Difference between revisions of "Candle Demo"

Alma has mulled a lot over the question Wednesday asked about how she works her will on the world. And she's been doing a lot of thinking about the circle too. She called him and asked if he wanted to work with her today, and said maybe he could come by and pick her up. She trusted him enough to give him her address, though that's not a huge level of trust at this point since other people in his social circle know it. but still. there's that. She's sitting on her porch waiting for him.

Wednesday rolls to a stop across the street in front of Alma's address, his old beige Lincoln Town Car quietly rumbling. His hat is tossed into the backseat, his hair - often a little stringy in the evenings - is noticably cleaner this morning. He leans out with a smile, elbow on the driver's side window. "Hey. Nice place." Ducking back into the car, he pulls the handle on the passenger side to pop the door open for her, an invitation.

She waves him over. "No, no, sit here a bit. If that's okay?"

"Sure, yeah." He pulls the other door closed, snags his hat, opens his and heads over. The windows are still open and the doors unlocked, but he doesn't give the car a second glance, jogging across the street in between the light traffic, stopping just at the steps to the porch.

Alma motions him to sit next to her on the porch swing. "You were asking about how I work my will. It's hard to explain. Maybe if you hang out with me I can show you some of it?" The little side table has a cup of tea that she's been drinking and next to it is a birthday cake candle and a box of matches and a tack. She offers and gets him tea if he wants, and will even show him inside. nd then she gets to explaining something about her educational background because that is a large part of what her magic is built on. "And there's this thing I learned in school. I'm going to show you, want to say that I've stacked the deck against you but it's easier to show you if I do it this way. Anyway, there's no wrong way to do this, but there are easier ways. And I want to say, no one needs charms for it. This is something taught in intro psych classes." She passes him the items and points to one of the wooden columns that holds up the porch. "I want you to mount the candle on the column and light it. Only using what I've given you."

Wednesday grins. It's a puzzle, and he clearly loves puzzles. "I have to mount the lit candle here?" pointing to the column. "Hmm." He lights the candle wick with a match, then turns it sideways and takes the matchflame to the bottom of the candle to soften it, before trying to push the tack through the candle into the wood of the column.

Wednesday eyes the matchbox again, considering, but then fixes his attention to his initial idea.

Softening the base of the candle helped, and Wednesday got the candle attached by way of squishing the bottom part enough to get the tack through to teh wood. It might fall at any moment. The flame isn't that strong, but it might eventually leave a little smoke trail up the wooden post. Alma doesn't seem too worried about. She follows Wednesday's gaze back to the matchbox and nods to him.

"I put you in the experimental group that got the box of matches with the candle and thumbtack. The other experimental group got an empty open matchbox, along with a pile of matches, a chandle, and the thumbtack. People in that group tended to come up with another solution more often than the poeple in your group. What they'd do is," She empties out the box of matches and takes the tray part of it. She blows out the candle and untacks it. Melting the candle base again, she makes it so that it sticks to the matchbox tray reasonably stury enough. Then she tacks the box to the post and lights the candle.

"That's another way to do it. The candle will stay up longer that way. And this illustrates something called functional fixedness and this is called The Candle Problem. Which is funny because Graham is a Hermetic at the unviersity and his Hermie name is Dr. Candle." She grins conspiratorily. "I like him, he seems like a not-bad beleagered advisor. But I think Hermetics suffer from not having flexibility in being able to shift perspective" "They've got their tools and that's all the got and those tools are in the shape they are in and they are given. I don't mean physical tools only. So anyway, me, I... Look at things, like and see the whole. but also flip to see all the parts. all teh parts. and then look at the gestalt of them. 'The sum is other than the whole of the parts.' That's a thing that goes in my magic. A lot of it is about perception." She cleans up the candle and stuff and asks Wednesday if he has time to drive her around so she can show him more.

"Well, hang me - I saw that matchbox tray idea as I was pushing the tack through, but...yeah, it is better." He shakes his head, grinning. "I've got a philosophy that if simple gets the job done, then go simple - but this," he gestures to the column, "probably didn't get the job done as well. Cleverness is something I like to perform," Wednesday winks (or blinks?), "but I could use some work on it."

"Yeah, where are we headed?"

"I want to drop some food off at 2nd Stories. I made a bunch of dishes and froze them up. Normally I bike over there, but getting a ride from you is really nice ... and it's part of the magic!" She goes inside to put some frozen containers in one of those big pizza delivery thingees that keep pizzas warm... or other foods cool. She comes out with it hanging awkwardly from a strap on her shoulder. Well, she's not actually awkward, it just looks that way. "It's over in Milwaukee Junction." She looks at the state of his car. "I can spot you for gas money if you like."

"I'm okay for gas - I live pretty cheaply, and I sell tintures and ground herbs to a couple of stores around the city." Wednesday will drive.

Alma nods and picks up her duffle bag and the food delivery bag. On the way to Milwaukee Junction, Wednesday may have been able to tell how much she enjoyed riding along in his old car. Does he have music playing? I'm sure she enjoys that and probably sometimes asks what even are those lyrics? She zones out sometimes, looking out the window. Sometimes she points out of buildings that they go by and mentions cliffnesting birds that use buildings for nesting. At some point it occurs to her to tell Wednesday that, "rides are a part of magic. Like, helps me get in to the flow, just going. Sometimes it's the bus. Sometimes I ride with friends. and there's my bike too." When they show up to Second Stories she gets out and opens her duffle to pull out a suet block. She jumps up on the picnic table and refills the suet feeder. She does a hop kind of thing to unmount from the table. Then she leads Wednesday inside.

The ride over did feature music, via a complicated system of wires and the tape deck and Wednesday's phone. King Crimson is playing for now, playing through an older album. When they get to Second Stories, Wednesday studies the place without comment for now, aside from a nod here and there.

Wednesday is introduced to some of the people here. A few grubby looking kids are working on some art project together. There's an older less grubby looking person from The Ruth Ellis Center that she introduces Wednesday to, and explains that he is someone she knows from over in Old East Side, and he's been working a plot over there. "He's volunteered to give me rides today. I'm dropping this off," She holds up the bag of food and then places it on one of the tables. "Do you have anything that needs to go out anywhere?" Sarah, their name is Sarah, explains "We've already got someone running the laundry out."

Wednesday nods a grins lightly at people around, offering an arm-clasp to people he's introduced to, with encouraging nods to "call me Wednesday." But he mostly stays quiet, observing and considering the place, the activity, and the people. When they're mildly out of earshot, "If you ever need help for this place, and you think I can help, let me know please? I don't have lots of stuff to give, but I can lend a hand, and teach people a bit...a tad about fending for themselves if they need to."