wit beyond measure is

[reparo]

WHO: Hermione Granger & you
WHEN: The Drought / Ke-Waicai plot
WHERE: Multiple places!
WHAT: Multiple threads
WARNINGS: TBD


NOTE: this log is open for all to interract with, whether we have plans or not. Each starter is open to one character unless specified otherwise; I'd ask to please respect this so I don't bite off more than I can chew lose track of continuity.

If the starters below don't fit, PM/plurk/discord me and we can whip up some wildcard!

Comments

say that in the voice of the narrator from spongebob

[reparo]

"I'll follow and keep an eye out," she murmurs, then meets that encouraging smile with another one, a little more tentative. She's still high on the adrenaline of stealing the skulls and seemingly getting away with it, so the encouragement doesn't come so easy considering how she is not a cultivator herself.

She's here to be guided and told where to dig. It's her life now.

"But," she adds, "let's not throw them in the river and let the current take them, that feels disrespectful."

now all I hear is that theme song

[silverneedles]

Wen Qing looks over her shoulder, raising one eyebrow at her. "Did someone suggest that?" she asks, wondering where on earth Hermione even came up with that idea. "I would never throw skulls in a river and let the current take them." They'd be unsettled and no one would be able to tend their graves. They don't need more restless undead in the village, especially women who deserve to be settled in their afterlives.

The forest isn't terrible to navigate, especially since there are so many shrines in so many unexpected places, but the deeper they venture, the closer the trees grow and the thicker the underbrush is, making Wen Qing shiver, her sojourn in the snake pit still fresh on her mind.

"Do you think he'll find more beauties and take their skulls later?" she asks, pensive, as they round a tree, and stumble into a clearing. "This might work."

spongebob granger

[reparo]

"Probably not as bluntly," she falters to say, because maybe it's a matter of cultural misunderstandings? In any case, it might be due to her defensiveness to begin with, and maybe the intent behind Lan Wangji's advice hadn't been to just toss the skulls out.

In any case, she's capable with her wand and she has little doubt that Wen Qing is capable with her skills, so they can make it through the forest. To somewhere uncorrupted.

"If he does, I'm setting his house on fire," Hermione blurts out, a frown on her face.

who lives in a pineapple under the sea

[silverneedles]

Tossing the skulls out would make for easy work, no need for last rites beyond something brief, but it would leave the skulls with no resting place. And while Wen Qing regrets that they don't know where the bodies are, to bring them together, at least burying the skulls will show some respect.

"Maybe we should set his house on fire before he attempts to gather more." They absolutely shouldn't, Wen Qing knows, and it will serve little purpose, but after her ordeal, and knowing that the merchant was out hunting for more skulls.... She sighs, shaking her head. "At least then he'd have to focus on rebuilding and not gathering skulls."

The clearing, at first, seems like it might work, but when Wen Qing crouches to feel the ground, trying to identify the energy running through it, she shakes her head. "Not here."

hermbob squarepants

[reparo]

She hasn't committed a handful of crimes tonight (there's always a possibility for more if their conversation about setting an entire house on fire is anything to go by) just so they can throw the bones in the river, to put it mildly.

It has grated on her every nerve from the time they spent two nights keeping watch over the horrible man's possessions, to know how he valued beauty and how he spared no expenses to acquire the mortal remains of said beauties. It was an injustice that had begged correcting, and so Hermione broke the rules when it suited her goals. Broke into a man's home, stole his prized possessions, because the end result is to have them laid to rest.

So, she's not frustrated that Wen Qing declares the first chosen spot unfit. "I trust your judgement," she says, stepping back so the woman can stand again, ready to keep moving. It has gotten dark here, however, and they're in the middle of a forest so she thinks a torch would be a bad idea.

She casts a lighting spell, the lumos she whispers manifesting as a blueish light at the tip of her wand, which she aims forward for them to not sprain an ankle while walking.

"I'll confess that it was very tempting to burn some of the artifacts, but...I don't know, I can't help but think he'd have blamed the servants."

[silverneedles]

Spiritual power and talismans do work for illuminating dark areas, but they rarely last long, and it's often considered a waste of power when torches were just as easy to use. So she eyes Hermione's wand with interest, remembering they still need to talk about their respective powers eventually. The glow is useful as they traverse the forest, especially if they want to move quickly.

"He would have," Wen Qing agrees grimly. Men like that always did blame the servants, or others, even if something was their fault, and took out their anger on the powerless people beneath them. "Better to not burn anything and risk them. We can find a way to burn his house later when they won't be blamed."

She nods at the wand and the blueish light at the tip, looking from it to Hermione for a moment, then back to the ground, carefully treading over a vine growing in the middle of her path. "Is that how you channel your magic?"

