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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.

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"Never had a chance alone with just one of them. I can't just peer into a singular mind in a crowd. I need good eye contact."

Regulus shrugged. "I didn't know anyone else was here so why spoil a free meal and place to sleep?"

That wasn't the whole of it. Dying can really take a toll on someone and his magic needed intent and vigor to perform. He just hadn't cared until the last few days he was with the forest people. Regulus didn't feel like sharing that much. And then Karsa showed up.

It's at that point that Five decides that the lake is a better thing to keep his eyes on. Whatever his powers entail, they're alone out here, giving him the perfect setup if he were so inclined. Despite that, he doesn't seem motivated to do more than smoke and stare at the lake. He wonders if Regulus had a quartz on him to help translate what they were saying, but it seems more like he's been unable to communicate all that time. If that's the case, he might have reached the extent of what he was able to learn from them.

So what is Five doing out here? He's still worked up from that earlier discovery, and it's possible that his judgment is lacking. Is he desperate enough to take Regulus back, see if he can get anything more out of the old man? Ten minutes after meeting him seems a little soon to test how open minded he is to seeing someone in a similar situation to what he just went through. -- At the same time, the window of opportunity is closing. It's out of sheer stubbornness that he still has a captive in reach, and any day now he expects someone to stumble on him.

After a span of silence, he pipes up again.

"Tell me how it works. If it's not mind reading, what can you pick up?" He'd been close to subjecting the old man to what Mingyu did to him, but held back from approaching him after being reminded. Mingyu doesn't just get the answer to a question with his ability, he seemed to read Five down to his soul and made him relive his worst memories, maybe even experience them with him. He hasn't totally recovered, so if he's going to consider his alternatives, he needs to know more about it.

"What would you do, if you were face to face with one of them?"

Regulus turned and regarded Five, deep in consideration. Not just about how to explain the magic, but if he should.

Back home, explaining to Five what he could do would be crossing some legal lines. Not that he hadn't already done plenty of that in the last year and a half. It might be nonsensical for him to pause over breaking the laws against magical secrecy when he'd already committed murder but this was his morality in flux. He'd rebelled against Lord Voldemort, but where had he landed after leaping into that mutinous void? Where was the new line in the sand he would not cross?

But there was no Ministry of Magic here to be the bulwark of his burgeoning principles.

And it was in that moment he decided to fuck with the laws prohibiting the revelation of magic to non-wizards. At least here, he'd be open about his magical skills. When it suited or benefited him.

"The real shape of thoughts. Whole memories, as they were actually experienced and the way the mind changes them to make them more comfortable for us to remember. Intentions, desires. Lies and truths," he said. "The mind isn't a book, and we don't think in words on a page. Minds are richer and more complex than that. It takes skill to discern passing fancy from actual experienced events or purposeful fabrications meant to obscure the truth. That's what I can do."

A pause, he'd had an inkling of what Five wanted. "Do you have a particular forest person's thoughts you're dying to know?"

Having just decided not to look at him in the eye, Five still drifts back when he details exactly what his ability does. That's a different twist on what he's seen before, and he considers it silently. It could be one last chance to get some actual answers, or it could end in Regulus turning against him and deciding he's no better than the people he escaped from. -- Which, considering the nature of mind manipulation and the people who use it, doesn't seem too likely.

His honesty is at least a sign that he might understand his position here. Five must not seem like a threat if he hasn't considered using it on him, and that's fine. Let him assume Five just stumbled on someone in the forest and happens to know where to find him.

"If I did?" No reason to deny what's already obvious now, but he still watches him for his reaction. "There are a few things I'd like to know, when you're done sightseeing."

Regulus was starting to suspect there was something more to this kid, just not the shape of it. It amused Regulus that Five wouldn't look him in the eye now, but it was telling that this kid didn't want Regulus even getting the chance to see what was in his mind. (Not that Regulus could, fully, without taking his wand out. He'd left that part out, for now, but he didn't feel the need to clarify.) This kid caught on quickly and that was a bit unusual for someone of his (assumed) age. Certainly not enough to build a full picture, but there were definitely shades to this picture that was Five.

"I'm done sightseeing, for now," Regulus said. He had an unending supply of time, he could come back to the lake later. And solitude plus an idle mind was one hell of prison. He might as well be engaged in something that didn't let his thoughts wander.

