hadriel_logs | ( open )

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Who: vanessa ives + open
What: general milling about the island
Where: orchard
When: throughout july
Warnings: cw: depression, bad victorian shit, magic

the orchard

( vanessa comes here almost daily. it's a very calming place, the nature, the plants. vanessa appreciates the opportunity to think, the peace.

some days vanessa simply walks the orchard, stopping at plants that she is unfamiliar with, smelling the flowers, trying to learn what she can based on their appearance, scent, touch.

other days vanessa tends to the plants, watering or weeding them, collecting some of the fruit for her stores. she has yet to make anything with them but somewhere like this she'd rather be prepared )

closed | keyleth

( it had been a few days since the brunch. since the incident. though vanessa has been to the orchard since, knowing that keyleth also frequents it, she has yet to seek her out. discussing her magic is something new and though she knows that keyleth also possesses magic, that she'll be receptive to the discussion it's still a topic that vanessa doesn't really know how to approach.

that's why, with only a brief idea in mind, vanessa seeks her out, waiting until they're in a quieter area before beginning, backed by the tree that they'd first met in )

You know that this is new to me. ( they'd discussed that before, that vanessa didn't know too much about her magic, but she also hoped that keyleth would understand the second meaning. that this sort of conversation was also new ) There is much of my magic that I do not use.

wildcard

( day or night, maybe she's walking back through the town somewhere (starter island), go wild or pm for options! )

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[ keyleth's been thinking about vanessa and her bloody magic as the days stretched on. not obsessively, not in that all-consuming way that takes up most of a person's faculties. but enough. enough to have thought up stories about where she comes from, how her magic works, and whether she's someone keyleth might be able to help.

she's usually a good judge of character, when it counts. isn't she? ]

You seemed pretty comfortable using it at brunch. [ she lets the small book in her hand drop to her side, one finger stuck in the pages she was reading. vanessa is far more interesting than cataloging the plant-life here, by a long shot. ] Was that something you've practiced before?

The scorpion is my totem. ( the cut-wife had called her her little scorpion. it had felt fitting turning that into her protection ) A protection against that which would do me harm.

( or, has had been the case when vanessa had first met joan clayton, against anything that didn't walk in the light )

I have used it against witches, demons, to protect a place.

[There really isn't a lot to do here, Percy's found, and open spaces are where he so often suffers. This place is too open, too devoid of the people who can usually reign him in, and he can't bear the thought of Keyleth having to keep him from flying off the rails on her own.

So he stays busy. He takes up new hobbies. Gardening is not one of those hobbies, but researching and sketching all the new things he sees here is something to do.

He's sitting cross-legged in front of a particularly lovely group of colorful flowers, sketching the petals in highly clinical detail with labels and notes (and plenty of question marks). Despite being thoroughly engrossed in his sketches, he still acknowledges Vanessa.]

It's remarkable that anything grows here at all. This place... It doesn't even really feel alive, does it?

With... your blood?

[ scorpions, those don't phase keyleth. she's been one before. and totems while not common knowledge, are something she's heard of. those two things make sense. they're a natural part of the world and the magic in it from keyleth's perspective.

and, ok. blood is technically natural! it's just-- she just got done exterminating vampires and dealing with undead. maybe she's just still stuck in the past? she likes vanessa! she likes having a friend to talk about potions and herbs and the discovery of magic with her. and her best friend himself is a total goth, so can't keyleth put that stuff aside for now? ]

Sorry, I don't mean to harp on it. I've just been wondering, you know. What other kinds of magic you know. How about this: what's your favorite spell you've learned or know of?

I-- haven't used many.

( the magic that vanessa is most familiar with, or at least has used the most, is protective. her totem, a spell to drive back evil. if she is able to help, to heal... vanessa supposes that those would be her 'favourites' )

For a long time I thought I was cursed. Perhaps I still am. ( she is no longer possessed, that curse has passed, but she is hunted. because of her magic, because of what she is and what she can do. it's all a curse. it's clear that she hasn't had too many positive thoughts or experiences with her 'gifts'.

vanessa takes a breath, returning to keyleth's question. what other magic does she know? ) I can see things. Spirits, the past. ( even the future ) It's like a sense.

