Semi-open RP: Sirius visits the Cat's Eye

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

The magical charts they'd been generating for weeks now had always been showing some odd readings, but once they'd finally finished the calculations and put the spell on the map, it was even more obvious that there was some seriously strange magical activity at a certain point of New Orleans Square. The amount of latent magic radiating from this point was enormous, but the epicenter moved, indicating that either a person or an artifact had such a great amount of magic. Sirius wasn't sure this was possible, since his calculations indicated this would be the most powerful wizard Sirius had ever encountered, and yet there was barely any evidence of magical use in the area at all.

The epicenter appeared to frequently focus on something called the French Market. So Sirius head out to investigate, and found a small cafe in that point. He tapped the map and muttered a phrase that wiped the evidence of the magical readings from it, leaving an ordinary park map, and then opened the door.

Comments

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay looked up as the door opened, having been leaning on the counter and simply daydreaming for the past few minutes. He smiled at the newcomer and swung over the counter to greet him, bowing deeply. "Welcome to the Cat's Eye Cafe!" he said, in the sing-song voice of one who has used this phrase far too much. "What can I do for you?"

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Hey," said Sirius, looking around. He didn't see anything blatantly magical about this place, so he thought he'd observe for a bit, maybe talk to the owners. "So this is a cafe, then? I thought it looked interesting. What do you serve?"

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay nodded. "I run it, with my daughter Chii, my... well, I suppose the best word is lover," he said, blushing and smiling slightly at the word, "my Kuro-ai, and Mokona. Suoh-ou is supposed to work here too, but he keeps forgetting to turn up." He giggled, evidently not angry in the slightest with Tamaki.

"Cakes, cookies, sandwiches, things like that. Would you like anything?" Fay's smile was warm and welcoming, for once genuinely so.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"I could use a sandwich," Sirius replied, grinning at the other man's blush. He felt immediately fond of Fay, although he probably would have felt warmly towards anyone who was this pretty and young* and gay and in love.

"It sounds like you have a good set to run a cafe with, then. It's a shame I haven't stopped by sooner. What's your name, then?"

*As far as Sirius can tell, at any rate

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"Sandwich it is!" Fay said brightly, beginning to skip off into the kitchens. "What kind?"

He paused, and turned to give him another bow and bright smile. "I'm Fay D. Flourite, but it's easier to just call me Fay. What's yours?"

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Just give me your specialty," he replied.

"Nice to meet you, then, Fay," he said with a grin and maybe a bit of a chuckle at the bow. "Sirius Black, but it's easier just to call me Sirius."

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay grinned and said, "Cheese and ham it is." Sandwiches were not his field of expertise.

"All right, Sirius-san!" The blonde skipped into the kitchens and returned a few moments later with a plate, on which he was attempting to balance a pile of not-very-well-made sandwiches. "Sorry," he apologised in advance.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"They look great," he replied with a laugh. "Trust me, I'm sure it's better than my own cooking. I'm not picky."

He took a bite, frowned as though considering the food carefully as he chewed and swallowed, and then gave the thumbs up. "Very good. Hey, do you collect any sort of payment on these? I actually don't have any money for this place, I suppose I could give you some alcohol, though, that seems to be the currency."

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay was partway through saying, "Oh, it doesn't matter, everything here is free," when he heard 'alcohol'. He back-pedalled, paused, and then said, "Oh, payment isn't necessary, but always appreciated. Alcohol will do nicely, especially sake or wine." Alcohol~! It had been far too long since he'd been able to get properly drunk with Kurogane.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"I probably have a bottle of wine somewhere," he said. He'd taken whiskey as his payment, but he'd nicked a bottle or two of other stuff. Not like Crowley would miss it.* "If not, my mate James definitely has a bottle. He's saving it for a special lady, but she isn't interested so he'll never miss it." Sirius winked. "And my special...lady isn't here anymore, so I'll probably stick to the harder stuff anyway, right? Generous of you to offer your services for free, though. Makes me feel like a selfish bastard. Though there were a couple of jobs I was thinking of trying out once I finished working on a problem or two."

*Hope this is okay, figured it was since he was really stealing from Aziraphale XD

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"Aww, poor James!" Fay said sympathetically. "He should keep his wine. I'm sure she'll come around someday." He smiled confidently, one completely certain of this.

He looked at Sirius sympathetically and patted his arm when he spoke of his special person having gone ('special person' - he was sounding more and more like Chii each day) and shook his head adamantly. "No, not generous at all. I just get bored if I don't have anything to do, and I've kept a cafe before. It's a good way to meet people." And get information, he did not add.

"Oh?" Fay hooked his ankle around the chair opposite Sirius and sat down. "What kind of problems?"