"Whose mind do you want me to look at?"

Regulus is as compliant as he thought it might be. It's really something Five isn't used to, just asking and getting what he wants. Not that it's a hard sell when what he's offering is a chance to find out about the people who held him hostage.

"I never got his name." He gestures back towards the farm. If there were just a little closer he could teleport them right there, but it's probably best that he checks to see that he's ready for visitors before he takes him inside. Make this seem a little less suspicious, or at least, keep any assumptions vague.

"There's a bit of a language barrier, even with the crystals. You might find it easier."

"Language barriers are tricky," Regulus said, gesturing to Five to lead the way. Regulus is curious more than he would say he's being compliant. Maybe those are the same things. He just wants to know more about this world he'd woken up in, and using legilimens on one of the forest people might just help him know more.

So sure, Regulus is compliant. For now.

"But as I said, we don't exactly think in words on a page. Sometimes knowing a few keywords helps the process. But I think having been with them a week I've gleaned enough to start with. What is it you want to know from him?"

He leads him back through the path he's traveled many times before, keeping an eye out for the wolves as they pass. As many of them as they've killed at this point, there always seems to be more of them.

"Why they were keeping you hidden, for one. If they're looking for more of us." They didn't seem industrious enough to try to sell him to Karsa, but he could be wrong. Anurr could have the exact same goals as the warlord rumored to have brought them here. "What the hell he means by the wind."

It's a bit more of a trek, but he looks behind him to see that he's keeping up. "Feel free to throw in your own. I'm sure he'll be eager to answer."

"Do you, or the group here, know what Anurr's plans are?" Regulus asked as he followed.

Ask him what he means by 'the wind'. An odd question, but Regulus had watched the forest people spit on a lake for a week. These people were odd.

That's a fair question. Anurr's followers seem to be a different sort of threat than Unhalad. While the latter took over by force, Anurr inspires a cult-like loyalty that makes them particularly annoying to deal with.

"My guess is Anurr is trying to rally supporters to stage an uprising." That's easy enough to see. They've been caught in the middle of that conflict from the start. "We've watched them have a resurgence since we arrived. Anything more specific, you'll have to ask him."

Five doesn't always pay mind to the give and take of a conversation, and it's only a few feet further and he decides that he's going to go on ahead. He glances and Regulus and holds up a hand.

"Wait here." Then he steps into a fold in the ripple of space, leaving Regulus alone in the forest. He's gone for several minutes before he returns in the same spot, hair slightly out of place but otherwise the same as before.

"Right." He narrows his eyes, but decides he's going to ask for the sake of cooperation. "Do you want to continue on the scenic root, or would you rather get it over with?"

Regulus was left a bit speechless at Five's disappearance, and alone to contemplate what exactly had just happened.

Five had not apparated, there wasn't the loud pop that came with it. And Regulus hadn't seen a wand. So this was something else entirely. Once again, Regulus was confronted with power that seemed to exist outside the magic system he'd been raised in. And he had to ask himself: did that matter?

He hesitated a split second. But he'd trusted Kreacher, and Kreacher's magic was different from his.

And what was the worst that could happen? He'd die? Again?

"I'll take the shortcut," he said to Five when he'd gotten over his momentary ideological crisis.

"How does this work?"

Five can sense his confusion, but he hadn't used his ability to show off, or to prove that he's capable of more than appearances would dictate. Teleporting is not only how he captured the old man, but it's been how he's kept it from getting out, beyond a handful of people who were there in the beginning. And if it helps to keep Regulus from knowing exactly where he's keeping him, all the better. (Though honestly, if this doesn't work he's about had it with the whole wasted effort.)

"Just hold on." He latches onto his shoulder and tears another path through space, accounting for the extra mass displacement to take them both into the room he'd left a moment ago.

About half the people he teleports with get sick, so he gives Regulus a moment as he circles back around to the man who is tied loosely to a chair in the middle of what appears to be a shed. Previously he'd been in the bathing room, and the restraints are newly applied. The man looks angry, like he always does when he sees Five, but he doesn't seem horribly injured. He's also rather pointedly silent.

"I don't think he's one you've met." Five turns to eye Regulus, judging his reaction. There's no easy way to explain away what's obviously apparent, so he simply gestures to the restraints. "I didn't know if you needed him to hold still."