Edited 2018-07-18 17:44 (UTC)

That sounds intense.

[ what else could she say? if keyleth were in vanessa's position, she might think she was cursed, too. ]

You know, I could help. If you really are cursed, I mean.

( intense was an understatement. dr seward hadn't known how to respond to vanessa's tale, though most days neither did vanessa and it was her life. if keyleth knew everything... her friend was better off in the dark )

I've accepted what I am.

( though that didn't sound particularly positive it had helped vanessa to find a certain strength within her, allowing her to defeat lucifer where she otherwise may not have been able to. besides, vanessa wasn't certain if the rest of her curse was relevant here. if there was no dracula or lucifer... it didn't mean that she was safer but she could experience something else for a moment )

Some of it has helped where otherwise there would have been no solution.

What do you mean?

[ again, keyleth wants to say more but-- every thread she finds and tugs leads to even more of them and it's hard to stop. ]

Is the magic worth a curse?

I was offered a normal life once. ( twice. her priest and lucifer but his offer was never an option ) It was something I rejected.

( she could have turned away her troubles but at the time vanessa hadn't known that her troubles were because of her gifts. even then, if she didn't have her gifts, it was possible that they would still come, that it was her and not her magic )

If I was not a witch what could I do to keep those I care for safe?

You were saddled with something bigger than you. Something you didn't ask for, but couldn't just give up.

[ oh, but does that hit home. keyleth is a selfish creature, absorbed in her own world and completely unable to interact with the one beyond herself without always bringing it back around to her own situation.

some call that empathy, and sure. she stumbles into it occasionally. like now, when she can use it to bridge the qualms she'd been forming with vanessa. ]

And now it's such a big part of your life, there's no turning back.

( 'destiny'. it was certainly bigger than vanessa, a prophecy over the ages, and something that made her angry but it was her life. it was bigger than her but it had become so much of what she'd done in her life. she was born a witch, born with this destiny. born to be hunted. she couldn't stop that, only fight it )

Yes. Some days I fear that what I know is not enough--

( not when now vanessa is alone and has no idea about her new threat. she doesn't know how to stop it or even if she is strong enough to do so )

But I cannot give up. ( that was why she'd accepted lyle's help, continued her fight. she wasn't done

though vanessa changes tacts slightly on her conversation it isn't quite as big a veer as it may first sound. it's her magic, it's relevant )

I said that I didn't use much of my magic but there is more that I know. Things that I could never practice, though the knowledge itself is power.

( knowledge of her enemies, knowledge of how they work and thus how to defeat it )

Our situations sound so similar and yet wildly different at the same time. I grew up with my magic as just another part of me.

[ what keyleth is taking away from this conversation so far is that vanessa is determined. out of her depth, and willing to do whatever it takes to... what? gain more knowledge (and power), obviously. but the details aren't there yet.

maybe they don't even matter in hadriel, similar to keyleth's own situation. ]

But sometimes it doesn't always go right. Knowing more about it could've kept me from making some major mistakes.

What kind of mistakes?

( she's interested, wanting to know just how similar or different their situations may be. this girl may not have been cursed but she does know magic. at least vanessa hopes that she does not know the pain of being cursed )

[It's been a long time since Michael agreed to help water a certain plant in the orchard, but he hasn't been able to get out here as much since the city split. Things have been busy, and, well, it's been raining. The plants are probably fine. He hopes so, anyway, for the sake of the city as a whole. He doesn't make use of the plant all that much himself, but it seems important for keeping the peace, as it were.

Just to make sure nothing's dead, he wanders out that way when he's got a free afternoon. Unfortunately, the plants here have been growing a lot more freely now that they're out of a desert, and he can't quite find what he's looking for so easily, even if its shape is fairly distinctive. Making things worse is the constant misty drizzle, which, despite his hooded jacket, won't stop fogging up his glasses.