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius grinned. "Oh, she does. I showed up here from a few years down the line, so I happen to know that she marries him eventually. But it'll probably be a while."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I threw a party once, and it was pretty good, but that's about it. My mate James and I have been busy working on some idea of how to get out," he answered simply. He wasn't sure he wanted to show the map to Fay just yet, but he did want to ask some questions about the magic in the area, so he'd approach the subject and see where he got.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay boggled at him. "You're from their future? Is that possible?" Crap, what if a past or future version of him turned up? Or Ashura?

The blonde leant forward, interested but not overly eager. "Have you made any headway?" Naturally he wanted to get out of here, as he was slightly jittery about spending too long in once place, but this place was hardly unpleasant. He didn't think he'd mind spending six months here, or maybe even more - after all, he could understand Kurogane here.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Apparently in this place it is. I'm from over a decade later than James is, and when Remus was here, he was definitely a good few years younger than me. It's nice to see James at this age, but the problem with Remus was that he happened to show up from one of the few parts of his life when he hated me. So it wasn't the most pleasant of experiences."

He absent-mindedly fingered the map in his pocket. "Some, perhaps. Actually, that's part of why I came. Have you noticed anything out of the ordinary in this area?"

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"I can imagine," Fay replied, grimacing. He was going to have to just hope another version of him or any version of Ashura showed up, as that would rather kill the mood.

Fay cocked his head to one side, thinking. "There's Mokona," he said, "but Mokona isn't so unusual to me. Mokona's a creature that's been traveling with me," he explained. "It's about this big, white, and round. Has a red gem on its forehead and a red earring."

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Uh-huh," said Sirius thoughtfully. "I meant more along the lines of park activities, but that could help. Does Mokona have a lot of magic?"

Fay described a strange creature so easily that Sirius hoped he wouldn't be a complete stranger to the idea of magic.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"Mokona has one hundred and eight secret skills," Fay answered. "And translates for us. So yeah, I think Mokona's pretty magical." He flashed Sirius a grin and leant back. "I'm not sure how much, though, but it's gotta be fairly powerful." Powerful enough to move us from world to world, anyway.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Hmm," replied Sirius, skeptically. "I don't know if that's quite right, though. The readings seem less like a magical creature--" Of course, it certainly could have been a mistake.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay asked, "Readings?" Just an innocent, curious inquiry.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Do you know anything about magic?" asked Sirius. He figured it couldn't do any harm, so he took the map out of his pocket and set it on the table, although it wasn't turned on. "I figured this place must run on some sort of magic, so James and I have been working on setting up a spell to monitor magical use in the area, and this area is where the biggest readings for latent magic came from, but didn't show up much at all for magical use. That's why I thought it might have something to do with the nature of the park."

He watched Fay's face, looking for either comprehension or disbelief to see where he should go with this.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay pulled the map towards him slightly, hand hovering over it for perhaps a few moments longer than usual. It was charmed, most definitely.

"I know some," the blonde replied. "I'm afraid I can't help about the park being magical." Which was true: Fay really couldn't help with that. He could explain why the large amount of magic in this area was never used, but that would cause questions.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

And with a tap of his wand, he activated the map. "Here's the problem, see. Do you see the yellow? That's what a magical creature like a mokona might cause. But the concentration here is this blue." He pointed to the largest concentration of blue on the map. "That looks like a witch or a wizard of some sort, a really powerful one. But it's still a very strange reading, being so powerful-- are there any powerful magic users here that you know of?"

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay appeared more interested in the wand than the map. What a small staff, he thought, and would have liked to study it, except that would mean revealing his knowledge of the arcane.

"Umm..." he said, tapping his chin with a slim finger. "You might want to try Crowley-san. I'm not really sure about wizards in this area." (Well, Crowley's aura did contain something).

[vowtoprotect.livejournal.com]

"Oi, mage." Kurogane was coming down the stairs at about that point. He was going to ask Fay where one of his shirts had gone, since really the mage had more control over where his clothes ended up than he did half the time, but it wasn't something he actually, really needed. It was just an excuse to seek Fay out, because he hadn't quite come to terms with the idea that he didn't need excuses, anymore.

"Where's--" he started, then stopped, noticing the company. Well, he wasn't going to ask where his shirt had ended up in front of someone else. He gave Sirius a look, which might have come across as suspicious because that was sort of his default expression (that and unimpressed), and finished crossing over to Fay, glancing at the map and the wand as he did so.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius had a good sense for the dramatic, so when Kurogane referred to Fay as 'mage,' rather than responding immediately he raised an eyebrow and gave Fay an extremely dubious look. Sirius' default expression these days was usually more along the lines of cheeky, but his face registered the emotion well.

"Mage, huh? Cute nickname," he said finally. "So, you're sure you don't know of any magic users around this place?"

Sirius' grin at this point has definitely reached 'wicked.'

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay really did love Kurogane. He still wanted to hit him right now, though.