The experience wasn't wholly dissimilar to aparating. The feeling of being stretched and pulled through matter and across space. Though, he hadn't been the one in control of the ride, like he usually is when he's aparating, so when they landed he had to take a moment to right his vision.

But once he's oriented, Regulus started to take in their surroundings. He could get out of here with magic, but he wouldn't be able to get back in because he didn't have any idea where this was outside the shed.

And then there was the forest person tied to the chair.

"It's not going to hurt," Regulus said. "Unless he resists in a specific way and I don't think he'll do that." But most notably in the answer isn't a rebuke for the restraints. This isn't the first time he's restrained someone for this exact type of venture.

Regulus stepped up closer, in front of the man. He finally let his wand drop down from where it was hidden up his sleeve to the palm of his hand. He took the stone Karsa had given him out of his pocket with his other hand. These things didn't seem to translate the forest people all too well, but Regulus felt it would be enough to get things started.

"What question do you want me to start with?"

It's almost impressive how easily Regulus handles the whole thing. He doesn't waste time with pointless objections or seem all that troubled by what he walked into. Normally that would be something Five would note to keep an eye on, but at the moment it's a nice change. Time will tell how far that luck extends with this gamble he's taking.

When Regulus says it won't hurt, he offers a nod, trying his best to seem empathetic. He's fine with that if it keeps him from screaming. The silence ward on the door will keep it inside if he does, but he'd still rather not have to shout over him.

Although he's not expecting him to take out a wand of all things. Frowning, he crosses his arms and watches him curiously.

"Ask him if there are any other captives like you. Or if they're looking for more of them." That's the most important one. After giving his suggestion, he shifts his attention between the both of them and waits to see what happens.

Regulus nodded and then lifted the wand. By now, Regulus was skilled enough with the incantation that he didn't have to say it out loud. Starting from the tip of his wand and spreading out towards the man, the air stayed transparent, but it shimmered, distorting just enough that it was clear something was happening.

Regulus repeated the question and sent a mental idea through the spell of himself, him being taken by the forest people and kept, and the idea of 'others'. The whole while Regulus maintained eye contact with the man.

Then the man spoke, and it was difficult to make out what he was saying. But Regulus got a clear answer from the man's mind.

He shook his head. "I was the only one. There aren't more of us that they are keeping. Or even looking for. I was a one-off chance encounter."

It's hard to look away from him when he starts. Not quite like Allison's power, but the way he linked to the man gave him a similar feeling. Of course, hearing it second hand means trusting that he's repeating exactly what he said, but he's digging for scraps now.

Is he relieved that they don't have more captives? If he's honest, he would rather have a report that would give him a direction to figure out where the rest of his siblings landed.

"Keep going. Ask him what they were doing with you." He remembers what they talked about. Keep drilling until they find out anything they can actually use.

Regulus repeated the process but with a different question this time.

He looked at Five when he answered. "To keep me out of the mines. Do you know what is in the mines that the forest people would want to keep me out of the mines? Or should I ask him?"

To keep him out of the mines. Five rubs a hand through his hair, as he considers the answer. He didn't say anything about recruiting him into Anurr's numbers, which is what he would have assumed. He was hiding him then?

"Half of the first group showed up there," he mutters, distracted. It almost sounds like they were trying to help him. "I wasn't with them, but we were all supposed to be claimed by Unhalad."

It bothers him suddenly. Looking at the man who he's been infuriated with, seeming to have good intentions. He's clearly insane, but he might not have as much to do with what's happening as he assumed.

"They're trying to deprive him of a weapon."

Regulus nodded in agreement. That tracked with his experiences.

"They didn't want me interacting with the miners or other travelers that passed by. Probably so Unhalad wouldn't learn about me." And the forest people didn't even want him interacting with their undead. Which was interesting and maybe suggested that Anurr 'recruited' his army via different methods than Unhalad did.

"Did you still want me to ask him about that wind? Can you give me a bit more information about that?"

He huffs a sigh as he thinks that over. Unhalad might be more forceful, but he did hear accounts of Anurr drugging people during one of their cult meetings to get them more susceptible to their cause. Considering that was an option, he's surprised they hadn't tried to give Regulus the same thing.

