Active Magic (TatlTails and othyrworld)

Madi took no offense at Sequoia's attempt to start a conversation, she just gave her fellow witch a languid thumbs-up. It was probably all she would've given even if she had her normal voice. A day's work usually tired her out like that. She'd have to take it easier tomorrow, in case something big happened that'd need her skills. The worst days were ones where she'd worn herself out on routine magics, and then that night she was called out on a mission. Hopefully today wouldn't be like that, since she'd just went on a mission yesterday... God that felt like way longer ago than yesterday.

"Oh! No no." Luke answered S'oya's question, turning off the stove so he could start moving the finished food to the table. "Made chicken cacciatore an' spinach. Already made risotto today, bu' today's a 'Talian day, so more 'Talian. Differen' 'Talian though. It'll be yummy tho, don' worry."
 
"Well, it sounds great!" Sequoia cheered, braiding tiny sections of her hair to keep her hands busy. She shot Mai a smaller thumbs up when she had finished a segment and then put her thoughts back on talking to Luke. But what to talk about? That was the real question. Why was talking so easy when coming up with things to talk about that weren't lame was so hard? "How's your day been, Luke? Like...what did you do? I've been doing stuff, like, all day, and I'm kind of exhausted."

Flora snorted. "You're the one who decided to do shit all day. Don't pretend like this isn't your fault." Sequoia kicked her under the table, fighting to contain a fond grin.

"Shut up!" She pushed the hair she was braiding out of her face so she could properly glare at Flora, who glared right back. After a few seconds of unspoken arguments, Sequoia giggled, turning back to Luke so he could answer her.
 
Luke didn't answer S'oya right away, mostly because he was starting to serve up the food to the different plates. But once he got in his plating rhythm and S'oya and Flora were done talking, he tried to answer her question.

"Uhh..." He had to think about it, rewind the time and remember what he'd done today. "I cooked. You saw 'at though. I was in the garden, in Madi's garden not Flora's garden. Didn't go there yet, i's Flora's garden an' she didn't say we could go there yet. But I picked some herbs for dinner, an' took a nap 'cause it was sunny an' nice out. An' then I made dinner. Nice day. You have a nice day? Said busy day, bu' nice day?"
 
Sequoia nodded. "Oh yeah! I learned a bunch about making potions and stuff from Madi, plus Flora grew her garden and the tree and we ate lunch, and then we visited Jacqueline and tried on all the new clothes- she made me this sweater actually, but I guess you already knew that- and then we grew a bunch of flowers and put them into the cups - but I guess you know that too since we came in to grab al the cups- and now we're here." Sequoia took a deep breath, grinning sheepishly when she realized she'd just word vomited everywhere. "Sorry if I'm talking too much. I'll shut up now."

Flora patted her on the shoulder. She wanted to tell Luke that he could come into her garden anytime, but she also realized that all of Sequoia's talking might be a lot to process, so she refrained. There would always be time later.
 
"No no! Talkin's okay!" Luke made sure to tell S'oya before anything else. He'd not liked to talk much at all when he first came here, but after everyone told him he could, he felt a lot better and he wanted S'oya to feel better too. "I like talkin', like hearin'. Day soun's super fun, nice good day. Glad. Good days're good. More good days here, good days for S'oya an' Flora."

It was around this point where Jacqueline walked into the room, and rose her eyebrows as she slid into her seat and murmured "Seems like I walked into a pleasant scene."
 
Sequoia ducked her head to hide her sheepish smile. "Thanks, Luke." Flora bumped her shoulder before she began nibbling at her food, a gesture that made Sequoia perk up like a flower that had been watered after weeks of neglect. She dug into her meal, glad Luke had begun serving people. Whatever this chicken spinach stuff was, it was delicious. She was so going to miss Luke's cooking when she and Flora left.

Flora took the lull in the conversation as a chance to tell Luke "It's fine for you to go through my garden, by the way. As long as you don't pick anything and don't stay there while I need privacy, it's fine for you to look at everything."
 
Luke was happy to give S'oya a "Mhm!" as he finished putting all the food on the plates. He'd just finished and sat down to eat his own food when Flora started talking about her garden. He was allowed to go in it? No taking Flora's plants and no staying when Flora wanted to be there alone, but besides that he could go in the pretty new garden whenever he wanted? Wow, that was super nice! Flora was super nice to let people see her garden like that.

"Thank ya!" He made sure to tell her, hopping in his seat cause of all the excited. "Promise I won' pick nothin' an' I'll go 'way when you say to."

"Those seem like a reasonable set if rules." Dagger commented quietly, having changed form and slid into an empty seat at some point the conversation. "We'll make sure everyone knows to follow them."

The proverbial 'everyone' being Clarisse, who probably wouldn't wake up for another hour, and anyone who decided to move in here from now until whenever Flora decided to change the rules. He at least tried to imply Clarisse by glancing towards the stairs.
 
