'Ere the world ❆

[wolfofmidgard]

Who: Meja & you (open)
When: Day 115
What: Magic, plants, attempts at being scholarly.
Where: The community garden, or thereabouts.

Initially, she ventures out to the garden at night — magic can occupy her time when everyone is asleep. Meja brings her notebook with her, along with a blanket to ensure it stays dry and a sack full of stones. She's been writing down everything she can remember from her teachings with Fenrir, even basic rules and exercises. Magic is fickle, her teacher had informed her, and you must not give it a chance to bite.

That had mattered more when she'd been mortal, but still. It was a good thing to keep in mind, especially in terms of damaging her surroundings on accident.

She can be found at the garden in early and late morning, with her hood over her head and a collection of flat stones at her feet, a throwing dagger in hand. The Asgardian steel won't bend, won't break, and so whittling a single rune into each stone isn't difficult. Just time-consuming. A handful of stones are finished, sitting next to her notebook, but she hasn't started her experiments yet. A few more stones first. There's a light mist in the air that only goes a few feet away from the garden itself, something to give the plants a boost at the time of day that they drink the most. And every so often, her gloves glint and glow, the physical sign of the conditions she's maintaining.

Comments

[bluesrat]

There's an irrigation system in place, but it's a shoddy-looking thing made of pvc pipe and plastic bags and other trash, and while it works fairly well, it would probably end up on somebody's clean-up list if Balthazar didn't keep the other gardeners informed.

In early morning, a tall, scarecrow figure of a man comes to check on it, making sure the little holes along the pipe are unblocked, and none of the connections have gotten knocked loose. It might require less maintenance if it wasn't essentially made from garbage. He darts curious glances at the woman with the glowing hands, but he's hesitant to interrupt. Whenever she looks up, though, he gives a friendly smile and a tip of his cap.

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja glances up from where she's carving a jēra into a stone, about halfway completed, and returns his smile. "Good morning," she greets him. Guessing that he doesn't want to be soaked by the end of his maintenance check, Meja turns her wrist slightly and the glowing stops. Immediately, the mist dies off, and the sun becomes brighter.

[bluesrat]

He blinks, glancing around at the abruptly fading mist, then back at her. "That's... a good trick. Thanks, by the way. This garden needs all the help it can get." He just hopes he's right in guessing she had something to do with that.

[wolfofmidgard]

"It's no trouble, it gives me something to do. And it's important."

She isn't like the gods, and can't snap up food whenever she'd like it. Even if Meja herself doesn't need the food, she doesn't want anyone here to suffer from starvation. Not having enough to eat is something that, at one time, she'd been quite familiar with.

"I'm Meja, by the way. Is the little watering system yours?"

[bluesrat]

"Well... mine and Balthazar's." He smiles and comes closer to offer a handshake. He looks like somebody who hasn't gotten quite enough to eat in a while, but he's not starving to death. "Markus Rathbone, or just Rat, if you like."

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja shakes his hand, still smiling. She has a firmer handshake than it seems like she'd have, but nothing unpleasant; from experience, she knows how to reign in her extra strength.

"Nice to meet you, Markus. It's a good system, given you don't have much to work with," she notes, though she raises a slight brow when he notes his nickname as Rat. But she's not one to talk about unusual nicknames. "Between that and my changing of the weather, the garden should be in good enough shape."

[bluesrat]

He's got big hands, and calloused from playing guitar, but he's no stronger than one might expect. "Making do is a skill everybody needs. The garden's been doing well, so thanks! Balthazar hangs out here a lot, too. I don't know exactly what he does to it... have you met him?"

[tryingitall]

Balthazar has enough control over his territory to know when someone's been in it, and the garden (or at least the area of it closest to House 11) is no exception. Meja's an odd presence, but benign, and he leaves her be for a long while before growing curious.

He emerges close to eleven AM with a full watering can in one hand and a cup of mint tea in the other. The first is emptied over the verdant squash plants. The second he carries toward her and crouches companionably nearby. "Ready for a break? Fresh brewed, with a bit of honey."

He offers the cup cheerfully.

[wolfofmidgard]

"Thank you, Balthazar," Meja responds, smiling. "That's kind of you."

She blows some of the sand out of the rune she's working on, berkanan, and puts it (and her dagger) down before gratefully accepting the cup. The mist is all but dispersed, but the air still retains the smell of petrichor.

[tryingitall]

"I'm compulsively friendly. It's like an illness." Also, he's disinclined to leave now that he's been acknowledged. "May I ask what you're up to?"

He eyes the rune, recognizing it as writing but not certain what the application for it may be.

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja laughs quietly. "If kindness is an illness, then I'm in trouble."

She won't be able to interact with anyone ever again!

"I'm trying to figure out how to use magic to benefit the plants here," she explains, nodding at the pile of stones that are completed. "Most of my past experience is with containment and protection, so I've been... going back to the books. So to speak."

None of the right books are here, but Meja's memory isn't so terrible.

[tryingitall]

"Kindness isn't quite the same as friendliness, but I'll take your word for it." He grins, settling cross-legged, and peers at her work.

"I've given a subtle boost to my own little garden," he nods. The crops are coming in a bit faster and thicker for him than might normally be reasonable to expect. "But I don't want to draw too much attention. Still, we could use every boost we can get. People leave, but more mouths to feed keep coming in."

"On a mundane note, I've heard fish parts make good fertilizer, but I imagined my housemates would veto having rotting seafood that close to our window."

[wolfofmidgard]

Her head cants ever so slightly to the side, thoughtful. "That's the trouble with the best fertilizer," she chuckles. "It's always something most people would rather not deal with. I don't know what kinds of stone can be found around here, but the Ljósálfar use ground limestone to boost their soil. And, ah, kelp, I believe — but the smell might be too similar to fish for your housemates."

