azurelunatic | In Which Neil Is Proper Fucked

So tonight I learned that Neil -- okay, I've always known that Neil had to be some sort of a mage, and that since the whole Brotherhood of the Salamander frat is mages, that Deuce had to be a mage too. And yesterday (Thursday) when I was reading back through (conventional NaNo wisdom says not to read back through; I read back through to re-orient myself, and to add things that I'd missed) and it turned out that when I'd described Deuce, I had in fact to save myself some time and go on to the good parts, described him as like Neil built to a larger scale.

Part of that was also to economize on describing Neil, because it's always easier to me to describe characters relative to each other than independently. My brain just works that way. And I kept seeing Neil looking sort of like that guy I work with who dressed up as Hal 9000 this year, except smaller. And Deuce turned out to look like him except bigger. So I suddenly realized that these two dudes were in fact brothers, and that explained a lot.

And I was thinking about what kind of magic Neil would have to have (because, I think, I was plotting some sort of magical training horrorshow to torment Max and Chad, to have Neil in there with them) and, well.

Max is a fire mage. His powers come because he can sense and control elemental fire with no more than the power of his mind.

Chad is an air mage. Like Max with fire, he can control elemental air (which, like elemental fire, has a kinship with the *actual* matter/energy format) with no more than the power of his mind.

Not all practitioners of magic in their world have their powers elementally derived. Raven somewhat does, but mostly draws on zero point energy, as befits a probability and divination type mage. (By pissing her off, Max has just fucked himself over, because he doesn't have that reliable an access to another diviner of that quality. STUPID.) There are more counterexamples. Connie and Mike are both a little less pure elemental.

Now. Neil. Neil is not actually an elemental mage as such. I was thinking about this for a bit and then I burst out in undignified snorting laughter. Neil, I crowed, derives his power from celibacy. Not virginity, even though he is a virgin. But the way he's *handwave* set up, and the way his brain found to focus his magic as a teenager when it was coming out? He channels his sexual tension/frustration, and when it reaches critical, he can Do Things With It.

(This also means that if he wants to do effective magic, he can't just take care of things himself. It furthermore means that he hasn't had sufficient alone time to take care of things, or else [random hilaribad stuff] wouldn't be happening.)

Neil's brother Deuce has basically the opposite thing going on. He's a sex mage, as in, he casts while boinking mostly, and can sometimes do stuff when freshly laid that he otherwise wouldn't have been able to.

It seems that sex-related magic talents run in their family.

Personality-wise, I'm sad to say that Neil and Deuce both got the personality that would result in them being able to use their powers regularly. Neil doesn't know how to talk to women. Deuce rarely talks to the same woman again if he can avoid it once he's slept with them. Not Barney Stinson style, but an altogether different arrogant dickweed fratboy kind of way.

Poor Neil. Poor, poor Neil. *evil cackles*

Poor Max and Chad.