Difference between revisions of "Log:Homecomings and Hot Toddies"

17 December, 2017

Ben Utridge finds a fellow Autumn. Occult things are discussed. And hot toddies are drunk.

Caretakers' House - Sitting Room

The late autumn is cold and damp, the winter easing its way in like a nosy aunt. But there is a source of warmth in this sitting room, a large steaming mug of something spicy sitting on the table in front of a well bundled up Esther Buckingham. Between swigs of whatever is in the mug, the ogress peers over an old musty book, mumbling to herself. She takes notes with a pencil in a notebook that is already thick with her scribbling scrawl, words crawling over the page like spider webs. She frowns, scratches a wart on her nose, then returns to her work.

The front door can be heard opening and closing just before someone hits the floor hard to kick off the dirty from the shoes. Then, a couple seconds later, a big man comes in. His yellow eyes glances around quickly and, upon seeing the form of another Lost in the room, they stop. The man in nice clothes clear his throat discreetly as to call the attention of the scholar in the other side of the room."Sorry to interrupt." He says.

Esther lifts her beady eyed gaze from her studies, fixes her look on the new entrant for a few moments, then utters what seems to be a grunt of approval. "Ungh." Then she waves her free hand. "Please. Come in." Her speaking voice is a low rasp, suitable for strange mutterings and curses, but she seems friendly enough now. "Lovely night for a book, if that's what you're here for. Want a hot toddy? I still have half a thermos full."

The man nods just once and very discreetly as he walks further in into the room. "Books? Too. But mainly to look for the Crown. I'm still not..." He was going to say something else but suddenly realization comes to his creepy eyes and he glances around."Is this a safe place?" He asks as he pushes a chair to have a seat.

Esther sits up a little straighter, listening to what the man says...and what he doesn't say. She idly scratches her chin. "This place belongs to Autumn. You seem to be Autumn." She waves with her free hand at the illusory fall leaves and vines that surround him. She lowers her voice and adds, "As such, you are safe here. But you're not pledged, are you? I can contact the Autumn Monarch if you wish to join. Or you can wait until the change of the season, and speak to that Monarch."

"I prefer to pledge to my ouw Court ruler." He says as he unbuttons his coat to get more confortable on his spot. Then, he looks a the book and the notebook."What are you studying, if you don't mind me asking. Maybe I can help."

Esther nods approvingly. "As did I," she says in agreement. After a sip from her mug, she waves at her book. "Cunning folk. It was an English tradition of folk magic. Similar to hexenmeisters and pellers. But since they weren't fancy pants high magicians, they didn't write down much. There's some information here, but it's..." She shrugs.

"Interesting. If it's in english, I can try to read. I'm not that good with other languages. Not yet, at least. But if it's about magic and all, I'm game." He says and pauses a moment as thinking on what venue to head to next."It was what saved me from There, acording to my nightmares."

Esther stiffens for a moment, looking as if someone had walked across her grave. Then she laughs, a sound that shifts from a girlish giggle almost into a full blown cackle. "That's how we are, isn't it? Magic and or Fear brings us back. That itchy need to know every fool thing, and that need to corral that feeling of being scared." She shakes her head. "I never got your name, sir."

"Benedict Utridge. But everyone calls me Ben since I was born so you can do it if you want to." He says as he glances through the window to the outside, to the graves and for a couple secondsto a crow that is nest in one of the tombstones before turning his yellow witchy eyes back to the big woman."Yours?"

Esther widens her eyes. "Utridge? Are you a member of the local family?" She smiles, exposing her yellowed teeth. "Esther Buckingham. You can call me Esther. I'm pleased to meet you, Ben." She puts out her hand for a shake; there is a calloused strength there.

Ben leans forward to shake hands with Esther. His hand is too calloused and his grisp is firm, but very cold to the touch even underneath the black leather glove."Yes. I'm part of the infamous Utridge family. For good and for bad." He comments with a sarcastic smile.

