Piercing Light — Roleplayer Guild

"Mary, could you take a look at some of these plants with me, I have a feeling you'd recognize them more easily than I would."

Mary didn't need much more than that to get her going, she wanted to maintain herself-- she held a certain sonder in acknowledging that her companions certainly had to have felt some excitement with seeing actual magic... actual magic in real life, even if they didn't, they must have some passion in their lives which gave them the mirth that the idea of observing magical flora was granting to her in that moment. The joy filled her with energy much faster than any coffee may have--

Still, there were social norms to meld to, even if only slightly, and preconceived cosmic roles and tropes to fit. She had to approach the botany with the combined energies of the Mary that Mary was in her own mind as well as the energy that Mary was in the minds of these people that barely knew her as acquaintances would attribute to her. 

Specifically, in this instance, Kanoa was whom she interacted with-- fitting, since she was the one leading the charge into all of this, the unknown, and whose simple contact had touched something in her.

Mary, resisting the urge to grab her hand and run over to the plants, simply waited until the other grouped off and said their pieces, before turning to Kanoa, trying to reign in her childlike splendor, responded, "Cool. Yeah. Totes, I can look at some flowers if you want boss-lady, i-if you think it'll help, or whatever."

"Let's start with these over here, Mary." Kanoa gestured to a group of plants nearest to the corner. She knelled down by the miniature garden and inspected the flora. She recognized only a few of the plants, as she had used them for potions on occasion. "Nightshade, cat's claw... With the right touch these can be made into a knockout powder. Again, not something a kitsune would need as long as they have their magic." Kanoa frowned and looked at the rest of the plants, she had never used them before, but they were common in the forest. "This doesn't really make sense, unless someone else besides the spirit has been working here."

Kanoa picked a particularly strange blue bud from the garden. The pedals felt like velvet, and it gave off a strong sweet smell that almost made her light headed. "Are you familiar with what this is?" She asked Mary."

Mary followed Kanoa's gaze tentatively, the dance of social niceties balanced with her own passion. Mary tilted her head as Kanoa began pointing out a few of the names, she wasn't new at this. Mary almost asked what she even needed her there for, Kanoa didn't seem to need any help with--

Mary caught the frown. 

The thought processes that went in and around Kanoa's head were ones Mary didn't understand-- from what she knew of the girl even trying to understand might prove futile. Still, there were things going on here that Mary wanted to understand, coming along would have been pointless otherwise. Mary took a moment to observe the blue bulb Kanoa wanted Mary to identify, her pupils widening in silent observation. A second later, she plucked a petal off the lotus and popped it into her mouth.

Her pupils widened further. This was the good stuff.

"Egyptian blue lotus! I'd recognize that garmonbozia anywhere... It's like, a sacred soporific, or something." Mary set the bulb back onto the dirt, "Yeah, that's like, dangerous stuff-- slip this in a kid's drink and he'd follow you anywhere if you asked him, or he'd just fall asleep." Her eyes shot to Kanoa's, "Are you sure that some magical fox did this? I mean, it's totally magic that this is somehow growing in fucking Maine, but so is this magical treehouse. Maybe it's just some magic dude spiking peoples drinks with enchanted Egyptian flower potion roofies to make 'em disappear."

Mary paused, "Is that still a thing? Like, do people still make potions? In the magical world? I figure I should know... for... reasons..."

Kanoa watched as Mary's eyes filled with life at the site of the bulb. It was slightly contagious coming from her, considering her typical lackadaisical attitude. It was pretty obvious that the girl had an affection for these types of plants. It was nice seeing this side of her, it wasn't often that she could see someone gush over something they were passionate about. It almost felt unfair that Kanoa hadn't shown much of herself to the others.

