AN: Remember when Max said that Neil and Harrison are too opposite not to clash at some point... :)
Season 1 Episode 10 Mind Freaker
Max was well aware of the existence of magic. Didn't mean he had to like it. Hell, he avoided it like the plague most days. Especially when it's in the hands of the inexperienced Godling of Hecate, Harrison.
From what Max could gather, the magic kid had a rocky past with his abilities. Something tragic happened to his brother, though Max was unable to determine exactly what. Instances of spells misfiring, failing, or resulting in totally opposite outcomes had given the boy a guilt complex unlike any other. And volatile emotions that come from such things do more to hinder magic than help it.
So, yeah. Max believed in magic. He knew it was real.
And he'd resolutely decided to stay the hell away from Harrison, until the other could get his shit together.
Too bad one of Max's friends happened to be a Legacy of the god of science. A legacy who had yet to realize his ancestry and whose analytical mind refused to acknowledge the possibility of magic.
Which is how Max ended up spewing up handkerchiefs, plushies, and oddly enough, a hook. Max believes in magic, so why the fuck is he getting punished. Harrison's lack of control, that's why. A spell meant for Neil, aimed a little too far to the right, and now Max has to spend who knows how long like this.
It was disturbing. And it hurt like hell. Max knew it was bad because Ered (who'd tried to override his claim on the campsite a few weeks ago and thus entered a sometimes antagonistic but overall neutral relationship with Max) looked worried for him.
Gods, he should have dragged Neil away from the show sooner.
Now, his friend is on a philosophical war path with Harrison, and Max won't be able to do shit to stop it. One of them was going to take this too far. And when it comes to Godlings and Legacies, that's something you definitely do not want happening.
Maybe Max would care more about that, though, if he wasn't in such stomach ripping pain. Harrison better figure out a way to fix this.
Waking up to a severely sleep deprived Neil was not something Max expected, nor found very welcoming the day after the incident. Mr. Honeynuts had been the only reason Max was able to get even a tiny bit of sleep last night, the reliable stuffed bear pulled close to Max's chest as he curled himself around him. It was an all too familiar position that did little more than remind him of... his parent's house. Between that, the friction burn he could feel in his throat every time he coughed up a card, and the roiling inside his stomach that told him whatever spell Harrison had cast was still in effect, Max had had a bad night.
Glossing over Neil's frantic questioning, Max put on his signature hoodie. He was going to eat some breakfast. He didn't want any more trauma in his life. Best to distract himself to forget about this as soon as possible.
Neil didn't hate Harrison, per say. There was just something about the other that rubbed the science geek the wrong way.
He was this close to figuring out the trick Harrison pulled on Max yesterday. Because of how distant Max was today, Neil hasn't been able to get a clear answer out of him to find out when Harrison performed the surgery. Which is regretful, because that required him to throw out his working theory and come up with a new one.
If only he could see that trick performed one more time. Neil is certain he could figure it out if that happened.
Wait, is that Nikki talking to Harrison?
…
Neil could work with this.
Easy enough to figure out if you're smart enough, huh?!
Neil could feel his eye twitching, a tik he has yet to grow out of, and one telling him that Harrison has taken this too far.
It's one thing to gloat and rub it in his face that he'd yet to figure out just how Harrison had done it, but it's completely different to insult his intelligence.
Neil took great pride in his amassed knowledge, and took active steps to make sure that no one would know more about any given scientific topic than him. He attended monthly seminars to stay up to date in various fields, practiced writing research papers so he'd be more than prepared when he started publishing them, and conducted his own research to further science as a whole.
(Occasionally with dubious ethics, Neil will admit. But they can't prove anything unless his subjects end up maimed or dead, anyway. He's only a kid, after all.)
To insult Neil's intelligence is to spit upon the very foundations that Neil forged his entire being.
Magic isn't real, and Neil was going to prove it once and for all. With Nikki at his side (her monster to his Frankenstein), he'd recreate Harrison's trick using science. By any means necessary.
So, maybe shoving over a yard worth of handkerchiefs down Nikki's throat was going too far. In Neil's defense, he'd made sure to calculate the exact angle he'd need to make sure that her windpipe wasn't too damaged every time he added another strand or stuffed animal.
