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Post by Circe on Sept 12, 2020 17:50:55 GMT -6
Many Guardians were familiar with a multitude of proverbs, especially those surrounding the care and keeping of a community. Ones such as "You can live with tea and cold rice but not with cold words" and "A teacher is someone who ploughs with his tongue to fill his little bowl with rice", sayings meant to encourage one another to work together and not underestimate the lack of importance of another. But things had changed, Heaven was silent, and their community had begun to loose it's way. Others abandoned their duty, and others still refused to acknowledge the importance of their role in the grand scheme of things. Many of them often wondering if it wasn't just best for them to remain deaf and dumb to the plight of the tree and it's residents, and to acknowledge that the time of the Guardians had passed. Surely the Ratatoskr would be happy to learn that they had been left in charge of everything and to determine what was best; a thing that often the two parties had often disagreed upon.
Staring at the now translated piece of paper she had been handed by the physician, Xiaolian was as equally if not more filled with doubt than her kindred. She had debated keeping this whole thing to herself, but then Molly had pressed and pried, and then very quickly she had found herself in debt to a fae she didn't even know if she could trust. The whole thing had seemed suspicious from the start, if only because they had little to gain in helping her. In fact most Ratatoskr would prefer it if a Guardian was kept bound and tied, it would prevent them from seeing any abuses of the magic.
Sighing, she shook her head and tried to dismiss these thoughts from her mind as she forged ahead, reminding herself that she was at least owed this much. That Coyote was right, she couldn't be a tame bird in the company of humans forever.
"You owe me." Xiaolian very plainly informed Tyrus. Pointedly reminding him that had she not stepped in when she did, it was likely that things would have gotten much worse. "I purified your ritual room, and saved your sorry ass on the solstice. This is the least you could do in return." She had said when the mage protested. It wasn't often that Xiaolian asked for anything, much less demanded it, having been taught to be humble and gracious from a young age. But this was an exception, and to her it was a matter of actually being able to protect a place she had come to love or sit idly by and watch it burn from the inside out with corruption.
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Post by demikara on Sept 12, 2020 18:05:44 GMT -6
He hadn't expected her to call in a debt like this. But he had readied the ingredients needed and prepared the area according to the instructions on the paper she had given him. He probably would have done it without the near threatening tone she had used, but the threat, given what she had done on the solstice, held a decent amount of weight behind it. Making the potion was a matter of following the provided directions. He still couldn't see, but Carter had measured out the ingredients for him and he had managed the rest well enough. And now it was fresh made and ready for her to drink, stoppered up in a water bottle and ready for her to drink.
It was a pinkish brown potion, and it didn't look particularly tasty. He was fairly certain it was going to be disgusting to drink, given what was in it. But if it helped her, then it helped her, and besides, he wasn't going to ask too many questions. Once it was done, he gave her a call. "Boyuan. Your potion is ready wen you need it."
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Post by Circe on Sept 12, 2020 18:41:18 GMT -6
Xiaolian had expected to wait some time, given that she had little to any clue about the creation of some of these compounds. It hadn't interested her, and while she had passable enough knowledge not to seem like a fool, asking her to compound anything herself was inviting disaster. "I'll retrieve it after my shift." She had told him. That would give her time to at least consider everything and prepare. Who even knew what sort of effects that the potion would have on her, or what it would do.
The physician hadn't made any promises, but he had seemed rather smug about the whole deal.
True to her word however, she did arrive after her shift to retrieve the item in question; momentarily thankful that Tyrus had had few questions about why she had needed such a thing compounded or where she had gotten the recipe.
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Post by demikara on Sept 12, 2020 18:57:28 GMT -6
He handed it over to her and managed a smile, though it wasn't a certain one. "If you need a safe place to take it, the ranch is here. I can call 911 if there are non-magical side effects." He wasn't familiar with it, so he wasn't sure what the side effects would be. "The ingredients are harmless on their own, for the most part, so there's that. I'm not sure about the powdered stone though." He hadn't had to make a potion with powdered rose quartz in it before, but it should be mostly harmless. Or at least, he hoped it would be.
The mage shrugged uncertain. "And I can't see, but I can still do magical first aid, if you end up needed that."
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Post by Circe on Sept 18, 2020 15:57:17 GMT -6
Xiaolian looked at the cloudy, slightly pink contents of the bottle with dubiousness. If she had understood right, she was supposed to swallow this horrible liquid and everything would right itself. For all she knew, the physician had given her a recipe that would completely eliminate her connection with the tree and magic. Xiaolian hadn't exactly been able to trust the doctor, especially given his bedside manner on the whole thing.
