BACKDATED Jay and Amanda - Not Magic
Jul. 17th, 2024 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_icarus posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsBackdated to May 12 Jay and Amanda come across each other while each does their own warding of the mansion.
He'd been going widdershins around the corners of the mansion. If Clea and her witches could put up wards on the building well, Jay had every right to pray on it, as far as he was cornered.
Prayin' on something was totally different from magic. He'd copied out psalm 23 on good stationary to tuck into all the four corners, because it couldn't hurt to guard the place against harm and bad luck. Lord knows they'd had enough just since Jay had been here.
Occasionally he stopped when the breeze got up and let it flutter the pages and he closed his eyes and pointed to a verse to read after the wind died down. A few times he'd had to go after the photos he tucked into the pages. It was one of these times he caught sight of someone else looking intently at one of the walls.
For her part, Amanda was re-powering the wards. She'd had something of the same idea, especially in light of Topaz' news about possible Slenderman activity. So she'd charged up her wych in New York and brought it back to the mansion, using the stored energy to rejuvenate the protective magic contained in the symbols scrawled in a circle on the north wall. As she pressed the end of the short staff to the centre of the circle, the arcane letters glowed white and she gave a short nod of satisfaction. Then movement caught the corner of her vision and she turned her head to see Jay - the new Jay, not the one she'd known, however similar they looked, she had to remind herself of that - with what looked like a Bible in his hands. Releasing the spell, she tucked the wych through her belt, kind of like a short sword, and waved. "Hey. Nice day, innit?"
Jay looked up from where he was bending to collect the photo that had fallen, tucking it into the pages of his Bible and snapping it shut. He regarded Amanda with a careful suspicion, looking at her magic wand on her belt and the circle she was making.
Witchery. He didn't want to judge harshly, but still. He wouldn't be lettin' his guard down around her.
"Good weather for flyin'," he nodded to her, eyes sliding back to the circle and then back to the woman. He thumbed the side of his Bible as a nervous tell, the copy clearly dogeared and marked.
"It would be," she agreed. "Days like this make me wish I could actually fly." Amanda took in the nervous demeanour, the side glance to the ward and the rifling of the Bible. "I was just recharging the magical protection on the mansion," she explained simply. "The spell needs to be energised regular-like to keep working."
He made a humming noise of appreciation, glancing again at the ward. "I reckon that makes sense," Jay said. "Hope you don't mind if I do a little protecting on top of it myself," he said, not sure why he was admitting to his folklore. It was the kind of thing people judged you for. But then, Amanda was a witch.
Amanda raised her eyebrows, more curious than judgemental. "The more the merrier," she offered. "What sort of protection are you doing, if it's okay to ask?"
"Just prayin' on it," Jay mumbled, knowing that to someone like Amanda it probably sounded silly. Did witches even believe in God? But saying protections and tucking written prayers into the slats of a house had never steered him wrong before.
Like writing circles of protection.
Amanda of twenty years ago would have jumped down his throat. But the woman simply nodded. "Every little bit helps," she said encouragingly. "Prayers aren't so very different from spells - just you're asking for an outside agency to provide the protection where I'm using my own energy."
"Y'ain't got good mountains to ask 'round here so that makes sense, usin' your own," Jay said, thinking about how his prayers were just as much to the area as to God. After all, where did he feel God more than in his hills? It was a second before he realised just how out there that sounded. He didn't exactly know how to backtrack. "What I'm meanin' is, well, what I'm meanin' is that ya gotta use something."
She tilted her head slightly, considering what he was saying. "That we do," she agreed. "Mine's usually cities - New York, London, Berlin are my favourites - but here we're far enough away from anything big enough that I don't have the connection. So I use my own, with a little help from an old mate." She touched the short elm wand in her belt. "Do you do this sort of thing a lot back home?"
"It ain't magic," Jay said, defending himself quickly before answering her question. "But I do a little here and there. Ain't no granny woman, but I help where I can."
"You'd be sitting in my magic class if it was." Amanda grinned. "Call it professional curiosity on my part. There's so many different types of power out there that I'm still surprised by new ones popping up. And I like to ask questions."
Jay eased at the witch agreeing that it wasn't magic and smiled back at her. "I don't know if I'd be able to answer them, but I can try, if'n ya like."
