1st Winter Dream ☽ Video ☾ Jack and Sandy

[morethanadream]

[When the feed starts, it shows the inside of what must be a room in Sigyn. Plants grow up and down the walls, along the windows, and occasionally along the floor. A little man in a turtleneck stands in the middle of it all, giving the camera an absent wave as he takes a sketchpad out from off camera. For those who know him, he seems a little pale, but he doesn't acknowledge it as he flips through the sketchpad. He opens it up to a pre-drawn page, and he turns it around to show, in deceptively simple (though there are pictures weaved in if one looks closely enough) calligraphy, Sandy. Then he points to himself.

He figures he ought to introduce himself to the network before telling them about spirit banishing.]

I don't think I need to translate that one. [Jack doesn't appear on the feed, his voice is coming off-screen. He sounds a bit worried too.] Are you sure you want to do this?

[Sandy, without missing a pause, just nods and flips through his sketchpad again. Now is not the time for worrying about him, Jack; now's the time to worry about everyone else.

Sandy flips to another pre-drawn picture, and when he turns it around, it's a picture of ghosts bouncing off a house. He holds the page up for a second, allowing people to see it, before flipping to another page that shows a detailed picture of a sprig of rosemary. Beneath the picture, there's an image of a house with a rosemary growing on either side of the entrances to a house.]

Alright, alright, it's learning time with Professor Sandman. There are some plants that can be planted outside your place to repel the ghosts. Thaaaaat's... rosemary I think?

[Sandy nods. Yes, it's rosemary.

Then he flips to the next picture. It's a picture of a potted cactus inside a house, next to the door. On the same page, there's a picture of the outside of a house with the cactus visible from the front window.]

Woah, cacti to? Another reason for me to stay away from the desert. Gotta keep this one inside and near the entrance.

[Sandy has to bow his head a little as his shoulders shake. Damn it, Jack, stop making him laugh.

Then he shakes himself out and flips to a new page. There's a picture of a saltshaker, and beneath that, a person shaking out salt around the perimeter around a building. There's also a picture of a person periodically shaking salt out around themselves. Beneath that, there's a picture of big grains of salt.]

You can make a safe zone out of salt, and apparentely coarse salt is better? ...You're not getting salt anywhere near me, little man.

[Despite the seriousness of the situation, Sandy's eyes sparkle with amusement. Jack, stop annotating your translations.

He flips to a new page which has a detailed picture of sweetgrass, then tobacco, then sage. Beneath the sweetgrass is an arrow pointing to a picture of hands braiding the sweetgrass into a thick piece of incense.

Beneath that, there's a picture of someone holding a lighter to a clump of the herbs tied together with a piece of twine, and beneath that, there's a picture of the clump in a bowl or in a pair of hands, smoke wafting from from the plants and chasing away spirits from a room.]

Let's see... you make like, incense out of those? Yeah, and then burn it to cleanse a room. Great, fire too.

[Sandy shoots an amused look off camera. Jack, these aren't meant to invite ice spirits into the house. Yes, it involves fire. Be happy he's not talking about cleansing people with bonfires.

Then he flips to a new page. In this one, someone is on their tiptoes painting the top of their window with a strange circular design. Beneath that picture, there's an image of the outside of a house with that design on the top of every window.

This one is a little more difficult than just putting a cactus in your house, but it's good for anyone who needs to ward their windows, don't have friends in Sigyn, and/or happen to be good at art.]

And since we can't de-energize all our growers, here is one for anyone with a pencil: draw that symbol on your windows.

[Speaking of growers...

Sandy flips to the next page, and in it, there's a series of pictures of people all across Asgard, holding their hands towards bare earth and coaxing plants to grow. The more people grow things, the fewer houses the spirits can get into.]

He asks his fellow Sigyn members to help with the growing so we keep the city safe.

[Sandy flips to the next page, and it's a picture of someone with a speech bubble and a question mark over their head, facing a happy Sandy.]

Any questions, just ask Sandy. Seriously, this guy is zillion years old, he knows everything.

[Now Sandy's going to smile and turn off the feed before he sits down on his bed to take a breather. Okay, maybe the hauntings are taking more of a toll than he'd like.]

Comments

[Action]

[2cool4guardian]

[Jack joins him on the bed, pretending there's nothing affecting him right now. Nope, no side effects of the district, what are you talking about?]

Sandy... you need help, too. [Hypocritical much, Jack?]

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy gives Jack a wan smile and shuffles to the head of his bed, reaching to a mint plant the grows on his bedside table and plucking a leaf, putting it in his mouth and sucking gently. He's never had to deal with sickness; now he's glad he paid so much attention to sick humans before, since that's the only way he knows so much about natural cures.

He offers Jack a leaf of mint too. It's good for upset stomachs, but Sandy just thinks that Jack might like the taste.

You see, Jack? He's taking care of himself. He's fine enough to help people. For now.]

[2cool4guardian]

[Having been sick recently too and not wanting Sandy to get in mother mode again, he accepts the leaf, but doesn't suck it just yet.]

You didn't add salt to it, did you?

[Of course, salt shouldn't affect him anymore, but old habits die hard and he still doesn't like it.]

