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Johanna has elected to spend the night after that little mattress-shopping episode getting very drunk and seeing if there's any available ladies in this town. There seems to be exactly one bar not frequented by demons (she's not prejudiced, but she'd rather not land a mantis-woman for a one-night stand), so she stops in for a pint.
Her search is unsuccessful; there's a couple of gay teen witch-girls, but she's not keen on sleeping with someone who could be her grandniece, and anyway they seem less than interested in her slightly dusty charms. She gets miserably drunk, sobers up miserably with a whispered invocation, and makes her miserable way home.
...She spots someone lurking, out the corner of her eye. She knows from lurking, it was a whole unit in Watcher training. That is a vampiric lurk. Recalling last night's incident, she decides to investigate. From her purse, she retrieves an unobtrusive spraycan of sanctified Mace, and she strolls very casually into the occupied alleyway.
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bishopric
bishopric
Fuck.
Johanna polishes her glasses in an unconscious Rupert impression, fervently thanking her vaguely Semitic skin tone for its lack of tendency to blush. "S-so, um, what next?"
Johanna polishes her glasses in an unconscious Rupert impression, fervently thanking her vaguely Semitic skin tone for its lack of tendency to blush. "S-so, um, what next?"
kingsidecastle
"Well, I can probably put all this away for now. Is there anything you'd especially like to accomplish? I'm better at constructing spells when I have a real goal in mind," says Chris, getting up to return the various chess pieces to their box. "It probably makes me less effective as a teacher."
bishopric
"Well, I, um, maybe we could do, like, a ward? Watchering is pretty high risk. And it's your specialty and all."
kingsidecastle
"Sure. I can do those. Specifics? Warding what against what? On you directly, or on a focus object you can carry?"
bishopric
"Hm, I've got- maybe a ward against bullets? I'm good on anything the Sumerians thought needed protected from, but they were notably lax about firearms."
kingsidecastle
"Sure," Chris says cheerfully. She picks out Johanna's bishop (glass), its twin, their frosted-glass counterparts, and all four rooks from the matching set. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much straightforwardly about my system for placing pieces; it's all by intuition at this point. But for this purpose I'm thinking either square within a square, or alternating octagon. Probably square within a square. For really concrete physical things like this, it's more important to be tightly focused than smoothly integrated."
bishopric
Johanna tries to follow. So... the shapes... she can see it, kind of. She certainly understands the focus of the square-in-square, doubling and shrinking in. The octagon works too, it's- elegant. It is what it is. "What if you did a four-way symmetrical long cross form? That seems like it'd be sort of... very narrowly focused in. Maybe not robust enough for a ward, though, probably more- a divination, a curse- no, curse would be outward. Maybe the call for a summoning. Or an analytical divination. Yeah?" She sketches out what she's thinking of on a notepad.
kingsidecastle
"Hmm. Yeah. I see what you mean about the focus," says Chris. "But that has more of a point to it, rather than a wall. Walls are very much my specialty. This is the basic form I'm thinking of for the square within a square."
She draws eight points on a fresh page: white triangles at 'north' and 'south', white circles at 'east' and 'west', and within that a second square with black triangles at 'east' and 'west' and black circles at 'north' and 'south'. One north-south line connects the white triangles and black circles; one east-west line connects the white circles and black triangles. Then she draws the lines of the outer square, the lines of the inner square, a diamond linking all four circles, and a diamond linking all four triangles.
It comes out looking about like this. Although Chris's lines aren't quite that neat.
"Self-reinforcing, with all those internal alignments. No matter where you hit it, you're up against the strength of the whole figure."
She draws eight points on a fresh page: white triangles at 'north' and 'south', white circles at 'east' and 'west', and within that a second square with black triangles at 'east' and 'west' and black circles at 'north' and 'south'. One north-south line connects the white triangles and black circles; one east-west line connects the white circles and black triangles. Then she draws the lines of the outer square, the lines of the inner square, a diamond linking all four circles, and a diamond linking all four triangles.
It comes out looking about like this. Although Chris's lines aren't quite that neat.
"Self-reinforcing, with all those internal alignments. No matter where you hit it, you're up against the strength of the whole figure."
bishopric
Johanna considers it. "That's... hm. Walls, yeah. I don't think I could... do that. Looks very sturdy, but- I'd be more about latticework than just stonewalling. It's just so easy to bleed off their momentum bit by bit. Like, maybe I'd do a kind of- hm." Hesitantly at first, but gaining confidence, she scratches out an increasingly intricate figure on her pad. The end result looks like a chaotic mess of angles and painfully straight lines, patterns forming and breaking apart within it. Its lines, though straight, bend in weird optical illusions.
It's very... bishopy.
Johanna looks at her paper contemplatively. "You know, I just may be good at this."
It's very... bishopy.
Johanna looks at her paper contemplatively. "You know, I just may be good at this."
kingsidecastle
"You just might!" says Chris. "If you had Liesel to sit for the royals and knights, and wrote up or improvised a decent metaphorical journey, you could absolutely cast that. I wouldn't even need to participate. But now I'm wondering if we can get the rook style and the bishop style working in the same diagram somehow."
She thinks. She draws. She unearths several more colours of pen and a ruler.
She comes up with this, drawn very neatly.
"That's me, that's you," she says, pointing to the black circle and black diamond respectively. "That's my focus stone," the sunburst. "Red is frosted, blue is glass, octagons are pawns, our respective pieces come in our respective shapes. I'd put down protective stones at any unoccupied intersection to get my floor to cooperate. I think we could actually pull this one off. What do you think?"
