A New Assistant

[demikara]

Tyrus had been given an office at Broadmoore given his new position there, and that was where he had asked Carter to meet him. The institute was connected directly to the mirror system after all, and so it should be easy enough to take one of the hubs to come here. Or at least, theoretically it would be easy enough to take one of hubs here, and he had let the desk know he was expecting one Carter Hopkins for an interview today at two. Reception, such as they were, should guide him here. No one went anywhere without an escort for now. The asylum was much more sane now of course, but it and the prison still shared enough space that well, he was still working on the particulars of getting the patients and prisoners around each other. The idea of even letting them out of the cells that had passed for rooms before he had taken over was radical enough for some of the more senior staff positions.

Reform was slow going, despite his firm push and his hiring of any psychotherapists in the know for the asylum and the prison alike. There were just not enough people in the Unseen in the mental health professions. With a sigh he ran a hand over his face again, and re-read the proposal on his desk. His mental health staff was asking for an increase, potentially supported by hiring mundanes and providing them with the necessary measures to protect them against aggressive patients.

It wasn't a bad idea, which was why he was considering it, but it was going to be politically controversial and he needed to come up with an attack plan for how he was going to handle that fall out. The council had given him the asylum and prison to remake how he wished. They unseen was no longer a close held secret. Surely that meant there was leeway in the treatment of some of the unseen?

He only hoped the was true.

[littlekreen]

Cruor had to go wherever Carter did by nature of the bond. At least the horizon line at 28 cubits high was none too far. Carter figured Cruor didn't argue when asked to drive or get things that he didn't mind that much anymore. Control of the situation seemed to suit him just fine. In some ways Carter was the only family Cruor really had anymore. Years now since a long road from that chapter of Cruor's life Carter wondered if he was starting a new one himself. Monmack's boys came by with that offer just not too long ago. Just a little looking up this man Tyrus Rahal made him panic a little. Ought to pay really damn well and Cruor seemed a bit happy about that too. Greedy dragon-kind probably planning to raid liquor cabinets. Carter checked his fresh shirt for straightness smoothing his coat.

Carter eyed Cruor looking at the brochure, "It's a huge building in upstate NY. They send unseen there for treatment. I guess he runs the place now and it's apparently less doom and gloom than it used to be."

Cruor smiled through his glamour's beard grasping it with the studded glove, "Rich as shit and only works at another castle? Hot damn! I wonder what his place looks like. Where do you go from there?"

They walked in through the mirror to reception with Carter dragging Cruor in by the vest to maintain physical contact. Neither of them wanted to hold hands to keep Cruor from getting stabbed in the brain. On other side of the mirror being a thousand miles apart. Reception of course wasn't expecting Cruor or his very biker ascetic but it was a short explanation given the locale. Under protest Cruor relented at security's request he leave the pointy metal bits at reception. Ordering the dragonkind around didn't engender respect needed to work with one long-term.

A little early it turned out getting through security wasn't as long as Carter figured. Cruor and the escort took opposite sides with the dragon on watch. Carter watched him peak at the occasional yell. Sniffing at the air the scents likely setting his hackles up. Too much like darker days. A pat to the long-haired biker on the shoulder and Cruor looked at Carter with slack inattention.

Carter knocked on the office door, "Mr. Rahal? It's Carter Hopkins with Cruor, a familiar."

[demikara]

Oh Ra, he was going to have someone following him around calling him Mr. Rahal wasn't he? That was going to be terrible. He stood and opened the door, smiling at Carter, and stepping to the side. He was dressed for his work here, which meant a sharp three piece fitted suit. Let it never be said he didn't dress for work. It was a sharp contrast to how the familiar to the man he was about to interview was dressed and he raised an eyebrow at the outfit. "I'm Tyrus Rahal, obviously." And he looked exactly as rich as he was, given his long hair was tied back, and smooth and silken as possible. This was not a man unfamiliar with vanity. Given his hair came to his knees, he was also very familiar with some more esoteric grooming spells. Magic helped many things after all.

