abraxaslogs | Do you love magic? Is it in your soul?

Julia is settled in a little more to Solvunn now that time has passed. She is seen most often with the kids in the settlement as she volunteered to do babysitting duty. She's either doing arts and crafts with them, playing tag or chasing after them while laughing, or doing story time where she describes a place called Fillory with centaurs and dragons. Anyone can listen if they'd like or come play tag with them.

She is helping with the harvest or willing to do some manual labor, showing an unusual amount of strength at times for someone so petite. People can see her using magic to bring some plants from drooping back to healthy life or changing rotten fruit into healthy. She uses her magic primarily with plants and trees, but she may bloom some flowers and give them to the kids.

She can also be found walking alone in the forests, seemingly in a trance or very in-tune with nature around her, unconcerned about whether it's safe. She'll do this in the mornings or even late at night. If it's at night, she'll have a magic spell creating light with her. While she avoided the shrines in the start, she starts visiting the shrines over the course of the month, learning a little bit about the gods to identify which ones are where. She sits at some of the shrines quietly and may be spotted talking to them, although whatever she's said can't be fully heard.

Edited 2023-11-04 15:40 (UTC)

[ For the past few days, Erik has actively been avoiding places with a lot of people. He's helped with the harvest when there seem to be fewer people around, or doing tasks that keep him farther away from most other people, and outside of that, he's been largely absent.

Luckily, it's not a difficult thing to achieve, in Solvunn. There is always space, there's always a place he can go to when things become too overwhelming. Which is often these days, with a new ability he's yet to understand, let alone fully control. He can barely handle his own feelings at times, let alone others.

The forests end up being a frequent destination for him, then. Particularly at night when he can't sleep, he walks until this is where he ends up, perched on a tree or, as it so happens right now, lying down on a clearing, looking up at the stars.

He doesn't see Julia until she's close enough for that glow to register in the periphery of his vision, and he sits up, turning around so he can see the source of that light. ]

Julia?

[ It is very easy to slip into the darkness in Solvunn and get private time, and Julia's been doing that herself. She's extroverted so she likes being around people, but she has enough noise within herself that some absolute quiet is appreciated. She has her reasons for being out there, trying to see if she can get a sense for the divine, having gone to the shrines but caught on to nothing so far. She never got silence like this in the city or even in her general life to relax in.

She's surprised when she notices movement nearby, turning her head toward him and for a moment her eyes glow as white as the rest of the light around her. She seems to radiate light but it fades away when she recognizes him and it's clear her senses aren't fully caught up since she didn't notice him. Her arms are wrapped around herself, she's wearing layers for the chill, but she comes closer and lowers the brightness so it doesn't blind him. ]

Erik. What in the world are you doing out here?

[ As if it's not also strange for her to be out here! She just hasn't run into anyone else on these walks of hers, most people being wisely sleeping when she does. Julia's gotten to know him enough that after only a few seconds of hesitation, she sits down on the ground near him. ]

[ That's something he will quickly point out, with a raised eyebrow and a twitch at the corner of his lips. ]

I could ask you that very same thing.

[ It's the dead of night, they both should be asleep. If not asleep, then at least not here. And yet. ]

I couldn't sleep. [ He looks up at the sky over the clearing. ] Thought I'd go for a walk, watch the stars.

Same.

[ Mostly. Julia was searching, but she's found nothing so far that makes her think her time is worth it. But there is peace in it too, at the same time. She's filled her time with children and harvests and quiet is appreciated.

She puts the light out since it's just the two of them sitting and she doesn't have to worry about where she's walking. They're immediately put right back into darkness and the stars are particularly bright. ]

They're not the same, I don't think.

[ And why would they be? They're on another world entirely, it wouldn't make sense to have the same galaxy, the same stars. Julia lies back the same way he is, a safe few feet away. ]

What year was it, when you were taken?

[ Well, Erik was searching for a quiet place, so he supposes they were both out here looking for something. Maybe he hasn't found it. On the other hand, of all the people to cross paths with right now, Julia's one of the very few he's fine with, and besides—

Her emotions are gentle, quiet. The surface ones, at least. It could be that Erik is just too tired. Either way, it's a break from how overwhelmed he's felt. ]

I didn't think they would be.

[ But it doesn't matter, to him. He's not here to study constellations, not that he would even know how to recognize them. ]

1983. [ He looks over at her. ] What about you? I don't think you've ever said.

[ Julia lifts her hand and her fingers trace the stars, causing the light she was using moments before to put them into visible patterns against the darkness, fading away into the sky like smoke from a cigarette. Which she wish she could have, on stressful days. He didn't technically invite her to sit but he didn't have to say her name either.

She is quiet and gentle. And she has an unerring sense for introverts who she wouldn't mind carefully pulling out of their shells. ]

Wow another 80s guy, have you met Eddie yet? He's got the whole death metal hair going, hard to miss.

[ A really sweet person too, from her experience so far. He definitely looks like he should be in a Guns N Roses concert though, or Metallica, who he said sold out but she doesn't know what he means. She turns her head to look at Erik. ]

2017. I was born in 1992 so I missed the 80s, but they're nostalgic for it now. Halloween costumes and everything.

[ It is definitely the type of thing she would probably dress up as, if she still lived an ordinary life. As a joke. ]

Am I spoiling your quiet?