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"Thank you." Flora cut off a tiny sliver of chicken, content to let the conversation flow around her once her piece had been said. She didn't feel like talking right now for whatever reason, and she wasn't inclined to question the urge. She just lost the urge from time to time. Not contributing was so easy, and she could use a little bit of easiness right now. Everyone here was nice, but this was also an entirely new cast of people to get used to.

Sequoia shot her a questioning look, one answered with a gentle shake of her head. The message was sent. "So what did y'all do today?" Sequoia asked, starting up a new conversation thread. "Because I just shared mine and now it's your turn."
 
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"Well, I spent most of the day working." Jacqueline offered first, willing to shoulder the potential awkwardness in place of everyone else. "Though I did also make a few calls through my scrying pool. It was nice to chat with old friends while I worked. The same for the both of you, as well. Oh yes, and I also found some lovely flowers outside my door not too long ago! Was that your doing?"
 
Sequoia nodded, smile full of pride. "Yep! We ran out of space in our room so we figured 'why not?' Did you like them? They're..." She struggled to remember the name of the flower, eventually coming up empty. "Well, I can't remember what they are, but they're very pretty." She dug into her chicken, making little noises of appreciation as the flavor hit her taste buds. "You're magic, Luke," She mumbled, mouth full of food.

Flora elbowed her sharply in the side so Sequoia smiled, repeating "You're magical, Luke." in a much clearer tone of voice.
 
"Bu' we're all magical." Was Luke's reply to Sequoia's compliment, his head tilting to the side in his confusion. Everyone was here 'cause they were magic, even if they didn't like bein' magic. Luke had the least magic outta everyone here, so why would S'oya tell just him he was magical?

Dagger responded to Luke's confusion with a slow, quiet sigh, one that screamed 'I am surrounded by idiots' despite his best efforts to mask the contempt. Then, in a tone just even enough to hide what his sigh couldn't, he informed the werewolf "Luke, she was not speaking literally. She was attempting to compliment your cooking skills."

Luke responded to that information with a quiet "Ohhhh..." as the realization hit him, and then responded to Sequoia with a humbled but still energetic "Well thank ya!"
 
Sequoia frowned at Dagger. She didn't want to pick another fight, but she also didn't like the thinly veiled annoyance in his voice when he explained what she meant to Luke. Luke was so nice. He didn't deserve that shit. She responded to Luke as lightly as possible. "It's no problem, Luke! You're amazing at cooking." Flora hummed in agreement. Sequoia dug into the chicken to prove her point, finishing a few moments later. "Speaking of, can I get some seconds?"
 
"Uhh... yeah!" Luke nodded when S'oya asked for seconds, scooting out of his chair and picking up her plate. "Got less seconds left over 'en lunch, bu' S'oya gets a seconds. S'oya finish firs', an' she said nice stuff 'bout dinner, so S'oya gets more nice dinner. Yes."

Luke wouldn't ever really say no to someone asking for seconds if he had seconds to give, but someone eating his food real fast and saying lots of nice things about it made him happy, so he was even happier to give seconds to someone nice like that. 'Specially cause the last new friend that started living here never ate his food. They all said it'd make her sick to eat food-food, and he didn't wanna make her sick, but it was still sad he couldn't share his favorite thing with 'Reese. S'oya and Flora, he could give food, and it was nice.
 
"Thanks so much, Luke!" Sequoia dug into her food as soon as she got it. Having all this food around was amazing. Even knowing she could ask and just get a snack handed to her was kind of weird in an 'oh my god I have so much freedom' type way.

The only worry was that she was going to get fat. Maybe she could try to stick to an exercise routine? She nearly laughed aloud at the thought. She'd ditch it in a week, maybe even sooner. Besides, she had quite a ways to go before she got overweight. Her time at the circus had stolen a lot from her, including any curves she might have developed. She ran a hand down her side, feeling the press of her hipbone against her palm. Maybe putting on weight would be a good thing.
 
Luke wasn't even thinking along those lines, even though it was literally his entire job here. He hadn't looked much better than any of the other refugees when he'd first arrived, but once he'd gained enough self-confidence to start pursuing his interests again, it was all he could do to make only three meals a day. Since most of the people here came in hungry and left after not too long, he hadn't driven anyone to obesity yet, but even the long-term residents were healthy. Luke didn't cook that much unhealthy food, after all.

But even with all those thoughts hovering around his subconscious, he was mostly just happy to be making other people happy in whatever way he could. Which was why he gladly accepted Sequoia's thanks, and made sure everyone else was okay too before he went back to his own meal.
 
