Reopening [Open]

[Deleted]

February 1, 2025
@open

Ambrosia had spent a great deal of time working on, and improving Dystyl Phaelanges. Having purchased the business in December, it had needed quite a bit of work. From updating the electrical and plumbing, doing inventory, negotiating new contracts with suppliers, replacing all the windows in the shop, cleaning and reorganization, and renovating the basement for…. Alternative means. Overall the shop in general had gone through quite the renovation, and was in many ways a completely different place. Though it was still the same shop, with a large variety of bones. Many people would wonder what the purpose of the shop was, but those individuals had obviously skipped a few classes in school. Bones could be used in divinations, alchemy, and potions. There was also some individuals that liked to crafted goods made from the material.

After being closed for the past month, today Ambrosia finally flipped the sign from closed to open. For the past few hours, business had been steady, before slowing down in the evening.

An hour before closing, the door opened and the bell announced another customer. Ambrosia, sitting behind the counter, looked up from her book.

”Welcome to Dystyl Phaelanges. Anything I can help you find?”

[Deleted]

@ambrosia

02.01.2025

There was so much staring whenever he ventured out into Diagon Alley! It was like the funny small people had never seen a former professional Quidditch player before! The ogling and whispers always made Bernhard chuckle to himself as he strolled through the shopping district, ducking (literally) into the various magical shops to see if they had anything of interest for him to buy. Despite being ousted from the pro-Quidditch league, he still had a sizeable amount of money in his bank account and currency transferred well into the British Galleon. He enjoyed having a pocket full of gold wherever he went – it was like having his own pirate’s booty all to himself.

Bernhard had even contemplated putting a treasure chest in his newly opened Gringotts vault just to seal the deal. He had very little in terms of material possessions that needed to be stored there, mostly because Gringotts didn’t function as a storage unit for furniture like he thought they would. In their words, it was because his furniture was ‘too large’ for the goblins to take to and from the vault. A funny excuse, but it meant that Bernhard had to keep a lot of his oversized possessions shrunk down to fit his tiny apartment. He wasn’t the most proficient at home enlarging charms and had failed on all attempts thus far to modify his apartment.

Regardless, he was still wandering around Diagon Alley and its accompanying shopping districts trying to find new pieces of furniture to add to his place because he had nothing better to do and didn’t have to work until later in the day. After trolling through Diagon for a good hour, he found himself itching to get into the seedier district, Knockturn Alley. There tended to be oddities that were more unique, and thus more expensive, but one-hundred percent more to his liking. Nothing dark (though he still questioned if the cursed items in some of the stores could actually hurt him with his giant’s blood) or potentially illegal would ever grace his apartment, but there were plenty of silly stores that held objects he could tell stories about.

Like the store that had furniture and other pieces made all out of bones. It was absolutely morbid, but Bernhard was hooked the second he looked through the display window. “Ah, hello miss shopkeep. I was wondering if you could give me a tour of your finest wares?”

[Deleted]

A very large man had entered Ambrosia’s shop. Almost unnaturally tall. But, in the magical world it wasn’t that big of an oddity, so Ambrosia thought little of it after her initial surprise. Especially in Knockturn Alley, where you could get a wide variety of unique individuals. He looked quite curious though, a very common expression for those new to the shop. After all, a bone shop sounded quite bizarre, and almost taboo.

At his request, Ambrosia put on a professional smile and stepped out from behind the counter. ”Of course. Anything in particular you are interested in to start?” Ambrosia approached the man, motioning him towards the right side of the shop. ”We offer a variety of services and items. Right over here you’ll see our divination section. Dragon bones, such as these-” She motioned to a basket of bones that looked similar to knuckles. ”Are favorites for scryers.”

@bernhard

[Deleted]

@ambrosia

02.01.2025

The shopkeeper’s first question had Bernhard thinking about if there was anything he was actively missing from his apartment that he needed as soon as possible. She immediately mentioned divination items and bones, and he chuckled, remembering back to his poor attempts at the magic when he was in school. Calling it a poor attempt was being nice – he was terrible at it. Anything magic that wasn’t destructive in nature or overly complicated was virtually impossible for him to cast without difficulty. Now that he knew he was sporting giant’s blood in his veins, it all made sense and made him feel a lot less stupid. “Oh I’m not much of a divination person,” he continued his deep laugh. “I like confronting things as they show up. No future seeing for me.” Though having his fortune read prior to the blood discovery probably would have done him pretty well. Hindsight was twenty-twenty though, and Bernhard had no way to go back in time and fix that.

“You have quite a lot of bones here,” he said as he ran his hand along one of the pieces of furniture near the front of the store. It looked to be a table of sorts, though he was having difficulty telling what kind of table. “Is this an English thing? Having bone tables and chairs?” Bernhard asked as he continued to study the piece. “What uh, what donated these to you?” He was simultaneously scared and interested in hearing if the bones on the table were human. They certainly had a human look to them, though he supposed anything was possible with a charm or two.

[Deleted]

Ambrosia smiled at the man’s honestly. She couldn’t blame him. Divination was often considered a ‘soft magic’, much like how certain subjects in the nonmagical world were considered ‘soft sciences’. Subjects that were open to interpretation and didn’t provide the same sort of concrete and physical results as others. ”It’s good to know your standing in such a situation. Best to live in the moment, instead of dwelling on what could be.” She motioned towards another section of the store, towards the less practical and more decorative pieces.

”A shop that specializes in bones should keep a healthy supply on site.” She answered as his interest turned towards the furniture, particularly a table. ”Bonecraft is a global fascination. Particularly in the magical communities. Even if you don’t use the magical properties of bones, their connection to our world is undeniable." When he asked what bones the table was made from she stepped forward, leaning a bit forward to examine the table in question. The bones were very humanlike in appearance, though human bones would attract unwanted ministry attention. Human bone products required… special orders. ”Those are Kappa bones. I purchased them from an acquaintance in Japan. According to him, these Kappas had become especially bold and killed a dozen people and the authorities were forced to put them down.” She straightened and took a step back, so he could examine it more closely if desired. ”Everything has a story to share. Any purchase will include a copy of the piece’s history.”

@bernhard