Sylvia's Diary

[Siyaahi]

♗ Dιαяу σƒ Sуℓνια Wσσ∂ ♗

Battered and worn with a lock keeping the latch in place sits a well loved leather notebook. Brown corners of old paper hastily stuffed in keeps it fairly thick, and on the bottom corner of cover reads 'Sylvia' in small curvy handwriting. Everything inside seems to be in German.

♗Aяcѕ♗

1. Opening Ceremony & Forest notes
2. Scavenger hunt
3. Missing and Finding
4. Fitting in Puzzle Pieces
5. Tying up loose ends
---
♘ Aller Anfang ist schwer.

♗Oтнєя ѕтσяιєѕ♗
1. Carrmin, Sylvia and naming Cinnamon
2. Actions of an eldest (Or: The Incident at the Salt Falls)
3. Afternoon Shift (Dietz)

[Siyaahi]

♗ Entry 1. Opening Ceremony & Forest notes

xxxxxxxSummary:

Nothing of interest at the opening ceremony. Became acquainted with a few more students. Dietz sent his letter. Gale is being haunted by a ghost that fell in love with him, apparently.

Went to the forest with Naomi. Met Carrmin there. Suspicious happenings.

xxxxxxxObservations & Notes:
● Naomi and Aerkyah don't like eachother.
● Aerkyah is easily pleased if praised.
● Naomi holds Carrmin to some higher standing & acts very respectful around him.
● Red fairy on campus. When summoned I had a bit of trouble; he seems to have some sort of protection spell on him. It seemed like a particularly powerful protection spell, but fairly recent. Seems fairly hostile and unwilling to help others. Odd for a fairy.
● Frog guts. Decayed matter. Thought it was taint but it reacted differently (i.e bubbling, fizzing) and released a mist. Bottled some in a crystal vial.
● Fairies understand elvish.
● Carrmin said I need 'double the opposite' of the residue mist. Safe to assume that means sol material.
● Naomi seemed unwilling to give the full original name of the Blood Pact. Unsure if she was actually telling the truth when she said she forgot, but I highly suspect she lied. Unsure what reason she would have for lying, so I'll leave it alone for now.

xxxxxxxConclusion:
Pact may be closer to Carrmin's sphere than originally thought. Assumed to be an elf on the team, and they apparently lost or have a heavily injured member (according to Carrmin's testimony.) This may be why they haven't done anything yet.

Beginning to think they have more power than previously suspected. Worst case scenario calls that they might make a move during the Scavenger hunt, as all the students are in the forest. I'll be doing my own rounds, so hopefully I can gain more info on them if they do appear.

If a frog was affected and still managed to wander in Carrmin's sphere of influence, I do believe making an antiliquid towards the taint residue is in order. My 'magical energy drink' project succeeded, so I'll work towards studying the mist for now.

xxxxxxxTo Do List:
● Acquire Sol residue/material. (Sources: Meteors, Fallen Comets, Merchant (?)) (Note: I probably need quite a bit? Getting Sol will take a while. Maybe organize a trip or get help from other students. I don't have anything to give in return, though, and this is a touchy subject we shouldn't let too many people know about...) This is probably going to take a while.
● Create potion/some sort of cure for the residue
● Send reply letter to Dietz
● Snoop around edges of Carrmin's sphere of influence
● Try to learn more about that Jabberwocky character -- some of the underclassmen seemed interested in him but Carrmin seemed to be fairly worried about it
● Get some sleep.

[Siyaahi]

There are odd smears on the edges of the paper. Some green, some brown, some red. Ink has smeared in a few places as well. Sylvia was obviously in a hurry.

♗ Entry 2. Scavenger hunt

xxxxxxxSummary:

Scavenger hunt. Found three students (Shanta, that weird mask kid, the fairy's owner 'Muna') that wandered out of Carrmin's sphere. How useless are the teachers?

