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Post by littlekreen on Aug 8, 2020 20:46:52 GMT -6
Zhen caught up just close enough to the cylinder the jingling is indeed distracted by their mass of brethren. The car spun as the leading edge pointed toward Zhen before a wheel finally dug into the earth with the middle pillar of the car a scant two meters from the leaning device. Distracted by the offering the others began to abandon it as well though the scooting dervish around his feet continued their frenzy undeterred.
If he wore metal it became more obvious now that it hadn't been the creatures themselves that drew the car closer. The cylinder itself pulled metal closer. A loud creak of two axels came as Zhen crouched with two tires bearing more weight. Though its side to the canister the car started to topple upward. A crash that shattered glass it came to rest on its missing door. Bits of safety glass pelting him from their frenetic activity.
A seat rent from its bolts with a rock on its side to sail over his head. In a flash of destructive forces, the metal object crumples into the synthetic ley well with the shower of purple sparks as it subsumed the object from the leeward side of reality. Weight shifted the car teeters on the cusp of falling over the cylinder entirely but settled back down. Only in short order for a bolt to fire through the driver's seat as the cylinder screamed slightly less to tolerate Catherine's disturbance of this place's natural capacities just a bit more.
Ephemeral things the Jingling fervently sawed the minerals from the bit of bread with no worry of projectiles.
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Post by Circe on Aug 8, 2020 21:08:03 GMT -6
Xiaolian rearranged herself on the ground, sitting cross legged and resting her head in her hands, as if bored with the whole thing. "If it hasn't already." She pointed out bluntly. He was lucky she had agreed to reverse the effects of the spell after everything was said and done, most would have been more than happy to leave it as it was. She had heard many of the rumors and complaints from within the community as she had been investigating O'Hara. Xiaolian couldn't blame them being upset, Tyrus was a bit of a arrogant bastard if she said so herself. Often mages of his ilk and kin tended to burn themselves out early, or a minor mistake in some complicated spell work took them out.
"If I recall correctly, your sire has tried everything she can to rid you of such notions." Everything short of beating it out of him, and Xiaolian didn't think that was Catherine's style. The woman tended to try for much gentler and subtler approach, and often went to great lengths to not subject her fledgling or others to her anger. "Perhaps not so much wise.. as more experienced in this sort of thing." She mused.
--
"Gah! No no no no nonono!" Zhen yelped as he was swarmed by the jingling. He had hoped to distract them from the cylinder, and had succeeded. As the small fish like creatures swarmed over him, he was pelted with bits of glass and metal from the car. At least for now the cylider was safe, however it seemed that the jingling had in addition to the bread, removed anything remotely metallic from his person. This included a watch, shoe laces and anything else.
Breathing a sigh of relief, he looked around for anything else he could use to convince the jingling to stay away from the Jinhai's cylinder. Finding what looked like an engine part, he briefly disentangled himself from the swarming jingling and picked it up. Whistling he held it aloft, and waved it at the fish creatures. "You want this? I bet you do... nice yummy... uh.. steel? What is this anyway?" Zhen said hefting the part in one hand.
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Post by demikara on Aug 8, 2020 21:15:24 GMT -6
'My sire does not speak to me outside of court required events where we must be a happy family.' He was all too used to the happy family act. 'She taught me enough that I wouldn't harm myself or others and cut me loose. She has no desire to be my sire and we both know it.' That had been made infinitely clear on many occasions. There was an amused note to his thoughts next. 'Though I only have myself to blame for the entire situation. How her magic reacts is difficult to predict. More so than my own.' He understood why she wanted nothing to do with him. It hurt like hell, but he'd put up with worse and at least she wasn't beating him until he bled.
There were worse sires out there than Catherine. Better ones too, but she was kinder to him than his own parents had been. He'd take it, even if he wished for a better bond with someone he was stuck with for the next eternity. And he was stuck, wasn't he? He had never heard of a sire or a fledgling breaking their bond before. It wasn't something he thought could be done, though if anyone could figure out how, he was sure it would be Catherine. The psychic backlash would be a bitch and might kill one of them, probably him. In that much, at least, she cared. She didn't actively try and kill him. He would take his battles where he could.
