they had a curio museum

[lancifolium]

WHO: Lily & you, if you like.
WHEN: Throughout March
WHERE: Ke-Waihu
WHAT: A catchall! Being cursed, blocking cocks, gardening and other adventures.
WARNINGS: None yet


[ open and closed prompts in the comments, happy to switch formats to suit people's preferences! feel free to pm or reach out on plurk if you'd like to plot something else not covered below. ]

Comments

– curse breaking 101 a and b (ota)

[lancifolium]

“What do you think you’re doing!”

The objection is issued with a fair bit of fervor, and announces Lily even before she climbs out of the dense patch of low-growing bushes to act as interception for the young couple stealing a few kisses behind what Lily had gathered was the general store.

Appalled, the youths - who really couldn’t have been a year or two younger than their accuser - straightened as they gaped at the young lady peering down at them as though she’s spent years herding miscreant youngsters out of shadowy corners.

“You have to think about the consequences of your actions,” the admonishment shouted at their backs as the two locals scurried off, leaving Lily standing with her hands on her shoulders, looking after them with all the disdain an old lady might have after a ball had been kicked into her yard one too many times.

When she turns and catches sight of someone familiar she looks surprised, and then sheepish. “Curse breaking isn’t it?”

(b)

Until the time comes when Lily stumbles out of the undergrowth, a thin branch sticking out of her hair like a droopy antler, she discovers it isn’t a pair of carousing villagers she’s trying to split up, but rather a member of the group.

Paling from shock her shoulders sag as she frowns apologetically. “That is to say - terribly sorry!”

[unswervingcompanion]

Hendrik had been waiting on the Luminary to get back to him, but so far as of yet, his charge hadn't returned to him. With a disapproving face, the tall knight folded his arms over his chest and sighed.

If the boy was intent on taking his time in returning he was doing a splendid job. So the knight continued to scout for his ward and waited.

But then he heard something rustling in the bushes behind him and Hendrik stood as if he hadn't noticed. In reality though he was on high alert. He stood there and continued to pretend not to hear the noise until it grew too close and he looked back over his shoulder.

However, the moment he saw Lily, he blinked almost disbelievingly at her sudden appearance. He had the urge to remove the odd branch but refused to touch her. The apology too was quite out of place in his own mind and he shook his head. "Why are you sorry?"

[lancifolium]

"For jumping out of the bushes and startling you," she said quickly before her eyes went wide, realization dawning on her face.

"Hendrik! You're back! Does Eleven know?" Reaching up to sweep her hair back over her shoulder, branch and all Lily climbed out of the bushes with a smile on her face.

"Of course he does, I wish he'd thought to tell me, but still, what a wonderful surprise!"

[unswervingcompanion]

"I see." he replied in a stiff and formal voice. He hadn't been startled too much since he'd heard her approach. Her face was just so familiar and yet so unfamiliar at the same time. Somehow he knew her but had no idea how he possibly could.

This whole place turned him on his own head it seemed with instances such as this coming into play time and again.

Now he was startled since she knew his name and he stood at his full height and he nodded. "Yes, he is well aware of my arrival here." And he was only more surprised at her words. Still, he tried to act like it was no big deal that he'd returned.

"Mayhaps he simply did not have the time as of yet but you have my apologies on his behalf."

a

[gladiokinesis]

Diego recognizes Lily as one of his "family" members but he doesn't really know her that well. He should probably be focussing on getting to know them better but he's been a little preoccupied with Five's whole memory issue thing. Still....the whole thing is kind of funny to watch (well, from what he can see, his eyesight seems a little blurry these days), honestly, and he chuckles at the display and her explanation.

"At least you have an idea on how to break yours. That's a start."

[lancifolium]

"No telling if it's actually working though," with a troubled sigh Lily shakes her head, looking over her shoulder just in case someone else is trying to get cheeky and needs handling.

"Have you made any progress on your own?" Then, after a moment - because she's certain Diego's traveled with the group for quite a while, but she's never done so before - Lily lifts her hand and gives a little wave.