Found a huge lead. Unsure whether I should tell anyone yet. Further investigation might be necessary. I need Sol material, and urgently.

xxxxxxxObservations & Notes:
● The forest seems to have become more menacing over the summer. Actually, all of the trees seem much more crowded in the land past Carrmin's sphere, as if they're fighting for room or trying to live as much as they can. The fauna has grown ridiculously thick.
● prediction about Rainbow Fungi was correct. seems to suck up light, which might also explain why Lumos tends to go out in that part of the forest. had to concentrate particularly to keep mine from flickering out often. This might explain the coloring and odd reflective qualities
● vicious mole infestation is still not completely wiped out, apparently. got a nasty three pronged scratch on my stomach. great
● some grasses drag pigment. (there is a particularly dark smear of green here)
● that fairy from previous times is hiding something. magic did not work on him, and he seems to be surrounded by some barrier. for a second I thought I saw something being ingraved on Shanta's arm, and she seemed unable to move in pain. The same reaction was shown on this Muna kid, except it was all over his body. He's cursed, but it looks extremely weird. Almost as if the curse is blocking something off?
● The Jabberwocky -- I know how to make him appear. If you're willing to make a deal, he'll appear. You just have to shout for him. Something interesting: He's a character that I've actually found in a mundane poem of all things. There are a few mentionings of him in old Magick folk tales as well, of silly humans making deals with him. It was his name that was mentioned, at least. Whoever he is, whether he's just taking the name for the sake of the name's reputation or not, I have a feeling he's a larger presence than he makes himself out to be.

Whatever it is, it's old looking magic. A mess I'm not interested in picking apart. It was a type of magic I've never seen before, though. It's a shame, but I'll leave them alone until they prove to be a threat. For now I'll simply keep an eye on them.


xxxxxxxConclusion:
Now, for the last thing.

It's worse than I thought. I wandered around the edges of Carrmin's sphere of influence but I couldn't find much save for what looked like a sick tree. A sick tree? In Carrmin's sphere? So I inspected it. When I dug one of my knives into it, the metal came out with something black and stick on it; like the evil version of maple syrup. It was like an extra sticky, condensed version of taint. I assume it was the condensed version of mist, and decided to leave it stuck in the tree for the future. Then I went farther.

It's a trail. Parts of the forest is dying -- not from the outside, or of a bug or infection. At first everything looks the same, but when I digged into the insides of a branch...there was nothing green. It was dead to the point of being black, and some parts crumbled away in my hands. It's like something is leeching away from the plants from the inside. Like some type of rot that doesn't even bother with the outside -- just goes to the core of everything. Like, say, taint.

I researched a little before the Scavenger Hunt started, as much info as I could try to find on Black Magic -- there wasn't much. Somebody, somewhere, (probably the council) wants the students knowing as little as possible about the stuff. It's natural, after all. Black magic can do ridiculously amazing stuff, at the cost of your own life. It corrupts you. Which made me wonder how exactly a terrorist group could manage to keep up using the s**t long enough to actually become a threat.

Black magic sucks away at life. Could it be that the Blood Pact managed to find a way to use the life force around them instead of their own? A forest seems an incredibly convenient place to hide in that case.

It would be easy to put faith in that theory if it wasn't for the fact I'm dealing with things that I barely have knowledge in, let alone have the ability to research. This is taint residue I'm dealing with, after all. It might just be that it's the effect of having black magic done in the vicinity. I don't know enough to be putting any faith into my assumptions. For all I know, the trail might have been done on purpose so some snoopy student could follow it into their hands. Hell, the taint might just be accumulating in their bodies until the moment they break.

I left without investigating any further. Injury and fear of the unknown kept me from pushing the limits of my luck. It would take too long to figure out which trees are actually dying from the inside; with time, the trail might become more obvious. Whether or not it's a good idea to let the residue eat up the fauna to that extent is debatable.

In any case, I have a lead and a possible theory. There are a few problems, now: Whether to tell anybody else, whether to work through the trail. I'm not exactly the most popular student at school. Who the hell would I be able to trust with this kind of information? Hell, I don't even know if I should tell Carrmin. I don't want to get his hopes up or nudge him in the direction of doing anything risky.

It's been a long night, and I'm locked out of school walls again. I'm heading back to Carrmin's sphere of influence before something worse than that oversized mole I ran into comes to get me.


xxxxxxxTo Do List:
● Acquire Sol residue/material. OF EXTREME PRIORITY.
● Create potion/some sort of cure for the residue.
● Try to find an information broker or somebody who knows about black magic.
● Visit the merchant. (FML.) Organize a trip to Justus, perhaps.
● Research more into taint and try to find out if anything can eat it away. (Like acid?)
● Get some sleep.

