Active Magic (TatlTails and othyrworld)

"...Are you two not together?" Was Clarisse's answer to Sequoia's question, her brain too fried for her to even consider the dangers or embarrassment of the subject she'd brought up. "Or is it like, one'a those queerplatonic things? Cause I'm like pretty sure you two aren't like, just friends, you know? If I'm wrong, I mean like..."

She just shrugged there, too tired and hungry and confused to be any more ashamed of her statements.
 
"Dude! Flora's like... closer than family. It would be like dating my twin sister, but even weirder because we're twins on the inside, not the outside." Of course, if Sequoia had to name someone as her soulmate the answer couldn't not be Flora. Flora was her sun and moon. Flora was the magnifying glass that kept her world in focus. But calling that- calling Flora- something romantic or sexual felt like it would... taint everything. Well, not quite taint, but kind of ruin. Like forcing a square peg into a round hole and then ruining the square piece forever because some of the corners got shaved off.
 
"Oh." Clarisse replied, oh-so cleverly. Did I mention she was tired? "Okay, so it's basically queerplatonic. Or just platonic, or whatever. That's cool, I respect that. No pressure or nothin'. An' hey, that means you're available."

She shuffled off to the kitchen as soon as those words were out of her mouth, not even realizing any of the implications she'd left with Sequoia until well after she'd gotten some blood in her.
 
Huh. Was Clarisse interested? People didn't usually say stuff about her availability unless they wanted to try and date. Of course, that had been at the circus, which definitely wasn't the highest standard for normal relationship standards. Whatever. If Clarisse was interested, she could follow up on asking Sequoia out on a date. May as well see how this plays out, right? At the very least she and Clarisse would get closer. At the worst things would get awkward for a while and then they'd be friends again. And here Sequoia went, planning entire hypotheticals in her head before she even knew what a person would do.

She troped up the stairs and hopped into bed, content to sleep next to Flora until someone came in to wake them up.
 
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The morning was quiet for a while after that, Luke making sure to tell anybody who came his way what'd happened earlier. He tried to slow down breakfast as long as possible so S'oya could sleep, but once everyone else was awake and Clarisse went back to sleep, it really did have to be breakfast time.

Dagger was sent up to wake them, solely because he was the fastest. Out of both the efforts to indeed be fast, and to make as little contact with Sequoia as possible, all he did was knock on the girls' door and call out "Get up if you want food."
 
Sequoia rolled over with a groan. Her brain wanted her to sleep for at least half a day more but her stomach was beginning to get violent about the things it wanted. A brief struggle between the two led to her brain getting pummeled into submission by her now grumbling stomach. The bed creaked angrily as she rolled off it and tried to scrub the sleep from her eyes.

Flora- who was a more sensible person and didn't waste time on dumb choices that took too long to make- had already stood and begun to stretch. Her wings fluttered fainty as she scratched her head and wondered what was for breakfast. Eggs? Bacon? She hoped it was bacon. "We're coming!" she announced, pinching Sequoia on the arm to wake her up faster.

"How dare you," Sequoia muttered, rubbing the stinging spot on her arm. Luckily, she was feeling quite a bit more awake so she could hit Flora in that spot on her elbow that she hated. Revenge. Flora stuck her tongue out and Sequoia play glared and eventually, they both giggled and meandered down to the kitchen. The smell of french toast was like a siren's song, beckoning them down to their seats at the table. "This smells amazing Luke!" Sequoia cheered, holding out her plate and praying that Luke would pile on the food.
 
Luke did not hesitate to grant Sequoia's wish, giving her and everyone else a heaping portion of sweet, sweet carbs. He'd padded out the time by making as much as possible, which might end up being a waste of food but maybe not because S'oya did like getting seconds and thirds and fourths so if there were lotsof leftovers she'd eat them. Plus he was kinda hungry today, he could feel the wolf in his stomach getting ready to wake up. Not tonight, but soon. Food would help, help his stomach and his mind. French Toast was a good choice. He made sure everyone had some before he took a big plate for himself. Madi's voice was back so she told him thank you when she got hers, Dagger was a kitty so he ate on the counter, Jacqueline was sleepy so she yawned when she got her plate (then said sorry for bein' rude even though Luke didn't mind), S'oya was excited an' Flora was with S'oya. All good. Good breakfast. Luke was happy to join it.
 
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Sequoia dug into the french bread with reckless abandon. She wolfed it down before her stomach had stopped growling and held it out for seconds. It looked like Luke had made plenty extra, so she didn't feel too bad about eating way too much way too fast. Even though she was going to get a major stomach ache later. Future Sequoia was going to hate her so badly. Too bad she didn't have any say in what present Sequoia was doing.

