eastbound | un: fox rain

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un: fox rain

Hey, um, hey again everyone. So I've been trying to figure out exactly what to do to help Odile - uh - woo her man as it were, and I've kind of come up with some stuff? Magic stuff. Obviously. Do I ever talk about anything that isn't magic stuff?

Ah - right. Anyway, uh -

So, some of these spells are the kind of thing where if I'm casting it on one garment, I may as well do it on a bunch. And lets be real, if we're supposed to be doing some kind of back up in a court setting - uh - no offence, but even with the new threads, most of us don't really look the part.

So here's what I was thinking. Obviously, going to focus a lot of the magic on her in particular - don't want to be stealing the show - but if it looks like everything around her seems to grow in beauty from her presence it can't hurt, right?

So bring me your clothes, and I'll spruce them up a bit while I'm working on hers. And those of you who are clumsier than most - bring me your shoes, too.

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[ He's not sure if that's encouraging, and he really should have seen that question coming. But he's out of his depth here, he's going to have to tell someone. Fox studied the mirror, so he's his best option.

He shakes his head. ]

Just before the siege I went to take care of the body. My theory is that when I put a sword through it... some of that magic got transferred. [ He shifts, grimacing slightly before he finally gets to the point. ] It's inside me.

[ Fox blinks, his eyes widening. ]

Oh.

[ There is a slight pause, before he wets his lips. ] Okay. Alright, well - Okay. The good news is, you aren't dead. Right? That's good. But um -

Here, sit down. We should probably uh - what's the word? - triage you.

[ He squints at him, but moves slowly closer to where he's sitting. If he doesn't do something soon, he's going to go insane. Just keep remembering that.

He has no idea what that entails, and he pays careful attention to where his hands are. ]

How do you do that?

Well, first I ask you a bunch of questions about how you feel and if anything weird has been going on with you--

[ He rolls up his sleeves and reveals one of his tattoos that runs up his left forearm. ]

Then I turn this on to see if I can see any of the magic on you. It's not -- [ He quickly follows up, very aware of Mingyu's past transgressions ] -- it's not intrusive. Nothing to do with thoughts or memory or mind reading or any of that. It's more like, um, a scanner? For magic. It helps me see magic interweaving with reality. There's a chance that I might not see anything - that the traces of it are so wound up in you that I just can't pick it up - but it's worth a shot. Mostly I just want to make sure it's not having an adverse affect on you, you know? And then see how it's managed to tie itself to you and see if there's a way to untie it or to transfer it to something else. Since it already transferred through multiple vessels it should be transferrable again.

[ Seeing the tattoos automatically makes him tense, but it's mostly involuntary. He was aware of how Fox's magic works before he came to him.

It still means trusting that what he's telling him is the truth. But again, what option does he have? He listens carefully, and somehow refrains from threatening him if he tries anything close to what Mingyu did. At least it seems like he understands that's implied.

He debates saying more, but since he doesn't intend on doing this more than once: ]

It's been absorbing negative emotions. [ For lack of a better word. He only had that confirmed recently. ] Sometimes just a hint. And I could feel... burning, around the harpies.

Your emotions, or anyone's emotions?

[ For a man who tended to stumble and stutter his way around conversations, this - at least - he speaks with a quick efficiency. ]

[ He notices. It's not suspicious enough yet, so he answers truthfully. ]

Anyone nearby. [ It's been a while, he's able to say that with some confidence now that he isn't in complete denial. ] Mostly people and the undead. I didn't pick up anything from the ghosts.

Does it have a range?

[ His brows knit a little. And the undead was not something he liked to hear - though it was notable that it would pick something up from them and not from ghosts.

God, since when did 'the undead' and 'ghosts' become every day concepts in his life... ]

And when you say it absorbs it - do you mean it imposes negative emotions from them over your own? Like intrusive thoughts?

I haven't really tested the range. I wasn't even sure what was happening at first.

[ It took weeks until someone who could 'see' magic spelled it out for him. He's yet to tell anyone what he's saying now, and he doesn't know how to put it into words. ]

Almost like a phantom pain. I can feel the suffering but... it's stronger in a group. [ The siege. ] And I think over time, it accumulated.