Michael pulls them off long enough to wipe them on his shirt, still walking. He's essentially blind at this point, certainly not paying attention, and honestly not very observant even under the best of conditions. Which is how he almost runs right into probably the only other person in the orchard.

He stops short, stumbling back a step.]

Oh, Jesus- Sorry-

[He fumbles with his glasses for a second, trying to get them back on his face.]

Most of it doesn't.

( she has to admit, though this place has a different feel to it. perhaps it is all of that which lives that grants that feeling, or perhaps it is the calming peace that the orchard has on her )

But perhaps the fact that this place does tells us more than what does not.

( vanessa had finished studying the plan that she was by, getting ready to leave the orchard for the day. the weather hadn't bothered her too much, she'd gotten used to something similar out on the moors, though it had been many months since any of this had been a regular occurrence for her.

she catches sight of the man as he's coming towards her, taking her a careful step to the side before he walks straight into her, a brief shake of her head at his apology )

There was no harm.

( he hadn't actually walked into her, though maybe he shouldn't walk and clean if this is the result. with a task in mind, wanting to get her herbs home before she got too wet, vanessa gives him a polite nod, continuing on the path to take her out of the orchard )

It certainly tells me that some things refuse to not bloom even when people tell them that they shouldn't be able to.

[Careful, Percival. Someone might mistake you for a poet with talk like that.] I'm sure it's a lovely metaphor for Hadriel in itself.

Perhaps.

( the people did seem to be making the best of a bad situation, perhaps almost flourishing in some strange way )

Though it fails to give us out freedoms.

[Michael finally manages to wrangle his glasses, in time to see Vanessa step around him and start walking off. Normally he'd just let her go and hope she doesn't remember his mistake later, but she's holding cut plants, so it's possible she knows her way around. Where he's... sort of lost track of things.]

Uh, actually- [He turns around to try and catch her attention.] Have you seen some, uh. [How should he put this?]

Well, have you seen any weed plants?

What's a garden but someone's attempt at caging nature?

[He stands up, brushing off his knees.] But it's impolite to be this cynical without an introduction. Percival de Rolo. [He gives a polite nod.]

( he may have had a point though vanessa had never considered it such a way before, though she'd also never been too much of a gardener, only ever having harvested wild plants in her past )

Vanessa Ives. ( and gives a nod in return ) I take it then that you do not garden often?

( though the question did get vanessa to stop, turning to look at him, it also grants him with a slightly confused expression. it's not a request she's been given before, though if vanessa knew what he was truly looking for she'd say she'd never been asked )

Most tend to remove them, to allow the herbs and fruits to properly grow.

[Michael frowns, and then laughs nervously.]

Oh, uh, no, not that kind.

[Hmm, she's probably not from a place where they call it "weed", then. What other slang terms does he know for it? Pot? Ganja? The devil's cabbage? Maybe it'd be best to just go scientific.]

I'm looking for, uh, Cannabis sativa?

[That's probably what it is, anyway. He's not about to try and do a DNA sequence to confirm.]

( her expression gave away nothing about how she felt and whilst he was free to partake in whatever activities he wish it felt a little... scandalous-- impromper to so openly discuss such things )

I haven't seen any.

( not that vanessa had been looking for any )

Though I don't know that this is the place for it.

( a very public garden? )

[If he knew she thought it was scandalous, Michael would be mortified. But as it stands, he's unobservant on top of her neutral expression. He has no idea.]

Uh, yeah, it's around here somewhere. Unless someone moved it? It's just that the place has gotten kinda overgrown in the past couple months, and I haven't been through much. I'm supposed to check on it, but I can't even find it.

Then I suppose you should continue searching for it.

( particularly if he was supposed to be responsible. vanessa, however, didn't have an interest in this kind of plant, not when she had her own qualms about control and her own mind.

she brought his attention back to the herbs that she'd been carrying )

I need to deliver these.

[Hmm, yeah, Michael's not always great with social cues, but he can take a hint.]

