Active Magic (TatlTails and othyrworld)

Madi had gratefully accepted the box, and had nodded thoughtfully at Flora's description of Sequoia. It made sense, from what she'd seen so far. Dagger sucked at first impressions but depended on proving that impression wrong, and Sequoia trusted her first instincts like anyone in her situation probably should have. It was just an unfortunate coincidence, that would have to be either mended with time or avoided until the girls moved on.

When Sequoia herself interrupted the conversation, Madi had to hold back a smile at the signs of already-eaten food on the other witch's person. But she did not give confirmation to the question, because she may be a witch but she was not a snitch. She probably had a sly look of her own in her eyes, but as long as it wasn't the type to give anything away then she was good.
 
Flora smiled at her friend. "Yes, we were talking about that time when you tried to walk the tightrope with Lili and yo-"

"SHUT UP!" Sequoia shouted, blushing so hard she resembled a tomato. "YOU PROMISED NEVER TO MENTION THAT AGAIN!"

Flora concealed a laugh behind her palm, brushing some of the crumbs from her blouse. "Okay, okay! Jesus." Flora opened her sandwich and began munching on it. It was surprisingly tasty for a sandwich, and she reminded herself to visit this room often. "Who's your cook?" She asked, moving on to a topic Madi could converse freely with Sequoia sitting beside her.
 
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"L-Luke." Madi replied to the next question easily, or as easily as she could, glad to save Sequoia the embarrassment of asking about the mysterious Tightrope Incident. Talking about the tenants here was always a pretty easy subject for her.

"He's a w-werewolf. Morning p-person. C-cooks f-for fun. And to 'p-pay rent'."

The words 'pay rent' got physical air quotes, to make it abundantly clear that no payment of any kind was required here and Luke's work was something completely of his own free will.
 
Sequoia made a face at the words 'morning person', but listened through to the end. "He seems like a cool guy! Anyone who stocks their back pantry with sugar is someone I'd like to meet!"

Flora frowned. "Did you eat pure sugar again!?" Sequoia's face took on a scandalized look. She opened her mouth to argue but was cut off by a large yawn. Flora pushed herself off the ground, holding out a hand to help Sequoia up. Sequoia used it to swing herself upwards before she turned to Madi.

"Look, I know I may not be the best person to be around, and I know I'm angry a whole lot, but I'd like to get to know you a little better if you'd like that." She scratched the back of her neck and moved so she was behind Flora so she could avoid seeing Madi's reaction. She didn't want to be turned away but she had been kind of a bitch, so she figured the odds of her being rejected were a bit higher than they could've been,
 
Madi could not help looking worried at the prospect of a person eating an undisclosed amount of pure sugar, but she swallowed that protest when the witch started to crash. She stood up when they did, and softened both physically and emotionally when Sequoia tried to ask for Madi's friendship. And she seemed ready for a rejection...

The look on her face was hopefully showing way more empathy than pity (or anything else negative) when she said "D-Dagger's my b-best friend. I-if I c-can handle him, I c-can handle you."
 
Sequoia could feel her face break out into a smile, bright despite the tiredness she found weighing her limbs. She blinked a few times, trying to clear her fuzzy vision, muttering a shy 'thanks' in Madi's general direction. Flora gave her a gentle smile and asked where the bedrooms were. Hopefully, they'd get into bed before Sequoia crashed completely. She totally got into the sugar, that little fiend. Sequoia seemed to know what she was thinking, blowing her a raspberry.
 
"Last d-doors upst-tairs." Madi told the two, softening her voice so it wouldn't be too jarring to the worn-out girls. She'd experienced many a similar energy crash from many a similar creature before, she knew the logistics of the End of the First Night pretty well by this point. She gestured to the stairs briefly to punctuate her directions, then added "Eith-ther one. Use 'em b-both, or sh-share."
 
Flora gave her quiet thanks before stumbling up the stairs, a barely conscious Sequoia in tow. They wandered into the final room, where Sequoia practically threw herself into the bed, grateful that she had picked comfortable clothes. Flora hopped into bed beside her. It was a huge bed, bigger than the cot they'd shared back at the circus, and it was far more comfortable. Before she fell asleep, Sequoia spun over, whispering to Flora

"Do-" She stopped to clear her throat "Do you like it here?" Flora gave an approving hum, not wanting to disturb the silence. Sequoia grabbed her hand, squeezing it for comfort, proof that they were still alive, and that this house was real and their freedom was real. Nothing felt real, but they kept holding hands, an anchor to the only comfort they could remember.
 
