Giselle Duell
January 19, 2022 4:36 PM
I don't like this [Selina] by Giselle Duell
Okay, it was time to get down to work. Giselle knew that from some casual inquiries she had made near the end of the summer, the situation was not getting better. The darkness, whatever it was, was looming larger than ever. After last year's meeting she had figured it was a warning about Xavier's potential Obscurialism problem. From the reports she had been hearing, it seemed as though he was doing okay? Or at least not getting worse?Now she wasn't sure at all anymore. From what she'd gleaned from the Fates so far, things were definitely not better. So after arriving back at school to prepare for the coming year, she set to the problem once more. Her last investigations had gone too far into obscure details based on potentially mistaken assumptions. It was time to get back to the basics again.
She pulled out all of the tools at her disposal (except those stupid, obstinate crystal balls), and started seeking answers once more. Was the source of the darkness Xavier? Or was it his potential Obscurialism? Or was it whatever was causing him to have a potential Obscurialism? If her questions came back all negative, she was ready to set Xavier aside, but last year's revelation just seemed to coincide too closely to be a complete coincidence. Still, it was a possibility and one cannot afford assumptions in this line of research.
Two hours later Giselle had exhausted nearly every method at her disposal again; cards, tea, the astrolabe, fire, chicken bones... everything except the crystal balls and her mirror. Unfortunately she didn't have a willing 11 year old necessary for the mirror. It had proved quite useful in the past. Still, she had gotten some results, and she did not like them. She had to do something, but she wasn't sure what. In what seemed like the only real logical choice at the moment, she sent a brief message off to the Deputy-Headmistress asking her if she could come over at her earliest convenience in regards to the looming darkness before them.
She did not know what Professor's Skies' schedule looked like, or what other duties might delay her, so in the meantime Giselle tried to think, tried to come up with anything. The crystal balls may have something else to tell her, that was always a possibility, but they would not reveal anything to her. The thought however made her thing of Anya, the Pecari girl had developed an amazing feel for the delicacies of divinations. However, Giselle knew that she couldn't recruit Anya for this work, she was a student and this seemed focused about another student. The mirror was another story, but Selina hadn't liked the idea of using first year students in such a way, so that was probably also not an option. She just wasn't sure what else there was to do.
When the Deputy Headmistress arrived feelings of both relief and dread washed over her. "I'm sorry for pulling you away from your other duties," Giselle apologized. She indicated the implements of her field strewn across the various tables in the classroom. "I've been doing more research about our dark power." The divinations professor indicated various symbols revealed on the implements. "It is definitely Xavier, or..." she hesitated a moment as she ran her fingers over the placed tarot cards again, ".. his condition, or whatever is causing his condition. Something happened over, "she moved to the atsrolabe and ran her wand over it shifting it between the beginning of summer and the end, "over the summer, see there? The lines twisted and strained some. It wasn't good." Giselle inspected a teacup then passed it to her boss before moving on. "Look there, things are bad now, worse maybe? There was some sort of bad influence perhaps."
Finally she moved over to the collection of chicken bones tossed on a table, she once more ran her wand over it and visibly grew uneasy. "The Fates say he needs help. That I need to help him." How she was supposed to help someone when she was still dealing with her own problems she couldn't figure. There had to be better people for this. She had to stop herself, she didn't know how she could help him, but she wasn't about to fall into some weepy little, abandoned schoolgirl sentiment anymore. She had a job to do.
Giselle took a deep breath. "He is not signed up for my class this year. Do you think he needs to know what lies before him? I don't know how I can help him, but if the Fates declare that I need to..." she paused, there wasn't much to do once the Fates had decided something; work with them, be crushed by them, or attempt to run. From her experience, only one of those options usually worked out well. "What can I do for him?"