Flora ate much more sensibly, cutting the french toast into tasty squares and eating them one by one. After she had eaten a piece of bread, she began to think up conversation starters. Beginning good conversations was difficult around strangers. With Sequoia, she always knew what to say. She could just say a dumb joke or ask a silly rhetorical question or make an observation and Sequoia would embellish and add-on and tell her about related memories. These new people were much harder to speak with. Any observations she made would just fall flat when they already knew about this place and she didn't know if her jokes would be funny to them. She decided to just thank Luke. "Thank you for breakfast, Luke. It's delicious."
 
Luke'd stopped mid-Toast to take S'oya's plate, and as he was putting more food on it Flora said some nice stuff. She was nice like that, always sayin' something good. He liked Flora, Flora an' S'oya were both good new friends.

"Thank ya!" He smiled at her, looking back at everyone before making sure to add "S'oya helped. Helped start the breakfast. Then she got that owie an' went back to bed, but she helped! So thank ya S'oya too."

He wanted to make sure she got credit for helping, everyone deserved to get credit for what they did. Even if it wasn't much or they didn't wanna brag, they still deserved for everyone to know they did somethin' good.
 
"Oh?" Flora shot Sequoia a look that very clearly asked her why she hadn't decided to share that piece of information. Sequoia grinned and shrugged, apologetic embarrassment soaking her every movement. It was adorable that Sequoia thought that would stop her from pressing. They had spent too many years together for Flora to assume Sequoia could survive on her own. That girl could do three perfect cartwheels on a tightrope and then faceplant on the walk back to the costume tent. Hopefully, she hadn't broken any bones. She pinned Sequoia with a half amused glare and waited for her to crack.

Usually Sequoia could hold out for a minute or so, but today was apparently a weak one because she spilled the beans after a few seconds of silent war. "I tried to jump to grab some... sugar I think? Probably sugar. And I faceplanted into the shelf and got this house nosebleed and I had to stop it up with tissues- don't give me that look, I tried to keep my hands off and not mess with it- and when it stopped bleeding I went to our room to nap and I didn't wanna wake you up so I didn't tell you."

Flora considered everything quietly before asking the only important question that sprang to mind. "Did you make sure you didn't break any bones? " Now that she knew why she hadn't heard about the incident, she had dropped most of the negativity from her expression.

Sequoia scoffed. "I'm not thirteen, Flora. Of course I did. And no, nothing's broken. I'll tell you right away next time, okay?" Flora nodded, glad everything was okay. Normally she wouldn't have trusted Sequoia to check herself for broken bones, but she'd hurt her nose so many times that she was practically an expert. For someone so attentive to the world around her, Sequoia sure did faceplant into walls a lot.
 
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Oh, S'oya's nosebleed was supposed to be a secret? Whoops.

"Don' worry, Flora!" He made sure to tell the worried fairy as he brought S'oya's food back to the table. "I made sure all the blood stopped 'fore she went away. Made sure she was all better. Took care'a S'oya, took care'a friend. Everyone all better, everyone got breakfast now. We all good now. Promise."
 
Flora patted Luke on the arm to show how grateful she was. Knowing that Sequoia had hurt herself always made her deeply worried because Sequoia barely knew how to take care of herself first aid wise. With someone else around, she was much more likely to get the help she needed. Even if Luke wasn't the best at helping people, he could at least make sure Sequoia wasn't dying when she decided she was fine. "I know. Thank you for making sure she didn't die."

Sequoia stuck her tongue out at Flora- a show of token defiance, she'd gotten over Flora's mothering a long time ago- and took her plate, scarfing down her second helping of french toast. Damn, she liked french toast. She could bathe in it. She could let it flow through her blood. "Dude, you need to cook french toast more often."
 
"Okay!" Luke was happy to agree to S'oya's request, digging into his own French Toast as soon as he sat back down after Flora's niceness. French Toast really was tasty, and it wasn't super hard to make. This was a good day for French Toast, S'oya'd chosen a good day for it.

"Oh, but if you make these tasty things too often," Jacqueline piped up, her voice light with the joke on her tongue. "I'll have to retake everyone's measurements!"

That got a snort out of Madi, a giggle out of Luke, and a roll of the eyes from Dagger.
 
Flora smiled tightly, absentmindedly running a hand down her side. Even though the fabric of her shirt, she could feel the swell of each and every rib. Could feel the harsh press of her hipbones- sharp as knives against her palm. Gaining even an inch in fat would make a difference. Would give her more energy and make her look less like a walking corpse. She took a few bites of her french toast and tried to laugh at the lighthearted joke. No need to muck everything up with her dumb dramatics.