"I'm not a local, so I'm not up to date on all the family gossip," Esther admits, with a shrug. "I've just heard that name mentioned enough that I figured this was a thing. Your reputation is intact. Whatever it may be." She then shows Ben a picture in the book she was reading. "So. Cunning folk stuck nails in dolls. I'm trying to figure out if this was like a voudoun curse, or was it something else."

"If I'm not mistaken, the magician from around Europe were not really into controlling spells. They were more inclined to use nature and the natural course of things to do magic, altering just enough to attain what they're looking for." He suddenly becomes very elloquent upon looking at the picture in the book and listening the ogress."Maybe it's just to to infuse the dolls with the person's essence so they can channel their healing magic into them?" He proposes and looks at Esther looking for confirmation.

Esther listens carefully to Ben, then writes a few notes. "That's a good possibility. I know they fought dark magic as well. Maybe that's how they dispelled it and put the healing magic in." She writes some more. "This is good. I'll have to test it, but at least I have some ideas now. Thank you, Ben."

Ben adjusts his body back into his chair."You're welcomed. I got a few books about old norse/germanic folk magic as well. If you ever want to exchange knowledge, we arrange that." He says and offers a thin and brief sincere smile to Esther."But my field of expertise are pledges and the Gentry. And the Hedge. I'm a Magi." He says as he lifts his left arm's sleeve to reveal the marks of his Entitlement.

Esther looks at the Magi marks with raised brows, obviously impressed. "It would be good to have you in the Freehold. And I'm obviously biased, due to the aid you've already given me." She laughs a little more. "I have no entitlement, but only the Wyrd knows what path I'll walk."

"I'm pretty sure it'll be a great one." Ben says plainly as a matter of fact as he adjusts his sleeve back to its place."And I'm not sure about how good my skills are going to be to the Freehold. I'm around for a couple months now and I've seen very strong people wandering around already."

Esther snorts dismissively. "Every person is important in a Freehold. And power might not be all that important. The lion has a soft belly, and the lamb has teeth." She pulls out her thermos, and pours more hot liquid into her mug. It is clearly an alcoholic beverage, but not too strong, from the way she drinks it like water.

Ben nods sagely to that comment as he stares at the outside. This time, he takes more time to stare the night in the other side of the glass and the bird that is still perched there in the tombstone. The creature, if analyzed, has shinning red eyes and looks to be made of something darker than the night."I wonder if there is some sort of group that focus on studying magic and exploring the local hedge." He says as he cuts contact with the outside to look once more to Esther as she serves herself with more drink.

Esther peers over her mug to see what Ben is looking at outside. "Is that...your bird?" She slowly sets her mug down. "We have groups for everything except a book of the month club. And probably someone is putting together a freehold book of the month club as I speak." It seems the bird is a concern; she hasn't stopped looking at it now that she sees it.

"It's Helga. She thinks we shouldn't settle down here and move to the east coast. She likes the sea and the salty air." He explains without looking at the bird again. Instead he keeps looking at Esther casually."I can't blame her, actually. I've never seen the sea myself, though, but on the screen, it looks pretty and huge."

"I used to live on the coast. The sea is pretty. And huge. And cold. It can be quite overwhelming. But I'm sure that it probably isn't as intimidating for a lady like Helga who can fly over it." Esther looks at Helga and gives her a nod in greeting.

Surprisinly, the bird nods back very discreetly as it tries to keep her Mask. The ogre, in the other corner of the room nods sagely to that statement about the sea."I believe in you." He murmurs and after a few seconds of silence, he gestures with his head to the mug in front of the ogress."What's this you're drinking?"

"Oh this? Just a hot toddy," Esther replies. "Whiskey, honey, lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, boiling water. I put a touch of brown sugar and ginger in. It's good for a cold. Would you like some?"

"Sure. Why not? It's getting colder at each passing day. It didn't used to be this cold back in the day when I was living here 16 years ago. Or maybe it's just my memory betraying me." He says as he leans back against the chair and grins.