[ It's true, he could have just lay there and let her walk past if he didn't want her to approach, but he stopped her instead. Doesn't really know why, he did come out here to be alone, but he finds that he doesn't mind her sitting here, tracing over the stars, leaving him to wonder. Perhaps the people here see constellations not so dissimilar to their own. ]

I haven't, no. Can't say I'm a big fan of metal. [ Hrm. ] Not that sort, at least.

[ Unintended pun, but it kind of works out, doesn't it? Anyway, he'll keep looking up at the stars, even as he listens to her answer and nods. ]

Culture sometimes circles back, like that. I can't say I'm very immersed in the popular culture. And I'm definitely not in my twenties anymore.

[ Pop culture tends to be more a young people thing, so. ]

You're not. I wouldn't be here, if you were.

[ Julia did give him a slanted look, amused, when he said he wasn't a big fan of metal, and chuckles when he corrects it. She knew what he meant but it was funny. She used to know all of the constellations in their sky, it was important to know them for magic, a lot of details went into magic. Now she looks at it and it's alien to her entirely. She wonders how much they care about astrology here. ]

That's true. I mean, there are people who still want to go back to the '50s too. And the Roaring '20s are a regular party theme. And the Great Gatsby parties which realllllllly make it clear how little people understood the themes of the novel. Fitzgerald rolling in his grave.

[ Julia rolls her eyes, although actually, at herself. ]

Sorry, that's the nerd in me showing.

[ She loves books. All of them. Reading for school was a pleasure, never a burden. She talks pop culture fluently including the nerdy part. ]

Guessing here, but I don't think you were much different in your twenties. You don't strike me as the type.

[ He seems too quiet, distant from all of that, serious. She can tell he's got a story, what with his powers and all, but she doesn't pry. He's already told her a lot for someone who seems guarded, including her pulling out of him the superhero costumes. That's in her back pocket for a time they're not enjoying a quiet moment under the night sky. ]

Do you like it here?

[ It's something worth exploring for her. If they have influence in her magic back home, there's no reason to think it wouldn't be the same here. To Erik, it doesn't mean much either way. He never had much knowledge related to astronomy, astrology even less so, but their arcana aren't so dissimilar from tarot cards, from what he's gathered so far. ]

People often romanticize past eras. It's easy, wishing to be back there when one doesn't consider the worst parts of it all. [ The roaring 20's are a popular one, even in the eighties. Erik hums as she talks about the Great Gatsby, and can't help but offer a smile of quiet admission at her very accurate assumption of him. ]

Well, I was a little different. [ Angrier, more arrogant, intensely focused on revenge, even to the detriment of his own well-being. He likes to think he's changed since, but... well, he has his moments. ]

The forest? [ Rhetorical; he knows that's what she means. ] I lived somewhere much like this for a while, just before I cam here. But tonight I came here mostly hoping to be away from people.

[ Julia knows how to read tarot cards, one of those parlor tricks on top of being common among witches, but she has already noticed that the way they approach it here is different. Definitions are different too. She doesn't think she'd read anyone's tarot the same way. But astronomy? She might have to ask about that. All these new stars are beautiful but alien. ]

The grass is greener, basically. No one wants to live in the now. The now is complicated and exhausting and real. The past and the future are more exciting.

[ Julia is a fantasy lover so she used to enjoy the idea of other worlds and times and planets and everything else. The future of robots and flying cars and advanced technology were also so fascinating. Better than bills for sure. When she became realistic, she had to let go of those ideas. Then she backslid into incredible things. ]

And here I come glowing like a little sun to ruin your quiet night.

[ She is joking though, since he already said she was welcome to come sit with him. She continues to paint the stars in the sky in front of her, that little light fading as if it's ink. It's not as bright as when she got there though, it's very subdued, almost dreamlike. ]

I was doing the same thing. I feel like despite this place being so quiet and rural, it's still hard to have breathing room on your own.

I've found both the past and the future to be equally complicated and exhausting.

[ And in his particular case, all too real as well. Erik much prefers the now, but then he has always been pragmatic. He doesn't waste time wondering on what could have been, or dreaming of what other life he could have. This is the one he gets.

He hums around a smile at her words, then nods in agreement. ]

You did look like a little sun. [ And definitely focused on something beyond here. Or maybe that was just him. ]

It is quiet. Usually, but— [ He presses his lips in a pause, then lets out a silent sigh. ] I've recently gained a new ability. It makes things a little louder in my mind.

I'm trying really hard to find reasons to look forward to the future.

[ For someone so young she probably sounds very pessimistic and she has reasons for that. It wasn't always her. Julia does wish she could go backward, she thinks she'd do most things differently. It's hard to compare though because everything that happened to her was necessary otherwise everything would be dead. She had to suffer for the world to survive. A messed up reality, so she can't go back.

But looking to thousands of years ahead of her is daunting.

She turns on her side to look at Erik, her head propped up by her fist, elbow on the grass. The light from her fingers when creating constellations in the sky seems to follow down to her palm and to her wrists before disappearing. She has been able to mask the glow but only barely.

Julia's much more interested in focusing on him at the moment. ]

Like literally louder? Telepathy?

Around Solvunn

forests

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night walk in the woods

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