"Lily. You're Allison and Five's brother, aren't you?"

[gladiokinesis]

"Haven't really worked on it yet. I've had other things on my mind." His brother's missing memories are more important than some dumb ancestral curse. What's the worse that can happen? (Famous last words)

"I am. Seems my siblings have really made themselves known here."

B

[joker_wild]

Akira startles as Lily appears from the brush, blinking at her for a long moment before he looks past her into the woods. "What were you doing back there?"

[lancifolium]

"I thought you were a couple of teenagers getting cheeky in the bushes," she explains, realizing afterward that she hasn't explained all that much.

"I've been trying to break this bloody curse for a week now, I'm running short on ideas."

[joker_wild]

"Just me," Akira returns with a grin that is definitely cheeky.

It does fade into something more curious when she goes on, though. "Is it rude to ask someone what their curse is, here, do you think?"

– one greedy magpie (closed to existing cr)

[lancifolium]

“There you are, I was so worried about you!” There’s no reason for the concern, or for her to sound as delighted as she does as she’s coming across someone she’s undoubtedly spoken with dozens of times. Despite that, however, misplaced it might be there’s real relief on Lily’s face as she approaches, resting a hand on their arm.

The emptiness that had gnawed its way through her since drinking that terrible brew wouldn’t be quelled no matter what she did. It was time to take action, time to round up everything and everyone she cared about and keep them safe somewhere she would always be able to check and verify that they were there.

Maybe then she would be able to get some sleep, maybe then, surrounded by evidence of her stability and faces she loves to see she won’t be plagued by the terror that the very foundations of her life teeter precariously on erosion, ready to fall away and leave her empty and alone forever.

“You’ve got to come with me, I need to make sure nothing’s going to happen to you.”

[ note: If not stopped, Lily will lead characters to a small shed on the fringe of the village originally used to smoke meat, where they can be expected to be ushered inside to hang out with stacks of books, and probably other group members, feel free to roll with whatever tickles your fancy and pm to discuss. ]

[weifinder]

The fox that he is stills, ears twitching round to focus on her voice, head jerking around a moment after. Wei Wuxian is mostly under an overgrown bush, poking his narrow muzzle out after, blinking up at his daughter-of-the-heart as she looms (truly, why must she loom, why must a fox not be a donkey, a donkey at least wouldn't feel as small, as bite sized as he does. Better than a rabbit, only if he were a rabbit, maybe Lan Zhan wouldn't have decided he could not keep two, and sent him out the door with all the ceremony that each of their marriages have possessed.

None.

He's not sure what in the world Lily is on about, but he does at least not bolt off, because she is helpfully not a canine, and also, oddly worried. He cants his head, giving his best showing of a curious, worried look, refusing to make a sound.

[lancifolium]

"You're awfully hard to find like this." It's hard to look at Wei Wuxian in his current state and not look concerned, but at the moment Lily is far too preoccupied with getting him out of safely hidden where nothing can happen to him to fuss too much.

He knows what's happened to him, her fretting won't change things - but if she doesn't get him off to her little shed anything could happen to him, and then he would be gone and this emptiness that gnaws away at her would consume her.

Better to just get him into the shed. He'd have company soon enough.

"Do," Lily's eyes narrow, uncertain. "Do I carry you?" She stoops down and opens her arms as she asks it, not entirely sure what the protocol is when a member of one's found family has become a fox.

[binghua]

Xingchen is just out and about, trying to memorize the layout of this village so he can be as independent as possible, when that familiar voice calls out to him. And Lily is a friend, so why should he worry?

Except she is apparently worried and Xingchen cocks his head to the side. "Worried?" He knows he's made some unwise decisions lately, but he doesn't think they've been anything terribly worrisome. Then again, he's probably not the nest gauge for that sort of metric.

But he follows her where she leads all the same. "Has something happened somewhere else?"

[lancifolium]

"Not yet no, but," Lily gently took Xingchen's arm and led him towards the little abandoned smoke shack she's staked out for just this purpose after having sunk obsessive days into watching it to make sure nobody used it or paid it that much mind.

