[Daisy] Spells & Speculations (tag Locke, Tara, et al)
Daisy gave Tara a smile, though she suspected it didn't quite reach her eyes. She was still upset about John's reaction to her concern for him. She was just trying to protect him! (Men!) she thought. (Pride was the surest way she knew to get yourself killed.)
( Daisy's internal monologue )
( Daisy's internal monologue )
The doctor looked at Tara and how she'd been shaken by the woman's words. Narrowing his eyes he stared at the woman. He aggrivated his headache by sending a slight psychic jolt at her. It was the mental equivilent of a good static charge. A slap on the hand, or mind. She jumped slightly and shied back again, glaring hatred mixed with fear at him. "Demon, killer, wolf in sheep's clothing," she hissed.
He was symaphetic as he placed a hand on the witch's shoulder. "I know what she said was most likely personal, and painful. She's a telepath with no moral compunctions, and questionable sanity. But keep in mind, you're doing this to save their lives, and to help your fellow survivors."
Rose stepped forward. "You don't have to do anything, Tara. Not if you don't want to." She shot a look at the Doctor. This was not the first time they'd had this conversation. Last time it hadn't ended too well. But then this time there were no zombies.
The Doctor knew what Rose was thinking, without any telepathy. Just meeting her eyes told him all he needed to know. "No, Tara. You aren't being forced. It's your call."
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She was still swamped by guilt, and felt the others should know the truth. Tara said softly, "She is right. Glory... she was a very evil..." she paused, and decided the group wasn't up to hearing about real goddesses yet. "Woman, an evil woman who broke my left hand, and did something to me that left me insane for a while. Willow is my ex-girlfriend, and she wiped my memory in a way that is similar to this spell I'm talking about." She brushed tears away from her eyes quickly, hoping it wasn't too evident.
"Things like this, tampering with a person's mind," she said to the group, "It isn't to be taken lightly. Daisy had a point; there's always a chance something could go wrong. So I'm glad I don't have to test it on Locke. But, morally, it isn't the best thing to do."
"Doctor," she said looking up at him, and then at Daniel and Jon, "This really is the only other option than killing them, isn't it? If that's the case, I'll do it." She took a deep breath and tried to put her painful memories behind her.
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"Can't you ever just give a yes or no answer?" Rose asked half joking.
"Not everything's black and white. Tara deserves to know everything before making her decision, right?"
Rose licked her lips but nodded.
"Daniel, please step in if there's another option. I CAN tell if this works. But if you don't want to take my word, we don't want to put Tara through this anyway. Not when you can't trust the outcome."
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He'd seen that look before; he knew that look, and he knew that her mind was already made up. Yet, he still had to give her an out.
Daniel stepped closer to her, speaking quietly and soothingly. "No one is going to make you do anything that you'd rather not do, Tara. But I'm not going to lie to you. We can't let them go, and as much as I hate to say it, I think that everyone here knows we can't keep them prisoner indefinitely.
"I'm not opposed to killing, Tara, but I am opposed to cold blooded murder. What you're offering to do is our next best option. But, you don't have to do it in a public forum. We can do this in private," Daniel placed his hand comfortingly on her shoulder when she seemed ready to object, "How people react to that, to me, and what happens from there is my business. I've taken the responsibility to guard this camp and everything that entails; if people have questions, they can bring them to me.
"Doing this publically, you're setting yourself up for trouble. I know that I, and none of us here would willingly let anything harmful happen to you as a result of this. That sort of protection is only good for physical hurt, not social, not psychological. You have to be willing to take that risk as well."
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She stood up straighter, and smiled at him, and at the Doctor and Rose. She cast a glance at Tommy, and he nodded a little, to show that he was still behind her.
"I've made friends here, and I believe I'll make more, as time goes on. Of course, we could be rescued tomorrow, and none of this will matter." There was a hollow note in her voice, that said she didn't believe that last statement for a minute. She knew quite well that she could spend years living with these people. But she also knew that she couldn't spend years hiding herself from them.
