Magic Box, Thursday, 6/21

[life_inshadow]

Oblivious to certain events elsewhere, Tara passed a quiet but productive day at the shop. The stereo was playing an old Carole King album, Moxy napped on a pile of altar cloths, and the crystals were being polished until they shone.

She was quite content.

[OOC: Open magic shop!]

Comments

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie had a bunch of little reasons to come by the magic shop today. She hadn't actually been here before, for one. Plus there was saying hi to Tara. And Moxy.

And it was too hot to live, outside, so spending time indoors for a while seemed like a nice enough idea. "Hey," she said, as she entered the store.

[life_inshadow]

"Hi back," Tara said, smiling slightly as she looked up from a pile of t-shirts she was folding. Natalie's visit was a surprise, but the nice kind. "What's up? Is it a little less totally awful out there?"

[whenshewasnice]

"No." No, it was exactly as awful as it had been. Sigh. "It's still annoyingly warm."

[life_inshadow]

Tara sighed. "Guess I'm staying at work late tonight, then. I'm fine with the tents, but this ... this is kind of not tent weather."

[whenshewasnice]

"Not even remotely," Natalie agreed, as she wandered further into the shop, glancing idly around herself. "Though the tents weren't really my favourite before the heat, either."

[life_inshadow]

"I like the woods, but I can see where ... it's not, um, exactly your thing," Tara said sympathetically. "Especially since Sam has to stay with us old people."

Graduates, old people. Same difference.

[whenshewasnice]

"Well, I'm sharing with Jace," she shrugged. "So it's not as bas as it could be." As much as the Toby thing made her a little antsy. "Think it might actually be worse for Sam."

[life_inshadow]

"I got Blysse and Blind Seer," Tara shared. "Who are awesome, but ... Moxy's pretty much living at the shop."

Not because she didn't trust the wolf. Because she didn't trust the cat not to do her furry best to provoke the wolf.

"What happened for Sam's tent?"

[whenshewasnice]

"Nothing in particular, I just don't think he's sleeping there much." Her tone was mild but still suggested she didn't entirely approve. "He doesn't want to be a bother."

[life_inshadow]

"Oh," Tara said, and thought about it. "Won't he just ... make things worse if he gets exhausted and passes out?"

[whenshewasnice]

Natalie shrugged. "I think he has experience managing his lack of sleep so that that doesn't happen. Doesn't mean he doesn't get exhausted anyway."

[life_inshadow]

"We have some herbs in here that help with alertness," Tara offered. "I mean, it's a little ... study drug, but it might help if you were interested."

[whenshewasnice]

"Might not hurt, though I'm not sure how likely he'd be to be willing to use something like that." She took another glance at her surroundings. "You know, I went to one of these places on the mainland a couple of weeks ago."

[life_inshadow]

"Was it any good?" Tara asked. "I've been to a couple. Some of them are cool, some of them are ... all henna-spice-rack-hippie. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just ... not really magic."

[whenshewasnice]

"Mostly it proved that Jace and I really do pass off as siblings," Natalie replied, dryly. "And that no matter how spiritual some people calim to be, if you tell them you see ghosts, they'll give you the number of a psychiatric helpline."

[life_inshadow]

"Oh, no. That's something I'm going to miss about Fandom," Tara said, after a momentary sympathetic cringe. "I could go up to somebody and say, y'know, I ... turn into a rabid goat when I eat spaghetti, and nobody would blink. H-having to be quiet about weird stuff again is going to be the weirdest thing."

[whenshewasnice]

"Mm." Natalie figured her own world could actually be a little more lenient about things like that, but still. Not Fandom level. "Of course, there might not be as much weird stuff to talk about, either."

[life_inshadow]

"Depends on where you go, in my world," Tara said with a little shrug. "But yeah, it's not as ... in-your-face."

Unless you hung around Buffy Summers, anyhow.

[whenshewasnice]

"Doubt there are many places where it is." Well, not in as crazy a way, at least. "Hopefully you won't have oo much of a culture shock when you leave."

[life_inshadow]

Tara smiled a little, shrugged. "I hope. But maybe a little culture shock's not a bad thing."

[whenshewasnice]

"Depends," Natalie replied, mirroring her shrug. "Coming here was odd for me."

Understatement, but then that was her way.

[life_inshadow]

"I remember, a little," Tara said. "Did you ever find anybody else with that power-up thing?"

[whenshewasnice]

"No. But that's fine." Of course it was. Like she'd mope about a thing like that forever. "I've just accepted this place is different. A few people can get meta, though."

[life_inshadow]

"Like when they make a TV show and the characters are making a TV show?" Tara asked, frowning because she suspected that wasn't exactly what Natalie meant at all.

[whenshewasnice]

"More like I can see if your narrative is poking fun at you."

Because that explained it.

[life_inshadow]

"Like you're psychic?" Nope, Tara was still not getting it. And now she was feeling a little hurt because she expected telepaths to at least mention it.

[whenshewasnice]

"I can't read your thoughts, Tara," Natalie replied, her tone more mild than reassuring but still. "I just see past the fourth wall. Whereas most people can't even see the wall itself."

[life_inshadow]

"Yeah," Tara said slowly, and it seemed there were some things that would lead to a suggestion of psychiatric consultation even on Fandom.

She bit back the impulse.

"I mean, I know what it means? But I didn't think I had one. Everybody does?"

[whenshewasnice]

"It's just one fourth wall that covers all of us." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "I'm not crazy, by the way. It's just where I come from."

[life_inshadow]

"I don't think you're crazy." But there was something skittish about Tara's eyes as she said it, as if she wasn't being completely honest.

The thing was, Natalie had never struck her as anything other than almost boringly sane. Tara tried on the concept of an invisible wall, realized she was a witch on a semi-sentient magical island, and decided to roll with it. Why not?

"It's just ... a new idea. Takes a second, you know?"

[whenshewasnice]

"I know."

This time, Natalie did roll her eyes. It wasn't directed at Tara, really, just the idea that she kept having to explain this and get faced with the same kind of looks. They were on a semi-sentient island, so why did everyone have such a hard time accepting someone had a different view of the world?

"Believe me, I do."