeavors. come thru
❥ this is an informal, word-of-mouth service. stephen appreciates some manner of compensation but will neither mention nor require it
❥ oocly, this is a mechanism for random non-phone threads. you don’t actually have to have a magic question. you can just come by and annoy the shit out of him
❥ just like the ic inbox i reserve the right to cram random shit in here

Comments

[sorserer]

[ when stephen reflects on this moment later, he won’t remember having been briefly amused, charmed even, by andy’s easy compliance; there’ll be other things to worry about. but he quirks another half-smile at the kid, not really trying for reassuring, and leans forward himself.

he doesn’t cup andy’s face or anything--in fact his scarred thumb descends, gently shaking, just above the space between andy’s eyebrows. there’s a spillover of light from his hand, then, a little flash of rune emblematic of something inherent to the kid blossoming out from the touch, and stephen, without any external movement, is sinking into that light, searching. ]

[headrushed]

[Andy doesn't know what to do in this moment, aside from stare over at Stephen or stare unfocused at his hand as it settles right before the bridge of his nose; rather than either of those he just closes his eyes, breathing in slow to try and mimic some sense of Stephen's calmer demeanor while the magical shitshow that is looking inside his head is about to begin.

There are three layers to him where there should only be one core piece of Andy to begin with. That's still there, but it's wrapped in the gossamer glow of someone else's magic which wraps around and infiltrates it. It's strong magic but it's at the same time amateur - untapped talent poured into a mold by untrained hands, holding steady but ready to burst at the seams. It's a glamor, something to keep people from seeing the physical tragedy beneath it but it is also its own layer of walls keeping fractured memories back. Keeping Andy from remembering what happened to him but also from ever daring to ask if anything happened in the first place.

The third part, however, is deeper under that. It's reclusive, pulling back like a tortoise into its shell, trying to hide away from the light. Like inky black bugs crawling to get back under the recently overturned rock, the insidious nature of it wants to evade Stephen, his light and investigation all together. But it's also not afraid to fight, waiting precariously on a metaphorical fence to see if it can get away with hiding first.]

[sorserer]

[ it’s more than stephen expected, and it’s only long and arduous training that keeps him from recoiling at what he finds beneath the glamor first--not out of disgust but ordinary alarm: the inherent wrongness of having all that harm collapsed on a kid sitting across from him at his breakfast table, and to have it walking as if on strings, smelling like teen boy body spray--and is it just harm? it’s worse, it reminds him of the kids he’d see sometimes too still and too in pain in christine’s operating room, people who got hit by a car--

he stays steady, though, like he’s on triage. digs in deeper. and then, when he finds resistance, he pushes past it too easily, like carding fingers through wet tissue paper. that’s just skill at work.

but he doesn’t like what he finds there either, and how it tries to flee. andy’s eyes are closed, so he can’t see the way stephen’s expression tightens; and even if his eyes were open he wouldn’t be able to see the way stephen’s magic pursues when whatever it is under there flees. his pursuit is dogged, singular. something’s wrong, past what stephen would’ve expected from a sleepwalking kid, and there’s no hesitation in his desire to find out what it could possibly be. ]

[headrushed]

[The lovely little entity doesn't like attention pinned to it and it has two courses of action as a means of remedying it - it could fight back and reveal itself or it can try to hide a little bit deeper, with a distraction to cover its tracks. It's not until it starts to feel backed into a corner by Stephen's probing that it pulls the trigger on the latter, right when the metaphorical headlights shine into its eyes like a deer on the road, gleaming yellow for a split second. And then:]

Uh...

[Andy's voice pipes up with a soft clearing of his throat, a wave of discomfort running through him. It's like there's a rubber band around his chest, around his heart, and he raises a hand to touch to his sternum before he's blinking open his eyes. Furrowing his brows, he shapes a few silent words before just:]

I don't feel so hot, is it - um, how's it going?

["Can we take a break" without saying can we take a break.]

[sorserer]

[ it’s a different and distinct interruption in stephen’s spellcasting that alerts him to andy’s discomfort--more that than andy’s voice, which stephen, in the throes of intense focus, might have seen fit to ignore. he withdraws quickly, though not abruptly; the tendrils of searching light emitting from his fingers all pull in on themselves, like a receding tide.

another moment passes before stephen’s attention aligns itself appropriately. his mind is still whirring. something’s wrong, he wants to say, but without the benefit of further details he’s not sure he wants to freak the kid out. moreover, what does that--whatever it was--have to do with the glamor? he’d thought initially the glamor was just something to do with the body, but there’s more there, the wall between the material reality of him and the magical reality having to do also with the kid’s mind--and deep in the recesses of that magic, whatever it was that skittered away under light--

his thumb brushes the side of andy’s temple, as if feeling out a fever. and then he pulls his hand back. ]

Drink. [ the water, he means. ] I have followup questions. But they can wait until you’re feeling better.