But he was well aware that his relationship with Catherine was broken and he was certain it was broken beyond repair. He had over stepped too many times and she was kind enough not to kill him for it. Maybe she didn't have the stomach for outright murder, in which case he was glad. He had screwed up and now they were both vampires. Had she been bound, would the spell have worked better? That was his fault as well. He couldn't bring himself to feel too bad about forcing the issue on the binding though. She had magic and ought to have full access to it.
Perhaps it would keep her alive in the court at least. There were sure to be challengers to the throne and they were sure to try and kill her. They were sure to try and kill him as well, which was why he was grateful for the strength of the wards around his property. The mirror was the only weak point and he had that building warded to high heaven, and had it well away from most of the buildings on the ranch, to give him time if the wards were breached.
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Post by Circe on Aug 9, 2020 9:46:10 GMT -6
"We both know that's not true here, Tyrus." Xiaolian remarked, his name sounding strange coming from her. There was still a strange resonate and melodic tinge to her voice as she spoke, "There reaches a point when experience is the best teacher, you know that, I know that, and she knows that." Psychic skills were things that an individual had to learn and adapt for themselves, the basic mechanics could be explained and she supposed taught, but the personal ins and outs could not be.
"Have you considered apologizing... instead of heaping misfortune upon misfortune on yourself?" She knew the whole sordid tale, and most of it was technically his fault. Xiaolian did have to commend Catherine though, where it anyone else Tyrus would have likely been dead by now. "It occurs to me that no one has ever asked that poor woman what she wants, instead everything is decided for her without so much as a even brief consultation." It didn't take a genius to figure that one out either. MCU had been Catherine's choice, and there she had done quite well for herself, and likely could have done better had it not been for a few snags along the way. "You petitioned the Council to unbind her, ensnared her into a binding contract... which I might add for the fae can be insult to injury, and then demanded she learn at your pace lest she be thrown into that damnable institute you call work. How is this working for you little mage?" Xiaolian queried.
To her he was a child, foolish yes, but still a child in the eyes of time and one such as herself. "All you've done is break her trust, and for an immortal than can be such a fragile thing. Especially when that is something we do not given it freely." She continued, shifting her position to get a better look at Tyrus. The sigils and further spell work seemed to be holding just fine, especially given they had been powered by the ambient magic and not Xiaolian's own much weaker power.
"If I were to observe and theorize on you as my subject... as Zhen often does with this plane," She added, making a passing remark of her brother's role as a Guardian. "Then it appears to me that you still think as a human, never mind the fact of who raised you. You've grown arrogant and expect things to be given to you, because you're Tyrus Mort Rahal, son of Tariq and Belphegor, the only veil borne of this era, and Eliodoro the last gift of the Sun Court."
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Post by demikara on Aug 9, 2020 10:45:33 GMT -6
'True. But she still wanted nothing to do with me after I reached that point. And I don't blame her. No apology I make could possibly make up for what I've done.' Still, it was rare for him to be called out by name and lineage like that. He also didn't want to upset her. 'And it isn't working for me well at all. If it was working, your presence here wouldn't be needed, and I'd be human still.' If there was a way to go back to being human he would take it in a heartbeat. He hated being a vampire. He may have been raised in the court, but he had never wanted to be a vampire. Too soft, as far as his parents had been concerned, tainted by the tutors and nannies he had been left with as a child.
'And I'm not a proper veil borne. I'm something else.' Tied to the veil as a child through a ritual he had destroyed as soon as he had been able to get his hands on it. He wasn't going to let another person go through the alienating hell of being this different than everyone else. It was a perverse ritual that never should have happened. 'Though I can't deny my arrogance.' If he wasn't thoroughly frightened of her, he'd certainly deny that he expected to have things given to him. He had worked hard to get where he was from a young age.