She thinks. She draws. She unearths several more colours of pen and a ruler.
She comes up with this, drawn very neatly.
"That's me, that's you," she says, pointing to the black circle and black diamond respectively. "That's my focus stone," the sunburst. "Red is frosted, blue is glass, octagons are pawns, our respective pieces come in our respective shapes. I'd put down protective stones at any unoccupied intersection to get my floor to cooperate. I think we could actually pull this one off. What do you think?"
bishopric
Johanna looks sidelong at a bit of asymmetry, but it seems good overall. And it's putting together their strengths very neatly. "Sounds like a plan. I like it."
kingsidecastle
"In that case, you can help me lay it out," says Chris. She digs up all the matching pawns and starts placing the rooks in a square surrounding the center of the room. With enough squinting and imagination, it's possible to see exactly where in the geometry of the floor every piece should go.
bishopric
Johanna does rather a lot more squinting than Chris, but lays down her pieces in turn. "I'm sure this floor arrangement is very useful for your purposes, but I think when I grow up and become a big scary witch I'd rather just use chalk. This thing gives me a headache."
kingsidecastle
"I've been tempted by the lure of chalk before. But I think you have a steadier hand than I do; I'd have a hard time drawing the lines precisely enough to suit me. The floor is a big help there."
They get all the pieces set down, Chris's focus stone included. It's a perfectly ordinary-looking pebble, such as one might pick up from any old riverbed.
They get all the pieces set down, Chris's focus stone included. It's a perfectly ordinary-looking pebble, such as one might pick up from any old riverbed.
bishopric
"I do have a steady hand. Watchers tend to."
That is definitely not an ordinary pebble. That is... not even slightly an ordinary pebble. It's difficult to bear in mind that it technically looks like one when it is so obviously not. "Nice focus."
That is definitely not an ordinary pebble. That is... not even slightly an ordinary pebble. It's difficult to bear in mind that it technically looks like one when it is so obviously not. "Nice focus."
kingsidecastle
"Thank you. I've had it for years. It does the job nicely. Now, let me see about those protective stones..."
She opens another box and takes out enough agate, tiger's eye, and black tourmaline to mark all the remaining intersections of the diagram, which she does - black tourmaline on the innermost eight points, tiger's eye for the middle set, agate at the last. Then she sits in her indicated place, facing inward.
"So I'm going to talk to the focus stone for a bit, remind it what an exciting life it has had being a rock, suggest that it work with me here," she explains. "If the spell goes off nicely, I might want to go over it with you and come up with a version where you're a more active caster, maybe bringing in Liesel so we can use the full range of pieces. We'd have to find something - or a set of things - to work for you like my focus stone does for me, I think, but I'm sure that's manageable."
She opens another box and takes out enough agate, tiger's eye, and black tourmaline to mark all the remaining intersections of the diagram, which she does - black tourmaline on the innermost eight points, tiger's eye for the middle set, agate at the last. Then she sits in her indicated place, facing inward.
"So I'm going to talk to the focus stone for a bit, remind it what an exciting life it has had being a rock, suggest that it work with me here," she explains. "If the spell goes off nicely, I might want to go over it with you and come up with a version where you're a more active caster, maybe bringing in Liesel so we can use the full range of pieces. We'd have to find something - or a set of things - to work for you like my focus stone does for me, I think, but I'm sure that's manageable."
bishopric
Johanna nods. "I've got a wand in my purse that's attuned to me, I haven't used it in years but it should still be a good starting point. D'you want me to take it out now or just do your rookery bit?"
kingsidecastle
"Rookery bit first, I think. I'm not sure yet how to plan for combining metaphors."
kingsidecastle
"Take a seat then, facing me." She indicates the center of the diagram.
bishopric
She does so. This is a good opportunity to look at Chris, which is an enjoyable activity!
kingsidecastle
If Chris notices anything about this side benefit, she doesn't let on.
She just starts talking to the focus stone behind Johanna, in Anglo-Saxon. Her alliterative verse is a little more polished this time around.
The metaphor-vision shows the red glow of magma, the burst of light as a volcano erupts, then the rippling dark at the bottom of a deep river. Chris coaxes the stone to lend her its strength, and then she and Johanna are sitting inside a stone tower crisscrossed with a web of silver light. The lines follow the real diagram at first, but then multiply and extend through the stone walls, up and down and around. There is a feeling of movement in them, like the flight of an arrow, glowing contrails bent and pinned in place.
Chris thanks the stone for its help. The metaphor fades.
"Whew," she says. "That was interesting. I think it went pretty well, don't you?"
She just starts talking to the focus stone behind Johanna, in Anglo-Saxon. Her alliterative verse is a little more polished this time around.
The metaphor-vision shows the red glow of magma, the burst of light as a volcano erupts, then the rippling dark at the bottom of a deep river. Chris coaxes the stone to lend her its strength, and then she and Johanna are sitting inside a stone tower crisscrossed with a web of silver light. The lines follow the real diagram at first, but then multiply and extend through the stone walls, up and down and around. There is a feeling of movement in them, like the flight of an arrow, glowing contrails bent and pinned in place.
Chris thanks the stone for its help. The metaphor fades.
"Whew," she says. "That was interesting. I think it went pretty well, don't you?"
kingsidecastle
"And that was without any guidance for your bishop-as-arrow. If you wrote up a spoken metaphor to complement my wall with your web, I think we'd really have something."