Something Wicked - Independence Day

[Nina]

"Hmm," Evelyn pondered the question posed by Silas, then moved to sit on the edge of Roach's bed,"... no. Magic is part of nature, everything is. Now when i say nature I am not talking about trees and grass and stuff, we usually consider as nature. Environmental stuff. But rather the old meaning, Nature as an all encompassing force. If God is real, then Nature is the canvas upon which she paints, and magic is a part of that."

 

The witch leans back and sort of bounce's on the bed, "Don't you find this mattress too hard Roach?"  She sits up again but still leaning supporting herself with her arms, "But back to what you were asking, Silas. White and black are I suppose, relative, the major difference and what defines them and good and evil, is INTENT."

 

Everyone could hear, no feel, the emphasis on the word, even though nothing at all changed in her voice or manner.

 

"Let us take Jo's question about age as an example. Lets say a witch uses her skills to help people to treat illnesses, give a little luck when someone is down and out maybe even help a poor young girl get noticed by the boy she really likes. If she does these things selflessly and doesn't really seek to take advantage of the recipient of her magic, the magic itself may reward her with health of her own, she might grow to an old age and retain her faculties into her eighties or nineties, maybe even older. That is White magic. She isn't really doing anything that couldn't happen given time, she is just nudging it along a bit.

 

However if the witch makes those she helps, pay more than the effort is worth, or binds them with oaths and promises, then the magic will take a dark turn. The boy will be forced to like the girl whether he would have or not. The down and out fellow would receive a windfall but at the expense of a good friend losing his job because of it. And worse, if the witch is getting older and finds some gray in her hair or wrinkles at the corner of her eyes, and she uses the magic for her own desires to remain youthful, that is black magic in its purest form. It isn't evil because of what the magic does, it is evil because it is selfish and goes directly against nature."

 

[Dawn OOC]

Spoiler

OOC: This is what happened at the fair, feel free to read it. I just didn't want to disrupt the flow of the story because RL killed me for a couple of months.

 

Once the group had wandered away from the band, Quinn had separated from them. They were all in a good mood, and she wasn’t, and she didn’t want to bring anyone down. 

 

Besides, she had something to do.

 

She bought a second corndog and a soda, and found a seat on the thoroughfare where she could be seen but wasn’t obvious about it. Quinn didn’t really like the feeling that she was baiting a trap with herself, but this was going to happen whether she left herself in the open or not. She hated waiting, so anything that hurried along the process--

 

Keith dropped onto the seat next to hers, a black bear with flames stitched onto in his hands. “I present, Sir Speedzy!” He handed the bear to her.

 

“No.” Quinn took the bear and tucked it under her arm. “You don’t get to name things anymore.”

 

“Says the woman who infantized a horse with its name,” Keith said with a grin.

 

Quinn scowled at him. “First, Bey-bey is short for Arizona Bey, which is her registered name. Second, ‘Sir Speedzy’ is dumb.”

 

“No, no, see, the flames means he goes fast, and alliteration makes names interesting.” Keith grinned proudly. “So Sir--”

 

“Black Bolt,” Quinn retorted.

 

The two teens were quiet, one eating, the other thinking. “Uh, yeah, okay,” Keith finally admitted.

 

“It’s better right?” Quinn asked.

 

“It is,” Keith admitted. “See? We’re a great team! I get the goods, and you use ‘em right.”

 

“Have you figured out what yer apologizing for yet?” Quinn asked, scraping the last of the fried dough off the stick with her teeth.

 

“Uhhhh…” Keith glanced down at the bear, as if it held answers.  “I’m sorry for not talking to Beau before I beat up Silas for calling you stupid?”

 

Quinn sighed. “It’s a good thing yer pretty, Keith.” She sucked up the last of her carbonated syrup masquerading as a Dr. Pepper and rose. “Thanks for the bear, he’s cool.” She left him staring after her, frowning.

 

The next conversation would be harder, but Quinn owed it to Silas. She’d worn her small backpack, which was too small to hold more than sunscreen, her phone, and a bit of cash. After a bit of experimentation, she found that if she loosened the straps, she could trap the bear between her back and the pack, freeing up her hands. More importantly, it should keep her new prize away from the clouds of powdered sugar.