"If this works out, I'll be your employer for the foreseeable future. Monmack recommended you, so I'm hoping it will. Please, come in and sit." He moved to his desk, leaving the door open behind Carter and sat down, then looked over Cruor. "And this is Cruor you said? It's a pleasure to meet you as well Cruor." It was always best to proceed as if the familiar could talk back, in his experience. If they didn't, he lost no face, and if they did, he looked like he had known all along. Besides, this one wore a human glamour, and the only familiar he knew of that looked human but didn't speak was Evaline Baird's.  He had known her long enough that he knew precisely why she chose a familiar that never spoke as well. She had always liked hearing herself talk.

Of course, both would probably be surprised by the fact that his main home was a humble ranch house. He had others of course, apartments and condos for when he needed to spend the night somewhere other than home, usually Dallas, but even then, while they looked like something out of a magazine - he had his other residences professionally decorated after all - they weren't mansions by a long shot. "Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? Why would you be interested in the position of personal assistant after all? My understanding is you already have a school of magic mastered." He should be able to find excellent employment with that. The sentence was a prod as well, to get Carter to tell him more about the magic he did have mastered.

[littlekreen]

Carter saw the eye to his familiar while closing the door behind Cruor. The form made his familiar feel safe if from binging Sons of Anarchy in his free time. Strong association of independence and strength of appeal to lifelong prisoners. Carter forgot the attire Cruor wore as only the studded cestus were actually real. If anything without the gloves the a naked pseudodragon felt naked anyway he thought. Though better for both of them the glamour dropped seeing Rahal. Wearing a suit it'd cost him several months of everything he made to save up for. The clothes he wore fancy dress at least for his limited means but still felt conspicuous. A darting eye noted a lack of obvious displays of wealth.

Carter looked over to Cruor, "We're safe here. Relax."

Cruor's voice the same absent any draconic accent a muted, "Okay."

The biker's roving eye settled on Rahal then the door pressing it into the frame once. Leaning forward Cruor's glamour peeled away and dissolved. Shaped indeed like the housecat-sized pseudodragons this one was his glamour's own height. Quaduped on biped for purposes of the glamour. Deep red scale flexed shape and color in long tangles of blood magic experimentation. The fear of the place more visible without the glamour to hide behind. Formalities weren't one of those things it hid from though. Cruor opted to sit with his back to a corner.

Hesitation increase with picky word choice, "The pleasure's mine, Rahal. Your office looks real nice."

Carter caught on quick sat in a chair trying to relax and stole a look to Cruor to make sure he was okay. Though all sorts with a technical bent often needed little excuse to talk. At least about what fascinated them.

As Cruor looked calm he worried more toward Rahal, "My parents taught me divination but I always liked the more concrete answers. Divination gives those metaphorical answers half the time for anything complex. The response only makes entire sense after you've traced down the answer"

He made small swinging movements, "So I used to build electrical projects to move divining apparatus. It was more accurate. After it followed to college as I majored in what I could understand. Masters in Electrical Engineering with a minor in Computer Engineering. Very interesting applications of logic especially in processors. Some parts of it reminded me of how divination arrives at answers. Better than random guesses. I picked up arithmancy there as well to answer my other studies. Better than a calculator and more practice."

He picked out a small glinting breadboard from his pocket, "Around my last semester I read a paper computer designed processors. It made the processor work fine but in methods completely different. At least from normal engineering predictable leads always connected to the same ends. It implied calculations through field effect of neighboring lines. Imparting new data by regulating the normal flow of other data. Other things started to fall into place so I focused on that for my later training."

He put the breadboard on Rahal's desk channeling with the locus, "I've hit a wall though since it turns out it's not shaping waves. There's dozens of potentials I'd have to regulate to make types of circuits. The whole metaphorical answer problem. I may have to make a language to express programmatic thought through stonework."

An item conjured itself to the desk as an unbounded divination as the board ran. Bouncing at imaginary confines. Two pens aligning themselves at either side. The 'pong' game went about its business. Unable yet to keep score but conjuring a new the form of the 'ball' each time. Shaped by the wiles of divination magic.

The crude prototype took a color out of him by effort, "I took up... battle magic to burn off frustration."

[demikara]

"Don't over work yourself." Tyrus cautioned, having noticed the change in color. Well, that at least gave him a decent idea of the other's magical limits. He let the familiar be, let him sit how he needed for comfort's sake. The man ran a psychiatric hospital. He knew when to push and when not to. He had been given on hell of a crash course. Tyrus considered the others work. "Consider using some runes as well for the 'language' of the computer you're making. It may help."

