Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rubbing at the top of her head as she snuck back into their condo, Pippa was glad to have avoided anyone else on the elevator up from the bottom floor. It gave her time to try and fix her clothes a bit, frowning as she felt her scrapped-up knees and elbows getting rubbed against. It wasn’t fun, but it also wasn’t the worst thing she’d gotten into. This was maybe…. A two out of ten on getting roughed around in her opinion but she knew Freddy wouldn’t see it the same way.

After hanging up her winter coat and kicking her boots off by the door, she noticed some of the lights were on, and immediately, she felt just the slightest bit bad that her brother was waiting up for her.

Peeking around the corner as she came out of the small hall that led from the front door and coat closet to the main part of the condo, she looked to see if she saw her brother. At first, the coast seemed clear, only one of the small reading lights was on but then she heard shuffling as she pulled her sweater off over her head so her elbows could stop being so darn itchy.



If lines on the forehead could spell a word, Freddy’s would undoubtedly spell “stressed” in bold, all cap lettering. Despite still being a teen (at least in age), he felt the world weighing down on him since that day…and it was hard to pick who or what to blame. Was it the snowshits? The man in pink Asian garb? The universe?

Not his sister, of course. Though he knew if given an actual choice she would pick the same path he was sure she was on now, but she didn’t pick. She didn’t get a choice. So…no, he couldn’t quite blame her for any of that.

All the same, he worried. It was prime for inspiring songs and melodies, actually, but he worried. Like tonight, she was out late and he opted to wait up. Get some reading or writing done, maybe even a bit of studying. Or try to. At one point he kept peeking out the balcony doors or whichever window was close to him, whatever he was doing. Some tea eventually eased him into a chair, and he sighed and resigned himself to glancing over at the clock instead of the windows between pages of his book.

Eyes shot up from said book when he heard the door open, and he immediately got up and moved off, getting the kettle started before grabbing a towel and heading toward the front hall. “Busy night?” he asked, tone staying neutral despite his worry. Which only got worse as he moved closer to help her out of her sweater, exchanging it for the towel he had draped over his shoulder in case she needed it. The state of her elbows was plain to see at that point, and he could only imagine how banged up she was in general.

He let out a little sigh when he noticed, but just waved vaguely toward the kitchen. “Kettle’s on. Go sit down, I’ll grab the kit.”



Looking up at her brother she smiled wide. “I sent one of those bad guys off running… maybe I got a bit too rough but he was hurting people Freddy.” Whining a bit as she turned her arm to get a look at things. It wasn’t too bad but the mention of tea and the med kit had her following along.

“I don’t know how they do it but it was like a dementor? Everyone they touched seemed to get so tired and it felt wrong, I couldn’t just let them carry on.” Stating her case as she settled down on one of the comfy chairs, she rolled her pants up and looked at her knees. It stung, she knew she’d done something but with her fancy clothes while magicked up, she hadn’t gotten a look. It wasn’t too bad still, she’d had rougher when taking a tumble back home on the brick pathways. They always hurt more and she was sort of glad there weren’t as many here in the city outside of the nice little garden spaces that seemed to pop up.

Pouting slightly as she stretched and got comfortable in the chair, she saw the books and homework he must have been looking over. At least he hadn’t just been up waiting on her, maybe he was working on new music too?

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He was back by her side in nearly no time at all, part way between amused, relieved, and exasperated by her antics. “Serves you right,” he said, gently admonishing her when she whined at her elbows. “Sit still, hang on…”


Freddy listened and worked intently to bandage her up. He’d seen far worse on her while they were growing up. If his sister was anything at all in this world, it was decidedly not dainty. That was quite possibly one of his favorite but most hated thing about her–she was a rough and tumble sort, very hands on, and somehow full of confidence. All 5’2” of her. It was a wonder she didn’t have any significant scars, though at the rate she seemed to be going…

“And you’re sure you wanna stay on this track, Pip?” he asked, focused on her knee now that her elbow was all done. “Following…dementor-type people running amuck in this city? That we’re only visiting while we’re in school, if I could just remind you. And speaking of–did you get your homework done before you went off to save some small part of this city?”



Pouting more, she puffed her cheeks out as he cleaned and bandaged her up. Pippa squirmed slightly from the alcohol wipes, she always hated how they stung even if she was sort of used to it.
“I do, Freddy, there’s so much more out there than I could ever have imagined! I feel like I should do something if I could.” It wasn’t like her to sit by when things happened, she wanted to be in the thick of even if it was just for now.

Brightening up at the mention of homework, she pointed over to the other desk, which was covered in scattered papers. “Got it done before I left, like you said! It wasn’t much tonight, though I think I need to read another chapter about how MIDI works on the computer?”

Once she was bandaged up a bit, she looked over towards the kitchen for the kettle. “I keep thinking about something, somewhere to go, but I’m not sure yet.” There was that pull and just like that other magical wizard-looking guy had said, there was a phrase just on the tip of her tongue, begging for her to say it and go where it led. While she was all for it, she wanted to wait until after her brother was a bit more used to things since she wasn’t sure about it all just yet. It was more out of worry for him than for herself though since she figured she could handle whatever that wherever threw at her.