[Siyaahi]

Her text is slanted to one side and the pencil lead seems to have lifted off the paper in places like Sylvia whipped it off.

♗ Entry 3. Missing and Finding

xxxxxxxSummary:
Uneventful few weeks, and then it wasn't. Visited Merchant. Traded the weird book with the silver sigil for an odd slip of paper with a coded rune that apparently produces taint. He was all 'reverse engineering shouldn't be hard for a chemist, right?' goddamn a*****e. I'm lucky I like puzzles.

Caught up on sleep. Slept a lot. Feeling more even tempered lately. Today I went out with Naomi for herb gathering. Smoked a bit. Then we found Vivian, perfectly fine.

xxxxxxxObservations & Notes:
● Vivian's testimony: Due to going out camping with her mother she was able to survive in the forest in a cave. Apparently drank river water and ate berries as her diet. Had no injury when she came back.
● River water. Is she kidding. Drinking straight up river water would cause some nasty bladder and stomach problems.
● Naomi dislikes greasy food and smoking. Her brother is taking over the family business which she has no apparent interest in.
● Carrmin apparently got angry at her for losing the two tomas students? Weird, considering he's usually quite rational when it comes to those things. (Since he can sense all the beings in the forest.)
● Vivian ate rather ravenously when I made something for her. Odd, since she was looking perfectly fine.
● Naomi made a lot of comments of people assuming Vivian was dead, and Vivian always replied with cheery 'I'm not dead!'s
● Vivian perked up at the mentioning of entrances to the Catacombs in the Justus jails. Surprising, I expected her to say something along the lines of 'Getting into trouble is bad! ):'
● I've been raking books for runes that look similar to the one the merchant gave me but I just can't find anything. I don't know the last time I went into the ruins but I'm desperately hoping that it matches the one on the paper. How am I supposed to reverse engineer the goddamn thing when I can't even figure out how to use it in the first place?


xxxxxxxConclusion:
There is something really, really off. Naomi agreed to that sort of sentiment, but she doesn't realize how far things are wrong.

I don't know if it was my imagination. I would blame it on a lack of sleep if I hadn't gotten so much the past week. But for a second when I touched Vivian's skin, she literally felt ice cold. It was unnerving because it was less the freezy feeling from winter and more like she was lacking blood underneath her skin or something. Then it went back to normal.

I gave an obvious lie to Naomi, but I'm beginning to think it was better if she didn't know. After all, it's not like it's an important piece of info. I wish I could believe myself when I wrote that. Something is really, really wrong.

Naomi looked excited when she said it was going to be an interesting year, but I'm beginning to think that that might not be such a good thing.

i guess you could describe this as 'a sense of forboding'



xxxxxxxTo Do List:
● Acquire Sol residue/material. Unsure of the priority now that I have the paper.
● Create potion/some sort of cure for the residue. Alternative: Reverse engineer the rune that the merchant has given me. Actually perhaps injecting some sol into it would reverse it....?
● Become a trustworthy figure to Vivian
● Feed Cinnamon
● Reply to Dietz's letter
● Visit Carrmin
● Get ready for the catacombs trip. Reminder: Bring rune

[Siyaahi]

♗ Entry 4. Fitting in Puzzle Pieces

xxxxxxxSummary:
Halloween event. Decided to go for once. As suspected, things went wrong.

Blood Pact made an appearance. Talked to headmaster, confessed my suspicions of Vivian. Managed to reveal her in front of the students while still appearing to have a mostly passive role. Something stolen from Headmaster's office. Details unknown.

xxxxxxxObservations & Notes:
● Naomi is an unreliable leader figure. She also has too much faith in my abilities, and have a potential treasure trove of information.
● Divinity takes up a good chunk of magic capacity depending on variables.
● Headmaster seems to have gotten used to me using unorthodox methods to getting into his room.
● He also seems to have a computer. Will definitely use in future.
● Pact is unwilling to hurt students, but in terms of showing emotions on faces are like rock walls. Still, they seem less untouchable than expected.
● This is probably a late realization, but I seem to get along really well with old men. (Examples: Headmaster, Carrmin)
● The group of first years seem to have a decent amount of caution.
● Vivian Summers expressed anger towards Naomi when she called her a traitor, and expressed the sentiment that the Blood Pact had saved her life. Seems to be being controlled by emotional strings and genuinely thinks she's doing the right thing. This is worrying.
● The pact members seem to refer to themselves as their roles in the group.


xxxxxxxConclusion:
Vivian and the Blood Pact escaped. I was able to stem the majority of the potential damage they would have caused, but not all of it. Whether this counts as success is questionable.

