Magic Box | Tuesday

[scarlet_chaos]

No Halloween deliveries today, so Wanda was spending her time buying more Halloween things online. Specifically a big ol' witch hat and cape for the skeleton outside, whom she had named Jeff.

Though if the only cape she found was a wizard cape, she might change its name to Stephen.

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[existencemisspent]

Eliot didn't hold out a lot of hope for a shop called the "Magic Box" with a skeleton outside it having much in the way of items about actual magic, but he figured it was worth a shot. After all, if Kady was to be believed, the clickbait on Fuzzbeat could have actual magic encoded in it. So why not a place like this?

He nodded to the staff person as he came in, and started scanning the shelves for anything he recognized as particularly magical.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hi there," Wanda said, giving a little wave from where she was sitting. "Can I help you with anything?"

[existencemisspent]

“Do you have anything on . . . portals?” Eliot asked, not sounding like he much cared about the answer. (He did, but his protective nonchalance had moved past being a mask into practically being his actual personality.) “Or interdimensional communication? Other than with bunnies, we’ve tried that.”

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hmm. I don't really remember seeing any books about that, but there is a ton of stuff around here I haven't gone through yet," Wanda admitted. "Are you trying to reach somebody? From what I understand the island kind of picks and chooses who people can or can't talk to."

[existencemisspent]

"So I've heard, yes," Eliot said with a soft sigh. "Apparently the gods around here are even more obnoxious than the ones back in Fillory, and Ember's own brother admitted that he did everything for the lulz." He scanned another shelf, shook his head, and turned to face Wanda properly. "I'm Eliot, by the way. This town seems small enough to warrant introducing oneself to everyone."

[scarlet_chaos]

"I'm Wanda," she said. "And, yes, it is. Everybody is bound to be in everyone else's business what with the squirrels reporting stuff."

[existencemisspent]

"Ah yes, the squirrels." Eliot nodded. "Very industrious of them, really. Most of the talking animals back home just spend their time drinking."

Most of the ones he met did, because the first thing he usually did was offer them booze.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I know a raccoon like that," she said. "And from what I understand these squirrels drink a lot too. Multitasking, I guess."

[existencemisspent]

"Rodents after my own heart," Eliot said, a bit dreamily, then shook it off. "So. What does this little shop specialize in, then? Since portals are covered by the local gnomes."

[shapethecentury]

"Skeleton, really?"

Good day to you too, Bucky.

[scarlet_chaos]

"You leave Jeff alone," Wanda said from over her laptop. "It's almost October."

[shapethecentury]

"Jeff," Bucky repeated, as he made his way properly into the store. "That J-E-F-F or G-E-O?"

It made absolutely no difference whatsoever.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Jeff with a 'J'," she replied. "I felt weird having a skeleton that big outside without a name."

Yeah, that was the weird part.

[shapethecentury]

"Right," Bucky said, with a small nod. "Makes sense."

It was pretty obvious from the very faint sense of amusement in his expression that it did not.

[scarlet_chaos]

"Hey, I didn't buy him," she said. "Now, I am looking to buy a costume for him. Is that weird?"

[shapethecentury]

Another small nod. "Yes."

You asked, Wanda.

[scarlet_chaos]

"I appreciate the honesty," she said with a wry smile. "How have you been?"

[shapethecentury]

Bucky shrugged a little, lightly enough. "Fine."

Was it true? No. Was it always going to be his answer anyway? Yes.

"You?"

[existencemisspent]

Eliot looked over this new customer out of the side of his eye. Underneath all that unkempt scruff, he didn't look half-bad. . . .

[shapethecentury]

Funnily enough, that was about as close to giving Eliot any obvious attention Bucky got, too. But his was more of a threat assessment. Routine.

Maybe he dug his gloved hands a little more firmly into his pockets.

[existencemisspent]

Eliot did like this man's hair, though. He was a sucker for a good, floppy haircut. He'd even been considering growing his own out, now that he wasn't regularly trying to slick it down under a crown. . . .

He wandered slightly nearer, attention apparently more on the shelves than on the man himself, and tried to get a better read on the guy.

[shapethecentury]

There wasn't a lot. Bucky was keeping his head down, almost literally, as he looked over some books. Kind of making himself smaller and unassuming - which was no small feat with his frame, even with the metal arm hidden the way it was.

He was very aware of where the stranger was standing now, though, even though it didn't look like it.

He was considering just walking out.

[existencemisspent]

Eliot stopped a few feet away and picked out a book.

“‘The Spell Book for New Witches,’” he read. “By Ambrosia Hawthorn. “No way that’s her real name.”

[shapethecentury]

You weren't actually making yourself any less sketchy, Eliot.

(You know, to an extremely paranoid man who actually had people after him.)

Bucky wondered whether he could get away with not engaging. But, nah. That would make him too obviously evasive. "Could be," he said without looking up, soft, but not like he was intending to chit-chat much.

[existencemisspent]

It hadn't even occurred to Eliot to try not to look sketchy. Because he had no idea that "sketchy" was something this guy was on the lookout for.

He maybe just assumed he was socially awkward. Which for Eliot was a little bit like catnip.

"I suppose," he said, not looking up from the book. "If her parents were the worst type of hippies."