Research Mode

who: lullaby and blake
where: park cemetery, one of the islands on the ponds
when: early afternoon(right before the rain)

Lullaby was sitting in Park Cemetery, on one of the larger little islands on one of the ponds. She always liked going over the little wooden bridge to it, then spreading out under one of the trees. Maybe it was weird to hang out in a cemetery, but she liked this cemetery. When she kicked the bucket, she wanted to be buried here. It was pretty and there were baby ducks, squirrels, occasional moose and other things. It was like a Disney flick had thrown up in there. Only with less singing and pink-anything. Either way she was hanging out because she liked it there, and she felt like she could read her books on curses and white magic and all that crap without having to explain herself to too many passersby. She even had her umbrella and everything, huge, fuckoff thing that it was and she was prepared for when the rain started--if it ever did. After all, it'd been one of the driest summers ever.

Currently she was frowning over one of the white magic books, learning about wardings. According to the book, you could ward off like, just about everything if you knew how and had the right ingredients. Of course, some of the ingredients were ridiculous. A lot of them looked more gettable, however, and she was trying to decide if she was actually going go try to do any of this, and if Unc would mind if she experimented on his house. Hm...

Blake was out wondering again. Why? Because it seemed to be the only thing to do in this town was discover all the little boring corners of it. He had read about the cats in the paper, how odd they were and people getting sick, but he had yet to come across one. He was beginning to wonder if the town was just bat-shit crazy in the head or something.

Park Cemetery on it's little island seemed like an interesting enough place to check out when Blake stumbled across it. Cemeteries are always interesting. Especially the ones with the older headstones.

What he didn't expect to find was a girl sitting on a bench reading. Narrowing his eyes so he could see the book better he corrected that thought. He hadn't expected to find a girl sitting on a bench reading a book on magic. He wondered if she was a witch. Only one way to find out. Wandering over to the bench he sat down on the other end, leaving space between them. "A little light reading?"

Lullaby blinked as she felt the vibration of someone sitting down. She looked over, and smiled, though it was definitely the smile of someone who hadn't caught what was said. "Hello." she said, and as per usual, used sign language for everything along with it. "I'm sorry did you say something?" she asked, paying attention now so she could read his lips. She had set her book on the bench with the others.

Blake looked down to the signing hands and then back to the girl's face and noticed that she was watching his lips. It didn't take rocket science to see that she was deaf. "I noticed your book. A little light reading," he repeated, making sure to look at the girl as he did so she'd be able to tell what he said.

She appreciated the effort, and smiled, then looked down to her books. It was possible she blushed faintly. "Oh, yes. Sort of." she said. "I was trying to...er...research things?" she suggested. Please don't think I'm crazy. I've been trying very hard to avoid the 'Lulu's a crazy bunny' stigma... she thought.

"That's cool." He picked up the book she had been looking at and opened it up. White magic. Not something that was his speciality. Though he did know someone who's speciality white magic. "No harm in research."

She gave a little half smile that was grateful. "Do you know much about stuff like this?" she asked hesitantly, that clear in her strange, quiet sort of voice. "I don't yet, I'm not even sure I'd be able to do anything. I'm just kind of..." she laughed at herself and rolled her eyes. "Researching. Like I already said, ignore me, I'm not too bright today apparently."

"You got a book that isn't filled with fluff. If you got the willingness to learn on top of it you can do it," Blake informed her, not finding her wanting to learn stupid at all. "They say anyone can learn witch magic if they put their mind to. And yeah, I guess you can say I know a thing or two."

"Really, okay, anyone. That's helpful." Lullaby said honestly. "Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Lullaby. Or Lulu or Thia, whatever you'd like to call me. What's your name?" she asked, smiling at him and offering him her uninjured hand to shake. Then she'd get into asking him what he knew. But it wasn't polite to ask before she even knew his name, right? He also looked around her age-ish, so she was betting she'd see him in school.

"Hiya Lulu. I'm Blake." He took the offered hand and gave it a shake. She seemed nice enough. The fact that she was interested in magic won her points in Blake's book. Lulu, magic, for a moment the one Final Fantasy video game popped in his head. Only that Lulu used black magic. "You been interested in magic long?"

"Not very, I just kind of found out that it wasn't all crap." Lullaby explained, looking mildly sheepish. "So I'm a total lame newbie, and I don't know much of anything, sorry. So if you know anything? I'd be really happy and give you a present if you would fill me in!" and she even had a present. A religious symbol necklace she'd been giving away to everyone. Only now she'd dumped them all in holy water so they were blessed. In theory.

"Like I said, I know a thing or two." Blake snapped his fingers while at the same time whispering something in Latin under his breath. A flame lept to life on his finger. He was totally showing off. "Not sure how much help I'd be with white magic though."