Still, battle magic to burn off frustration. That could be incredibly dangerous. He wasn't sure how he felt about it. Well, this one would have some time before he had any time free enough to help teach at all. If he even chose to teach the other. "So why should I hire you? this would be a fairly fast paced position, after all. It would require working both at the hospital and in Dallas, so it'd involve a lot of mirror transport."

There was no small amount of travel in what the battle mage did on a daily basis.

[littlekreen]

Carter stopped eyes darting to and fro his aura spiking wildly, "I'm fine."

Color returned to his cheeks with a close of darting eyes they quelled with practice, "The power it takes is small. I've gotten quite good at multi-casting since the context switching to different tiny divinations every second is what's so hard. The battle magic helped the re-centering problem it made it hard to think after testing a bad batch. I don't know much but hunter's mantras and focus strikes though."

Carter looked over at Cruor who was looking at them both whom quipped at the eye contact, "Keep doing that yourself you'll make your brain all schitzo someday, hoss."

That changed Carter's look with a fervent squinted eye to which the blood red pseudodragon added looking at Tyrus, "Uh. Bad word. Sorry. I'm still right, Carter."

He sighed and took some paperclips thumbing them around the small board his finger on top, "Anyway. I hear you train so a passel of novices and a strong to lead the whole is different. One or two things at a time they can run pong in a parking lot if they keep in step. I suppose runes would help self-group but the divinations spread around won't get you much other than what's already around."

[demikara]

"I teach control to small children and the occasional adult whom is ordered into my care." He corrected. "You are aware this would not be an apprenticeship? I don't have the time to teach an apprentice. The lack of time is why I'm getting a personal assistant." The other was crazy if he though this was an apprenticeship at all. He needed an assistant, not a student to take up even more of his time. He had also blatantly lied about being fine.

He came with Monmack's recommendation, which meant a lot, of course. Still, he was wondering if the other was suited to the job. "This is a business position. Do you have any experience in an office setting?" Give him something kid. He'd hate to turn him out the door, but if he didn't suit the position there wasn't much he could do for it. The mage needed a helper.He had already managed to find a potential second in command here, at least, with ample experience in a similar position. She was mundane, but in the know, and had been in the know since before the secret had spilled out into the world.

[littlekreen]

Carter waved his hand apologetically, "No, No, I don't mean training. I mean I can make specialized practice materials for you to use for training multiple individuals. Or more conventional material if you like. I develop while traveling just fine on a laptop."

He tried to stay upbeat knowing things weren't going well, "I work the jewelry shop I started working for but I manage most everything else there. With that out of the way all I'll have dev lead of the small work group of the few of us working on programming for this sort of thing. Getting a working motherboard so I don't have to run them myself. I maintain the industrial work flow to make processors but it's just occasional telecommuting by and large which won't interfere with any duties. Making new versions just takes an afternoon or three to cover the test beds every few months."

"Buncha nerds drinking red bull chantin' over shiny plates growing," Came a comment from the corner as Cruor didn't get much sleep when that went on.

[demikara]

"That could be useful." He said and considered it. Still, he wasn't completely sold on the other man. And he had a feeling it was a lot more like what Cruor said than the picture that Carter was painting. It was a rather business like way of saying what he meant though, so he certainly had experience in the terms people kept throwing around like Tyrus actually cared for them to censor themselves behind coded language.

"Tell you what. I'll hire you on for a 90 days probation. We'll see how you work out. It'll be my first time having a personal assistant as well, so expect it to be a little of everything." He was pretty certain Monmack included the making certain he ate as part of that everything. Where are you local to and I'll get a mirror pass set up for the most common locations we'll be at." That meant Dallas and here, mostly. Never let it be said he didn't travel. Sometimes he was at both locations multiple times in one day. "Cruor, if you're going to be around more, I'm going to have to ask you at least pull your glamour's hair back and wear long sleeves when we're here. At the Dallas location, the current look is fine, but here we have to make an attempt to look business professional." Alternatively, he could just go without the glamour. He wouldn't be the weirdest thing seen in the hospital. "This is an Unseen location though, so you won't need your glamour in this building, if that's what you prefer."