But he never expected her to choke on it. By the time he finished, the strand should have been well past her esophagus and settled neatly into her stomach. Neil has seen Nikki eat worse, so her body should digest everything fine.
WHY WASN'T THIS WORKING?!
Science has never failed Neil. Never.
It's what saved him from 3rd degree burns at age 7 as he experimented with his chemistry set. It's what helped him find the right pressure points whenever his bullies took things too far and he needed to make a quick getaway. It's what made him look up research on the psychological impacts of divorce on children so that he wouldn't be adversely affected after his parents sat him down to tell him the news.
(It's the thing that mom left him and dad for, so it must be great. It has to be the universe's absolute. She wouldn't leave him for anything less. Right?)
Neil tried his damndest to account for every possibility, every variable. So that the experiment could continue unhindered.
Science is never wrong. So why doesn't Neil know how to fix this?
Looking from the frothing face of one of his only friends, to the disapproving crowd, to his trusty black board, Neil had never felt so lost. His eyes zeroed in on Max, the other boy having just wandered into the chaotic scenario of Neil's own making.
Max always knows what to do! He always has a plan! In desperation, Neil cries out, "Max! What do I do!"
Max, with his eyes more tired and done with the world than Neil can remember, looked as if he were about to answer. Then, he coughed up a living bird.
"I think I'm gonna be sick." Was his only response before he slowly made his way away from the activities field.
Neil was all alone here, and it seemed as if science had finally failed him.
"Neil, just believe." Harrison says pleadingly.
Feeling as if he were killing a small part of himself, Neil says the one thing he could never bring himself to acknowledge.
"Fine, yes! I believe. I believe in magic! Just do it!"
But instead of saying any incantation or even waving his hands, Harrison stands up and bows to the audience. "And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the greatest trick of all. Getting a cynical, closed-minded asshole to believe in magic!"
What.
"B-but what about Nikki?"
Said girl rises, full of her typical energy. Not a single drop of pain on her face, or anything to remind Neil of what he'd done to her.
"Ta-da!" She cries, arms open wide as if to embrace the open air that she could now breath again. "Magic!"
"But... how? How are you okay, Nikki?!" Neil yelled, his fear for her life quickly morphing into shock.
Harrison leans over, and says happily, "I keep telling you, Neil. It's magic, silly! Boop!"
As the crowd clapped, and the realization of what had just occurred dawned on Neil, only one thought came to his mind.
"Fuck you, Harrison."
AN: So, you know how in chapter 2, Max had this whole one sided familial rivalry with Cameron? Well, it doesn't just happen between relatives of the same god. Godlings and Legacies of opposite aspects will show similar animosity, though it's much more died down if neither is aware of their status. Imagine if Neil and Harrison were aware of their ancestry and the abilities that came with it during this episode. It could have been far worse.
I like to think that, despite their near opposite aspects, Hecate and Asclepius are close friends. Science, in my mind, is the demonstration of known knowns, things that humans know to be true and are observable in some capacity. Magic, on the other hand, are the known unknowns, things that people can observe but cannot fully recreate or comprehend. They're two sides of the same coin essentially, so while they may butt heads, they respect each other for what they represent. It just takes their descendants a few years to realize that for themselves, hence, the animosity.
BTW, all of Neil's calculations were correct, and he would have been able to get the whole strand of handkerchiefs down Nikki's throat safely, but one of them wasn't tied very well, so it got stuck right before it could exit cleanly into her stomach. I mean, his version of the trick wouldn't have worked anyway, considering he was shoving everything into her stomach and there just so happens to be acid and stuff in there. But, as you could tell from the actual episode, Neil was far past the point of his typical "sound" logic, and fully into hypothetical territory.
Max stopped throwing up random stuff the next morning, and Harrison made sure to never aim his spell anywhere near the boy ever again, so our favorite Godling won't have anymore magic related trauma.
If you have any questions about what the heck is going on in this story, leave a comment. If you don't have questions and just want to say something, leave a comment. If you want to bash on my horrendous writing, leave a comment! All comments are welcome in this household!