16th December, 1893 — 1893 Auction of Oddities, London

Porphyria had been in her own little world for some time now – lurking in her own little plane of existence. She had lost two of her closest friends to the dragons; mourning was not formally expected for friends, but she had forgone her usual dark dresses for whites and pale washed out colours (with odd draping white veils and dresses like a ghost or a bride or a debutante; she had even gone out in a pastel blue sprigged teagown the other day, as if she had stolen it straight from Lycoris’ dresser). The election results had passed with as little fanfare as Christabel’s sudden return to the house. Phyri had been doing more writing than speaking for the past month or so, and usually had her nose in a notebook, ink bleeding onto her hands, and no awareness of anyone else.

And somehow December had dawned already. Submerged as she had been in her own head, Phyri had surfaced for a while, just in time to attend an event she thought would be interesting – the auction.

She hadn’t looked up the items on offer beforehand, so she had haunted the place for some time this morning, just browsing before the auction began. Perhaps she would bid on something for herself. Possibly – if she felt generous enough – she would find someone in her family a Christmas present here. If all these other visitors did not bid on them first.

“Which lot do you think most interesting?” she pressed, of the person beside her once she had finally moved along from the painting, Doorways, and found herself stuck in another queue to view the next item, which had drawn a crowd of its own. Phyri didn’t know what she would use these all for, but dissuading other people from buying them would do her no trouble.

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3

While not as prolific and big a celebration as the Lunar New Year, Christmas being just around the corner had posed a bit of a dilemma for Cal; his sisters had already had plenty of time to go shopping for gifts whereas his schedule was less forgiving. Most unforgiving, in fact, and he only had a brief window of time in the middle of a shift to head the Auction of Oddities and peruse the items they had on display. It was highly unlikely he’d find anything of note there in terms of gifts for his sisters or for Halmeoni, but it was worth a try.

Reading the descriptions was…enlightening. The program offered quite compelling illustrations of the effects of the artifacts, and Cal was busy analyzing the piece of paper when a voice piped up next to him. “Jen-jang…” he muttered under his breath. The voice conjured up the sensation of being held down by vengeful plants. But it would be rude to ignore her completly, so after a moment’s hesitation, he said, “Perhaps the bracelet.” for no particular reason other than it was the description he was currently reading. “Though I have to wonder if being given the powers of an animagus is true or not.”

---

  

---

gorgeous set by mj <3

Oh, there he was, her once-prisoner from the thorns. It was too serendipitous an opportunity to turn down, his presence here: and if he did bid on anything, she would just have to outbid him for the sheer entertainment of it. What would he do with any of these powerful objects, anyway? Something boring, to be sure.

She didn’t know what he had muttered at her, but ‘Lycoris’ only smiled where she was standing next to him. “You’re not an animagus already, then?” she commented, lifting her eyebrows; this was mostly to be facetious, as if she had simply expected him to be accomplished enough to be one. (She wasn’t one either, of course, but he didn’t know that. He hadn’t even known her name last time.)

“Do you think the wearer can control which animal they become, or it is the same innate something as an animagus?” she mused, mildly interested in the possibilities of it.

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3

The urge to roll his eyes at her flippant comment was only characterized by the flick of his eyes down to glance at her before focusing back on the item in front of them; a skill he’d managed to acquire simply because if any of the Rookwood children rolled their eyes at Halmeoni, it would be followed by being chased around the house by her thrown shoe until it hit its target at least once. “I don’t know why I would reveal such an intimate detail to an almost-stranger, Miss Dempsey,” he commented in a low voice for no other reason than to keep refusing her answers.

He leaned forward to peer closely at the details on the artifact, of which there were next to none; it was rather unremarkable in its appearance but lovely nonetheless in its simplicity. Her question intrigued him, and he took his time to think over the different likelihoods. After a moment he straightened. “I’d say why not find out if it weren’t for the small fact that once worn, it can’t be taken off without resorting to extreme measures.” He thought aloud, flipping through the brochure once more. “ ‘Give the wearer the powers of an animagus with none of the hard work’… I’d say the latter then, evidenced by the ‘none of the hard work’.” Cal looked to her, cocking his eyebrow as if to return the question back to her.

---

  

---

gorgeous set by mj <3

Porphyria didn’t know him well enough to be sure whether he was always so guarded with people, or she had made him wary by their first interaction. She didn’t mind it, of course – she liked his deadpan looks and the opportunity to debate well enough.

“What makes it so intimate a detail?” she probed, in protest; animagi were all on some Ministry list, so it was hardly inherently private. Maybe one’s form would feel like something too personal to tell, if it gave something away about their character (or was merely an embarrassing shape), or one only used their ability to transform for odd or untoward purposes.

She could not protest to his comment of near-strangers, because she had not yet bothered to learn his name. (He didn’t know hers, actually, but at least he thought he did.)

“You’re a skeptic, then?” A cynic, a non-believer. In this prize he saw something evidently too good to be true. Porphyria might agree with that, if she were honest. But she didn’t have quite the same preservation when it came to strange, powerful, dubiously charmed or cursed objects – and she liked to needle people too much not to prod at him again. “So you would be scared to use it, if it were yours? Too much risk for you?” She cocked her head at him like he was an interesting specimen. She had never cared for that degree of caution. It might be logical, but it was also dull.

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3

There was a challenge in her questioning, though that should hardly have come as a surprise. All she’d done thus far was nettle as if her life depended upon it. Miss Lycoris Dempsey would get on quite well with his sisters, it would stand to reason. Already the twins had pointed out the fashion choices of the family with great gusto, so Cal figured it was only a matter of time before someone complemented someone else.