[ Fox frowned, his usually averted eyes instead now watching Five quite closely. ]

So a secondary feeling that you can tell isn't yours, but still hurts you? [ He echoed, making sure he had understood correctly. ]

That's... Man. I'm sorry, Five, I had no idea you were having to deal with something like that. [ He chewed his lip for a second. ]

Accumulation isn't great... Yeah. Okay. I don't think we should let that stuff stay in you, if we can help it. We don't know what would happen if it accumulated 'enough' or 'too much', and we don't know where those lines are in the first place. Emotional trauma might not be physical damage in that it doesn't leave visible scars - but that's about where the difference ends. You shouldn't have to go through that, let alone keep carrying it.

[ He went to go touch his tattoo to activate it, but then paused and caught Five's eye. ]

May I?

[ Five, on the other hand, is very aware of that dark pit of anguish the more they talk about it. He doesn't know how else to describe it, and he already feels like he said too much, so he shrugs. It's a big enough problem that he had to do something, no matter how much he doesn't like being in someone's debt. Before he snaps and --

-- actually, it's very possible he already did. An odd memory distracts him and he straightens up, frowning deeply while he nods. Eyes flickering up to him before they lock back on the tattoo. At least Fox is one person who asks. ]

Go ahead.

[ Fox still has an eye on him, but if anything his expression has turned worried more than anything else, and he carefully runs his fingers over his tattoo, lighting the sigils up as he does.

Green arcing light creates a sheen across his eyes like a veil - or sunglasses - and he shuffles in closer to get a better look at Five, determined to try and help in whatever way he can. ]

[ It took a few minutes, and Fox's brows furrowed with a frown as he worked. Eventually, the light faded and he sat back. ]

Well... I can basically confirm some stuff you'd already figured out. There's definitely something that's feeding itself, stuck inside you. Bad juju, if you want a technical term. [ His voice was a little wry, but the worry cut through any humour. ]

I was hoping I'd be able to see how to fix it, but... I think we're going to have to do some research. I just don't know enough to be able to help you without worrying that I might hurt you instead, you know?

[ Tension radiates off of him while Fox works his magic, still thinking about the siege when this had first taken him by surprise. The notion that it was somehow so traumatic that he repressed the memories seems ridiculous, but he'd been hallucinating so it was hard to sort out what actually happened. He knows he lost his mind and woke up hours later in the study after he'd been put to sleep by magic. Logic, and a vague memory, tells him it was because he tried to kill one of them. And whatever he absorbed then is still inside him.

(He's already admitted that it's an issue. No need to hammer the point.)

Fox is talking again, and Five's scowl is firmly set from trying to sort out his own timeline. If he could just jump to before it happened... it doesn't work like that though. Even if he got to the right moment, he'd be taking the curse back with him, and warning his earlier self could have too many repercussions. Short of stabbing himself to try to release it the same way he got it, he doesn't have any other option available to handle this on his own.

It's also not a great sign that the person he thought knew more about the mirror than anyone in the group sounds worried. His eyes narrow around 'bad juju' and he scrutinizes his every word and every minor facial tic to decide if he can trust what he's telling him. Even if he's open to the possibility that Fox could genuinely want to help, he's never reacted well to pity. (Anurr might have some other ideas, but like hell he's going to him.) ]

So I was right all along. [ Of course he was. Fuck. ] What do you mean by research?

Mm. [ He agrees to the first part, uneasily.

To the second, he sits back a little and meets Five's eye. ]

Well... By research I mean research. When we were back in Sa'Hareth it wasn't really an option. The few mages there were all had their secrets tightly guarded in their own minds, and it took eighteen prybars to get them to utter a word about it. So all the local magic I had to try to figure out on my own, and it was like trying to learn Chinese with only a smattering of characters, no context, and no audio.

... We've got more options here. There's schools here. Magic districts. And people like that? They tend to hoard the knowledge they have. Write it down.

Keep a rosetta stone, as it were.

[ He runs a hand through his hair and nods again, slowly. ]

Okay. Getting into those places shouldn't be a problem.

[ If he knew where to start he would handle this himself, but he doesn't know enough to do it on his own. He needs a translator. ]

... I can pay you.

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un: fox rain

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1/2 (I'm gonna run this past the mod to see if there's anything fox would pick up about it!)

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