If 'Break' had gone through before Vivian had intercepted it, what would have happened? Would the member have died? Would I have received backlash from the other members? I risked putting a huge red target mark on my back, and I don't know what consequences my actions tonight will receive but I'm not optimistic enough to think that there will be none.

For now I'll stay silent on my role in revealing Vivian. Nothing good will come out of it -- I don't want to be seen as capable or somebody who is cold&calculating.

I cast Break at a living being. I have no qualms against injuring myself because it's a daily occurrence and sort of an occupational hazard, but the last thing I ever wanted to do was harm somebody. I did something very, very dangerous tonight.

I just hope nobody else tries the same trick.


xxxxxxxTo Do List:
● Acquire Sol residue/material. Unsure of the priority now that I have the paper.
● Reverse engineer the runes. Will probably request assistance from Naomi at this point.
● Research indepth defensive spells.
● Notify Carrmin about what happened.
● Look for clues in the Catacombs.
● Reply to Dietz's letter.
● Finish homework.
● Return stacks of books to the library. They were close to useless.

[Siyaahi]

♗ Entry 5. Tying up loose ends

xxxxxxxSummary:
There is only a week or so before I leave. Ran into Naomi in the dorms and decided to go to the Catacombs and observe the ruins once and for all.

I smacked the paper against the ruins near the tunnel Naomi had apparently trouble excavating and the salt waterfalls at the end of the tunnel where 'that' happened, opened up. Found more coins, ended up having to sacrifice the majority of the ones we needed for a weird looking one. Went through the tunnel that I had never been through. There was an altar with the last coin, and when we put in the rest of the coins we found in the tunnel behind the waterfall another entrance opened up.


xxxxxxxObservations & Notes:
● Naomi, apparently, can't touch salt water or else her part mermaid acts up.
● The runes on the paper was more like a list needed as reference.
● There was a secret tunnel behind the waterfall that lead to a large pile of coins and a slimy, black wall. When I stabbed a knife into the wall, the material ate away at the dagger.
● My assumption was that there was an old curse around the place: maybe why the ruins are as they are. Naomi guessed that if it was a curse, it would have to be around for a while for the existence of the wall.
● On how reverse engineering things might work: Take the coins with the runes imprinted on them that match the runes on the sheet the Merchant gave. Place them somewhere (?) but switch around the coins so the runes look reversed. It should work in theory, and it's what I recommended to Naomi.



xxxxxxxConclusion:
A sort of theoretical success. Had to sacrifice the coins I gathered for the 'one' that was in the part of the ruins blocked off by magic I couldn't cross. Hopefully the coins that Vivian apparently gathered will provide the ones we need -- but that's Naomi's problem now. Hopefully what I told her will work.

In the end, I wasn't able to do much. It's frustrating, but I think anymore meddling would have been a bad idea, and I don't have the time for it anyways. That's that.


xxxxxxxTo Do List:
● Pack.

[Siyaahi]

♗ Sуℓνια's Dιαяу || ƒιn. ♗

(There are always stories left to be told.)

[Itchigotchi]

((I really want one of the first years t find this and be like What whaT?! MUST FOLLOW UP THE INVESTIGATION!!))

[Siyaahi]

Itchigotchi

((I really want one of the first years t find this and be like What whaT?! MUST FOLLOW UP THE INVESTIGATION!!))

(( haha, when I was rp'ing the events of the last entry with jen that was an ic thing that sylvia considered! tho that first year would have to go through the trouble of translating all that german... ))

[Itchigotchi]

Siyaahi

Itchigotchi

((I really want one of the first years t find this and be like What whaT?! MUST FOLLOW UP THE INVESTIGATION!!))