Certainly he had no small amount of privilege, but he was hardly a lay about prince who did nothing. The mage had worked hard to control his magic, worked hard to earn the title of mage, worked hard to see his ranch succeed and worked hard to reform a prison and asylum that no one had thought could be reformed. He was still working hard on the last one. Broadmoore's prisoners and the legal system had made reform difficult at best. But he had pushed through and kept going, kept his hard work up in the community and in his research and in everything else until he had needed an assistant just to remind him to eat of all things.
Making time for hunting had been a headache and a half, but he had found he needed less sleep now. It was perhaps the only upside to the whole affair.
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 9, 2020 12:02:37 GMT -6
Near Zhen's feet, a small burble of shine erupted from the earth by their fervent attention. The motion jerked smooth as the burble spun and flattened behind to enlarge the circumference. A single busy creature built an exit from their desired nest. Other burbles soon joined it in the same hole or elsewhere as they settled in. Perfect ectoplasmic mirrors in the ground built of regurgitated metal and aether pointing directly inside some location within the ley well. Somewhere within a murky bramble of rushing natural forces, regurgitated metal wire floating in gyres, expanding aethermechanics, and a plethora of long moving shapes.
Zhen however held a long hood support strut and shock since loosed and impaled loosely to earth when the earthbound section of the hood grew chew marks. Chunks were scattered free as the creatures either drew them in or the cylinder did. Just opposite one shining mirror beneath his feet his watch flutters in space while clearly being chewed to expand the mirror.
The flock frothed around the ground just beneath the end of the strut he swung as the dust devils they cause grow higher. Using each other to get closer into the air so very material and away from conducting earth. Zhen rapidly gathers a following.
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Post by Circe on Aug 9, 2020 14:21:16 GMT -6
"Did you not even hear I word I said? You are still making excuse after excuse! She wanted nothing to do with you because you broke her trust." Xiaolian said, chiding Tyrus like a small child. He was still intent on blaming Catherine for everything it seemed, instead owning up to his own actions. Actions that could have not necessarily been made up for, but at least taken ownership of. But then he had the audacity to claim that were things perfect, her kind would not be needed. "I do not think you understand the seriousness of your remarks and candor here child. Whether or not you wish it does not make it so. My kind has long protected worlds like yours from things you can't even begin to imagine. I would be here irregardless whether or not you are human, the will of fate is a thing one cannot escape."
It was at this moment that Xiaolian let on that she was not nearly as inexperienced or young as she appeared at first glance. The war the Ba-Shu had been subjected to, if only in defense of everything they held dear, had left it's mark on the woman. She was an inhuman thing, full of hard truths and even harder experiences.
But veil bornes, proper or not, the twisting and tangled threads of fate had led her here. That she could not deny, and to do so was to deny her own nature. A thing in which she had had little success in over the years. That did not mean she didn't still occasionally try, but this wasn't about her. This was about Tyrus and his sire, and his continued excuses for what he deemed as another's failure.
"And if you are not a proper veil borne.. then what are you? You've joined the ranks of the immortals, yet still claim to not be a proper any one thing. Enlighten me please, but choose your words carefully." She coaxed. To her all of this seemed like excuses and like he was running from something. What specifically she hadn't been able to ascertain yet. "What are you running from my little mage?"
While she wouldn't disagree that he had worked hard, he had also not yet learned how to lean on others when the assistance was offered.
"Because I cannot say that I understand. Your sire by all accounts is not cruel, she is concerned with your well being, and has largely protected you from the violence of her own sire at her own cost. How is that unwanted?" Xiaolian questioned, not expecting much of an answer. She could not understand his continued reluctance over something that he had so little control over. It was best to accept it and move forward, learning from the failures and discomforts. "Have you ever taken a moment to slow down? Your life is no longer that of a mayfly, I can see its thread stretching before you, unbroken and uninterupted."
--
"Oh gods... oh gods..." Zhen panted as he tried to take off running, and with limited success. It appeared he could lure the jingling away from the cylinder, and the nest they had built, but for how long? Waving the hood support with it's other accompanying parts like a mad man, he tried to pick up the pace. He had read about the jingling, but assumed that aether storms and veilborne were a myth now that era had passed on this plane. He could see that he was quickly being proven wrong.