"Dangerous stuff?" Kanoa asked with a nervous smile. "I'm going to assume it's alright to chew on it like that then." She had faith that Mary knew what she was doing, and that she wouldn't be needing to carry her out of the forest any time soon. "I'm not too sure anymore actually. I know I saw a fox spirit, and the leaves found at the scene of the disappearance back it up..." Kanoa pulled out her notepad and flipped the pages to a picture she sketched of roots. "A tree on the way here had bite marks on it's roots, they look like they could have come from a fox. Kitsune's live by absorbing energy from living things, but... Plants are hardly a reliable source of this energy. Perhaps this spirit kidnapped the boy to get a reliable source of energy."

Kanoa tapped her chin a few times, pondering, when she remembered that Mary had asked something else. "Oh, potions? Yes of course, they've always had their uses. The only reason they aren't publicly known is because only those with a tether can get them to work. It's kinda complicated, but I could show you sometime if you'd like."

Mary responded to Kanoa's concern with something between a lackadaisical grin and a self-assured smirk-- she couldn't quite tell which it was, both? Honestly, it was probably neither, her muscles were already beginning to relax to a concerning degree. As she chewed on the petal, she remembered exactly why this potent stuff was worshiped and considered sacred by a bunch of bi-racial geometric shape sculptors.

No wait... that was ancient Costa Ricans-- Egyptians were aliens.

Riiiiight...

Mary gave her head a little shake. Reality is where she was needed, she needed to stay in reality, in the magical tree. It would make a hella bad impression to just pass out now... Even moreso than spilling your inner demons to a group of indifferent post-tweens-- especially with how it would seem to Kanoa. This was a good opportunity. 

You should be paying attention...

She tilted her head again as Kanoa began to speak, eyes narrowing slightly. Mary's eyes flickered with a dimming light, it was all she could do to maintain control, her eyes glossed over Kanoa's features, finding a mild entertainment in the novelty of her outfit, before soon after, settling in following the subtle changes in her face and the slight curves her lips made as she spoke further about the Kitsune dilemma. She had the elocution of a detective, almost. Or more specifically, like, a TV detective. That also dealt in the paranormal-- so not just any CSI scrub-- she was like an X-Files scrub. Or was she? Mary could already infer she was too open to be Scully, and she was way too hot to be Mulder...

Was she Coop? Nah. Well... Audrey was kind of a detective... she helped a little? It'd be racist to say she was Joan, wouldn't it? The lady from Fringe? Mary gave an internal sigh, as Kanoa flipped through her notepad. Why weren't there more attractive, Asian spooky detectives on TV?

Wait-- Lucy Liu plays a decent Watson... that's kind of spooky... right?

Sure, I guess.

Jesus Christ, Mary's eyes widen an imperceptibly small degree as she observed the sketch of bitten roots, when did she even have time to draw those? She spoke more, mostly in matters relating to the magical fox-- the bit about the plants was interesting. Apparently they did have souls! Even if only small amounts of soul that foxes could barely survive off of. After a moment Kanoa spoke again, addressing Mary's peculiar request regarding potions. Despite rationalizing the offer to make sick witches brew as more of those social niceties on Kanoa's part, Mary still blushed.

"Dude!" She didn't let the surprise transfer to her voice, however, "Of course I wanna learn how to make magical herb smoothies. Gonna enchant the shit out of those bendy straws! I'm excited... like genuinely excited actually, which is new..." She paused, adopting something resembling a serious tone for an instant, "It's a lot to take in. All of it is." Mary drew in a deep breath. The Blue Lotus was fast acting, but in such a small dose it was weak, she could feel it's influence weakening-- "Honestly, I thought you were crazy... yesterday... today... until I saw all this... I seriously hear voices at the cemetery and I thought you were crazy..."

"Glebionis coronaria," Mary said, point at another flower Kanoa hadn't identified, "It makes really nice tea." Brushing the petals with a finger, she shrugged, "Maybe foxy has sleeping problems? Throw all this in a cauldron you'd have a brew with a little more kick than chamomile and warm milk." A smirk, she turned to Kanoa, "Is it alright if I take some of these?" She forced an overly pleading smile, "For research? These aren't native to this region-- maybe a botanist in town had some seeds stolen, or something?"