"I like it when you call me by my name," he said quietly, instead of yelling or hitting Kurogane. He looked back up at Sirius with a slightly unsure smile, and said, "Yes, I am the mage that's effecting your readings. But I don't use my magic any more, so I might as well not have it. You're not going to be able to persuade me to use it, either."

[vowtoprotect.livejournal.com]

Well, walking in on the tail end of that conversation wasn't anything good, obviously. Kurogane winced when he realized the usual... well, by this point he supposed it was a nickname, more than anything else... really hadn't been a good idea this time.

He didn't say anything yet, simply stopping by Fay's side and putting a hand on his shoulder, giving Sirius a look that said quite clearly that Fay wasn't going to be able to be persuaded, and if pressed the blonde man wouldn't be the only one getting upset.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Well, the tension in this room had just gone up quite a bit, causing Sirius to finger his wand out of habit. But he grinned at Fay as a sort of peace offering. "I'm not asking you to use magic, mate. I just needed to know what was causing such a large magical signature here, right? Because otherwise it could have been something the park was doing, and that could've helped us get out."

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay reached up for Kurogane's hand automatically, entwining their fingers and squeezing slightly. I'm not mad with you. I just don't like talking about my magic.

"I suppose," Fay admitted. "For what it's worth, I haven't sensed any magic in the park, and neither has Mokona."

[vowtoprotect.livejournal.com]

Kurogane relaxed some when he realized there wasn't any real trouble to the situation. While before he might have pulled his hand back, or at least been embarrassed, he let Fay entwine their fingers together without much thought.

"You're looking for a way out of the park?" Well, that was interesting.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius relaxed and loosened his grip on his wand. If Fay was serious about not using magic then he'd never really been in danger, but it was still a bad idea to mess with a wizard that powerful.

It was also nice when the big intimidating guy stopped seeming quite so tense, even though Sirius suspected from the magical reading that he'd be able to win that fight as long as he had his wand. He grinned, and gestured to the map on the table. "Yeah, you see? This shows you where all the magic in this park is. James and I are hoping to find some sort of weak point in the magical field that we might be able to break through, so we've been examining the magical spots to try to determine their cause and see if we can make out any sort of pattern. If we found a weak point, we might be able to open a connection back home."

He frowned at Fay's words. "Well, there's plenty of magic in this place," he said, "although I can't tell what's caused by people and what's the park just yet. But to be fair, you're definitely the most powerful magical source here, so no, I doubt anything would compare..." He paused and considered this for a second. "I don't suppose, what with your ban on magic, you've tried to open up a way out, have you?"

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"I know some of the people here are magical," Fay re-phrased, "but I haven't found any magic that's caused by the park itself. I'm not sure how it controls us, but it isn't anything I recognise."

He shook his head. "No," he said simply. "Nothing of the sort. There wouldn't be any use in me trying, either. Moving myself to another world would be difficult enough, let alone moving everyone in this park."

[vowtoprotect.livejournal.com]

Now that Kurogane knew what he was looking for, on the map, he wasn't surprised this guy had come here. Not if he was looking for magic. There seemed to be a lot of it around the cafe, more than anywhere else in the park. "Huh," he said. He didn't have much to contribute toward the magical part of the conversation, though, so he waited and listened.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"So what do you think it is?" asked Sirius, confused. "That muggle stuff? Electric-thingy? But magic should be able to disable that."

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay gave him a very odd look. "Muggle?" he asked, eyebrow raised. "What's that?

"I have no idea what it is," he answered, "but it can control us and re-stocks our food and its shops and repairs itself. Maybe it's something more powerful than magic. I don't think it's malicious, though," he added quickly.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"You know," said Sirius, although it was clear he didn't. "People who can't use magic. Or...maybe it's different where you're from? But where I'm from, most people who aren't magic don't know magic exists. But they have all sorts of things to replace magic, and electric is one of them. It runs things like...televisions and lights and things. It's really interesting, but I don't know much about it."

"So, like, another kind of magic?" In Sirius' world, there was magic and there was what muggles had. "And what makes you think that? I mean, it hasn't done anything too malicious yet but that doesn't mean it wouldn't."

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay shrugged. "Where I'm from, people who can't use magic are people who can't use magic. I've met a few who don't know magic exists, though." For example, the people in Piffle had thought Mokona was a tiny robot of some sort. "I know what electricity is." He gave Sirius a smile then, a kind of 'see, I'm so clever~!' smile.

"Perhaps another kind of magic. Maybe it's just something we won't be able to comprehend. I have no idea." He laughed and waved a hand. "This is all just me guessing. And if it is malicious, I'm sure it would have done something by now."

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Hmm," replied Sirius. "I'm usually pretty good at telling what the intention of spells are. And what we're seen so far, the singing and pirates and whatnot, well, it's been more playful than malicious. But there's a fine line, and you can never tell. Not when we don't know why we came here, or where the disappeared people have gone."

