✿5 [Action]

[redstringed]

*It's night-time, and outside of Building 6 there is a young-looking gothic lolita vampire and a bed of roses.

Rachel, in an attempt to not get dirty while planting a garden, has been attempting to do the entire thing with spatial manipulation - you might see the dirt itself shift around the roses if you looked long enough. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be going well for her, and the rose "garden" is lopsided and mismatched, and the roses don't look healthy. They're wilting a bit.

And because of this, Rachel is looking all the more irritated and frustrated.

Clearly this is the best time to bother her.*

Comments

[consultmybooks]

It's the "just as effective" part that seems to be escaping you.

[redstringed]

*The worst part is that he's right.* It is a learning process in its fineness.

[consultmybooks]

Have you tried the library? They must have more than a few books on gardening.

[redstringed]

A lack of knowledge is hardly the issue at hand.

[consultmybooks]

Just a lack of ability, then.

[redstringed]

*A glare. She's really not in the mood for this.* Not at all. Merely a lack of experience.

[consultmybooks]

That's right. You mentioned you normally had servants for this, didn't you?

[redstringed]

Indeed. My butler and steward Valkenhayn is quite skilled in all manner of tending.

His tea is quite exquisite as well. I am quite certain that you have never had anything even close to its level.

[consultmybooks]

I've spent the last five years in California. What do you think?

[redstringed]

I have never had tea in California. How am I to judge its quality or lack thereof?

Though it is ultimately rather irrelevant.

[consultmybooks]

Take my word for it.

I'd offer to help, but gardening is not one my strong suits.

[redstringed]

... that, too, would seem to be irrelevant.

*Was that a comment made at her own expense? Was it?!

...nah.*

[consultmybooks]

But I'm sure there are plenty of others around the village who wouldn't mind helping. [Is he being helpful? Or subtly mocking Rachel again? Or both?]

[redstringed]

And yet, there are very few of them who I would trust with my roses.

[consultmybooks]

"Very few" is still an improvement over "one".

[redstringed]

It means little if they cannot be found. I will not advertise any need for assistance.

If necessary, I will persevere on my own.

[consultmybooks]

Seems needlessly complicated to me.

And the poor roses might suffer for it, of course.

[redstringed]

It is absolutely out of the question and utterly unthinkable. *She bet Ragna she could do this. There's no way she can publicly ask for help after that.*

[consultmybooks]

Suit yourself.

[...] Are you telekinetic, by any chance?

[redstringed]

No.

It is spatial manipulation, though I suppose to an untrained eye it looks much the same.

[consultmybooks]

Suppose it wouldn't. [He's had a bad week, and there is nothing Rachel can say to bother him] Is it magic, or something you can do naturally?

[redstringed]

"Magic" is quite the loose word, Mr. Watcher. Some would say it applies to anything humans have trouble understanding.

If it is something I have always been able to do innately, and yet the result is something few people can comprehend, would they not consider it magic?

[consultmybooks]

Again, I think we run into the problem of different definitions applying to the same thing.

In my world, for example, any ability exhibited beyond the human norm is generally classified as "magic." And that is how we understand it, at least until a better explanation presents itself.

Granted, you are, by your very nature, beyond the human norm.

[redstringed]

Yes, I am. Yet consider a simple cigarette lighter. You and I know that it is as simple a device as can be: The mechanism strikes a spark which ignites flammable gas - but to a more primitive human, it is a magic tube which produces fire.

I am merely... influencing matter at its base material state. Would you consider that magic?

[consultmybooks]

The cigarette lighter is lighting the fire. Not the human being. We invented a tool to do that which we couldn't do under our own power.

A witch or a sorcerer can, however, bypass the need for a cigarette lighter. If they were careless and lazy, of course.