3.5. The Search for Magiq: Casting The Cataclysm

[grimangel53]

I tend to find small things when I travel. sometimes they require a bit of love to use. Often, they contain sparks of power
I found this token on a camping trip. It was in the dirt, and clearly abandoned. I picked it up, brushed it off, and i tried to spark it. Nothing sparked. I cleaned it up, replaced the wick and striker, and after fueling it, finally got a spark. It crackled with green fire for a fraction of a second. It was then I knew it felt right to me.

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released
Onward to the source
Until you are released

[Augustus_Octavian]

Well, here goes:

I grew up in the woods. Before I was born, my parents and my aunt and uncle bought a big parcel of land on the cheap, and on it they built two houses. It wasn’t developed into a neighborhood, like other streets around us; it was just my parents, me, my little brother, my aunt, my uncle and my three cousins. All the kids were boys, and sure, we all played together. I preferred to play alone, though, me and my imagination. I clamored over granite morraines and splashed in streams. I found books about foraging and learned what plants I could safely eat on my adventures (sassafras, for example, tastes like Fruit Loops, but only the leaves with three lobes). I made up stories about wizards and Jedi, and all the things little boys love to think about. That is where I grew up, with the rustling of the leaves, the chittering of chipmunks, the sound of water rushing over rocks.

We all know (now, thanks to Sullivan, DG, and Mr. Wallace) that walking sticks have their own magiq. Well, I don’t know that that’s specifically true; they say they pick up bits of magiq when you travel with them, and store it up. Some, as we’ve seen, have so much magiq in them they’re bursting at the seams.
This is my walking stick:

I know the exact spot where it grew in the woods where I grew up, and I remember how sad I was when the sapling it used to be, and it’s attendant vine, were cut down to clear some of the land. I’ve carried it with me for years now, ever since I left those woods almost 20 years ago. I’m sure it’s picked up some magiq along the way, even in this mundane, edited world we live in. And I hope that magiq is enough, with the other artifacts we’re gathering, to find an end to the wall dividing us from our friends and allies.

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released
Onward to the source
Until you are released.

[Thorn]

Though it may come as a total surprise, I consider myself to be somewhat of an adventurer, and trust me when I say that much like the color of my eyes, this is not a recently developed trait. In fact, this inherent curiosity has been something that’s been around since I was a child and is in fact how I came into the possession of this item.

Let me bring you back to when I was ten years old and as a semi-frequent trip, members of my family would go out to a small cabin constructed by my grandfather. At this specific trip it was only me, my mother, and my grandfather himself, and being in the utmost place of security (Surrounded by forests and just recently having heard that my grandfather had seen coyotes in the area) I decided to wander into the treeline and to a cliff face which I had seen wandering around the area with my father in the past. This was a fair walk away, and being here today I have no idea why I wanted to go there so bad, but nonetheless I set off quickly, and I realized as I was walking that before I would be able to get to my destination I would have to go through a ruined shed which was left by the previous owner, something which I was not especially keen on. Regardless of any fears I kept on until I reached the shed which was at the base of a rocky incline. I went to the shed, and then went to the incline, and deciding that the prior was not the path for me I looked down and towards the slope, where I promptly saw some interesting formations peeking out from just under the rocks and rubble, and being curious I promptly dug them up, heard a low creak from the derelict shed, and holding my treasure, promptly ran back to the Cabin.

When I returned, I showed my Grandfather the things which I had found, and he took a look and promptly said with a smirk, “Where did you find a dragon’s tooth?” a response which I was fairly surprised by at the time, and I was just about to respond when my mother came and began to lecture me for likely the hundredth time in my life about not running off in the way that mothers do when they are simeltaneously scared, angry, and happy to see that you’re safe.

After her speech had concluded and she had given me a tight, brief hug, my grandfather showed her the “Dragon’s Tooth”, and she too gave her much more grounded guess of it being the fossil of an ancient mollusk, an answer that I agreed with. Regardless of what it is (Spoiler: Mom was right) it’s since been an important piece that always had a place of importance to me, and even if I was a bit less than prone to forethought then, little things like these are always what keeps my adventuring spirit high.

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released
Onward to the source
Until you are released.

[Cirydae]

I was raised by two little old lades, despite common agreement that I must have been released into the forest and subsequently recaptured. My great aunt and great great (grand?) aunt were my main caretakers until I was seven, at which time my parents and the public school system took over.
I don’t remember a lot about them. I know that they taught me to cook, and how to take care of myself, but also they would kick me out of the house until it was time for dinner or I got injured so that I could go play in the woods and fields. Most of what I know of them I learned after they passed away. But I do have a lot of their belongings, pictures and furniture and jewelry that I inherited.
And I have a sweater.