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Freddy followed the finger she used to point at a desk that really should have been a dead giveaway that she’d gotten her work done and sighed, half relieved, half exhausted at the mere sight of the disorganized desk. He didn’t dare touch it in case there was something in that mess that was important to her, but did he want to?

Yes, very much so.

“That doesn’t sound like much, you can probably slip the read between classes tomorrow. On the other thing, we’re barely eighteen, Pip. There’s plenty of other non-magical things for us to find,” he half-heartedly insisted. There was no turning back at this point, he had a feeling, but he felt it was still important to try. And besides, it was hard to argue against doing something if they were able. He believed in that, too, after all.

Once she was all bandaged up he started putting the kit away, being careful to set the used items aside for tossing later. The teen moved silently as he listened to her go on about wanting to go somewhere. He furrowed his brows at the idea as he prepared a small pot of tea, two mugs, and some crackers, bringing it all to the table once he had it all set up.

“Something as in…another school?” he asked, equally worried and curious. “Or another city, maybe?”



Pouting a bit, she figured it was still the basics so she could squeak by for now on that part. Afterall, she was pretty sure there were tutorials about it on youtube since it was a tech thing. There were always videos or tiktoks about it and she’d gotten some skills already on how to work her guitar from there in the beginning. “There’s no test on it, plus I think I can watch things on the bus probably?” It wasn’t too long of a ride but it would have some down time if she didn’t decide to nap or listen to new music from indie artists.

Leaning forward once the tea and crackers came out, she shook her head. “Chillingham, the place, which I feel like might be father than a pop over to another city or school.” If it wasn’t easy to go and return, she was pretty sure the other magic person wouldn’t have mentioned things. It had been itching in the back of her mind but time and time again she’d gotten busy with helping people to follow that nudging from wherever.

“I don’t think it’ll be trouble Freddy, otherwise that bloke wouldn’t have mentioned it I feel like. He was really helpful against that snow thing.” But there was still just a bit of guilt because she couldn’t bring him along right? At least she wasn’t sure since he was just her brother and she did worry about all this magic getting to him too.

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He smirked.

“I meant it doesn’t sound like you have much left, so you can manage it tomorrow,” Freddy managed a chuckle despite the growing concern for his sister jumping headlong into unknown magical–he couldn’t believe that was actually a thing–antics. He grabbed his mug and took a sip of tea before adding, “You should just focus on resting and recovering tonight.”

Taking one of the crackers, he finally took a seat before nibbling on it as she tried to explain. All it did was confuse him a bit, but rather than express that he simply finished the cracker and grabbed another one.

“He did save us, so I’ll give him that,” the teen sighed before sipping at his tea. “I just…I can’t really relate, Pip, so not sure what I can say that might help. D’you think you’d be able to take me? If it’s not that far or hard to get to, I mean.” It’d probably do his heart wonders if he could keep a literal eye on his sister while she went gallivanting off to some strange, magical place.

Or…well. Maybe not? He imagined he’d have a whole different set of worries, watching his sister getting into things as opposed to simply knowing and being left to wonder what exactly she got up to when she went on her magical adventures.

Magical ********>. If he didn’t know any better, or trust his sister as much as he did, he’d have thought he was going insane.



She could agree with that, resting tonight and figuring out the rest soon. Everything was slightly sore so she wasn’t about to go back out and do anything else. Plus she had class in the morning and keeping up with her grades meant she could do the magic thing at night. Certainly, Freddy would throw a fit if she let her grades fall and she knew he’d tell their parents.

“I think so too, I’m pretty tired after things. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.” Rubbing at the back of her head, she decided to pull the elastics out of her hair to let it down and loose. Picking up her tea and holding it in both hands, she sighed as she got comfortable again.

“I want to but I’m not sure I know how to yet. But I promise I will if I can figure it out. I’ll go ask that guy again, he should know plus at least then you know there’s someone who knows about this keeping tabs?” She felt bad about it but she wanted so very badly to dive into all this magic and adventure. It was like all the fairytales she read and stories she thought up while daydreaming.

“I won’t go before the weekend, I promise, and I’ll make sure I tell you everything okay?” Giving him an innocent look as she drank her tea, she would try to not give him a heart attack if she could manage, at least before she yawned and stretched a bit more.

“Maybe it’s time for bed… we can talk more about that and schoolwork in the morning?”

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Freddy knew she meant it–keeping him informed and staying on top of her non-magical responsibilities. She didn’t actually have to try that hard to convince him…mostly because he knew she would find a way to dive into things anyway. And she had every right to, she was her own person. They were twins, not each other’s keeper. Still, he was always vocal about his concerns because he cared. It was maybe just a little unfortunate that his caring sounded a lot like nagging.

“I don’t mean to nag, Pip, I hope you know that,” he said after another sip of tea. “I just worry, and wanna make sure you’re safe.” He wanted to say more, but she was right. It was late, and they both had classes in the morning, so with a very hesitant sigh he then bobbled his head.

“But alright, bedtime for now. We’ll talk more in the morning. Go on ahead, I’ll clean this up.”

While it wasn’t a sleepless night, it wasn’t exactly a restful night either. The worry ate at him, and he knew it would continue indefinitely. Pippa seemed…invested…in all this magical stuff, so he imagined this would just be one night of very many in the foreseeable future.