"Never... again... never again.." He continued to himself as he made a mad dash off as far from the cylinder as he dare. Towards the edge of the property would at least give them enough time for the storm to quiet before the jingling tried to return to their nest. All he had to do was keep one step ahead of them, which should be easy to do. Guardian's mostly ignored the jingling, at least that's what he had been told to do. "Why in Heaven's name did I even agree to this?!" He moaned as he stopped to catch his breath, leaning against a tree, and holding the painful sitch in his side. Jingling were not suppose to be this destructive or chaotic, they were supposed to be curious, playful, and bothersome at the very most. How had his sister so calmly played with such chaos?
Taking another breath, he forged on ahead towards the mirror at the edge of the property, wondering if he could convince it to shunt the meddlesome jingling elsewhere.
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Post by demikara on Aug 9, 2020 16:02:09 GMT -6
He got the feeling he had little choice in explaining himself. He shouldn’t have said a damn thing. But the other being was frankly scary enough right now, especially with him paralyzed and magicless, that he was going to do what she wanted. ‘An artificial veil borne, I suppose would be the best way to put it.’ There was a pause as he considered how to explain the situation. ‘I was kidnapped by my parents when I was seven months old. That solstice, they performed a ritual that tied me to the veil. I’ve destroyed the copy of the ritual they had and can only hope that another copy doesn’t exist.’ Being tied to the veil was not comfortable, and it had not been easy. He had learned how to live with it, but it was an uneasy burden that limited him in some ways people with less magic didn’t understand. There was no relaxing.
‘And she is a kind sire and shields me and everyone else from Grandfather well.’ Grandfather, not Grigore. However terrifying she was, there was always a chance she might let it slip, that had had referred to the vampire as anything other than Grigore. ‘That doesn’t mean she wanted me as a fledgling. That means she’s a good person regardless.’ And he was incredibly lucky, however much she didn’t trust me and didn’t want him around. She didn’t beat him and leave him bloody. She didn’t forbid him to feed until he was near crazed with bloodlust. By all accounts, she was incredibly gentle. He was waiting for the other shoe to drop.
‘And I have been a mayfly so long. There are things I can’t slow down. Others will suffer if I slow down at Broadmoore. There are children who will suffer if they aren’t taught control, and no one else will step forward to do so. And the court has demands that wait for no one. I am stretched too thin for a mayfly and too thin for an immortal.’ And he didn’t know what else he could do. He had gotten an assistant, at least, to help with his own needs. Attempting to help at the court had gotten part of his finger cut off. So he was doing that wrong and he didn’t understand how or why. Grigore and his ways remained a mystery to Tyrus no matter how hard he tried to understand them.
--- Brandon had finally found the right mirror and stepped out and opened the door just in time to see a strange Asian man running towards him. Well, that solved how to get the blood out of the warded mirror room. And well warded. He was surprised he had been able to open the door at all. With the blood in a cooler in one hand, he watched at Zhen came closer. “Are you the one I spoke to on the phone?” He called out, curious. He was cute, if a bit frazzled looking. Seeing that he was followed by something Brandon decided not to think too hard on, he could understand looking a little frazzled.
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 9, 2020 17:58:38 GMT -6
A school of the creatures well distracted was a trail of eager things desperate to get to a bit of metal just one body higher. As the throng followed the pile toppled in a continuous competition to reach the spar. Though they nibbled at it now and again it hadn't lost much than a pitting at the end. As Zhen neared the mirror house each nibble on the end of the metal reflected a scrap of notes into the air. A tinkling tune played in the aether to regulate creatures much like the Jingling's own habits to a very similar end but with the current ardent habit. The cylinder's song proved similar enough that they'd heard.
