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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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 Posted: Tue Apr 10, 2012 7:07 pm
 Helena sat quietly at a cafe in the nicer part of town. She turned a page in the book she was reading, and glanced around again. Was a typical quiet day around here. She sipped at her coffee and grimaced. Making sure no one was looking she removed her wand from her collar and waved it over cup reheating the liquid. She knew it wasn't necessary to keep her magic a secret, there were lots of people who practiced magic around, but her mother had drilled it into her since she was young and it stuck.
She sighed and looked back at her book, tucking her wand away again.
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:49 am
((I apologize if I forget any details of their interactions xP ))  Another day, another bother. Actually, today was less of a bother than yesterday was. Fewer calls to help people out with their problems...Problems, she could handle. There was a certain satisfaction in making things work. It was the people who had the problems that bothered her a bit more. If I didn't have to deal with people, I wouldn't charge people. I'd do it for free. But today was a day off for Clio, and she was looking forward to a break at the cafe in a quiet part of town.
Clio ordered a mocha and looked around for a place to sit. Her eye instantly got a familiar brown-and-white coat and she found herself smiling. She made her way over to Helena and said, "This seat taken?"
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2012 5:28 pm
Helena jumped slightly and looked up, a smile immediately splitting her face. "Clio." she shook her head. "No please, sit down." she put a bookmark in her book and closed it. "You look great, how have you been?" she let her eyes flick over the orange femme. "I've..." she hesitated. "Missed you." she finally admitted. It was true enough and there was no point in denying it. Her AI friend was definitely a change of pace from the normal people she was stuck interacting with.
Even having a wonderful tool like magic at her disposal, it bored her. Her true passion was technology, and Clio was a door into that world. And what a world that was. Helena was sure she'd never gotten her computer working if not for the other femme. That of course was the angelic's problem. She was passionate about technology...but had no idea what to do with it half the time.
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 6:42 pm
Clio sat down in the seat opposite her friend and set down her iced mocha. She took a brief sip from it, being careful to be slow enough to avoid "brain freeze." Why did icy things always have that effect, anyway? "Thanks. I've been okay, a little frustrated with dealing with people, but okay. How've you been? How's your computer been?" She leaned back and smiled at the memory. For some reason, Helena's complete confusion about technology was permissible, even amusing--probably because of the whole "witch" angle. Clio found herself fascinated by the idea of being able to do...well, practically anything with magic without the use of technology. I wouldn't want to live like that, but it definitely sounds interesting.
She noticed the bookmarked book on the table and tried to peer at the title on the cover. "What're you reading?" she asked.
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 7:14 pm
"I've been well enough." she laughed. "It's working fine now. Of course it never would have if not for you. I truly am in your debt." she said. She sipped at her coffee, and glanced down at the book. "Oh, just a book charms my mother sent me. I'm supposed to read it, write a little something about it..." she sighed. "I'm an adult, yet she still treats me like a child sometimes. I don't know why I do it, force of habit I suppose. I'm sure that sounds sort of pathetic..." she frowned at her cup as she curled her paws around it. "Ever have parent problems?"
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 10:42 am
If ever someone wanted to get Clio to talk and never stop talking, asking about parent problems was the best way to do it (customer service was second). She had spent much of her adult life in constant arguments with her mother Pi over the same issue over and over and over again--truthfulness, full disclosure, not being a slut. The list went on for quite a while, and usually the very thought of it sent Clio into fits of rage. For some reason, though...talking to Helena, she felt less enraged. Odd. She stirred her mocha with a straw. "Oh, yeah. Parent problems, yeah, I've had those. See, my mother had a one night stand with a friend of hers while her significant other was in..." She sighed. How to explain storage or repair? Well, like that, I suppose. "He was being repaired. He'd been badly damaged years earlier, and my mother hadn't seen him since then. So she was feeling low and went to a sleepover or something, I don't know the exact story, people have been awfully vague about it, and to be honest, I don't want to know, and my brother, my sister, and me came out of it.
"But did my biological--for lack of a better word--parents tell me about it? No. No, they didn't. I thought that Epsilon was my other parent until I met my brother Leonidas, and we realized how similar we looked, and then we confronted our mothers about it, and they admitted it." Clio sighed. "Still haven't fully forgiven Pi for all of that."
