Memory 5: Rivers form a Confluence
May. 27th, 2019 09:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wontforbidtherainAphra enters Trumbull's house with a group: Caleb, the young woman who is her student, Charlie Day. Neko and an African-American woman are looking at a bunch of papers in the dining room. Audrey comments that both women are sweet on Caleb, and wants to know if he's leading them both on.
They go to an upstairs room, which is very 'magician's laboratory' in aesthetic. There's books in foreign languages and about mathematics, a strange construction on the table, and all kinds of notes in chalk. Aphra's student -- who Aphra calls Audrey -- is gawking, and Aphra calls her over to draw a diagram for something called "the Inner Sea" on a slate square in the center of the room.
Aphra does most of the work -- Caleb does a token participation, and Audrey does a few. Aphra gives a brief lesson -- this spell is the fundamentals of the magical tradition, to understand and connect mind and body. Everything in magic is treated as if it has both a mind and body, even a storm. It's also a reminder that even nature is transitory, albeit glorious. She notes today's goal is to examine one's own body, so Audrey shouldn't try to touch anyone else.
In addition to the circle, the ritual involves Aphra and Charlie shedding a bit of blood into a bowl of salt water, and a lot of chanting. The spell doesn't work as intended: Aphra feels her own body as a river carving its path to the sea, but also senses Charlie and Caleb and Audrey. Charlie feels dry and shows the signs of slow aging and injury; Audrey's is swampy and still full of life. Aphra suddenly remembers that magical bonds exist and are created by practice: and such are called confluences.
Audrey also figures out that Aphra and Caleb don't look like Charlie and herself, and won't accept that it's just a family resemblance. She alludes to rumors about the people of Innsmouth: dark rituals that led to people having children with water demons, or people whose kids were part-mermaid or part-fish. And that she thought it was mostly because demon marriages sounded salacious, but she could tell the Marsh kids were connected to the ocean in ways she wasn't. (Audrey also notes that demons are probably more worthwhile than most human boys.)
Aphra explains she's human, just a different sort, and that her people 'age' by changing into a form that can live in the deep sea and don't die of old age. (She also goes into a long thing about the history of the Earth that I want to save for another memory) Also that twenty years ago, the state raided Innsmouth and 'found every other way we could be harmed', and that she and Caleb are the only ones left on land.
Audrey makes a comment about Neko and the other woman downstairs that sounds kind of racist and Caleb calls her out (though Aphra tells him that even to call out racism, he shouldn't use slurs). Aphra says that she and Caleb met the Kotos when they were stashed in the same camp the remains of Innsmouth were kept, and that she assumes she and Caleb were freed because the government wasn't specific about who got to leave when they closed the camps. The Kotos were family. And the other woman -- Dawson -- got them the library access, so that makes her an ally in Aphra's book. Neko isn't interested in magic, and Dawson hasn't asked, which is the only reason Aphra isn't taking them on as students.
Aphra finishes with noting that while introductory lessons are all well and good, they need to practice some sort of magic to call her family's elders. She'll get her notes while Mister Day reviews with Caleb and Audrey about how summoning works.
Things Learned
• Well, that finally cleared her family's history and connects a bunch of pieces together. It also means that Cat knows she has a bunch of unpleasant memories from her childhood/early adulthood waiting.
• It also clears up something about her own nature. Her people change as they age and can live in the deep sea.
• And the Inner Sea is the first magic she remembers, including the caution that using it in this form creates some sort of link. Cat knows she can get a rough sense of how someone's health is. The powercap won't let her create any permanent bonds with others without player permission.
• Apparently people of the air who look like Neko or have dark skin like Ms. Dawson are looked down on. Cat can infer that rumors of 'consorting with demons' is the sort of thing that would get you in trouble, but she doesn't know what the Kotos did to have their people sent to the camps.
• Audrey is a very perceptive person.
They go to an upstairs room, which is very 'magician's laboratory' in aesthetic. There's books in foreign languages and about mathematics, a strange construction on the table, and all kinds of notes in chalk. Aphra's student -- who Aphra calls Audrey -- is gawking, and Aphra calls her over to draw a diagram for something called "the Inner Sea" on a slate square in the center of the room.
Aphra does most of the work -- Caleb does a token participation, and Audrey does a few. Aphra gives a brief lesson -- this spell is the fundamentals of the magical tradition, to understand and connect mind and body. Everything in magic is treated as if it has both a mind and body, even a storm. It's also a reminder that even nature is transitory, albeit glorious. She notes today's goal is to examine one's own body, so Audrey shouldn't try to touch anyone else.
In addition to the circle, the ritual involves Aphra and Charlie shedding a bit of blood into a bowl of salt water, and a lot of chanting. The spell doesn't work as intended: Aphra feels her own body as a river carving its path to the sea, but also senses Charlie and Caleb and Audrey. Charlie feels dry and shows the signs of slow aging and injury; Audrey's is swampy and still full of life. Aphra suddenly remembers that magical bonds exist and are created by practice: and such are called confluences.
Audrey also figures out that Aphra and Caleb don't look like Charlie and herself, and won't accept that it's just a family resemblance. She alludes to rumors about the people of Innsmouth: dark rituals that led to people having children with water demons, or people whose kids were part-mermaid or part-fish. And that she thought it was mostly because demon marriages sounded salacious, but she could tell the Marsh kids were connected to the ocean in ways she wasn't. (Audrey also notes that demons are probably more worthwhile than most human boys.)
Aphra explains she's human, just a different sort, and that her people 'age' by changing into a form that can live in the deep sea and don't die of old age. (She also goes into a long thing about the history of the Earth that I want to save for another memory) Also that twenty years ago, the state raided Innsmouth and 'found every other way we could be harmed', and that she and Caleb are the only ones left on land.
Audrey makes a comment about Neko and the other woman downstairs that sounds kind of racist and Caleb calls her out (though Aphra tells him that even to call out racism, he shouldn't use slurs). Aphra says that she and Caleb met the Kotos when they were stashed in the same camp the remains of Innsmouth were kept, and that she assumes she and Caleb were freed because the government wasn't specific about who got to leave when they closed the camps. The Kotos were family. And the other woman -- Dawson -- got them the library access, so that makes her an ally in Aphra's book. Neko isn't interested in magic, and Dawson hasn't asked, which is the only reason Aphra isn't taking them on as students.
Aphra finishes with noting that while introductory lessons are all well and good, they need to practice some sort of magic to call her family's elders. She'll get her notes while Mister Day reviews with Caleb and Audrey about how summoning works.
Things Learned
• Well, that finally cleared her family's history and connects a bunch of pieces together. It also means that Cat knows she has a bunch of unpleasant memories from her childhood/early adulthood waiting.
• It also clears up something about her own nature. Her people change as they age and can live in the deep sea.
• And the Inner Sea is the first magic she remembers, including the caution that using it in this form creates some sort of link. Cat knows she can get a rough sense of how someone's health is. The powercap won't let her create any permanent bonds with others without player permission.
• Apparently people of the air who look like Neko or have dark skin like Ms. Dawson are looked down on. Cat can infer that rumors of 'consorting with demons' is the sort of thing that would get you in trouble, but she doesn't know what the Kotos did to have their people sent to the camps.
• Audrey is a very perceptive person.
