Trail 44: Clubs, Costumes, and Cooking

--- Audrey ---

“Why the fuck are we letting this pinche pendejo around?” Val asked, pacing aggressively.

“You’ve already asked that.” She reminded the volatile teen.

“And you didn’t answer it then either.” Artemis threw out taking Val’s side on the subject of the teen who terrified her for some magical reason.

She pushed the plant she was working on to the side and leaned back in her seat. “Jon Whitaker… How much do you two know about him?”

“That his aura is ten different kinds of fucked up.” Arty answered.

“And he can go round for round with the Scarecrow without magic.” Val added hands on the table.

“Right, well I’ve spent the last week or so looking into him.” She admitted adjusting her glasses. “Jon is the son of Minerva Whitaker, a local cop who a number of my contacts say to avoid for being ‘hyper-competent’. He has no public background in magic, and yet for the last couple of months has been going to The Witch’s Wares to buy books and supplies and has enough experience that Samantha felt comfortable inviting him to the meeting. At said meeting he mentioned being part of a… ‘magic camp’ and proceeded to beat Val and the Scarecrow in a fight.”

“No he didn’t.” The Scarecrow’s keeper growled.

She gave the other teen a dry look over her glasses.

Val looked away first.

“What’s more,” she continued, “rumor around school has him as an all around nice guy, helping people in need when they ask, shutting down bullies without fighting them, helps walk kids home when gang violence is on the rise, never causes problems for teachers, and reads a surprising amount of romance novels for a guy.”

Both of the other girls frowned, one in thought and the other in frustration.

“What does any of that have to do with why you’re involving him in our shit?” Val asked.

“From what I can tell, he’s an all around nice guy who can and will fight for someone in need, and given the situation there may be a way for us to… profit off of that.” She explained.

“Which is why you made it out as if you and I couldn’t fight.” Arty noticed, smart as ever. “You’ve made it out that we’re ‘weak’ and in need of protection… You’re planning to goad him into fighting one of the Creeps.”

“Among other things.” She nodded at the other girl. “Which is why I’d appreciate it if you didn’t break the illusion.”

“If it means I don’t have to be around him then fine.” Artemis shrugged. “Run your con, just don’t drag me into it when it blows up in your face.”

“Yeah, I can’t see you pulling off the meek act for long.” Val agreed, before snorting at a thought. “I mean, you’re carrying a potted Strangle Thorn for fuck’s sake.”

She glanced at her pet, which currently looked like a fruitless tomato plant, and would continue to until it exited its seedling phase. Which for anyone else would be a few weeks, (but for me is probably just a few seconds.)

“A precaution, after all if he’s showing off, he might try to bite off more than he could chew.” She admitted shamelessly. (Last thing we need is an unrestricted summon running wild in the school.)

--- Jon ---

(Is this really a good idea?) He couldn’t help but wonder as he stared at the door Audrey had told him to meet her and the other girls from her magic club.

On the one hand, it’d be cool to have someone his own age to talk magic with, (Ying not counting since she doesn’t really care about theory.)

On the other hand, this meant he’d have to talk to relative strangers about his magic without mentioning anything that happened in Blackwell, while also trying not to further annoy or scare the two girls who already didn’t like him.

Deciding that he’d just keep going back and forth on it if he let himself, he took the plunge and pushed the door open.

“Ah, was wondering when you’d get here Jon.” Audry told him, the only one of the three girls to actually greet him.

(No, nope, this was not a good idea.)

“Right, uh, sorry about that.” He apologized.

“It’s fine, but now that you’re here why don’t we get straight to it, huh?” Audrey suggested. “Let’s start off with what kind of magic you’re good at and we can go from there.”

“Um, I’m a practitioner and I’m not actually the best at magic.” He admitted nervously. “That said, I am good at magical theory.” (Though Occultism is only half that.) “I’ve also got a decent grasp on potion making and contracting, but my teacher tried to show me Enchanting which I know a bit about even if I’m not that good… Oh, and I’ve been trying to pick up Script-Craft but I’ve only got a few scripts I can make at the moment.”