Though with the body of the creatures missing the cylinder had a moment's peace for internals extending into the artificial ley well to right themselves. Floating nests in the blinding potential knock away as spars and gears bend into place. Though frenetic activity by the straggler creatures to reposition nests set adrift. The cylinder quieted as it pulled upright and the small pools of shine drew inward. A miniature pond of strange reflection pooled around its base. The aether shunt hadn't the power to forestall Catherine's explosion though the cylinder tried to redirect its raging flow. Channels of regulated flow swell with capacity the closer it gets to her. An attempt to stabilize her unconstrained power with a ballast made of its own wellspring.
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Post by Circe on Aug 15, 2020 15:24:05 GMT -6
Xiaolian fully intended to restore movement to Tyrus, and his connection to his magic. But in the meantime, she was going to get to the bottom of why he was at the center of so many issues with magic lately. The only thing he didn't seem to have any connection to was O'Hara and his damnable mask, which was being taken care of.
"You should also never assume that because you destroyed something it ceases to exist, it's extrodinarily dangerous to do so." She replied out. More than likely a duplicate or copy still existed somewhere out on the tree, but that only meant increased difficulty finding it. One of her kind or the Ratatoskr, that had fallen victim to the corruption, would more than likely go looking for it.. for a price.
Xiaolian meanwhile looked at Tyrus with a mixture of sympathy and contempt, "I hear a "but" there in your words little mage, what might you be so worried about? You've only been a new creature for a few short months.. what worries you so?" Tyrus was full of excuses and reasons why, he had allowed himself to become dependent on them. Despite being raised by vampires, he seemed to hold little of their attitudes towards things however.
Then others will simply have to step up. You cannot do it all. They rely on you too much, and have learned that you will come to their rescue." The way she saw it was that he had stretched himself entirely too thin, and had continued to allow himself to be at the mercy of other's whims. A thing that she knew entirely too well, having allowed herself to be pulled along by the whims and desires of individuals such as Molly. It admittedly had been a welcome respite from thinking about everything to do with the guardians and Heaven's foolish war. --- Zhen paid little attention to Brandon tapping on the mirror and holding up a cooler in one hand. His primary focus for now was distracting and redirecting the Jingling for the next hour while the storm was at it's most powerful. It seemed to him that so far his half baked plan had worked, and the next step would be to defeat the wards on the mirror; which was easily accomplished. They hadn't seemed terribly sophisticated on first glance earlier, and left Zhen quite surprised that they had even held so long.
But first he had to stop running like a mad man, and do something about the school of Jingling, which by now had nibbled even more bits and pieces of metal off him and were quickly working their way through the metal strut. "You want it? Yeah? Go fetch!" Zhen exclaimed throwing the strut like a javelin towards the property line, hopefully encouraging the Jingling to follow.
Turning to the mirror, he sighed held up a hand indicating to Brandon to step back, before quickly tearing through Tyrus's carefully constructed wards. They were good enough for most things, but stood little chance against magic practiced by a Guardian.
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Post by demikara on Aug 16, 2020 8:03:37 GMT -6
‘I know. But one less copy can only be a good thing.’ It had been old. Hopefully, all other copies had been destroyed from age if nothing else. It has been a frail scroll, crumbling at the slightest touch. It was gone now, and he kept an ear to the ground for any possible whispers. No one else needed to be tied to the veil. It was dangerous and had nearly cost his life on more than one occasion. There had been no one to teach him how to handle the sheer amount of magic he had. It had been a good thing his parents were old enough to remember older ways of learning control. They were half-remembered and imperfect, but they were enough.
‘And I’m worried about a million things all at once. Broadmoore is a constant worry. Are the changes enough? Will they fall back into old patterns when I step away? Are the changes enough that Catherine doesn’t have to worry about there ever again?’ That was a chief concern. If the council decided to send Catherine back the Broadmoore, would it still be as terrible as it had been to her? Ra, he hoped not. He had worked so hard on the changes to make it a kinder place to stay, even if you didn’t have a choice in the matter.
Broadmoore had been especially cruel to his sire. He didn’t want to see it be that cruel to anyone ever again.
But Xiaolian did have a point. He needed to step back, away from some of what he did. And given his druthers, Broadmoore would be the first one he’d step away from. His replacement was getting better every day. Could he step back to a more supervisory role soon? Something much more part time…
Maybe.
