Lavender Marie Brown

I'm on my way home and ought to be there late tomorrow morning if I've gauged the distance right. You'd think I'd be able to figure how far and long I can run by now, but I'm still caught by surprise on the little things that distract me. Or I mis-remember how far things are away.

Oh, and goats eat scarves. In case you wondered. Very nice, pretty, soft butter-yellow silk scarves that one might have just found and been wearing until one took it off to take a bit of a (frigid) bath before finding said goats. Which didn't want to be caught. And ate my scarf.

( private to Bill )

I've two cases now that need my attention outside of York, and as it is three weeks to full moon again, this seems to be a good time for me to go traveling.

One is a family which found themselves split up coming through Moor End. They were all headed for York, and the father and daughter are hopeful I can find the mother and son. Another is a family whose son threatened that he wanted nothing more to do with them and left one night. So far, all leads point to him leaving York to strike out on his own, and his family is worried as the boy is only seventeen. The cards have given me what information they can, and I'm off to lay groundwork to at least have information sent back if any is found.

( private to Ash )

( private to Bill )

( private to Graham )

We haven't had a family come in for five days looking for a lost child. I don't know if that means there are no more children disappearing, or if it means people aren't coming to us, or if it means no one cares about the ones who are gone.

I'm desperately hoping it means the first, of course.

The arc of the full moon starts tomorrow and I can feel it shivering through me already. If anyone needs anything from me, catch me today, else I'll see you again on Tuesday.

( private to Ash )

( private to Pansy )

( private to Bill )

I've changed my hours around with Connor so I'm taking appointments and doing consults with him later in the day. He wasn't happy when I missed something early Monday morning.

On the other hand, the work we're doing right now is just horribly draining. Connor's somehow gained the trust of some Mundanes, and his name's been passed around. Today I saw the fourth set of people come through looking for a child. This time it was an older brother and his pregnant girlfriend, and they'd lost his younger sister. She's nine, and she was there one second and gone the next at the market, while they haggled over the price of a rabbit.

One little boy, last week, three girls all this week. And their families are frantic, and Connor's just taking what he needs to find them, nothing more. Samples of their clothes, finding out where they were. We go out and walk about where they were last seen, Connor looking for things that might've been missed, me trying to sniff things out. I have to be subtle; they don't want to know what I'm doing and they don't look terribly hard at me. But we've found no signs so far. Connor's urged every single one of them to talk to the authorities as well, but they've all got reasons why not. This last pair are just recently arrived, and are afraid of the law after something that happened where they last tried to stop.

I'm scared for the children, I really am. And I know I need to read for them. I know I do, and all at once because we're sure the cases are linked coming so close together the way they are. But I have a feeling it's going to be a horrid reading.

So I'll offer this up, to help me do something nice at the same time. Something happier, perhaps. Does anyone out there want a reading? Gratis, this is, for helping me wash my mind free of whatever I'm about to learn. Just come on over.

( private to Ash )

( private )

The word lunatic means driven by the moon into visions and insanity. In the tarot the Moon signifies a time of great change and creativity that might push one over the edge if one isn't careful. A time without inhibition. A time when the animal nature comes out. It makes so much sense to look at weres in this context as well, driven to their deepest nature by the call of the moon.

But the Moon in tarot also says that this time of lunacy produces art that is almost magic in itself. Things that the soul couldn't produce without giving itself over to the madness of the moon's call.

I miss moonlit walks on the beach in Brighton. That was magic of an entirely different kind.

I keep forgetting to do this. If anyone's looking to find me, I've moved. Yes, again.

Connor, I left a map to Bill's place on your desk, if you haven't gone and covered it up again. I'll come in every other day to do readings for your cases.

I'm missing dancing and music and sweet drinks with little umbrellas more than ever. Casual conversations and a beat that thumps around your heart like a second heartbeat. Losing yourself in the crowd.

Not that I could really stand crowds much anymore. But once in a while. It's nice to let go.