Meja nods at the berkanan she was carving. "I'm going to try and use stones rather than mark the runes in dirt, since I would have to renew them every day. It would be extremely tiring." In a metaphysical sort of sense, diluting energy that might be needed for sudden and larger problems. "If I create a circle with them, around each plant, it should contain the magic enough that I won't have any... 'bleed' problems."

[hung_garian]

Runes. They're not exactly restricted to the Viking Age - even in 2010 there are those who use them, admittedly with varying degrees of understanding - but they're not usually used to quite this effect. The glowing hands are new, for one thing. And whether or not she's doing things the way he's used to, the way he thinks she is, it borders on the nostalgic. He's not sure, for quite some time, whether he tends to interrupt. He stands there watching invisibly for some time - but there does come a point where he can't help popping back into visibility and passing comment.

"Asking counsel from the gods? Can't imagine you'll get much of an answer."

She doesn't look as if she's casting runes, though. Perhaps that's what she plans to do with these, he couldn't say, but usually for that, less effort goes in. Less actual magic, and less... glowing. Of course, it could just be a difference between their worlds, but that's part of what he's hoping to find out.

[wolfofmidgard]

The Valkyrie looks up with a chuckle, all but finished with a fehu that she, regardless, continues to sharpen and refine. Most of the energy she's imbuing into the stone is from intent and gesture, and ensuring that the rune is carved correctly means less mistakes down the line. ...that's her hope, at least.

"Even if my message escaped this bubble, I doubt their advice would be useful," she notes wryly. She'd much rather get a message to Skalla or Fenrir, if she had the option. "This is magic. Well... of a different kind. Does casting runes consult the gods in your world?"

That's certainly not what they do in hers.

[hung_garian]

He strolls over, though he still stays (for once) well outside her personal space bubble, about eight feet away from her.

"Is it ever?" He's allowed to say so, right? Right. "People think it consults them. Sometimes it does. Usually? Works no better than tea leaves or horoscopes."

Although, given that she seems to have been on first name terms with Odin and friendly with one of his ravens, Gabriel suspects that she has a better chance of getting an answer than most. And, well, hey - he's here. Even as Loki he's probably not who any Old Norse or Asatru priest would want guidance from, but he's the closest one's likely to get to a Norse god here.

"So in that case - what's up, doc? What are you trying to do with those?"

[wolfofmidgard]

It's no skin off her nose if he wants to poke at the gods. They're not here, and, while Meja has no grudges against them, they tend to be out just for themselves. Asgardian politics — she has no taste for them, herself. How fitting that she was put into a position that needs to think about that kind of thing, after waking up as a Valkyrie.

"I'm trying to give the plants some extra support. Make them grow faster, perhaps, or disease resistant. But if I draw the runes in the dirt, I'll have to re-draw them every day. I'm hoping the stones will work on a more... permanent basis."

[hung_garian]

"Well, as garden features go, stones are pretty permanent. Better than etching runes onto garden gnomes or plastic flamingos, that's for sure."

He hunkers down next to the stones to take a closer look. He's hardly an expert on her world's type of magic, but the runes- yes, they seem to be the same.

"Nice job. You a big gardener, then? You don't look the type, but then, I guess a green thumb isn't strictly limited to wholesome plump forty year olds who shoulda been born in the Shire."

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja grins. "When I was growing up, our town only had one tree due to its very northern location. I didn't know much about plants, back then. But not too long ago, I had to spend a long while on Alfheimr. I suspect the Ljósálfar didn't know quite what to do with me, so they taught me about plants."

Strictly speaking, there are very few similarities with a typical Valkyrie and a Ljósálfar. The Valkyrie are a military organization, for the most part, and the Light Elves are pacifistic by nature. But Meja had been glad to learn what she could, and the Ljósálfar had been pleasantly surprised by a Generalløytnant who thought of something aside from conflict.

"But I don't really have the time to use the knowledge, for the most part."

[nevermindtherunning]

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say this is rather cult-like. But I hate cults, really." The Doctor commented, walking up in the early morning hour, hands tucked away in pin-striped trouser pockets.

There's a tuft of blonde hair that catches his eyes, and a pang of longing for an old friend hits him, but quickly disappears when he catches her face.

"We meet again!"

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja blinks, slightly mystified, but she smiles all the same. In her unfortunately vast experience with dark elves and their little sub-cults, the only common factor in them was living sacrifice. "Good morning, Doctor. What makes you think of cults, if I might ask?"

[nevermindtherunning]

"Some of the items you have here. The hood doesn't help much,either, might I add. " He offers a smile and finds a spot to take a seat in the grass.

Spreading his fingers out and sliding them back behind him, he watches her. "Educate me. I'm horribly fascinated!"

[wolfofmidgard]

She laughs quietly. He does have a point where her hood is concerned, she supposes, even if it had only been up to keep the mist out of her eyes. Meja reaches up and pulls it down, her hair springing up a tad wildly in its absence. She orders it as best she can, as she talks, but it seems that her hair prefers to be on the messy side.

"All right. I'm carving runes to give our gardens here some protection and enhancement. Putting them on stones means that I don't have to redraw them every day in the dirt."

[nevermindtherunning]

The Doctor moves closer and without asking, picks up the runes, "I've seen these before..." But where exactly? He looks puzzled for a moment and reaching into his jacket pocket, pulls out his 'brainy-specs' and places them on.

Turning the stone over in his hands, he's inspecting closely, "They all have a symbolism to them, don't they?"

[wolfofmidgard]

Meja nods, watching him with a slight smile. "It's an alphabet, of sorts. But no one in my world has used them for that in a very, very long time. Now, they simply hold power as... conduits, I suppose you could say. Each rune has a dozen different meanings behind it, or more, for the purposes of magic."