Once upon a time, Stephen Strange’s mind would have flat-out rebelled at what Mobius was describing. He’d be grasping for the scientific explanation, insisting that you can’t disconnect that sensation without there being some explanation, something rooted in the nerves or the brain tissue—
But that was then, and this is now. It’s a wider universe than he ever thought. So he accepts the futility of it and the futility of muddling with old elf gods, and answers, “Mm. No. I was a doctor — a healer — for years long before I even knew about the existence of magic at all.”
This topic is verging closer to a tangled knot he doesn’t often explain; he’s always struggled with describing the deal he made and the trade-off he took without sounding like some kind of holier-than-thou saint. Because he’s not, is the thing. But maybe he can talk about Pangborn:
“Healing is what led me to discovering magic, though. I once met a man who was paralysed from the chest down.” (That diagnosis rang in the back of his head, still: C7-C8 spinal cord injury, complete, paralysed from the mid-chest down, partial paralysis of both hands, untreatable.)
“No one could have fixed him. I couldn’t. But then I find him running around on his feet, playing sports. He’d tapped into magic and was using it, day-in and day-out, to move his body again — it was a miracle — and that’s what eventually led me to, well, being a mage.”
no subject
But that was then, and this is now. It’s a wider universe than he ever thought. So he accepts the futility of it and the futility of muddling with old elf gods, and answers, “Mm. No. I was a doctor — a healer — for years long before I even knew about the existence of magic at all.”
This topic is verging closer to a tangled knot he doesn’t often explain; he’s always struggled with describing the deal he made and the trade-off he took without sounding like some kind of holier-than-thou saint. Because he’s not, is the thing. But maybe he can talk about Pangborn:
“Healing is what led me to discovering magic, though. I once met a man who was paralysed from the chest down.” (That diagnosis rang in the back of his head, still: C7-C8 spinal cord injury, complete, paralysed from the mid-chest down, partial paralysis of both hands, untreatable.)
“No one could have fixed him. I couldn’t. But then I find him running around on his feet, playing sports. He’d tapped into magic and was using it, day-in and day-out, to move his body again — it was a miracle — and that’s what eventually led me to, well, being a mage.”