apocalypsehowcomm | Log | Late November through December Catch-all

Entry tags:

Log | Late November through December Catch-all | OTA

Who: Eda Clawthorne and YOU
When: Late Nov - Throughout Dec
Where: ADI, Gloucester outskirts, Bonnie’s
Summary: Moving to Bonnie’s Flophouse (and settling in there), sparring, survival training, exploration.
Warnings: Injured animal/pet + blood mentions (and minor self harm in the context of needing blood for potions purposes) in the second Hunter thread

Nesting 2.0 Late Nov - mid Dec

a) let's decorate it with things of our own
Late November sees the ADI’s resident witches, Eda and Raine, moving to Bonnie’s Flophouse. Fortunately this isn’t all that difficult, given how close the place is. There’s not an exhausting amount to move in the way of possessions, but there are definitely some.

In a trait that might be more befitting of a magpie than an owl, Eda likes things. In her over six months here, she’s been accumulating shiny objects, potted plants, books, little gadgets, and a lot of art to hang on her walls. Along with a few more unique pieces of décor, not all of which will necessarily fit in one bedroom. Hope you like taxidermy jackalopes and clocks that look like they’re made of teeth. Both are in the shared living space now. The jackalope is also a lamp. You’re welcome.

Eda doesn’t appear to be a terrible housemate, but she does wander in and out at strange hours, sometimes via windows. And there are starting to be a lot of feathers around. There might be one in your last load of laundry.

At least… she’s not a terrible housemate at first. After a few days she starts to seem increasingly sleep deprived and on edge.

b) |Closed to Raine| we'll be faced with highs and lows
Eda’s doing her best. She really is. But the not sleeping is starting to become obvious, and probably not a good time for anyone around her. One morning she corners her roommate, clearly out of sorts and holding a mug of what might actually be coffee for once.

“Look, we need to talk about the–” she waves a clawed hand vaguely, “rooming situation. I gave it a go, but I can’t do this.”

c) I know somewhere down the road / we can make this a place to call home
It’s the day after her conversation with Raine, and about a week and a half into staying in the Flophouse that Eda disassembles one of the beds in their room and stuffs all the pieces into the attic.

Beyond asking Bonnie what to do with the unused furniture, Eda doesn’t bother to explain anything about what she’s doing. People are free to make whatever assumptions they want about the witches not needing both of them.

She also doesn’t bother to explain anything ahead of time when she starts dragging sticks and branches into the house. She’ll be at this for at least a couple of days–apparently she needs a lot of them.

Survival of the Fittest Dec 1 - 31

a)
Anyone want to practice their monster fighting skills? There’s a harpy happy to indulge. Possibly happy to challenge you just because you walked by. Eda needs to blow off some steam, and sparring in the new gym is technically an ADI-sanctioned way to do that.

Those who take her up on the challenge–or watch for a while, will find that she’s definitely not the most amazing fighter here, but she certainly knows how to hold her own and it doesn’t hurt that she’s seven-plus feet of wiry muscle, claws, and talons.

She knows she could use the practice herself, given that she’s still getting used to both the body and the lack of using magic in her fights. Not that she’s admitting that, to most people at least. No, mostly she’s just daring people to try their luck.

She had actual training, once upon a time, but for the last few decades her practice has been the kind of fighting that’s more about evading capture or staying alive than it is about form. Then again, survival training is the theme, so that might not be the worst thing.

b)
Eda is offering tips on outdoor skills, sometimes in the area set up for it officially–but especially for anyone who wants to follow her into the local wooded areas. Whether this part is specifically sanctioned by the ADI is anyone’s guess, but she sure is offering it.

Her advice ranges from surprisingly useful to somewhat baffling to outright unhelpful.

When it comes to topics like tracking things, and to navigating in the woods without getting hopelessly lost, Eda knows what she’s doing. She can show you how to set a snare trap in a pinch, too.