"I.. would appreciate it, however I'm not certain that I have anything to offer in exchange for your assistance." She hesitated. There wasn't any way that Zhen could know how badly things had become, if only because he would run and tell everything to their parents; whom she would really rather not have to deal with. As far as they were concerned, she'd turned her back on her duty by joining MCU. Not that she had seen it as a way to monitor, keep tabs, and verify anything that Zhen saw.
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Post by demikara on Sept 18, 2020 16:03:43 GMT -6
"Consider it an aspect of what I currently owe you." He said and shrugged. "I just made you an unknown potion. I'd rather be there to make certain nothing goes wrong." He could at least manage basic safety and first aid. He wasn't particularly comfortable with just handing her a strange potion as it was, but that's what she wanted to claim as part of the favor, so he was willing to do so, however reluctantly. He hadn't tried to analyze the purpose of the potion more than half heartedly. Something about protection, was his current guess. He didn't know, not for sure.
Potions were not his area of specialty.
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Post by Circe on Sept 18, 2020 16:14:08 GMT -6
"So we're both in agreement that we don't know what the fuck this is..." She said. At least someone was as equally mystified by the nonsense that the fae physician had spouted as she was. It was somewhat comforting to have company in her confusion, and given that she likely still owed Molly and Zander both somehow thanks to the nature of the fae, it was nice to know. "Good to know then I suppose... given I didn't qualify under herblore." In fact she hadn't even qualified under space-time, instead the Eastern Council had been willing to accept her scores under nullification. The other stuff in their opinion was unimportant, but also possibly dangerous extraneous magic that needed to be controlled under the Lotus program. Never mind the fact that Xiaolian had been taught safety and basics as a child before anything; it wasn't good enough for the Eastern Council.
Looking again at the small rectangular bottle in her hand with it's cork stopper, she frowned. Any idiot could follow instructions for a recipe, especially a potion if they payed enough attention; but knowing what it did and the risks that came with it weren't always something a novice would understand.
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Post by demikara on Sept 18, 2020 17:09:43 GMT -6
"I know what went into it. All the ingredients are safe, and I admit I did a basic scan for any toxins. It should be safe to drink." He had just never had to use powdered rose quartz. "I can tell you the rose quartz is probably acting as a protection component, or possibly a healing component. Those are it's main uses. I made sure to use a high quality stone." He wasn't going to skimp on what went into the potion, even if he didn't fully understand the potion he had been making. He could use some common herbs of course, but for the most part, he stuck to using herbs only in common spells someone else had designed. The mage smiled and stepped back.
"The good news is I can see how it effects you magically as its working." He sounded almost amused. "My eyes aren't exactly great for much else right now." He was still blind and he was beginning to get used to it. It was still insane and he didn't like it, but he had an appointment with a specialist now, to find out if he had permanent damage, or if this was going to pass eventually.
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Post by Circe on Sept 18, 2020 17:53:44 GMT -6
"Right... sounds like mage sight to me." Xiaolian commented, failing to add that she suspected she knew what was wrong. But if Tyrus hadn't been such a difficult charge for both her and Zhen, then what had happened likely wouldn't have had reason to be. "Never heard of someone doing that to themselves permanently.. but I guess there's a first time for everything." She added thoughtfully. It was one of Bronson's favorite spells for investigative work, and Xiaolian couldn't blame her. Most Ratatoskr were fascinated by other magics, and it could work to the advantage of the Guardians by providing them information on new things to watch for during the course of their own duties. But, Xiaolian hadn't heard much of anything from the Ratatoskr outside of Molly's small clan for some time. Any questions were generally met with opposition as well.
"Well let's get this over with then shall we? Cheers!" She said trying to sound optimistic as she uncorked the stopper from the bottle. Taking a swig of the foul liquid, she gagged. "Oh gods... this is worse than Zhen's experiment with the chilies."Xiaolian remarked coughing and sputtering for a moment. How something so awful was supposed to be helpful was beyond her. Gagging and choking as she downed the rest of the liquid, with a few expletives thrown in, Xiaolian waited.
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Post by demikara on Sept 18, 2020 18:00:42 GMT -6
"That's how its reacting. Colors all match too." He confirmed and watched as the magic took hold. Blue-green healing magic spread through her body, with the occasional spark of yellow-green to it. It spread rapidly through her body and he watched as he reached her heart. It seemed to pause there for a second, and then pushed through it, then a bright Chartreuse spread through out her body, filling her up until he almost wished for sunglasses.
"Whatever that potion did, you are...very full of space-time magic now. You went from barely any magic to almost overflowing with it." He informed her, eyes narrowed as he flicked through each of the major access points for magic. "Was that what it was supposed to do?" He couldn't actually see any visual effects, but he could at least report what he saw. "I'm...if anything, your magic is flowing smoother than it was before." There was also a good deal more of it than before. "Was that some kind of magic enhancer?" It hadn't seemed like it, from the ingredients, but he was certainly no master of herblore and could have been terribly wrong on his guesses as to what it did.
