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Post by littlekreen on Sept 12, 2020 20:02:02 GMT -6
Cruor's tail slackened with the Warden's less officious tone. There was always a chance the council remembered the failure of its pronouncement but it wasn't today. Maybe they'd never come. You just had to try not to think of it until it came up. The tail went up and around him as Cruor grabbed the edge of a chair and hauled himself upright. Bones and joints crackling again as a soft draconic shaped the spell forward to reshape him to a biped. His magic from the darkened places of the tortured was both learned and powered by pain. Standing on two legs made things a ton easier when you wanted to glamour like a biped. In this case, he didn't need to since the warden certainly of all people wasn't mundane.
Carter gave a thumbs up to immediately remember that was pointless. Though he kept an eye for a moment to see if there was anything in Tyrus' way repying, "Sure thing, Iced tea coming right up."
Cruor caught Carter's eye gesturing to the kitchen and the Pseudodragon helpfully pointed at the right cabinet to find the tea. His satchel picked up and set on the table a large hand cannon glinted from inside before Cruor removed a leather-bound book. Taken with him Cruor sat in one of the chairs nearby to the two of them with the satchel on his lap. A blood-red tail wound around the seat and draped down the front. He quietly read the book labeled in a script certainly no book of Rahal's would have. Though the book was on the language itself from his newfound friend in the city.
Attention only half-paid, with the faint whistling noises under his breath, Cruor made a toothy quip, "Carter's the only one need'a care 'bout daylight here. heh. No goons sneaking in around here so easy."
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Post by Circe on Sept 18, 2020 15:43:19 GMT -6
"It's rude to make assumptions, didn't you know that?" Catherine commented Curor before ignoring the dragon. She could do without the talking familiars or whatever it was exactly that he happened to be. "Are you sure you want to do that? That seems like putting a bandaid on a problem to me." She added to Tyrus, uncertain if that was a good idea to wait so long. Catherine had spent so much time in the human world, and even to an extent living as a human that she often forgot that not everyone couldn't see well after dark. Over the years many of her own officers had been human, and it was only this most recent team that she had had the advantage of working with officers that weren't human or not solidly entrenched in the unseen world like Bronson and Boyuan were.
"I would think that getting it solved while there's more than just you here might be wisest." Catherine didn't even know if the magic held within the wards would burn through it in a single night or it if it would last long enough to solve the actual issue at hand. As far as she could tell, Tyrus was acting if the solstice had gotten off quite well; never mind the blindness he was currently experiencing. Never mind that the warding on the mirror seemed to be flaky at best, and there was a two mile radius area of magical fall out on the property masquerading as two groves.
"What news?" She then asked, confused as to what exactly he was talking about. Her days were usually spent buried neck deep in cases and soothing sore feelings still. Most of the Unseen in Dallas still hadn't managed to put two and two together when it came to the courts thankfully, outside of Tyrus rejoining the Dragon Court as a son of the family. That had sparked quite a bit of ire, but attentions had quickly turned to other things as the county judge and mayor increasingly made a fool of themselves during the current and lengthy national crisis. From what Catherine had heard, was that the judge was angling for state government come the next election round, and mayor was up for reelection.
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Post by demikara on Sept 18, 2020 15:54:13 GMT -6
“Any news.” He admitted. “I spent the morning trying to navigate my house on my own and figure out by touch which bottle was my shampoo.” Cleaning up from yesterday had been trickier than he liked to admit. “So I don’t know how the rest of the world weathered yesterday or if the fall out from our day left the ranch borders.” He didn’t want to be more specific than that with Carter there. Carter was a decent kid, but he wasn’t family in the way Catherine was.
“If you think it’s wisest though, you’re probably right. I may be blind still, but I think I’m recovered enough from yesterday to manage warding something.” Or at least, something that already had a stone boundary set up like the mirror did. He gave an almost bitter laugh. “Or I’m making myself recovered enough at least. Truth is I’m still incredibly sore.” But he couldn’t have unwarded access to his property and that’s what the mirror was right now. A dangerous opening in his security.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 19, 2020 10:48:52 GMT -6
"Sorry, wasn't born nowhere polite," Cruor replied to Catherine then continued his faint whistling while reading the book.
Busied with glasses and iced tea Carter worked in the kitchen boiling some distilled water for them from the fridge. A small glass sphere removed from his pocket inscribed on the inside surface with angular patterns in red gold then fit together in halves with a pale red brazing alloy. Inside were metal parts of a gyroscope and axis with marked metal discs about the arms. He cleaned the red-frosted bubble under lukewarm water setting the small gyroscope to spin then put it into the jug. The sphere righted itself and spun madly with a pip at its core glowing into activity. He wasn't sure how Catherine liked her iced tea so brought a small sugar bowl and some spoons with the tray of glasses and its pitcher. Beads of sweat appear at the bottom of the pitcher even as wisps of steam slowly faded away at the top.