Sequoia giggled lightly, pressing her foot against Flora's leg to start some kind of lighthearted kick war and pull her out of her funk. Flora kicked back lightly- just as planned- and they began a quiet battle that Sequoia ultimately let Flora win. The fairy seemed to be considerably cheered, which gave Sequoia a mood boost as well. She finished her french toast happily. "Can I get some thirds, Luke?"
 
"Yeah, yeah!" Luke replied, just in time to finish his own plate. He took both up to get more French Toast, happy to fill the plates back up. Today was a day to just be calm and eat sweet stuff with friends, no worries or nothin'.

...No worries. Worries for later, stop worryin' early. Nothin's gonna happen today 'cept good friends an' good times. Bad times happenin' later. Good times now. All okay.

Thoughts stopped when Dagger meowed at him, and pushed his plate toward him too. Luke smiled at that, and put an extra piece on his plate. Not too much cause he was a kitty an' his stomach was small, but enough to be good seconds. He felt a little really-better when he came back to the table. Dagger didn't ask for seconds very much, after all.
 
It was kind of unfair that someone who was such a dick sometimes got to turn into such an adorable kitty. If Sequoia had her way, Dagger would look like one of those half-dead cats you saw begging for food the edges of society. Or one of those gross hairless cats. He'd probably still look adorable, but at least he wouldn't look like a contented little angel being. She dug into her thirds a little harder than she needed to, looking to Luke and Jacqueline as she munched on her meal.

Flora shot her the 'don't you even start' look as she began her second piece of french toast. She finally found a question that she wanted to ask. "What is there to do around here? I'd like to build up a hobby to take up some time."
 
Jacqueline was the first to try and answer the question, realizing that she was probably the best fit for longer speeches right now.

"Well, for starters we have lots of books." She told the girls, glancing over towards the door to the living room. "A whole collection, not just spellbooks. There's also plenty to do in my room, I have some spare knitting needles I could give you or some extra thread and fabric. There are a few games lying around of varying categories, and..."

Jacqueline was only left struggling to think of more options for a moment, before Dagger transformed for the first time that day. "We can also order in anything you may need or want, within reason. We have limited access to human society, but we aren't completely cut off. If we lack something you're looking for, you can make a request and we can get it to you in a few days."
 
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Flora mulled over all of the options, turning each possibility over in her head as she tried to figure out what would be best. Knitting could start fun, but it got monotonous after a while. Most games required two people, and she wouldn't call playing them much of a hobby. She wanted to make something, so books seemed off the charts as they were more for imagining things than making them. Imagining had never really been her strong suit. She couldn't come up with anything that she really wanted to do beyond mediating for a few hours later in the afternoon. "I'll think about it."

Sequoia was a different story. Being able to do something was exactly what she needed. Sure, she could magic off some of her energy and exercise away a little more, but there was always something electric thrumming through her She needed a way to keep it at bay. Hobbies seemed like a fun way to try. Who knew, they might lead to her succeeding. Besides, she would try anything once. "I wanna learn how to knit if you don't mind."
 
"Oh, I wouldn't mind at all!" Jacqueline beamed at Sequoia, swivelling herself to directly face the witch as she continued speaking. "You can come by my room any time, start lessons right away. I'll have to dig those knitting needles out of wherever I put them, but that won't be too much trouble. Ooo, I can already tell this is going to be fun! Maybe I can even teach you a bit of how to enchant your projects as you work on them, if you're open to that. If you just want a hobby for hobby's sake, I understand that as well. But either way it's going to be so much fun!"

While Sequoia was occupied with Jacqueline's enthusiasm, Dagger just responded to Flora's decision with a curt nod and transformed back into a cat. He wanted to finish his breakfast, and didn't feel like digging around for utensils when he could just as easily continue on as he had been.
 
Enchantments! Sequoia had never even thought about enchanting the things she made. Little ideas were already shooting through her head: yellow scarves that gave off good vibes, gloves that warmed themselves during winter days, sweaters with pictures that moved across the fabric. The possibilities were endless and she was so ready to explore them. "I'd love to figure out how to enchant them! I have so many ideas dude, you have no idea. I just hope my hands can keep up with them because sometimes my brain goes a lot faster than I can keep up with and all my idea kind of flop. I don't thank that'll happen though, you seem like a good teacher."

Flora smiled, hoping this would be a hobby Sequoia could keep. She loved picking up new things only to drop them a few days later when something more interesting popped up. It astounded Flora, who picked things up after putting so much effort into them that they'd never be put down at the risk of losing all her work. When she realized that Dagger had nodded at her, she nodded back with a confused look. Had he been contributing to the conversation? Or was he just approving her decision? People were weird.
 
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