nulli secunda

[witch_perfect]

Alli's out of Lethe's Bramble again. She found a reference to a potion- almost like a memory purge but backwards, it's a memory aid. But she keeps getting it wrong, and all she has to show for it is a lack of potion ingredients and distinct difficulty remembering the last three books she read.

She planned for that, at least; they're not school books or anything. But she wants to get this potion right,and more importantly, she wants to have it done before exams. So today she can be found in the Magic Box, digging through the herb selections.

"Ugh, least organized spices ever," she mutters to herself.

Comments

[witch_perfect]

Alli is slightly late but does in fact turn up, with a large, visibly old and obviously heavy book in her arms. "Soph, hey!" she says when she sees the other girl. "Who's your friend?"

"You look familiar...? Maybe?" she says dubiously to the other girl.

[keyed_up]

"Hi, Alli. This is my sister Bella, the one who can't get any magic to work. She's a junior."

[cross_and_bow]

"Together those are surely my defining qualities."

[witch_perfect]

"Well damn, I am also a junior. Do we have to fight for it now?" She plops the book down on the table and starts flipping through pages. "Least I know why you look familiar, now. We must have classes together." She huffs. "And I'd probably even remember which ones, if it wasn't for that damn potion."

Or at least 70% odds, instead of 40%.

She stops on the next page with a triumphant sound. "Aha! Potion recipe staring time?"

[keyed_up]

"Sure. Lay it on me."

[cross_and_bow]

"I think we have math. You sit in the way back."

[witch_perfect]

Alli shrugs and smiles. "You are not on memory altering drugs. I will totally take your word for it. I do sit in the back in math, though." And all other classes. Classes are not Alli's favorite thing. Magic is so much better.

She goes over the recipe for Soph. There's quite a few steps, involving at least two Latin chants, extremely specific stirring directions, and bundles of precisely measured herbs. Some of it's smudged and hard to read, and the whole thing's rather... vague, in that way magic books often are.

"You see why it's such a pain in the ass?" Alli asks rhetorically.

[keyed_up]

"Yeah... like I said I haven't got into potions but I have got a little bit into Latin, I switched into it a few weeks ago when I discovered that there is almost no Spanish in spellbooks, and I know almost none of it so far, but is that conjugated right?" She points at a verb.

[witch_perfect]

"...No. No, you're totally right. That's the wrong tense. Damn it all. I didn't think to check the Latin- I thought I measured something wrong-" she starts to scribble things down on a spare sheet of paper from her backpack. She's on her third year of Latin; she's not the world's best student, but she's past the basics. "And this is in the dative instead of the accusative, and this should be plural... who wrote this, they should be banned from magic."

[keyed_up]

"Ooh, I helped. Go me."

[cross_and_bow]

"Aren't you glad I convinced you to switch?"

[keyed_up]

"I am glad of that whenever I'm not doing my homework. You should do my homework, we're in the same level of Latin anyway."

[cross_and_bow]

"That would kind of defeat the purpose of you actually taking it. Besides, when I tried to help you with a spell you said it came out feeling wrong, whatever that means to you magical types."

[keyed_up]

"I'm kidding, Bella."

[witch_perfect]

"It won't be that bad," Alli assures her. "You took Spanish, right? Romance languages are all damn near identical. I took, like, a year of French, and then switched to Latin. Because magic."

She finishes scribbling out her corrections and looks up, pleased. "Got it!" She looks at Soph. "You're the best. I owe you potion if it works." To Bella, she adds, "Did you want to try a spell with not-your-sister? I can show you the glitterlight spell, or something."

[keyed_up]

"Latin has declensions, it's awful," declares Soph.

[cross_and_bow]

"If you think you'll have better luck getting spells out of me than Soph and various books have, I'd be more than happy to try the glitterlight spell."

[witch_perfect]

Alli grins. "I make no promises. It just looks like your sister and I are doing different stuff, so I thought maybe. But! It's not very hard and it's fun. It's supposed to be pretty easy to learn without an invocation, too. I'm just not there yet. Here, see?"

She poses (unnecessarily), says "Nitidi!" and sweeps her arm through the air. Sparkles follow.

[cross_and_bow]

"How much of that is drama and how much of that is essential spell component?"

[witch_perfect]

"As far as I know? The Latin's required. The arm wave isn't necessary, I guess. But if I don't move it, no sparkles happen? Since it's a spell for "sparkles follow movement". The rest is just me thinking magic is really damn cool."

[cross_and_bow]

"Okay." Bella gets up to have more room for her arm sweep. She repeats, "Nitidi." She sweeps her arm.

Nothing happens.

"Correct my form?"

[witch_perfect]

Alli shrugs. "There isn't form. It's just- an incantation. It might just not work? One of my books was written by-" she puts on a Snobby Scholar Face, "-by an Expert in the Field of Magicks Who Tragically Lacked The Power To Himself Become a Practitioner." She reverts to normal. "Or something like that. But old person talk for 'knowing how to cast spells does not mean you can cast them', anyway."

[cross_and_bow]

"Okay. So I may just be a dud, as - previously suspected," sighs Bella.

[witch_perfect]

"Sorry."

[keyed_up]

"Nitidi," tries Soph, trailing her hand through the air.

Glitter: success.