(no subject)

[royal_venant]

Who: Regulus Black and YOU
What: Catch all, we’ll see where this goes
When: Early June
Where: Wherever Regulus goes
Warnings: None at the moment, but individual threads will include warnings if necessary

[OOC: Individual thread starts for various other threading ideas will be in the comments, if you have an idea for a thread other than the options presented, hmu on plurk or PM to plot.]

Exploring the farmhouse
On one hand, Regulus was grateful to have been rescued from those forest people who’d restricted his movements quite a bit. On the other, they had fed him and given him shelter, and the freedom and what was on the other outside their dwellings wasn’t impressing him much.

A decrepit farmhouse full of rat droppings wouldn’t impress anyone, in Regulus’ opinion.

He found the garden and the study the most interesting parts of the farmhouse, the places he liked the most.

The garden, for the enchantment placed around it to grow the plants. The plants themselves were uninteresting, but the magic around them was interesting. He could read some of them – earth, (wo)man, sun/time, growth, but he had absolutely no intention of touching them, he was smarter about magic than that. But this was a place where magic existed and that was comforting.

The study was interesting for the books, more specifically, the astronomy books. One look at the stars at night and he knew he was not on earth anymore. Where was he specifically? He had no idea. But though he couldn’t read the language used in the books, he recognized the star charts and could now easily pick out the different constellations. It was a puzzle for him to mull over in his copious amounts of spare time.

Visiting the lake
There was nothing unusual about the lake, and this disappointed Regulus. For a week, he’d watched the forest people shout angrily at it and spit at it, and when he’d tried to sate his curiosity as to why, they would just get fluster and shuffle him away from any direct line of sight of the lake.

Clearly that meant that something was hokey about this particular body of half-frozen water.

But it was just a lake.

However, now that Regulus had moved to the farmhouse and his movements were no longer restricted by the forest people, Regulus found himself coming here, standing on the shore or walking along the edge, again and again, like there was a mystery to unravel. He knew the forest people wouldn’t be forthcoming about their secrets, but maybe if he studied the lake, he’d figure something out.

Comments

Garden!

[sergeant_slick]

The Grand Army of the Republic was one of the worst things in the galaxy. Army training was a different matter. First thing to do when you found yourself in unknown territory? Get the lay of the land. Figure out what resources and logistics you had on your side, your defensible positions and where to go when you had to leave. Then, build your plans from there.

Certainly helped keep you focused when you had a splitting headache. Stupid concussion.

Resources at their most basic meant food. He'd checked the farmhouse and the buildings around it, running a mental tally on what was available, how many people he saw, how rations could get divvied up.

That meant checking out the crops as well. He had no idea how fast this stuff grew, though. Unfamiliar planet, unfamiliar plants, all that. At least they seemed to have some sort of tech to keep the plot warm enough to--

Wait. Since when did these locals have tech? What were those symbols that other guy was--

"Great. Magic again," he muttered to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Sure. That's a thing now."

Well, whatever. This was happening, whether he liked it or not. That was familiar, at least. He raised his voice to call out to the other person in the garden. "Hey, do you know how that stuff works?"

Re: Garden!

[royal_venant]

Regulus definitely wanted to just turn around and leave when the soldier strode into the room. Slick at the look and air about him like he knew how to fight, when to fight, and who would win – a physical fight, that is. And Regulus hand none of those skills – physical fighting that is.

Oh, and he clearly didn’t know what magic was. So, a muggle.

A loud muggle who knew how to throw a punch.

But, they were stuck here, and Regulus didn’t want to make any enemies yet.

“I learned how to read runes in school and what arranging them like this would do- the kind of magic it would do.”

He glanced over the runes. “I suppose somewhere in this world, people learn the meaning of runes and how to arrange them. But it’s certainly not the forest people.” During his time among them, he hadn’t seen them write in any form. “Whoever used to own this house knew.”

[sergeant_slick]

He raised an eyebrow. "That answered everything except my question." Magical sleehshit or not, this stuff had a practical purpose, one that was vital to everyone stuck here. He didn't need to know the history, just the present.

"We need to make sure there's enough food here, and this is the only supply we've got control over. Do you know how it works?"

[royal_venant]

Regulus shot him an unamused look. Superior physical prowess or not, Regulus wasn't here to be insulted. "You asked if I knew how this works- not how it works. Choose your words more carefully in the future."

Regulus pointed at the runes. "These are magic incantations written in a language that imbues the magic into the parameters set by the incantations. These runes keep this garden warm enough for growing crops. The magic also helps the crops grow. But the magic needs to be activated regularly, daily-" Regulus now pointed to a specific rune, "by touching that rune. Otherwise, they cease to work."

[sergeant_slick]

He'd expected that kind of lip from a civvie. Still not endearing, all he'd done was ask a question. "And when I said one thing, I implied the other. That's how conversations are supposed to work." Like right now, when he was implying that he wasn't gonna take that kind of treatment.

"Just touching it? That's all it needs?" Draw some squiggles on some rocks, press a button, make plants grow? That seemed too easy.

[royal_venant]

"Not where I'm from," Regulus said flatly, his opinion of this person dropping by the second.

He looked back at the runes and nodded. "Yes, that's what the runes needs." He didn't care that he was leaving out the price it was asking for to keep the magic working. He'd given the basics. If the man never touched the rune, it was no sweat off Regulus' back, others were supplying the magic what it needed. If the man did touch the rune, well, he'd find out the price.

"Excuse me, I have other..." he gestured lackadaisically in no particular direction because he didn't have other things he needed to do he just didn't want to continue being insulted because he didn't guess the exact right answer this man wanted.

And then he turned to leave.

[sergeant_slick]

The feeling was mutual. Didn't help that the translator was giving this guy a Coruscanti accent, not too far off from one of the Jedi generals. It put him on edge. "Well, we're here, we're in danger, and that's not changing unless the work gets put in. After that, you can go back to your planet and tell everybody how rude it all was."

Oh no, that wasn't gonna be the end of it. Something wasn't adding up here, and this guy had withheld information already. "Hang on a minute. If that's all it takes, why haven't you done it?"

[royal_venant]

Regulus half-turned, still walking away, "Someone's already activated it for now." And with a shrug, he gestured to the warmth in the room.

"When the temperature dips, you'll know it needs to be activated again."

[sergeant_slick]

Fine. "Thanks for the information." It didn't have to be hard.

He started walking the rows, counting crops and seething a bit. He hadn't seen any Jedi here yet. The people doing magic here were Force-sensitive, they had to be. And he didn't hate Force-sensitives as a whole. Just the Jedi, for what they'd done.

But it seemed like Jedi didn't have a monopoly on the above-it-all airs they put on.