"I'm a lot of things: a woman, a witch, a college student, a lesbian, a product of a dysfunctional family. None of those things really define me, but they are all a part of me, and I've lived in the closet before," she smiled at the word, and clarified that, "In the world of the craft, living hidden is called being in the 'broom-closet'. What I'm saying is that living in *any* closet isn't really living. Sooner or later everyone here will know me for what I am, and I'm willing that it's sooner."
"Tommy has one of the things I'll need, and I have the others," she cast her eyes to the ground and picked up a piece of driftwood about eight inches long, and smoothed clean. At their raised eyebrows, she explained, "A wand is just a tool, it doesn't have to have a phoenix feather in it to work."
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Tommy laid one hand on Tara's shoulder and retrieved Grandfather's medicine stones with the other. "Just tell me what I need to do."
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"Okay, Tommy, I need you to stand on the other side of the captives, directly opposite me," she cast an eye at the sun, "Yes, you stand in the south, and I'll be in the north. Keep your medicine stones to hand, and when I need you I'll look at you, and we will be linked magically."
Tommy walked around behind the captives, and she turned to the others. "I'll need you to all stand back a bit, I have to make a circle around them, so stand at least three feet away."
They did so, some with more reluctance than others. She could see that the Doctor was still almost bouncing with anticipation, and she hid a smile. From someone as reserved as he usually was, it was entertaining.
Once all the others were out of the way, she walked in a circle around where the prisoners sat, smoothing out a neat circle in the sand. When she passed Tommy, she took the bowl of water from him, and murmured a blessing over it. Then, at the north point, she set that down, next to the wand, and a small plastic baggie holding some dried crushed herbs.
Her tools were gathered, such as they were, and she was as ready as she ever would be. She looked at the bowl of river water she had blessed in Mnemosyne's name, the crumbled pennyroyal and rue, and the straight stick of pale driftwood - now a wand. With few magical trappings, most of the power would come from herself, and she knew that confidence would be the one thing that would carry her through.
Tara took a deep breath, grounded and centered herself. She picked up the bag of herbs. Tommy stood opposite her, the prisoners between them, and their eyes met. Briefly, they connected, through their minds alone, and she felt him anchor her even more securely. Then she turned away and began to walk clockwise around the prisoners, letting just enough of the herbs fall to make a circle.
As she walked, she said:
"Oh Mnemosyne, mother of memory, daughter to Gaia, hear my plea;
These who stand before you, let them thirst, let them drink of the Lethe;
Of their memory wash them clean, so they recall neither you nor me;
Take this pennyroyal, take this rue, now circled in a wreath."
[to be continued in the next comment, as I went a little long...]
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The circle complete, she knelt where she had begun, set down the almost empty bag, and picked up the wand. Tara walked up to the circle, pointed to the prisoners, and drew a rune of binding in the air. A sparkling light followed the tip of the wand, and the rune hung there for a moment midair, glowing like a golden firework.
Then she brought the wand down swiftly, dragging it across the sand, severing the circle. Tara said as she did so:
"As I break the circle, let their thoughts be broken."
She did this at each of the four compass points, using the wand to break apart the herbs on the sand, and speaking the spell words at the same time.
"As I wash their tongues, let their words be taken."
"As I blind their eyes, let their sights vanish."
"As I cover their ears, let their sounds fade."
Standing at the north again, she laid down the wand, took another deep breath and raised her face and hands to the sky.
"Harm them not, but let their memories wash away."
Calmly she walked up to the man and the woman, with the bowl of water in her hand, and began to sprinkle them from head to toe.
"The river Lethe shall take thee.
The river Lethe shall take thee.
The river Lethe shall take thee."
Tara stepped back, gathered all her energy, and poured it into the spell. Slowly and deliberately, she said: "As I will, so mote it be"
With the final word, she brought her hands together in a sudden, loud clap.
All the remaining herbs on the sand burst into fire; smoke rose up, circled around the prisoners and seemed to sink into their skin. The man and woman of the Others instantly slumped, falling into a deep sleep.