Since he’d only read the book thus far, he didn’t feel comfortable bringing up the Shamanism stuff just yet.

“Huh, I guess you dabble a bit in everything, huh?” Audrey asked.

“Uh, yeah…” He chuckled, not bothering to explain that he’d all but avoided the skills he could learn from DeSade’s books. Mostly because he wasn’t stupid enough to bring up the fact that he had books on Necromancy, Demonology, and Flesh Sculpting.

“Well, I myself am good at Will Craft and dabble a bit in Potions.” Audrey told him before gesturing towards the golden eyed girl with dyed hair.

Artemis sighed. “Right, I’m good at Sign Craft and Theory I guess, though my teacher taught me the basics of everything else too.”

Both of the girls -and him by following their gaze- turned to the third girl at the table wearing a jacket, beanie, and a glare.

Val glanced between the two girls before rolling her eyes. “Fine, I use Script Crafting and Contracting.”

Artemis scoffed at that. “If you call being able to summon one and only one thing Contracting.”

“Oh, you do not want to go there, duende.” The Scarecrow’s Keeper growled.

“Oh please, I’m just stating the facts.” The golden eyed girl smirked revealing her fangs. “After all you can’t say you use Contracting if you’ve only ever summoned a single creature.”

“Believe me, Scarecrow is all I need.” Val smirked back as her shadow began to shift like the day before.

“Is this common?” He couldn’t help but ask Audrey quietly.

“It’s their form of flirting, ignore it.” The other teen sighed.

Given his experience with the various romance novels his generation seemed to enjoy, he could believe that.

A ringing phone cut through the air, causing the two girls to turn their glares on him.

“Uh, I’ve got to take this…” He trailed off awkwardly upon seeing Ms. Valentine on his caller ID.

Scene Consequence

-Jon can now train different magic skills with the ‘magic club’.

--Progress their stories to unlock more training options.

---

“Thanks again for coming along with us on this.” Ms. Valentine told him as she, Kenneth, and the Petrovichs made their way through the store. “I know it’s been a month but I’m still a little shaky about leaving the apartment with just me and Kenneth.”

“It’s no problem.” He assured her. “It takes time to feel safe again after everything you two went through.”

“I know, and I know I should feel fine with Boris here, but with all the kids… I just feel safer with a third adult here.” Ms. Valentine tried to explain.

“Like I said, it’s no problem.” He told her once more as they continued through the store.

“What about this one Natalia? You can be the pretty printsessa.” Mr. Petrovich suggested to his granddaughter.

The third grader looked at the pink costume before shaking her head.

“Very well, we’ll find you something else to wear for Halloween then.” The grandfather shrugged putting the costume back up.

“You know with everything going on I’m not even sure what kind of costume I should get Kenneth.” Ms. Valentine admitted. “I don’t suppose you remember what you wore when you were his age do you?”

“Uh… I don’t actually think I dressed up for Halloween.” He confessed, rubbing at the back of his neck. “Even when I was little I’d usually help Ma out with our haunted house, rather than dressing up and everything.”

“So you never went trick or treating for candy.” Ms. Valentine frowned.

“No, but I did start jump scaring people when I was like five and when I was like eight Ma put a candy tax on the tickets and we’d split it at the end of the night.” He explained with a smile. “It was a little different than most but it was our own kind of fun.”

“Ah, that is the best kind.” Mr. Petrovich told him before gesturing to the three children with them. “Personally, I never celebrated Halloween until I came to the states, but it is fun for the little ones and that is all that matters, no?”

“Do they celebrate Halloween in Russia?” Ms. Valentine asked curiously. “Or do they have like a day of the dead type of thing?”

“Oh, net. The younger generation sometimes celebrate it in rebellion, but never like this open trick or treating.” The man’s smile faded a bit. “The actual holiday though is, ah, frowned upon by the government.”