Flora finished her meal with a contented sigh, picking at the small morsels left on her plate. Meals were so wonderful and they were always over so soon. She'd just have to stretch the next one out even farther. Hopefully, this wouldn't become a trend. Bites of food only got so small. Sequoia didn't seem to have the qualms about asking for seconds (and thirds and fourths) that Flora did. She entertained a brief fantasy where Sequoia got her seconds and then dismissed it. She wasn't that hungry, and she wouldn't- couldn't- take the extra food from someone who actually wanted it. Not that she'd mind eating more. Luke's food was amazing.

But she'd just feel bad. She didn't need to feel bad right now. Sequoia gobbled away at her chicken, unaware of Flora's small internal struggle. She didn't care if eating more was okay because Sequoia was kind of like a puppy in the sense that she did things randomly and then questioned them later. Flora questioned things first and then never really got around to doing them because she was making plans for other things. It was kind of annoying.
 
There was a few minutes of nice and quiet as everyone got through their meals, but halfway through his food, Luke looked up and saw Flora being done. Or almost done anyway, just with little bitty bits left. She was almost the same as her friend S'oya, but she didn't talk as much cause she was shyer, so maybe she was hungry like S'oya but didn't wanna say so yet? Well then Luke'd have to say so for her, cause he didn't want his new friends to be hungry if they didn't hafta be.

"Ya want some leftovers?" He asked Flora, not saying it too loud so she wouldn't be too shy to say yes if she wanted. "We still got a bit, you can eat it if ya want."
 
Flora looked up, blinking owlishly at Luke's question. Had he read her mind? She stared at her plate and her stomach and then back at her plate. She was pretty hungry. And they were leftovers, so she wouldn't be taking from anyone. She nodded, passing her plate up towards Luke. What could one little bitty extra serving hurt? She needed to put on weight anyway. Right now she was basically a twig. Even thinner than Sequoia, which was saying something. She could practically count her ribs, even through her shirt.

Sequoia finished her chicken with a smile. "So, Dagger, what did you do today?" She didn't really want to talk with Dagger, but she did really want to be entertained. And even if they were arguing, Dagger was entertaining. Besides, she kind of wanted to know what he did all day. She bet he sulked through hallways, but she was open to alternate theories. Or, the truth, if it was Dagger talking.
 
If there was nothing else Luke was an expert on, he knew his stuff when it came to food. He broke out into a grin when Flora agreed to seconds, and happily served them up to her.

As Luke got to that, Dagger was confronted with Sequoia's attempt to make conversation with him. To say he expected it would be a lie, but he sensed the unspoken challenge in her friendly tone and decided to take it. At least to the degree that he would neither walk eggshells around her nor cause a scene. There was a balance, and he usually walked that tightrope with relative ease. He would not fail again, no matter how much Sequoia likely expected it.

"For most of the day," He informed the witch. "I was with Madi in the basement, doing exactly what you have already witnessed take place there. For the rest of the day, I patrolled the house, and performed some administrative duties that would mean little to most of you. We don't live in a vaccuum, but thanks to me it sometimes feels like we do."

He left out the brief midday nap he'd taken, because it both was a sign of weakness that involved letting his guard down, and a feline trait. Which he didn't like being ashamed of (and he wasn't most of the time), but newcomers often did not hesitate to either pick at his less-human traits outright, or simply undermine his intelligence in favor of falsely heightening his ferality. He figured Sequoia would be the first, if anything, so the less fodder he could give her mockery, the better.
 
Sequoia gave herself a mental high-five. He was totally sulking through the hallways. 10/10 best intuition in the world. She shot him a grin that might have been a thinly veiled self-congratulatory smirk. "Cool Good to know we're being protected and stuff." She didn't care, but she figured she ought to say something. t was always a good choice to aim for the last word.

She finished up her dinner quietly, offering up little in the way of conversation. She went to bed right after, dragging along a reluctant Flora. Flora hadn't gotten the chance to finish her chicken by the time Sequoia was done and she wasn't willing to scarf it so she left it sitting sadly on the table. A monument to all her failures. And eating slowly the way God intended, fuck you Sequoia. She may or may not have been the tiniest bit salty that she had been pulled away from Luke's wonderful cooking. Maybe he'd save some for her?

She patted her not quite full stomach as she pulled herself into bed. Sequoia joined her a few seconds later. One brief hand-squeeze later, Sequoia was drifting off into her personal dreamworld and Flora was doing her best to join. She gave up after an hour. She had royally screwed her sleep schedule by napping during potion making. She pulled the blankets off with a huff. She was too awake to stay in bed.

Perhaps a walk around the house would do her some good. She stepped hesitantly into the hall, doing her best to step lightly. There was no need to wake Sequoia.

Once she was safely in the hall, she shut the door with a soft 'click'. The hallways were dark but not eerie. They were... calm. Quiet. Like the smooth waters of a deep lake. She crept through the halls, hardly daring to breathe lest she disturb the perfect stillness.
 
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