Tara herself crumpled to the ground, her skirt pooling around her like a wilted flower. She was conscious, but too exhausted to move. Still, she felt the thrill, the exhilaration of a successful spell run like quicksilver through her veins, and she knew it had worked perfectly. She blinked at what she could see, the sand in front of her nose, heard the murmur of voices rise around her, and smiled.
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“What do you…” His words were cut off by Rose’s hand over his mouth. His eyes widened. The cheek!
“Shh.” She hissed, watching the ritual before them with as much interest as he. It mollified him a bit.
When the runes she drew in the air glowed a bit his mind was racing, phosphorescence wouldn’t leave a lasting trace. “Do you sup…” again he was cut off , “Tssst.” Rose shot him a glare but gave a fond smile at his bouncing, childish excitement.
When the bowl’s contents burst into flame he was grinning like mad. Sure, it could have been a stage trick, but Tara was completely honest. And she was not telepathically removing memories, as he had his own mind focused on the prisoners, pain be damned.
He felt their fear and anger, but then he felt a blurring, their minds fogging. By the time the collapsed he KNEW they had their memories of recent events gone.
“It worked.” He announced only to have his foot stepped on. “hey…”
When Tara collapsed he moved forward and helped support her. She was awake and aware. He gently held her upright. “Now that was impressive. Quite a show, and well done.”
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Tara gathered her tools and stood opposite him. She took a breath, met his eyes, and for an instant he felt *her.* Instinctively he knew that an invisible cord connected Tara to him and the earth. As his awareness of Tara fell away he felt her power, his own, the medicine stones', and that of the earth, and the nearby spirits sprang into view. Tara's, Rose's, and the Doctor's multiple spirits were familiar from the morning. Jon's was... older. Confident yet unsure. Locke's spirit reminded Tommy of a seedling; long dormant and full of promise. Daisy's was as elusive as George's spirit. It slipped out of sight when he tried to focus on it. Even stranger was Daniel. His spirit was a bright firefly in a jar. It shouldn't have been contained, yet it was.
Tara had completed half of the circle. She stopped, took the bowl from Tommy, and whispered over it. Some of the magic that surrounded her, causing her hair and clothes to flutter, flowed into the bowl. As she continued tracing the circle, Tommy finally looked at the prisoners. Their spirits were elusive as well, but not like George's and Daisy's. He sensed a roiling darkness and chose not to focus on it.
The completed circle drew energy from Tara, Tommy, and the earth itself into a gossamer dome around the prisoners. It shuddered and trembled each time Tara cut the spell circle. When she clapped, Tommy barely noticed the herbs catching fire. His attention was on the dome of energies convulsing, the spiraling into the bound Others. As they slumped in their bindings, Tara crumpled, and Tommy felt the borrowed earth energy snap back into the ground. Then, of all things, his stomach growled. Loudly.
The Doctor and Rose rushed over to Tara. Tommy wasn't far behind. It felt like the spell had worked. The Doctor's words and Tara's smile confirmed his hunch. "I knew it would work," he told her softly.
Tommy sat beside Tara. She leaned on him a little as he returned Grandfather's medicine stones to their container. Then his and Tara's stomachs growled in unison. "Magic burns calories, huh?" he quipped.
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When her stomach and Tommy's made a very loud complaint, at the same moment, she giggled a little.
"Burns calories indeed," she said to Tommy, glad to see that hunger was the the worst side-effect on him, apparently. "Pity more folks don't do this, diets would be a thing of the past." This seemed inordinately funny to her, and she giggled again.
"Thank you," she said softly to both men, almost mumbling, but she couldn't stop smiling still.
It was done, nothing had gone wrong, and Tommy was unharmed. A vast feeling of relief swamped her, the beach and the people began to spin, and then tilt....
Tara passed out.
[OOC: not forever, just for about five/ten minutes]
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"Is she all right?"
"What happened?"
"Should we get a doctor?"
"No, it's okay," Tommy assured them. "She just needs to rest for a little while. The spell took a lot out of her. She'll come around soon." His stomach rumbled *again.* "We could both use something to eat. Would one of you mind grabbing some fruit or something?"