---
Brandon stepped back and grinned. “I like you. Tyrus is going to absolutely murder you for destroying his wards though.” He held out the cooler. “One delivery of blood. Keep it in the cooler to keep it human warm. Tell Tyrus I want my cooler back when he’s done.” That or the mage could make him a new one. The damn things were expensive as hell to buy but kept the blood tasting like it came straight from a human instead of having that bagged blood taste. There was a definite difference.
The show had been nice to watch as well. Nothing like a man running around with his pants falling down. “I’m Brandon by the way. You are?”
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 18, 2020 19:03:38 GMT -6
Behind the far looking glass Brandon could see the ethereal creatures if just slightly better but as they got close the bronze gears welded to their inner will. At the pitch of metal away but ever so close those abnormal turning gears vanished into the ether as Jingling set off. They left the room for the barrier a dervish of activity at the barrier at a bit of metal just slightly out of reach. No longer able to be bored the altered servitors flipped ardently but harmlessly at the inner side of the wards.
Meanwhile at the cylinder, now absent an interfering throng, had both occasion and metal to expand its capacity. The car once on its side had lost much of its mass as the machine ripped it apart. A deep pile of plastics and foam half circled the cylinder as nonmetals spray in fine chunks as it pulls metals across the gap. The many wards in Tyrus' house kept them from mustering the force to cart off or eat his silverware though they'd begun to scavenge metals abandoned to the dirt wherever they could sense and dig to it.
As the interior volume expanded to cope with the storm the scars grew its size as a muscle. A labyrinth left around it of metal obelisks erupting from the ground near to the cylinder. Erattic and chaotic from the magic Tyrus poured through the land that artificial ley well continued to regulate the storm pounding on its aether corridors. Raw magic growing positively humid in the air by a terribly unnatural volume channeled by the two magic users and a natural veil and substance of the lane that might yet falter as natural and artificial forces attempt to strike a balance.
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Post by Circe on Aug 23, 2020 17:24:33 GMT -6
Xiaolian shrugged, "Perhaps." There was no telling who still possessed a copy or if they even knew what such a thing was for. It begged to question though, just who had come up with such a thing and why. But the fact that the previous Ra and Isis had gotten hold of such a thing was concerning. It had the potential to create dangerous storms and false leylines. They had been incredibly lucky that the Jinhai had been willing to assist, in previous times they wouldn't have been so lucky.
"You worry too much, do you know that?" That wasn't to say his life wasn't without its difficulties however. "Don't make this more complicated than it needs to be here." Xiaolian added boredly. Humans and their analogues on this plane often confused her. Most areas of the tree weren't nearly so paranoid and secretive about magic. Instead here they had two societies in something of a cold war with one another, each one seemingly seeking to gain the upper hand on the other.
"But you are right, Broadmoore is a terrible place, and it is a place for people who have done terrible things." She agreed with his concerns, and by all rights considering what she had done to keep her team safe in Hong Kong, she should have been incarcerated as well. But at the same time, it served a purpose to house criminals of the Unseen who couldn't be held anywhere else.
"But believe me, your sire deeply regrets whatever it was that landed her in that hell hole. I see it on her face almost daily, the fear that the next thing that goes wrong will be the last thing the Council will tolerate." Xiaolian knew that fear on a personal level as well, most of the team had been within an inch of that same fate at one time or another. Dallas was seen as a kinder option, or rather where they could be warehoused by the Council until a better idea came along.
"Pull back Tyrus, you cannot afford to burn the candle at both ends. It will not end well." She advised, using his given name for the first time since their conversation had started.
---
Zhen looked at the mirror and shrugged, "It's fixable, and he would have a very hard time murdering me." His sister would likely murder Tyrus if he even tried that, and she was not someone to piss off. However judging from things earlier, he'd already exhausted much of the good will she had already extended to him at one time or another. "You may call me Zhen, like I mentioned earlier, the lieutenant is my sister." He added taking the cooler from Brandon. "Thanks for agreeing to this though, I know it was short notice."
