2024-11-18 - Is It Worth It?

9/20/2024

The first time Elijah experienced magic was pure accident.

He'd been playing around at the Voyage to Adventure theater after a grueling set of rehearsals, jumping on the trampolines to see just how high he could get without wires and a harness. The entire area was closed and empty except for the Texan, and while he should have had someone there to spot him in case of any trouble, he'd not expected to need anyone. He wasn't a particularly proud man, that he didn't want anyone to see him make mistakes, but for some reason he felt that being caught playing around at work wouldn't look so good to the powers that be.

And so, still wearing his workout clothes of under-armor shirt and athletic pants, he'd offered to lock up for the night and took the opportunity to play. He'd been fine for the first twenty minutes or so, if a bit damp with sweat from the exertions. But then, when he'd decided to try jumping as high as he could and perform a transfer to another trampoline, he'd missed the mark. Almost immediately, he knew he done fucked up, and the price was probably going to be broken legs....

... except it didn't happen. His heart racing and blood pounding in his ears, Elijah found his fall slowing until with an instinctive flinch he tilted himself up and begin to rise in the air. The sound of his laughter floated throughout the arena. Magic... It was magic! Just like he'd heard people boasting about but ignored, thinking that it was just people method acting about their character and persona. He'd hooked up with a Disney princess one time that insisted on being called Aurora even when they'd ducked into a storage tent with families not fifteen feet from them complaining about the turkey legs at the Faire.

As he neatly landed on his feet, Elijah knew deep down in his soul that he'd do anything to keep this job.

10/12/2024

The second time Elijah experienced magic wasn't quite as startling, but no less accidental.

When someone worked around swords, it was inevitable that they'd get cuts and knicks. Girls (and boys!) always found the scars hot, and it was just a job hazard. It was a little embarrassing that he'd cut himself, but Elijah Jones didn't have such a big ego that he couldn't see the humor in it... Even if the slice across his side hurt like a sonuva and was bleeding all over the place.

He'd come out to the beach to run through his daily sword forms, both because of the unseasonably warm weather and because he wanted the challenge of the unstable footing from the sand as well as any distractions that came his way. Sure, he wasn't gunna actually be fighting anyone with the sword; it was all a prop and his only 'fights' were choreographed, but that didn't mean he didn't want to keep his skills sharp. The tourists and patrons of the shows might not know real swordsmanship from stage work, but he did and he firmly believed if he was gunna do something, there was no reason not to do it right.

After doing his forms, he'd decided to play with some trick tosses of the blade, and an underhand catch had gone wrong with the blade slicing into his side deep enough he knew he'd need stitches. He knew enough first aid that he'd been applying pressure, but damned if it didn't hurt with each step he took. And just as he'd been contemplating flying to the clinic to get patched up, a cat came winding around his legs.

As he reached down with a groan against the pain to push the cat away, he felt something inside him stir. Black veins begin to creep up his hand, and the cat let out a g hiss of pain... and the slice across his torso began to heal up, even as a cut formed on the cat. Soon, Elijah was fully healed. But at what price?

Instead of flying to the clinic, he found himself flying to where Matteo was working, the cat in his arms mewling pitifully. He'd leeched the vitality and health of the cat to heal himself, but as far as anyone knew, he'd found the cat hurt on the beach. Probably someone's dog attacked it, or a natural predator...

But it was the first hint that he had that magic wasn't as benign as it seemed.

11/10/2024

Having spent several months now at Spellbound, Elijah thought he'd come to the end of surprises and revelations. Magic was real, and while some of it was benign, such as flying, there were aspects of it that he needed to be wary about, such as his ability to inadvertently suck vitality out of people when he was hurt. While he'd never been a big believer in physical contact, having been raised in Texas to be stoic and self-contained, he'd completely sworn off even the sort of one night stands he'd mostly had since Oklahoma and the whirlwind romance there that'd, in a lot of ways, set him free.

But he was only a man, and one night while at Lucky's a girl with dancing eyes and a dimple in one cheek had struck up a conversation with him. She was a waitress at one of the fancy restaurants and one thing had lead to another and they'd found a quiet dark alley...

Except halfway through the foreplay, Elijah realized he didn't feel anything.

Oh, not emotionally... The drive was still there, but no matter how creative she was, there was no physical stimulation. After she'd left him in disgust and tears, and he made his way home, he begun to experiment. Heat did nothing, not even when he'd held a lighter to his hand until the fine hairs on the back burned. Cold, from an ice cube on the burn? Nothing as well. Even when he'd carefully, gently stuck a straight pin into his finger until blood rose up nothing.

Magic had a price, and while Elijah could fly through the air and even leech vitality to heal himself or just give himself a pick-me-up, the price? The price was losing the ability to feel physical sensations. Such as pain, or the wind on his face. Or the touch of a lover.

Which left him with a question he couldn't answer:

Was it worth it?