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Magic Box | Thursday | 10.29

Tara was reasonably cheerful as she opened the Magic Box today and started putting together a Samhain window display. (She'd been reading after she talked to Merlin yesterday.) Apples, nuts, pumpkins, mirrors, unlit torches ...

And maybe a few black cats and broomsticks, just because people would expect them.

The Magic Box was open, and full of Halloween supplies for real witches.

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Avoid the Wiccan!

Just don't tell her you're going to be an evil witch for Halloween. It won't go over well.

"Mmmm...Halloween." Diana commented as she came inside, no Samuel with her this time.

"Halloween," Tara agreed with a smile. "I'm h-hoping no one comes in to buy a costume. Though if somebody came shopping in costume, that might not be too bad..."

"You mean you don't sell like, witches robes and like, those hat things here?" Diana's valley girl was not very good.

Tara mock-glared, though there was a smile twitching around her mouth. "I'll stab you. With, uh -- the spoon from my yogurt this morning."

Edited 2009-10-29 17:03 (UTC)

"Oh no! The pain! The drama! The...yogurt." Diana finished, grinning through her bad acting.

Tara laughed. "The yogurt is the r-really awful part," she said, solemn as she could manage. "Especially when it's, uh -- raspberry."

"Death by raspberry yogurt. The horror." Diana considered this. "Sounds like something Agatha Christie ~~or her meta~~ would write."

"Probably," Tara said. "I don't really read mystery novels. Maybe I should start."

Leto wasn't particularly familiar with Halloween. He might have searched through his memories for information, but that always meant a risk, and people here would probably be happy to tell him what he wanted to know anyway.

Walking through town he stopped in front of the window, studying the display. Then he entered the shop, looking around the room. Not being a practitioner of magic, he had never visited it before.

"Hi," Tara said, peering out from behind the counter. "Do you need help with anything?"

He smiled at her. "I'm just looking. Although I'm curious: does any of the holiday decorations actually have anything to do with magic?"

"Not really," Tara admitted. "There's traditional fortune-telling stuff with the apples? And a lot of witches do have cats. But, uh, that's ... kind of it."

"Fortune-telling with apples?" He looked amused. "You're a witch, aren't you?" He had visited the magic reserves a few times. "What are the brooms for?"

"Mmm-hmmm, yeah," Tara said. The wording of the question made her a little wary, but she could see there was only curiosity behind it. "Brooms are ... for cleaning up, mostly. But there are some rituals you use them in, like weddings and dedicating new houses."

"I'm sorry," he said, noting her reaction. "I didn't mean to make you uneasy. Witchcraft as such doesn't exist in my time, and those called witches are not witches at all." And the only witch Leto knew well was Karla. "I was just curious why so many things were needed for magic that there could be a shop for it."

"No, it's all right, I just -- sometimes get jumpy," she apologized. "A lot of what we have here is, uh ... books, herbs, spell ingredients ... we have some really nice tapestries."

"Tapestries?" Leto had to ask, because he couldn't imagine they were some kind of ingredient.

"For decorating," Tara said, a little sly. "Some of what we have is just ... kind of alternative lifestyle stuff."

A less kind woman would have called it 'hippie crap' and possibly noted all the things that seemed designed to store illegal narcotics.

"Is using magic part of an alternative way of life?" Leto asked. "Or are you just trying to attract more customers?"

And Leto would agree that narcotics should be stored safely.

"A lot of people who are into magic are into other stuff?" Tara said slowly, trying to get past her shyness to give a complete answer. "Not so much on the island, but in the real world there are a lot of ... kind of fake witches who just like saying they're pagans and can't, uh, really do much magic. Or ... any. But, y'know, every shop is trying for more customers, right?"

"Oh, we have the same at home with people claiming to have prescient visions," he replied. "But is your kind of magic inherent? Or is it something everyone can learn?"

"It's like -- playing the piano?" Tara said, biting her lip. "Anyone can read a book and l-learn scales, but to get better than that you have to be born with a knack for it."

Amused, he said: "I like the comparison. What do you use your craft for?"

"Uh, nothing big yet?" Tara said. "Finding lost things, hiding things, I'm working on shielding and making a light ... I can move things with my mind if they're small."

He gave a small nod in response. "Again, apologies, if I'm being overly curious," he said, smiling. Looking around the shop again, he added casually: "And what would people in this time use to tell the future?"

"No, I don't mind," Tara said. "I -- I can tell you're just interested. They really don't have any of this at home?"

She shrugged in answer to his question. "It depends. Tarot cards, runes, crystal balls ... sometimes somebody finds a prophecy."

"No magic, no," he said. "But we have more than enough people wanting to be able to tell the future. There is something called the Dune tarot that is widely used. But as with magic, the talent for it is something you're born with."

"Do you have any talent with it?"

He shrugged. "It runs in my family. My father was... a very powerful prescient." Which didn't answer her question, of course.

It didn't, no.

"My mother is a witch," Tara said, half of pride and half to keep him talking.

He smiled. "So she's taught you?"

"As much as she could." There was more to the story, but she wasn't quite comfortable enough to go into it. "Did your father teach you?"

"He died shortly after I was born," Leto replied. Which didn't mean that he hadn't learnt many things from his father, but that was a little too personal. "And prescience isn't necessarily taught that way."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Tara's eyes dropped to the counter. "But can it be?"

Apparently she was having a persistent day.

"There are techniques that can be taught," he said. "But the latent talent can also be unlocked by Spice in some form."

Yep.

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Magic Box | Thursday | 10.29

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