Locke nodded. He looked a little awestruck. "I'll get some." The older man headed toward the cookfire with Daisy at his side.
Daniel looked from him and Tara, to the unconscious prisioners, to the Doctor. "You're sure it worked?"
"Absolutely."
Daniel nodded, studying Tommy thoughtfully. "So you're a witch as well?"
Tommy grinned. "Not exactly. To be honest, I'm really not sure. This is brand new for me." Daniel frowned, puzzled. Tommy glanced at Jon, who wore and unreadable expression, before continuing. "Tara recognized that I have some sort of inherent magic. Until this morning it was locked away, by my grandfather, I think. Grandfather was the medicine man for his tribe. Anyway, Tara unlocked it." Daniel took off his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know, it sound impossible. But here... anything goes."
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He looked to Daniel. "You can see that lot gets dropped off a good distance from here, can't you? Don't know how long they'll be out, but this will all be for nothing if they aren't at least a mile out."
"I'll see to it." Daniel looked at Tara with concern.
"You heard Tommy. Some beauty rest and some lunch and she'll be fine. We'll see to her. You see to them."
He knew he was leading a mini parade to the shelter constructed of woven mats that Tara shared with Molly. The woven roof wouldn't keep out rain, but it did provide shade. Unsure wich set of blankets was Tara's he settled for the nearest one.
He set her down gently. Glad for the shade, himself. "Alright, back off, people. She needs rest and air, not a bunch of staring faces. Isn't there a supper to cook or something?"
"Does it hurt?" Rose asked Tommy, who had also taken up a guardian role, watching over Tara and making sure the curious stayed back. "Doing that. Magic. Does it hurt? Will she be alright?"
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The Doctor and Rose were also nearby - she could sense Rose's concern over her and Tommy, and The Doctor's natural desire to protect. She could also feel that The Doctor wasn't feeling well, he had more than a headache now. This didn't seem right, and still half asleep, with most if not all of her mental barriers down, she lay her hand palm down on the sand. Like water surging up, she could feel the energy, but instead of using it to replenish herself, she took just enough to remain awake.
And then, "Doctor?" she said, holding out her other hand to the alien.
[OOC: having an idea at the moment that Tara's spell linked her to the island more than she expected - not only could she draw on the power there, but she could also be affected by the island as well - in this case, since she's half awake, she wants to restore The Doctor's energy, like a battery. It's up to you if you want this to work or not.]
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He tried to let go after two seconds of this, but Tara clasped his hand. "Let go, Tara. You need it more than me. Really." He managed to gently pull free. But already he could feel new energy in his veins. It was almost as if he'd had a bit of sleep, only no lingering bitterness from nightmares.
Rose looked at them with a bit of concern. He gave her the 'tell you later' look.
Instead Rose looked outside to see if Locke was coming with whatever food could be scrounged.
(It was Locke who volunteered wasn't it? If not, ignore the last.)
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Tommy stood just outside of the shelter assuring the concerned survivors that Tara was okay and needed to rest. So far no one had asked about the spell, for which he was grateful.
"Does it hurt?" Rose asked. "Doing that. Magic. Does it hurt? Will she be alright?"
Tommy replied, "She'll be fine. It was a big spell that took a lot of energy. I think..." He paused, looking down at Tara. He could feel tendrils of the earth's energy flowing into Tara. Tommy smiled. "The earth itself is recharging her. With a little rest and some food, we'll both be right as rain." Then he realized that he hadn't answered Rose's first question. "It didn't hurt. It was kind of a rush, actually." His smile returned, a bit awestruck. "I could see everyone's spirits again. They're all unique. It's amazing."
Movement caught Tommy's eye. Locke and Daisy were heading their way with several pieces of fruit. The memory of Daisy's elusive spirit returned. (She's a Grim Reaper, too,) he realized. (Huh. I wonder if John knows.)
The Doctor's voice interrupted his thoughts. "Let go, Tara. You need it more than me. Really." Tommy returned his attention to them. Sure enough, Tara was channeling the earth's energies into the Doctor. Tommy grinned. (A witch healing an alien. Only on this island.)
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