Inzo never really had a head for magic. Required a lot of trial, lot of error, or a lot of letting some jaggoff tell you what to do.
But since his eyes weren’t much more than some mirrors, glass, and photosensitive chemicals transmitting signals down a complicated series of copper wires and, thus, had needed to be enhanced by The Blue that had animated him, he had at least half a sense for magic.
So when the other guy’s hands just pulled all that dark out of the air and he used it to just tear the world open, well, the clockwork youth was awestruck in the oldest way: struck with a sense of something massive and powerful moving in front of him. And wielded so casually, too.
When he went or escaped places, he usually just looked around for a soft spot in the world and just leaned in until the soft spot became an opening and he’d cross. Usually from there, just wander around an Interstitial ‘til he found a door or other, more reliable, portal to a place that sounded fun.
When Esfir went places, it was usually through one of the many, many doors in The House’s hallways. The House was super-real, full of impossible things, part of something impossible: of course it could have portals.
But just tearing open a hole like that? With something not-unlike his bare hands.
“Holy shit,” he murmured as the other youth emerged from the hole into the gnome warehouse with the cart full of sculptures.
Looking over his shoulder at The House, he almost protested about Lee’s plan–he was almost certainly going to end up having to clean up the scrap–and considered asking to relocate. But he was still trying to process the whole thing, so instead, he shrugged and did his best to shake off the sense of cosmic insignificance and fear (incredibly happy in that moment not to have a digestive tract) before saying, “Well, shit, I know I oughta be making some kinda ‘that’s what they said’ joke here, but instead,” he sauntered forward and picked up one of the gnomes, tossing it into the air lightly and catching it with a faint scraping sound in his metal hand, “Back up and get ready to swing.”
"I mean, you could make that joke, but then I'd have to ask you what the hell kinda other situations you've been in that involved pitching and batting with lawn gnomes specifically and that's just a weird road to go down." Lee backed up obligingly, his gangly legs taking him back by long strides. He lowered himself into a batting stance and placed his fists on top of each other, as if grasping an imaginary baseball bat. He waved the invisible bat seriously, with all the gravitas to make him a truly excellent air guitar player if the situation should call for it, and nodded at Inzo.
If Inzo let the gnome fly, Lee drew back his 'bat', watched the ceramic statue go sailing through the air, and then swung forward at full force. While the 'bat' didn't connect with the makeshift projectile, his blast of entropic energy that blatted out from his hands certainly did. In midair, the gnome exploded, sending tiny shards of ceramic flying in every direction.
Lee let out a loud, whooping yell of satisfaction, spinning on the spot in an impromptu victory dance. Eager to ramp up the energy, he picked up two garden gnomes and hefted them meaningfully, adjusting his grip on one as he looked Inzo dead in the eye. "Alright, dude, your turn. Batter up!" Well, there weren't any bats, so it isn't too clear what he expected him to hit a gnome with, but it appeared as though he intended to chuck a couple his way regardless.
Unless Inzo really insisted on him not doing so.