Blue2

Modern Day Magic

And that was exactly what was going on here. If she had worn that pendant that day, she would probably not have felt in danger of bad luck and thus would have been more relaxed, perhaps not even have hurt her ankle. Or if she had hurt it, she would have called it lucky she didn't break it. That was how faith and superstition worked, after all.

Gosia obviously didn't realise that, though. "No problem." She said, smiling. "It's okay to be wiccan here, but it's not very widespread. Not like in America. People often don't know much about it. But I tell you, that cat, whoever gave it to you wished you well, or they would not have chosen it."

Yeah, you would have an interesting time with this girl. Good thing you had the option of closing the door to keep people out.

((I feel like we should skip some time here, now that Gosia has been introduced. Unless you want to go on meeting others? Se OOC))

Modern Day Magic

"Oh yes!" Said Gosia enthousiastically. "I'm wiccan. Well, sort of, not exactly. The regular wiccan do some things very wrong, but it's similar. In Poland, you see, 99% of people is Catholic. Really, 99%. So I come here because here it's okay if you're not. Here maybe 30% is Christian, The rest is a mixture, like Muslim, Atheist, many, many others. Here it's okay, I can be a witch."

Apparently she truly believed herself to be involved in some sort of wiccan culture. But indeed, the charm had given no indication whatsoever of any magical power. And a real witch wouldn't come out an say it like that.

She pulled out a pendant with a white stone inside. "This white agate, for example, it gives protection. I can be quite clumsy. But I haven't had major accidents sice I started wearing this. Of course, one time I was hurrying, I forgot it and I hurt my ankle. Now I never forget."

Modern Day Magic

"oh, American?" Her voice was quite soft, but she was clearly not afraid to use ut. "Most here are European, it's so good to have someone from oversees!." She then spotted the fortune cat and walked straight to it.

"Oh, you have a lucky cat!" She said. "Did you know, if you pet it in the morning you'll be lucky that day?" My cousin had one once, but she forgot to pet it one morning. That day, she broke her leg!" Gosia really sounded like she genuine believed in Mirela's fortune cat to be lucky.

Modern Day Magic

It's not long before someone there shows up. Carrying a plastic grocery bag, a woman about Mirela's age comes up the stairs and heads towarrs the door of the other room. The woman is dressed in a long, green skirt with a flowery pattern and a white blouse. Her long, brown hair hangs loose past her face, but when she turns towards Mirela's room, two small braids become visible, lining a face with a large nose and some not-too-subtle eye-shadow which matches the green skirt.

"Oh, hi" the woman smiles and then goes into her own room where she drops her bag and then turns around to come to Mirela's room. "You must be the new international student?" She holds out her hand, introducing herself with a name that's hard to pronounce. "But you can call me Gosia." She adds luckily. "I'm from Poland. Where are you from?" She asks as she looks around the room.

((Can you describe what personal affects Mirela brought?))

Modern Day Magic

Alright, a witch hunter then, growing suspicious of Mirela.

If we want comic relief, perhaps the non-magic student on the
same floor could be into some weird, non-magic form of wicca, trying to explain to Mirela how nature works and getting it all wrong. Like she would see incence and immediately start waving it around to purify the room, except Mirela knows it doesn't work. But of cource she can't say anything. Or the student could see candles and draws Mirela into a seance where the girl is convinced she felt the presence of the spirits but Mirela knows absolutely nothing happened.

Modern Day Magic

Instead of a witch we could have a witch hunter too...

Modern Day Magic

Maybe we could have a half demon/ half human student who's trying to be good but gets hunted by his/her demon family, thus exposing themselves to Mirela?

Maybe a witch can come later? Hmm, in the Netherlands the first week of college and university is introduction week where the different student groups introduce new students to the student life and the city. There's games, partying, drinking and having fun. Perhaps this witch could come in after introduction week, when classes actually start. We'll have a better story setting develloped then so we can work out what she wants then. Or would you rather have the tension from the start?

I think it would be most fun if the person living on the top floor with Mirela (I think it's a girl) would be non-magical.. Maybe she can knock on the door at the least appropriate times, or she forgets the shut door polcy and just walks in.kind of a comic relief character to keep Mirela on her toes.

Rachel is quite short and has long brown hair and an average face that just blends in. She has soft features, barely wears make-up. She is the lead actress in the theatre she showed the playbill from. She is a nice person, always willing to help people, always wanting to see the best in people but that can make her a little naïve as well. I'll add more description as you meet the people.

Another plot idea: Perhaps something has gone wrong and Mirela's student pass isn't working. They send het to the IT department, (of course it's later in the evening) where she meets my non-magical IT character being hunted by a demon?

Modern Day Magic

Rachel nodded. "I can usually be found at the bar on weekend days after the show if you need anything else." She offered, then said het goodbye and left you to your new living arrangements.

Upon ringing the doorbell the door was opened by a woman introducing herself as Sonja, the keeper of these appartments. The ground floor of the mannor held a living room and a kitchen. These were shared by the students living there. To the back was a garden where several bikes were placed. In the Netherlands students usually rode bikes everywhere, including to the university. The first floor ((I'm going whith Dutch names here, first floor being up one flight of stairs)), and second floor each held 3 rooms, each room belonging to one student. The third floor, which was the top floor, held two rooms. One of them belonged to another student, one of them would be Mirela's.

The room was about 9 square metres (100 square feet). Because she was an international student she had been elligable for a furnished room and this room held a bed for 1 person with storage boxes beneath it, a small desk and a pretty large closet which could be used for a mixture of wardrobe and personal affects. She'd been expected to bring her own laptop and a letter with Wifi instructions was placed 9n the desk.

Sonja told her that this was a mixed student house, meaning it housed men and women. The other person on the third floor was also an international student in a furnished room, the other floors held Dutch people. But everyone in the Netherlands spoke English so she should have no trouble communicating. Three of them were at home and Mirela was introduced to them. The others would probably stop by some other time to introduce themselves.

Basically if you kept the door to your room open it meant anyone could come in and say hi, if you closed the door it meant you wanted privacy. That was the main rule in the house.

Sonja explained how things worked in the house, what was taken care of collectively and what you had to provide for yourself, who had to clean which area when and how use of the kitchen and bathroom worked. If you had problems with any other student in 5he house, Sonja was the person to go to. But generally the students lives in good spirits together and she experienced few problems.

((I hope you don't mind skipping a little here, right now I don't have immediate plans to include the non-magical people in the house. If we want to do that later, we can always go more in depth, but I'd rather not riak this getting boring with unneccesary details in the beginning of the play. Or would you like one of the appartments having anothe witch, or perhaps a demon? Hmm, could be another plot twist.))

Modern Day Magic

The other witch talked a little about stuff they passed on the way to Mirela's new bar, such as a gay bar, a restaurant where students could get a decent meal for a normal price (regular restaurants were too expensive to visit often in this country, even if most of them offered a studrnt discount), the best place for pizza around here. Finally they reached a street with old manors.

Rachel looked at the numbers and stopped in front of the middle building. At the door hung 9 doorbell buttons, most with anothe nametag next to it. "This is it." She said. "Number 58. Your room should be here."

Mirela had been told to ring the 'general' bell when she arrived.

Modern Day Magic

Rachel shrugged. "I don't know." She answered. "You can always ask. It's a blue door and when you knock on it you'll be asked for a password. You just need to say something. The doorman, Tom, he can see if someone has powers when they speak."

She turned another corner. "Your room is three blocks further." That meant Mirela lived close to the bar