Magic Box, Sunday, 11/09

[not_every_mage]

Albus still didn't properly understand where he was or why he was there, and trying to figure it out was doing his head in. He'd finally fallen into a confused sleep in the mural-decorated room where he'd first awoken. A black-and-white kitten curled next to him, seeming friendly enough once it got past its obvious certainty something was Wrong with its person: That made everything feel a bit more comfortable.

The next morning, he was awoken by a small bleating device with a message blinking on its screen that read, MAGIC BOX. Get there on time this week or you're a nugfucker.

Albus didn't particularly like either profanity or being insulted by Muggle toys, but Magic Box sounded promising enough that he decided to accept the blow to his sense of decency and figure out where the thing wanted him to go. He found the shop with the matching sign only a little after Anders would have ordinarily opened it, fumbled with a set of keys that had been in the room until the lock gave way, and let himself in.

He was glad he had, too. The contents of the shop made him feel like he'd fumbled his way to a tiny piece of Diagon Alley -- if one of the lower-rent bits. Albus looked to the device to see if it had further instructions for him. It didn't, so he unearthed a dusty copy of Dragon Breeding for Pleasure and Profit from a shelf of mostly-worthless books and began thumbing through it. Maybe someday knowledge of dragon husbandry would prove itself useful.

[OOC: Open post, open shop.]

Comments

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Eventually, Freddie had to pull himself off the floor of the room and get to his feet. He took his skateboard into town and found himself outside something that apparently was about magic?

Maybe it was a metaphor or something and they sold things that'd make him forget about what might be happening back home.

When he pushed his way into the store, board under his arm, he realized that he probably wasn't going to find anything worthwhile in this store. He went further in anyway.

[not_every_mage]

"Hello?" Albus blinked at the boy from over his book. He'd gotten bored of dragons and found something gossipy about the history of Beauxbatons. "What are you doing here?"

It wasn't the friendliest tone ever, but neither was it overtly hostile. Mainly, it was suspicious.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Thought I'd shop, mate," Freddie said, slanting a quick glance at the boy behind the counter. "That all right with you?"

[not_every_mage]

Well, at least the boy's accent was right, even if his clothes weren't. Albus gave him another suspicious look, but decided he didn't seem Muggle-y enough to throw out immediately.

"Have at it," Albus shrugged. "But this isn't my shop. I'm only watching it for the day."

Or until he got bored, whichever came first.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"What do you sell in here?" Freddie asked, glancing around with a look of confusion. "This a joke shop or something?"

[not_every_mage]

"Odds and ends, mostly," Albus told him with a slight lift of one shoulder. "Herbs. Books. It's all --"

He didn't finish his sentence because suddenly he was singing.

Do you believe in magic?
In a young girls heart
How the music can free her
whenever it starts
And it's magic
if the music is groovy
It makes you feel happy like an old time movie

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

Freddie blinked slowly.

"Did you just sing at me?" he asked, tilting his head and changing his board from one arm to the other. "That a thing this shop does?"

[not_every_mage]

"It must be," Albus said, glancing around himself as if to spot the source. "Someone has to have cast some sort of singing enchantment. I don't even know that song I just sang."

He wished he had his wand.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"...right." Freddie was going to let it go while he wandered around the shop, looking for something interesting. "What the fuck is all this? There a Ouija board I'm missing somewhere? Come on."

[not_every_mage]

"I think there are a few in the third shelf back," Albus said, completely missing the sarcasm. "You're a spiritualist, then?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"No, I'm a teenager," Freddie quipped, shaking his head. "People actually believe in this stuff?"

[not_every_mage]

Ah, so he was one of those. Though coming from a Muggle, he supposed not believing in magic was safer than hating it.

"If they didn't there'd hardly be a shop for it," Albus reasoned cagily. "I can't vouch for anything here, though."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You don't work here?" he asked, frowning. "You ain't getting paid to watch this shit?"

[not_every_mage]

Albus shook his head, sighed. The whole story seemed somehow childish to him, but it was what he had.

"I just woke up in this town yesterday," he explained, resigned. "This morning I was still here and this, this gadget" -- Anders' phone, which was now being waved at Freddie -- "told me to come here. So I'm here, trying to figure out what to bloody do next."

He glared at the phone at the end of his explanation. And then, to his horror, there was more singing.

Don't know what's down this road, I'm just walking
Trying to see through the rain coming down
Even though I'm not the only one
Who feels the way I do

"What to do next besides singing," he amended.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"You don't sing badly, at least."

And Freddie was just glad he hadn't started singing (yet).

"That's a phone. You've never heard of a phone?"

[not_every_mage]

"Thank you," Albus chuckled, then looked doubtfully at the thing in his hand. It looked nothing at all like the phones he'd seen. "It is? But it's so small. And I thought phones had to attach to the wall."

Muggles were creative, he had to give them that.

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Someone been keeping you in a cage or something?" Freddie asked, frowning. "Phones still attach to the wall but they're mobile now. Makes it easier for everyone. Can't really carry one of those bulky old telephone things in your pocket, can you?"

[not_every_mage]

Albus shook his head. "Not unless you have very big pockets," he joked weakly. "No, I wasn't in any cage, but I hadn't seen one like this. The people at home aren't much for modern technology."

That was rather an understatement. Though, given it was 1898 at home for him, even the most sophisticated Muggle in his world would have been impressed by the phone.

"Everyone here just carries these around? It must be noisy."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"It's not like they ring all the time," he remarked, giving the boy a strange look before shaking his head. "You sell cigarettes?"

Maybe there was something he could buy in here.

[not_every_mage]

Albus frowned thoughtfully. "Not exactly," he said, thinking about what he'd seen in the shop that might come close to what the boy wanted. (You didn't get to be top student in your year at Hogwarts without having at least some sense of which plants were useful.) "But I saw some rolling papers, and I'm sure there's valerian leaf back with the herbs. Maybe some datura, too. Would that work?"

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Maybe." Not that Freddie knew what the hell datura was. "Point me to them and I'll roll us a few?"

[not_every_mage]

Albus considered protesting that he didn't smoke, but -- sod it. It wasn't as though there were any chance something to calm him down would make his day worse.

"Second isle on the left, they're alphabetical and the rolling papers and such are at the end," he said. "And it's free since I don't know how to use the cash register. I'm Albus, by the way."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Freddie," he called out, dropping his skateboard on the ground and disappearing into the aisles. "Albus? Parents hate you or something?"

[not_every_mage]

"They had a thing about A's," Albus answered, shrugging. He knew people outside the wizarding world had duller taste in names. "I got off better than my brother, anyhow. He's Aberforth."

[halfbad.livejournal.com]

"Aber -- " Freddie stopped before he could butcher the name. Besides, he'd found what Albus had pointed him to and was bringing those back now. "You ever rolled something like this before?"