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Magic Box, Monday

Surreal had ~~handwavily~~ gone back to her Realm over break, where she'd managed to find Tersa, drag her to one of the safe-houses, and get her cleaned-up and settle back into their usual routine. Sadi hadn't found them, or if he had, he didn't stop in, but it didn't really matter. They fell into old routines easily enough, although there was still a Titian-shaped hole at times, which Surreal did her best to ignore and Tersa did her best to fill with nutcakes.

Which is why Surreal was at work today with a number of aforementioned nutcakes wrapped in a cloth. Because Tersa liked feeding growing witchlings, and she'd ordered Surreal to 'share with your friends.'

So, either Kate or Cara better show up today, or Surreal was going to spend her entire shift eating allllllllll the nutcakes.

[Open & OCD free]

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"Surreal."

Cara did not need nutcakes to come by the store, though she could probably spin them into an excuse for doing so if the heat hadn't already provided one. Hence the waterskin she was carrying.

"Cara." Surreal's eyes lighted on the waterskin and she grinned. "Thank the Darkness. I'm used to heat, but this is ridiculous."

Cara shrugged and offered her the waterskin, returning the grin not at all awkwardly. "I thought it might help with keeping cool."

"Hellfire, what is wrong with this place?" Surreal complained, taking it and drinking down a gulp gratefully. "It wasn't this bad last year, I don't think. Tents weren't bad, but I like the cold air that the dorm provides."

"It wasn't," Cara agreed. "You could cool down at the beach then, but now travelling back you just get hot again."

And of course wearing skin-tight leather certainly had no impact there, Cara.

"My leathers breathe - they're well made - but not this much," Surreal agreed. "I do not really swim - I had not seen an ocean before here, or so many trees - but the water is nice. At this rate, I'll have to spend coin on one of their 'swiming suits.'"

Cue Cara being not at all distracted. Or at least doing a very good job of hiding it.

"I could help teach you, if you'd like," she offered, without much ulterior motive. "Even if you don't have much call for it, it's useful skill." One that being threatened with a place called the 'Drowning Caves' gave you a vested interest in learning.

"Since we're surrounded by water, that may not be a bad plan," Surreal remarked. "Although I do not understand why the water is salty."

"It's the sea, it's just like that," Cara said, shrugging. Yeah, she didn't know why either. "At least salt smells better than whatever they put in the pools in the dorms."

"Is that what the smell is? The water? Mother Night, that's wretched!" Surreal scrunched up her nose. "I never go in the pool rooms, because I thought it was something toxic growing."

"Apparently it's actually to stop that happening?" Cara made a face. "I wouldn't have gone in at all if it had been for this heat. It took forever to wash the smell off."

Edited 2012-07-03 01:48 (UTC)

"That, I can fix. Perhaps," Surreal said, hopping off her seat behind the counter and wandering down an aisle before making a pleased sound. "They call it a 'castile soap,'" she explained, holding up a bar for Cara. "Made from the oil of olives. The suds get almost anything off."

"I like the orange, but there's lots of scents. Real, too, with the herbs in the soap and not chemicals."

Cara followed her down the aisle and took the offered soap. "The soaps at the temple used honey," she said, then snorted and rolled her eyes. "Unlike the 'florals' half the ones use here."

Surreal could probably guess which Cara preferred.

So far, Alec had been spending his first full day on the island looking around the town. And a lot of what he'd been seeing seemed to corroborate Jace and Mercy's points about this place being a little less than a garden-variety mundane town. The deer in the preserve were definitely not normal, the squirrels seemed to be taking a strange interest in people's activities, and... there was a magic store.

Sure, it might just be hedge-witch stuff. A lot of mundies had been known to open stores and sell crystal balls and rosemary and promise it was all legitimate magic that would help in revitalizing relationships and blah blah blah. But after what he'd heard about this place, he did sort of want to see for himself.

Plus his Sensor was humming in his pocket, so. Here he was.

"Hello."

Surreal, for her part, was entertaining herself by attempting to balance a nutcake-tower on her hand when he came in.