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 6:32 pm
Helena winced. "That's...terrible." she managed to get out. "I know one of my mothers was a bit wild in her younger years, but at least I don't have any random siblings, that I know of, and I can honestly say I'm their child..." she looked at herself. "Although that's pretty obvious. I don't think I could get confused for being anyone else's daughter except for my mothers." she toyed with the handle on her cup.
"I don't think I'd forgive either of my parents either. Not telling me exactly the conditions of my birth. Or that I had other siblings..." she shook her head. "That's not fair at all to you." she strangled a giggle. "Oh, I just had a terrible thought and it was hardly kind at all~"
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 7:34 pm
"I've long since gotten over my mother's wild years. Two of my older sisters are from another ONS. It was the lying to me that I minded. I don't like lies." She looked Helena up and down. Clio had never met Helena's mothers. She would have to take her word for it--she had certainly never seen someone who looked like they could be Helena's parent in any capacity, or sibling. There was a graceful simplicity to the witch's fur that was unmatched.
She sipped at her mocha and quirked one eyebrow in amusement. "Oh? And what is this unkind thought you just had?"
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Jul 12, 2012 8:00 pm
"Oh well...I had this awful thought of what if you'd been attracted to one of your siblings that you didn't know you had, and had fallen in love! It's very Greek Tragedy, really. And not very nice of me. I shouldn't joke about that sort of thing, especially when it's a sensitive subject, but I couldn't help but see the whole thing play out in my head. Only with less suicide...because that's usually how something like that would end. And...I'd be sad if you weren't around." she said with a slight blush looking down at her coffee. "You probably think I'm terrible now." she muttered.
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Posted: Mon Jul 30, 2012 8:42 pm
That...was something Clio hadn't expected. She'd expected a joke. "That...would have been bad, yeah. Thankfully, none of us were attracted to each other. It only took Leonidas and me about ten minutes of conversation to figure it out." Suddenly something struck her and snorted. "The way Pi names her kids, you'd expect us to be characters in a Greek tragedy. There's Urania, Vestia, Leonidas, and me, and if she and Dad ever have kids*, they'll probably name them after Greek characters, too. So a Greek tragedy wouldn't be totally unexpected."
Someone would be sad if Clio weren't around? No one had told her that before. Well, technically they had either said it a different way, or taken it for granted--of course her parents, real and adopted, would be sad without her. And her best friend, her partner Tam, had often said that old phrase "where would I be without you," but it wasn't quite the same. "I don't think you're entirely terrible," Clio said matter-of-factly. "It was a terrible thought, but that doesn't make you a terrible person. I like you quite a lot, actually."
((*I reckon this takes place before Pi and Eps have their daughter))
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2012 8:29 am
((k))
That made her smile a bit. "That really does sound like a Greek play. Very unique though, although I could enlighten you on some of the naming schemes of wizarding families, in fact I'm sure you'd fit right in. They have some pretty unusual ideas of what constitutes a name."
She looked down at her coffee and fidgeted slightly. "Thank you. I'm glad you're not mad." she glanced up. "I really like you too." she then coughed and blushed slightly. She cleared her throat and looked around.
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Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2013 10:42 pm
"Well, now that you mention it, I could almost see it...'The Tragic Tale of the Children of Pi, the doomed romance--for sake of argument--of King Leonidas and the muse Clio, with Greek chorus of Spartans, marines, and Sangheili." She sipped her mocha. "It would need some work, of course. I admit I'm not really into Greek literature, though. They're a bit low on computers and a bit high on bad science. Serpentine rock was supposed to be useful as an antivenin. Personally, I'd rather not crush a rock full of asbestos into an open wound. Not to mention the tragedies and the gods running around molesting anything they can stick an organ into." A sudden thought struck her. "Did the Greeks practice magic the way you do? That is, do you sometimes have to study Greek wizards and the magic they performed? Were there any great Greek wizards?
"Oh? And what names do the old wizarding families have?" Clio knew she had one of the longer names in her family (though her friend Beatrice had her beat in that department). Helena seemed like a pretty tame name, though.
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 9:17 am
Helena couldn't help but giggle a bit. "It's a good start, though." she fiddled with her coffee cup. "I have to admit most of my education would be considered highly classical by modern standards. Lots of reading, writing, and rhetoric, and that's just the 'normal' stuff." she smirked a bit. "The odd thing is what you consider bad science is usually quite practical for us. Oh, there are some things that are just appalling but not as much as you think."
