ʙᴇᴇᴘ ʙᴇᴇᴘ, ʀɪᴄʜɪᴇ (trashing) wrote in valloic, @ 2021-06-20 15:00:00 |
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Entry tags: | !: action/thread/log, ₴ inactive: rasalas black, ₴ inactive: richie tozier (2) |
WHO: Richie & Rasalas
WHAT: Hanging around Prigany's solstice setup and testing out divination stuff
WHERE: Solstice Coven Celebrations
WHEN: Today!
WARNINGS: ANIMAL BONES?
STATUS: Complete
There was a comforting, warm sweetness about summer - Richie had always liked it way better than the chill of winter, anyway. Maybe because summer in LA was so fucking hot - dry as tinder too, beaches rammed and chock-full of people and tourist attractions overflowing. It barely rained, temperatures sweltered - in Vallo it seemed to be a lot more mild. He could actually enjoy the way the sun felt like some kind of physical presence; it pressed onto the top of his head, like it’d be worth it to get a little burned today. Especially today, during the solstice stuff - it was all about recognizing the sun’s power and giving thanks for the warmth. Seemed to be a big thing with the covens - magic in Vallo was also very nature-based or whatever, and while he didn’t understand a lot of it he had become friendly with at least one of the covens during his adventures here. And when he offered to help out Prigany with their booths for the celebrations, well, they’d gladly taken him up on it. They had a few booths to send up, all clustered together - one dedicated to fig leaves and how they were used prophetically, one dedicated to ‘make your own pendulum,’ and another that was bone reading. Yeah, well - that one had him a little shook but he was most interested in it because he was always looking for more ways to do readings and really figure out which method of divination worked best for him. So the Bone(r) Booth was where he started, settling on a stool and eying a scarf that presumably had, uh. Well. “There are bones wrapped in there,” he spoke up to the person nearest to him. Also someone helping Prigany - and they had apparently been assigned this task. Cool. Rasalas had been very curious about Prigany because of the Seers back home. She gravitated a little more toward Silniara for the healing purposes of things, but she didn’t think it was overbooking to help multiple people and she’d helped Silniara with some things to get ready for the day and then agreed to help Prigany with the booths on the day. She’d been set up at the Bone Booth, which was unsettling a little, but nothing she couldn’t deal with. Even if most things regarding bones and necromancy made her uncomfortable, but this wasn’t necromancy. She’d not expected this booth of all places, but perhaps there was something they knew that she didn’t and she rarely questioned Seers about the things they saw. Even the most loony of them all seemed to speak some truth. She looked up at the mention of bones, looking at what he’d mentioned and then him. “Part of me hopes they are in the habit of using animal bones, but then I am not certain I trust that.” Her voice betrayed none of the discomfort she felt. “Back home, we can make a potion to regrow bones should one have the extreme displeasure of accidentally losing theirs or...less accidentally losing them. Or should someone break a bone. But I have never been to Divination. So I cannot say whether or not bones are useful to our Seers.” “I think it’s like, uh - “ Richie tried to think back to what he’d heard about the practice. And read about it. “You ask a question, a yes or no one, and then throw the bone on a cloth or something. Depending on where it lands, that tells you the answer.” He thought that they may as well find out if they were animal bones or not - he was thinking that these were, because bone throwing was a pretty old-ass divination practice (no one was gonna use a plastic finger), but only one way to know for sure when it came to Prigany. So he unwrapped the scarf and studied the bones; given the size and feel of them, they definitely didn’t appear to be human - they were pretty dense, so he was guessing they were avian. Included were other ‘fun’ little trinkets - marbles, coins, a few shells, and also shark’s teeth. Probably. At least they weren’t human teeth. “Here, we can try to set it up and maybe I’ll give it a shot,” he said, setting the scarf aside and looking for the casting cloth - it was black, with yes, no, true, and false in each corner along with a bunch of other different symbols (and a smattering of Latin; aqua, terra, aer, and ignis - kind of cool). “So you’re mainly a potions person? Regrowing bones sounds painful as fuck. I’m Richie, by the way. Resident crappy Seer.” Well, he was learning. That must count for something. “I do not recall hearing anything about that from Divination. Mostly tea leaves.” There was something about the stars, but she’d never fully gathered what that was meant to be and she’d ignored it as drivel to avoid anyone assuming she was interested and her family having anything to say about it. But she was curious. Perhaps she could learn something new outside of Muggle things that were frowned upon by her family. If she was going to be disowned anyway, she might as