westwhere | (no subject)

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(no subject)

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

After the Merchant’s announcement and the explosion of opinions that had followed, Regulus knew one thing – no matter what skill set everyone brought to this table, there was no consensus and no collective identity to this disparate group.

Regulus was feeling more alone than he had when he’d been taken in by the forest people.

He’d been avoiding Lily since their one meeting because it seemed like the less exhausting option for the both of them. If she stayed out of his way, he’d stay out of hers.

But he sought her out now.

His new morality was an unmoored boat, sail up, but a confused and broken soul at the helm, not knowing where he was going. He honestly didn’t know how he felt about her, but as his preconceived notions from his previous life had been unraveling since the moment he’d decided to turn on Lord Voldemort, it was time to follow the winds of change in this new direction.

He found her in the kitchen. It was now nightfall and the voices tormenting them were at their game. They only made him feel more sure of his choice to seek out Lily.

“Can we talk?” he asked.

Her forehead was creased and her eyes shut tight, as though she were trying to ride out a bad headache when he entered. This place was dreadful, but those voices at night made it all the more so, and often Lily didn't lay down to sleep until she had wandered the farm for hours, tiring herself out.

Cradling a squat earthy green mug of steaming tea she opened her eyes as he entered, the tension in her expression quickly replaced by something cooler. Not disdainful, simply cautious.

"We can. What did you want to talk about?" It had made sense to not deal with Regulus yet. In a mad world of bizarre circumstances that she was still forming a picture of, it was better to focus on the unknown. She didn't know where his loyalties lay, though she had her suspicions based on the company she could recall him keeping at school. The idea of the dark cloud of asinine Purist rhetoric hanging over her while she tried to orientate herself in Sa-Hareth sounded as wretched as pulling herself from the lake had been days ago. She would find her footing here, and then she would overturn that particular rock.

"Do you want a cup of tea?" Lily held up her own cup before setting it aside to pick up her wand, tugging a small pile of leaves from one of the wild plants outside. "It's a bit weak, sort of the kind you might make your gran so she doesn't stay up too late, but it's passable in a pinch."

Regulus approached.

Was it because he'd endured these voices before, when he'd taken the potion, but this time, because they came without the pain from the potion that they didn't bother him as much?

Of course, he was usually drunk at night. So that might be the part that helped him.

He stopped at the table. He eyed the tea and wondered if it was poison or if it tasted better than the stuff the other had come up with. But he bit that question back and stuck to his purpose.

"Truce," he said. "I want a truce." He didn't say why at first, he thought to save that for after an initial rejection so he had something convincing to counter with.

Watching Regulus as he crossed the room and stopped at the table Lily's eyebrows raised when he spoke. "A truce?" There was no way of masking the surprise in her voice, not at all put off to the idea, but she certainly would not have anticipated it.

"Well then," Lily changed the leaves in front of her into a mug of tea, using her wand to send it sliding to the other side of the table, where Regulus stood.

Already her mind was whirring away, sizing the situation up as she tried to determine the best course of action. She considered what one of her mentors back at school, Slughorn, might do in a situation such as this one - it was a line of thinking Lily had returned to in increasing amounts in the days since her arrival. Horace was cunning, he knew how to get by and do it well, but he was never cruel in his machinations (perhaps tone-deaf and vain at times, but never cruel). By her approximation he would look to ingratiate himself with those he decided were good, helpful company to keep while seeking to make himself as useful as he could. And he would hear out another wizard in a strange place.

Even one with undetermined personal alliances.

"What are your terms for our truce?"

"Terms? That we're allies here. We have each other's backs."

This was the biggest leap over the average Death Eater's lines in the sand that Regulus was taking. But in all honesty, he didn't know where his new lines lay. Maybe he was a safe distance from crossing them. Maybe he'd passed them so long ago lines couldn't describe his morality.

"You were worried about a war back home," he explained. "I was in it. It was something I didn't want to be in and I thought I'd gotten out." He left that ambiguous for so many reasons.

"And now we're stuck in the middle of another war. I know a handful of people here, and you're the most familiar face in that group. I know what you're capable of and I'd rather be on your side than against you."

Sitting back in her seat Lily processed all he'd had to say, nodding slowly as she turned the notion of such an alliance over in her mind, certain it was exactly the sort of thing Horace would do.

"Do you agree that we'll share whatever useful information we come across?" She had been diligent in her efforts to piece together what was happening around her in this bizarre world, and if they were both being diligent observers, they would see twice as much. More information was the key, she believed it as firmly now as she did back home, and always would.

"And that if one finds a way back home they'll take the other?"