She paused and thought for a moment. "No culture, no matter how similar practices magic the same way. There are always those things that are considered Traditional, and Thou Shalt Not Change It." she shrugged. "And there have always been practitioners of magic, probably back since the dawn of time, but I'm getting off track. To answer the question, yes the Greeks practiced magic, but what you could consider modern magic is not practiced in the same way. I have in fact studied most culture's ancient wizards, I have several lengthy and highly boring books on it. And there are dozens of great wizards, the funny thing is what some people consider to be great early scientists are in fact wizards. People were...I guess more accepting of the unusual or otherworldly back then so we weren't so underground as we are now."
She took a sip of her coffee and mused for a moment. "Oh well let's see, There are the Malfoy's very traditional Greek or Roman names there. Lots of males names ending in -ius and female names ending in -ia. The Blacks are all named for stars or constellations. Quite a few are still into naming their children for old gods and goddesses, being alliterative is still popular, where first letter of first name matches first letter of last name. My own name is a combination of both my mother's. Some families have moved into more contemporary names, but the old guard is the old guard." she said.
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 1:14 pm
That gave Clio pause for thought. True, the Greeks had been wrong about a lot of things, but the way they studied became the basis for later scientific thought processes. Observance, documentation, maybe not always correct, but it was a start. And that was also a part of magic? It was certainly food for thought. It was also probably slightly insulting to Helena, although that was insulting to her new friend was difficult for Clio to gauge. She made a face. "Sorry, that came out as sounding offensive, didn't it?" she said. "The bit about bad science, I mean. Shame on me for being so judgmental about people I've never met." She was making good headway on her mocha. She wondered how long Helena had been nursing that coffee--she'd gotten here before Clio, and goodness knew how long she'd been here.
Ah, tradition. Thankfully, Clio hadn't been exposed to too much of it throughout her life. Technology was always changing, and Clio, well, she was technology, quite literally. Or at least, technologically based rather than carbon-based. She'd given up trying to explain it a long time ago. "Yeah, no, it actually makes more sense that each culture would use magic differently," she said. "I mean, every other aspect of culture varies by region, so there's no reason that magic should be any different, even across time. It does make me wonder what sort of words the Greek wizards or Roman wizards used for incantations, though. Unless Latin isn't the base for most incantations? Novelists like to use Latin because it sounds old-fashioned, but I guess that shouldn't be a limiting factor in real-life innovations in magic." She shook her head ruefully. "There I go, pestering you for details. There's probably rules against revealing the secrets of magic to a layman."
"Y'know, I changed the spelling of my last name a while ago for alliteration," she added. "Terribly nitpicky of me, but I thought it would be neater to be CCC rather than CCK." She chuckled. "I don't think I actually know that many people with a theme naming in their family, except maybe Pwn's family. They're fond of internet speech and phraseology puns, like Kyssme Myrish or Hellzyeah Bish. You can't tell me that isn't a little odd."
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Lady Argentum Draconis Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2013 8:20 pm
Helena shook her head. "No not really. We're from two very different worlds, and if we take offense to every little thing we'll never get anywhere." she shrugged. "I'm also not easily offended anyway."
Helena laughed. "No, not necessarily against the rules. Children born to parents who have no magical talent, I assume, spend a good portion of their time trying to explain to magic and how it works to said parents. I can't imagine it's really any different than trying to explain any other skill one picks up in life to someone who's never tried or been exposed to it." she stopped to think about the word structure. "Western magic is mostly Greek and Latin based, it's one of those traditional things. Although sometimes you have to use a modern word for something that has no equivalent. Eastern magic obviously not so much. I believe most of those use older versions of their own language for their basis. Of course the truly talented don't have to use words at all, just gestures." she sighed a bit, which had nothing to do with the questions at all, just her own lack of skill compared to her mother.
She had to smiled a bit at Clio changing her name. "It certainly does make writing one's initials far less complicated." she giggled and absently flicked her tail towards the other female. The internet slang though gave her pause. "Hang on one second..." she traced the words with a finger tip, nodding when she realized what they actually meant and then blushed at "Bish" part realizing it was a swear. "Alright you win. That is very unusual." she said with a laugh.
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