well make it worth it. She studied the bones, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “All right.” The marbles and other things weren’t excessively interesting to her except for to wonder what they were for. Perhaps decoration? Perhaps something else. All the various answers on the cloth made the things seem fairly straight forward and she understood the Latin well. Most spells were, in fact, Latin. She could not speak Latin fluently enough to hold a conversation, but she could at least tell the words. “Yes. I make potions for the clinic here and I was...in a club in school.” She was nowhere near as talented as Snape, but she knew enough to get by. “I have been teaching myself quite a few things since I arrived in Tumbleweed. Then a few things here as well.” She smiled a little. “I am told it is not a pleasant feeling, but I believe having bones would be better than no longer having them.” Looking up at him again, she took him in a little more. “Ah. Rasalas Black. Not a Seer that I am aware of, but given the things that happen here and people’s abilities to see bits and pieces, I am curious enough.” This was wild - but Richie wanted to practice, and get the booth all set up (and a busy booth probably looked better than a...not busy booth?) so he’d give it a try and appear to be professional. “Heeeey Rasalas Black, nice to meetcha,” he drawled, arranging the cloth - well, first he drew a circle in chalk and then placed the cloth in that space. “Bits and pieces? Yeah, sounds like what I see. Never get the whole picture, really - but I don’t think any of the Seers here do.” There were just some things you weren’t supposed to know - and while he’d learned he was essentially stronger, his visions clearer, when he was with someone and scrying with them too, it didn’t matter if he surrounded himself with a whole damn army. You couldn’t look into the future to escape the present - it wasn’t going to work. “Okay, give me a question - something that has a yes or no answer, or true or false. Can be anything. The weirder the better, maybe.” He wasn’t going to judge. She arched an eyebrow slightly at the way he drew the greeting out but didn’t comment on it. “A pleasure.” She sat, listening as he spoke about his experience with it. “I do not think anyone here or in Tumbleweed ever does have the full picture. At least not until it has happened.” It was much like life in that way. She didn’t have the full picture of the Dark Lady’s plans until after Kreacher. Then the weight of her choices and the truth of the situation was revealed to her. A question. Rasalas considered something that she should realistically already know the answer to but one that no one that read the books might know and she couldn’t say who had and who hadn’t. The weirder the better might be complicated. “Is my favorite Quidditch team The Chudley Cannons?” Obviously it was not, but she kept any expression from her face and her tone was even. They’d never mentioned that about her. But only a Weasley would pick such a loud, obnoxiously colored team to follow. Even if she didn’t actually mind the family. She just had feelings about orange. The Wimbourne Wasps or Appleby Arrows were her preferred teams. Even with the Wasps’ Hufflepuff coloring. Quidditch. It took Richie a second to make the connection, but - holy shit, this was a Hogwarts person. Or maybe not Hogwarts specifically, but from those series of books - so wild to see and meet people like that here in Vallo, from comics and video games and other stuff he’d rabidy consumed to escape the real world. But no, he wouldn’t like - make a big deal out of it. Maybe just quietly squee on the inside. “Good question,” he chuckled, rolling his shoulders - he also didn’t actually know what her favorite Quidditch team was, so he had no leg up on this situation or inside info just because he’d read those books. It was also a pretty direct question - sometimes people preferred to use a blank cloth because depending on where the bones landed, it would just be a yes or no answer. The cloth with the words helped when questions were vague - but he’d do a couple tosses and see where they landed. The light, airy bones were gathered in his hands - Richie moved back enough, gave them a gentle shake, and focused. Centered himself, really, and let his gaze focus on nothing in particular - he didn’t slip into that creepy, white-eyed state when he went plucking the strings of Fate and looked but just took a bit to get into the zone. Then the bones were tossed. He did it a couple of times - they kept landing in the vicinity of false, and then when he shook and tossed again, they landed in the vicinity of the Latin word aqua. “So that’s a water thing,” he said. “It’s like - the Suit of Cups in tarot but can mean a bunch of different stuff. The color blue, or the moon. Anything there hit it on the nose?” She was, in fact, a Hogwarts person. She’d gotten used to people’s reactions to her in a way, but for the most part, she wasn’t Sirius or Harry or even Ron and Hermione. It meant she usually got away from too much notice. And most people knew the name Regulus. Black was a common enough surname not to raise any eyebrows. “At