 

When she got into line at Esther’s funnel cake stand, the older woman spoke to another worker, then grabbed a plate and ducked out of the stand. Walking over to Quinn, she offered her the plate and said, “Here you go, sweetie.”

 

“Thanks, Esther.” Quinn took the plate with a smile; despite her nervousness about talking with Silas’s mom about his love life, funnel cakes were an addiction that had their hooks in her. 

 

Steering her away from the crowds, Esther asked, “So how are you holding up?”

 

Adults were weird and confusing, and Quinn had already had a long day. A long summer, if she was being honest. So she swallowed hard and jumped in with both feet. “I’m fine, thanks. Keith’s still got his head stuck in a hole, but I hope he’ll figure it out before he graduates.”

 

“Keith?” Esther blinked. “I don’t follow.”

 

“I mean, he’s cute and all, but he still hasn’t figured out I’m mad at him for makin’ decisions for me, particularly about how I want to interact with my friends, ya know?” Quinn smiled guilelessly, or at least tried around pieces of funnel cake. She wasn’t sure how well she was doing, as Esther just looked more lost and shell-shocked. “I mean, that seems best to let him figure out that he should talk to me instead of cavemanin’ around behind my back, right?”

 

“What about Silas?” Esther blurted. 

 

Quinn forced a grin. “He and Dylan are so cute, aren’t they?” Esther sputtered but Quinn pushed on. “I think Dylan’s an okay guy, and if not, I know how to ride a horse ov--”

 

“It’s supposed to be you!” Esther caught Quinn and pulled her to a stop, tears in her eyes. “He’s supposed to be with you, and be happy! He can’t be happy with-with--”

 

Not if you don’t let him. While that was the obvious answer to her statement, Quinn wasn’t quite ready to say that to an adult. “It’s not like they’re gettin’ married tomorrow.” From the other woman’s flinch at her words, Quinn wondered if she shouldn’t have been more blunt, but she’d picked her path. “They’re just datin’.” 

 

Esther burst into tears and Quinn froze. The older woman got herself under control again after a couple of minutes, but it left Quinn awkwardly clutching a plate of cooling funnel cake and wondering what the hell to do. When Esther’s sobs slowed, Quinn decided to go all in. “Look, I don’t know why you think I’m so good for your son. I’m bossy, I’m mean, and I’ll probably love my horses more than whatever poor idiot I do marry. If the reason I’m better for your son than Dylan is because I happen to be a girl, that’s pretty messed up.” Esther stared at her like Quinn had popped another head, and with a teenager’s instinctive understanding that she had achieved maximum emotional damage, Quinn added, “Thank you for the funnel cake, Esther. I’ll see you around.”

 

With that, her obligations were done, and Quinn lost herself in enjoying the fair. It wasn’t really her thing, but she threw herself into the diversions it provided. She rode some of the rides, lost some money playing games, and even let her parents hang out with her for a bit. Eventually, she found herself watching fireworks with the others, and then planning to go to Roach’s.

 

When people talked about religion or philosophy, Quinn quickly lost any desire to engage in the topic. She’d never been very spiritual, or felt the need to be such. Riding alone on her horse had always replenished her soul in the way that her friends who did go to church talked about. It was weird to hear Evelyn call God a Her, too, though Quinn could get used to the idea.

 

“So basically, if it benefits us directly, it’s not good?” Quinn asked, looking for clarification. Making sure you were falling on the right side of the White Magic/Black Magic line seemed pretty important. 

 

Darryl seemed pretty upset, so Quinn reached out and put a hand on his shoulder. When he looked at her, she gave him a smile to reassure him. “It’s okay,” she murmured, Momma Bear mode activated. “If you need to leave, you can. Jo or I can go with you, too, if you need.” 
 

[Nina]

Evelyn Wise pondered that question, and not for the first time her surname as well, it put way more pressure on her to live up to it than a teen her age should have to bear. She chewed her lip before answering.

 

"Nooo... again it all comes back to intent, and if it goes against  nature, the natural order one, not the vengeful goddess type one. And what you sacrifice. As I said before all magic demands a sacrifice, those who practice the black, take their sacrifices and never give of themselves. White witches give, either by sacrificing something they hold dear personally that corresponds or literally as Roach did with her blood."

 

Roach furrowed her brow at this, she hadn't said anything about how she did the spell. Had she?

