How Green Becomes Wood

"I do not believe there is anything in my background that would have been against left-handedness," Dark said, tracing a winding road into the sand as he spoke, "But that is true about anti-left sentiments. It is because the word for Left came from Sinister, which is also why we now have Left-Hand path magic conceptualized as the more nefarious branch." Daizi raised her head, knowing she had a lot to add on the different branches of magic, but also knowing her son may not have been ready for how esoteric it would get.

Ivy watched, but couldn't replicate the fine movement. Instead, she slammed her hand down against the sand, and then looked at Alec to see if she had pleased him.
 
"Left-handed magic is a thing?" Xander asked with a frown. Then he shook his head. "I shouldn't be surprised." He moved down the line of wall, making good progress, but it was still time consuming as instead of doing a simple brick pattern, he was attempting to create a stone look with winding lines.

"Close enough!" Alec laughed. He scooted closer to Ivy and gently took her hand. "Okay, ready?" he folded her fingers so she was pointing and then used that to touch the sand. "Poke!" he cheered. He kept his grip loose so she could pull away if she wanted to as he went for a second poke.
 
"Left-hand path is a more metaphorical name to describe a context," Daizi couldn't resist explaining, "In Western Esotericism, there are really three paths of magical practice, and their edges aren't completely defined, because nothing is, but generally speaking, there is Right-Hand path, Left-Hand path, and Chaos Magic. People like to characterize right-hand path as white magic and left-hand path as black magic, but I personally think they are better classified as an adherence to order and seeking divinity and power from the highest of places versus not shutting forms of magic off as taboo and being willing to explore power in low places and seeking enlightenment wherever it can be found, whereas Chaos Magic says the world is full of magic, and magic is a tool, and we are free to create our own magical systems to practice within." She waved one hand and took a breath, wanting to say more but knowing Xander probably was not interested in learning more, "For my part, I probably fall somewhere between Left and Chaos, but I do find those terms overall limiting and not very productive for actual development."

Ivy giggled when she poked the sand with him and tried to do it on her own, but lacked the fine motorskills to do so. After hitting it a few times attempting to do like Alec did, she crawled into his lap and babbled up at him, before taking another swing at the castle.
 
Xander actually had to stop his designing to stare at Daii as he tried to follow what she was saying. And then she had to say she found the terms limiting. Did anyone in his life find labels just fine? "Right," he finally said. "Magic systems sound like another level of classes. I'm good without, I think. I have a hard enough time making it through muggle school."

The castle crumbled a bit, and Alec cheered. "Wow! Look at that swing! Incredible!"
 
"They are, really." She misinterpreted him, believing he meant classes like how the economic class system had classes, rather than blocks of education, "And although I don't think it's healthy to fully constrain your magical practice to one or the other, I do feel the Right-Hand path view is often at risk of rooting itself exclusion, shame, and oppressing 'other' cultural practices, which is why I am more drawn elsewhere, but I also think writing it off entirely means missing out on a lot of the benefits it does provide. Anyway, from what I know about Harry Potter, it's way too regulated for me, I need the joy of discovering. But," she waved one hand, "all of this took books and books to understand. There were a few I made Dark read aloud to me, because they didn't have a braille edition or a released audiobook."

Ivy giggled as the sand collapsed, and hit it a second time, bouncing in Alec's lap as more crumbled.

"Be careful," Dark advised them, "Or she may think all sand structures are okay to hit."
 
"Right, so everything has a place, and a place for everything," Xander drawled, amused but not dismissing Daizi's lectures.

"A fair point, but I think it'll be alright. I made this one just for her," Alec assured him. Ivy was under constant surveillance at all times. She couldn't possibly crawl off and smack a castle without someone knowing, and it was just sand. He decided to redirect her and tried to show her how to scoop and pat to rebuild the castle. Rebuilding it meant more to destroy!
 
"Basically." Daizi grinned, doing her best to move around their sand city without stepping on a crab or breaking anything.

Dark sat back, watching his daughter have fun hitting the sandcastle, but then he looked back at the work they had all done, uncertain if Alec had properly understood his warning. Oh well. The point of sandcastles were their impermanence. And Ivy definitely was having fun playing with the sand.
 
Xander finally finished the outside of the wall and sat back with a grunt of satisfaction. "Got it." He glanced between Dark and Daizi. "Anything we're missing for Crab-Pot Kingdom?"

