westwhere | (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.

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He nodded, solemn. It was a grim prospect, and an awful fate he wouldn't wish on even the Merchant himself for his sins.

"That's the idea."

"Huh," Regulus said, letting the implications of that sink in.

"So... does he not know we're here?" he asked slowly. "In this farmhouse?"

"Hm. Unhalad sent raids through Sa-Hareth in search of us before, so if he knew we were here, I expect we'd at least see some of his undead in this area. But he was also stronger, then.."

Eleven leaned up against the counter, arms folding while they waited.

"So, either he isn't aware of our presence here, or he does know but doesn't have the strength to attack us."

"What do you think it-"

And just then, the kettle started hissing and making a high pitch noise.

Regulus stepped back, away from it, "Is it supposed to do that?"

Eleven shifted his weight back to his feet and flashed a smile to Regulus. He took the kettle off the heat and moved to pour the steaming liquid into the teapot.

"Yes. That's how we know the water has reached temperature. And now," he said, setting the kettle down and replacing the lid on the teapot. "We need to wait for the leaves to steep."

"Huh," Regulus gave the kettle a wary look. But if this was how tea was made...

"So what do you think it is?" he asked, undeterred from his previous line of questioning.

Eleven didn't laugh, but clear amusement shone through his smile. It took a few moments to settle back onto the more serious topic on hand.

"Well we've been here for some time, but we've also been pretty careful. Anurr wouldn't have any interest in sharing our location with Unhalad, and Unhalad is weakened. We're a pretty strong group. I think it could well be both."

Regulus scrunched up his brow in thought. "How many of us are here?"

This was just one farmhouse and he was beginning to understand other people had powers here that weren't magic, but was that equal to an invading army of undead?

"Somewhere around twenty," he offered with a shrug.

It was a little hard to keep track. He'd counted roughly a dozen at the start, but Five said fifteen, and he knew of a handful of other recent arrivals including Regulus himself, so that was his best estimate.

Eleven tapped his fingers on the counter, then realized he'd forgotten cups and moved to procure a clean pair. "..Maybe two dozen- ah, twenty-four. I'm pretty sure that's a decent estimate, currently."

Regulus raised his eyebrows. He was expecting a smaller number, but not that small.

"And you think that is enough to take on an army of the undead?"

He shrugged. "Depends on the size of the army."

Eleven shook his head. "But no, at least, I think it's enough to deter a direct attack."

Regulus picked up the teapot and poured himself some tea.

"How many battles with armies have you been in?" It wasn't a dismissive question, the kid had two swords, Regulus expected him to have some experience.

He blew on his cup before taking a sip. It wasn't the worst tea he'd ever tried.

Eleven shifted his weight and hummed a short note.

"Against an army.. once, so far." That would change, he was sure. "They were mostly undead, and we were greatly outnumbered.. but we had a good position, a strong leader, and we managed to take out theirs before too long. The rest scattered, after that."

He poured himself a cup, smiling faintly. "But we're more than simple foot soldiers with swords and crossbows. I have faith in our strength if we stand together."

"And who's the leader here, among us?" Regulus asked just before sipping his tea.

Eleven breathed to cool the liquid, head tipping in a partial shrug.

"It's still a tenuous alliance," he admitted.

Not that his alliance with Heliodor and Hendrik hadn't been rather tenuous, but they all fought for the same cause in the end and that had been enough. But this was even more tenuous than that with such a diverse group, for all they had a similarly common enemy.

"Attempts at organization have been made, but fostering trust isn't easy."

"So..." Regulus said, honing in on the obvious lack of a direct answer. "No leader."

While even the strongest leaders had dissidents, groups that had solid leadership won battles more frequently than rag-tag, ill-sorted strangers.

"So your faith... and a whole lot of luck is how we win?"

He ducked his head with a sheepish smile, shoulders hunching as he raised his cup to take a sip of tea.

"We have two military leader types that I know of in our group.. But for now, we win by not drawing attention to ourselves and avoiding large-scale conflict."