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Once Madi was sure the two made it into a room safely, she did one last check around the house, to clean up any last bits of stuff she missed and to make sure everything was safe. Clarisse hadn't made it back from her normal 'midnight escapade' yet, but her expected time back wasn't for like another hour and Madi was really tired. So instead of waiting up the rest of the night, she wrote down the bulletnotes of what had happened on a post-it, stuck it where Clarisse would check, and went up to her room. Yeah Clarisse'd be disappointed she'd missed everything, but she would just have to deal with it.

At this point, Madi was almost too tired to talk with Dagger before she fell asleep, but she would because she wasn't that much of an asshole and he wasn't so much of an asshole that he'd keep her up longer than necessary. So she did end up getting to finally sleep before she just flat-out passed out. One of her last coherent thoughts before she drifted off was something along the lines of "I hope Flora and Sequoia don't freak out at living here, at least not before morning..."
 
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Flora slept like a rock, something she hadn't gotten to do in years. Her sleep was dark and deep and perfect, completely undisturbed by nightmares or restless energy. Sequoia was not so lucky.

Her dream started innocent enough: She was sitting in a meadow with Flora, talking and laughing. Flora was trying to teach her something and giggling gently when she couldn't. But then Flora randomly stood up, an angry look on her face. She opened her mouth to speak, but back tar spilled out instead of words. She clutched at her throat, choking and clawing for breath, but there was nothing she could do to stop the tar. Sequoia struggled to rise, to help her closest friend- her only friend- but she was trapped, forced to watch as Flora collapsed.

She woke up with fear in her eyes and a scream building in her throat. Her chest heaved as she took in heavy breaths, letting out the torment within her through a ragged shriek. She roughly wiped away the tears that had begun dripping down her face and grasped for Flora's hand. One she felt it in hers, warm and safe and alive, she let the scream cut off to suppressed sobs, hoping no one would hear the scream and come to check on her
 
Sequoia, sweetie, this house was only so big. Due to a few sound-suppressing spells woven into the walls, the scream was indeed muffled to the other tenants, but one person was already awake in the house, and heard the scream pretty damn clearly.

Her first response was to whisper "holy shit" to herself, and her second was to rush up the stairs and knock on the door the scream had come from. Madi's note did say they had some new bunkmates, maybe one of them was hurt or somethin' and needed help...
 
Sequoia gasped over and over, only making herself ore worried when she couldn't force herself to calm down. Someone started banging on the door, and suddenly she felt like she was about to barf. She briefly considered trying to fake being asleep, but she was breathing too heavily to be convincing, plus they would want to know the source of her scream.

Another wave of nausea washed over her, and she let out a squeal, quickly sprinting out the door and across the hall to the bathroom. She barely even registered the girl she passed, too busy sprinting to the bathroom where she began dry retching into the toilet. When she was done a few seconds later, she shakily stood, splashing water on her face and trying to clear her thoughts and give an excuse to whoever had come to check on her.
 
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"Whoa, holy shit dude!" Was the visitor's response to Sequoia's sudden exit, the figure hopping out of the way so she wouldn't get smacked by either the opening door or the person rushing out of it. She didn't physically try to stop Sequoia in her tracks (though if Sequoia had tried to get a look at her it would be clear she totally could have), but once the newbie was safely holed up in the bathroom, there was a knock on that door as well.

"Hey, dude?" The new voice called out, just loud enough to be heard through the door but not wake everyone else up. "Listen, I dunno who you are and you dunno me, but I'm one'a the people livin' here and I heard you gettin' all upset so I just wanna see if I can help. If you're hurt or somethin', I'm a bit of a medic so I could help patch you up. Or if somethin' just scared you I could talk it out with you, or if you don't wanna talk that's cool too. But like I still kinda wanna know what's goin' on because people usually don't scream like that for no reason, so... yeah, if you could just like tell me what the fuck happened that'd be really cool'a you."

The tenant had no idea what the new girl was doing inside the bathroom, but hopefully whoever was in there had listened to at least part of that rambling. Especially if she really did need help...
 
Sequoia groaned weakly, opening the door because she may as well try to convince this girl to go away. At the very least she could implement what little damage control she was capable of without Flora beside her. Water dripped onto the floor as she stared at this strange girl who she'd never seen before. Sequoia knew she looked terrible, her eyes bloodshot and posture hunched as if she were in pain.

"Nothing happened," Sequoia croaked, fully aware of how stupid that excuse was. "I just decided to go for a... a midnight glass of water. I'm great, everything's great, so you can just do whatever it is you need to." She gave the girl a weak thumbs up and backed out into the hallway, sending out a few finger guns to prove that everything was A-okay, and she definitely didn't have an earth-shaking nightmare.
 
