Fool's Journey

"Why would your head start glowing?" Mischa asks, giving Freddie a crutial look.

"Is that were your mad scientist laboratory is?" Kainze asks, voice an impression of Dexter. "Or is it just a grow op?"

 

"It's a long story involving touching weird shit in South America." Freddie grimaces. "...and only if magically-altered plants count for a grow-op. I've got weird enough shit that I don't need the cops nosing around my place. My girlfriend is kind of an anarchist, after all."

 

"I like her already!" Kainze grins.

 

"Don't encourage her. She's got all she needs without extra enabling." He chuckles.

 

"I guarantee nothing." He grins at him.

 

He shakes his head, chuckling.

"Well then. I suppose there's nothing for it." The house he drives up to is... nice. Tidy.

Very cute.

The air smells like fresh plants, pine trees, and lush nature...



"Home sweet home."

 

"Holy shit your garden is a fuckin' farm!" Mischa stares as she gets out of the truck, "It's bigger than the gardening store at the other edge of town!"

"They look about the same to me." Kainze says nonchalantly, with a shrug, climbing out of the truck and taking a hold of his sisters arm. "Freddie's grow op smells fresher though."

 

Freddie chuckles. "...between the two of us, we had a bit of a nest egg... and plants are one of my hobbies... particularly if the right spot in the garden gets them imbued with magic." He stretches as he exits the car, striding towards a few trees hiding in the foilage.

"Don't do anything this overt at home until you've got more training... and the unawakened aren't around," Freddie mutters, then settles his hands on a pair of trees, bowing his head.

The tangle of vines and life that Mischa saw around him before flares, and the trees shudder, obligingly moving, two branches growing towards each other and meeting, spiraling tight together.

Freddie grabs the straight length they form in one hand, presses his other fingers to where the branches meet, and shoves.

Two minutes later, he's back, proferring the cane to Kainze.

 

(( That was a C R I T ! ))

 

"The unawakened?" Mischa asks, watching Freddie walk up to the trees, mouth agape as he manipulates the wood and branches. "Wow..."

Kainze shudders, grinning wide. "I felt that!"
He takes the cane once it's done and handed to him, running his hands up and down the length, familiarizing himself. "Wow...!"

 

"People who can't use magic... be they the people who might one day, or the people that could never do it." He settles a hand on his hip. "Congratulations, you've graduated from sleepwalking to seeing the world the way it really can be."

 

"It looks different? I never noticed." Kainze snirks. "Sleepwalking is dangerous. This one time Mischa sleptwalked into the kit-mmfghmmf!"

"KAINZE you are NOT allowed to tell this story!" She quickly slaps a hand over his mouth, flushing in embarassment.

 

"Come on, let's not pretend you can't find other ways to look at things. Even if this is needed." He taps the staff with a finger, then offers his arm, chuckling. "If I can figure out where things are when I'm in another city... well. Let's just say I can find my way around blindfolded, with my hands tied and my ears covered."

"As long as you didn't run into anything sharp."

 

"No she pissed in the kitchen garbage can." Kainze blurts out quickly, grinning.

 

Freddie snorts. "...well. could have been worse."

 

Mischa makes a frustrated noise at her twin, cheeks bright even through her brown skin. "Kainzeeeee!!"

He cackles at his twin, then twirls his new cane around. "Thank you Freddie Vanilla. I like this thing. I can use it anywhere right? I'm gonna have to get the tip stained red though for it to be an 'Official Blind Person's Cane'... would that even work though? Can I use my own cane or does it have to be a boring official one?"

"I dunno." Mischa shrugs. "We'll look it up later and see what the actual rules are."

"Cool." He automatically pats in Mischa's direction for her shoulder, taking her elbow to let her guide him. It's not that he's ignoring Freddie's arm, he genuinely didn't realise it was being offered.

 

"As far as I'm aware, yes." Freddie chuckles. "Though you two may want to wrap the wood with white cloth."

He leads the way into the house, holding the door open. "...and for the record, my professional name is Galen, when it comes to magery."

 

"Is that your chosen witch name?" Kainze asks. "It sounds... kinda boring."

"Kainze that's not nice!" Mischa scolds him lightly, leading her brother through the door.

"Just saying ours are better."

"Ours are plants!"

"Stiiiiill betterrrrr~!

 

"It's after the physician," he snorts. "I'm still going into medicine, after all. Being able to sneak a spell in when someone's in a bad spot is going to be very very useful."

The interior of the house is comfortably cool, and Mischa can recognize a few of the little things she's pointed out to him scattered around, along with other things that seem to sing out with magic. There's a shelf stuffed with bottles of herbs nearby, along with geodes and other vulture culture bits. The kitchen has herbs hung up to dry, and he leads them into it, pulling out two chairs and putting on the kettle.

"Tea okay?"

He makes sure that's settled, then crosses to the backyard, checking on the teeming life. "...good. no cats causing trouble. Wards must be working."

 

Mischa perks proudly at all the magical knick-knacks around his home. She really did have skill in picking out the best things... more so than she had realized. She stops at a display of skulls by the bottled herbs, eyes wide as she admires them.

Kainze hums, head up and tilted to the side, feeling the soft magical buzz and hum of the home. "Feels like.... home? But better."
"Smells better too." He comments idly as they're led into the kitchen, tilting his face to smell and appreciate the herbs.

"Oh yes. Tea would be nice." Mischa guides Kainze to a chair before she sits in one herself.