He paused. "Do you know anyone here who knows a lot about electricity?"

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

Fay made a face. "The singing wasn't good at the time. But I guess, in hindsight, it wasn't so bad." He inclined his head towards Kurogane's hand as he said that, touching his cheek to their tangled fingers.

"Maybe there is a reason we've been brought here. Or maybe it's just random. I'll admit, it's odd that people keep disappearing, but it could be a lot worse." He shrugged. "At least we've got plenty to eat and places to sleep and clothes and things."

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius nodded. "Yeah, it's not so bad, seeing people you knew in your past and getting to go on rides and eating cotton candy all day. Like being a kid again." He smiled at the thought, although if asked he'd have admitted he'd been thinking more of his days as a teenager, or the time right after school but before everything had gone so wrong. His childhood hadn't been the happiest, and his adulthood far from it, but there was a time in between that was pretty good.

"But see," he said, the smile disappearing, "I've got some things I really have to be getting back to at home. The longer I'm away--" he cut himself off, looking grim at the thought of what might have happened to Harry and Remus.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"Yeah," Fay said. "A kid."

He nodded and reached over to pat Sirius' arm. "I'm sure they'll be fine until you get back, and they'll be more than happy to see you again. Maybe they'll follow you here. After all, my Kuro-pon did!" He gave them both bright, sunny smiles and kissed Kurogane's hand.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, maybe," he said darkly. "I don't actually know that any of them are still alive. I came here from the middle of a battle."

The bright sunny smile actually managed to lift Sirius' spirits a bit, and he smiled back. "I bet Remus and Harry would like it here. I don't know if Harry's ever been to a muggle amusement park, although he lived with muggles for a long time while he was growing up. So maybe they took him, although I can't say I like them much. But it'd be great to see him get to have fun for once, and he'd probably be good at helping us get out. He's only a teenager, but he's a great wizard. But if he and Remus were here, I guess I wouldn't care so much about getting out." He paused and laughed. "Sorry, Harry would be my godson."

[vowtoprotect.livejournal.com]

Kurogane couldn't help squeezing Fay's hand and he might have visibly softened, if only a little, at the kiss to his hand. But the conversation didn't really catch his interest until... "A battle?" he asked. Well, of course that would get his attention.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"I'm sure they're fine," Fay repeated, nodding to back up his claim. He was being a lot more optimistic than before.

"He sounds like a good boy," the mage said, smiling warmly. "We have children, too. A girl called Sakura-chan and a boy called Syaoran-kun. They haven't turned up yet. There's also Chii, who we adopted here, and is just adorable~."

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, he's a good kid," Sirius said with a fond smile. "Hey, I'll keep a look out for Sakura-chan and Syaoran-kun if you keep a look out for Harry Potter and Remus Lupin, right? Maybe all of them will turn up."

He turned to Kurogane and nodded. "Yeah. In my world, there's this wizard called Voldemort who's basically-- well, he's completely batshit, wants to takeover the wizarding world and kill people whose families he doesn't like, and he's got an army of bastards who think they're better than everyone and cowards who wouldn't stand up to him. My mate James and I are-- were part of the group that's fighting him. And Harry, too. Harry somehow got mixed in with the whole mess a lot."

[vowtoprotect.livejournal.com]

"Idiots." Kurogane snorted. "Self-righteous bastards like that always have some weakness. Good luck finding it." And good luck getting back. Kurogane knew what it was like to not be able to fight in a dangerous battle, it sort of ate at you and you tried not to think of the consequences of you not being there. Sirius obviously didn't like the idea of his godson and this Remus guy fighting while he was stuck here, and Kurogane couldn't blame him.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius nodded. "They're powerful, but we've got the strongest wizard in our world on our side. As long as we've got Dumbledore, we'll be all right," he said. If he'd known Kurogane's thoughts, he would have agreed with them exactly. As much as he liked the park (and it was good, to see Lily and James again), he couldn't stand thinking of what he'd left behind. There'd been a time where staying with James or returning to Remus would have been an impossible choice, but it wasn't anymore. Remus needed him and, more importantly, Harry needed him, and he didn't think there was anything he wouldn't do for Harry. It wasn't even because he was James's son anymore. The boy was important.

[whistlingwizard.livejournal.com]

"Deal!" Fay said, sticking his hand out with a bright little grin.

"I'm sure!" the mage said, while fervently hoping Dumbledore never arrived here, or at least that he wouldn't be the strongest wizard in this world should he do so.

[grimsirius.livejournal.com]

Sirius shook Fay's hand briefly, and then stood. "Well, it was nice to meet you lot, you've been helpful. Fay, would you mind if I stopped by if I run into any roadblocks? No magic, of course, but it helps to have an extra brain working. And I'll bring you buy a bottle of wine next time I visit, eh?" He winked.