"Me, crazy? Nah." Kanoa shook her head, a facetious tone in her voice. "I'm just glad you all believed me, it's nice to have some people my own age to relate to." She was well aware of how far-fetched her claims had been at first. She could have easily proved herself by using a spell of some kind, but in her opinion it was usually better to show than to tell, that and she was far too lazy to conjure up a spell for such a reason. Mary pointed out another plant, this one apparently good for making tea. "Tea to help it sleep? Seems unlikely, but probable." She said. 

When Mary asked if she could take some of the plants Kanoa's face scrunched up. "Um, I'm not sure actually. I suppose we've already left more than a few traces that we've been here, it can't miss a few, right?" Kanoa shrugged her shoulders and stood up. She glanced over to the work station covered in tools and materials. "I've got an idea, come over here."

A mortar and pestle sat on the table, trace amounts of whatever potion had last been created inside. Kanoa ran a finger along the bottom of the bowl and sniffed the fibrous remains of the plants. "Good..." She mumbled to herself as she scooped up three bundles of torn plants and put them inside the mortar. "We should be able to recreate whatever potion was made here, it may give us a hint as to where our culprit is. Hmm. This would be a good chance for me to show you how this is done." Kanoa took Mary's hands and placed them on the pestle, with her own hands covering hers. "Enchanted potions can be made in a few ways, but I'll show you the easiest first." Kanoa began to guide Mary's hands in grinding the ingredients down. "With this method, you need to gradually infuse the ingredients with your spiritual energy. You've probably never done this before, so I'll show you how it's done." 

Kanoa took a deep breath and relaxed, her hands began to glow with a faint, barely visible blue aura. "Feels kind of warm, right? My mother taught me how to do this, surprised the heck out of me." She said. "Take a deep breath and try to calm yourself, focus on your hands, imagine pouring your very soul into them- oh yeah, souls are real by the way, but that was just a figure of speech." She cleared her throat, and continued. "You should feel a warmth travel into your hands and reside there, keep it there, and keep grinding for a few minutes."

She let go of her hands, interested to see if her first attempt at teaching someone something mystical would pay off.

Mary's face, entirely out of her own control, flushed with emotion. Just yesterday, a simple brush from Kanoa's hand was enough to drive her to a personal spiritual revelation. Now, that soft touch was guiding both of her hands, like she was the female love interest in some shitty 90's sports movie. Mary had to struggle to to let her own hands tremble under Kanoa's gentle clasp. Her face more than made up for that though. Her blush was one intense enough to earn it's own caption;

[blushing intensifies]

Either Kanoa was completely oblivious-- perhaps too absorbed in the matter at hand to notice Mary's strong reaction-- or, alternatively, she was completely aware of it, and she was toying with Mary, in her own supernatural savant sort of way. Mary hadn't known Kanoa long, and the more she thought about it, as she fought to think about anything other than the present; the physical connection was, despite Mary's dilated pupils, still somewhat mundane. One pair of skilled hands teaching another, to Mary, became an almost sensual exchange of knowledge, one body, a mere modicum of space aware from pressing against the student, the air became warm as Kanoa spoke of infusing the ingredients with her own... spiritual... energy.

Christ, you're being weird again, dude.

Turning her attention back to what Kanoa was actually creating, a genuine surprised gleam replaced slightly coquettish blushes. 

Her hands were literally glowing blue.

Wanting to cop, radical mystical aura powers, Mary began following Kanoa's instructions; slowing her breathing, calming her mind... imagining her (apparently real) soul as her breath was much of the time... a purple smokey haze, she imagined pushing that out through her hands. The warm tingle that she might feel on her pores...

Mary almost lost herself. Was she trying to force it? Why wasn't it working? Was she doing something wrong? Was something wrong with her? Or her aura or whatever? Why wasn't...

Something clicked inside her.

"...keep it there, and keep grinding for a few minutes."

Mary's eyes glowed playfully, "Christ Kanoa, phrasing." she was still pooling her spiritual energy into the mortar. But in that moment, in that xeno of a lack of force, an almost indescribable violet emanated from Mary's stirring hands in tandem with the comment. She looked down, "Whoa, shit." for Mary, the slight widening of her eyes was about as significant as a normal human yelling in absolute bewilderment.