 

Evelyn turned to Darryl, "I know this is all very weird and you probably think we are just pulling a huge prank on you, but we aren't." She raised her hand to the height of her face palms facing upward and closed her eyes then with a deep breath she spoke. "Ancient eye, seer of all, lift us now on your wings of wind."

 

A cool wind moved through the room as if a fan had been turned on it gently wrapped around all of the Kids and lifted then several inches off whatever they were sitting on. After a moment Evelyn brought her hands together and they all were lowered back into their seats.

[Shameless]

Hank really didn't get too much about all the magic, and everything else being discussed, so he remained quiet. The others continued on, and then Evelyn levitated all of them for  a few seconds.  "Ok, now that was cool."  He said as he looked at her, and smiled.  "A little warning next time though if you're gonna do more than that."

He sighed, "So magic's real, and the intention you use it with, as well as what you offer up, determines the end result, and how it affects you and the target?  Am I  understanding all of that so far?"

 

[Dawn OOC]

As her feet returned to the floor, Quinn removed her unintentional death grip from Darryl's shoulder.  "So it's not really straightforward?" she added to Hank's statement. "Is there a flowchart or rough guidelines or somethin'?"

[Malachite]

"Sounds like 'don't be selfish' and 'don't break the world' are as guideline-y as we get," Silas said as his own feet hit the ground again. He was looking thoughtful and Quinn knew that meant he was worried about something, but he didn't voice whatever it was. 

[SalmonMax]

"Okay," Roach said. She glanced at Evelyn for a second, then shook her head and plunged on. "I'm not an 'expert' and I don't have my OWL from Hogwarts or whatever, but here's what I felt when I was doing this."

 

"There's a sort of...information layer under everything that defines what things are, and how they work. But that layer can be...messed with. It's more guidelines than rules, but the more you change things, the harder it is. So like...a computer is a thing that can look up information, right? Making a computer look up information it normally can't changes it, but not very much. It's just better at doing what it already does. So...didn't cost much."

 

She held up a hand, showing off her band-aid. "Nothing I couldn't pay myself."

 

"But say I wanted, for some insane reason, to use a microwave oven instead. Well, that'd be harder. I'd have to like, rewrite what the oven WAS. Change it from a thing that heats things up, to...a thing that discovers and shows information. That would cost more. A lot more. So much that I wouldn't want to pay for it, because it'd at LEAST hurt a lot, and maybe even kill me."

 

Now Roach held up a finger and pointed it at Evelyn. "But I don't have to pay my own cost, is the thing. I can take it from someone else, or something else. But THAT...if I'm reading you right...can have problems of its own, and that's where intent and stuff come in. I think if you take power from the world, it's more like a loan than anything, at least as far as you're concerned. Kill a dog to power a spell, you now owe the world a dog. Sooner or later, one way or another, you'll give that dog's worth of whatever back. Maybe with interest."

 

Roach scowled. "I don't know. This is probably a dumb way of putting it. Look, can we go now? I...we really shouldn't be sitting around talking about this when dad wakes up or mom gets home."

[Kelindel]

Darryl managed a faint smile to Quinn and kept a calm face on, trying to keep his doubt to himself, that is until they are all elevated and then lowered to the ground. He then backs up a few paces, his eyes wide and he says, "That... the fuck... that was real. That was real... how did that happen, you mean this is all -real-?" Yeah he was a few steps behind everyone, literally and figuratively, but this was all happening so quickly.

[Malachite]

Silas nodded to Darryl. "Yeah, it's all really real. The whole of it: the book, the cave, the family histories, all of it. It's hard to believe, but it's all real." He nodded to Roach's request not to have her parents stumble onto all of this, too. "C'mon guys, let's get out of here so Roach doesn't get in trouble. Um, breaking up for the night or going somewhere we won't get caught? I'd. . .I'd like to practice. I haven't done anything like Roach or Evelyn have and I'd like to know that I can do something now that we know we've got this Black Magic witch poking around town and. . ." 

He glanced at Dylan and squeezed the other boy's hand but didn't voice the rest of the thought. "So, yeah. Can we go to your place, Evelyn? If we go to a restaurant in town, Mom'll hear about it before lunch tomorrow and she'll be a parent about things."

[Asarasa]

"Real," Jordan repeated stoutly from where she stood by the door once more, arms reaching up and over to grab the top edge of the doorframe. More out of habit than in case she was lifted off her feet. Mostly. 