Before my great great aunt was lost to dementia, she knit each of us a sweater. They were all the same, just different coloured stripes. I don’t wear mine much anymore. It still fits, despite nearly two decades (and some significant life changes) having passed between when she made it and now. I’ve got a few stains on it and a cat ripped out several stitches while I was trying to catch it, but it’s mine, and it’s one of the few pieces of clothes I will never get rid of.
It’s a piece of home, and a piece of my earliest memories, and it was made with love and care. So yeah, I like to think it’s at least a little bit magical.

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released
Onward to the source
Until you are released.

[WizardAstraz]

This ring was a gift from a friend, we were at a crystal shop and I happened upon it, feeling a powerful draw to it, sensing the inherent magiq. I had a hard time justifying the money on it at the time even though I knew we belonged together, my friend offered to gift it to me as I was about to start a new stage of my personal journey and she also sensed the bond I had with it.

The Stone is called Moldavite, an Ebenguardian Stone if there ever was one. It was formed after a meteor hit the Earth about 15 million years ago. Forged by the Earth and the Stars it is a constant reminder for me of stellar origins.

Now, I’ve only met one person insane enough to wear Moldavite on their body consistently, definitely not for the faint of heart. The first week was a doozy as I adjusted to its high vibrational emanations.

Shortly after, I was attended a Pagan Convention, it was just as much of a whirlwind of energy as the stone - this is when something very peculiar happened.

I lost the ring after a debaucherous evening in a friends car I had passed out in. We looked for it everywhere the next morning and couldn’t find a trace of it. We were devastated, scouring the hotel and the lost and found. Nothing.

The weekend ends and I go home from the convention disheartened I lost something so significant and so special of a gift from my really good friend.

Weeks later I get a message from the friend whose car is crashed out in, it was a picture of him wearing the ring. He told me after scouring his car multiple times looking for it, he did a deep clean and it was there, sitting in an obvious place.

He said he would send it to me as soon as he could. Yet, the ring wasn’t done with its adventures yet.

Said friend had gone on a trip to see another friend in a different city. He had the ring in a weekend bag that he brought with him and promptly forgot. He said his friend would send it to him. By now it had been about two or three months.

Well, long story short the reclamation of the ring was somehow lost in a fight between the two friends. Car friend insisted it was lost and he was so sorry, but I knew it would come back to me.

Over the next nine months he would message me saying that he still doesn’t know where the ring is, I always replied the same, it’ll come back to me.

Almost a year later he messaged again, another picture of him wearing the ring. He had gotten back somehow and he was a little weirded out by the circumstances and the vibration the ring gave off. It was almost time for the same convention that I had lost it at, I told him I wasn’t going but my teacher and peer would be there so if he could hand it to them.

Turns out he had a hard time letting go of it, looking for either peer or teacher at this convention he refused to give it to one of them singularly and it wasn’t until they both confronted him that he finally handed it over.

When my teacher came back he said he had it safely with his other jewelry, he was a bit forgetful though and it wasn’t until three months later I finally got the ring back.

It had gone on an adventure for about one year four months. Absolutely lost on its own adventures a majority of the time but I could tell it was rejoiced to be back with me.

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released

[Sapphire]

It’s strange how objects can gain personalities. How belief in a thing brings it to life and makes it more than a thing. It’s contagious and magical.

Soddit, Bessy, Scraps, Darwin, Joey, Ping and Rachel*, all started as objects, a means of getting from a - b, Land Rovers that despite all evidence to the contrary pay for themselves with smiles per mile well above any factory spec.

We’re a family and in family there is love, power and strength. Hells we’ve gone through and still are going through some really rough patches, but our cars are always there giving us company or a rabbit hole of issues and distractions when we our heads need to be elsewhere.

They achieve more than they should, getting home 100miles on no fuel with no open petrol stations, limping off a mountain in the pitch black with no brakes, turning the air blue with curses and in the next moment having us crunched up laughing.

Our family, our order isn’t big. We were brought together in a uni car park, in the rain, with no tools, cursing Lucas Prince of Darkness. We believed the job was doable and we believed we could do it, most of the time we’ve been right, just maybe don’t fit oil seals, at 4am while drunk.

We are The Order of the Spanner. Devoted to each other and our stubborn, inspiring, mostly impractical cars.
Each of us has our own super sized spanner. It is useless for all but 1 bolt on some of our Land Rovers. But it’s function doesn’t matter, it’s a reminder. A reminder that we can achieve the impossible and when we get together, God’s help anything stubborn enough to put up a fight.

*Rachel is technically a Ford but we don’t hold that against her.

Token, you are bound
Your power now promised
Vowed token unbound
When need of you has ended
You are claimed for a time
And tethered by my telling
Onward to the source
Until you are released