Carter placed it between them not wanting to interrupt long, "You may want to swirl the water a bit so the maxwell's demon can cool evenly. It'll eventually stall as total entropy drops but won't dilute the iced tea. If you need me I'll be at the table finishing the parts orders."
Technically, it was a bearing from a pump that went somewhere or somewhen but Carter managed to alter the cobbled blueprint into something food safe. The deeper why of all the parts of it still escaped him somewhere into other kinds of magic. The animation he'd added left the metal construct able to run off the thermal delta for a while instead of his person until the whole system hit equilibrium. Back at his laptop Carter continued his long list of parts and tools he'd need to assemble the ATVs.
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Post by Circe on Sept 26, 2020 20:35:10 GMT -6
"I figured as much..." Catherine muttered with annoyance as she sank carefully into the seat of the sofa, mindful of any potential hazards Tyrus might have left behind. Books were high on that list, as were stray pens, pencils and any other item used to mark in the margins of said books.
"The world continues on in case that's what you were so worried about." She said to Tyrus, feeling some small amount of sympathy for his current plight. "Far as I can tell, and don't hold much stock in this, not much fall out has left the ranch." The community was talking about the storm, but only because no one had seen it coming. Thankfully though, it would likely no longer be of interest to the majority of the unseen by the next week, giving both of them time to recover and prepare for the next one. If Catherine had her way, they would be taking their leave to the fae realm, a place where the magic would be able to dissipate in an environment that could handle it.
Frowning at his mention of soreness, she didn't know what to say. That wasn't to say it was an unusual symptom, but that mileage seemed to vary greatly between the two. All she wanted to do was find a cool dark room and sleep. Pain wasn't even on her mind, though she suspect if she took time to think about it she'd likely be in some amount of discomfort herself too. "If you can see the ward structure then, you should be fine right? I've never been able to see them so I wouldn't know." She hesitated.
Seeing the magic had never been in the cards for her, and mage sight had been a spell for her on first experience that had caused such extreme disorientation and impairment that she had never used it again.
But her thoughts on this were quickly interrupted by Carter placing the tea between them. "Ah.. I see, I'll make sure to do that." Catherine commented briefly wondering where Tyrus found these people.
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Post by demikara on Sept 27, 2020 8:26:44 GMT -6
"Carter, there was tea in the fridge." Tyrus pointed out. He accepted the glass, but pinched the bridge of his nose. "Next time check the fridge first, okay?" Sometimes he wondered about his assistant. He was a good help, of course, but there were times he wondered. This was one of them. He swirled the glass obediently though. He sipped the tea and wrinkled his nose. Not sweet enough, as far as he was concerned, but it would do. And next time, Carter knew to check the fridge first. It was a learning curve for both of them. That was fine though. He'd survive the learning curve. And hopefully his vision would improve quickly enough that he wouldn't need help much longer. There was no telling how long it would take though.
"I'll be fine. The wards were held by a stone circle, so I just have to find that and raise the warding again. I know the scheme I want." He could manage this just fine. The man relaxed into the couch, holding his drink with both hands. "And its good that the fall out hasn't left the ranch. Carter and I will have to ward the groves tomorrow, so they'll remain unseen and the magic will be contained." It was two simple wards that he could do in his sleep. They were commonly used after all.
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Post by littlekreen on Sept 29, 2020 10:08:25 GMT -6
Carter blinked as he processed Tyrus' information from the table and realized old habits die hard after living with Cruor, "Ah, sorry. I'm out of the habit of getting drinks from unlabeled containers."
A wry chuckle from behind his book Cruor gave a slow sigh forgetting company from his relative personal comfort, "Heh. That's on me, sorry boss, pointed him to the tea bags. Some of my stuff's part willow alcohol. Filthy tastin' medicine. I got one of them clicky labelers nowadays so's I don't kill Carter. 'swhy I don't put stuff in yer fridge."
Willow alcohol had a very particular obscure use especially in imbibed volume, sad in its rarity in many respects, that it treated an inflicted addiction. Namely, the drug of liquid pain extracted by torture and suffering of imprisoned souls which ensured creatures created as abyssal servants were kept in line. The mafia had its own juice collectors and so did the abyss. One might get clean from the need for liquid pain and escape the dark but Cruor knew neither could ever leave him. Even if Carter helped him get his feet again to stand up and out of the bottle. The dangerous material destroyed their ability to feel any of the joy or hope associated with freedom. Even survivors broken from the yoke of fell things would be saddled with their own methadone, forever.
Cruor always tried to keep a happy face and perhaps at some point it'd be real. The ebon sidearm in his heavily warded pack the few artifacts he had of those days as an infernal knight. Assistance saw his brand cut out of his flesh and buried at a crossroads to disaffect him of his binding. Now he chose to protect Carter and by extension, his boss. The other artifacts were the two hearts in his chest - neither of which belong in pseudodragons. The pain, always with him, helped at least to cover those from prying eyes not looking for them.
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