Right, I'll just, uh- [He makes a motion over his shoulder with one thumb.] I'll get out of your hair. Have a good one.

[And unless further engaged he will indeed leave her be.]

I'm nobility. We pay other people to do that for us. [Slyly, and just a bit self-deprecating humor, as one does when they're aware they're privileged.] And that's more of Keyleth's specialty.

( yes, vanessa remembered such a life. but then she'd lived a different life, one in the woods, and learned such skills herself.

it isn't that that catches her attention most though. keyleth had been the first person that vanessa had met here ) She's why I return to the orchard.

( it's likely that vanessa may have done anyway but they'd spoken here, shared something, and keyleth had given her an invitation )

Keyleth? [He blinks a bit. Having never met anyone in this place who knows her before now, it's a bit surprising. When you know someone so long, you almost expect to know everyone they know... Which is bloody stupid. He doesn't know every Ashari in her tribe. And there are a lot of people here.]

I'm not surprised. She's a very charming person, whether she thinks she is or not. My apologies if she's stolen your heart. She does that, quite on accident. [Love you, Kiki.]

( there's a small smile, though it's more polite than anything. she does adore keyleth in her own way )

Nothing so extreme.

( if perhaps vanessa's heart is particularly complicated and she barely even remember what friendship feels like )

Her help has been invaluable to me.

I'm glad she's managed to find people to help. The world doesn't always live up to her expectations, because it's brutal and discompassionate like that, and this one isn't any different.

He gives the area a look around, as if searching for something and not entirely sure what it is.] And this orchard does seem to have her touch.

She has been here for some time.

( as keyleth had told her so it made sense that the orchard had some of her style )

Though she is not the only one that frequents this place.

Well, now I frequent this place, so I'm going to meet them all, eventually, starting with my present company, Ms. Ives.

[He gives a polite nod.] Would you like to take a walk? There's a few more flowers I'd like to sketch before I head in, and I wouldn't be opposed to the company.

It would be my pleasure.

( vanessa gives a nod back, turning to the plant that she'd be tending to in order to finish her work before stepping back, hands slipping into the pockets of her coat as she waits for him, letting him choose the direction )

Do you sketch often, Mr de Rolo?

I'm not an artist, if that's what you mean. [He chuckles, taking the lead with intent.] But like any man of science, I have a fundamental need to try and learn about anything I've never seen before.

( that certainly did sound like what a man of science would do, even if she only had one opinion to go on )

And are you learning about art or botany?

Botany. I was in the Feywild, recently, and there are a number of rare, beautiful... and at least a little bit sentient plants. [The expression on his face becomes something a little pained and sheepish.] I'm learning to be a bit respectful and cautious about what plants I encounter on other planes, thus admiration from a distance and a bit of study.

[But no flirting yet. He has not reached flirting with grass stages.]

Perhaps a sensible choice, though how much can you learn from a distance?

( her own education about plants had been very hands-on, vanessa learning how to tend the woods, what properties each had, what was edible-- she doesn't think she would have gotten so much, particularly not as quickly, had it not been such a physical experience

she stops by a different set of plants, holding a hand out to him to beckon him closer )

Tell me what you see.

You'd be surprised. [That's a little gunslinger humor. Always standing sixty feet back away from the action, please and thank you. Getting too close is more dangerous.

But... He does kneel down to get a closer look.] They look like they might be a very good cup of tea at some point, but now that I've said that, you're going to tell me they're poisoned and how fortunate I am to have such a knowledgeable guide.

( all she does is give him a small smile, not confirming or denying what he thinks. but he's wrong -- they're not poisonous )

Look closer. What do you smell?

[Gods, he hopes she's the trustworthy sort, but Keyleth, bless her, is more likely to distrust a trustworthy person than trust a dishonest one. He leans a bit closer, inhales, and then draws back again.]

It's sweet. I think the gardens in Whitestone had something that smelled a bit like this. [Bless Melanie de Rolo and her gardens.]

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THE ORCHARD

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Orchard! can't believe I missed this log

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wow i'm GREAT at html

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