'The girl' did not look like the type to take that kind of bullshit. She was 6 feet tall and built as hell, and had blue hair and prominent fangs. And she did indeed not take Sequoia's bullshit, but in a completely different way.

She laughed in the girl's face.

"Dude," She told the girl bluntly through her chuckling. "Don't try to give those weak-ass finger guns to like the master of finger guns. If you don't wanna talk about it, just say you don't wanna talk about it, but don't gimme a weakass excuse like 'getting a glass of water' when you just screamed yourself raw an' are drippin' the water you "drank" all over the floor. No one here'd buy that weak shit, except maybe Luke. If you wanna keep this type'a bullshit up, at least start gettin' some better excuses."
 
Sequoia grinned wearily. She liked this girl, could already tell that she identified with her aggressive 'go help yourself' attitude. She was tired, and she wanted to talk to Flora, but Flora was sleeping and Sequoia knew she hadn't slept well in a long ass time because Flora has to feel safe to sleep and neither of them had felt save in a million years, and this girl was here with her blue hair and pleasant laugh. She would be a decent substitute, seemed blunt enough to not let Sequoia get away with shit and kind enough to give her space if she needed it.

"First of all, I am the master of finger guns, and you should bow before me" She began, sounding so much better than she felt. "And, if I had a taken a few more seconds I could've come up with a pretty great excuse. And you said you were a medic, do you have any sleeping potions? Or... stuff for nightmare?"
 
Okay, Clarisse was gonna like this girl. She had a sense of humor, and seemed pretty tough. Had a bad case of denial, but hey so had she when she first showed up. This chick just needed some friends, and a little time to adjust. And apparently something to help her sleep without nightmares...

"Uhh... I don't got any potions," Clarisse reluctantly admitted, scratching the back of her head as she tried to think it over. Sleeping, sleeping... OH! "Buuut, I do got this thing, I'm still testin' it out but I got like a... power thing, I think I can put'cha to sleep myself. If you don't mind bein' a bit of a guinea pig and if you don't got a thing against bein' hypnotized, I can get you a good night's sleep in like that!"

She punctuated the sentence with a snap, and hoped her excited grin didn't look too manic or too terrifying after such a totally weird offer. But she hadn't had a chance to really get good at this power yet and she really thought it'd be able to help!
 
Sequoia frowned, not liking the sound of being experimented on. Experimenting meant needles and people speaking in angry jargon and cold halls and blood in too many places. She chewed on her cheek for a bit, wondering if the nightmare would return. It might, but she wasn't ready to let anyone do anything she wasn't ready for. On the other hand, she wasn't sure she could take another nightmare the night she was free. She should be celebrating, not letting herself be ruled by a past that couldn't touch her anymore. Still, she couldn't shake the uneasiness.

"I'll pass. Thanks for offering though. I'll see you around I guess." She scurried back to her room, grabbing Flora's hand again and trying to get back to sleep.
 
Clarisse honestly should've known better than to expect that girl to say yes. But hey, it was always worth a shot. She took the rejection pretty well though, and as the girl walked off she called after her "I can try an' get somethin' from Madi tomorrow, she'll have some stuff. Good luck 'til then!"

Yeah, probably fucked that convo up. Nothin' new, unfortunately, but her track record was getting a little better! Just... not this time. Hopefully it just didn't cause any permanent damage, 'cause that chick seemed cool and ruining any chance of being friends with her ever on the first night would totally fuckin' suck. But hey, wouldn't know 'til morning anyway. Better go find something to do to pass the time...
 
Sequoia slumped into bed, barely able to register that the girl had spoken. She cuddled into Flora's side, feeling warm, and safe, and farther away from her nightmare with her friend right next to her. She fell asleep almost immediately, Flora's warmth chasing away any nightmares she may have had. She slept lightly, but she made it through the night without waking again.

She woke up at the crack of dawn with the need to cast something. It was an instinct bred from years upon years of practicing before shows so she wouldn't be punished for mistakes. She woke Flora, anxious to get moving but not willing to leave her in an unfamiliar room all alone. Flora understood because when had she not understood, and together they worked their way out of the house and into the yard.

"So," Sequoia asked, in between the words that could conjure up a small tornado between her hands, "I had a nightmare last night. It was...pretty bad. I'm sorry I didn't wake you up."

Flora frowned, trying to figure out the right words to say while she grew giant vines from deep underground and let them swirl over the yeard. Eventually, she said "It's okay for you to not tell me everything, but I'd appreciate it if you woke me up next time. Did you go into panic mode?"

Sequoia laughed. "Yeah. I met a really cool vampire girl though. She had blue hair. I think I like her" She sounded a bit surprised.

Flora hummed. "I'd like to meet her then."
 
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