The sudden fire made Lullaby gasp a little then blink. Then of course she smiled, leaning forward to eye his hand more closely, seeing that there wasn't any trick to it, it really was flame from nothing. "That's so cool." she said, meaning it. Because holy crap, neat! "What else can you do?" she asked, this, right as thunder rolled overhead and the first drops of rain started. Lullaby squeaked and grabbed her umbrella, putting it up over both their heads and she dropped her books into her backpack. Hooray huge umbrellas.

Sticking his hand out in the rain, the little flame hissed as it went out. He left his hand out for a moment, the cool rain feeling good. "I can do lots of stuff. Though I don't think any of it's what you're looking for. Why the white magic book?" Sure it was the bread and butter that a lot of beginners cut their teeth on but sometimes there was a reason outside of that.

"I um...well, I was told it's good for protection and stuff. I need protection for me and some other people, so I'm trying this. Or well. Trying to try this. I haven't actually started anything yet. I'm figuring I should read up on everything first, then start in on actually attempting some erm. Spells or wards or whatever. Unless they're all the same thing. Wards and spells, I mean. I'm not sure, the book hasn't been that clear with it yet." She paused, realizing she was rambling. "Listen to me go on and on." she said dryly, shaking her head at herself.

Blake nodded his head in understanding, not bothered by the rambling. "S'ok. If you're interested in learning, I can't help you but I know someone who can. I'm staying with a witch who's heavy into all that protection stuff. I swear her house is more protected than the White House is with all those guards." In fact Blake was sure if there was an apocalypse that Autumn's house would be the last one standing.

"Really? That might be neat. I'll have to see. So um...are you new in town or something? You look like I should have seen you around at school, but I'm pretty sure I'd remember you." she said. But then Lullaby had a good memory, and she tended to know a lot of people.

"Yeah. Just in from New York. Only need here a few days. Long enough to suffer from culture shock," Blake explained, flashing Lullaby a grin. "You native?"

"New York, really? Like, New York state or New York city? I am guilty as charged, completely local. Raised here, so I've never really been anywhere, I'm about as stupid little rural girl as you can get, I guess. So if I'm really strange and boring, sorry. I'll bet you're going through culture shock. I keep getting told that when people first get here, they get all weirded out by the fact that everyone here is nice." she said.

"Bronx, New York actually. And I don't know about how nice everyone is. There was an old man outside the drug store that called me a city punk the other day," Blake pointed out before shrugging it off. "Guess my charm must have rubbed off on him."

Lullaby laughed a little. "Really? A city punk? Jeeze." she said, rolling her eyes. "Well, ignore him, that guy's a dick. Most of the rest of us are nice." she assured him. "How are you settling in? Like, do you completely hate it here since it's so small and boring and there's nothing to do?"

"I wouldn't say hate, but it is pretty boring compared to what I'm used to." Though things could get interesting. He lived with a fellow witch, her familiar, and a psychic. Who knew what was up with the other guy since he was never seen.

"So what are you used to?" she asked, smiling at him. "Humor me with some stories?" she suggested. "Like I said, I haven't really been anywhere, so I don't know a whole lot about cities, or all that crap. Only what I see in the movies, and yeah, I can't say I trust them to be right."

"But don't you know that movies are always dead on," Blake joked. "I'm used to more hustle and bustle on the streets, that's for sure. Usually there's a party to be had everyone weekend. On the flip side, you guys don't have all that crime going on." Blake had spent some time in those neighbor hoods were you don't leave your car unlocked. Which was most of any big city.

"That's true. Though lately things have been kinda...weird." Lullaby said. There'd been murders. She could only remember like, two ever happening while she was growing up. So to have had a few in a short time was mind blowing. "Well, hopefully you won't be completely bored the whole time." she said.

"Well, you've survived this long so I think there's hope for me." And at least he had meet some interesting people so far. Hopefully when school started he wouldn't be bored out of his mind from it.

She beamed at him. "There's always hope." she said. "I refuse to believe otherwise, even if it flies into the face of reality." But then she was one of those people who could tell someone that it was going to be alright and really mean it. She would drop everything to make sure it was, too.

"Reality is overrated anyway," Blake informed Lulu. "You got a piece of paper? I'll give you the number and address of where I'm staying incase you change your mind about the magic thing."

"Sure, um...here, wanna just put it into my phone?" she asked, digging it out and handing it over. "You can text message me too if you want, if you're bored or something. I can't hear if you call me, but I get the texts!"

"Text. Right. Should have thought of that." Cause for a moment he had completely forgot about the no hearing thing. He punch in his number and saved it before handing the phone back over.

"Thank you." she said. "I guess I should get inside somewhere, I don't really want to get my annual cold before it's even properly fall. But it was really nice to meet you, if you ever want to hang out, give me a call!"

"I'll do that," Blake told her before flashing her a grin. He sat on the bench a while longer after she was gone, enjoying the cool feel of the rain.