[headrushed]

[Andy feels - strange, like he's suddenly fatigued and doesn't know what's causing it so he looks to Stephen with uncertainty and confusion - is this just part of the whole mind thing? Should he feel fine right now or is it okay to feel a bit like a scrambled egg, heart hitching in his chest like he's afraid of something without anything to be afraid of. Man, he's only really felt this way when coming out of his sleep walking. Weird.

He hesitates but ultimately reaches for the glass of water - Stephen's got the whole authoritarian vibe going as well as being someone he assumes knows what he's doing, so. Andy takes a sip, then another, and looks back up with a slightly doe eyed look. Already feeling a bit better, coincidentally now that Stephen's out of his head.]

Sorry. Just kinda felt weird. What, what um - are your questions?

[sorserer]

[ i’m sure you did, part of stephen wants to retort--but even his bedside manner is better than that. he eases back in the seat and resists the urge to open his third eye, which he knows would dig further but perhaps not constructively.

so far stephen has several hypotheses. the most unpleasant ones name the boy for what he is--a variation on a lich, some sweet kind soul soon to be subsumed by something darker. the nicer ones, the ones he has to put effort into working through before he inevitably casts them aside, knows andy is a victim--though of what he doesn’t know. ]

I wasn’t under the impression you’d seen other magic users about your condition. But if you have, it’d be good to know. In order to compare notes.

[ a gentle and leading statement, not quite a question. ]

[headrushed]

Um, no - I've seen Dr. Valenti and that's about it.

[And it won't be until after Insincerity that that gets checked in on again, by merit of things being pushed and nothing seeming too bad, at least not yet. He takes one more sip of water before just holding the glass between his hands, looking over to Stephen to watch his response. Should he be seeing other magic users? Man, weird to even think they exist nevermind they're gonna have any way to help him with his stupid sleepwalking.]

... Should I look into more opinions?

[sorserer]

... no. I might. And then I’ll get back to you.

[ stephen curves his hand around his latte again. ]

I don’t think it’s anything neurological, so that’s good. Could be an outlying city effect; I’m sure by now you know how unusual those tend to be. I need some time to look into it and then I’ll follow up. For now, so long as your parents are keeping you safe and making sure you don’t fall into any indoor pools, just hang in there. Alright?

[headrushed]

Uh, yeah. Okay.

[He nods once, taking that all into account. It's kinda relieving that someone's giving him logical explanations for a cause - he didn't really even begin to think that the city's influence could have a hand in it, but hey. Maybe? He takes one last sip of water before politely setting the glass a little farther away as if to say 'done, thanks' and. Well.]

If uh, it gets worse or something... I'll reach out?

[Man, he wants to - ask more, or talk more (because it's Dr. Freaking Strange,) but he's just... really tired and the fatigue just makes him wanna head home and go straight to bed. Weird, considering he felt fine a second ago. Clearly could not possibly be a manipulative force inside him piloting his actions around.]

Thanks for uh, the consult.

[sorserer]

Please do.

[ there’s a business card on the table where there wasn’t one before: a single address and his call sign on the communicator in cursive that also manages to be a prescription pad scrawl. he slides it over with two fingertips. ]

Take this, and ...

[ he drains the rest of his latte with visible gratitude for the sudden influx of sweetness, then rises from his seat. he has a heavy brass ring on two fingers suddenly, which seem to play some obvious part in how he describes a circle in the air with his other hand: one portal, which leads to the checkpoint, and then another behind it, which leads to andy’s residence. ]

Get some rest. Alright?

[headrushed]

[Andy gets up to his feet to take the card, eyes a little bit wide when Stephen does the whole magical circle thing - murmurs a soft 'whoa' because that's kinda really impressive and he's never been through freaking portals like this before. He gives a nod because of course he's gonna agree to get some rest at the Doctor's recommendation, but he's also about to get up a whole lot of shit in the next few weeks so it's a matter of time before he ends up having to use this card.

He steps over to the portal, almost a little nervous of it, but looks back to Stephen before stepping through to disappear home. (How'd he know?)]

Have a good day, Doc.