Alec laughed with Ivy, trying to build the sandcastle faster than she could knock it down. It didn't look much like a castle anymore, but it was fun!
 
"I do not think so," Dark said, standing and looking at it from the outside. After a few moments, he took a picture of it, then wouldn't help but grin looking at their work, then at the picture again, before putting it in his pocket. "I do not believe many visitors here can claim to have made something so detailed."

After they finished building and doing what needed to be done to make the beach safe for others again, Daizi took Ivy on a little walk between the two of them, while Dark got ready for their date. Truthfully, she had some last minute plans she needed to finish setting up, but by the time she came back, Dark was in the living room, dressed his best and smelling just strongly enough of cologne.

Then, leaving Ivy with her father, Daizi went into their bedroom so she could get ready, forbidding Dark from entering. After some time, overhearing his wife stress in the bedroom, Dark said, "You can just let me help you."

"No!" She replied, "Because if you help me, then you'll see me before I'm ready, and then I won't be able to wow you when I step out!"

"You always wow me!" He replied, amused not irritated.

"No, it will ruin everything. Close your eyes." Daizi huffed, but after a few moments opened the door just enough to stick her face out, "Alec, can you help me?"
 
"If you could just... help me look nice?" She asked, dropping the blanket she had around her so Dark couldn't sneak a look at her dress before tossing it onto the bed. She was in a black and white horizontally striped dress with ruffles around the low neckline, and the skirt didn't quite reach her knees. She had picked it because it felt beachy, but beachy in the way Dark had hummed about earlier in their trip. "I can do my own makeup when I want to look more grunge, because I can put eyeshadow on with my fingers and it doesn't matter if it's blended, but I'm not so great at making it look elegant."
 
"Wow, Mama. You look really nice," Alec said in awe. "Very... Tim Burton inspired! I can help you, sure. Will you sit down for me?" He went to investigate her make up kit. "You want elegant but a bit dark, right?"
 
"Thank you," Daizi said, smoothing down the front of her dress as she sat. "It's inspired by what Katrina wore in Sleepy Hollow. Or, at least, that's what I'm told. I'm going to put on a velvet choker and layer some other necklaces with it, plus my earrings. I can wear a dangly pair in my lobe piercings, since Ivy won't be there to rip them out. And, yes, elegant and dark."

Her makeup primarily consisted of individual shades with a braille label so it was easier for her to tell what colours they were than it would be in a pan, and luckily the vast majority of them were moody browns, blacks, greys, and reds, although she did have more neutral shades, and she had both mattes, shimmers, and some full glitters. She also had eyeliner in a few colours in addition to black, and she had lipstick in red, black, purple, blue, grey, and brown, but none in pink.
 
Alec took great care with Daizi's makeup, feeling like this was the most important job he could do in his life. He did a black, smokey eye with a touch of silver, careful not to go to heavy, keeping it nice and light. He wanted it striking, not like he'd taken a marker to her face. He chose a lighter shade for her lipstick and touched up her cheeks ever so lightly.

"There you go," he said happily. He took another look and nodded. "Yes, I think you look perfect. I'm happy with that."
 
"Thank you," Daizi said, sitting back. There was no way for her to know how he had done, but she knew he wouldn't have done anything intentionally bad. She trusted him. "I don't like to wear sunglasses when I go on nice dates with him." After brushing her hair once more, Daizi twisted some pieces back and pinned them with a rose and thorns shaped hair pin. Then, applying a bit of perfume, she said, "I've been thinking about asking him to renew our vows, actually. Not tonight, but I want to."
 
Alec gasped, his eyes going wide. "Really?" he whispered excitedly, giving a little bounce. "That's so awesome!! He's going to love it. Are you going to do it before or after our adoption papers go through?"
 
"When am I asking him or when would we do the renewal?" Daizi asked in a whisper so Dark didn't accidentally overhear, "I haven't decided when I'm asking him---tonight I'm planning to bring it up, casually, just to see if he even likes the idea of them. I'm going to say my friend's sister-in-law is having one-- but if he agrees to it, I think we'll do the renewal on our anniversary."
 
Daizi hugged him back before pulling away to put on her various necklaces, "I think he will. I'm excited I get to be the one to do it, this time. And I think I know how I want to do it. Not the details, but the general idea. I was talking about it with Sally, and she suggested I do it where he proposed to me, but I wanted to do something bigger than that."
 
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