For the Gus fluff thing, how about Gus teaching Mattholomule illusion magic and Mattholomule teaching Gus construction magic? I need this because holy shit that six gun sequel was brutal.
A/N: I was dead tired today but! I managed to write this! This was a very fun prompt and I had several ideas floating around, this one was the first to make it on paper. Also yeah rip, Hand In Bloody Hand still has me absolutely destroyed too (and I'm the author) (or maybe because I'm the author). Anyways, hope you enjoy this!
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There were a lot of things that lived beneath Hexside. Some crawled and some scurried, while others merely slept, only awakening once a year. Today though there were more creatures than usual down there. Rhythmic sounds of digging rang down tunnels that hadn't been there in past years.
At the end of one of those tunnels, Gus planted his shovel in the dirt and leaned on it, catching his breath. "Hey Matt, are you almost ready to start digging? I think my arms are going to fall off if I do this any longer."
Matt just grunted in reply. Gus squinted over at where he was sitting farther back in the tunnel and gestured his light spell closer. Matt was bent over something, apparently shaping it with spells.
"Whatcha making there?"
Matt jolted. "Nothing!" He spun a quick spell circle, collapsing his work into dust.
The quick look Gus was able to catch was quite revealing though. Especially those tufts of hair. He grinned. "Was that a statue of me?"
"What? No!" Matt jumped to his feet and pointed at Gus indignantly. "You can't prove anything!"
Gus raised an eyebrow.
"Look, I was just practicing, okay? And you were right there, so I was using you as a reference."
That made since. References were always really important in illusions so that you got the proportions of stuff right. Although, this tunnel didn't really have the best conditions. "If it's a reference you want, I can get you the best reference I know!" Gus said.
"And what would that be?"
Gus drew a spell circle and a copy of him appeared doing a muscle pose with two spotlights shining down on him. "Me but standing still and with good lighting, of course." The copy winked.
Matt frowned. "Ok, but how do you do that so easily? Is that just the magic doing the work for you or what?"
Gus hummed thoughtfully. At this point, illusions were almost second nature to him. It was hard to distinguish steps between think of the illusion you want and create the illusion you want. Oh, they'd gone over this stuff in his first lessons though!
"Illusions," he started confidently, "take images from you head and then, uh…" How had his teacher phrased that last bit again? It'd been a while. "Fill them out. And stuff."
"So it does help you out?"
"A bit. Really though, you have to have a clear image in your head or stuff gets a bit wonky." He winced as a few of his earlier illusions came to mind. He'd always added far too many limbs for whatever reason.
"Huh. Mental image isn't really as important in construction. You just sort of move stuff around until it looks right."
"Weird."
There was an awkward pause.
"Hey, you know what?" Gus asked.
"What?"
"I could teach you some simple illusion stuff if you want."
"Really?" Matt frowned. "Wait, isn't that against the rules though?"
"Nah, Bump got rid of that after the whole basilisk thing, thanks to Luz," Gus said. He leaned against a tunnel wall. "Also, we are kind of digging beneath his school. Probably would get in a bit more trouble for that."
"Oh. Right."
"So! Your first illusion!"
"Wait, I don't remember agreeing—"
"Ahh, the first illusion, a proud tradition." Gus started pacing back and forth for dramatic effect. "From what I've seen, there are two main ways to do this. Either you can choose a beautiful object that holds deep meaning for you — and then fail horribly — or you can choose something simple and only fail a little bit!"
Matt drew himself up. "I bet I can pull off the fancy illusion," he bragged.
"Spectacular failure then," Gus said. "I like it!"
"Your face is a spectacular failure!" Matt shot back.
Gus puffed up his chest in mock offence. "Oh yeah? Well, have you looked in a mirror lately?"
"Oh yeah? Well— nyeh!" Matt rushed at Gus and the two slapped lightly at each other for a bit.
"Ahem, anyways," Gus stepped back, "Teaching!"
"Yes, teaching, right."
"So, the most basic illusion spell is a flat, still image you project on some surface," Gus said. He cast it to demonstrate, creating a picture of King on the tunnel wall. "See, you can make anything you want! It's like graffiti, except it's not vandalism since it disappears when you stop concentrating."
Matt frowned at the wall. "So I just… imagine something being there?"
"Yup! Easy as that!"
"If you say so." He skeptically drew a circle. The dirt on the wall started shifting around, forming what might possibly have been hints at lines. "Yeah, see? It doesn't work!" he huffed.
"Well that wasn't an illusion spell," Gus said. "That was just construction magic again!"
"What is illusion magic then? Because clearly just thinking it doesn't work."
"I don't know!" Gus yelled, then stopped as Matt flinched back. He took a deep breath and let it out. "I don't know. I've been doing illusions as long as I can remember. It just feels like magic to me."
"Whatever." Matt scowled and picked up a shovel. "I've been bad at magic my whole life. Why stop now?" He went to the end of the tunnel and started to dig.
Gus slid to the ground. Stupid illusions always messing up his friendships. He took another deep breath. Well, illusions had gotten him into this and illusions would get him out, just like always.
First order of business: figure out how to describe illusions. Maybe he could show how it worked somehow? The problem there was that he didn't have anything to show. It just… went from his head to outside. If only he could just teach him a single illusions spell so Matt knew what it felt like. But that projection spell was the simplest one he knew. Well, besides the—
"The light spell!" Gus jumped up in excitement.
"What?"
"You already know an illusion spell, or one like them! Illusions are just like a light spell:; you think of light and draw a circle!"
Matt set down the shovel. "Wait, but light spells always feel so airy, it's like they aren't even there. Are you telling me all illusions feel like that?"
Gus paused and thought about that for a bit. "...Do you mean other spells feel different?"
Matt opened his mouth, closed it again. Opened it again. "Uhhh… you know what? I think it'll be your turn to learn some new magic after this."
Gus shrugged. "Fair enough. Ok but now you got to try again!"
"Fine." Matt rolled his eyes. "So, it's like a light spell but with a picture?"
"Yep!"
"Here goes then." Tentatively, Matt cast a spell. A greyish splotch slowly appeared on the wall.
"Yes!" Gus jumped up and down cheering. "Matt, you did it!"
"I… did?" Matt asked, looking back and forth between the splotch and Gus in confusion.
"Yeah! It might not look good, but none of them do at first. Now you've cast one one of them though, you can get better!"
Matt grinned. "Well then, you just wait! Next thing you know I'll be even better than you at illusions!"
Gus crossed his arms, grinning back at him. "Oh yeah? Well I bet I'll be better than you at construction magic first! Remember, you owe me a spell lesson."
Before Matt could respond, a faint scream echoed through the dirt around them. The mood deflated slightly.
"Oh. Darn." Matt said. "See you at the graveyard tomorrow?"
"Sure. You can teach me then!"
"Deal."
The boys exchanged a serious high five to seal the deal, then started walking back.
"Ok but seriously, I can barely even feel the magic in the illusions, it's all just in the circle. It's weird."
"No, that's how it works! You're definitely lying about being able to feel the magic."
