001 ♝ video ♝ open to both courts

[boutant]

[ While the small stack of books in front of her have certainly come from Caer Scima's library, Ariadne is in her room within the castle, seated on her bed. Asleep with its nose sticking out from her back, head resting on an open book, is a bandersnatch cub -- rather like a cat, it appears to have decided to 'help' her research. ]

If you could protect something -- say, a building -- from anything, what would you protect it from? I've thought of fire, high winds, earthquakes, mosquitoes, falling trees, and hail so far.

[ In the background, the door to her room appears to open slightly; with the wind, perhaps. ]

I'm an architecture student, back home, and there are a lot of possibilities here.

[ She looks like she's about to say more, but just then a glowing red imp leaps onto her head, screeching and yanking at her hair. The bandersnatch cub jerks awake and Ariadne screams, the locket flipped over so that all that's shown for a moment are the sheets on her bed. It's turned up again a moment later, falling onto the floor and on its side this time, followed by a loud thwack.

The imp falls to the ground, dazed; in the next moment, a thick, leather-bound book with a pawprint on its spine slams into it a second time before the bandersnatch cub races forward and grabs onto the imp's legs, shaking its little head and growling in a way that would be adorable if it weren't trying to maim something. ]

Oh, don't- [ before the locket is closed by the hand reaching for it, there's the sight of broken skin and blood -- sharp little imp teeth had found their mark. ]

Comments

[relieson]

What about Onmyoji?

[boutant]

[ She shakes her head. ]

I'm not certain what that is, so I suppose it's possible that I have and just didn't know it.

[relieson]

Really? Not even from TV? ( she doesn't really wait for a response: ) They're a sort of traditional kind of occultist! They do exorcisms and protect people from evil spirits, and have all sorts of really cool spells! I'm friends with one, he's — ( her enthusiasm dampers slightly, remembering some of subaru's circumstances; she takes in a breath. ) — well, he's really powerful. And they specialise in this kind of magic.

[boutant]

Huh. [ And no, not even from TV. ] That sounds... incredibly useful.

[ Maybe not back home, but here? Definitely. ]

[relieson]

It is, isn't it? I think that's why even 'normal' people outside of the magical industry know about them. I mean, back home.

[boutant]

There's a whole magical industry where you're from?

[relieson]

Um… sort of. I mean, I guess so. Not officially, but…

[boutant]

It doesn't have to be official.

[relieson]

Well… it's not like a business industry either. Actually, it's a word a friend of mine uses. He's really well informed about this stuff! Um, I guess it's more like… there are maybe twenty powerful families and sites and everyone kind of knows one another. Like Subaru-san's family are famous Onmyoji and everyone knows they take care of those kind of things…

[boutant]

From what you've told me, it sounds like a fitting word for it, at least.

Do people outside of the industry know any magic?

[relieson]

Not really… Um, I think every now and then someone is born with a strong sixth sense, but I think it mostly sticks to the same families and places. But maybe if you're born with a magical power, you'll end up going to one of those places anyway?

[boutant]

That would make sense. You might be drawn to it naturally, or you would go because you want to learn.

[relieson]

Probably! It would be pretty neat to be able to cast spells… ( wistfully… )

[boutant]

If you go to the castle library, you should be able to find some books that can teach you. That's what I've done.

[relieson]

You've learned spells? What kinds? That's so cool!

[boutant]

How to become invisible, mostly. I figured that it'd be useful.

[relieson]

That sounds like it could be really fun! Was it hard to learn?

[boutant]

I'm still learning, and at first it was pretty confusing since it was my first real experience with magic -- but it's pretty interesting.

[relieson]

It is, isn't it? Even with my background, I don't know very much about real magic, but it's so interesting! You must be really talented to be able to learn things like that so easily.

[boutant]

Mostly, I think I just have a lot of practice studying.

[relieson]

Are you a student?

[boutant]

An architecture student, yes.