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[livedtwice]

... Now I feel a bit ridiculous for something I said to something else. You're certain this stuff will work?

[And honestly, he's a touch surprised he didn't know anything about this stuff sooner.]

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy smiles and nods. He points the bracelet towards the window, which has ghosts with swollen necks, sores all over their bodies, and hollow eyes floating out of them, slowly attempting and largely failing to reach in.

Then Sandy picks up a bundle of herbs and sets them on fire with a lighter. He waves the smoke in the air, and any hands that were working their way into the window jerk away and the ghosts are gone.]

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[averagemedium]

Good to know we've got more folks with experience.

[This particular guy has what looks like some sort of rune smeared on his forehead in red-- without other reagents at hand, it was the quickest thing to try to sketch with that wasn't just regular ink.]

Assuming you've already confirmed this does work on these ghosts, so-- that's a shortcut for me, thanks. Less experimentation that has to happen, the better.

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy flashes him a thumbs up, but...

With a curious expression, he touches his own forehead. What is that on your forehead?]

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[lalondelicious]

[Rose is amused. What an interesting pair, useful too - or Sandy is useful, the one speaking is more 'helpful' than useful seems nice all the same.]

Thank you for the advice. Salt and rosemary I knew about the others will come in handy. Could I ask you to show me that symbol for the windows again?

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy perks and nods, flipping to the indicated page and showing it to her.

Luckily, the picture is big enough to show the image in detail. He's willing to show it to her as long as she needs.]

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[themortalhalf]

[Well. This is helpful. About the only thing that has been. Shinjiro takes in the information with an attentive ear, though there are slight shadows under his eyes.]

Salt? That's it?

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy nods, then flips to a clean sheet of paper, his pencil dancing across it for about thirty seconds before spinning it around.

It's a series of pictures of houses with clocks next to them. In the first picture, a house with salt all around it has a irritable ghost forced to stay outside it. In the next picture, after a while, the ghost is starting to work its way into the house. In the next picture, someone pours more salt on the perimeter, and then the ghost is stuck outside again.

The barriers have to be reinforced, especially against particularly determined ghosts, but yes, it's just salt.]

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[tonsofpun]

Shit, Sandy, I didn't know any of that. Smart.

... you need some help growing? I'm getting better.

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy smiles and nods. He'd like help. Or he'd like to be able to keep an eye on Ellie when everyone is being targeted by ghosts, but he'll let her think he just wants her for help.

He's already headed out, as may be obvious from the background of his reply (which pictures the street), but he takes out his sketchpad and draws a rough sketch of the Sigyn hospital. Why don't you meet him there?]

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[ofthursday]

It is correct that course salt works best in general, but table salt functions in an emergency.

Anyone who has enough knowledge of weaponry can fill shotgun shells with salt. Firing them at the ghosts will disperse them for a time.

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy flips to his pre-drawn question mark in his sketchbook. Salt in shotgun shells? He can't say he's ever seen that before, and he'd like to find out how to do it.]

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[digophelia]

What if we don't want them to leave?

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy tosses the sketchpad off camera and shrugs. Then you don't listen to Sandy at all and embrace the ghosts in your house (and avoid rosemary and sage and stuff).

But then he has to pick up his sketchpad again, because he can't communicate without it. He flips to a pre-drawn page with a picture of a stylized question mark on it. Are her ghosts treating her particularly well or something?]

[historyrabbit]

[WELP] Good to know that some of the old superstitions are actually true.

[Severely creeped out by the ghosts? Yep. You betcha.]

Think I'll sleep a little bit easier knowing I won't have some ghost watching me catch some shut-eye.

[morethanadream]

[Sandy gives the new person a thumbs up. Yep! No ghosts watching you while you sleep! Possibly spirits you don't believe in, since there surely must be some around here and spirits really never consider how creepy it is to be invisible and people watch at the same time, but he's not going to point that out.]

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[afrozendance]

... Thank you so much, to both of you. [And Ninian nods, making mental notes. She hasn't seen any familiar ghosts yet, but she's not holding lots of hope in these regards.]

I'll do my best to keep up with these measures here in the House... and if you need healing, please don't hesitate to tell me as well.

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[morethanadream]

[Sandy smiles and nods. That's very kind of her to offer.

And, of course, she can ask him for any help with growth. The more Sigyn members willing to work together, the better.]

[unrestrained]

Sandy... as in the Sandman? [Priorities.] You've got a lot of plants there.

[morethanadream]

[Sandy bounces on the balls of his feet and nods. Yep! The Sandman, at your service!

Then his smile falters a little and he starts to draw on his pad, turning it around to show a picture of himself floating on a cloud of dreamsand, and then a picture of himself looking very confused as plants sprout from the ground all around him.

Since coming here, he's lost his ability to control sand and gained the ability to make things grow. And hey, if he has the ability, he's going to use it.]

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[dilectio]

[ Professor Sandman? ok. she'll go with that. ]

Is that the only rune that will work to ward them off?

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[morethanadream]

[Jack likes annotating. Please don't actually call him that.

Sandy shakes his head. No, it's not the only rune, but it's the most easily applied. He starts drawing, and when he spins his pad around, it's practically a list of runes.



And so on and so forth. And these are just what he can think of off the top of his head!]