Jo's jaw jutted stubbornly as she pondered what Evelyn was saying about intent and the nature of magic. It got her thinking about if she was selfish. She'd always wanted to be an athlete like her mom and had usually been one of the tallest and strongest in her class.  When she was seven or eight, she could usually win when play-fighting with the twins and Ryland and the victories propelled her to wanting to defeat her oldest brother, Aidan. But he was four years older than she was.

 

All her brothers were athletic, but in a casual way. Jordan was the only one of the Johansson kids who was driven to make it something of a career, who worked hard at all her athletic pursuits and physical development. Was is selfish that her main reason though, at first, was to beat the smug look off Aidan's face? He had taken it for granted that as a guy and four years older, his little sister would never be able to beat him.

By the time she was fourteen, she was as tall as he was, and more muscular besides. The satisfaction she'd taken at being able to run faster, lift more, jump further, and outwrestle Aidan more often than not had been immense. She knew Aidan was still salty about it, especially as she continued growing taller and stronger than him as she and she couldn't lie, she took a private delight in it.

 

As she grew, Jo had transitioned from an early interest in gymnastics towards track and field and Crossfit. And while her mom nudged her towards Olympic goals and professional ambitions, and Jo was more than interested in that too, she couldn't help but wonder now if she was being purely selfish. She always stood up for her friends, of course, but it hadn't been why she built muscle. It had been to look good, feel good, to win, to beat her brothers and other guys or girls she competed against. To intimidate or beat the shit out of any guy who dared to hurt her. Damn you, Dex!

Now there was magic. Witches, good one and bad ones. Jo remembered some of her vision. She'd willingly stand between her friends and anything that tried to hurt them - she thought she would, anyway - but was that only as a side effect, when working out was mainly for her own benefit and self-esteem?

Was she being selfish? She'd never taken any PEDs - it was cheating, and her mom would kill her besides, and she'd been tested plenty. Trying to be young forever seemed like cheating, unless she traded something for it, and she couldn't think of anything big enough to balance stuff out without it going so bad. But using magic to help with training or recovering from it, was that cheating, selfish? Was selfish always bad, if it could also helps others?

Lost in thoughts too deep for her, Jo missed Roach's complaints - though she earned a reflexive glare at the mention of sacrificing dogs - and Evelyn's response to Silas until everyone turned to leave and stared at the huge blonde blocking the doorway.

"Jo, hon?" Evelyn murmured politely. "If you would?"

Jo shook her head apologetically, pale blond braid whipping back and forth. "Right. Sorry."

Jo ducked through the doorway, long strides propelling her ahead of the group, trying to outrace her embarrassment. Once she reached the new gates to the Clairburn place, she stopped, letting the others catch up, then Evelyn taking the lead into her home, the atmosphere of the old manor house having changed drastically to the Walsh Street kids since it was being lived in once more.

[Nina]

The Kids settled into the family room of the Clairborn House, which seemed to now be their club house as well. Evelyn’s Uncle had greeted them not overly surprised at their arrival, but did not join them, instead after a few quiet words with his niece he retired to his own study.

 

As the kids found the comfort spots, Dylan went to the kitchen to fetch snacks and drinks, Silas went along to ‘help’.

 

Evelyn sat down on crossed legs feet tucked up beneath her. Once everyone else was comfortable she spoke.

 

“To answer your question about what we do about Miss Solart, we do nothing. Right now, we don’t know what she intends, how prepared she is or if she is here alone. Now that our circle is complete these houses are safe from any direct actions against them, as are those who live in them. But that does not count for us. As we are the circle we are always to some degree vulnerable so we have to look out for each other and we need to keep our ears and eyes open.

 

But we take no action, and we make no approach at Miss Solart. Not until we are ready. With that in mind I want us to start meeting two or three times a week and practicing. I will teach you what I know and together we will get stronger and be ready when we need to be ready.

 

As Roach found out Solart is going to be a teacher at our school, so when we go back to school after summer we need to have as much skill as we can have. Then we can start unraveling the mystery and the threat we face.”

 

They talked on late into the night and with a new sense of purpose and a course set before them the went home and set out along the path to their future.

 

Spoiler

This ends Independence day every one take 2 XP.

 

I will be post a new thread shortly