Mr. Petrovich shook his head and put on another smile. “But like I said the holiday is good fun for the little ones, and to me the smiles on the faces of my vnuki are all that matters. Anyone that says otherwise is a durak.”

“Fair enough.” He agreed with his own smile.

Scene Consequence

-Grown a bit closer to the Valentines and the Petrovichs

---

“Okay, so this is the place…” He guessed, looking up from his phone at the apartment building in front of him.

He sent off a text message and after about ten minutes he spotted Travis stepping out of the entrance. “Ah, there you are.”

“Um, I’m not late am I?” He frowned knowing that waiting for his school to end had probably set him back a bit.

“Nah, we usually don’t get started til about five since Daisy’s stuck taking care of all the paperwork for Eternal Horizons.” Travis assured him as they started making their way through the building. “Speaking of, this is her apartment so try not to make too much of a mess with the kitchen. Personally I wouldn’t care at my place with Sarah being a slob, but Dais is a little too orderly when it comes to the clean up.”

“Of course.” He nodded. (Making a mess in someone else’s house is beyond rude.)

“So uh, what exactly are we going to be working on today?” He couldn’t help but ask as they made their way up a stairwell.

“Honestly, there was this baked boar demon thing I wanted to try, but Daisy said we should start off with something simple and introductions. So we’re making cookies.” Travis answered.

“Baked boar demon?” He repeated with just a touch of concern.

“Eh, it’s not actually a capital D Demon, it’s just a pig pumped full of so much Anima it starts to mutate.” The male hunter explained. “The naturally occurring ones are supposed to taste better but tracking one down would be a bit of a pain with everything else going on.”

“That makes sense.” He agreed as they came to an apartment door with flower pots on either side of it.

A door Travis had no trouble opening without knocking. “Alright, I’ve got the kid!”

From around a nearby corner a short blonde woman he vaguely remembered from the Arcane meeting stepped out wearing a white blouse and green vest over it.

“You must be Jon.” The woman smiled.

“And you’re Daisy?” He double checked.

“Yes siree.” Daisy nodded. “We didn’t really get to talk at the Arcane meeting but both Travis and Guy had nothing but nice things to say about you.”

“Oh, uh, that’s good.” He nodded back, remembering Guy to be the massive man who’d given him a thumbs up and said nothing else.

“Guy likes anyone who can beat the shit out of a Demon.” Travis snorted.

“Language.” Daisy frowned before picking up a nearby jar and shaking it.

“For fucks sake.” The male hunter sighed before sticking a twenty in the jar. “We know my ass is going to keep cursing, might as well pay it out in advance.”

“Then I’ll be counting to remind you of how much you owe.” The chipper woman told him with a surprisingly friendly smile.

“I’ll never get how you have no problem ripping a Demon’s spine out, but you have a massive issue with cursing.” Travis commented as he made his way to the kitchen.

“Ripping and tearing is what Guy does as a Hunter, it’s his job.” Daisy explained calmly. “While cursing is just rude.”

(Makes sense to me.)

“I wasn’t talking about him ripping their spines out.” The male hunter told the female with a dry look, causing her to blush.

“Oh, you know how it is, paperwork gets so boring and watching demon’s bleed is just what I need.” Daisy defended as her voice took on an odd tone. “There’s nothing better than bathing in the slaughter of an unholy horde.”

Travis just stared at the blonde for a moment before shaking his head and turning to Jon. “So kid, want to learn how to make cookies magically delicious?”

“Uh, sure.” He nodded, taking a step around Daisy as he followed the older man into the kitchen.

“Ooh, the secret is the cinnamon spice.” Daisy informed him cheerfully as she skipped behind them.

Scene Consequence

-Gained 1XP to Occult and Cooking.

--Currently: Occult Lv. 7 (10/16) and Cooking Lv. 9 (7/20)

-Jon has established a rapport with Travis and Daisy.