"Whoa indeed, you picked up on this pretty quickly. I'm impressed." Kanoa said. She patted Mary on the back and took a look at the results of her infusion. To the average person, a normal person, there would be nothing to see from the crushed plants. However, Kanoa was able to see something. Like a brilliantly cut gem refracting light she could see an aura of color surrounding anything with spiritual energy. She had used this ability of hers to find those with a tether in her school, and now it was helping her make a potion. 

She opened a glass jar of water and dumped the ingredients inside of it. "Now we just shake it a bit..." She said, taking the jar and violently thrashing it up and down. Usually this was done slowly, but she never did like taking her time making potions. The crushed plants disintegrated in the water and turned the liquid into a dark blue solution. She brought the glass closer to her face and rotated it, the dim light from glowing mushrooms giving only modest visibility. "Huh, would you believe me if I told you this is a potion that allows you to breath underwater?" She sat the potion down and scribbled in her notebook.

"You're pretty adorable when you're flustered like that by the way." Kanoa said with a smirk, eyes on her writing. She might seem aloof at times, but she wasn't clueless. She wasn't expecting that type of reaction from Mary when she touched her hands. The notebook closed with a clap, and she looked over to Mary. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone if you won't." 

She leaned against the table and crossed her arms. "Speaking of the others, I wonder if they've found anything useful up there..."

If before, Mary had only become a few shades pinker, Kanoa's comments had easily driven her flushed cheeks into shades of beet red, even the purple aura lingering around her hands became a few shades carmine. Of course she'd managed to catch it! She was a psychic wunderkiind-- she just taught Mary how literally make magic Aquaman smoothie in a bottle. She was becoming... impressive? Was that the right word? It certainly had something to do with the of it all as well. But still, she had access to magic-- active control of some of it-- and she chose to share it with her classmates, to show them into the world they could see but didn't know, and try to do something good. 

Mary couldn't help but wonder, with that kind of insight, would she have reached out...?

God! How awful introspection is!

"Th-thanks..." Mary, jumping to sit on the edge of the incredible table, that appeared to be some mix between stump and interwoven branches, responded to Kanoa with her own flustered mini-smirk. "Hmmm... I mean, we could go check?" She crossed her legs, switching her gaze between Kanoa's fading playful expression and the rest of the visible room, "Honestly, the only thing I can tell from all these flowers is that whoever lives here has some interest in botany. Not just like a passive interest either, some of these hybrids are like, next level, y'know?" She brushed the petals of a particularly large and colorful lion/dragon flower on the table, "Like, it shouldn't be possible to cultivate some of this shit, next level." 

"Actually," Mary tilted her head, eyes on Kanoa's notebook, "Some of these look like such fragile strains, I couldn't take 'em when we go even if I wanted," Mary shrugged, her full nonchalant smirk returning, "Which, for the record, I totally do. I'd take all of these beauties if I could," Smiling, she gave an obviously exaggerated sigh, "Anyway. If you wanted I could sketch some of these down if you think it'd help, I mean, if you wanted."

Kanoa handed her notebook to Mary. Her sketches were decent, however, Mary was bound to have a more accurate touch when it came to flora. "That might prove useful, just um, ignore the pictures of cats." She said sheepishly, hoping the numerous sketches of cartoonish felines wouldn't seem too odd, she drew when she was bored, and she was bored quite often. She pushed off the table and looked towards the stairs once more. "Once they're done up there we'll leave, I know where we're headed to next." Kanoa said. "You know how to swim, right?" She looked back to Mary. "Because we'll be swimming, a lot."

She picked up the azure potion and poured it's contents into thin glass vials stopped with corks. All but one of the vials was fitted inside of her seemingly bottomless pockets, the lone vial was handed to Mary. "Keep this with you..." Kanoa's eyebrows raised as she realized something. "Oh, don't worry, I know you've likely never had a metamorphosis potion before, but it's safe. Like... 99.99% safe."
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