[ closed ] she knows what I think about.

[onetouch]

CHARACTERS: NED & VARIOUS
LOCATION: VARIOUS
WARNINGS: PG/PG-13 & gif-heavy
SUMMARY: Ned meets up with his Phase 3 match-ups (and Chuck).
NOTES: if anyone would like to log out Phase 2 with Ned that is also an option here, just hit me up via plurk or PM.

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[onetouch]

He froze, his suspicions confirmed in that one moment. Ned gulped, looking down into his pie as his vision narrowed, blanking out at the word magic. And 'speaking of' as in him and his very own magic finger.

Forcing himself to engage, he realized there had been another question in there. A safer question. Except Ned wasn't exactly certain of the answer himself. "No...?"

Yep, they were off to a great start.

[doggedly]

"Oh." Sirius looked down at his beer, and laughed. "Er, get ready, then, 'cos we're sharing more than memories. We have to share feelings as well, so you're going to be double drunk. Then again, that might actually make this easier."

Sharing feelings explained the sudden surge of nerves that Sirius has just got. That's got to be Ned--he's not half so nervous about anything, ever.

"And calm down, would you," he added, rubbing a hand over his forehead with a faint scowl. "I didn't see anything awful. Just-- weird. You have led a very weird life, mate."

[onetouch]

"Sorry." He grimaced, visibly calming himself. "Sorry. ...You can feel that, can't you?" Ned took another sip of beer, settling into it this time and leaning against the counter. Sirius' chill nature was as contagious as his nerviness it would seem.

But he had led a weird life, even he knew that. In fact, he had felt it far more acutely back home, being that he was the only 'special' person that he himself knew. "I know. But... so have you."

[doggedly]

"Yes," he answered, with a little scowl, as he rubbed the heel of his hand against his eye. Ned thinking about his contagious nervousness made the nervousness spike a little, and Sirius took a moment to try to think as calmly and confidently as possible. He could totally counteract this.

"And I haven't, actually, not really. Not for a wizard." Well, sort of not for a wizard. There were a few different types of wizards, after all, muggle-borns and purebloods, et cetera ad nauseum, classifications that Sirius knew, thanks to his upbringing, but didn't really give a damn about. "But you aren't a wizard. Nice magic tricks, though. And, uh. Zombie?"

[onetouch]

Not for a wizard. Ned swallowed back the acid reflux and tried to relax into their link; tried to allow Sirius to dictate their respective chillness. He took another sip, without really tasting it.

Except zombies were - zombies were not what Ned created. The comparison made him grimace, and he shook his head violently in the other man's direction. "No. Not a zombie. Zombies are shambling, rotting creatures with no sense of who they are or --no. They're not zombies." He swallowed, forcing himself to make eye contact. "I prefer the term, alive-again."

[doggedly]

"Alive-again?" Sirius was more than dubious as he repeated those words back at Ned. "And you say that every time? That's a bit of a mouthful, you think you'd have a better word for it by now. All right, so they aren't zombies, and please present my apologies to any of them who you encounter for offending them with that name--honestly, y'know, we haven't got any zombies either, that was just something I saw in films-- Night of the Living Dead, and all those."

Alive-again. Sirius stopped rambling as he considered that specific choice of words. It was a better description, at least, for all its clumsiness--because from what he'd seen from Ned's memories, the alive-againers really were truly alive. It was mental.

He glanced back at the pie-maker, as he speared another bite of pie on his fork. "Y'know, even wizards can't do that."

[onetouch]

"I know, I'm--" Special? One-of-a-kind? He swallowed some beer to stall and tried not to pine for Not New York City, where everyone was exactly like him in their complete uniqueness. "What I mean to say is, I come from a family of - magic men. I know what I can do is different than that."

Ned looked away and went on, though he still hated the term 'zombies' and always would. "It isn't a horror movie; they aren't-- It can be alarming, don't get me wrong, but. They're alive. They're not dead. You're either alive or you're dead, there is no 'un.'"

[doggedly]

Magic men. Sirius' eyebrows went up a little at that description. It just sounds so... silly, to a wizard. Magic men magic men magic men. Like men that are magical, which is a wizard, but when you separated it out like that, it's like--men in sparkly costumes. For some reason, that was the image that came to mind.

He did not want to see Ned in a sparkly costume. That sounded like a bit of a horror movie on its own.

"Right," he said, vaguely, swirling his beer around in his glass. "Well, you're the one that would know. So where d'you get them from, then, you just--snatch them back from death? I mean, how does it work? Or d'you not know, you can just--do it."

No judgement if it were to be the last one. Sirius was familiar enough with magic that it wouldn't be surprising if that were it. Some people were happy to try to reason everything out, but for Sirius, magic always kind of just has been. No reason or overthinking necessary, it was all guts and intuition and natural ability.

[onetouch]

The Great Herman had worn a sparkly costume, and his brothers were... a bit iridescent it was true. His father though, as well as Ned himself, had always favored black. The question however made him swallow, setting his beer aside.

"It isn't - scientific, if that's what you're asking. It's just magic, it's just what I can do."

[doggedly]

"Well, yeah, no, I know it's not science." Science. Eurgh. The word was full of disdain when Sirius said it. He wasn't much fond of science, as a whole. "But how does it work? We've got theories of magic and-- equal exchange principles and things like that. And you just, what. Touch people and they come back to life, and that's it, happily ever after?"

[onetouch]

He grimaced, hard, unable to lie to much success even without a mind-link. This wasn't going to be pleasant. But instead of trying to lie or cover it up, as he usually would, Ned looked down into his beer and spoke very softly.

"Sixty seconds."

[doggedly]

"It-- takes sixty seconds to work? Or it only lasts sixty seconds?" No, it's got to be the former and not the latter, right? Because Sirius has been in Ned's head, and he's seen glimpses, at least.

And speaking of glimpses... he frowns, vaguely, rubs at his face as he feels how uncomfortable this is making Ned. Normally, he wouldn't maybe notice--or he might, given Ned's body language; he'd have to be wearing a paper bag over his head not to notice that hunch over the beer.

"Has anyone got this, er, ability, where you're from?"

[onetouch]

"It only lasts sixty seconds. One minute. That's the catch."

Ned swallowed, hating that so many people knew not only his ability, but its limitations. It still wasn't the whole story, but Sirius was asking him another question now. "No. No one."