Sure, the years wouldn't line up exactly, but it was better than here, even if the thought of returning to the war he claimed to have played some part in turned her stomach.

Regulus was ready to agree to all the terms. But then he was stopped short at the last one.

He couldn't go back. But he didn't want to tell Lily that. Not yet, at least. He could barely tell it to himself, how could he tell it to someone else.

"We share useful information," he agreed. "And if either of us finds a way back, I will help you get back." That was his compromise.

His phrasing wasn't lost on her, but for the moment she refrained from remarking on it even as it piqued her curiosity.

There was something else that for the moment was far more important to Lily, especially if he meant what he'd said, and wanted to work with her to some extent. She remembered what kind of horrible insults the people he used to keep company with hurled at people who came from families like hers. If he thought that about her, this would be a doomed venture, and she wouldn't be able to agree.

Lily sat up and held out her hand for him to shake, looking at him expectantly, wondering if he was as disdainful as his schoolmates had been.

Regulus did hesitate to take Lily's hand. Years of prejudice and purist propaganda drilled into his very being couldn't be eradicated in just a few weeks of expanding his mental horizons.

So he paused.

But it was just a pause.

Because he needed this. And some part of him could think beyond himself, and maybe Lily needed this too if she was willing to take him up on his idea of a truce. A new world, a new way of thinking. He had to adapt. They both did. And that was easier to do if you knew the person next to you. His pride was slowly turning to dust.

He looked her in the eye as he grabbed her hand to shake it.

"And we help each other, too."

More than aware of the way he hesitated Lily seemed relieved when he finally took her hand to shake. "Agreed." Collaboratively, they might be able to pull off a few very useful things for the group, and ultimately Lily wanted to help.

Dropping his hand she picked up her tea again, tilting her head to the side as she watched him.

"Of all the bloody people," there was a small, tired smirk on her face as she shook her head. "Slughorn would be so pleased if he knew it was two of his students Unhalad picked." Lily took a sip of tea, trying to imagine the old professor preening over a ghastly thing like that.

He eyed Lily as she spoke. He took a seat and picked up the tea now.

His feelings towards Professor Slughorn had soured Regulus' last year at Hogwarts. Slughorn collected students, but when it came to matters of protecting them against real evil, he'd been noticeably absent as a pillar of help when Regulus had needed it.

"I'm sure he'd be quite beside himself with pride," Regulus said flatly, but he wasn't here to argue about Professor Slughorn.

"So what do you know about Unhalad?"

"Unhalad," she said thoughtfully, reaching for her bag and pulling out her notebook and pencil. Setting them both down beside her cup of tea she flipped the book open to a folded page covered in writing that formed a sort of divider (she didn't have dividers, she had to make her own, desperate times and all that). On its edge, the words UNDEAD WANKERS were written in neat capital print.

Unfolding the page Lily cleared her throat as she skimmed it. "Well, I know that Unhalad is the current reigning undead wanker, and he's why we're all here. He's summoning individuals from all over various," she looked up and frowned, tilting her head from side to side as she tried to quantify it. "Worlds, I suppose, though I think some of us don't dwell on any specific world. Anyway, Unhalad and Anurr are rivals, and while Anurr wasn't popular, they like him more than Unhalad in the nearby citadel. Both have armies full of undead that."

She halted abruptly, folding the makeshift divider back up and flipping to another titled LOCAL MAGIC. Flipping to a page with a fish drawn at the top, enchanted to make lazy circles in its small pool Lily's finger skimmed along the lines before she stopped and began to read. "'Out of dread or despair or vengeance, they took upon and within themselves that which should not have been invited,' according to my friend the carp."

Ah, note-taking.

Edited 2021-06-13 01:29 (UTC)

"Anurr is popular with the forest people, the people here first," Regulus said. "It's the merchants and outside travelers who don't like him because he protects the forest people from outsiders trying to harm them. Not saying he's the better option, but Anurr is more liked. He's also somehow undead."

Lily's friend the carp... Well, there were worse sources of information.

"What does that mean? Was the fish talking about Anurr's undead army?" Because it sounded like a description of the undead, but Unhalad forced conscription. What did Anurr do?

Nodding as he relayed that information about the forest people, Lily flipped back to the undead wankers section and penciled in those details.

"I believe the forest people suspect some of us to align ourselves with Unhalad - at least if the way they treated me is any indication."

Again she went back through her notebook to the fish page. "Wei Wuxian suggested I ask the carp how the process of turning undead can be reversed, and among the things it said was that. It also said 'wounding cannot be reversed'. It could mean both Anurr's and Unhalads if their forces are both undead."