[reparo]

"Right - arson for later," she repeats with a bit of amusement, because come on. This whole situation is a little bit funny. Wen Qing doesn't know how much of a goody-two-shoes Hermione was in school, how much of a stickler for (some of the) rules she was when she was younger. It's definitely a big jump from hunting for Horcruxes, this; she's harbouring grudges.

She looks at her wand, and back towards Wen Qing. "It is, yes. I cast it through the wand - I've seen the talismans that cultivators can create, yes?" From Lan Wangji, during the freeze of Taravast. "My magic is different, I think. Doesn't use up as much paper, either."

[silverneedles]

If they were anywhere else, Wen Qing might almost laugh at that. "Talismans on paper aren't always necessary for channeling spiritual energy, but they have many uses. Wasteful though, especially if you lack the proper paper." It had been a struggle to make sure they had all the talisman paper they needed in the Burial Mounds.

"From what I gathered from Miss Lily, our magic is very different. I'm curious to see if I can ever learn it." She stops again, in the middle of another clearing, and kneels down to check the ground.

"This clearing will work." She rises, looks around the clearing, and wanders toward the east side. "Here. Do you have a shovel in that bag of yours?"

[reparo]

"Would you like to?" she asks, and it's hard to keep quiet when the very thought excites her a little too much. Because if Wen Qing can learn her way of magic, then maybe Hermione can cultivate. It wouldn't be that different from using ancient runes to fortify wards and curses, she imagines.

"We can try it out, if you want - I'm quite good at talking people through learning new spells." Like Accio for Harry, although Harry was better at teaching Dumbledore's Army how to use defensive spells. She's gotten good at those on her own.

What she hasn't done has been to plan to dig a grave, so: "No, of course I don't. Drats, I'm sorry - but I could turn something into a shovel for a bit." She looks into her bag for something that could be transfigured into a shovel, but there's only books and food and clothes. They're too precious to be turned into a shovel. But she spots a boulder on the ground that might do, so she abandons looking through her bag to aim her wand at it. The light disappears as she focuses on this spell, but a second later the rock is a small shovel.

A hoe.

[silverneedles]

Wen Qing nods, arching an eyebrow at her. "I asked, didn't I?" She usually doesn't repeat herself, especially in situations like that, but she does understand Hermione's excitement. "It would be useful to know."

Especially with things like that, Wen Qing realizes as Hermione transforms the rock into a shovel; nothing about cultivation can do something like that. Her eyes are wide as she looks from the hoe to Hermione. "Will it stay like that for long?" she asks, even as she picks it up to start digging.

Luckily, the ground isn't too hard, so it's easy to dig down deep enough for a proper grave, even if it's just the skulls they're burying.

[reparo]

"Long enough for this," she mutters, a little bit frustrated at how often her transfiguration spells will flicker away after a shorter time than back home. She wants to make excuses and say she's usually better than this, but since she's the only one left...she imagines that it won't make a difference. She could just be casting lighting spells and calling it the full extent of her spells, and who would contradict her?

"We should bring back the lab, too," she says, standing guard and ready to take over if Wen Qing gets tired. "Maybe start our own secret witch society."

[silverneedles]

The frustration bleeds into her voice but Wen Qing has been raised well— she blithely ignores it as she continues digging. It's laborious work but she's no stranger to hardship, and it takes some time for her to grow weary.

She is, at least, smart enough to pass the shovel over to Hermione eventually, knowing she shouldn't push needlessly. "I'll stand guard," she offers, brushing dirt off her robes.

[reparo]

She takes the shovel and goes down on her knees to dig, because she's not a stranger to dirty work. But this is dirty work, and it takes a while to dig a hole deep enough. By the end of it, twenty minutes give or take, she's on all fours and covered in dirt, one arm in the hole while with the other she shovels dirt out.

There's a huff. "I don't say this easily, but gods I could do with a drink." It will be Lily's fault. She was the first person to introduce Hermione to wine, properly, and the fuzzy relaxed feeling that came with a few glasses of it. Not enough for her to seek it out constantly, but enough to remember how placid she felt. Without Lily, though, she might relax even harder - there will be no danger of ruining a timeline or slipping up with a bit too much information.

One more shovel-full of dirt, and as she sits back on her heels, the shovel reverts back to a rock, which she drops to the side.

"Do you think that's deel enough?"

[silverneedles]

"I have wine," Wen Qing says simply. "We'll make a toast to the skulls, after we bury them, and then the rest...." She brought the wine along specifically for the rites but there's nothing stopping them from drinking the rest.

In fact, considering the night they've had, drinking is perhaps the best thing they can do, after burying the skulls.

Wen Qing peers down at the grave, checking the depth, and finally nods. "It will serve our purposes," she says and reaches for the bag so they can bury all of the skulls.