(( haha, when I was rp'ing the events of the last entry with jen that was an ic thing that sylvia considered! tho that first year would have to go through the trouble of translating all that german... ))

((Or BE German. Also didnt you guys make a clause about other language text being translated by some charm, and that's why Muna can read and write and be understood?))

[Siyaahi]

Itchigotchi

Siyaahi

Itchigotchi

((I really want one of the first years t find this and be like What whaT?! MUST FOLLOW UP THE INVESTIGATION!!))

(( haha, when I was rp'ing the events of the last entry with jen that was an ic thing that sylvia considered! tho that first year would have to go through the trouble of translating all that german... ))

((Or BE German. Also didnt you guys make a clause about other language text being translated by some charm, and that's why Muna can read and write and be understood?))

(( I think the only other german is Kili (?), which would be super rad to get in! ...but idek how active she's been lately. ; ;
Yeahh, it was basically decided for Muna that he got a charmed pencil from a teacher? But I mean I'm sure there has to be some magical way to read things people have written, since teachers would have to use something like that to grade papers. ))

[Siyaahi]

♘ Dietz Woods ┆┆ Aller Anfang ist schwer. {"All beginnings are hard."}

▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄
note: for information on the siblings, check Sylvia's SID under 'personal life.'

The Woods home was shabby, kept in the sort of organized disarray that only young people could accomplish. It was approximately one in the morning when Dietz shut the door behind him. On regular nights he would have worked until four. Dietz’s luck had not been with him that night.


"If only the Owner hadn’t come to visit today." Dietz mumbled under his breath, yanking loose his laces and removing his shoes with a kick. "What does he mean, it’s dangerous for me to work late? The old man needs to mind his own business."

He would never admit it to himself, but Dietz despised his own home when it was dark. It reminded him that there were nobody waiting to scold him when he returned late, only silence and the thrum of the fridge from the kitchen. Dietz would be led to wonder if Gale was up studying spells again, which would only make the constant feeling of inadequacy weighing on Dietz’s shoulders feel much heavier. He would think,

Why was I born into a family of wizards if I can’t even do magic myself?

His head would be left to run circles in the dark without an answer until his body lead him to his bedroom and he slept until afternoon the next day.

As soon as he tugged off his shoes Dietz became aware of a light shining in the kitchen. He knew it couldn’t be any of his kid siblings, because Dietz had instilled a proper respect for sleep into them by ruining his own sleeping cycle. Even when Gale was awake he would be confined to his room with the door locked so Dietz wouldn’t be able to disturb him while he studied.

The sizzling of a pan caught his attention, and Dietz’s tense shoulders relaxed. The hand that had been considering reaching out for one of his previously removed shoes to use as a weapon dropped to his side and he walked down the narrow hallway of his house into the dimly lit kitchen.

Whistling to some obscure song was a tan, scarred young woman with bleached yellow hair tied back into a long ponytail. She was tall and wore a mussed up school uniform, one hand focusing on cooking scrambled eggs while the other held a wand with a bright light at the end of it.

"You could have told me you were coming home." Dietz forced himself to scowl instead of smile. "And would it kill you to cut on the lights? Nobody’s gonna come down here, you don’t have to waste your magic reserves casting a stupid Lumos."

The woman seemed as if she hadn’t even heard Dietz, continuing to hum her song and fry her egg. Dietz moved to cross his arms, fingers drumming against one of his biceps impatiently. The woman turned off the stove, getting a plate for her eggs. She still gave Dietz no reply, the lumos on the tip of her wand only seeming to glow brighter in spite.

"Sylvia!" Dietz finally exclaimed in annoyance. "God, you’re doing it again."

"Doing what, little bro?" The young woman replied, a smile crossing her face as she sat at the small dingy dining table after retrieving a slice of bread to go with her eggs. There was a dried milk stain from what Dietz presumed had been a rushed breakfast, and he ground his teeth at the sound Sylvia’s nails made when she scratched it off the old wood.

Don’t say younger like I’m five, you’re only a year older than me.” Dietz said. “And you know exactly what I’m talking about. Doing your own thing before offering me a goddamn reply. God, you didn’t even tell me you were coming back early from the Academy!” Dietz reached for the nearby light switch and flicked it on, taking a seat in front of his sister despite the obvious irritation he expressed. The brilliance of the light shining from Sylvia’s wand seemed to dim in the dirty yellow glow of the now-lit kitchen. Dietz watched as the glow eventually faded away, Sylvia choosing to put both of her hands on the task of eating her midnight snack.