On the other hand, she has a lot of tips about getting in touch with the land via approaches like sniffing moss or eating snow. She thinks it’s your loss if you want to pass up this wisdom.

Her comments about what mushrooms are edible (to witches), meanwhile, should be avoided at all cost by anyone who is not a witch.

c) - Exploration
Eda will be taking a few trips into Dogtown now that it’s open, and she’s willing to admit it’s safer to go in pairs. She’ll be teaming up with people who are interested, provided she thinks they’d have her back and also aren’t likely to get themselves killed.

If we have exploration planned, feel free to throw me a starter or ask for one!

Wildcard
Throw a custom prompt at me! Or hit me up to write one!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Eda can't help a faint, sad little chuckle as Hunter bolts out of the room. Then she sighs, and absently pets Owlbert's head a few times as she looks Flapjack over again.

By the time Hunter gets back, Eda has various bits of crumpled paper on the little table, glyph combinations that worked and didn't. The cardinal's green 'blood' doesn't seem to be leaking as badly, but the cracks are about the same as they were.]

[The scene that greets Hunter upon his return is...discouraging. He pauses in the doorway before slowly shuffling in and setting the file down next to Flapjack's nest. He rests a finger on the crown on Flapjack's head, eyes fixed on the cracks.]

Any progress?

Thanks. [And she'll just go ahead and pick up her staff from where it's resting, before flipping it to the end without the interlock and beginning to file it down a bit, over one of the sheets of paper.]

And... a little. We should be okay for time. [She hopes, at any rate.] Just need to get started on actual repairs. [Which brings them back to what she was musing on when he left.]

I remember… something my dad showed me. For putting them together. From the old days, when we made everything from scratch. [It's a detail she might not normally drop about her family, but it's not like the Clawthornes being palisman carvers is a secret. Just a fact she's not sure if Hunter already knew. And one she wouldn't have actively pointed out when he was loyal to Belos. Either way, right now she's just kind of rambling aloud.]

[He watches her with the staff, and casts a look at Owlbert. Is he really okay with this? When this is over, Hunter will have to find out what the owl palisman likes most and give him a thank you gift. Eda too.

He sits up, clearly interested - not only in the topic, but it would be beneficial to caring for Flapjack if he can learn whatever knowledge she's willing to give.]

I've read some about how palismen are made, but I never got to the part about how to repair them.

[Owlbert gives Hunter a worried look back, but then shuffles a bit closer to sit by Flapjack again. The worry seems to be more over him than over what Eda's doing, although he's probably not thrilled.

Eda notices the kid's interest--at least he'll learn some things from this. Hopefully he won't need them again any time soon, but hopefully he'll still have a palisman to mean that he might.]

There's a few ways to repair them. But like I say, might be better to cook up a binder from scratch. This one ought to be simple enough. There's a few other potion ingredients that would help, but… the gist of it is blood and lye. Physically it's strong–tough, waterproof, set it with heat and it ain't going anywhere. They used to use snorse blood making houses–still do, maybe. [It's not exactly something she's had any cause to think about in a while.]

But it's also… it's old magic. [And look, she knows Hunter has extremely mixed feelings on that topic. But Flapjack is a palisman, and an ancient one. Wild Magic is exactly what they need right now.]

Adds some extra life to the mix. Back before it was rare we would've burnt scrap palistrom wood and boiled the ash. But I'm not sure we have enough for that even if we wanted to. [She might genuinely sacrifice her whole staff if it was both strictly necessary and a guarantee. She could carve something new for Owlbert, technically. But she's not throwing it in the mix to see if it helps when it's a toss-up. Either of the witches might need it a lot more later.]

Edited 2023-01-08 18:36 (UTC)

[He listens intently, nodding every so often to show he's paying attention. She might be surprised to learn he's not all that opposed to wild magic. Not now that he knew everything he'd been raised to believe was a lie. The last words he spoke to Belos were his desire to study wild magic and learn how to carve palismen.