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Post by Circe on Sept 22, 2020 19:41:49 GMT -6
For a moment, Xiaolian felt rather dizzy, nauseous, and numb at the same time as the compound worked itself through her blood stream. She was rather beginning to think she had poisoned herself in pursuit of some foolish goal. Close to vomiting back up the contents of the bottle she had drunk, she drew a careful breath as she could begin to feel the symptoms abate.
In fact she felt better and more at rights than she had in some time. Taking a quick mental scan of everything, she hesitatingly reached for her connection with the wider world as she knew it; the tree and everything else. Finding that that had been restored, she couldn't help but feel that everything was a success. Had Heaven seen fit to finally grant some small amount of favor to one who had tried and failed to loyally serve it across time?
"No." Xiaolian answered slowly. It wasn't an enhancer, but how was she to explain a block like the one she had suffered? It wasn't easy and she knew she had already said too much. Who knew what was listening and what it would do with what it heard? "It was putting to rights something that should have been done a long time ago." But she had been too frightened to admit that there was something wrong, and had ultimately blamed herself for allowing it to happen.
"An enhancer wouldn't offer me any benefits." She added, suspecting she was about to play twenty questions again with an entirely too curious mage. But before she had to do that, Xiaolian tucked the magic away gently, leaving little if anything to be seen by Tyrus's sight. It wouldn't do to go through all of that and then have herself seen as a target by things from the outside.
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Post by demikara on Sept 23, 2020 10:43:07 GMT -6
"Ah. I see a good deal less of it now. You'll have to teach me that trick. It could be useful." He well knew he was a beacon in most mage-sight spells. "And I'm glad. It seemed to have worked for you." And she wasn't poisoned which was great because he honestly didn't know the spell to make someone vomit, which he assumed would be needed if she was poisoned. Or at least that it would help.
"You're a private person, so I won't ask more question about it." Since she clearly didn't want to answer in specifics anyway. "But congratulations on putting your magic to rights." He couldn't imagine being cut off from his magic, and it seemed that she had been. "You're definitely not a null though, so good luck, you know, maintaining that." Given it was her specialty.
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Post by Circe on Sept 23, 2020 14:44:49 GMT -6
Xiaolian raised an eyebrow at Tyrus's remarks, "You lot aren't smart enough to recognize magic other than what you've already encountered. Every new thing is like the last thing you ran into. You don't have the scope and breadth to realize more exists... though I suppose you might get there.. eventually." It was almost insulting for him to declare that she would have trouble keeping her status with MCU, given that he was still struggling himself to keep his own magic in control. But, Tyrus was still a child, a frustratingly difficult child, but still a child in the eyes of the universe at large.
"I qualified for my specialty well before you were born, mage. Null is just another word for purification on this plane. I can give you a demonstration if you'd like?" She added with a mischievous, bordering on almost malicious expression on her face. Xiaolian had just about had it with Tyrus and his attitude towards her and her magics. "And I'm not going to teach you how to hide your magic because you have no control."
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Post by demikara on Sept 23, 2020 14:49:12 GMT -6
Tyrus took a step back. "Let's not do that." He really didn't want a demonstration. She was absolutely terrifying. He didn't want to see what she'd decide a suitable demonstration would be in any way, shape, or form. "And I am working on control. It's just a very different beast than my magic used to be." It wasn't lashing out randomly at least, which was control enough for public, but actually casting spells well. He tended to put entirely too much power in them right now.
It had been a problem before, but since being turned that had only been amplified. "Please don't purify me." He really didn't think he would survive if she did. There would be no try for her. He had seen enough of her power when she could barely access any. Now that she had significantly more, he really wasn't going to push a damn thing.
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Post by Circe on Sept 23, 2020 15:33:36 GMT -6
Xiaolian didn't necessarily mean to terrify Tyrus, but there were some things that seemed to be often lost in translation between how things where on this plane and the in-between. Many of the current plane's residents didn't seem interested in learning hard and uncomfortable truths about themselves or others. A thought flitted across her mind for a moment, and she wondered if giving Tyrus a bit more leeway and offering some advanced training beyond what he'd learned would be beneficial; but first the bracelets. She knew that Catherine was leery to really put the screws to her fledgling, and would likely wholeheartedly agree to someone else taking the reins for awhile.
"Wait what?" Xiaolian asked her thoughts briefly interrupted. "Purify you? Why? You aren't corrupted." She laughed. He was powerful, that was a given, but corruption hadn't been evident to her.
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