She ripped off a piece of bread and offered it to her brother. Dietz took it, scooting forward in his chair so he could reach his older sister’s plate to grab some of the eggs. “How cold, Dietz.” Sylvia hummed, chewing her food with practiced precision before swallowing it slowly. Dietz ate his the same way, leaning back in his chair so he could glare at his sister. “Your big sister works hard to finish off her four years of perfect grades early, flies back all the way from Wales to her sweet home in Germany and this is the welcome she gets?”

There was silence for a moment as both siblings took a moment to rip another morsel from the egg, hot yolk bursting onto Dietz’s fingers. He cursed quietly, ripping off another chunk of bread to soak up the yolk burning his fingers. No food was to be wasted in the Woods house.

"Unless, of course," Sylvia drawled, the casual tone in her voice only making Dietz all the more suspicious she was watching his expression for any minor twitch, "It’s a bad thing for you if I’m here?"

Dietz was silent. “I’ve been taking care of them fine, you didn’t have to graduate a semester early.” He muttered. “Didn’t you enjoy going to that nice, well funded school? I’m sure the dorms were bigger than your room here.”

"Merlin was enjoyable," Sylvia admit. "But there wasn’t anything for me there. Besides, I didn’t have to work any harder than I’m used to doing. Early graduation just became an option I could take."

Work harder than you’re used to? Dietz thought bitterly. You’ve been working yourself to death ever since we were born. He didn’t voice his thoughts, knowing that his sister would only smile and deny the facts for what they were. Ever since they were young the two had been at the other’s neck, but in the end their goals were the same. Every move they made was for the sake of their siblings. There was nothing else worth working for; certainly not the acknowledgment of their parents.

It wasn’t as if Dietz was unhappy to see his older sister. He was more than glad to share responsibilities with someone more inclined than him to serve as a role model. However he knew with her return the two of them would be in an eternal competition. Dietz already knew he would be the one to lose. His only redeeming factor was that his paycheck was the vital basis for the seven sibling’s financial decisions. Their parents did send them money, but scholars certainly didn’t have enough a big enough paycheck to support seven children.

There was silence for a moment before Sylvia spoke next. “I’m going to take some money from our savings and invest in a potion shop.”

Dietz slowly lifted his head, staring at his sister with an incredulous look in his eyes. A warped smile twisted across his face. “You’re…you’re joking, right? We don’t have the money. It was hard enough getting the cash for your stupid wand so you could go to Merlin.”

"I’ll earn most of it myself."

Dietz’s chair fell to the ground with a violent 'BANG!' as he stood up, slamming his hands against the table. Sylvia didn’t look at him, simply dragged her index finger through the remaining yolk left on her plate.. “Four years playing with potions and magic and you think you’re some hotshot,” Dietz accused, hysterical laughter creeping into his voice. “What, did the good food and soft bedsheets get to your head, Sylvia? Did you forget how things were here? You’re really more like our irresponsible parents than I thought.”

The plate in front of Sylvia was clean. There was nothing left to distract her from her seething younger brother, so she looked him in the eye. Dietz only felt the anger in his throat rise. “I’ve got a better chance at making money doing something I’m good at than you have getting a promotion at that wizard’s bar you work at. You know what kind of qualifications you need for working at a place full of drunk, dangerous fools who can use magic? Using magic, Dietz! At least if I get killed, it would be my own fault and not some rampaging drunkard that I couldn’t defend myself against! ”

The jab stung and only served to further anger Dietz. He knew it was revenge for comparing Sylvia to their parents, knowing that her scorn for them was more intense than his own. ”Oh, so I can’t use magic and amazing prodigy Sylvia Woods can. Why don’t you magic away our debt and money problems, great Sylvia? Why don’t you magic yourself some friends while you’re at it? Maybe they’d be able to convince you how dumb you are to think we can afford the crippling loss if your stupid entrepreneurship fails—”

A laugh spluttered from Sylvia’s lips, and she stood up as well. Her fingers gripped the edge of the table, her whitening knuckles the only sign of her rising irritation. “Hate to break it to you Dietz, but you’re just as friendless as I am! We’ve got the same undesirable personality traits, idiot. Except I’m not nearly as jealous as you are all the time.”