Under any other circumstance, he'd be taking notes.

He latches onto the most important bit and waits until she's taken a pause to ask:]

How much blood do you need?

[Eda blinks, and stops to think about that for a moment.]

Not a whole lot, for this. We could probably get away with an ounce, maybe two, in a pinch. [But she looks thoughtful, because amount isn't actually her biggest concern.]

Any animal should work, and it can be dried. You ought to be able to buy some easy enough, they do cook here. [She assumes it's a common ingredient in the Human Realm too, because why wouldn't it be?] But… like I say, old magic. Fresh couldn't hurt. You know how to hunt or trap, right kid? I need Owlbert here.

[But the emperor's coven certainly had that kind of survival training back when she wanted to join. It would give him another thing to do, and she does think something fresh would be the best bet.]

I can...

[He says it slowly, thinking. Of course he knows how to hunt and trap. That's basic survival. But it will take time that he doesn't want to waste. There had been no need for hunting in the months he lived in the Noceda house, so there was no need to familiarize himself with the habits of the local wildlife. There's a learning curve, and the risk of failure is too high.]

Just use mine.

[Eda raises an eyebrow. She supposes she should have seen where that was going, given how attached he is to the palisman. And she can't say it's not the kind of stupid thing she'd have done if it was Owlbert--or would even still do, if not for the curse being likely to mess anything like that up.]

You don't have to do that, kid... [Her tone is gentle. She won't argue if he insists, but she doesn't really want him to.]

I do. [His voice is firm, dead serious.]

I owe him. He's my responsibility and... [and he'd already failed once, had hurt him, had let Belos hurt him, he wasn't fast enough, he wasn't strong enough] I owe him.

[Eda looks like she might argue the point more, but at the end of the day it's up to him.]

...Okay, Hunter. If you say so. [She still doesn't know exactly what happened, and she isn't about to press for details right now.]

Honestly I guess it might help that you're-- [there's a very small pause, like she might say something other than what she goes on to say. Possibly a grimwalker,] his witch.

[He's expecting more of a fight, so when she agrees without much of one he's relieved. He doesn't want to have to explain why he feels as strongly about this as he does. Flapjack seems stable at the moment but he's worried that could change.

That's a little pause, small enough that he doesn't have time to fret. He doesn't know what Luz told her after they left Belos's mindscape, and he's afraid to find out.

He starts to rise.] I'll find a knife.

[Eda looks up from what she's doing briefly, and raises a hand.]

Hold your snorses, kiddo. It's a potion ingredient--don't just start bleeding on stuff before we have everything. [Well, a crafting ingredient. Well, both. That's not the important part.]

If we're not worried about burning palistrom wood, lye shouldn't be too hard. They don't have potion shops here, but I'm pretty sure they still make soap and stuff.

R-right...

[He slowly lowers himself back down. He doesn't know the first thing about repairing palismen, so he just listens and tries not to fall behind.]

Soap?

[For...the...lye? Is he getting that right?]

You can make lye from boiling wood ash--worst case we can do that, but it's extra time if we're not worried about using palistrom wood. It's used for making soap and some other things as well as potions, though.

[Which is why best case, that's just a thing he can buy in the human realm.]

Okay.

[Apparently, his role here is to go and fetch ingredients. And...that's fine. He doesn't want to leave Flapjack's side, but he's useless here. (Maybe useless isn't the word. He feels...helpless.) It's more important that he go and Eda stay.

There are stores here, where one can buy things for crafting - the same place where he'd browsed aisles of fabric.

He rises again.]

I have an idea where to find it. Do you need anything else?

[Might as well gather everything at once.]

[Eda thinks for a moment and then nods.] If you can find something small to cook in--cast iron. [Because, once again, she's not really sure what everything in the kitchen here is made of... and it hasn't really mattered before. This would be a breeze at home, but they're not.]

We'll worry about a good finish and that sort of thing later. [After all, that'll mostly matter if there is a later.]