~~Fresh meat~~ New kid. Charming.

"Welcome to the Magic Box, don't touch anything unless you know what it does. If what it does is dangerous, don't touch it anyway," she said, most of her concentration still on her construct. "If you aren't sure, ask."

Odd warnings for a mundie magic shop. Alec raised his eyebrows.

He browsed in silence for a few minutes, recognizing some artifacts and puzzling over others. Then he went over to where the books were, which he perused quietly until he spotted something that looked an awful lot like a book of runes. Surprised, he blurted out, "This is legitimate."

Huh. He hadn't expected that.

Surreal looked over at him fully, raising an eyebrow. "Wasn't aware a book could be bastard-born," she offered dryly. "Is the printer-shop the sire or the mother?"

Alec stared for a moment. Jokes tended to... go over his head sometimes.

"Oh," he said a bit sheepishly when it clicked. "No, I just meant -- I didn't think the books here would be real."

Surreal just blinked.

"Well, why not?" she asked, perfectly reasonably. "An imaginary book wouldn't sell very well, now would it?"

SURREAL STOP TROLLING THE NEW KID.

"I meant accurate," Alec explained, resisting the urge to huff impatiently. "Often you'll come across... hedge-witches' shops selling plastic crystal balls, that sort of thing. I didn't realize this store was the real thing."

Edited 2012-07-02 19:30 (UTC)

"Careful there, boyo. You'd be wise to keep a more civil tongue in your head about hearth-witches around here," Surreal warned, still vastly amused. "Some of them might seem too meek to say 'boo' to a mouse, but they get feisty if you insult their Craft."

"What do you even do with a plasty-ick crystal anyway?"

Alec blinked. Okay, maybe he'd been right the first time.

"Hedge-witches," he repeated. "Imposters. Tourist traps. They play at divination for money, but they're ordinary humans." He thought back to what Mercy had been saying to him about the fae the other day, things that totally failed to match up to what he knew of them from home, and rubbed his forehead tiredly. "This is another case of people's homes not quite matching up to one another, isn't it."

"Most likely, as I don't know a single witch that would live in a hedge," she replied dryly. "Well, Tersa would, but she's been mad as a box of badgers for centuries."

"If it's fake tourist stuff you want, check the first display at the entrance of the store. Everything else you'll find is - how did you say? - legitimate in one Realm or another."

"It's not that I want it," Alec said, feeling as though he'd been over this point several times already, "so much that I'm surprised that that isn't what this is. Where I'm from there isn't much flaunting of magic openly."

Look, no one had really explained to Surreal yet that there were entire Realms without Craft. She just figured most landens here had never met Blood or a witch or whatever of their world, and that was the source of their skepticism.

Also, yes, she liked making the new kid articulate what he was trying to say, because ~~trolling~~ teasing little ones was fun.

"That sounds about as much fun as a pile of horse-shit," she stated eloquently. "It's Craft. Flaunting the color of your jewel is tacky, aye, but it's meant to be used."

"Apart from the inherent danger of broadcasting your powers to potential predators," Alec pointed out reflexively, because he'd just had this talk with Jace at the picnic and besides, he'd had entirely too much practice defending Clave law. "Historically, most powered species have at least made some effort to be covert."

"'Historically?'" Surreal gave him one of her best 'bitch, please' looks. "I'm female, boyo," she answered. "That means every single one of you males is a predator, if I've Craft or no. Showing I have Craft? Some of them will move on to easier prey. Those that don't tend to get a very pointed reminder that a Lady is always right." Generally pointed right into their innards in a rather painful way, when Surreal was involved.

"Being predator or prey has naught to do with powers or 'making some effort to be convert.' It's just how you are." Surreal, don't smile like that at the customers. "We're definitely from different Realms, you and I. I am Blood, and there's nothing covert about us. It's our entire society."

It was like talking to a wall. Or worse yet, Isabelle when she was in a particularly sour mood.

"Right," he said, clearing his throat and starting to head in the direction of the door. "I'm sure that's a wildly successful strategy."

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Magic Box, Monday

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