( private to Morag )

( private to Ash )

I've done two readings in the past week or so, for two different people who I knew through very different means. The deck's been shuffled between them, and shuffled by them, and yet out of ten cards laid, four of them were the same. In a deck of 78 cards, having four of them show up twice in a row seems a bit too much of a coincidence for me, and even though they showed up in different positions, I thought they might be having something to say about the world around York as a whole. The thing is, two of them refer to people, shown in a positive light in one reading, and a negative in the other, and one is for new beginnings, and the last one about retreat and coming together, depending on how it shows. It's quite possible it's all just talking about trust and how much we need to put our faith in it, and to respond to that by being trustworthy people. Because we can't move forward alone.

Still, I decided to lay out the cards for York as a whole, and see what happened.

None of those four cards appeared. Instead, it seems the future of York is ruled by the movements of both men and women, with several face cards and major arcana, indicating a strong influence from outside forces as well. A lot of frustrations along the way, and a future shown as a gateway in the end. Which all makes sense. I can be more specific, if anyone's curious. It was an interesting reading, even if it didn't illuminate what I was trying to see.

I'll also offer readings, to anyone who might be interested. I'd like a bit of food in trade (who wouldn't?) but would be open to other offers. They are best done in person.

( private to Seamus )

( charmed private )

( charmed to Bill )

( charmed to Seamus )

Just when you think you know yourself, it always seems to turn out that you don't know anything at all.

I've made six new pieces of jewelry in the past two days. But I can't finish the piece I was working on Wednesday. I got up too quickly at one point and my stones scattered, and I can't find the oddly shaped blue bit I'd found. It was a riverstone, worn smooth and curved like a dolphin and I was going to make it into a pendant, but it's gone now. There's not a lot of room to search, and nothing for it to hide under, so I can't think I missed it.

I need a bed.

I've a new place to kip, but I'm lacking in a bed. Although floor's more uncomfortable than that couch was! No lumps, at least.

But if anyone happens to run into something resembling a bed, I'd be interested in obtaining it.

It's so odd to slip back into my own skin like this, as the effects of the moon finally fade and I realize it's afternoon, several days later, and how many things I've left undone. I feel sated, at least, and the wolf is ready to rest.

Connor, you're still in trouble for not leaving me a bloody note. Did you even look at what day it was? Because if that was meant to be funny, it wasn't. Ashley, I'm sorry for growling at you. I'd say it won't happen again, but it likely will, in about four weeks. I hope the couch hasn't been too lumpy for you.

( Private to Charlie )

( Private to Lisa )

Who: Lavender, Ash (& potentially Connor)
What: An antsy Lavender comes home to find her unknown nephew sleeping on her sofa. Introductions, of a sort, ensue.
When: Monday, 6 July, very early morning
Where: Connor's place in Outer York
Status: closed/complete

( It was that time of the month. )

Went out last night. Couldn't sleep. Ran. Came home to crash.

There's a kid kipping on my couch.

MY lumpy couch.

Smells like family. Connor's gone.

Hungry.

Won't eat him. Don't worry.

I dreamed last night that I was a little girl in Brighton again. I think I was about seven, so it was a summer that Connor was still around, and Liam, Nigel and Edward were there too in my dream. We were running on the hot sand, and I felt it slipping, gritty and smooth all at once, under my feet. Connor teased me because my legs were short and I couldn't keep up, and Edward scooped me up and swung me past Connor, who shouted that it wasn't fair. And it wasn't, but they spoiled me terribly.

I woke with tears on my cheeks. It was so real, and I could see them like they'd been here.

I fell back asleep and Mr. Bunny was there. Mr. Bunny was a lop-eared rabbit that Connor had and I adopted when he went on to Hogwarts. He was racing on the sand with us, and then suddenly there were ten of him, then a hundred, then a thousand.

This time I woke up hungry.

Someone ought to start raising rabbits for food. They are potentially the fastest replenishing source of meat I can think of.