2
Giselle Duell
I don't like this [Selina]
1517
1
5
Selina Skies
January 21, 2022 1:11 AM
Me neither by Selina Skies
Selina was relatively well prepared for what awaited her in Giselle's office. Her note had stated it was about the looming darkness, and this wasn't the first conversation they had had about it. To give her credit, Giselle had been fretting about a looming darkness since before they knew about Xavier's condition. Of course, such threats were generally bread and water to Seers but... well, Giselle was being consistent and logical in her explanations of what she foresaw, even if they weren't ever particularly helpful.She hadn't expected Giselle's revelations to strike such a nerve. A bad influence over the summer? She stared at the little knot Giselle was indicating, feeling one forming in her throat at the same time. She was the one who had pushed and driven the decisions regarding Xavier's summer. The stress and the guilt that she was making the wrong choices had always nagged in the back of her mind, but now it swelled, into a giant, looming, pit-of-the-stomach-dropping feeling that she had really, really screwed up.
Right now, telling herself she had never believed that strongly in divination was of precious little comfort. In those moments where it was eerily accurate, it was... well, eery. Her mind slowly tried to rationalise it. She tried to think of other ways Giselle might have heard enough to form an opinion. She didn't think she would deliberately dress that up in divinations but what things could she have subconsciously picked up on, which might influence her to make this reading? Obviously, the staff all knew the general situation with Xavier, and probably knew that visitations with his parents was a touchy subject, however much they had tried to preserve an appropriate levels of confidentiality. And Val... She was very well socially connected. Probably not to the extent that Xavier was in her bubble, but in a bubble that touched her bubble...? There were certainly ways subconscious influences could be biasing Giselle's interpretations. Equally, the very conscious bias of not wanting it to be true could easily be colouring Selina's.
"He isn't signed up for anything extra except astronomy," she confirmed, dealing with the concrete first. "He's barely pulling through in his core subjects, and he has to give a lot of his homework time over to office hours as it is." Astronomy didn't really involve any magic. Magic could be used, of course, but often only at the level of charms that they already used, to make things more convenient. She hoped it would suit Xavier, and give him a high enough grade to gain a bit of self-confidence. They could also fall back in putting him in subjects like history of magic, and even Muggle studies, if they needed ways of bulking out his transcript with things he could do. Something finicky like divination that barely worked for most people didn't seem like it would suit him. The last thing he needed was more experiences of frustrating magics that he couldn't do. Though whole classes of non-Seers routinely managed passes. Maybe it fell into the same sort of category as astronomy.
"I think we need to be careful what we say to him," she said, trying to find a way to respond to her least favourite of Giselle's ideas firmly but gently. "He's been trying hard, and I don't want him to give up or feel it's hopeless. People often take dire warnings from fate to mean that, whether or not that's the intention. He's already made his choices about classes. I can check he hasn't changed his mind, and I can make sure he knows he can join things later if he wants to...
"As for what you can do for him... Well, you've told me what you Saw, which is a good start. I'll ask lots of detail about his summer. Is there anything else you'd like us to do or to offer?"
13
Selina Skies
Me neither
26
0
5
Giselle Duell
January 21, 2022 7:13 PM
What do we do? by Giselle Duell
Oh thank the Fates and other high powers that govern the workings of the universe! Giselle did everything within her power to refrain from letting the immense show of relief show. She'd been afraid that Professor Skies would decide that she needed to have some sort of special heart-to-heart sessions with Xavier. She had no idea how she would do that, or what she would do with them, or... well anything along those lines. It would have been terribly and bad and detrimental to everything. Thank goodness Professor Skies agreed."Yes, of course," she responded maybe a bit quickly. Realizing it she paused to explain, "You are right, even if they don't believe it, once people hear about a problem coming they don't think of it as a warning and ways to avoid it... it's now inevitable." Then she added in a quieter murmur, "and naturally all your fault." Moving quickly into answering Professor Skies' other question, "I can't think of anything at the moment. If you do find out anything about his summer, we can perhaps focus on that more and try to delve into it deeper."