"Something could." Her tone was grave enough to be ominous, but there was a certain paranoid tension to it that might suggest she wasn't thinking clearly.

"I've found a very safe place, you'll be very safe. I'll have to go back and collect a few more of the others. You'll have company. Certainly Eleven, he's such a lovely man he ought to be next once you're settled in."

[ambitiousblond]

"You were? Is there something wrong?" Rufus is surprised when Lily seems to appear out of nowhere to put a hand on his arm. He winces just slightly- ever since he had touched some gifts the villagers had brought and they had crumbled into dust the second he had touched them.

That had been awkward.

But so far it hadn't happened to anyone but the reflex is there without thinking about it and he's grateful for the gloves covering the palms of his hands. They hurt but until he can find a way to break that ancestral curse he's just going to have to learn to deal with it.

"I saw you yesterday at the field, didn't I?"

[lancifolium]

"Yes! You've got to come with me. I've got to keep your safe." There's a manic determination to the way she says it, keeping her hand on his arm even though he flinches away.

Though he didn't know it, Lily suffered from a similar plight, and everything that crumbled once it was within her grasp only made her decision feel more correct. Everything important had to be protected, and now that she'd found Rufus he was going to have to get into the shed.

At least he'll have some lovely company once she was through. As far as Lily was concerned the shed was a happening place to be, which is why she begins herding Rufus towards the little shack, for his own good.

"Anything can happen in a place like this. It's better if you're kept out of sight and secure."

[valeas]

To say there is dissonance between Lily's words and her demeanor is perhaps an understatement. Emilia can't say that she is without clue, despite her initial surprise. Nothing has been quite right since they arrived to the village, and she herself feels a growing unease inside of her, gnawing at the bone. Lily's affections are so often a balm to her, a respite from the colder edges.

But this time, she has to stay her hand. She has to forcibly keep herself from recoiling.

Emilia brings herself to her feet fully, wiping her hands from the dirt that stains them. She keeps tending to the land, keeps trying to make things grow so that she may feed those her ancestral curse starved.

"What do you mean? What would happen to me?"

[lancifolium]

Emilia's right to recoil, anyone in their right mind ought to - it's clear Lily hasn't slept for days. Harried, her hands are red, inflamed from the gashes that cross her palms but still reaching for Emilia, eager to escort her to the shed she's claimed as her own. Certainly, knowing where someone she's as devoted to as she is Emilia, and that their safe stands a good chance of being enough to finally quiet the pull of the curse hollowing her out from within.

"Anything could happen. You've seen what's already happened, you've come into this world right as danger was finding us again. You'll be safe where I put you and nothing will happen. You can see Xingchen and Eleven."

Unless they'd already left. A small matter. She would find them again and put them back.

– here in the hall of heads (for lan wangji)

[lancifolium]

Before Taravast, before she’d gotten a chance to witness members of their group spending hours up on the roof of the Palace of the Doxe, Lily would have never considered rooftops when it came to finding a vantage point.

From up high, while safely obfuscated by a Disillusionment Charm she’d done her best to explain to Wangji before casting (he did get very alarmed about magic, lest we forget the box) they could see much. In addition to their vigil, they would need to keep an eye on each other, ensuring that neither went visible unaware, but they had time before that became a concern.

Aware of his penchant for silence, Lily entertains his preference for as long as she’s able to. The village is eerie this time of night, off-putting in a way that really drives the point home just how little she knows about where they are, it’s difficult to sit silently and marinate in that unease.

“What do we know of what’s ruining people’s wells?” Her voice is barely a whisper, spoken in a careful hush after she leans in enough to be heard.

“Is it because of this creature or something else I wonder.” It sounded similar to the ooze the group had encountered before, something she’d already explored in the notebooks she so dutifully kept.

slides in here with coffee

[downswing]

Fair vantage, nostalgic. He does not begrudge the high rise, for all it tempts him like itch at the end of his fingertips, where they stand to sharpen into claw, to reach for Lily ever so often and reassure himself of her balance. Footing is a tenuous barter, for warriors unlearned, and Lily's gift of dexterity lags behind the feral strength of her spirit.