"Jealous?" Dietz hissed, leaning over the table as if he was unable to hear Sylvia’s words correctly.

"Yes!" Sylvia exclaimed. "Jealous. You’re seventeen, Dietz, it’s about time you got over your stupid complex and just accepted the facts for what they are and will always—"

"You’re the one who likes to avoid facts, Sylvia!" Dietz interrupted. "You’re trying to integrate yourself back into the family by doing something stupid because you don’t want to acknowledge that you took an absence from taking care of the family like they do all the time, aren’t you? What, you’re telling me to face the facts? Why don’t you look at them yourself and get over your complex? We don’t have enough money for a shop and ingredients and whatever the hell else you need to open up a ******** potion business. There is no way possible that you’ll be able to miraculously solve all of our money problems as soon as you come back from goddamn wizard school. Tell me, just who the hell is going to give money to a teenage girl trying to become a damn apothecary?”

Sylvia’s jaw tensed, and when she replied her voice had gone low with carefully restrained anger. “The same who would consider hiring a magically impotent teenage boy.”

Dietz laughed, his words giving way for a moment to the harsh, ugly sound. “You’re a ******** joke.”

"Well we’ll just have to see whose laughing at the end." Grabbing her wand Sylvia levitated the plate, jerking it upwards violently and letting it teeter before practically throwing it into the sink.

Silence filled Dietz’s ears as she stormed off, the adrenaline slowly fading away from his body and leaving him exhausted.

The thrum of the fridge was the only thing his mind could register.

[Siyaahi]

♔ Sylvia Woods ┆┆ Erst denken, dann handeln. {"First think, then act."}

▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄▀▄
note: for information on the siblings, check Sylvia's SID under 'personal life.'

Sylvia finds him to be uncharacteristically quiet.

Quieter than the potion maker expected, at least. She's lived her whole life surrounded by younger siblings so she's more than accustomed to noise, so when she...finds Cabbage, she expects him to be just as nosy and chaotic as the rest of her younger siblings. As he should be.

He isn't.

When Sylvia takes long to answer as she always does, he never gets impatient. Just smiles at her and waits. It's a pretty smile. One that suits his face very well. Sylvia likes it.

She overhears Dietz asking about it one day. He comes home from work at seven that morning looking like he's actually gotten some sleep for once. (Sylvia suspects is due to the influence of his boss. She doesn't know anywhere else her brother would be sleeping at.)

That morning Sylvia is frying eggs and bacon. Cabbage has asked her something about magic, about a place outside of Germany that he read about; Sylvia is trying to formulate an answer in the careful way she always does. She speaks formally when she can, still struggles to get rid of her habit of shifting between extremely casual and extremely eloquent speech.

Dietz interrupts her in the middle of her thought process, grumpy and obviously very hungry. Next to him, Beat and Toji are arguing over some topic pertinent to middle school boys. (Fritz has chosen not to participate because he is 'officially a highschooler and can't be getting up in that business, duh!') "God, you take forever to speak. He asked you a question, Sylvia, he hasn't been given all the time in the world!"

Cabbage shoots Dietz a confused look. "What do you mean?"

The kitchen falls silent.

Cabbage looks between the now uncomfortably demure siblings seated around the table. The quartet of younger siblings are currently staring at their empty plates, while Dietz seems to have frozen up. Gale is eyeing Cabbage with an interest that does not make Sylvia very comfortable.

"Why did everyone go quiet?" Cabbage asks after a moment, voice childish but curious. "You guys go quiet a lot after I speak, did you know?"

Sylvia turns the stove off. With a swoop of her wand, the food items levitate over to everyone's respective plates at the table. Mysteriously enough, Cabbage gets an extra share of bacon while Dietz's plate lacks any at all.

"Wow! Extra bacon!" Cabbage exclaims in excitement. Czenzi shyly claps for him and Gale smiles at the boy in a manner so genuine it has an uncomfortable shiver crawling down Sylvia's neck.

She pushes it away to offer a smile before walking over to the table, grabbing Dietz's shoulder with a hand and muttering into his ear so nobody else can hear. None of the other siblings notice.

"Don't do that again." She hisses.