Looking over at him, he nods.

"The voices in the woods and the wolves. We wanted to find out what was controlling them, and all we could get out of him was the wind." Regulus might not have any idea what he's talking about, but the old man will and that's all that matters. "Find out what he meant."

Regulus nodded and, again, repeated the process as before. The question asked, the spell cast.

This time, Regulus' brow creased in concentration because the answer he got back most, aside from a repeat of what they already knew: the wind controlled the voices and the wolves, was honest confusion. Regulus kept at it until the man started to get visibly uncomfortable and upset. If a subject to legilimency wasn't hiding answers, you could only ask the question so many times before they became too upset for their mind to be useful. Asking again would just make Regulus' job harder.

So finally he shook his head. "The answer he gave is the same you have, the wind controls the voices and the wolves. He genuinely doesn't understand beyond that."

At first, Five narrows his eyes as he listens to his answer, but there's something building underneath them. Frustration that he's wasted all this time just to read someone's mind and find it's empty.

"Shit." Abruptly, he walks the length of the shed, barely restraining from kicking an old bucket across the room just so he can hear it break. Another part of him wants to snap the man's neck and leave him the woods for his buddies to find, but he's not... going to do that. Mingyu had already offered to wipe his memories, and he'd see through him if he suddenly changed his mind.

Finally he rubs his forehead and returns to the center of the room as he attempts to cool his temper.

"We're not getting anywhere with this. He follows someone he doesn't know anything about." They don't have any other captives and everything else is just more of the same that he could have guessed himself. "A bunch of cult nonsense."

He takes a few breaths and reconsiders. There's one thing he could clarify for him, so he asks like he hadn't nearly thrown a tantrum.

"Ask him about Karsa and Haltham. How does he know them?"

Regulus just stood back and gripped his wand in case he needed it to defend himself.

Five's reaction gave him a chance to consider where he fell on the issue of torture if Five was headed in that direction. And here Regulus saw quite clearly where his morals landed. He would not participate in anything like torture should Five want to go that way. Whether he would save the old man or not, well that was a different matter, one Regulus didn't know the answer to.

But Five calmed down and refocuses.

And Regulus was comfortable enough to keep going. That he was, after a display like that, probably spoke to some skewed outlook on violence on Regulus' part. But why pause now for more study of moral implications?

Regulus lifted the wand again and ask the question.

This time the answers came quickly.

"He doesn't know anything about Haltham other than he's a frequent, welcomed guest at dinners. But-" Regulus looked a bit deeper for this answer. "He knows that Karsa is of the city. She performs magic for them for a fee from time to time. She gave a brew to the chieftain that took away the pain from his joints. She cast a curse on snakes and small vermin, and they no longer trouble parts of the settlement. The forest people are grateful that their children play without problems from snakes. He thinks she is costly, but that's how things are from the city."

The outrage he'd felt the first time Regulus had mentioned seeing Haltham resurfaces when he gives his account. It twists at an old paranoia inside him that something isn't right. A welcome guest with Anurr's supporters. A man who had insisted to set them up in this farmhouse, now that they know its history. Maybe he wasn't working together with Karsa at all, although he has other issues with her. Either way, they've put too much faith in their survival with the two of them.

He looks at Regulus, who doesn't know enough to understand his anger, and flexes his jaw until he can work it up to a tight smile. The man has done everything he asked without complaint. There's nothing more he wants out of him.

"Good work. That's all I needed." Once Regulus leaves, he'll take Mingyu up on his offer and get rid of their houseguest. Then he's going to have to spend some time with the information he got and decide what to do with it.

After a moment, he seems to reach the acceptance stage of this entire venture and motions to the man. "If you want to ask him anything else, go ahead. I'll take you back when you're done."

Regulus cocked his head at the old man, a flash of curiosity crossing his features.

"Ya," he said, lifting his hand with the quartz, two fingers raised to gesture to Five to wait. "I have one. Why didn't they turn me into one of their undead soldiers."

The answer was interesting, at least to Regulus.

"He... doesn't really understand. The idea I'm getting is that the forest people don't get involved themselves in the fighting." They had been fairly peaceful during Regulus' stay with them. "And," there was just a bit more. "The other part is... Anurr doesn't obligate people to join him. At least, that's how this man frames it in his mind."

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