Giselle was breathing easier now, she was nearly off the hook. She had hopefully satisfied the Fates, she had helped, she had done something. What more was there to do? Xavier was in a terrible situation, but not one she could relate to. He was being pulled away from his family by dark and sinister forces at an age where there was nothing he could do about it... dang it.
"No situation is ever hopeless for those who do not give up fighting." She stepped over to the table that had been set up for carrowmancy and inspected the floating wax droplets. They had shifted again. "Despite what the Fates may want everyone to think, everyone is the master of their own path. Everyone makes their own choices and must deal with the consequences of them." She swirled her wand in the water, scattering the drops apart and thought just a moment about the path she had forged. "Darkness, pain and suffering are inevitable. The choices one makes in how they deal with them are far more important than the events themselves. Are you crushed or emboldened by them? Do you wither or grow? Both happen, and no one choice is defining, it is simply the fight one must continue every day." She sighed and gestured about her at the implements. "These can give us a glimpse of potential outcomes, but it is up to Xavier to ultimately decide upon the path he will walk."
The wax bits had reformed once again and it's suggestion didn't seem like a bad idea, hopefully harmless and a minor waste of time at worst. "Perhaps if he is amenable to the idea, he could keep a dream journal. It has helped in situations before." Her own notably. "If he wants to share it with us, we may glean something from it. If he isn't comfortable with sharing, well perhaps he'll glean something himself."
2
Giselle Duell
What do we do?
1517
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5
Selina Skies
January 21, 2022 9:42 PM
Um. Keep trying? by Selina Skies
In many ways, Giselle was very easy to read. She let her reactions play out across her face, unguarded. However, that was only ever part of the story. The reasons behind those expressions, Selina could only ever guess at. Giselle’s history was complicated, and the way she thought was very different to Selina, which sometimes didn’t make for an easy guessing game.Giselle’s answer was too quick. She was too quick to tell Selina that was a great idea. Giselle had always been a bit of an anxious people-pleaser, and Selina wondered whether this was more evident of that than Giselle’s real opinion. Though when she elaborated on her thoughts, the muttered aside was more than a little revealing. She was worried Xavier would see her as the harbinger of doom if she… well, harbinged doom. It was hard to say that was entirely unfair, but equally blaming Giselle for bad news was different than being upset by the bad news itself. On the whole, Selina was very glad to not be putting them in a room together, as she suspected it wouldn’t do either of them very much good. She was undecided on whether Giselle agreed with her on that, but well… she couldn’t make use of information she wasn’t told.
It didn’t do much to comfort her to hear Giselle say she was right. She wasn’t convinced Giselle meant it, both because of Giselle’s general nature, but also because of the firmly lodged voice, courtesy of Giselle’s readings, that said she had messed up beyond measure. Seline would normally have been inclined to listen to a real person over The Fates, but it was something that she was sure was going to leave a lingering doubt that no amount of human reassurance could overcome. This was really why she didn’t like divination. It rarely gave you answers, just more things to worry about.
“Those are good points,” she agreed, as Giselle explained the idea of paths not being fixed. “I think they’re probably helpful for everyone to remember, but especially someone who’s feeling as powerless as Xavier is right now. I’ll be sure to pass some of that on. And yes, it probably would help him to do some journaling.”
She leant over, peering into the bowl of waxy blobs that was so meaningful to Giselle, trying to work out what she herself might say, if pushed to. There was a smaller, pointy piece. She supposed with enough imagination that could be a sword or a dagger or somesuch, which was probably something appealingly dramatic. And then… lots of wiggly lines and blobs. She wondered whether diviners had come up with a meaning for either of those things, for when they were absolutely in doubt. Saying something was a snake was probably a popular bet, and again, those rarely got assigned good properties. Maybe it was because they were so often found in teacups. What had come first, their unlucky associations, or their prevalence in random shape assortments, coupled with Seers’ desires to find something unlucky? Luckily, interpreting it wasn’t up to her.
“Thank you for your ideas,” she said to Giselle. “I’ll let you know how they go over with Xavier.”
13
Selina Skies
Um. Keep trying?
26
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5