---
As the cylinder expanded and consolidated the wellspring of energies around it, the veil storm began to taper off slightly. They were past solar noon now by only a few minutes, but things would not be truly calm until the sun set. But the magic intensities would begin to level off, providing a much needed break to all involved. What remained after night fall would be putting out what amounted to small fires, and shoring up damaged wards and seals.
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Post by demikara on Aug 28, 2020 9:59:26 GMT -6
With his magic cut off, he didn’t sense Brandon at the mirror station and didn’t sense Zhen tearing down his privacy wards. Wards that would keep almost anyone else held up and stuck in the shed where the mirror resided. And it was a shed, however nice he had dressed it up to be. The mage was unaware that his meal had arrived entirely, though he could admit his hunger continued to grow and it was a good thing he was paralyzed, however little he liked it. The mage could only lie there and let the hunger grow.
It was a good thing he had sent for the blood bags. Xiaolian would murder him the minute he went for her, and he was quite convinced she could do so before he could react. She really was a lot scarier than he had pegged her for. And a lot less human than he had thought. Was anyone on his sire’s team a human? Perhaps the new girl was, but at this rate, he wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t at all either.
He wouldn’t let the council throw Catherine back in Broadmoore though, not so long as he could avoid it. And if he couldn’t, then at least it was a more comfortable place than it had been and she wouldn’t be de-fanged again. That was a cruelty he didn’t allow and he came down hard and with force on anyone who suggested it.
‘I am working on pulling back at Broadmoore. The assistant director should be ready to step up soon. And then I can take a different role there, something that would allow me to still oversee conditions but not have to deal with the minutiae. A month until I can be free of all the little things.’ They had to bring onboard a new assistant director after all, though they were diligently searching for someone qualified now.
He’d be freer with most of Broadmoore out of his hands. Which was good. He’d need to be to solve the problem before him now, of his and his sire’s magic reacting to the solstice so strongly. He’d need to be to better learn to control the new wilder bent to his magic, magic he had thought couldn’t get anymore chaotic in nature. That had been a comforting lie, apparently, judging by the glade around them now steeped in magic until it almost bubbled forth.
He’d have to figure out what to do about the glade as well. This one and the one where Catherine was.
Time passed and the mage relaxed as much as he could given he was paralyzed. The blood would arrive soon enough and in the meantime, he could do no harm to anyone, pinned as he was. It was almost best to take a nap. --
At the mirror, Brandon shrugged. “I live to serve the court, I’m sure, even if I am persona non grata. Plus, I owe Rahal more than I would like to. I had the blood at hand, luckily. Visiting a blood bank to get it is always dicey.” And it meant revealing more than he would like to about the Unseen to the mundanes. Out in the open or not, a lifetime of secrecy was hard to give up. “Hopefully we’ll meet again Zhen. You’re cute. I’d like to take you on a date sometime.”
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Post by littlekreen on Aug 28, 2020 11:05:00 GMT -6
The Jingling by nature were ephemeral nature spirits absent any real memory. Such behavior naturally left a mischievous bent to them of a continuous present. Altered by the cylinder, though to their natural ends, they gained from it a sense of the past. Interests of necessity born of a need to know where they'd seen resources before not just where they lived. However difficult, it may be a creature that offered metal came first to mind once the furious dervish of a brother-chasing throng completed tearing apart the strut. Though more as fishy-squirming squirrels rifling through one's pockets for rivets than hyenas out for blood.
Yet the Jingling's whirring mass of creatures out to steal one's pant rivets approaches may prove no less concerning. They paused outside if just a moment as a dusty tide smashed into an ATV there then promptly recognized the metallic undercarriage. Collective intent rather a squirrely thing indeed scrapes the side of the shed from the ATV's smooth crooked movement as they circle the building to the door. The ATV arrives as they reach the entrance to drop their booty as the swirl pauses. Reflected in the mirror, sets of interlocking gears inside diaphanous elongated shapes all turn toward the two inside the shack.
Treats!
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