“Why take such a shortcut as buying an object when instead one could take the time to cultivate the knowledge and learn how to be an animagus instead?” He responded, completely ignoring her first question as he observed the rest of the objects laid out in front of them. Stepping around her, he bent to glance in the orb before reading its description again. Observing the memories of those long since passed on. His lip curled in distaste before he straightened and tucked the brochure away, lacing his fingers behind his back.

“Would you elect to pick up a book if you knew one only had to touch it to know what the entirety of its contents were?” He posited, glancing down at her again. “Or would you rather experience reading it page by page if it meant you were able to delight in its contents that much more?”

---

  

---

gorgeous set by mj <3

He had a good argument, she supposed; she inclined her head to surrender the point. “I’m surprised you weren’t a Ravenclaw,” Porphyria offered casually, because he could not be too many years her senior, and if he had been in her house surely she would have remembered him? (With a secretive twitch of her lips she reminded herself that Lycoris had been a Hufflepuff, and was that much younger, and would have no knowledge of past Ravenclaws – but never mind.) “You like the challenge of the process.”

She understood that well enough: poetry was all process. And she would bet anything that he worked (not for a living, but for the pleasure and the reward of it). She didn’t ask him, because she didn’t want to sound interested in him.

“And you take no pleasure in the past, then?” Phyri remarked – she had observed his reaction to the Fantoma orb and was not polite enough to keep her curiosity to herself. She was as intrigued by this one as she had been the last – she was only considering whose organic matter she might procure and actually find worthy of experiencing.

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3

That Miss Dempsey had given in so easily without posing another argument surprised him, ready as he was to carry on a debate with her. His chuckle at her comment about him not being a Ravenclaw was only preceded by a slight lift at the corner of his mouth. “The sorting hat certainly thought I might be,” He admitted. He was selective about where he chose to cut corners, and when it came to education, he certainly did not like to do so. Were Caltheus of a more chatty disposition he might have willingly revealed this, and then gone on to comment that if she knew his mother, she certainly would understand why Violet Rookwood was a Ravenclaw and he was not.

But as it stood, he was very much not prone to revealing anything of the sort, and so he merely took his time to observe the other artifacts with ease; that is until she referred to the Fantoma orb, and his jaw immediately clenched. He might even have cut her off or completely ignored Miss Dempsey’s comment (save for a well targeted glare) had she not already proven that she was in possession of keen observation and cleverness back at the Dempsey Family Estate.

“The past takes no pleasure in me, Miss Dempsey.” he offered cryptically. “I’m certainly not foolish enough to go questioning it again.” And then, with an ambiguous regard as he surveyed her: “Are you?”

---

  

---

gorgeous set by mj <3

There he went again with his word games; he really was relentless. The past takes no pleasure in me. There were poems in that, she thought; but of course he had not explained himself any further. He did not sound willing to. A politer person would have understood, then, not to go digging in it.

“The past is much larger than that which concerns you or I,” Porphyria said, more unaffected than he was by the thought of experiencing memories through the eyes of someone or another deceased, whether they had any direct links to her or not. “Perhaps I am foolish,” she agreed, smiling wryly at him; half in argument, half teasing. He had called her sort of people foolish; she rather thought there was a different root of the issue, and was not particularly afraid to press the issue. “What exactly is it you are afraid of?”

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3

With that counterargument, she had a bit of a point, he supposed, but he didn’t exactly feel compelled to tell her that. But for some unspeakable, unknowable reason he also didn’t feel the need to dismiss himself of her either. She had a sort of cat-that-ate-the-canary smile (if he was using that phrase correctly) that seemed all-too familiar to him; both a warning, and a challenge that he did not want to balk at.

This seemed an exercise in conflicting impulses for Cal. Everything in him said to step away. So, naturally, instead he stayed albeit with an exasperated sigh. “Do you subject all of your almost-acquaintences to this rigorous interrogation, Miss Dempsey?” he countered dryly.

---

The following 1 user Likes Caltheus Rookwood's post:1 user Likes Caltheus Rookwood's post
   Porphyria Dempsey

---

gorgeous set by mj <3

She laughed at that – a free, full-throated laugh. Because she could well have asked him the same question; he seemed just as keen on beating back her questions with more probing looks or countered inquiries. It was a conversation where one or both of them might as well have been on trial. Maybe it had grown out of their first meeting, wherein he had been physically caught — maybe he was right and it was just who she was, generally.

But Porphyria couldn’t help herself, even now. “How else would you become acquainted?” she countered, with a smirk that said yes, she did this to everyone. (Everyone she was genuinely interested in becoming acquainted with, that was; oftentimes she did not bother, if her interest had not been piqued by them one way or another.) “But if you would be more comfortable remaining strangers, we could have twelve torturous conversations about the weather or just stand together in silence. I’d not be offended.” After all, people were often more wary of her than this.

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3

He opened his mouth to respond, to counter with: Who in Merlin’s name ever said I wanted to become acquainted with you?

But then it occurred to him that he very much wouldn’t mind becoming acquainted with Miss Dempsey. It was a bit of a maddening realization, at least to know that his instincts hadn’t aligned with his desires this time around.She was quite an interesting character, and there was something about her that reminded him of Peony and Ivy. What exactly, he couldn’t determine in this moment, but she had a certain spirit about her that he wouldn’t mind encouraging Ivy and Peony to adopt.

“Very well,” He acquiesced after another sigh. “You have me there, but talking about the ghosts of one’s past is hardly the kind of small talk that one usually asks an acquaintance.” Of that, she had to at least agree on. Going directly to talking about ones demons hardly seemed appropriate for a first, second or even third encounter.

---

  

---

gorgeous set by mj <3

Porphyria smiled at him, pleased with him and with herself. “That,” she returned, “is why we are more interesting than most people.”

---

  

---

a sublime set by Lady! <3