Turning the book around she slid it across for him to read all of what the fish had said in response to her question. Lily had transcribed it as the fish spoke, though the written record on the page stopped after the fish spoke of culling the undead. She intended to be generous with what she knew with Regulus, but she was glad she hadn't jotted down what had happened after, being gifted a scale and promised two more. For the time being that was knowledge Lily was going to keep to herself.

Regulus took a drink of the tea. It was better than whatever it was everyone else was trying to pretend was good.

"What did the forest people do to you?" he asked. "All they did to me was keep me away from people until Karsa passed through."

"They rather liked you, they pushed me into the lake and that thing got a hold of me." She scowled against the rim of her teacup and slid her book back to its place in front of her, adding a note about how Regulus had been received by the forest people.

"It kept me down there until dawn, the bruise is finally gone thankfully but," Lily fell quiet and shook her head, frowning at the thought. She would be very pleased when it was time to get away from this lake.

"That's a trip," Regulus remarked flatly. He didn't want to tell her he knew how she felt because that would bring up all sorts of questions he didn't want to talk about right now. "The undead aren't fun in this world. Neither are the locals."

Just then, a cat jumped up into his lap. And he scratched her behind the ears without thinking. She squatted down and started purring.

"Alright," he said, noticing the way Lily got quiet. The only way he knew to deal with something like that was to just move on. "I want to duplicate your bag and notebook." Move on with very awkward transitions.

When Regulus shifted gears and moved the topic back to business Lily looked relieved, watching him from across the table with a satisfied smile.

"Brilliant." She gave him a nod, looking down at her bag briefly before turning her attention back to him once more.

"I want you to make two copies of my bag, and as many notebooks as you think we'll use." Privately she had been turning over an idea in her mind, weighing out the risks involved should she fail, the idea of replicating what she intended to experiment on removed a good deal of the risk involved.

Regulus was a little taken aback by Lily's willingness to let him copy her things. It was a trust issue thing. But it was just a momentary pause as he then nods, "Okay. Two bags and a bunch of notebooks."

That order shouldn't be too difficult.

"I think we should also connect our notebooks with a protean charm. That way we don't have to be face to face to share new information."

That he was so full of sensible ideas made Lily feel as though this was certainly a good idea. Two of them gathering information to pool together seemed much more conducive to getting herself to a place where she felt she could help the group.

"Charm our notebooks?" Lily looked down at the one in front of her thoughtfully. "It'll eliminate the problem of worrying over who hears what over the network," she nodded and looked at him.

"I accept," another nod and then- "I want to place an extension charm on my bag, I think the smaller one I keep inside this one, I need some practice, it's tricky magic but if we both have a hand in making them it will be very useful." To everyone, ideally, but one step at a time.

"Smart thinking," he said, brows crossed in a moment of thought. "Let me make a duplicate of your make-up bag, too, then. Keeping a template in case we mess up is a good idea."

He hesitated again, chewing on an idea.

"Do you... want to start now?" It seemed prudent, given what the Merchant said about their impending departure, to get more done now, rather than later.

Glancing around the room Lily looked back at Regulus and shrugged. "Why not now? I didn't have any plans to sleep soon."

With everything that lay ahead, wasting time was foolish, especially now that they'd hammered down concrete ideas of what to do from here.

"It's prudent too, to put the charm on the smallest container we can. It'll be easier to transport and hide." Pulling her bag onto the table she carefully emptied it, keeping her belongings in a neat pile on the corner of the table before she slid the satchel over to him and busied herself emptying out the smaller make-up bag inside. The contents of the little pouch had been ruined by the lake, save for the hairbrush, but she had hung onto it for just such an occasion.

Regulus nodded and lifted Patricia off his lap and put her on the table while Lily emptied her bag. She looked ruffled for a moment and then sat down. He pulled Lily's bag to him to start examining it, so did Patricia but Regulus didn't seem to notice.

He took out his wand and started taking mental measurements. Patricia was also interested in Regulus' wand.

"Smart to us the smaller bag." He reached for the smaller bag.

"I'm going to change the color of mine so we don't get confused." He looked at Lily. "Want to make any cosmetic changes?"

Watching the cat for a moment Lily paused in unpacking her things and turned to Regulus with a frown. "That's just a cat, right?"

She should have asked sooner, she knew, but it was still pertinent.

"You don't have to change anything, but I want to watch and learn from you."

Regulus did a double-take at Patricia and then Lily.

"Yes- yes?" He didn't know why he was confused. "Why? I did a favor for Five, I asked him to pay with a cat and two bottles of whiskey. This is Patricia."

For Lily Evans

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