Esther gets up and walks out of the room for a moment, soon returning with a nice clean mug. She pours him a drink and hands the mug over to him, then sits back down in her chair, sighing as it creaks a little under her weight. "I'm surprised you didn't say it was much colder when you used to live here, and you had to walk through five feet of snow to get to school. Up hill. Both ways."

Ben murmurs a thanks when the mug if handed to him and shakes his head."No. I guess it's due the global warmth. The cold places are getting colder while the hot places are getting hotter, in my opinion." He says and sips briefly from his drink to have a taste of it. If it's too hot, too alcoholic or too weird, his face doesn't let it be known. Holding the mug with both hands, he just take some time to let the drink kick in."But I like it this way. Make people be more afraid of the outside and of the things that crawl in the dark places, right?"

Esther grins. "That's the time when Autumn and Winter are allied.. Walking out in the deep cold of winter can be frightening, because you might not make it back, and they might not find your body until the spring thaw. The English tell their ghost stories in the winter. That's where A Christmas Carol came from. Ghosts, fear, death, redemption."

Ben just nods at Esther's words as he keeps warming his hands with the warm mug."I wonder if people of this land had forgotten the old tales or not. Is that common here to be Taken?" He asks before sipping from his drink once more."Back in my day it was something rare. You'd need to be really unlucky."

"I'm not a local, but from the size of the freehold..." Esther leans back in her seat, looking up at the ceiling. "I don't know. You might want to check out any local legends, folktales, and festivals. Might be one of us staring back at you from the past in those stories."

"Yeah. I should do it. It could help me track the local Gentry activities back in the last few decades, at least and find a pattern. If there is such thing when the matter is Them and Their doings." He murmurs."Where are you from, by the way? Now you made me curious. Somewhere sunny in the west coast?"

Esther shakes her head after another sip from her mug. "No, I'm from Portland originally. I really didn't travel too far from home, I guess. But I like the small town life better."

"I must agree with you. Living in a town has its advantages. But it has its drawnbacks too. Everyone knows everyone, for example. All the things you do will be known around in a matter of hours." He comments as before landing his mug on the table.

"Well." Esther blinks. "That explains that...that Enid woman and her gossip column. She is quite the busybody. Though she seems to mostly have it in for C.B. Alexander." She shakes her head.

"Yeah. I keep track of her column too. Just in case. She probably has a crush on him at this point, no?" Ben asks with his natural serious voice."Sometimes I wonder if that woman is a Lost too. She say things very discreetly, but sometimes, I think she knows about the Lost."

Esther frowns with concern. "I think someone would have told us if she knew about us. Or if she was ensorcelled or otherwise fiddled with," she muses. "So, if she knows about us, she found out on her own. Maybe she has a natural Sight? Or she's a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter? Or born with a caul over her face? Or she's mentally ill? Or she's addicted to alcohol or drugs?"

"God knows what that woman is. I just hope she doesn't bring trouble to us. Neither to herself. Unless she is looking for it on purpose." He says ab it grumpy."Calling Their attention is never a good thing." And with that last comment, he takes a deep breath that remarks his concern and tiredness.

Esther notices the tiredness, at any rate. "Do you have a place to stay? I know this is your town, but is your family welcoming? You look like you're about to faceplant on the table."

"I own a Motel. It's close to Little Maple Hill area. But thanks a lot for the offer, Esther. The tiredness is exactly because of it. Too much thing to do over there and no one to help me." He explains as he lazyly stands up and buttons his coat back calmly.

"An entire motel? That's too bad that you don't have anyone to help you out," Esther says, sadly. "I'll send a note to the Monarch about you, and maybe we can find a way to get you some employees."

"Oh, no. Hell no. I have two old women that tend the rooms. But they're getting tired and slow. More help would be much appreciated. I could have some help in exchange of a room and food. If I find someone to cook, I mean." He then pauses to drink what left from his drink."Once more, thanks for the drink and for the kindness. If you need me, this is my address and my phone." He says that as he retrives from a pocket a business card and lands it on the table."Have a good night, Esther."

Esther takes the card, reading it carefully. "You are quite welcome, and be safe, Ben."