least I know that’s working.” Because it kept saying false. “The Appleby Arrows are blue. That’s the only thing I can think of regarding Quidditch.” There wasn’t anything else she could imagine was part of the equation. The only water specific thing was regarding her death and she didn’t think it matched up. She glanced over at Richie quietly for a moment before asking, “It wouldn’t say something unrelated to the question, would it? Or do they do those things?” “Nah, with this sort of thing it’d only be in relation to the question,” Richie replied. “‘Cause that’s what I’m focusing on. It’s not, you know, a general reading or anything.” He was barely a Seer, not a mind reader at all - and he wasn’t great with cold reading either, like, the kind of stuff fake psychics did. Bro, his bullshit was all genuine. It was difficult enough to get a grip on the actual art of foretelling the future - but learning how to pick up little tidbits of info just based on a person’s appearance and mannerisms seemed fucking ridiculous. Richie liked performing and making people laugh, but studying them? Yikes, no. “I’ll leave the bones here though - hook me up and cut some string? I’ll search for what you can make a pendulum out of. I think they have a whole box of trinkets around here.” Wooden trinkets, plastic, crystals, and even cork - it wasn’t too difficult. And pendulums were one of the first methods of divination he’d learned about. How far he’d come, sniff. “Have you ever been to any of Prigany’s caravans, by the way?” he asked as he searched. “They’re pretty cool.” She nodded quietly, tucking the information in her brain neatly back where it was. “Then definitely the Appleby Arrows.” She found the string and used a quick, non-verbal spell to cut it. It was understandably very easy to use the muggle...scissors, she believed they were called, but she still preferred to mostly do things with magic. Even if her views on those that could not do magic were much different from what they’d been originally. She wasn’t entirely sure what a pendulum was or how to make one. She was sure Bonnie could have told her. She was even more certain she’d seen one already and just didn’t realize it. She shook her head in regards to his question before realizing it was better to use her words. “No. I’ve never been to their caravans. I have only heard of them, really. This was mostly to get a better understanding of what they do. I helped Silniara out some before today, too. What are the caravans like?” Cutting the string with magic was way nifty - and it fit right in since this was a whole coven world’s fair thing. Richie looped some of that string through the top of one of the pieces of glass - could be a necklace, could be a makeshift pendulum. Right meant “yes,” left meant “no,” and if the pendulum stopped moving that meant it was trolling and wouldn’t answer. “They’re full of plants - well, the one I went to a couple times was. Like by the kitchen sink - and there’s potted plants, some hanging from hooks. But the furniture looks all rosy and kinda like my grandma’s sitting room, crammed into a small space.” He thought that was a pretty good description. Easy to picture? “It’s cozy. They like to give people tea. If you wanna go sometime, let me know. I’m usually good at scoring an invitation.” And if Rasalas said she’d help out Prigany by minding one of the booths, they must already know her. “Silniara is the healing one, right?” he inquired, just to clarify. She watched the way he put everything together, curious what it was supposed to do. She was beginning to wonder if Divination might have been worth the time, but then again, she likely wouldn’t have chosen it over Arithmancy. “I heard that is what the Hufflepuff common rooms was filled with plants, but I can’t say for certain if that’s true.” She had never been there. She’d only ever been to the Slytherin common room. “I’m not sure what you mean about your grandma’s sitting room, but I suppose cramped quarters sounds...accurate. Caravans are...like traveling wagons? I believe?” She had never really been to what was deemed a “small house”, but she was vaguely aware of the idea. “Our family home has been passed down, but it is not quite small. Though, it needs a lot of work and new furniture.” She supposed she could just reupholster the furniture they had, but she’d already spent quite a lot of time removing the truly ridiculous number of pro-Voldemort decor that she’d put up and most of the furniture was...old. Perhaps that was what Richie meant. “I do like tea,” she said after a moment. “They do not make their water hot in a microwave, do they? It seemed a very American thing.” She nodded at his next question. “They are. I am learning as much about potions both from my world and here. They have knowledge about the healing plants or at least the ones useful for their potions here. I would like to know as much as I can so I can perhaps earn my brother’s self-given title of Potions Master. Even if there is not really a Potions Master to learn from. Severus rarely stays for long and so I end up teaching myself everything.” The question about hot water in the microwave made Richie laugh. Yeah, she was