"Yeah, that'll take a bit of a sit down. How about we finish up here and then we can have a natter?"
He'd been going widdershins around the corners of the mansion. If Clea and her witches could put up wards on the building well, Jay had every right to pray on it, as far as he was cornered.
Prayin' on something was totally different from magic. He'd copied out psalm 23 on good stationary to tuck into all the four corners, because it couldn't hurt to guard the place against harm and bad luck. Lord knows they'd had enough just since Jay had been here.
Occasionally he stopped when the breeze got up and let it flutter the pages and he closed his eyes and pointed to a verse to read after the wind died down. A few times he'd had to go after the photos he tucked into the pages. It was one of these times he caught sight of someone else looking intently at one of the walls.
For her part, Amanda was re-powering the wards. She'd had something of the same idea, especially in light of Topaz' news about possible Slenderman activity. So she'd charged up her wych in New York and brought it back to the mansion, using the stored energy to rejuvenate the protective magic contained in the symbols scrawled in a circle on the north wall. As she pressed the end of the short staff to the centre of the circle, the arcane letters glowed white and she gave a short nod of satisfaction. Then movement caught the corner of her vision and she turned her head to see Jay - the new Jay, not the one she'd known, however similar they looked, she had to remind herself of that - with what looked like a Bible in his hands. Releasing the spell, she tucked the wych through her belt, kind of like a short sword, and waved. "Hey. Nice day, innit?"
Jay looked up from where he was bending to collect the photo that had fallen, tucking it into the pages of his Bible and snapping it shut. He regarded Amanda with a careful suspicion, looking at her magic wand on her belt and the circle she was making.
Witchery. He didn't want to judge harshly, but still. He wouldn't be lettin' his guard down around her.
"Good weather for flyin'," he nodded to her, eyes sliding back to the circle and then back to the woman. He thumbed the side of his Bible as a nervous tell, the copy clearly dogeared and marked.
"It would be," she agreed. "Days like this make me wish I could actually fly." Amanda took in the nervous demeanour, the side glance to the ward and the rifling of the Bible. "I was just recharging the magical protection on the mansion," she explained simply. "The spell needs to be energised regular-like to keep working."
He made a humming noise of appreciation, glancing again at the ward. "I reckon that makes sense," Jay said. "Hope you don't mind if I do a little protecting on top of it myself," he said, not sure why he was admitting to his folklore. It was the kind of thing people judged you for. But then, Amanda was a witch.
Amanda raised her eyebrows, more curious than judgemental. "The more the merrier," she offered. "What sort of protection are you doing, if it's okay to ask?"
"Just prayin' on it," Jay mumbled, knowing that to someone like Amanda it probably sounded silly. Did witches even believe in God? But saying protections and tucking written prayers into the slats of a house had never steered him wrong before.
Like writing circles of protection.
Amanda of twenty years ago would have jumped down his throat. But the woman simply nodded. "Every little bit helps," she said encouragingly. "Prayers aren't so very different from spells - just you're asking for an outside agency to provide the protection where I'm using my own energy."
"Y'ain't got good mountains to ask 'round here so that makes sense, usin' your own," Jay said, thinking about how his prayers were just as much to the area as to God. After all, where did he feel God more than in his hills? It was a second before he realised just how out there that sounded. He didn't exactly know how to backtrack. "What I'm meanin' is, well, what I'm meanin' is that ya gotta use something."
She tilted her head slightly, considering what he was saying. "That we do," she agreed. "Mine's usually cities - New York, London, Berlin are my favourites - but here we're far enough away from anything big enough that I don't have the connection. So I use my own, with a little help from an old mate." She touched the short elm wand in her belt. "Do you do this sort of thing a lot back home?"
"It ain't magic," Jay said, defending himself quickly before answering her question. "But I do a little here and there. Ain't no granny woman, but I help where I can."
"You'd be sitting in my magic class if it was." Amanda grinned. "Call it professional curiosity on my part. There's so many different types of power out there that I'm still surprised by new ones popping up. And I like to ask questions."
Jay eased at the witch agreeing that it wasn't magic and smiled back at her. "I don't know if I'd be able to answer them, but I can try, if'n ya like."
"Yeah, that'll take a bit of a sit down. How about we finish up here and then we can have a natter?"