Still, they stare down like kings, and above them a starless sky groans its silent, awed stupor. Penury ever fills his body to burst with fatigue, with the inexorable evidence of his failure: he cannot cure all, cannot harness whatever magic would provide these people their succor. Mundane wrongdoings of inequality cannot be severed by the sword. Perhaps Lily, with her fickle stick —

But then, they want for time here, hunt of the dead hot on their steps. Want for strength depleted, redistributed, ill invested. Lan Wangji's one hand binds behind his back, fist knotted, and he thinks — to throttle the unfairness of the world, how the bones would break. How he thinks of their snap.

"They claim drought." No, a sharper word of it, the curse revealed under true skins. "Dark waters."

Superstition, for how they frame the sickness of the waters. "Returned, as pestilence. Its first cure unnamed."

There must have been one, surely, if ever the dark waters cleared or were dispelled.

[lancifolium]

The villages don't sit well with her, though perhaps on the heels of their time at the lighthouse, and the grisly truths waiting in the rubble of Ellethia no place was going to. Still, it was creepy, made all the more so by the whispers of cursed wells and a disembodied child-eating head.

She's in good company whatever comes of this venture. Wangji is rarely anything short of solid and talented in a fight - whatever that head had up its (collar?) sleeve, they would handle it.

"Dark waters," Lily repeats the words and frowns down at the village below them, crossing her arms over her chest, one hand gripping her wand, ever ready to spring into motion. After this long she's become uncertain if she'll ever make it back to England, but should the chance present itself she intends to make a point out of telling everyone who told her she studied too hard in school that she told them so. She can't unravel the mysteries of this world with what she'd spent the last seven years learning - at least not entirely - but thus far she's kept herself alive.

"I wonder who might know the cure."

– veggietales from cabin 9 (for eleven)

[lancifolium]

“Stop looking at us like that!”

Lily would have never imagined such fear coming from a vine of cherry tomatoes, but then again, despite having grown up among the exotic plants thriving within the expansive greenhouses back at school she would never have expected to be admonished by what might have otherwise been a lovely salad for lunch.

After sending a message to Eleven and giving him a quick run-down of the bizarre standoff she found herself trapped in Lily sat outside of the cabin she’d been assigned to share with some of the others.

“You look so,” a cucumber spoke up, voice trembling in fear. “So hungry! Like a wolf!”

“Yes, yes a wolf, exactly that!” With some rustling, the bed of lettuce, untended and threatening to go to seed if it wasn’t amenable to being seen to soon gave its input, sounding surprisingly vehement for a leafy green.

“Sharp eyes, that’s what it is. You’re going to put a curse on us, aren’t you?” Once more the cherry tomatoes were the ones to voice their terror, leaving Lily flabbergasted, and looking over her shoulder, waiting for Eleven to turn up.

She had helped him in the garden in Sa-Hareth and wasn’t terrible with plants, but this was a little bit beyond her realm of experience.

[bearshermark]

Eleven had stared at the message for some time, perplexed and nearly certain he was reading it incorrectly-- or perhaps Lily had left out a few words. Either way, she was asking to meet him and so he followed to her assigned house, undeniably curious.

"Another one!" A tiny voice shouted as he approached that most certainly didn't belong to Lily. Eleven stopped short, glancing around, but the voice did seem to be coming from the poorly patch.

A different voice. "They're going to eat us for sure."

Eleven blinked, brows creasing, then finally addressed Lily. "You said the vegetables were talking..?"

[lancifolium]

Looking up at Eleven after the cucumbers heralded his arrival she met the question with wide, exasperated eyes, nodding her head as she gestured at the patch wordlessly.

At the sudden movement of her hand, the tomatoes gasped in horror as though they were expecting to be ripped off the vine.

"How do you make them stop?"