definitely English, alright - he was also pretty sure Prigany didn’t even own a microwave. “Nah, they use a proper kettle and boil water on the stove,” he assured. He didn’t get a long glimpse of it but it looked like a death trap with all its knobs and controls, inside of what was basically a tin can. “You’d like it there. A caravan is sort of - a trailer, I guess? Definitely a wagon on wheels, a traveling house. They go around Vallo pretty frequently, selling their spells and stuff.” Or setting up for the Solstice, in this case. Everything was coming together and so he thought he should put one of the pendulums on display, lifting the glass trinket attached to the string. “Okay, so for these - you ask a question and focus, and depending on which direction the pendulum swings that’s the answer. Then the fig leaves...” He reached for the jar that held them - they were broad, shaped like hands. Smelled like the woodlands, when he unscrewed the cap and took a whiff. “You write a question on them and if it dries fast, that’s bad. If it dries slowly, that’s good. Honestly, there are a million different ways to do it. Have you looked into divination with potions or whatever?” he wanted to know. There were probably some that enhanced the ‘third eye’ or helped with triggering prophetic dreams - actually, Richie was pretty interested in that. “Maybe we can ask the coven and I can be your guinea pig.” That was at least a relief. She was curious about the sorts of teas they carried and whether they made their own or not, but she wasn’t sure that Richie would actually know the answer to those things. Or maybe he would, but it didn’t seem to fully matter for now. “Ah. I saw some of those in Texas.” She wasn’t certain why people chose to live in them, but then she grew up in a different sort of society than most. She listened as Richie spoke. He was at least explaining how things worked. She glanced at the fig leaves for a moment. “The ink or the fig leaves themselves?” Because she wanted to be sure she was correctly understanding it. It seemed like an ink sort of situation, but it could have been the leaves themselves. “No. I don’t believe we have any potions that involve divination. I have not spent much time looking for potions outside of our world that do. Mostly I have focused on various methods of healing potions to avoid people losing too much blood or having to over rely on the muggle...blood bags?” She didn’t remember what that was called, but she’d seen the blood bags at the clinic and the Bureau. “Not everyone prefers magical healing and if it is bad enough, it does not always do quick fixes, but it at least helps.” A beat. “But if that is something you would like me to look into, I can.” “The fig leaves themselves,” Richie confirmed. At least he was pretty sure that was how that worked - guess they’d find out here today, during all these demonstrations and fun times. “But yeah, if you wanna look into another way of doing the divination thing with potions? Could be cool. I mean, not bleeding out also sounds helpful, don’t get me wrong.” It was just that someone could still be versatile within the scope of their interests, right? If there was one thing he’d learned about this sect of ‘magic’ it was that there was more than one way to skin a cat (just don’t literally skin a cat, that would be bad). Besides, that was why Brorose had seemingly broken off as well - to do their own thing, make their own way. Which reminded him to go hang out with them during the Solstice celebrations as well - they probably had their own artsy fartsy setup during the events. “Alright, we should be good here - I’m gonna go grab a cupcake or something from one of those food covens then come back. You want anything?” She studied the fig leaves for a moment, curious about what all people might write on them and whether or not what they revealed was actually true. McGonagall never seemed to believe any of the Divination information unless it was a real true prophecy. She’d mostly ignored it because it had little impact on her life. “I’m certain I can figure something out. Either by speaking with Prigany directly or with Silniara if that’s within their scope. If nothing else, I can use the various libraries around here to assist me.” She wasn’t absolutely certain of anything, but there was a possibility. She wondered idly if there was a coven that was mainly about potions and less just the herbology aspect of it all. She shook herself from her thoughts, looking up at the mention of food. “If there are any without too much icing or if you want extra icing, I would not mind a cupcake as well. I can always bribe Sirius to bring anything substantial with him when he brings the twins later if not.” Willing to give up her extra icing? Damn, that was awesome - and it made Rasalas pretty a-okay in Richie’s book. “One cupcake, hold the icing,” he replied cheerfully. “Be right back.” Then he was off, fully prepared to find some magical cupcakes - surely the baked goods from a couple of the covens were laced with something, and he’d get enough sugar from that and the shit-ton of pure unadulterated frosting he planned to consume. Not a bad day at all, really. |