Room 223, Friday Night

[life_inshadow]

The spellbooks from Tara's shelves -- and more than a few that she'd borrowed from the shop -- were scattered around her bed, the result of what felt like weeks trying to get something useful out of them. She'd heard the announcement about auditors, which sent her back to the beginning for any reference.

Conclusion: Nothing, though there was a kind of "accounting demon" that Tara would really prefer not to have balance her checkbook.

She sighed and flopped back on the floor, then flicked a cat toy toward Mr. Moxy, mildly pleased she could at least make him happy.

It was that kind of exciting Friday night.

[OOC: Door open, post open!]

Comments

[life_inshadow]

Tara glanced up, surprised, and smiled tentatively.

"Not so much," she said. "I ... found my cat's favorite toy? But, uh, nothing that looks like it's going to help."

She shrugged. "Are you having the same thing?"

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"My forms of research haven't given me much more information," said Susan carefully. "Though I'm not sure whether anything would actually be in books, either."

[life_inshadow]

"If it is, it's not in my books," Tara said ruefully. "What are you doing instead? I did a little magic, but I don't even know what kind of spell I want to use."

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"Er. I asked about them," she admitted. "What kind of magic?"

[life_inshadow]

"Wiccan," Tara said, almost apologetically -- she was used to people not knowing what that was. "It's one of the main ways people do magic in my world. Basically it's learning to do spells? I wasn't born able to do it or anything."

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"Are you good at it?" She found that more important than natural ability.

[life_inshadow]

Tara shrugged thoughtfully. "Not as good as my mom was," she decided. "But I can usually do most of what I want to do."

She glanced around the books. "... this situation excepted."

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"Are you looking for something specific, or trying random things?" Susan had no idea whether magic would work or not, but she understood how powerful witches and wizards were supposed to be. Maybe in this situation, they had something she didn't.

Not that she would admit that out loud. Ever.

[life_inshadow]

"I started with something to ... see if one of the missing dimensions was still there?" Tara said slowly, watching Susan to see if she followed. "It didn't work right. I played with it for a while but it sort of turned into trying random things and reading about hellgods. And now there's this auditors thing the principal mentioned, but that's ... not really helping."

She leaned back against her bed. "Do you know a lot about magic?"

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"Wizards summoned me once," she said with a shrug. "They were looking for someone else. If you can read about hellgods, would there be any information about those who are in charge of reality itself?"

[life_inshadow]

Tara frowned and bit her lip. "There should be, but I've never heard of anybody like that."

Which seemed like an odd omission, now that she thought about it.

[OOC: Night!]

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"Of course not, that would be easy," Susan sighed.

[Night!]

[life_inshadow]

"No kidding," Tara said, and thought some more.

"There are tons of gods of dreams," she finally offered. "And in some belief systems, a god who controls one thing, also has some relationship to its opposite. So, order and chaos, war and peace, maybe dreams and reality? I can see if that gets me anywhere."

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"Well, we're not looking for gods." She paused. "I think. Gods tend to take credit for this sort of thing, so let's say no. More like... bureaucrats."

[life_inshadow]

Tara looked distinctly skeptical. "Reality has bureaucrats?"

Why was this harder to believe than the gods theory?

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"That's what they are," she said matter-of-factly. "The Auditors of Reality? They make sure that all the little things that make the universe work do indeed work."

[life_inshadow]

Okay, there was nothing like that in any of Tara's books.

"So ... the theory is that they're doing this because someone didn't fill in a form or something?" She asked in a very small voice. "That's so ... mean."

[inaskinnyway.livejournal.com]

"They're doing it because life is 'messy.'"

If a person could pronounce air quotes, it was just done right there.

"So they're getting rid of it. Completely logical, and completely stupid at the same time."

[life_inshadow]

"Kind of like chopping off your head because you have a toothache," Tara said incredulously.