[That...might be a little harder to find, though he recalls seeing cooking supplies in one of the larger stores. What a time to be without teleportation magic. Though...he'd already resorted himself to the idea that he'd never use magic again.]

Okay. I'll have my scroll [phone, cell, device?] if you think of something else.

[And he's off again, skipping steps all the way down and slamming the door before breaking into a run. It'll be a good half hour before he returns.]

[Eda lets out a sad little chuckle as her runs off, and then briefly pets Owlbert before going back to filing down her staff. Fortunately it won't take terribly long to get enough sawdust to work with.

And then, because she's waiting anyway, she'll pull out her phone and do some local fact checking. She shoots Hunter a few more details, like if he has to go as far as grabbing firewood to burn it should be from hardwood trees, and that anything that says stainless steel should probably also be fine.

Then, to keep herself from just fretting she spends a bit drawing out different glyph combinations, but not trying them yet.]

[When Hunter returns, his arms are weighed down with bags (and his bank account is skirting on empty). He trudges up the stairs and into the room and drops the bags with a grunt.

She will find everything she asked for, and then some. The store had three brands of lye, so he got one of each. There was a small cast iron pan (it was so expensive!), but also a somewhat bigger steel pan. What if one works better than the other? He got both. Unfamiliar with the types of wood here, he grabbed a few different bundles.

There's also a little bag of mixed nuts, for Flapjack, for later.]

Is this enough?

[Even as he says it, he's sinking down to look over the cardinal, making sure he's still the same, not worse.]

Oh, dang... probably should've given you my card. There's cash under my nest. [This is said like an aside as she gets up to poke through the bags, it's not the top priority right now by any means, but that's a lot of stuff and she will be making sure Hunter you know, eats.]

This is good. [She sets the cast iron pan to the side, glances over more of the things.] Good, yeah, we can burn the oak if these aren't right... [And she'll start reading the packages on the lye, before noticing the nuts and glancing at Hunter.]

I think he'll be alright, kiddo. [She doesn't want to promise, but she does want Hunter to breathe. Flapjack looks slightly better, at least, in that almost all of his 'blood' is on the inside.]

[He glances at the nest, confused. Why would she tell him that? Is this some kind of trust test or something? Given their history, that seems a little....backward. Anyway, he's not taking her money.

If he weren't so worried, he would feel a swell of pride for shopping successfully. Instead, he presses his lips tight together and nods. She says "I think", and he should find some reassurance in that, but it even a little doubt is too much. He can't stand the thought of losing Flapjack again.

He looks up from the palisman to see what Eda is doing.]

I didn't thank you.

[Eda settles on one of the bottles of lye, what seems like it's the closest to what she'd get from ash, and sets it with the pan. She mutters something vague about local chemical names under her breath.]

You can thank me once you've got a good reason, okay? [To be fair, it's probably valid to thank her for trying anyway, but that's not her biggest concern right now. She reaches to give Hunter's hair a quick little ruffle, though she won't push it if he doesn't let her.]

[The hand on his head causes him to tense up, but he doesn't flinch. He looks more surprised than anything. As long as it comes from a trusted source, he doesn't shy away from friendly touch, though it still feels strange and awkward at times.

He supposes her request is reasonable. He can save his gratitude for after Flapjack is saved. Though he's thankful she's agreed to help at all.]

Right. Okay.

[He focuses on whatever she's doing, until his gaze strays to the lye by the pan.]

Oh, the lye says you should use protective equipment when using it. I bought some gloves, um...

[He looks at her hands with a frown.]

[She takes her hand away again pretty quickly, though it's nice to note this version does seem to trust her to a degree.]

Yeah, we won't be using a lot for this but it'll burn if you touch it and it'll eat into the wrong kinds of metal. There ought to be gloves in the kitchen, but good call. [There are definitely more dangerous potion ingredients at home, but it's good to be careful in a world without readily available healing magic.]

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